“Do you still remember what I told you back then?”

In the dim tunnel, Li Hai paced to Guo Huaijin’s front, looking down at him with a sneer, “You retreat thirty zhang, and I retreat thirty zhang, then we each go our own way.”

To Li Hai’s mocking words, Guo Huaijin could only tremble and gasp, unable to utter a single word.

“I won’t torment you too much.”

Li Hai slowly squatted down, staring intently into Guo Huaijin’s eyes, relishing the regret and despair that flowed from them, and said chillingly, “Because you are already in great pain right now, aren’t you?”

After A Su exhausted her last Evil Power to possess Guo Huaijin, she forcibly integrated her twisted essence into his Soul, consciousness, and all his organs and bones.

So at this moment, Guo Huaijin was experiencing the terrifying pain of A Su being burned alive by raging flames decades ago, from his Soul to his body, every single second.

And to accomplish this revenge, A Su also paid a huge price.

She, who originally had a glimmer of hope for recovery, was now mentally shattered and on the verge of vanishing.

Furthermore, unless a master intervened to separate her from Guo Huaijin’s body and spirit, the two would remain in this conjugated state forever.

No, Guo Huaijin probably couldn’t last that long.

Facing the pain of being burned alive, he, who couldn’t even endure the hardship of harvesting grain when he was young, wouldn’t be able to hold on for long.

So after muttering a few words, Li Hai quickly hoisted Guo Huaijin onto his shoulder and swiftly left the underground along the original path, returning to the courtyard.

“As expected, it’s still here.”

Li Hai picked up a hollow copper tube from the corner of the courtyard, walked to Guo Huaijin, who was tied to the blood tree stump, and smilingly showed it to him:

“Look, this is your grandson’s big copper tube, Guo Laogou. I have always been fair in my dealings. The way you tried to kill me back then is the way I will kill you now.”

In response, Guo Huaijin, who could no longer speak a single word, could only tremble incessantly with sorrow and unwillingness in his eyes.

Li Hai was quite surprised by his reaction:

“You’ve been tormented by A Su to this extent, and you still don’t want to die, still so afraid of death?

Honestly, most people who have suffered as much as you would jump for joy if they had a chance for a quick death.

Oh, you, you are truly afraid of death to the extreme, but the more you are like this, the less I will let you have your way.”

Then, he lifted Guo Huaijin’s upper clothes, aimed the copper tube at his wrinkled chest, and thrust it forcefully, piercing directly into his rapidly beating heart.

Then, large gushes of fresh blood spurted out from the other end of the copper tube with the violent pumping of Guo Huaijin’s heart, staining several zhang of the surrounding area crimson.

Meanwhile, Guo Huaijin’s features twisted into a silent scream, his entire body tensed for a full five instants before instantly collapsing, devoid of any life.

The malevolent spirit A Su, who had already fused with him, also experienced Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, completely disappearing.

Precisely at the same moment this man and ghost went to Yellow Springs together, Li Hai’s System suddenly hummed.

“Hmm? What’s going on?”

In confusion, Li Hai immediately scanned his personal interface.

Then he found that there were no changes in the Rank, skills, or entries sections, but the ‘Strongman Shards’ section suddenly had a “2” added to it.

“Does this mean I now have two Strongman Shards?”

Li Hai subconsciously looked at the deceased Guo Huaijin and murmured softly, “Could it be… because I killed this Guo Laogou? Then why isn’t it one shard, but two…

Oh right, there’s also A Su. A Su was also killed by me, so I gained two Strongman Shards by killing this man and this ghost.”

At this point, he became puzzled again: “That’s strange, I’ve killed quite a few people before, so why did only these two drop gold?”

After some thought, Li Hai mused: “Could it be because A Su and Guo Huaijin were strong enough?

Tsk, A Su is understandable, but what kind of Strongman is this Guo Laogou? This despicable villain completely insults the words ‘Strongman,’ isn’t he? I can’t figure it out.”

He was also quite open-minded, thinking that since he couldn’t figure it out, he might as well not bother, as it was a pure waste of time. So he began to study the functions and effects of the Strongman Shards.

Initially, Li Hai naturally assumed that these ‘shards’ might be for adding attributes to himself.

But after searching repeatedly, he found nothing related to attributes in his personal interface.

Then, Li Hai began to believe that these shards were probably for upgrading entries.

But when he used his divine sense to click on all his entry characteristics repeatedly, he still didn’t find any reaction from the Strongman Shards.

It wasn’t until he moved his gaze to the skill bar and clicked on the various Martial Dao Cultivation Techniques, Bloodline Divine Powers, and Ghost Dao Evil Arts, receiving various corresponding feedback information from the System, that Li Hai truly understood the wondrous uses of the Strongman Shards.

“So the true purpose of Strongman Shards… is to upgrade skills, oh, and also skill Fusion.”

Li Hai surveyed the various Cultivation Techniques, Divine Abilities, and Evil Arts in his skill bar, pondering, “So which skill should I upgrade?”

As for skill Fusion, he temporarily had no such idea.

Because, judging from the System’s feedback, skill Fusion possessed great Unknownness.

It might fuse into a powerful skill, or it might fuse into a worse skill, it was truly too dependent on luck.

And from his years of experience buying lottery tickets and trading stocks, Li Hai was not very optimistic about his own luck.

Moreover, he only had two shards at the moment, so he really didn’t have the capital to be a gambling addict.

Rashly going all-in would most likely only lead to tears.

“So it’s better to upgrade; this operation is the most stable.”

Aiming his gaze at “Tiger Claw Knife Fist” and “Devouring Blood Burning Heart,” Li Hai resolutely said, “I’ll upgrade these two skills; they are my foundation.”

As for the pile of Ghost Dao Evil Arts behind, Li Hai temporarily did not plan to upgrade them.

Because Ghost Arts are too reliant on the external environment; as long as they are not within an Evil Ground, their power and effectiveness will be greatly reduced, making them not a good choice.

Conversely, Martial Dao Cultivation Techniques and Bloodline Divine Powers do not have these annoying restrictions; they can be used freely anywhere, however one wishes.

Once his mind was made up, Li Hai immediately selected “Tiger Claw Knife Fist” and “Devouring Blood Burning Heart,” and began the skill upgrade.

Buzz—

As his thoughts flowed, the two Strongman Shards, which had just been warmed up, instantly disappeared into thin air, and the two skill entries immediately entered a vibrating state, their names becoming blurry and indistinct, unreadable.

This state lasted for only an instant.

After one instant, the two skills completed their Rank advancement.

Their specific names also completely changed to… “Beast Intent Demon Claw” and “Blood Soaked Submerged Heart.”