"Dr. Zhao, it's time for the medicine."
Li Hai said to an old doctor standing nearby, "Otherwise, Zhou Hu will die soon."
"Alright, Hero Li, I understand."
Dr. Zhao nodded in agreement, then quickly took out various pre-prepared medicines and meticulously applied them to Zhou Hu, who was panting heavily and looked deathly pale.
After applying the medicine, Li Hai resumed the slow slicing, and the countless people below once again cheered and scrambled.
Just like that, time slowly passed.
The slow slicing, led by Li Hai, officially concluded at noon.
During this period, the medicine was applied dozens, even hundreds of times.
By the end, Zhou Hu was even sliced by Li Hai into a living skeleton, a skeleton wrapped in squirming internal organs, constantly wailing and crying in agony.
By the time he finally breathed his last, Zhou Hu had endured a total of one thousand six hundred and sixty-six cuts.
As for why it wasn't three thousand six hundred cuts...
Unfortunately, Li Hai didn't have that much patience, and the human body is fragile living flesh full of dense blood vessels, not a hard piece of iron.
Especially since Zhou Hu was already very weak after Li Hai crushed his Foundation and dropped his Realm, making it even harder for him to withstand such horrifying torture.
Even in the Late Stage of the slow slicing, even though Li Hai had tried his best to avoid his arteries, veins, major blood vessels, and fatal vital points.
And at that time, more than one doctor had been carefully attending to Zhou Hu, but they still couldn't stop the arrival of death, and he eventually died in despair amidst Hell-like pain.
His skeleton was also thrown by Li Hai to the countless people below, who tragically scrambled for it and tore it into more than a hundred pieces, leaving no complete corpse.
After this, Li Hai did not linger for a moment, turning and soaring into the sky under the extremely respectful gaze of the countless people of Niujiao Town.
At the same time, information about Li Hai's fierce appearance and extraordinary martial arts, especially his world-shaking feat of single-handedly annihilating thousands of wolf bandits and brigands this time, began to spread rapidly throughout the entire Dragon Mountain region, starting from Niujiao Town.
Thus, nicknames such as 'Heavenly Killing Star,' 'Descending Demonic Star,' 'Blood Twin Whip,' 'Li the Butcher,' and 'Suffering-Saving Master Li,' were passed into the ears of many people through the residents of Niujiao Town, without Li Hai himself being aware of them.
...
Six hundred miles away from Niujiao Town, in Shixi Town of Chenjia Fort, there is an ancient garden named Ruizhao Garden.
Although this not-so-large garden has been located here for several decades, the local people do not know the surname or given name of its owner.
They only know that at midnight, carriages with all their windows on both sides covered by thick black silk would always arrive at the garden, and then the tightly closed garden gate would quickly open to let the carriages in.
It wasn't until dawn that these mysterious carriages would leave the garden and quickly drive out of Shixi Town.
Almost no one knew what was inside these carriages, only a few scattered individuals who were drunk and did not return home for the night had, when accidentally passing by these vehicles, vaguely heard what sounded like children crying from within.
Regarding this, some busybodies had reported it to the militia, demanding an investigation into the garden.
But the final result was that everything was normal; the owner of this garden, Master Zhou, simply disliked going out and had no verifiable evil deeds.
Thus, those who were interested in this garden reluctantly gave up and no longer bothered the militia.
But these townspeople and militia members did not know that, in fact, there was a great secret beneath this garden...
If someone could enter this garden, which was only half an acre in size, evade the numerous garden guards, and follow the winding corridors to the center, they would discover a well about a zhang wide.
If one were to descend to the bottom of this well by rope, they would find a wooden door right next to the water's surface, and behind this wooden door lay the true secret of this garden.
If someone were to push open this wooden door and walk inside, they would find a winding and dark narrow path.
Walking along this path, every few feet along the stone walls on both sides was a simple iron-barred cell, and each of these cells held five or six young children.
They were all huddled on a tattered straw mat, dressed in rags with empty eyes, each bearing signs of being whipped, like slaves.
Yes, this was a human trafficking den, and these children had all been abducted, tricked, stolen, or snatched.
The human traffickers who brought them here were at the end of this tunnel that connected all the prisons, in a spacious and brightly lit cavern.
And the leader of these human traffickers was none other than the owner of Ruizhao Garden—Zhou Yugen.
The business Zhou Yugen was doing outside, as mentioned by the guards of the Zhou Family Residence in Niujiao Town, was precisely human trafficking.
"The grandson defiles good women, the son is a bandit leader, and the grandfather traffics people. This family is truly...tsk tsk tsk tsk~"
Beside the well in the center of Ruizhao Garden, Li Hai shook his head and sneered, "They commit every evil imaginable, they deserve to die!"
With that, his figure blurred, transforming into a pale ghostly shadow that flew into the well.
Before long, terrifying sounds of flesh being torn and continuous, mournful screams echoed from the well.
That night, more than a dozen wooden stakes suddenly appeared at the entrance of Ruizhao Garden, deeply embedded in the ground, with a trembling, wailing dying person impaled on each stake.
These people, despite being completely pierced by the stakes, did not die quickly; instead, they cried out until dawn before finally breathing their last, terrifying the surrounding neighbors into sleeplessness.
Furthermore, a strange incident occurred that night at the militia camp in Shixi Town.
More than two hundred weak children suddenly appeared in the camp, along with a thick stack of silver notes, an extremely thick envelope, and a clear palm print pressed into the ground to an unknown depth.
Upon hearing the news, the hurried arrival of the Chenjia Fort Master, both shocked and suspicious, immediately opened the envelope.
He then discovered that it was full of evidence of Ruizhao Garden's human trafficking, a roster recording the home addresses of those children, and a folded, thin letter.
The shocked Fort Master Chen then opened the letter.
He then saw that the letter clearly stated that the stack of silver notes must be used for those children, and if anyone dared to misappropriate or embezzle them, then the palm print on the ground would next be imprinted on their forehead.
As for the signature on the letter, it read...
Li Hai.
"Li Hai..."
Fort Master Chen murmured, putting down the letter, "Who exactly is this divine being?"
"Fort Master, the depth of that palm print has already... already been measured," the militia captain rushed to Fort Master Chen to report.
"How deep?" Fort Master Chen took a breath and slowly asked.
The militia captain swallowed, his voice trembling, "It's, it's... three zhang deep."
Thud!
Fort Master Chen was so scared that he immediately fell to the ground, his face filled with shock.