A fantastical journey across the heavens, beginning with the Witcher.

"grass!"

The remaining beastmen couldn't help but curse. Even if this demon hunter could cripple half of his companions with a small knife, it was still too arrogant.

But they were indeed afraid. They had taken off their armor completely during their indulgence, and now only their boots offered any protection.

The second brother was so frightened by the naked beastman that he shrank back.

The squad leader gritted his teeth, his mind racing, and finally came up with a desperate, suicidal move. He raised his hand and shouted at his three subordinates.

"Damn it! What's there to be afraid of! He's all alone. Pounce on him, pin him down, then stab him through his nails to bleed him out!"

First, tackle the person down, then find an opening to bleed them dry—this is the tactic used by poorly equipped auxiliary soldiers against plate-armored warriors.

In the past, they were the ones wearing armor; but now… He glanced at the pile of armor not far away and regretted it so much that his teeth ached. How could he have been so stupid as to take them all off!

The three beastmen who received the order were, after all, elite soldiers who had fought alongside the army for many years. They suppressed their fear and, in a surrounding posture, slowly approached the demon hunter.

Li De took a step forward, and the three of them retreated in unison, cold sweat streaming down their temples.

After a brief stalemate, the beastmen on the left finally couldn't hold back any longer and roared as they charged forward.

Li De spun to the side, deftly dodging the incoming sword, and then delivered a powerful punch to his opponent's right arm, which was holding the sword.

"Snap!"

The crisp sound of bones cracking was extremely piercing. The beastman's right arm instantly bent into a "V" shape, and the broken bone fragments pierced through the flesh and were exposed to the air.

Overwhelmed by the excruciating pain, he could no longer hold the sword, and the weapon slipped from his hand.

Before the longsword could hit the ground, Li De grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him behind him like a dead dog.

The remaining two beastmen roared to bolster their courage and charged forward with their spears raised.

Li De casually thrust the "human shield" in his hand forward, blocking the two spears.

The spear tip pierced through the chest and exited through the back, lodging firmly in the gap between the ribs. The dying beastman weakly raised his hand, trying to grasp the spear embedded in his body, but all he had left was the strength to twitch.

The two beastmen, blinded by rage, disregarded the lives of their comrades and frantically drew their guns.

But Li De gripped the gun tip tightly, and the two men, their faces flushed, couldn't budge an inch.

Blood flowed down the wooden pole to the handle, making it increasingly difficult to exert force as their palms became slippery. The two men simply abandoned their weapons and pounced on the handle with their bare hands, like real wild wolves.

However, the gap in strength cannot be bridged by pretending to be a beast.

Li De casually tossed the lifeless meat shield aside, then kicked the beastman on his left away; immediately after, he sidestepped and delivered a powerful punch to the face of the beastman on his right, blood and broken teeth splattering in the air, the beastman instantly collapsing unconscious.

Humans without weapons and armor are so vulnerable...

The Nilfgaardian soldier, kicked away, felt his vision go black and his chest go numb. His breathing was accompanied by the wheezing sound of his lungs being pierced by his ribs. With his last bit of strength, he looked at his squad leader and roared weakly.

"Sir... charge!"

But what came into view was the back of the other party who had already fled in panic.

"...Go!"

His raised right hand fell limply to the ground.

"Damn it, are you out of your mind? I told you to go, and you actually went? No armor at all, trying to overwhelm the Witcher with sheer numbers? I'm not an idiot."

His beloved superior was scrambling to escape in a sorry state.

As a veteran who was forced to enlist after the conquest of the Principality of Giso, and bearing the title of an elite member of the First Legion under the Black Sun, he is actually best at fighting when things are going well, and especially believes in the life motto that "wealth and glory belong to the emperor, but one's life is one's own".

As soon as his three men rushed up, he quietly slipped away without the slightest hesitation.

He scrambled to the edge of the forest, panting as he looked back, only to see Li De standing there with his arms crossed, staring at him with a mocking expression, showing no intention of chasing after him.

The squad leader was overjoyed, thinking he had been given a second chance at life.

