World’s End: My Keyword is One More Than Others
Chapter 517: Only by suffering setbacks and enduring hardships can one succeed

The murmuring sound of reading came from the courtyard next door, occasionally mixed with a few scoldings.

Those were disciples of the Free and Unfettered Sect, dragging their heavily injured bodies, studying diligently by the cold window.

Du Ge's method of motivation was undeniably effective. For the sake of future limb regeneration, future wealth and glory, and future revenge, everyone was putting in 200% effort...

There wasn't much more to extract from these guys in terms of attributes. Any more brutality would truly cost them their lives. Although the City Gods and Earth Gods didn't meddle much, what if a few wandering souls went to the underworld to file a complaint against him?

At this critical juncture, both heaven and earth were searching for Alien Star warriors. If the underworld people knew, then the celestial beings would know too.

With his current attributes and skills, if celestial soldiers and generals came to kill him, he'd be chopped to pieces in no time.

Even Monkey Sun only caused havoc in the Heavenly Palace after learning his skills!

No.

Sun Wukong's learning was arranged by the big shots; he didn't have that privilege...

Thinking of this, Du Ge felt a chill down his spine.

Out of habit, when he injured people before, he never considered dealing with the soul problem.

Fortunately, he only took out their intestines to gain more brutal attributes. If it were like the previous world, where he'd slash throats or stab hearts at the drop of a hat, he might have already been exposed by now.

Indeed, good deeds are rewarded!

However, being brutal without causing death adds a layer of difficulty to survival.

It seems learning immortal arts must be prioritized.

At the very least, he needs to learn how to handle souls. After collecting brutal attributes, he must scatter their souls!

In the world of immortal cultivation, it seems possible to create a soul-calling banner, imprisoning their souls to prevent them from reporting to the underworld;

There are also soul-devouring rods, soul-extinguishing bows...

Suddenly, Du Ge paused. Damn it, having this "brutal" keyword unknowingly leads one down a dark path!

Bone-crushing, soul-snatching artifacts have nothing to do with the righteous path!

Du Ge looked up at the moon. Is he destined to become a Demon Head in this world?

But being a Demon Head means being an enemy to the world...

Terrifying!

No.

He can't walk the Demon Head path. Even if he extinguishes souls, he must maintain a righteous facade. Lin Zhengying often vanquished evil spirits, yet he was still a good person!

...

Sigh!

Looking at his personal interface ranking of 636, Du Ge sighed.

Having only dealt with a few thugs and a group of beggars, his influence on this world was minimal, ranking purely at the bottom. At this rate, he needn't worry about the ranking announcement in a month.

But this also meant his personal strength was very low. If a sudden situation arose, he might not even have the strength to fight back.

Improving strength means exposure, but without it, there's no sense of security...

Life is hard, choices are hard!

Why was he given a "brutal" keyword?

A child's body, with keywords like innocence, purity, and naivety, would be both discreet and safe to cultivate!

However, Du Ge rarely complains.

After all, complaining doesn't solve problems; it only creates internal strife. It's better to face things positively, and unknowingly, the path will clear.

Just like Brother Niu and others who had designs on him, they ended up becoming his nourishment.

Nothing in the world is difficult if you put your heart into it!

After much thought, Du Ge decided to take the initiative.

Opportunities are sought, not waited for.

The two brutal skills haven't been unlocked yet!

Strength is the true sense of security.

Resolute, Du Ge slipped out the window, deciding to trouble Longliu Manor. Using children as tools for pleasure, that manor was no good. Extracting brutal attributes from them was justified...

...

Fancheng had a curfew.

But the curfew only applied to ordinary people. The elite still had their nightlife, with the red-light districts always brightly lit.

Most parts of the city were quiet and dark.

In a city the size of Fancheng, people rarely ventured out at night, so patrolling guards often just made a round on the streets and then returned to drink and have fun, sleeping soundly.

Du Ge's small figure moved through the streets, hardly noticed by anyone.

Longliu Manor was in the suburbs, requiring him to leave the city.

But Du Ge's attributes weren't high, and his speed wasn't fast. Even climbing the city wall to leave the city required the use of Dark God power. Otherwise, without internal energy or lightness skill, scaling a six-meter-high wall would be difficult.

Using Dark God power at night was stealthy. As long as he pretended to climb with effort, the Pan-Universal Entertainment audience wouldn't notice...

This further strengthened Du Ge's resolve to quickly enhance his strength.

