He walked slowly, yet his speed was surprisingly fast. He caught up to someone fleeing with their back to him and ended their life with a single strike.

The candlelight flickered across the face of the Torchbearer, making his expression hard to read. The Presiding Judge, the one being targeted, felt a bitterness he couldn't express. According to their estimations, the door within Gong Zhe was on the verge of collapse, but what they saw today completely contradicted that. This must be false information released by the Xia family!

Damn it, it seemed Xiao Zongji hadn't lied to them. Many years ago, Xiao Zongji, under their orders, had infiltrated the Xia family under the alias Qin Lan, only to be exposed and killed recently.

Before his death, he sent a message confirming that Gong Zhe's physical condition was excellent and that the Xia family's secret collection of red contracts was just a smokescreen to mislead them.

"Old ghost, let's join forces, together with that person, and kill him!" The Presiding Judge knew that with Gong Zhe's appearance, this matter would be difficult to resolve today, and a hint of killing intent surged in his eyes.

Gong Zhe was strong, but not invincible, it would just require a price to be paid.

"Don't be impulsive!" The black mist around the Torchbearer grew denser, the candlelight casting a greenish glow on his face. "That person won't help us deal with Gong Zhe." As he said these words, he felt unwilling. Today was a rare opportunity; they could have wiped them all out. But with Gong Zhe's appearance, everything had changed.

"Could he be putting on a brave face?" The Presiding Judge lowered his voice. He had noticed that Gong Zhe's aura was unstable.

"Don't be careless; he might be deliberately acting like that to deceive us." The Torchbearer was quite cautious. He knew that even when facing Gong Zhe, as long as he and the Presiding Judge cooperated, escaping today wouldn't be too difficult.

But the current situation was that the Presiding Judge had already been injured by Luo He. If he wasn't careful and was injured again by Gong Zhe, the outcome would be hard to predict.

It was possible that both of them could die here.

As for that person, they had an agreement, and they couldn't command them beyond the scope of that agreement.

Ordinary disciples were no match for Gong Zhe, and with his teammate's cooperation, the people the Presiding Judge and the Torchbearer had brought were quickly decimated.

Gunshots rang out from time to time as Officer Wu led his men in opportunistic sneak attacks.

"Old ghost, we can't wait any longer." The Presiding Judge was a man of violent temper. His already tall frame expanded again, and he decisively chose to attack Gong Zhe. He was also gambling, betting that the current Gong Zhe was just a paper tiger, easily pierced.

Now that things had come to this, the Torchbearer couldn't stay out of it. He knew that the Presiding Judge was tyrannical, but his judgment was keen. The fact that he dared to attack Gong Zhe meant he might have seen something.

The black mist poured out without reservation, and the Torchbearer raised his candlestick, stabbing fiercely toward Gong Zhe. The originally dim candlelight suddenly exploded, revealing faces twisted in pain.

The faces contorted and emitted piercing screams. Officer Wu and the others couldn't help but cover their ears, but it was useless. The sound seemed to originate from the depths of their minds.

Some of the most severely affected even started bleeding from their mouths and noses. The scene was horrifying.

A huge cross descended from the sky. The Presiding Judge's attack was a killing move. Against an opponent like Gong Zhe, he dared not hold back in the slightest. But in the next second, this divine punishment-like strike was actually blocked by Gong Zhe with a single hand holding a knife, who even had the strength to force back the Torchbearer, who was attempting a sneak attack.

"Crap..."

The faces of the Presiding Judge and the Torchbearer froze simultaneously.

Misjudgment...

Realizing their error, the two no longer dared to entangle and quickly retreated. But Gong Zhe wouldn't give them a chance. His muscles bulged, and the folding knife in his hand seemed to come alive, emitting a buzzing sound as if in excitement.

With a skill-less strike, the Presiding Judge desperately used the cross to block, and a bizarre scene occurred. In the next moment, the blade light suddenly became layered, as if countless slashes were unleashed in an instant.

Before the Presiding Judge could call for help, he saw the sleeve of his left arm, which was holding the cross, shatter open, followed by his pale skin, then his muscles, and finally his bone...

His left arm seemed to have been fed into a meat grinder, disintegrating bit by bit in his horrified gaze, as if in slow motion.

"Ah... Aaaah!!"

Seeing the Presiding Judge's left arm stripped to the bone, the Torchbearer's eyes turned red. He stabbed the candlestick into his own body, and thick blood flowed out, instantly devoured by something hidden in the black mist. The black mist expanded several times, like a dark cloud floating on the ground.

The Torchbearer guided the sea of black mist, rushing toward Gong Zhe with reckless abandon. "I'll fight you to the death!!"

Faces surged within the sea of mist, with faint sounds of women's low weeping and children's shrill laughter, as if countless negative emotions were fused within. It was a massive amalgamation of curses.

Faced with the Torchbearer's killing move, Gong Zhe unleashed another slash, but it vanished into the sea of mist like a clay ox entering the sea.

The sea of mist surged up, enveloping him. For a moment, violence, bloodshed, struggle, pain, and all kinds of despairing images flooded Gong Zhe's body. Even more, a coaxing voice whispered in his ear, urging him to end his own life with that knife, as if only in that way could he escape the sea of suffering.

Gong Zhe looked in the direction of the voice, only to see a delicate face.

It was a child, looking somewhat shy. "Father, what are you doing?" The boy blinked, his eyes filled with love as he looked at Gong Zhe.

Gong Zhe's sharp aura faltered for a moment.

The boy seemed encouraged and cautiously took another step toward Gong Zhe, asking in a timid voice, "Father, where's Mother? Where did Mother go?"

"She..." Gong Zhe's lips trembled. He looked at his hand. The knife that he never let go of was gone, replaced by a silver necklace stained with blood.

"You killed Mother!" In a daze, the boy's face changed, becoming angry, resentful, and as if he was about to pounce on him and bite him to death. "You killed Mother! You killed her!!"

The boy's shouts, filled with childish rage, lashed at Gong Zhe like whips. He retreated helplessly, as if to escape from here, because he didn't know how to explain it to the child.

The child's mother was also a disciple. Her door was on the verge of collapse, and she begged him to kill her. She didn't want to become one of those terrifying things in the end, threatening his and the child's safety.

Gong Zhe had killed too many people in his life, but only that one time, his hand trembled violently.

He still remembered standing outside the car door, as he was sending Chen'er away. The boy, wearing handcuffs and shackles, looked at him with those eyes. "Sooner or later, I'll kill you."

"I'll kill you!" The boy pulled out two daggers from nowhere and stabbed them fiercely at Gong Zhe.

The sharp blades pierced his skin, exiting his body from behind. The boy slowly, slowly lowered his head, only to see a folding knife had already pierced through his body. In the next second, the hand holding the knife exerted force, churning the boy's chest into a bloody mess.