4: Brother-in-law, this meat smells delicious!

In the silent mountain forest, there was only the crackling of firewood burning in the campfire, and... a certain extremely suppressed chewing sound that seemed to be squeezed from the depths of a throat, filled with despair and existential doubt.

Luo Zheng sat by the fire, holding a piece of Tusked Boar leg meat that was roasted golden-brown and oily, emitting a rich meaty aroma.

This should have been a mouth-watering delicacy, especially for someone like him who had just experienced a flight for his life, had his Qi and blood depleted, and then replenished by a divine medicine—it was a great tonic.

But now, with every bite he took, it felt like he was gnawing on a honey-coated... stone! The kind that had just been fished out of a latrine!

His gaze drifted uncontrollably toward the other side of the fire.

Jiang Linfeng was focused on processing another pig leg.

He had no knife in his hand, only a temporarily sharpened wooden stick.

His wrist flicked and turned, his movements so fast they almost left afterimages!

That wooden stick in his hand was simply sharper than any Spiritual Artifact or Sharp Weapon!

Squelch! Squelch! Squelch!

The hard pigskin, the tough fascia, the thick leg bone... before that seemingly ordinary wooden stick, they were like the softest tofu!

Every "stroke" brought up a slice of meat as thin as a cicada's wing and crystal clear!

The meat slices were so thin they could transmit light, as uniform as if cut by the most precise instrument! Even more eerie was that the cuts were as smooth as a mirror, without a single trace of blood seeping out!

How was this cutting meat?

This was clearly a hair-raising artistic performance!

A horror show silently and repeatedly reminding Luo Zheng: "I am that monster who rubbed a pig demon to death with tree bark!"

Luo Zheng looked at that wooden stick flying up and down, and remembered the smooth scuff marks on the tree trunk earlier, as well as the equally smooth cut on the pig demon's neck... his stomach churned.

He felt like he wasn't eating roast meat, but gnawing on his own shattered worldview!

"Husband... your roasting skills are really good..."

Luo Yan sat beside Jiang Linfeng, taking small bites of the perfectly roasted meat slices that Jiang Linfeng had personally sliced. Her small face was full of a happy flush.

After her Physique was optimized, her appetite had improved significantly. Coupled with her husband being by her side, she felt that even this simple roast meat was a worldly delicacy.

She completely failed to notice her brother's painful expression, as if he were chewing wax.

"Hehe, practice makes perfect."

Jiang Linfeng grinned and handed another paper-thin slice of roast meat to Luo Yan's lips. "Come, Yaner, open your mouth, ah—"

Luo Yan obediently opened her mouth to take it, her pink tongue lightly licking away the oil stains on her lips. That movement made Jiang Linfeng's heart heat up.

[Ding! Intimate interaction between host and Luo Yan detected! Current environment Spiritual Qi concentration: Low. Luo Yan's Physique state: Good (Source Spirit Body nourishing). Conception probability: Medium.]

[Hint: You can try to perform Life Transfer when Spiritual Qi is denser or emotions are more intense to enhance the potential of offspring!]

Jiang Linfeng understood.

It seemed that for the matter of having children, he still had to pick a prime location or... a time when the atmosphere was right?

He glanced at Luo Zheng, whose face was turning green as he chewed tastelessly, and felt that the current atmosphere was really not suitable.

"Brother-in-law, why aren't you eating? Is it not to your taste?"

Jiang Linfeng asked "concernedly," slicing off another piece of meat with a movement so smooth it was as if he were cutting air. "This Tusked Boar meat is a great tonic! You lost so much blood just now... you should eat more to make up for it!"

Luo Zheng looked at the almost transparent slice of roast meat handed to him, which gave off a fatally seductive aroma, then at Jiang Linfeng's "sincere" face, and finally at the wooden stick in his hand that seemed to be silently mocking him... He suddenly closed his eyes, steeled his heart, and stuffed the meat into his mouth as if facing execution, chewing haphazardly twice before swallowing it whole!

"Delicious!" he almost roared, his voice as dry as sandpaper rubbing together.

"Right? I told you!" Jiang Linfeng nodded in satisfaction and continued his "artistic creation."

Luo Zheng: "..." He felt his stomach cramping.

A dinner with an eerie atmosphere (only for Luo Zheng) ended in silence (Luo Zheng) and warmth (the Jiang Linfeng couple).

Night completely shrouded the mountain forest, and the chill grew stronger.

Luo Zheng took the initiative to assume the duty of keeping watch. He sat on a rock far from the campfire with his knees hugged to his chest, his eyes alertly scanning the dark jungle, but his ears involuntarily pricked up, listening to the whispers of the "shameless couple" by the fire.

"Husband... I'm a little cold..." Luo Yan's voice had a slight nasal quality, as if she were acting spoiled.