If he couldn't even handle a city wall, how could he face enemies? Would he really rely on divine power?

Although he had used divine power to threaten Bai Long, as Ross had predicted, Du Ge valued his life more than Pan-Universal Entertainment, not worth exposing himself for such trivial matters.

Once his attributes improved and he learned spells, he could openly use divine power without criticism.

Only then did Du Ge understand why Bai Long hadn't given him further instructions before entering the Alien Star Battlefield. A world with spells could indeed help him disguise the use of various divine powers. These cunning folks had calculated everything.

...

The owner of Longliu Manor was named Long Yichen.

He was said to be a martial arts expert, but no one had seen him in action.

After all.

Longliu Manor was a place for the elite to enjoy, and its nature meant it had backing.

Generally, no one from the martial world would dare challenge him, and small-time thieves wouldn't provoke such a giant like Longliu Manor. Even thugs like Brother Niu relied on Longliu Manor for survival.

About a mile from Longliu Manor, Du Ge noticed many hidden sentries in the roadside bushes.

Roughly every hundred meters.

The sentries wore black clothes, hiding behind trees or on them, vigilantly watching the road to Longliu Manor, far more alert than Fancheng's guards.

Those spending the night at Longliu Manor were either wealthy merchants or officials. Without tight security, these dignitaries wouldn't dare enjoy themselves outside the city.

Du Ge's perception covered over fifty meters.

He didn't take the main road but used the cover of darkness and Dark God power to move through the roadside woods.

Du Ge's small frame and light movements meant he made almost no sound while moving, so the sentries didn't notice him as he slipped into Longliu Manor.

The security inside Longliu Manor was even tighter than outside.

Not only were there patrolling guards, but there were also arrow towers on high ground.

The defense level was comparable to the Iron Palm Gang in the first Simulation Field Du Ge experienced.

Of course, Du Ge hadn't faced the martial artists of this world, so he didn't know how their martial arts compared to the Simulation Field.

But it was certain that without Dark God power, with Du Ge's current attributes, sneaking into the manor silently would be impossible.

With Dark God power, it was different. When he couldn't avoid detection, he could hide in the shadows, using Dark God power to subtly distort the guards' vision, making it incredibly easy.

In the eyes of the Pan-Universal Entertainment audience, Du Ge was just crouching in a dark corner, avoiding the patrols' gaze...

...

Du Ge didn't confront the guards of Longliu Manor head-on but continued to sneak into the core estate of the manor.

Then.

He was disgusted by the scenes he perceived.

The descriptions he gave to Brother Niu and others of the heavenly feast were merely borrowed from the adult films he'd seen in his previous life.

But what was happening at Longliu Manor was vividly presented before him.

The painful expressions of little boys and girls contrasted sharply with the joyful expressions of the beasts behind them...

Behind Longliu Manor, there was a backyard called the Beast Fighting Garden.

It was brightly lit, divided into several courtyards.

In the courtyard closest to Du Ge.

A group of flushed individuals sat around the stands, watching a large iron cage in the middle.

Inside the cage, seven or eight children, around ten years old, wielded sharp knives and short spears, fighting like beasts.

The spectators on the stands watched the bloody battle in the cage, each shouting excitedly.

Of course.

Those who lost their bets would curse the already battered children...

Du Ge saw no trace of humanity in them, only a group of beasts.

The children in the cage, fighting like cockfights or dogfights, made him empathize. The Pan-Universal Entertainment audience watching them, the warriors thrown into the Alien Star Battlefield, likely had the same expressions!

Du Ge saw the severely injured children who lost the fight being dragged by the guards and thrown into a room nearby, with no one to treat them, the door slammed shut, leaving them to fend for themselves.

Du Ge could sense that many children had already died in that room.

There were several such arenas, some pitting children against children, others against beasts, each with many spectators...

Is this the true face of Longliu Manor?

If we're talking about brutality!

The people of Longliu Manor were far more brutal than he was...

Du Ge squinted his eyes.

There are gods three feet above your head.

Aren't these people afraid of retribution?

After all, in this world, there really are gods and underworlds...

Unless?

Du Ge suddenly looked up.

Sure enough.

In the four corners above the children's fighting cage, there were four yellow talismans pasted.

Not just in the cage, but in the room where injured children were held, and on the beams of the arena, various yellow talismans were pasted...

Du Ge quietly left the arena, patrolling Longliu Manor, and found that these talismans were almost everywhere in the manor.

So.

Are these yellow talismans meant to suppress vengeful spirits?

