"The two of you." The bronze armored man stared at them coldly, pausing only briefly to glance at the exquisite robe on Hong's body, before continuing angrily, "Come with us!"

"Why do you want us?" Uncle Chen, seeing the man's armor, immediately bowed and asked respectfully.

​​

The other nine walked also, all dressed in matching armors. "Hurry up. If we tell you to follow us, then follow us. Otherwise, you can die here!" the armored guards all stared coldly at the Min Hong duo whilst hefting their weapons, clearly they are very skilled.

Uncle Chen looked at Min Hong. "Let's go take a look for now." A calm response greeted his gaze as he replied quite calmly.

The armored guards were clearly no ordinary people, but to him, they were nothing more than wild chickens facing a starved wolf. But why did the armored guards want them to follow? If it wasn't absolutely necessary, Hong didn't want to kill anybody in this third life of his. He knows this thought was quite a pipe dream, but he still wanted to try anyways.

"Move!"

"Hurry!"

Under the stern and piercing gazes of the ten armored guards, Hong and Uncle Chen headed towards the hill.

There was some vegetation on the hill, and there were currently hundreds of people there. Most of them were lying there with their hands and legs bound, while roughly a hundred and fifty guards were in a perimeter around them, while there was a stone seat in the center.

On the stone seat was a bulky, muscled man, at least twelve feet tall, wearing a thick armor with a dominating gaze.

Min Hong stared in surprise at the tall armored man who sat on the stone seat in the middle. The "demon crystal" in Hong's pocket was radiating intense heat at the moment. Clearly it had sensed the presence of an elite magic beast nearby.

At the same time, Hong could slightly sense that the massive armored man escorted by the many guards had an extraordinary and typically unique aura.

"There's an elite spirit beast." Hong quickly started inspecting everyone around the hill carefully.

Only humans were nearby. A monster which could take human form was, without doubt, a Nascent Soul spirit beast but there are some unique beasts who can do so much earlier!

Hong had brought many objects with him on this journey, and a demon crystal was one of them. Demon Crystals…were a special type of gemstone. Once they sense the aura of a beast, they would emit light and heat with intensity varying by the type and age of the particular beast.

Some major clans like the Min Clan even had the 'Beast Revealing Mirrors' installed at their city gates, these mirrors were formed from multiple demon crystals, so long a beast nears the city gates, the Beast Revealing Mirror would radiate light.

Humans had their unique human aura, while beasts had their typical savage auras, this was an aura given by nature. It originates from within the soul and can't be changed.

"Chen!"

"Uncle Chen!" Suddenly, several voices cried out.

Hong and Uncle Chen both turned to the source of these voices and saw amongst the bound people, there were about a dozen of them calling towards the two of them.

This caused Uncle Chen to immediately have an awful look on his face. "Yi Tao! Why have you been bound here?" the dozen or so people belonged to his tribe.

"Chen, why are you here? that giant person is a Spirit Beast. He's going to eat us all." One of the bound tribesmen frantically warned.

"Spirit Beast?" Uncle Chen was not only shocked…he was stunned, flabbergasted, anxious, perplexed, there were uncountable emotions running through him from his head down to his toes.

"So, it's a Spirit Beast." Hong stared at the massive man in heavy armor, seated in the center of that circle of armored guards.

Taking a scrutinizing look, he saw a tinge of blood at the corner of his lips, and he was currently smacking those lips of his in a satisfied manner.

"So, the Spirit beast which my demon crystal sensed was him! The Mist Marshlands has a total of twelve Demon beasts. I wonder which one he is and which rank."

Beasts are ranked in the following increasing order: Wild Beast, Spirit Beast, Magic Beast, Demon Beast, Ancient Beast and Divine Beast. Wild beasts become Spirit beasts when they start cultivating.

"Shut your mouth." An armored guard walked over and kicked the bound tribesman, wildly and repeatedly. "All of you, shut your mouths."

"And you're the venerable Bronze guards of the Zhou Family. You really are a disgrace to the Zhou Family!"

"You're harming your fellow humans for the sake of pleasing a beast, and you want us to shut our mouths?"

"Kick as much as you want, kick us all to death, you'd be doing us a favor, rather than dying in the foul mouth of that horrible thing you so much revere." The people being Kicked roared wildly.

"Stop it!" the massive, heavily armored man seated on the stone seat rumbled. His voice was very deep, as though from a bullhorn. "If you Kick them to death then you will take their place."

The armored guard glanced at the heavily armored giant, then unhappily retreated. "Rhino Emperor!" he growled, "We have already captured over five hundred people. Our comrades have spread out everywhere to capture more people, and have already done our part. Give our young master back to us, and our Zhou Family would act like this never happened. Otherwise, if the situation escalates, Rhino Emperor… you understand fully well that you won't be able to bear the full fury of the Zhou Family."

Watching from a distance under the escort of two armored guards, Min Hong's eyes lit up. "Rhino Emperor?" there was only a single aquatic rhino amongst the twelve Spirit Beasts of the Mist Marshland. It was a 6 Star Dan Formation stage spirit beast.

"6 Star Dan Formation stage?" Hong's eyes were filled with killing intent and that murderous aura of his first life was suddenly awakening and brewing. "I've searched a long, long time for a Spirit beast of this sort of cultivation base. This really is a case 'searching far and wide to no avail, but then discovering it under one's nostrils."

The Rhino Emperor, seated on his stone seat, glanced at the armored guard that just spoke. reaching out with his enormous hands, he grabbed a nearby bound youth, placing the youth on his thigh.

