High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

The spaceship landed in the center of the square. The moment the landing gear touched the stone slabs, the anti-gravity buffer field minimized the impact of the landing, but the winged people on the square still shuddered in unison.

The black hull stood out starkly against the emerald sky, and the silver sword emblem on the bow shone brightly in the starlight.

The hatch opened, and Kane was the first to step out, his face completely covered by a black mask. Song Chen walked half a step behind Kane.

Kane stopped in front of the seven chieftains, his voice coming through the megaphone in his mask:

"This is my last chance. Can I at least pay off this month's interest?"

The old chief knelt at the front, his white feather headdress askew, his wings fluttering on the stone slab like leaves in the wind.

He looked up, tears streaming down his wrinkled face. "Sir," he said, "we really can't pay back what we can. We've sold everything we could, and we have nothing left. Please, grant us a little more time."

"The Ministry of Justice has already granted you three extensions."

"Three extensions, each time you said you could pay it back next time, and each time it was due, you said you couldn't pay it back."

"The Disciplinary Department is not the Legal Department. We do not approve extensions. Our job is to enforce the ruling. If it can be repaid, it will be repaid now."

"If you can't pay it back, then we'll do it according to the rules."

Kane turned to Song Chen: "Vice Captain, begin the attack."

Song Chen placed his hand on the hilt of the Tianjun Blade. He glanced at the mass of winged people kneeling before him, then drew his blade: "Who do you want to kill?"

Kane said calmly, "Start with the chieftains, one by one. Kill them one by one, and I'll ask them each time if they can pay back the debt. Keep asking until they can."

"This is a necessary process for newcomers. Everyone who joins the disciplinary department has to go through this stage. You need to adapt to our way of doing things."

Song Chen hesitated for a moment, then walked towards the old chieftain.

The old winged man opened his eyes and glanced at him, his pupils dilated with fear to almost fill his entire iris.

He didn't run away, nor did he beg for mercy; he simply closed his eyes again and pressed his forehead back onto the stone slab.

Song Chen slashed down with his sword.

[Sold a Tier 6 Winged Man, gaining 563200 Kill Points]

The old chieftain's body trembled slightly, his outstretched wings lost their vitality, and the fine scales on his wings reflected a faint iridescent glow in the sunlight one last time before slowly fading away.

Kane looked at the remaining people: "I'll ask one more time, can you return it?"

The square was deathly silent.

The chieftain, adorned with a red headdress, knelt before the old chieftain's corpse, his body limp on the ground as if his bones had been removed, his wings drooping helplessly.

For a long time, no one answered.

"Looks like it's not going to work out." Kane gestured with his chin toward Song Chen.

"Next."

Song Chen walked towards the chieftain with the red headdress and swiftly brought down his knife.

[Sold a Tier 6 Winged Man, gaining 531042 Kill Points]

"Can you pay it back?"

Still, no one answered.

"Looks like it won't work, next one."

The third chieftain was a female winged person with a light blue headdress. She did not spread her wings; she simply knelt there upright.

When Song Chen's knife fell, her body barely moved. Pale blue blood splattered on the stone base of the obelisk, flowing down the surface of the stele which was covered with ancient winged script.

"Can you pay it back?"

……

"Next."

The fourth, the fifth, the sixth, and the seventh.

Not long after, all seven chieftains fell in front of the obelisk.

The winged people in the square had buried their faces in their wings. Some were crying softly, and some were chanting something in the winged language, but no one ran away, no one resisted, and no one even dared to look up.

"Vice Captain, all the chiefs are dead, so let's continue with the council officials."

Song Chen turned to the council officials behind the chief.

An old winged man, dressed in a faded but once magnificent robe, knelt at the front, his sparse feathers revealing his wrinkled skin beneath.

Song Chen walked over, and the old winged man opened his mouth as if to say something, but the knife had already fallen.

[Sold a Tier 6 Winged Man, gaining 354447 Kill Points]

"Can you pay it back?" Kane asked.

Still, no one answered.

"Looks like it won't work, next one."

Song Chen didn't stop; he walked to the next one, then the next, and the next.

Parliamentary officials fell one after another in front of the obelisk, followed by tribal elders, and then senior civil servants.

The blade of the Heavenly Blade was stained with pale blue winged blood, gleaming faintly in the starlight.

The system's notification sounds kept ringing in his mind, as dense as a downpour hitting a tin roof.

When the fiftieth person was killed, the crying in the square gradually stopped.

The winged people stopped crying and simply knelt there, their wings spread out on the stone slabs, accepting everything before them in silence.

When they reached the eightieth person, a young winged woman stood up from the crowd.

She had no weapons, made no attack, but simply stood up, spread her wings, and then let out a cry with all her might—a piercing screech.

Then she knelt down again and pressed her forehead against the stone slab.

Song Chen's knife paused for a moment, then continued to fall.

When he killed the hundredth person, he noticed something.

The winged people kneeling in the square still did not run away, still did not resist.

He could sense their fear, but the extreme fear turned into a numb calm.

They didn't run because they really had nothing left to fight back; even the thought of escaping had been crushed to dust by tens of thousands of years of debt.

When they reached the 120th kill, Kane suddenly chuckled and turned to Song Chen, saying, "After killing so many, not a single one of them has put up a fight."

"I have seen many civilizations. When they are in debt and are being chased for payment, some cry, some beg, some take out the last bit of their savings to pay off the debt, and some even pick up weapons and fight to the death."

"But they are different. They don't even have the strength to fight anymore. Twenty thousand years of debt have softened their bones."

Song Chen didn't reply. He looked at another winged person kneeling on the ground in front of him. This was a young winged person with a blood energy level of six.

On the battlefield, this winged man could be a decent warrior.

But now he was kneeling on the ground, his forehead pressed against the stone slab, his wings spread flat, trembling all over but not moving.

Song Chen raised his knife and slashed down.

"Wait, we can pay it back."

The young winged man trembled as he spoke, the blade hovering in mid-air.

Kane raised his hand, signaling not to make a move.

He approached the young winged man and asked with interest, "Stand up. What's your name?"

The young winged man stood up shakily: "My name is Carlo, we...we can repay...no...don't kill me."

All the winged people kneeling in the square raised their heads at the same time—the elders who had buried their heads in their wings and were waiting to die, and the ordinary winged people who were huddled on the ground trembling.

Even the winged people who had been shaken awake after fainting from fright all had their eyes on Carlo.