Is there a cultivator behind Longliu Manor?

Possibly a demonic cultivator.

After all, righteous people would never do something so damaging to their karma...

It truly is a case of searching high and low only to find it effortlessly!

Before coming, Du Ge was wondering how to be brutal without taking lives. Now it seemed there was no need for such concerns.

As long as the souls couldn't escape, he could kill everyone here without attracting celestial beings...

If only officials came to investigate, with his skills, handling it shouldn't be difficult. A child's identity can sometimes be a great disguise.

If real trouble arose, he could always leave. He wasn't planning to establish a Free and Unfettered Sect in Fancheng, after all.

If he could find a way to destroy souls here, it would be perfect.

Even if Longliu Manor had a demonic cultivator, under the cover of night, using Dark God power and the Power of Poseidon to kill him should be feasible...

Of course, he might be wrong, and those talismans might not be soul-suppressing or soul-destroying.

But fortune favors the bold. Du Ge didn't have the means to figure out the true purpose of these talismans. Missing this opportunity would make finding another one difficult.

Some risks are worth taking...

...

Since he could kill, Du Ge wouldn't hold back against these scum.

He silently took down a guard, seized his sword, covered his face with a black cloth, leaving only his eyes exposed, and slipped back into the arena.

Sneaking up behind a portly merchant, Du Ge raised his sword and slashed at his neck with force.

The merchant, engrossed in the arena, didn't even turn his head before Du Ge decapitated him, sending a fountain of blood spraying everywhere.

The people nearby were splattered with blood.

Screams erupted.

But in the chaos of the arena, the screams blended in, and the front-row spectators remained oblivious, still clapping and cheering...

Du Ge glanced at the stunned individuals, swung his sword, and disemboweled them, letting them scream and roll on the ground.

"Someone's killing!"

Finally, someone shouted.

The hysterical voice drew many eyes.

When they turned to see the brutal scene and Du Ge, covered in blood, they froze for a moment before frantically rushing toward the arena's exit.

Their guards and the arena's security guards leaped into action, surrounding Du Ge.

"Hehehehe, I crawled out of hell to kill all you beasts. Tonight, none of you will escape. I'll make you suffer the most painful punishment in this world..." Du Ge lowered his voice, letting out a creepy laugh, ignoring the approaching guards, and charged into the panicked crowd.

With each swing of his sword, he either decapitated or disemboweled them...

"Cry, scream, struggle. Tonight, Longliu Manor is your hell; everyone here will die..." Du Ge sneered, enjoying the rapidly increasing attributes, weaving through the crowd, using their bodies as shields, swinging his sword faster and faster.

The guards' martial skills were superior to Du Ge's, but they hesitated, fearing to harm their masters, making their actions cautious...

In the blink of an eye.

More than a dozen people lay in pools of blood, writhing and screaming, pleading for help.

"Help!"

"Save me!"

But the fleeing people paid them no mind, some even stepping on their bodies to escape.

...

"Stop." The arena manager, seeing this scene, was on the verge of madness, screaming hysterically, "Which number escaped? Ding Chang, what are you waiting for? Kill him. If he keeps killing, we're all dead..."

Du Ge's figure was that of a child, so he assumed Du Ge was a slave who escaped from the arena, not considering other possibilities.

At this moment, the children fighting in the arena all stopped, staring blankly at Du Ge's massacre outside, their eyes burning with fervor, letting out roars.

Some clever children were already using their weapons to hack at the chains outside the cage.

Clang!

A crisp metallic sound.

It was Ding Chang, the most skilled, who parted the crowd, charging at Du Ge, raising his sword to strike.

Du Ge raised his sword to block, but his sword was inferior to Ding Chang's.

A powerful force came from Ding Chang, and the moment the swords clashed, Du Ge's sword broke in two.

Ding Chang's sword continued its downward arc.

Du Ge leaped back, but crashed into the crowd, unable to dodge, a long gash opening on his chest, blood flowing.

Ding Chang's cold eyes fixed on Du Ge: "This ends now."

"Hmph!"

Du Ge snorted, the broken sword slicing into the groin of a nearby person, severing his manhood, then slashing upward to open his abdomen.

In Ding Chang's shocked gaze, the wound he inflicted on Du Ge healed rapidly.

Ding Chang froze in disbelief.

In the crowd, a richly dressed young man saw this, his pupils dilating in shock, shouting, "Demon! He's a demon! Decapitate him, only decapitation can kill him..."