Chapter 26: Conviction

Although Liu Zhi had said he would kill everyone who blocked his way, he did not deliberately make things difficult for the porters. He had only one goal here: to find proof that Black-Armored Sean was a bloodbinder and use this battle to establish his reputation.

As long as the porters did not obstruct him, Liu Zhi had no intention of harming them.

While the porters were thrown into chaos, Liu Zhi led his troops forward. At his side were nearly twenty ritual skeletons, each wielding the weapons of a Fledgling Eagle Warrior. The only difference was that they wore no leather armor made from eagle feathers.

Their coordination was far beyond that of ordinary skeleton soldiers. Three formed a small group, and three small groups formed a larger one. They constantly exchanged positions, and every porter who stood in their path was hacked to death.

After one or two exchanges, the porters realized that something was wrong. They leaped into the nearby mud, trying to escape Liu Zhi.

Instead, this exposed the gang members hiding among them. More than twenty men wielding machete-like weapons raised their blades and charged toward Liu Zhi.

“Flash.”

Liu Zhi had no time to deal with them personally. He pointed his Death Staff forward, and a burst of white light flared.

The gang members fell back, clutching their eyes and screaming, giving the ritual skeletons an opportunity to charge easily into their formation and slaughter them all.

After striking, Liu Zhi slowed his pace instead. He stared at the dead gang members, watching where their souls went.

This was precisely why the position of corpse collector had to be held by a necromancer player.

If corpses were simply left lying around in this world, they would inevitably attract the influence of the Gloaming Netherworld.

With so many people dead at once, under normal circumstances, the aura of the Gloaming Netherworld would pour into this place in the next instant. A temporary passage or even a temporary Netherworld might then be forcibly torn open.

After this battle, Liu Zhi might have to spend considerable time purging the battlefield. It was even possible that a region resembling an ancient battlefield would appear within the Netherworld, requiring him to deal with it.

But the situation before him was different. The influence of the Gloaming Netherworld did not appear at all. Even the souls of the gang members were nowhere to be seen. It was as though they had already been dealt with.

Seeing this, Liu Zhi could not help smiling.

“As expected. You’ve hidden yourselves well.”

If the words of that earlier man had merely aroused Liu Zhi’s suspicions, then the evidence before him now was conclusive.

Liu Zhi did not immediately fight his way inside. Instead, he relayed the information to Wilde.

“I’m going to kill my way in and take a look,” Liu Zhi said at last. “I need your authorization.”

Wilde was naturally more inclined to trust Liu Zhi’s judgment. But as the captain of the corpse collectors in Bunir District, he had to consider more than just the bloodbinder. He also had to account for a host of political issues.

Did those influential figures in the city really not know there was a bloodbinder hiding within it? They simply had no desire to investigate. There were many reasons for that, but the most important was that the bloodbinder had powerful people standing behind him.

Wilde was troubled by the thought of a bloodbinder concealed within his jurisdiction. What troubled him was not how to deal with the man, but that he had no idea what kind of background the man possessed.

After thinking it over, Wilde finally used his badge to grant Liu Zhi authorization. Liu Zhi’s assault on the Great Trench had now officially become an operation sanctioned by the authorities.

Once he received the authorization, a faint smile appeared on Liu Zhi’s face. Though their confrontation had lasted barely a minute, and he had not even seen Wilde in person, Liu Zhi had still felt tremendous pressure.

Now that the pressure was gone, Liu Zhi raised a hand.

“Attack with all your strength. We have confirmed that the enemy is a bloodbinder. Kill everyone who gets in our way.”

Liu Zhi’s command rang out loudly, and everyone present heard it. Anyone involved in the underworld naturally knew what a bloodbinder was. The porters still caught in the melee were the first to flee. They had joined Black-Armored Sean to make money together, not to die together.

When something like this happened, it was the common people at the bottom who reacted fastest.

With the porters fleeing, Liu Zhi’s forces were able to concentrate. His troops quickly gathered around him, and Liu Zhi hurriedly arranged them into a battle formation, preparing for a charge.

At that moment, the battle between the mercenary and the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman was also nearing its end.

Without the cover of the crowd, and away from his home ground, the mercenary could display only about half of his usual strength.

By then, the mercenary had already abandoned any thought of continuing the fight against the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman. He had heard Liu Zhi’s words and understood that if he fled now, he might still find someone capable of protecting him. Otherwise, Liu Zhi would kill him outright as the undead servant of a bloodbinder.

But although the mercenary wanted to withdraw, the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman had no intention of letting him go.

The various methods he had displayed earlier had stirred a trace of curiosity in her. She very much wanted to know how many more tricks he had up his sleeve.

When the mercenary saw the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman chasing him outside, he was startled. He threw several objects resembling iron pellets behind him, hoping to hinder her approach, and shouted, “I’m leaving already! What more do you want? Get out of my way. I don’t want to fight you.”

The Fate-Spinning Spider Woman ignored him completely. By now, she had developed the faintest glimmer of consciousness, and she knew that she had to perform well in front of Liu Zhi. Otherwise, she might be confined to the Alchemy Hut indefinitely, spending every day brewing alchemical potions.

That was not the life the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman wanted.

Therefore, killing a transcendent-class professional and proving her combat strength to Liu Zhi became her objective this time.

The mercenary had no idea what she was thinking. He still believed that once he escaped, she would stop pursuing him.

So he leaped away.

At that moment, it became clear that, as a transcendent-class professional, this mercenary was far from qualified. Still, he had some talent when it came to saving his own life. He could clear gaps of up to three meters in a single jump, and any wall under three meters high could be vaulted in one motion.

Unfortunately for him, he had encountered the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman.

Her six spider legs, each more than two meters long, allowed her to ignore all kinds of terrain. The webs she spat served as long-range weapons and could also prevent her enemies from escaping.

Thus, it was not long before the Fate-Spinning Spider Woman caught up with the fleeing mercenary.

At that moment, the mercenary suddenly spun around.

“I’ve finally arrived. You’re finished.”