Chapter 17 Consecutive Kills

Crossing over the sand dunes, Lin Huang spotted two Sand Butchers clustered beside a recently damaged fence in the distance. One stood about six or seven meters tall, while the other exceeded eight meters. Judging by their sizes, the smaller one was likely Blackiron Second Rank, and the larger probably possessed the strength of Blackiron Third Rank.

Lin Huang hesitated briefly before jogging toward the two Sand Butchers.

Under the cover of night, the two creatures busy repairing the fence couldn’t make out Lin Huang’s figure. They merely saw something approaching from afar, prompting them to widen their eyes, straining to discern what it was.

By the time Lin Huang reached the middle ground between the dune and the Sand Butchers’ outpost, the two monsters finally saw clearly: it was a human. The thought of human flesh made their mouths water, and they immediately smashed the fence aside, charging after Lin Huang.

Seeing this, Lin Huang turned and sprinted away. He had just crossed the dune when the Sand Butchers caught up.

Both hulking beasts wielded no weapons, simply reaching out to grab him.

Lin Huang dropped and rolled down the dune.

A flash of blood-red light streaked through the air. In an instant, the smaller Sand Butcher’s head was sliced clean off by a blood blade, its headless corpse collapsing lifelessly to the ground.

With the first strike successful, Bai launched an assault on the second Sand Butcher.

He leaped high, rising to eye-level with the beast’s head; his two blood energy wings transformed into gleaming blades, slashing toward the larger Sand Butcher.

The loss of its companion made the big Sand Butcher far more alert. Spotting the crimson gleam flicker in the air, it hurriedly raised its arms to block, though it hadn’t the faintest idea what was attacking.

Ordinarily, Sand Butchers were infamous for their thick hides and astonishing defenses—such a block would ward off most assaults. But their foe was Bai, whose attack power rivaled that of the Bronze rank, and the blood-forged blades matched the strength of bronze armaments. Against such force, the Sand Butcher’s upraised arms were severed cleanly.

Yet Bai’s blow failed to decapitate the monster outright.

Howling in pain, the beast opened its mouth to scream. Lin Huang wanted to intervene, but it was already too late—his heart sank. The dune was just dozens of meters from the Sand Butcher outpost. If this one managed a single shout, it would bring the others swarming. By then, not only would his hunt fail, but he might well lose his life here.

But at that critical moment, another flash of blood-red light sliced through the air—a blade thrust straight into the Sand Butcher’s open mouth, piercing through the back of its skull.

The giant creature’s pupils gradually faded. The crimson blade withdrew from its mouth, and the massive corpse toppled forward, lifeless now that its support was gone.

Bai retrieved his blood blade; the crimson hue faded from his eyes, returning him to his harmless, youthful appearance.

Only then did Lin Huang finally breathe a sigh of relief. That had been a close call—if Bai had been one second slower, Lin Huang would have been in grave danger.

In this desert, surrounded by dozens of Blackiron-rank Sand Butchers, even a Bronze-rank hunter might not escape alive.

Soon, Little Black’s notification sounded in his mind.

Congratulations, Host. Monster Card Fragment: Sand Butcher x2 acquired.

As the message appeared, white life energy once again drifted from the corpses of the two Sand Butchers, flowing into Bai’s body.

Lin Huang focused inward, examining the Life Wheel within himself. The glowing segments of his life light increased, jumping from twenty-eight to eighty-five. Even at a tenfold rate of life energy loss, he now had over eight years left to live.

Steadying his nerves after the fright, Lin Huang resumed his plan to lure and slay Sand Butchers. With the prior lesson in mind, he dared not risk too much.

He lured out only one at a time, and Bai’s performance exceeded all expectations—each time, Bai managed to kill with a single strike, giving the Sand Butchers no chance to make a sound.

In this manner, with Bai’s assistance, Lin Huang dispatched three more Sand Butchers.

Now, all 137 segments of his Life Wheel’s empty scales had been filled. All that remained was the gray area.

In this world, every person possessed a Life Wheel, each divided into 360 segments. These segments came in two types: empty segments, which could be replenished with life energy, and gray segments, which could not.

Most people were born with only 100 to 150 empty segments, all brimming with life energy at birth—this innate life energy determined one’s natural lifespan.

As time passed, the life energy within the wheel naturally dissipated, one segment per year. Each year, one emptied segment would turn gray, never to be refilled. Thus, a person’s lifespan dwindled year by year.

If afflicted by illness or a flawed Life Wheel, this dissipation accelerated. Still, the conversion rate from empty to gray never exceeded one per year.

Such was Lin Huang’s fate. At birth, his body had 152 empty segments. Fifteen years had passed, reducing that to 137, but his life energy dissipated at ten times the normal rate. In fifteen years, 150 segments’ worth of energy had vanished, leaving just two.

Of course, the gray segments weren’t irrevocable—they could be restored to empty, but at a terrible price.

To reactivate a single gray segment, one had to infuse it with ten years’ worth of life energy—and each segment could be reactivated only once.

To reach the Blackiron rank, one needed to activate all 360 segments, filling every part of the Life Wheel with life energy.

The wealthy and powerful could manage this, but the cost was astronomical—out of reach for most. A single year’s life essence crystal cost a hundred thousand credit points; to gather ten years’ worth for one segment required a million. Since most people were born with over two hundred gray segments, restoring them all would require more than two hundred million—an astronomical sum.

That was why the title of Hunter was so highly respected in this world—even a reserve Blackiron Hunter commanded respect everywhere.

With his Life Wheel’s empty segments filled to overflowing, Lin Huang saw hope for advancing to Blackiron. He possessed an advantage most lacked: the ability to plunder monsters’ life energy through Bai’s unique constitution.

Seeing this shortcut to rapid promotion, Lin Huang’s motivation to hunt grew even stronger.

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[Thanks to “vi, the Saucer Carrier,” “tanyaangel,” “Yongqing i,” and “Sikong Wenzhen” for the generous tips! After some thought, I realize calling out names in each chapter, while fun now, might disrupt the reading experience if the book ever becomes popular—imagine hundreds of names daily, taking up hundreds of words! (Wishful thinking, I know.) So from now on, I won’t list every name, but I hope you lovely readers understand. Even if your name isn’t called out, know that I, Dan Tou, still love you all—big group hug, mua~]