"Come, lean against me." Jiang Linfeng's voice was so gentle it could practically drip water.

There was a rustling sound of clothing rubbing. Luo Zheng didn't need to look to know that his sister must have curled into that "monster's" embrace like a kitten again.

"Husband... your hands are so warm..." Luo Yan's voice became even softer, with a hint of being dazed.

"Mm, it's even warmer holding you." Jiang Linfeng's voice deepened a bit.

Luo Zheng's fists tightened. He forced himself not to imagine the scene!

But those subtle kissing sounds, like a kitten licking, and his sister's suppressed, panting moans, still drilled into his brain like demonic music!

"Mmm... Husband... don't... Brother is still here..." Luo Yan's voice carried a shy panting.

"It's fine, Brother-in-law is on watch. He's far away and can't hear."

Jiang Linfeng's voice carried a smile and a hint of... pushing his luck.

Luo Zheng: "..." I can fucking hear you perfectly clearly!!!

He felt his temples throbbing! This bastard was definitely doing it on purpose!

He was taking revenge for Luo Zheng's previous suspicion of him! He was using this method to torture him!

Just as Luo Zheng felt he was about to explode on the spot and was preparing to find an excuse to go "patrol" in the distance—

[Ding! Detected that the host and Luo Yan are in the heat of passion! Environment Spiritual Qi concentration: Low → Medium (spontaneously attracted and gathered by the host's Source Spirit Body)! Luo Yan's Physique state: Peak (nourished by arousal)! Conception probability: High!]

[Strong Recommendation: Perform Life Transfer immediately! Offspring potential estimate: High Grade B-Rank (increased probability of Ice and Fire Dual Spiritual Roots)!]

[Hint: The reward for the first successful conception will be significantly increased!]

The System's prompt was like heavenly music (to Jiang Linfeng)!

Jiang Linfeng's spirit was bolstered! The time, the place, and the people were all right! If not now, then when?!

He tightened his arm around Luo Yan and lowered his head to whisper in her ear in a voice only the two of them could hear: "Yaner... I wasn't satisfied just now... now... compensate me, okay?"

Luo Yan trembled all over, her cheeks instantly turning deep red, even her small earlobes stained with an alluring pink.

She was so shy she buried her face deep in Jiang Linfeng's chest, her small hands unconsciously clutching his lapel, but her body was honestly heating up slightly as she gave a light nod and let out an almost inaudible "Mm."

Jiang Linfeng was overjoyed! Just as he was about to make a move—

"Roar—!!!"

A roar more frenzied and filled with more tyrannical Aura than the previous Tusked Boar's exploded like a bolt from the blue from the depths of the dense forest to the side and rear of their campsite!

The sound waves rolled, shaking leaves down and making even the campfire flicker violently!

Following that were several angry shouts filled with killing intent and the clanging of clashing weapons!

"Stop it!"

"Damn it! This beast has gone mad!"

"Watch out for its tail!"

"Ah—!"

It was the Luo Family's pursuers! And from the sound of it, they seemed to have encountered a more powerful Yao Beast and were in the middle of a fierce battle!

Luo Zheng instantly sprang up, his face changing drastically!

He subconsciously looked in the direction of Jiang Linfeng and Luo Yan, only to see that Jiang Linfeng had already shielded Luo Yan behind him, his face carrying a trace of "unpleasantness" and "vigilance" at having his good business interrupted.

"Brother! It's the pursuers!" Luo Yan's small face was pale, the previous tenderness instantly replaced by fear.

"The sound isn't far! And they seem to be entangled by a Yao Beast!"

Luo Zheng judged quickly, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes. "This is a chance! While they're dragged down by the Yao Beast, we'll run in the opposite direction immediately!"

"Good!" Jiang Linfeng nodded immediately, taking Luo Yan's hand to leave.

However, at the very moment they turned to flee—

Boom!

A dull, massive sound accompanied the cracking of breaking trees!

A huge black shadow, like an out-of-control battering ram, carrying a wind of blood and gore, forcibly snapped several trees as thick as bowls and smashed down fiercely toward their campsite!

Thud!

That black shadow smashed heavily less than ten meters from their campfire, splashing up large amounts of mud and fallen leaves!

Everyone looked closely; it was actually a mangled corpse!

It was wearing the uniform of the Luo Family guards! Its chest had been hollowed out with a large hole, a tragic death!

Following that, several figures scrambled out of the dense forest in a wretched state, all of them injured, their faces written with terror!

"Run! Run fast! It's a Peak Tier 3 Iron-Backed Azure Bear! It's invulnerable!" A guard captain with a face full of blood shrieked in a hoarse voice; one of his arms was already missing!

Before his voice had even faded—

"Awoo—!!!"

