In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

There was no loud noise, no shockwave, and not even a sound of air being torn apart.

Only a fleeting, dark golden halo flashed across the middle-aged man's chest.

The middle-aged man didn't even have time to react. His expression was still frozen in that complex state of "warning mixed with a hint of calculation," but his body was already stiff.

The next moment, his body exploded suddenly, starting from his chest.

It wasn't shattered by external force, but rather completely disintegrated from the inside out, at the cellular level. Flesh, bones, and internal organs shattered in an instant, turning into a thick, black mist of blood that bloomed in the night.

Nothing was left behind; not even a drop of blood fell to the ground.

All of this happened in less than a tenth of a breath.

The seven people behind him hadn't even realized what was happening when Lin Qiye's figure had already passed among them like a ghost.

The dark golden light drew seven thin lines in the night.

With each flash of light, a body exploded. They all died in the same way—their bodies torn to pieces, instantly bursting into black blood mist, without even a chance to scream.

From the moment Lin Qiye made his move until all eight people were killed, the entire process took less than a breath.

Dead silence.

Only the howling of the night wind remained in the basin.

Lin Qiye stood amidst the eight wisps of lingering black blood mist, slowly withdrawing his hand. The dark golden light in his palm gradually faded. He glanced down at the empty ground, his eyes calm as if nothing had happened.

Then he turned and looked toward the cave in the cliff.

At the cave entrance, Luo Sheng, Shuang'er, Man Ji, and Qing Yin all stood frozen, their faces deathly pale. They had witnessed everything that had just happened—their husband/master, who had been having a gentle conversation just a moment ago, had instantly killed eight living people in a way they couldn't comprehend.

The battle axe in the Barbarian Princess's hand fell to the ground with a clatter. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out for a long time.

Qingyin's hands trembled as she held Lin Yao, and the baby in her arms seemed to sense her unease, sobbing softly.

Shuang'er's nails dug into her palms, but she forced herself to remain calm, her gaze fixed on Lin Qiye as if she were getting to know him all over again.

Only Luo Sheng, after the initial shock, quickly regained her composure. She hugged Lin Xi tightly, took a deep breath, and whispered to the people around her, "Don't panic... he must have a reason for doing this."

Just then—

A sudden change occurred.

The black blood mist began to swirl and merge, turning into a viscous, dark red gelatinous substance.

The gelatinous substance crawled and gathered on the ground, eventually merging into a dark red mass of flesh about ten feet in diameter.

The surface of the fleshy mass was covered with vascular-like patterns, and something inside was throbbing violently, making a muffled "gurgling" sound.

Immediately afterwards, the mass of flesh began to deform.

Eight faces emerged from the surface of the fleshy mass; they were the faces of the eight people from before. Their expressions were contorted in pain, their mouths opening and closing as if in silent screams. The eight faces moved, collided, and merged on the surface of the fleshy mass, eventually coalescing into a gigantic face that occupied the entire front of the mass.

The features of that face kept changing, sometimes resembling a middle-aged man, sometimes a thin young man, sometimes a woman in the group, and sometimes transforming into a completely unfamiliar, inhuman appearance.

The giant face opened its "eyes".

They were two bottomless, pitch-black vortexes, with a faint glowing blue light visible at their center, just like the aura of the dormant will deep within the altar.

"You... saw through it..."

The giant face emitted a sound, not from its mouth, but from the vibration of the entire mass of flesh. The sound was muffled and overlapping, as if eight people were speaking at the same time, or as if some ancient being was using these bodies to speak.

Lin Qiye stood still, not answering, but simply watching the changing mass of flesh.

He had sensed something was wrong long ago.

The energy fluctuations emanating from those eight people were too "clean"—unnaturally clean. In this wasteland permeated with polluted air, normal humans would inevitably pick up some unusual aura, just like how people who spend a long time in smoky, fiery places would always have a lingering smell of smoke on them.

But none of these eight people had any trace of pollution on them.

There are only two possibilities: either they possess some advanced means of purifying pollution, or... they are not "living people" at all.

When the middle-aged man said that "the arena is at least three months away from here," Lin Qiye knew for sure that they were lying.

Lin Qiye and his family left the arena only a few days ago? Even traveling day and night, it's impossible to traverse a three-month journey in such a short time. These people are either deliberately testing us, or... they didn't obtain the information through normal channels at all.

So Lin Qiye made his move.

There was no probing, no warning, just a direct and decisive strike. In this bizarre environment, any hesitation could cost everyone their lives.

As it turns out, he was right.

"You... disrupted... the ritual..."

The giant face on the mass of flesh continued to emit overlapping sounds, and the mass began to writhe towards Lin Qiye, the ground in its path corroding and hissing white smoke. A strong, pungent stench permeated the air, a mixture of death, decay, and some other ancient filth.

Lin Qiye turned around and shouted towards the direction of the cliff cave, "Go! Now!"

The women at the cave entrance seemed to awaken from a dream.

Shuang'er was the first to react. She grabbed the still-stunned Manji and snapped, "Quick! Take the child and follow!"

Luo Sheng had already rushed out of the cave with Lin Xi in her arms, Qing Yin followed closely behind, and the other nine maids also hurriedly picked up their respective children and rushed down the gentle slope of the cliff.

Lin Qiye did not retreat immediately. He stood there, watching the approaching mass of flesh, and raised his right hand again.

This time, the dark golden light did not condense into a halo, but instead transformed into countless fine threads, like a giant spider web, which descended upon the chunk of meat.

The moment the dark gold threads touched the chunk of flesh, they sizzled and burned. A large amount of black smoke billowed from the surface of the flesh, and the wandering human faces emitted silent screams. The flesh's writhing speed noticeably slowed down.

But soon, the meat began to fight back.

Its surface was cracked open in countless places, and from each crack emerged a dark red tentacle with sharp bone spurs at the end, which lashed out and pierced Lin Qiye.

Lin Qiye moved lightly, weaving through the tentacles' attacks like a ghost. Each dodge was precise, avoiding the attacks, while the dark gold threads in his hands continuously cut and burned the flesh.

In just a few breaths, the chunk of meat was cut into dozens of smaller pieces.

But the next second, those fragments began to wriggle, converge, and merge again.

"It's no use... We... are immortal... indestructible..."