Valcke stared wide-eyed at Mai Ge, his eyes filled with disbelief. His long sword fell to the ground with a clang, and he fell backward, spitting out two mouthfuls of blood. He stared intently at Mai Ge, unable to close his eyes until his death.
Blood slowly seeped out from behind him, staining the black gravel ground and the small puddles red.
The stench of blood made Mai Ge frown, and his hand, hanging by his side, trembled slightly. Killing someone was not something that could be done easily.
However, Mai Ge didn't regret killing Valcke.
Because he truly deserved to die, and even more so because he crossed Mai Ge's line.
When he showed greed towards Amy, he was already a dead man.
He wanted to teach him, as a father, that little girls are meant to be pampered, and if he had any inappropriate thoughts about them, he could just die.
"Daddy is so amazing!!!" Amy closed her eyes, but still clapped her little hands and exclaimed.
"Great! The bad guy is dead! Mom, we're saved!" Jessica exclaimed happily, holding Rebecca's hand.
Rebecca opened her eyes in surprise, looking at Valcke lying in a pool of blood and Mai Ge still standing there. She hugged Jessica and wept with joy.
"The...the boss is dead!"
The henchmen stared at Valcke, who lay motionless in a pool of blood with a peach wood branch stuck in his chest. The burly man who had been kicked in the face by Mai Ge let out a pig-like scream and struggled to his feet.
"Run! Murder!"
The other henchmen wore similar expressions, ignoring their injuries, struggling to get up and escape.
The invincible Valcke, whom they considered powerful and unbeatable, had been killed, and with a peach wood branch at an unbelievable speed.
They didn't even see Valcke resist, he died without a fight, utterly powerless. He only used one sword strike, and then that man killed a level two knight. Just how terrifying was this guy's strength?
Their spirits had collapsed, all they wanted was to escape and get as far away from this terrifying guy as possible.
"Did I tell you all to leave?" Mai Ge asked coldly, looking at the henchmen who were about to escape.
The henchmen froze, their legs halting abruptly as they took their first step.
Even Valcke was powerless against him, how could they dare to run in front of him? How could they possibly outrun him!
"Sir, please spare us! We were forced into it, we are all good people, it was Valcke who did the bad things!"
"Yes, please spare us, we will never dare to do it again, we will only be good people from now on."
The henchman, whose face had turned into a pig's head, knelt down with a thud, kowtowing and crying.
The others also knelt down, crying and recounting their helplessness, how they were forced by Valcke to do things against their conscience.
"I can believe you were forced into this, but to say you're good people? Sorry, I'm not stupid." Mai Ge looked at the kneeling crowd with a hint of mockery.
He wouldn't kill them, because this was illegal, unlike a duel. Once he got involved, he wouldn't be able to extricate himself. But he definitely wouldn't let them go so easily either, because what they had done was enough to kill them many times over. Letting the Gray Temple or the City Lord's Mansion handle this was clearly a better option.
...
"Lord Brandley, something seems to have happened over there. Should we go check it out?" In a street not far from the mining area's residential area, a member of the Gray Temple reported to Brandley, who was bending over to examine a large, charred crater.
"What happened?" Brandley straightened up and asked the man. They had received a report this morning of unusual magical fluctuations and a burned-down house, so he had brought his men here early in the morning.
It was an Explosive Flame spell cast by a level 5 mage, but there were no casualties at the scene. It was just an abandoned house with no other damage, so it posed little threat and could be classified as a level 1 incident.
"It seems to be a duel between two knights. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, but it's a bit strange that a duel would take place there. Those living there are all the families of miners who have died in mining accidents over the years." the man said quickly.
"The families of miners who died in mining accidents?" Brandley pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Let's go see them."
...
"Valcke is dead?" The onlookers in the distance looked on in disbelief.
An old man picked up a stone from the ground, his body hunched over as he walked towards them. His wrinkled face was dark red, black mineral dust seemingly ingrained in his skin. Looking at Valcke's corpse lying on the ground, his eyes were filled with hatred.
One by one, people emerged from the doors of the rows of black houses, walking towards them.
They were mostly elderly people and women, and even some children. Their faces, swollen from years of illness, bore the same blank expression, and their eyes were filled with the same hatred.
They walked silently, clutching stones they had picked up from the ground, stones as hard as themselves.
Mai Ge looked at the people approaching with stones, a hint of surprise in his eyes. After a moment's hesitation, he retreated to his bicycle.
"Daddy, you're amazing! But what are they doing with those stones in their hands?" Amy asked curiously, looking at the people who were gathering from both sides.
"Revenge." Mai Ge reached out from behind and gently covered Amy's ears and eyes, his expression grave as he watched the old people and women passing by, heading towards Valcke and his lackeys.
"Mom?" Jessica looked up at Rebecca, equally bewildered.
"Don't look, Jessica. You're different from them. You're going to be the best tailor in Chaos City. You still have dreams." Rebecca hugged Jessica tightly, placing her hands on her ears and closing her own eyes.
"Pfft!"
The stones struck the men, spraying blood and eliciting screams of agony.
The stones, varying in size, were quickly stained with blood.
There were dead people and living people.
Those numb faces, stained with blood, seemed to become a little more alive, with a sense of relief and a glimmer of hope to live again.
"Somani, my poor daughter, I've avenged you! I've avenged you all!" The hunched old man bit an ear in his mouth, chewed it a few times, swallowed it, and was pushed out of the crowd. He knelt down with a thud and cried out to the sky.
The cries seemed contagious, spreading quickly, accompanied by desperate roars and lamentations, as they vented their hatred and despair with stones and blood.
"What are you all doing! Scatter! Inspector Woodrow is here! Do you all want to be arrested?!"
Just then, a loud voice rang out, accompanied by the sound of a knife being drawn.