My whole family was brutally murdered? I awakened the thug system and went on a killing spree.

Zhao Family Mansion in Jiangcheng.

In the center of the ruins of a marble plaza, Qin Meng sat on a collapsed leather sofa, clutching the remaining half of a scaly bull's hind leg. His teeth were clenched. He had bitten through the high-level beast's leg bone, which was as hard as alloy. Marrow and energy-rich juices dripped from his chin onto the broken floor.

His stomach was in a state of high-frequency peristalsis, with extremely strong acid being secreted frantically. The moment the chunk of meat entered his esophagus, it was violently broken down into pure calories. System data on his retina scrolled like a waterfall. He had killed the ninth-tier sword cultivator Chen Wuji; the system judged it as a counter-kill beyond his level, earning him 400,000 points of Violence Value. His Physique Value remained at 612 points, unchanged. Qin Meng threw these excess Violence Values ​​into his energy storage pool for later use.

Qin Meng swallowed the last bite of raw meat and casually tossed the bare leg bone aside.

Hu Biao, hunched over, ran out from behind the pillar and handed Qin Meng a clean, damp towel. Qin Meng took the towel, wiped the grease off his hands, and tossed it onto the coffee table in front of him. The coffee table couldn't withstand the slight impact of the force, and a straight crack appeared in the middle, scattering shards of glass all over the floor.

Jiang Nuonuo approached from the nearby ruins. She had changed into a black, fitted business suit and flat shoes. In her hand, she held several newly printed electronic contracts. "Master, the assets in Jiangcheng have been tallied. The nine mining areas and four high-level beast slaughterhouses under the Zhao family's name are all in your account. Converted into bearer cash, it's an astronomical figure enough to buy half a province."

Qin Meng didn't take the thin pieces of paper. "Money is useless to me. Exchange it all for high-grade meat and store it in the air-raid shelter in the South District."

Jiang Nuonuo nodded and noted it down.

Qin Meng stood up and twisted his neck. The joints scraped together, producing a harsh metallic sound. "How far is the provincial capital from here?"

Hu Biao answered first: "Four hundred and eighty kilometers. By fully enclosed highway. Four hours by car."

Qin Meng bent down and picked up a blood-stained special operations jacket from the ground, putting it on. It was a bit small, taut over his muscular frame. "Four hours is too slow," he muttered, striding towards the building's entrance.

Jiang Nuonuo took two steps forward and pressed, "Didn't you say in the communication that you'd give them three days to prepare?"

"I've changed my mind."

Qin Meng stepped out the gate. Outside lay a chaotic open square. Thousands of local Jiangcheng leaders remained kneeling, none daring to move an inch. The night wind carried the pungent stench of blood.

Qin Meng stopped and turned to Hu Biao, instructing, "Clean this place up. If one escapes, you'll be held responsible."

Hu Biao slammed his head heavily against the stone slab, leaving a bloody mark.

Qin Meng's legs bent slightly. His muscle fibers were compressed to an extreme degree, and his bones endured a pressure equivalent to a thousand tons. A five-meter-diameter crater sank into the marble plaza. The reaction force immediately erupted. Qin Meng was lifted into the air. A sonic boom reverberated through the air. A gust of wind whipped up gravel from the ground, pelting it against the faces of those around him.

Jiang Nuonuo looked up at the sky. A straight, vacuum-like white line stretched across the clouds, pointing directly towards the provincial capital.

Switch perspective. Provincial capital. Zhao family ancestral home. Command post in a bunker thirty meters underground.

The walls were assembled from half-meter-thick depleted uranium armor plates. Three old men sat around the round table: Zhao Zhenhai, Ye Jingshan, and Li Changyuan. Jiang Qianzhong, the head of the Jiang family, was at the front lines overseeing the battle and hadn't returned. The holographic projection on the table was now just static. The sound of Chen Wuji's head being crushed was the last audio clip that had been intercepted.

