131 Reaching the Vermilion Fores (1/2)

With the backing of Xue Wei's soundwaves from the zither, Hei Gou was finally able to gain the upper hand against the opponents.

Defeating them was one thing, but killing them was something else entirely. If it was someone significantly below yourself in strength, then killing your opponent would be easy to do, but these two bandits were not that much weaker than Hei Gou. Killing them became much more difficult.

Especially when these two experts were doing all they could in their power to flee. They had long since understood that their lives could be forfeit in this match. So they could not help but feel their intestines turn green from regret, yet regret could not help them now, and they were forced to see it through.

The claws on Hei Gou's hands gleamed in the sunshine that shone down from above. The claws were made from Black Star Metal, a metal that was exceedingly rare in the human world and could only be found in the danger zones of the continent.

Since it was native to the danger zones, it was naturally incredibly rare for humans to get ahold of it, yet now it appeared in Hei Gou's hands.

Xue Wei pondered on it for a time, but then he realized that just because it was rare to humans did not mean it was unique to the Primordial Beasts.

A set of claws made from this precious and hard metal in the human world would cost a fortune, but for the Primordial Beasts who lived in the danger zones, it might be as ordinary as iron was to humans.

The eyes of the two remaining bandits did not even notice the metal these claws were made from. Instead, they were distracted by the pain of the many cuts on their bodies made by those claws.

Every swipe of Hei Gou's claws caused new wounds to appear. Meanwhile, Xue Wei was harassing them with his sharply cutting soundwave attacks by playing the zither of Qi, which meant they were caught between a rock and a hard place.

It was impossible for them to retreat, and it was also impossible for them to advance. One side held deadly claws, the other supported with disturbing sound attacks that, albeit weak, made the two bandits leave openings for the black dog to bank on.

The two bandits felt like crying, but they had no tears. They fought desperately, but their faces displayed despair. They had already realized that it was too late for them to turn the battle around and all they could do was hope for a miracle.

Unfortunately for them, no miracle occurred. After fighting for a few more moments, a flaw was displayed by the middle-aged man, and Hei Gou seized the moment to slash out with his claws, tearing open the man's throat.

The man's eyes were filled with despair and unwillingness. Blood gushed out of the three slashes that were evident in his throat before he slumped to the ground.

The last man was trembling. He knew that since his companion had died that he had no chance to survive, so he stopped struggling. He wished for nothing more than an easy, painless death. Hei Gou calmly obliged.

He slashed his claws down. Three gashes appeared on the body of the burly man from his shoulder to his waist in a diagonal line, making his body seem as if it had been split into thin slices of meat.

Even Xue Wei, who was rather cold and indifferent, could not help but feel that this was an extreme way of killing. The bandit was not even left with a complete corpse.

Xue Wei and Hei Gou both hurried over to the dead bandits. They rifled through their pockets and took the three bandits' valuables.

Neither of them had storage treasures, so most of their valuables were held in pockets and small bags they had around their waists.

Xue Wei was ecstatic. He found the Windwolf Sword Slash amongst the items of the young bandit. And although the bandit did not have much else of value, this martial art technique alone was already a great help since Xue Wei lacked martial art techniques that focused on weapons.

Hei Gou did not even glance at the martial art technique. He was a Primordial Beast, and thus his abilities were all innate abilities. He had no interest in these martial art techniques.

”There is no real value in their purses,” Hei Gou complained. ”I thought they were great bandits since they are relatively strong considering the country we are in, yet their value is this low?” He could not believe it.

”They likely left their valuables back in the village,” Xue Wei guessed. ”The village is their lair, and thus their valuables are likely to be left there. We cannot return right now since we have been chased for some time. We were careless. We cannot afford to be careless again.”

”If we manage to become much stronger during our time in the Vermilion Forest, we can pass by the village on our way back, but our main aim is not to kill and rob – it's to become stronger before we head towards the center of the continent.”

Hei Gou smiled embarrassedly and rubbed his nose. He said no more. He just accepted what Hui Yue had said. Together, the two started moving towards the Vermilion Forest again.

Neither of them had been in the Vermilion Forest Kingdom before, so they were unaware of what way to go, but they pressed forward.

When they encountered people, they would pretend to be a couple of brothers that came from the Blood Flowing Prairie with the aim of tempering themselves. Coincidentally, no one assumed that they were deserters from the army, or criminals in any way.

In fact, most of the people they came across were incredibly helpful. Although a few groups attacked them, most of them were friendly and helped to guide them towards the Vermilion Forest.

Xue Wei went by the name of He Jie, and Hei Gou was He Lin. They had taken the family names from the Chaos Vulture Tribe, and just two random given names.

What shocked Xue Wei was that he heard the name Crimson Devil a few times on people's lips alongside the name of the Ice Harpy.