Chapter 966: Chapter 36: This Life_3

However, Xiao Jie had a faint feeling in his heart that this peaceful life would definitely not last forever.

On this day, as usual, Xiao Jie went to bed early. Living in the Taixu Illusion Realm for over a decade had fostered in him the good habit of early to bed and early to rise.

Just as he was sleeping soundly, he suddenly heard a commotion.

Xiao Jie opened his eyes abruptly as a scream suddenly came from outside the wall.

Shouts of killing, cries, calls, screams… filled the air.

Xiao Jie couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart; they had come, indeed!

He immediately drew his saber and rushed out the door, heading straight for the main residence. Upon entering, a sinking feeling hit his heart—they were not home.

A sense of foreboding emerged, and he gritted his teeth, stepping out the house without a second thought.

As soon as he stepped outside, he saw a mountain bandit coming out of Aunt Wang’s house next door, holding a saber in one hand and a cotton quilt in the other.

Xiao Jie’s eyes turned cold. Aunt Wang had treated him well when he was young, often giving him cakes and fruits. Seeing this scene, he became furious; even knowing it was just an illusion, his desire to kill arose.

He rushed over violently.

The mountain bandit noticed Xiao Jie as well and sneered. “Looking to die, boy?” he shouted, swinging his saber.

One cut, two pieces!

Slash!

The blade was quick, bisecting the bandit in one fell swoop, cutting half of his head off, and blood sprayed over Xiao Jie’s face.

Nearby, several other mountain bandits noticed the disturbance.

“Someone dares to resist, kill him!”

You want to kill me? Not that easy!

Kill, kill, kill!

Xiao Jie slashed his way through. Although he had learned a set of saber skills in the past, he hadn’t actually fought many people in reality.

Even though he practiced often, it never felt truly real.

But right now, it felt incredibly real, with each strike and movement skirting the edge of life and death.

Slash, another one cut, two pieces.

The last bandit was brutally split in two, intestines and stomach spilling everywhere.

Xiao Jie suppressed his nausea and charged in the direction of the loudest fighting.

Rushing to the threshing ground of the village, Xiao Jie suddenly froze as he saw a middle-aged wealthy merchant and a middle-aged woman surrounded by mountain bandits, blades to their throats.

The area was piled with loot taken from various parts of the village.

The mountain bandit leader was startled upon seeing Xiao Jie.

With a wave of his hand, several bandits rushed up immediately.

Without a word, Xiao Jie wielded his saber, quickly dispatching these enemies in two or three strikes.

The mountain bandit leader observed keenly, realizing this boy had some martial prowess.

He urgently shouted, “Stop! You have some skill, boy, but your parents are in my hands. If you dare step forward, they’ll die here and now.”

Xiao Jie’s heart tightened. Though the parents in this world were fake, they had raised him for many years; even if they were NPCs, emotions would still develop.

He suddenly felt a moment of indecision.

“Hahaha, a devoted son indeed. Put down your saber quickly, and your parents go free. Otherwise—” The bandit leader slowly drew a blade across the neck of Hidden Moon Xin Yuan, creating a line of blood.

“My son, don’t worry about me, run for your life!” Hidden Moon Xin Yuan shouted.

The bandit leader yelled harshly, “Don’t think about running. If you run, your parents won’t survive. Drop your weapon!”

Xiao Jie suddenly laughed.

He was originally somewhat immersed, but the recent scene shattered his feelings.

How could they know these two were his parents?

This was clearly a function of the system.

Plus, the words of his cheap father sounded just like a clichéd martial arts drama.

Fake, fake! It was all fake!

Xiao Jie slashed, decapitating a mountain bandit almost instantly.

Two more bandits attacked from both sides.

Helical Slash! Swish, swish, swish, one bandit dead, the other injured, collapsing with screams.

The mountain bandit leader was furious watching this.

“You dare defy me, boy? Die!”

He swung his saber toward Xin Yuan’s head.

Xiao Jie suddenly slashed in the air.

One cut, two pieces—Sky Splitting Flash!

Years of rigorous training had finally mastered Sword Energy.

He had just never revealed it in front of others.

Slash! The Sword Energy severed the mountain bandit leader’s arm, and he screamed in disbelief at his severed limb.

“Kill, kill them all!”

Sword Energy! The bandits were dumbfounded, having never seen such martial arts.

Before they could react, Xiao Jie charged into the crowd.

Ten minutes later—

Seeing the ground littered with corpses and the shocked faces of his cheap parents, Xiao Jie let out a long sigh of relief.

Even if he convinced himself that everything was fake, family ties were inescapable. Saving them was naturally the best outcome.

“My son, are you okay?”

Xiao Jie shook his head, clasped his fists, and turned to leave.

“My son, where are you going?”

Without looking back, Xiao Jie fled.

Since the system would use his parents to threaten him and force compliance, such events would only increase in the future. Staying in the village would only bring more disaster, so leaving was the best choice.