If it were before, David might have silently backed away, not conflicting with these hunters.

But today, with malice constantly being stirred in his heart, David couldn't quite hold back. He suddenly really wanted to cut open that hunter's chest and see if his organs were also "ashen."

Right then, a hand grabbed David's shoulder. A low voice came in his ear: "Don't be rash."

The mustachioed hunter Lucio's figure appeared behind David. He pulled the smiling David back and stood before that gray-clothed hunter, saying coldly, "Watch your words and attitude. Master David is a noble."

"A noble?" The gray-clothed hunter smiled and exchanged glances with several companions. The others chuckled lightly too.

"Alright then, young noble master..." He sneered contemptuously. "I suggest you go to safer places to hunt prey, like the rats in the sewers. They look like they need cleaning up, hahahaha..."

After speaking, this guy led the other laughing hunters into Fernandes's office together and slammed the door shut with a bang.

Lucio rolled his eyes. Embarrassingly, he'd seemed to say similar things to David before, only to be rescued twice by this "young noble master" afterward...

"Master David, there's no need to bother with these guys."

"Who are they?"

David shook his head slightly, still thinking about the other party's comment about the "sewers being safe." If possible, he wouldn't mind kicking him into the sewer depths to meet that spider army.

"They're hunters from a Hunter Earl family. For this heretic problem in the slums, Master Fernandes will authorize the Hunter Earl family to handle it, so they can move the spoils from wiping out the heretics back to their family warehouse... That's why they're excluding Order hunters."

"Which Hunter Earl family?"

"Iron Thorns, Duke Xavier's family."

David pursed his lips, thinking: "Of course it had to be them..."

Then he noticed Lucio's arm was still hanging from his shoulder. "Your hand healed okay?"

"Yeah, Freud helped me reconnect it," Lucio shrugged. "But it's not fully recovered yet."

Hunters had extraordinary constitutions, but for Lucio, who obviously hadn't undergone physical enhancement, to recover from a severed arm injury within ten days to two weeks still seemed quite incredible to David.

Looked like that doctor's skills were really something.

...

That night, at the boundary of the southern district, on the edge of the factory district on the opposite bank of the Lionheart River's lower reaches.

David, dressed in a black hunter's coat, appeared in the damp, cold alley, calmly advancing through the shadows.

Both sides of the alley were covered with dripping pipes. A rotten, moldy smell mixed with various strange odors lingered at his nose. There were also many temporary shacks built from shabby wooden boards at intersections and corners, but those shacks were empty now.

This was the imperial capital's slums. More precisely, it wasn't even the poorest area, because being near large factories, people who once lived here still had quite a few opportunities to exchange work for food, not having to sink to picking through garbage in sewers and dumps.

As for workers and families with fixed jobs, their situation was even better. Though they lived mixed with the poor here, they could live in cramped red-brick houses.

Like the little boy right now quietly watching David's back from behind a window.

When those homeless unfortunate souls were bitten to death by mutated, twisted monsters, the boy's mother had shut the door tight, instructing him absolutely not to leave. Then she rushed toward the factory from the back door and never returned...

When the little boy crawled out from under the bed and secretly looked outside, the alley was already a mess.

Dead people were dismembered and devoured. The fishy blood gathered into streams, constantly drawing hungry monsters out from that factory. Screams rang out from the distance from time to time, making people's hair stand on end.

The little boy waited a long time but his parents never returned from the factory. He was very scared, but couldn't bear to miss his parents' returning figures, so he kept hiding behind the curtain, watching the alley outside.

Later more wandering monsters appeared in the alley. They seemed to only devour flesh and had no reason at all.

Strangely, the little boy even saw a monster wearing his father's favorite jacket...

He didn't understand what that meant and didn't dare open the door.

After that, some cold figures entered the alley. They wielded wide serrated blades and slaughtered the monsters in a fearsome manner.

His father's jacket was torn to pieces by those terrifying blades. The humanoid monster covered with flesh tendrils was chopped down in a few strikes. The giant tumor-covered wild dog had its head cut off and dragged into the shadows...

Only at night did the alley finally quiet down.

The little boy crouching by the window all day happened to see David's silhouette walking out from the darkness. He suddenly felt that tall figure looked a lot like his father.

...

David in the alley didn't pay attention to that gaze hidden behind the curtain.

His eyes were full of malice. He just wanted to find something to kill.

The imperial capital's law enforcement had completely sealed off this area. They said: only monsters remained here.

A flash of cold light appeared at the alley's corner. David passing by looked down and saw a serrated knife dropped on the ground...

A hunter had died here. That severed hand gripping the knife handle and the unattended weapon were proof. But the killer who killed the hunter didn't seem to be doing well either—fishy meat chunks were scattered everywhere.

The Iron Thorns family hunters should have already cleared this alley. Those guys were arrogant but not weak.

From the monster corpses fallen at the scene, you could tell the hunters' attacks were quite fierce. The weapons they used were also more savage than the Order's standard silver swords.

Slightly curved wide serrated blades—very suitable for dealing with medium to large monsters. The sharp serrated edges could easily cut through flesh and saw through tendons and bones.

David picked up the serrated knife, weighed it, and made it his weapon.

Raising his head, the shadow of that giant factory at the alley's end nearly blocked his vision. It was like a giant lying on the horizon, full of oppressive force.

Inside was originally a complex production line for steam cores. To create high pressure and temperature, the factory had massive metal pipes tens of meters high built inside. They supported the roof and high walls spanning several hectares, forming a magnificent steam core factory.

But right now, that factory interior was packed with twisted flesh. The high-pressure furnaces had become writhing hearts, metal pipes turned into soft blood vessels, various mechanical structures became hard skeletons.

No one knew what happened. The factory seemed to have turned into a living monster in one day, devouring all the workers inside.

Only very few people knew clearly—this was the "blessing" from the evil god, Mother of Flesh.

The Iron Thorns family hunters had already entered the factory to investigate this blessing's source, but they still hadn't returned.

David pressed down his hat brim, drew Heavy Hammer from his waist—one hand holding the serrated knife, one hand the short gun—and slowly stepped into the shadows.

Right then, light footsteps sounded from behind in the alley...

David's form stopped. The malice in his eyes began surging. "I already gave you a chance..."

"Excuse me... have you seen my father?"

That was a little boy's voice, sounding somewhat hoarse, somewhat nervous, somewhat trembling.

"No." David didn't turn his head.

"..." The other party was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked again, "Are you my father?"

This time, David turned his head and looked with cold eyes toward that boy covering his face at the back of the alley. "No..."

The boy didn't seem scared by his gaze. He just trembled and asked hoarsely, "Would you... be willing to become my father?"

"What if I say I'm not willing?"

The moment the words fell, the boy's figure suddenly closed a large distance. He seemed not to have moved, but the distance between them had shortened by tens of meters in the blink of an eye!

David grinned coldly, his finger moving to Heavy Hammer's trigger...

"Father... father... fafafafather..."

Strange, overlapping voices came from the little boy's throat. He lowered the hand covering his face, revealing a visage that could give people nightmares.

A pair of lidless large eyes. Below that were mouths large and small, layer upon layer, continuing all the way to the neck, the chest...

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