118: Chapter 118 Blood Shadow Butcher

Leaving the karst cave, Song Yang did not pause his pace in the slightest.

Like a phantom, he hunted within the intricate underground caves.

Ahead, at the entrance of a relatively dry cave, firelight flickered vaguely, accompanied by hushed conversation.

Song Yang approached silently; inside the cave, five or six men were eating around a campfire.

Beside them, several white crystals of varying sizes were scattered about, clearly their haul from this period.

"Boss, we've had a good haul this time. We've managed to get several mysterious objects, which should trade for quite a bit of food once we get out."

A man with a face full of flab, gnawing on a chicken leg, said vaguely.

The one called "Boss" was One-Eyed Dragon, a man with a hideous scar stretching from his forehead to his chin. He took a swig of cheap liquor and said in a deep voice:

"Don't get careless. There are many tough characters underground, and quite a few Evolvers who specialize in robbing others; they play very dirty."

"Heh, can they be tougher than our brothers from Black Wind Stronghold? If they dare to come, I, your grandfather..."

Before the man could finish speaking, he heard footsteps.

Everyone in the cave was startled, all looking toward the entrance in unison.

Under the flickering firelight, Song Yang's silhouette was stretched long. The blade in his hand shimmered with a red light, as if it had just tasted fresh blood.

"Where did this piece of trash come from? How dare you try to rob us at Black Wind Stronghold?"

The flabby man who had spoken earlier was the first to jump up, grabbing the mountain-cleaving blade beside him.

One-Eyed Dragon narrowed his single eye and studied Song Yang carefully, his heart sinking.

The opponent was alone yet fearless, and the faint, menacing aura about him indicated he was no ordinary person.

"Friend, things found underground are for whoever sees them first. Why be so ruthless?" One-Eyed Dragon attempted to stall.

Song Yang didn't waste words; with a flicker of his figure, he had already closed in.

The flabby man felt his vision blur, and an extreme sense of danger enveloped his heart. He instinctively raised his blade to parry.

"Pfft!" Blood splashed instantly.

Song Yang's short blade, at a tricky angle, sliced directly through the flabby man's wrist. Before the man could scream, the blade followed through with an upward slash, slitting his throat.

Blood gushed out like a fountain. The flabby man clutched his throat, made a few wheezing sounds, collapsed to the ground, and his body convulsed violently.

"Old Seven!" One-Eyed Dragon's eyes split with rage as he let out a roar, "Brothers, attack together, kill him!"

The remaining men, eyes reddened, grabbed their weapons and lunged forward with strange cries.

Song Yang remained expressionless, his footwork shifting as he wove through the siege of several men like a ghost.

In just a moment, four more corpses lay on the ground.

Clutching his severed arm, One-Eyed Dragon looked at Song Yang in disbelief, his eyes filled with fear: "Who on earth are you?"

Song Yang did not answer. He stepped forward, and his short blade cleanly and decisively ended his life.

After looting all the white crystals in the cave, Song Yang didn't even spare the corpses a glance; he turned and melted into the deeper darkness.

Such scenes continued to play out in every corner of the underground caves in the time that followed.

At first, only small groups of survivors or lone travelers were ransacked.

Gradually, some slightly larger factions also began to suffer.

No one knew where that menace came from, only that he wielded a blood-drinking red long blade, struck ruthlessly, and had a clear goal: only those white crystals.

"Have you heard? The 'Iron Wolf Gang' in the south, who are usually so arrogant, got wiped out this time!"

A survivor lowered his voice, his eyes full of terror.

"More than a dozen people, and not a single one managed to escape!"

"Hiss—was it that Red Blade Traveler again?"

"Who else could it be! That guy is simply a lunatic. He doesn't even blink when he kills, and he's more terrifying than the most ferocious mutant beasts!"

"Damn it, now whoever runs into that guy can only obediently hand over their mysterious objects. Resisting is a dead end; if you don't resist, you might still keep your life."

"There's no other way. Just a few hours ago, the 'Three Rocks Society', such a large faction with three Evolvers inside, didn't they get slaughtered by him alone?"

"I heard the blood there dyed the ground red, and the corpses were piled up like a small mountain. It was horrific."

Fear was no longer an invisible shadow. It had turned into a tangible chill, spreading wildly like a plague through every dark underground corner.

Every survivor felt this bone-deep cold.

Gradually, the survivors began to use a title to describe that elusive, murderous Red Blade Traveler.