A deafening roar, filled with endless rage, tore through the night sky!

A colossal being like a moving small mountain crashed through the obstructing trees and appeared in everyone's sight!

It was a giant bear nearly three meters tall, its entire body covered in fur as black and shiny as steel!

It stood up on its hind legs, its crimson eyes like two Hell lanterns, deadlocked onto the fleeing Luo Family guards!

On its thick, pillar-like forelimbs, sharp claws shimmered with a cold, eerie light, still clinging to bits of flesh and blood!

Most terrifying of all was its broad back, seemingly cast from refined iron, reflecting a metallic, cold, and hard luster under the moonlight!

An Iron-Backed Azure Bear! A Tier 3 Peak Yao Beast! Equivalent to a human at the seventh or eighth stage of the Innate Realm!

Moreover, it possessed thick skin and tough flesh, with infinite strength; it was one of the undisputed overlords of the outer Cloud Mist Mountain Range!

"It's over!"

Luo Zheng's heart instantly sank to the bottom! His face turned as pale as paper!

Facing such a monster, let alone his current state at the first stage of the Innate Realm, he would have no chance of winning even at his Peak! What's more, he was with his sister and that... that wicked Brother-in-law!

"Roar!" The Iron-Backed Azure Bear's ferocity was clearly fully triggered by the smell of blood. It ignored the terrified Luo Family guards and its crimson giant eyes suddenly locked onto the source of the alluringly pure life Aura by the campfire—Luo Yan!

Source Spirit Body! It was the Source Spirit Body again! In the eyes of a Yao Beast, this was simply a walking, ultimate tonic!

"Yaner!" Luo Zheng's heart nearly burst with fear; without thinking, he prepared to lung forward!

But the Iron-Backed Azure Bear was faster! It dropped to all fours, moving like a black storm of death, carrying a terrifying Aura that could crush everything as it pounced toward Luo Yan!

The massive bear paw descended with a whistle that tore through the air! If this strike landed, let alone Luo Yan, even a giant boulder would be reduced to powder!

"No—!" Luo Zheng roared in despair!

Luo Yan was so scared she closed her eyes, instinctively hugging Jiang Linfeng's waist tightly!

It was a critical moment!

Just as the giant bear paw was less than three feet from the top of Luo Yan's head, and the violent wind was already whipping her hair and making her cheeks sting!

Jiang Linfeng moved!

He seemed to have his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering from the sudden attack. His body stumbled, and his foot "extremely coincidentally" tripped over the oil-stained wooden stick he had used to cut meat!

"Oops!"

Jiang Linfeng let out a panicked cry, and his whole body lurched to the side like a drunkard!

And the hand that had been tightly holding Luo Yan's slender waist also swung outward "frantically" due to this "loss of balance"!

This swing was at a tricky angle and with precise timing!

The tip of his seemingly ordinary middle finger, which was still stained with oil, followed an extremely bizarre and "coincidental" trajectory driven by his tilting body, unerringly and gently—as if caressing a lover—

*Brush*!

It brushed against the paw pad of the Iron-Backed Azure Bear's massive paw, which was cast like refined iron, supposedly invulnerable, and covered in thick steel-like fur!

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Luo Zheng's roar was stuck in his throat.

The terrified expressions of the Luo Family guards were frozen on their faces.

Luo Yan's tightly closed eyelashes trembled.

Even the violent Iron-Backed Azure Bear had a flash of an extremely human-like... confusion in its crimson giant eyes?

What happened?

*Sizzle*—!

An extremely faint sound, like a hot knife cutting through butter, rang out in the dead of night.

The next second!

Awoo—!!!!

A shrill, distorted howl filled with endless pain and fear, like a wail from the nine layers of Hell, suddenly erupted from the Iron-Backed Azure Bear's bloody maw!

The sound was so tragic that it shook the entire mountain forest!

On the thick paw pad of the Iron-Backed Azure Bear's descending massive paw, a red dot the size of a needle's eye suddenly appeared!

Then!

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!

Like a high-pressure water pipe bursting! Five extremely fine but terrifyingly penetrative blood arrows shot out from five different directions around that red dot! The blood arrows sprayed in a fan shape, reaching over ten meters away!

Even more terrifyingly, the moment the blood arrows sprayed out, the Iron-Backed Azure Bear's entire pillar-like forelimb went limp, as if all its bones and tendons had been removed, and it instantly hung down!

The massive bear paw was twisted at a bizarre angle, as if the bones and fascia inside had been completely pulverized by some force in an instant!

"Aow... Aow aow aow!!!"

The Iron-Backed Azure Bear rolled frantically on the spot in pain! Its remaining three legs kicked wildly, digging deep pits into the ground!

It used its only remaining forelimb to hold the completely crippled right forelimb, letting out heart-wrenching wails! The sound was filled with pain, fear, and... disbelief!

