The battle went on, a hundred-odd Bug Warriors harvested head by head.

The five super iron people were like five machines of slaughter—wherever Bug Warriors made trouble, there the super iron people's figures would appear. The entire clearing operation, one could say, was untroubled by any waves; by now it was as easy as drinking water and eating a meal.

The one twist had been Du Jun and his two men earlier.

But Du Jun's trio had only had their moment of glory for a spell. A pest-killing force member wearing a wristwatch had noted the times: after Du Jun's trio was ambushed, they'd seized back the initiative, and had been pleased with themselves for a total of five minutes. In the sixth minute Shen Cong appeared, in the seventh minute the two three-core Bug Warriors died, and in the eighth minute Du Jun died.

The whole fight had no rising and falling arc, no cresting climaxes.

It was simply: Shen Cong charged in, killed one, killed another, killed a third. Then Shen Cong turned and left—from start to finish, not lingering a quarter-hour, and not speaking a single word.

He left behind, for the crowd, an unfathomable receding figure.

Powerful.

Mysterious.

Beyond reach.

Come suddenly, gone cleanly.

"My idol is just that willful." Mu Ting's eyes curved into crescent moons, her foot planted on a headless Bug Warrior's corpse. "When will I have skill this great too—killing bugs as easy as killing ants? So cool, so full of character."

...

Riding the four-legged dragon, Shen Cong swiftly returned to the Great Vajra.

Group combat—short in duration, but wearying on the mind. He'd ostensibly gone straight for the three Bug Warriors, but the Third Eye had been watching the surrounding environment all along, on guard for whether anyone in the pest-killing force might turn coat and scheme against him. So during the fight he'd been somewhat violent, not adopting the safer circling tactics.

"Three more factions, four settlements. Once they're dealt with, I can absorb Vajra's blood with an easy mind."

Sitting in the driver's seat, Shen Cong began to…