Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

Chapter 163: God Is Not Here (Part 48)

"Do you know what you're doing? I'm warning you, you've committed a grave crime!"

One of the men, who looked to be in his thirties or forties, wearing a white suit and a flower on his chest, stood up and tried to talk to him. “The police station is not far from here. This commotion must have spread by now. You definitely can’t escape. Put down your weapon and surrender immediately. Maybe you can get some leniency.”

"Dizzy?! Drizzy—!! My son…" The woman in the purple evening gown knelt on the ground, cradling the young man who had just been shot, and wailed for a while. She turned around and looked at Zhang Renfeng with hatred in her eyes, "You hurt my son, you vile beast! How dare you… how dare you harm the noble bloodline of Nordrin?!"

“The mounted police and sheriff will be here soon, and once they arrive, you will be thrown in jail… The Nordlin family will not let you get away with this…”

"boom!"

Zhang Renfeng shot her, the bullet piercing her skull and exploding into a spray of blood. The woman's eyes widened, as if she never understood why this man dared to shoot her, even in death.

Why...why would someone look at me with such disdain?

The ruthless killings made the remaining nobles realize their predicament. Most of them were born at the pinnacle that most people could never reach in their entire lives, not because of any extraordinary qualities they possessed, but simply because of their "great" surname.

The words, rebukes, complaints, and curses of ordinary people are as insignificant as a fart in the wind to them.

Only when a corpse that had just been dining with them, but was now a mind-blowing being, was thrown in front of them did they feel fear again.

Ah, so I can die too... something like that feeling.

"You...you want money, right? I get it. You want to use this method to volunteer and become our partner, right? Haha, I have to say, it's very novel, too...too novel!"

The man in the white suit swallowed hard, racking his brains for a moment before finally coming up with a way out. He smiled and said, "Thanks to your outburst, I've realized that the security company that signed the contract with us is... utterly useless! A bunch of good-for-nothings, taking the money and doing nothing, and now they've abandoned us! Our family's security really has a huge loophole."

“I can hire you, I’ll give you lots and lots of money, don’t rush, let me find it…” He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a thick wad of US dollars. “See this? This… $2000, consider it a deposit. Think about it, an ordinary person couldn’t earn this much money even if they worked hard their whole life!”

……

Zhang Renfeng's eating habits were terrifying; he was like a wild beast pouncing on the table, sucking all the oil off his fingers and wiping his mouth with the tablecloth.

“Looking for someone,” he asked slowly. “Fimbal Campella Nordlin, step forward.”

At times like this, family members are utterly useless; they automatically voted with their eyes, pushing a young man forward. He staggered a few steps, looking at his uncles and elders behind him with some fear, swallowed hard, and could only try to stop his trembling legs, unable to utter a single word.

His face was deathly pale, his expression terrified, his pupils constricted, and he was scared like a coward.

Yet, this very person vanished without a trace. No one knows where he was buried, and all traces of him have been erased, as if he had never existed in this filthy world.

Why kill him?

“…Wh…what?” Fenrir’s expression was full of confusion, an expression that was hard to fake. Zhang Renfeng believed that at this moment, he had truly put the little incident from that afternoon behind him. “I have never killed anyone, sir, I have never!”

"This afternoon, there was a kid selling candy. You ate his candy, and although you were supposed to pay 25 cents, you didn't and then you killed him." Zhang Renfeng's tone was menacing, his murderous intent palpable. "Remember?"

"Just...just for this?!"

Finnil could no longer control his expression, his face filled with shock, incomprehension, and utter hatred. "Just for a beggar brat, you... you dare to harm the most powerful family in New Austin? How could there be a madman like you!"

"So, you admit you did it, right?"

"Ha... So what if it's me? What's it to you!" Driven by fear and with nowhere to run, he stubbornly stuck out his neck, adopting a defiant attitude, and angrily shouted, "I'm warning you, I am a legitimate descendant of the Nordlin family. If you dare... if you dare lay a hand on me, the consequences will be severe. Your parents, relatives, friends, everyone! Everyone connected to you will be severely punished by our family!"

"It's no use you running away. The Nordlin family has plenty of money. With money, they can hire people to do their bidding. We will hunt you down to the ends of the earth!"

……

The call contained mostly threats.

But Zhang Renfeng was no ordinary man; to him, this threat was just a not-so-funny joke.

“That guy is an orphan, without parents, and has been begging on the streets since he was a child. There are many people like him in the town, although... you probably don’t look down on them much.”

Zhang Renfeng's gaze swept over them one by one, his cold voice like a divine judgment.

“If you kill him, you will wipe out his family line.”

"What do you mean by fairness? I'll wipe out your entire family line too, that's what fairness is!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Renfeng threw the knife in his right hand, which instantly pierced Fennier's throat.

He is a man of his word; once he says something, he will definitely do it.

"Ah—!! Help...help..."