It didn't understand! Its iron-like body could withstand the strikes of a Spiritual Artifact! Its paw pad was incredibly thick! How could it be... by a human ant... with a fingertip... lightly brushed... and... and it was crippled?!

At this moment, the "culprit," Jiang Linfeng, was falling to the ground in an extremely clumsy posture, still tightly protecting Luo Yan in his arms.

He looked up at the giant bear rolling in madness, his face written with a "terrified" expression of "lingering fear" and "Holy crap, are there nails on this bear paw?"

He struggled to climb up, one hand around the stunned Luo Yan and the other pointing at the maddened giant bear. He shouted in a tearful voice to the equally petrified Luo Zheng and the dumbstruck Luo Family guards:

"Brother-in-law! Run! This bear... this bear has no sportsmanship! It has hidden weapons in its paw! It poked me to death! Look, my finger is all red!!"

As he spoke, he even held up his "injured" middle finger toward the moonlight. On the tip of the finger... there was indeed a tiny, almost invisible... reflection of oil? The skin wasn't even broken!

Luo Zheng: "..."

He looked at the Tier 3 Peak Yao Beast, the Iron-Backed Azure Bear, which was rolling on the ground and howling in pain as if pierced by ten thousand needles simultaneously while clutching its ruined paw.

Then he looked at his Brother-in-law's "injured" middle finger, which didn't even have a scratch on the skin.

Finally, his gaze slowly moved to the ordinary wooden stick on the ground that had tripped his Brother-in-law, now lying quietly with oil and a bit of dirt on it.

*Thud*!

This time, it wasn't that Luo Zheng's legs were weak.

He felt that his Soul, at this moment, had completely detached from his body and drifted toward the unknown, absurd, and irrational end of the Universe.

What the Hell... is wrong with this world?!!

The surviving Luo Family guards looked at Jiang Linfeng as if they had seen a ghost, then at the wailing giant bear. Finally, they looked at each other, seeing the same bone-deep fear and sense of absurdity in each other's eyes!

They seemed to have just seen that useless Jiang Linfeng get tripped by a stick, then his finger brushed against the bear paw, and then the bear paw exploded?!!

This was ten thousand times more ridiculous than Luo Yong turning into ash!!!

"What... what are you still standing there for! Run!" Jiang Linfeng urged "anxiously," pulling Luo Yan into the depths of the dense forest.

Luo Zheng suddenly jolted, forcibly pulled back from his state of Soul Emergence.

He glanced at the giant bear still rolling frantically and temporarily posing no threat, then at the terrified guards, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes!

Strike while he's down! These guards were the lackeys of the Luo Family's side branches; they absolutely could not be left alive!

He suppressed the overwhelming sense of absurdity and the deep fear of his Brother-in-law's "wickedness." His internal Qi and blood erupted, and he pounced like a leopard toward the guards who were still in a daze!

"Die!"

Blade light flashed! Blood splattered!

The screams were instantly swallowed by the darkness of the dense forest.

Luo Zheng cleanly dealt with the future trouble. Without even looking at the corpses on the ground, he turned and chased in the direction where Jiang Linfeng and Luo Yan had disappeared.

He had only one thought now: stay away from that Brother-in-law! The further, the better!

But at the same time... he had no choice but to follow him!

Because only by following him would Yaner be safe!

As for himself, he would just consider himself following a walking, indescribable... natural disaster!

Deep in the forest, Jiang Linfeng ran with Luo Yan, but the corner of his mouth curled into an imperceptible arc.

[Ding! Invisible Posturing Achievement: Consummate! Successfully created a 'Natural Disaster-level Coincidence' in front of Luo Zheng and the Luo Family guards! Reward obtained: Luo Zheng's Favorability +10! Current Luo Zheng Favorability: 75 (Awe-struck Ally / Walking Disaster)! Special skill obtained: 'Passive · Misfortune Aura' Lv1 (Slightly increases the probability of 'accidents' occurring around the host)!]

Passive · Misfortune Aura? Jiang Linfeng was delighted. This skill was great! Posturing would be even easier in the future! Even tripping while walking could crush someone who didn't have eyes!

He looked back at the pitch-black forest behind him, as if he could penetrate the numerous obstacles to see his Brother-in-law, who was desperately trying to catch up and whose inner world had already collapsed into ruins.

"Brother-in-law, I'm sorry," Jiang Linfeng thought without any sincerity. "This path of invincibility is destined to be lonely. You'll just have to... bear with it a bit more."

He tightened his grip on Luo Yan's soft hand, feeling the warmth and dependence coming from the young girl's palm, a flash of anticipation in his eyes.

"Yaner, once we find a safe place with plenty of Spiritual Qi... shall we... continue?"