At the same time, he secretly vowed that as long as he rushed into the dense forest, he would be able to shake off the enemy by taking advantage of the complex terrain. He would then return by detour, put on his armor, find the main force, and then deal with this damned witcher!

He swung his sword to push aside the bushes, and was about to step into the woods when the sight before him made him turn pale. He finally understood why Li De had stopped chasing.

A group of monsters with sharp teeth and claws, and hunched over, were crouching behind a bush, tilting their heads and staring intently at him with their murky eyes.

"You wicked demon..."

His lips trembled as he uttered the last two words, and the next second, the evil spirits roared and pounced on him.

Sharp claws tore at his body, sharp teeth gnawed at his limbs, and his agonizing screams echoed through the forest.

The beastman captain, who thought he had escaped, was instantly torn to pieces. His bloodied head rolled to the side, his cloudy eyes staring blankly at the dilapidated village.

Just like when the Principality of Giso was destroyed, he hid in a latrine and witnessed the massacre of his homeland.

He couldn't understand it until his death: he was just following the rules with the army, so why did a witcher have to interfere?

Li De coldly watched as the evil spirits dragged the corpse back into the woods.

The evil spirits possess rudimentary intelligence and can even use blood and grass juice to create art, recording the daily lives of their kind.

As long as their territory remains untouched, they will never provoke powerful individuals—and witchers are clearly among the "powerful" ones they fear.

In the past, Li De would have simply grinned maliciously and rushed forward to slaughter the monsters.

Now, he simply watched calmly.

The six remaining beast soldiers on the ground were still howling in pain, but Li De ignored them and went straight into the wooden house behind him.

The bound woman buried her head in the arms of a male corpse and wept bitterly. The corpse clutched a broken pitchfork in his hand and was covered with knife wounds and bullet holes. He had obviously fought desperately to protect his wife and was brutally murdered.

Li De untied the woman's bound hands and removed the gag from her mouth, then turned and walked out of the wooden house. Looking at the corpses lying all over the ground, a sense of unease rose in his heart, so he simply sat on the stone steps by the door, without saying a word.

Olivia awkwardly dismounted, adjusted her robes, and gently sat down beside him.

"I thought humans were only this cruel when dealing with other races."

She thought of the Sid elves who died in the war; the female elves were mostly beautiful, and their fates were even more tragic than those of these villagers.

"Humans have always been this way."

Li De sighed softly, then shut his mouth and said no more.

The sorceress hugged her knees, burying her face in her legs, feeling somewhat apprehensive. She worried that her people would be treated the same way by the local indigenous people in the New World.

The surroundings fell into dead silence, with only the woman's suppressed sobs, the crackling of the burning wooden house, and the increasingly faint screams of the beast soldiers.

After an unknown amount of time, the crying inside the house gradually subsided. The woman, with red and swollen eyes, walked out of the door, knelt down with a thud, crossed her hands in front of her chest, and pressed her forehead heavily to the ground.

This is a ritual for kneeling before the goddess Meritelli, used only during grand festivals.

Li De did not back down. His only interaction with the Triad Goddess was with the nuns at the Goddess's convent, and he had no idea of ​​the deeper meaning of this etiquette. Olivia knew perfectly well what was going on, but she chose to remain silent.

Her entire family and friends were slaughtered, and she herself was nearly violated, but a demon hunter descended from the heavens and saved her.

At this moment, in her heart, even if Meritelli performed a miracle, it would not compare to the man in front of her.

"Pack your things, I'll take you to a safe place."

"Thank you for saving my life, Master Witcher, but I cannot leave." The woman remained kneeling, her voice hoarse but firm. "My parents, husband, and relatives all died here. I must avenge them."

Li De didn't say anything like, "Let go of hatred, live a good life, that's also your family's wish."

The flames ignited by hatred can only be extinguished by the blood of the enemy.

He pointed to the weapons and armor not far away: "I won't take those armor and weapons with me. If you insist on revenge, then keep them."

"Thank you." The woman kowtowed again.

Li De stood up, walked slowly to the few beast soldiers who were wailing incessantly, and a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"Alright, gentlemen, now it's time for our game segment. The game is called 'Deserved Punishment'."