“No… don’t kill me…”

"You bastard, you damned yellow-skinned bastard!!"

……

When they realized that neither authority nor money could buy off this man, this group of newly emerging nobles finally understood that they were going to die. They fell from their lofty abyss into the mortal world, displaying their human ugliness, crying out and screaming, trying to escape, only to be pulled back one by one by Zhang Renfeng's large hand and killed in the simplest way.

He slit throats or snapped cervical vertebrae. He did it with composure, skill, and precision, as if his men were no longer human, but merely rabbits or lambs to be slaughtered.

"You will get your retribution, you...you yellow-skinned demon..."

The man in the white suit, clenching his teeth and widening his eyes before dying, roared with all his might, "God will not let you get away with this—!"

……

"God is not here."

Zhang Renfeng stood before him, his face calm, blood dripping slowly from his fingertips. He had killed too many people, and his palms were stained blood red, like a demon who had walked out of hell.

"I'm the only one here!"

----

Pearl Shell Restaurant, a long-closed hall.

Since the Nordlin family was wiped out, this place has become a restricted area of ​​the restaurant, and it is not allowed to be opened to the public no matter who takes over.

It is said that on every rainy day, one can hear mournful screams and dying murmurs. Those are the vengeful spirits of a family murdered by Hong Zhong, who still linger here.

……

"Boom!"

The door was kicked open, and Zhang Renfeng, holding a lantern, walked into the dusty, cobweb-covered abandoned hall.

"Oh, do you remember me?" He waved the lantern in his hand and sneered, "I'm back."

Chapter 164: All Living Beings Receive His Blessings (Part 49)

The familiar hall, the familiar tables.

The table in the hall had been meticulously restored to its original state from that day, complete with several empty plates. This time, the person who had played the game with him no longer concealed their intentions, directly placing the iron box at one end of the long table, practically making their intentions clear. Zhang Renfeng didn't mince words either, opening the fifth iron box and pouring out a small wooden plaque with a blood-stained character "中" (zhong, meaning "win") clearly engraved on it. Besides this, another roll of paper was quietly pressed under the iron box by the same small wooden plaque.

However, this time they've changed the approach.

The scroll was no longer a lifelike sketch, but a cut-out map with a circle drawn in red. Topographically, it was still within White Torch Town, but quite far from the town center; the clock tower was not visible and could not be used as a landmark.

"Ok."

Zhang Renfeng glanced at the address, carefully put away the map and the token, licked his lips, and said, "If you want to play, then let's play to the end!"

----

Outside Baiju Town.

After a long day of wandering around the city, dusk was falling. The setting sun cast its light on the vast plains, where only wild grasses swayed in the wind against the dark red Gobi Desert, growing tenaciously but resiliently. This road was rarely traveled; without the tread of horses or footsteps, it appeared extremely desolate, and thus, it became a haven for filth and grime.

He committed a crime, killed someone, and dumped the body here. For months, no one noticed, and it was covered by weeds.

In those places where the weeds were particularly lush, if one dismounted and looked closely, one might find a skeleton buried there. But he had no time to care about that right now; the line of text on the edge of the map, crooked and eerie, seemed to be trying to drill into his mind.

What is your most powerful weapon?

Gun? Dagger? Hidden weapon? Spear? Broadsword?

……

It seemed to be all of those things, but something about them all seemed off. Lost in thought, he finally arrived at the place circled in red on the map.

Nordlin Cemetery.

This place wasn't always called this; it was called "Forest of Tombstones," meaning a mass burial ground in the wild where people who couldn't show their faces in public, regardless of their status in life, were mostly buried.

They'll just throw the body here, dig a hole, bury it, and hastily erect a wooden cross. Correspondingly, the body's clothes, pants, jewelry, rings, and the like will basically be stripped bare. After all, it's a place like this, so don't expect any decorum; just consider it a series of funeral service fees.

Bounty hunters, politicians, businessmen, cowboys, hired laborers, miners who died from exhaustion... all sorts of people were buried with the same treatment.

Logically speaking, the prestigious Nordlin family would never have any connection with this place. However, Hong Zhong's heist was so intimidating that the White Torch Town Cemetery at the time didn't even dare to take these people in, fearing retaliation from Hong Zhong.

Furthermore, everyone was busy dividing up the Nordlin family's inheritance, and the family members who could handle their affairs were all killed by Red Center.

With no one to take care of or arrange the funeral, it naturally had to end hastily. In the end, a horse-drawn carriage was hired to bring the family's bodies here, where they were neatly buried beneath the barren hill.

The Nordlin family, a once powerful clan that dominated White Torch and acted as local tyrants, vanished from the world like a shooting star simply because of a 25-cent coin. The whole process was so magical and bizarre that the mass grave also benefited from it, changing its name to "Noldlin Cemetery."