The size of the youth compared to the spirit beast was very contrasting, without any ability to resist at all, he screamed in pain, "Since he told you to go capture people, then do so. Oh, mighty Rhino Emperor, the two newcomers plus the twenty-three you already ate means that I have already ordered my guards to capture four hundred and ninety humans for you already."

"Don't worry." The voice of the Rhino Emperor was still very low and thick. "I, the Rhino Emperor, will keep my promise. After you catch me seven hundred people, I will spare you."

"Stupid!" the Rhino Emperor stared at the armored guard with his massive eyes. "Don't try to use the Zhou Family's name to try and cower me here. In this Mist Marshland, every year, just how many members of the Min Family or Zhou Family die?"

"Even if this succulent skinned, soft-fleshed 'young master' of your Zhou Family really has an extremely high status, if I were to kill you all, most likely it would be a long time before the Zhou Family found out that you all are dead, and wouldn't be able to find out much about who the Killer was."

The Bronze guards could only grind their teeth in fury whilst the Rhino Emperor laughed and tossed the young master of the Zhou family to the ground with a wave of his hand.

"All of you, go and capture more people, quickly! Capture more of these lowly peasants." Lying on the floor the Zhou Family's young master was yelling in a flustered manner.

"But, young master." The 'stupid' armored guard frantically spoke, "We've already virtually all of the hunters and fishers here in the Mist Marshland. Even if there were any more… they will be very minute and it would be virtually impossible to reach seven hundred… there are only so much people who dare to venture into this marshland."

Instantly, the Zhou Family's young master's voice pitched a she spoke, "Then find a tribe. Slaughter anyone who resists and bring all the rest back here. you should be able to find a few hundred people in a tribe, right?"

"Massacre a tribe?" the 'stupid' armored guard was shocked.

"What are you afraid of?" the young master yelled, "If you are afraid, then go to the territory of the Min Family! kill anyone who resists and bring all the rest over."

The 'stupid' armored guard clenched his jaws and answered, "Yes!"

If it was a case of the two major sides engaging in battle or an order from their master in ordinary circumstances, they wouldn't hesitate to start a slaughter at all. But they were now serving a Demon beast to kill and torture other humans…this caused the valiant armored guards to feel bone piercing shame.

"Haha…" the Rhino Emperor laughed wildly, his voice booming like thunder. "Good. Good. After you round up seven hundred humans, I'll definitely spare you."

"Smack!" the Rhino Emperor Qing smacked his grumbling stomach, licking his lips. "Just ate one human, now I'm hungry again! Who should I eat?" the Rhino Emperor cast his gaze towards the others, and instantly, the people who were tied up all had a change in demeanor. Many people's eyes were filled with fear.

They had personally witnessed this Demon beasts eat someone alive earlier. They weren't afraid of death but to be eaten one bite at a time was a sort of torture.

"Um?" the Rhino Emperor's gaze landed on a fat man, and the man lost a few pounds on the spot whilst sweating profusely. Gazing past the fat man, he saw Hong in the distance, and his eyes lit up.

"Um, that human youth's skin is so delicate and so clean. He seems very young. His flesh will definitely be succulent. Quick, someone, go bring him to me." The Rhino Emperor was drooling all through his statement.

"Young master." Uncle Chen gazed frantically towards Hong. There were ten Bronze guards next to them.

"Move it!" a bronze guard grabbed at Hong robes.

Min Hong turned his head and glanced at the bronze guard. "Slam!" with a swift movement of his right, he sent his right palm slapping towards the chest of the bronze guard.

Bang…a low grunt rang out, and the bronze guard was sent flying far away into the distance. His eyes were bulging and round, and his mouth was ajar.

His face turned bright red and then…Pooch! Fresh blood spurted out of his mouth with bits of shattered organs.

He fell into the marsh over a hundred meters away, splashed a bit of water and then his body went still as he began to sink. Clearly, he was dead.

"To willingly serve as the claws and fangs of a beast and harm members of your own race…you don't deserve to stay alive!" A cold voice rang out as a deep and pure but very faint murderous aura began to seep out from the direction of the voice. It was so subtle that no one present could sense it.

Utter silence! An area of a thousand meter radius went deathly quiet, as if they were responding to a certain phenomenon. The bundle of Murderous aura and baleful hate within Min Hong had been unfurled at this moment.

The 467 people who were tied up, as well as the 150 plus bronze guards, and even the seated Rhino Emperor, all turned to look at the seemingly fragile youngster.

"A single palm strike sent a veteran guard flying over a hundred metres? Wonderful!" the Rhino Emperor was the first to react and was actually excited. He was naturally very happy to witness humans kill one another, and he instantly yelled, "Aren't you going to fight him? He just killed one of your own. Quick! Fight!"

"Kill!" the eyes of the other bronze guards instantly turned red, and they all transformed into wicked blurs as they pounced towards him.

This youngster had just Killed one of their own and the only thing that could be said then was that they were all unable to react in the nick of time. Furthermore, the youngster probably trained in a Body Refining technique and just had a bit of strength, nothing more.

Shua! Shua! Shua!

Thirty bronze guards plus the nine surrounding him attacked in unison. Pushing the nearby Uncle Chen, who went flying with a wave of his hand.

Chen flipped mid-air, then landed on the ground, completely unharmed. Uncle Chen looked nervously at the thirty-nine bronze guards charging towards Hong. "Young master be careful!"

"Quick, run!"

"Young man, run, quickly." The bound prisoners all grew frantic as well, and they began to call out to the youngster in worry.

They knew how powerful these bronze guards were…they're the battle bred 'Blood Viper Mercenaries' who were adept at group attacks, and they were the elites of the Zhou Family Guards. Only a 2, or 3 Star Dan Formation stage expert can fight thirty-nine of them at once.