Zhao Zhenhai broke the pure gold fountain pen in two, the black ink staining the back of his hand. "Old Chen is dead."

Ye Jingshan leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the armrest. "The celestial weapon is ineffective. The Grand Elder of the Tribunal is dead. Just what kind of anomaly is this?"

Li Changyuan placed his hands on the table, crossed. "Three days. He gave us three days in the communications. We must immediately contact the General in the capital to request reinforcements."

Zhao Zhenhai stood up and walked to the control panel. "Distant water can't quench immediate thirst. It will take at least two days for someone from the capital to arrive. By the time they land, the four of us will already be hanging on the city wall to dry in the wind."

Ye Jingshan looked up at him. "What are your plans?"

Zhao Zhenhai typed a 32-digit password onto the keyboard. A blood-red warning box lit up on the main control screen. "Initiate Sequence Zero." Zhao Zhenhai pressed Enter.

Li Changyuan stood up, his chair overturning to the ground. "Release that Abyss Beast, and millions of people outside the provincial capital will become food!"

Zhao Zhenhai turned his head, his eyes bloodshot. "Trading millions of lives for the lives of our four families, this deal is extremely worthwhile."

Two thousand meters underground. A military restricted area in the provincial capital.

Twelve black iron chains, entirely inlaid with ninth-order sealing runes, bound a colossal beast over eighty meters long. The runes on the chains extinguished one by one. The abyssal behemoth, dormant for ten years, opened its eyes. Its compound eyes turned a murky, ghastly green. The highly concentrated nutrient solution was drained. The heavy hydraulic gate rose upwards.

The behemoth smelled the fresh scent of flesh and blood blowing in from the ventilation duct. It opened its massive maw, lined with six rows of serrated teeth, and let out a low growl that pierced the earth.

In the air. Qin Meng glided at an altitude of 30,000 meters. His 612 points of physical strength supported him through the extreme cold and lack of oxygen in the stratosphere. Gravity pulled him downwards at high speed. He adjusted his posture in mid-air, finding a barren mountain below. His right foot slammed heavily onto the rocks at the summit.

A massive landslide occurred, sending countless boulders tumbling down the valley. Using the immense recoil, Qin Meng changed his trajectory again, propelling himself upwards. This brute force allowed him to cover the 480-kilometer journey in under twenty minutes.

On the horizon ahead, the outline of the provincial capital appeared. A massive, azure energy dome enveloped the entire city.

Qin Meng began his freefall, heading straight for the plains outside the provincial capital. He landed. His feet touched the ground. The soil churned up like ocean waves. He crashed into the ground, creating a circular crater twenty meters deep.

The intense physical heat at the bottom of the pit sintered the soil into glassy crystals. Qin Meng emerged from the pit, shaking off the dust from his jacket. The jacket's zipper had long been torn by the wind, so he simply took it off and threw it on the ground, leaving his upper body bare. The dark red Dao patterns were hidden beneath his skin, only shimmering faintly when his heart beat.

Two kilometers directly ahead lay the provincial capital's energy shield. Before he could take another step, a series of rhythmic tremors emanated from the ground. A massive crack, hundreds of meters long, split open in the plain beneath his feet.

The abyssal behemoth crawled out of the ground. Its eighty-meter-long body was covered with black spikes, each one stained with dried blood. Its powerful hind legs crushed more than a dozen abandoned heavy trucks as they stomped on the ground. It had no visual organs, relying solely on its sense of smell and thermal imaging to lock onto its targets.

Qin Meng's physical body, boasting over 600 points of physique, was, in the behemoth's sensory network, a high-frequency nuclear reactor radiating deadly allure. The behemoth exuded highly corrosive green saliva. The saliva dripped onto the ground, burning large craters.

Qin Meng sized up the monster blocking his path. He cracked his neck. "A watchdog kept by one of the four great families? It's really ugly."