Blood Shadow Butcher.

A nickname representing blood and death spread like wildfire through the dark underground world.

And Song Yang knew nothing of this, or rather, he didn't care at all.

...

Three days later, deep in a relatively hidden cave.

Thunderstorm, this man who was once as sturdy as an iron tower, now appeared somewhat thin.

He used his remaining left arm to tear open a piece of compressed biscuit and chewed it in silence.

Beside him, the female warrior Cold Moon was also chewing on a biscuit.

"Damn it," Thunderstorm chewed on the dry, hard biscuit and cursed indistinctly, "I still can't believe that kid Afterimage is dead."

Cold Moon handed him a water skin, "There's no help for it. The person we encountered was too strong. It's already quite something that Afterimage managed to perish together with the opponent."

Thunderstorm took a swig of water and grinned, wanting to smile, but it tugged at his empty right shoulder, making him wince in pain.

"Heh, I traded an arm for the life of an Evolver. Not a bad deal!"

Cold Moon didn't pick up on his comment, her gaze fixed on the dim cave entrance:

"The priority now is to find Song Yang as soon as possible, and then figure out a way to contact the main force sent by the Director to regroup."

"Once those mad dogs under Du Yaohua find us first, we'll be in danger."

Du Yaohua and they were not on the same side to begin with. In this lawless underground, once they encounter each other, it will inevitably be a life-or-death situation.

Thunderstorm was silent for a moment, then sighed: "It's difficult. This damn place is like a maze. The deeper we go, the more useless those instruments become. Even communication is cut off; we can only rely on our eyes. Trying to find a few people in such a massive underground area is no different from looking for a needle in a haystack."

"We still have to try." Cold Moon was not discouraged, "Since that guy Song Yang can cause such a big stir in here, he must have his own extraordinary abilities. Finding him increases our chances of getting out alive by a bit."

The "stir" she referred to was naturally the "Blood Shadow Butcher" that had been the talk of the underground world recently.

Although they couldn't be sure that person was Song Yang, their intuition told them that besides Song Yang, there probably wasn't a second person capable of causing such waves in this environment.

"Sigh, that's true, but now Du Yaohua is guarding the exit. Even if we regroup, given the opponent's Warlord Rank strength, we definitely won't survive. Are we really going to hide underground forever?"

"Of course not."

A voice suddenly rang out from the darkness.

Cold Moon's gaze suddenly sharpened, and she abruptly looked up toward the direction of the cave entrance.

Thunderstorm also stopped chewing and instinctively reached for the military knife at his waist with his remaining left hand.

A figure stepped out from the darkness.

As he approached, a thick, almost impenetrable stench of blood rushed toward them.

The person coming was none other than Song Yang.

The Song Yang before them now was like a different person compared to the impression they had three days ago.

Between his brows gathered an indelible, biting, menacing aura, and his eyes were deep and cold, as if he had just stepped out of a hellish sea of blood.

He was wearing a dark cyan combat uniform, without a single trace of dirt.

Song Yang walked up to the two of them and casually placed the several bulging canvas bags he was carrying onto the ground.

He sat down casually opposite them, fished out two cans of beef and two boxes of paper-packaged milk from the bag, and tossed them over.

"Song Yang," Cold Moon spoke first, "These past three days, you've turned this underground world upside down. The name 'Blood Shadow Butcher' is probably known to everyone now."

Thunderstorm took the canned food and milk, grinned, looked at Song Yang, and asked in a muffled voice:

"Good kid, nice work! I knew you weren't an ordinary person. Tell us quickly, how much good stuff did you rob in these three days? How many of those white crystals did you get?"

Song Yang unscrewed a bottle of water, took a gulp, and said in a flat tone: "Not much, just about fifty or so."

"Pfft—cough, cough!" Thunderstorm had just taken a bite of the canned food and nearly choked to death upon hearing this. He coughed violently and looked at Song Yang in disbelief, "How... how many?! Fifty or so?!"

Cold Moon also gasped, her eyes filled with shock.

Over fifty white crystals! This guy managed to get over fifty in three days? This is simply plowing through the underground survivor factions!

The two of them had worked together and only managed to get less than six in three days. There was no helping it; every major faction now had Evolvers, so they weren't that easy to rob. Not to mention that Zhang Zhengguo and his group had already assembled and were hunting them everywhere. Trying to get a mysterious object through brute force was harder than ascending to heaven!