"Ha." After tying up his horse, Zhang Renfeng looked around and sneered, "With mountains and water, and so many neighbors, it's quite a good place."

The cemetery is full of graves and has a very heavy yin energy, which should make people feel extremely uncomfortable.

But Zhang Renfeng was the kind of person with overflowing yang energy, and he didn't notice anything unusual at all. Instead, he put his hands behind his back, strolled around leisurely, and began to check the rows one by one.

"Hey! You over there, the one riding the red horse!" A strong voice came from the side, carrying a clear warning, "Stop wandering around. There are only two pieces of wood on the tombstones here, no names. Who are you looking for?"

Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw an elderly man with a hunched back, a full head of white hair, and a slightly stooped posture. He was wearing reading glasses and was walking slowly towards him. His knees looked stiff, and he couldn't squat down. He walked with a shaky gait, but his voice was unusually loud.

“Sir, isn’t this Nordlin Cemetery? I’m looking for those people with the surname Nordlin.” Zhang Renfeng, who also knew the proper etiquette, took out a five-dollar bill from his bag and handed it to him with a grin. “You’re the one in charge here, right? We shouldn’t tolerate any of your rules… could you make an exception?”

To everyone's surprise, the old man did not accept the money. Instead, he righteously reached out and pushed away the banknotes that were handed to him.

Just then, their hands touched slightly, and Zhang Renfeng's pupils contracted slightly.

“I said no, and that’s final. Look at this, would anyone with any ability send it here? No matter who comes, we just dig a hole, bury them on the spot, cut a couple of branches, and make a cross. There are at least three hundred or five hundred graves here, where am I supposed to find some Nordlin for you?”

"Let's go, let's go. Burying them all in a place like this will save you trouble."

----

"Isn't that a bit much?" Zhang Renfeng suddenly changed his tone and said in a deep voice, "You've laid so much bait along the way, finally managed to lure me in, just to play with me?"

……

The old man stopped his slow steps, and in a short moment, all the signs of "old age" on his body disappeared without a trace.

Turning around, the calm look in his eyes reminded Zhang Renfeng of an eagle. Before capturing its prey, it glides through the air, merely staring intently at its prey, not particularly intimidating, yet it does nothing to stop it from displaying its sharp beak and talons.

"When did you know that?"

“When we touched hands,” Zhang Renfeng smiled, raising his right hand and pressing his pulse. “This is a disguise, isn’t it? I don’t know which school you studied under, but it’s incredibly realistic. There’s no flaw in your appearance. But you’re playing an elderly person between 60 and 70 years old, right?”

"The older you get, the slower your heartbeat will be; this applies to everyone. I just touched your wrist, and although you've faked the wrinkles and cracks in your skin, your pulse is unmistakable. It's the heartbeat of someone in their prime, strong and powerful. Your real age should be between 30 and 40."

"Thank you so much for painstakingly planning my travel itinerary." Zhang Renfeng cupped his hands in thanks, a hint of coldness flashing in his smile. "Who exactly are you?"

“I am nothing but a servant.”

The old man spread his hands, his tone becoming rather eerie, "Servants of the Red God."

"Red God?" Zhang Renfeng narrowed his eyes, suddenly sensing something was amiss—the other party's hostility was so obvious, yet he hadn't sensed a trace of killing intent from him. "Did you kill Theonado? Why?"

“I did not ‘kill’ him, Mr. Red Center, I ‘saved’ him. His birth was a tragedy that defies easy judgment. He came to me and prayed to the Red God for relief, and I granted his prayer.”

The old man stated in an extremely calm tone, "The Red God is the only god that exists in the world. He has many names and many faces. But in the end, all living beings in the world can receive his blessings."

"Sizzle—!!"

He peeled off the disguise, revealing a familiar face.

Chapter 165: The Greatest Light, the Greatest Shadow (Part 50)

"You are……"

The name is on the tip of my tongue, but I can't bring myself to say it.

Upon seeing him, Zhang Renfeng's mind went blank for a moment. He quickly scanned his memory and finally found the image of this man in the corner of his mind—he had already seen him when he carried the fake red corpse into the police station. At that time, before leaving, the man seemed to give him a meaningful look.

On the train, a group of bandits disguised as Red Army soldiers; a secret trading post beneath the clock tower; and that mysterious, nameless gang...

Now, all the clues have come together, the clouds have cleared and the rain has stopped, and the sky is clear and bright!

"You're the forensic doctor at that police station?" Zhang Renfeng exclaimed in surprise. "You... work for the police?"

“Strictly speaking, you are also working for the police department now. Your public identity is the temporary sheriff of the White Torch Town Police Department.” Koby wiped away the wrinkles and age spots on his neck with his fingers and asked in a deep voice, “What’s the difference between you and me?”

Zhang Renfeng thought about it for a moment and realized there was no need to answer such an abstract question. He crossed his arms and looked at the other person with great interest.