The “hump” on the Hunchback Thrall’s back wasn’t a deformity. It was a human head—a woman’s head, fused into the flesh, her hair matted and wild.

A collective shudder ran through the survivors. Even Nana, the unflappable Sword Immortal, faltered, her blade dipping for a split second.

“Save… me… save… me!”

The woman’s head seemed to wake from a nightmare, her neck twisting unnaturally to look at the group. The faint cries for help Chen Ye had heard earlier hadn’t been a hallucination. They were her.

Chen Ye squinted through the gloom. Recognition hit him like a physical blow.

It was the timid woman who had fled the group earlier. She had supposedly left the village to scavenge elsewhere. How was she now grafted onto this monster’s spine?

A chill shot straight to the top of Chen Ye’s skull. Goosebumps erupted across his skin.

He didn’t hesitate. He raised his Hand Crossbow and fired a bolt straight at the woman’s face.

The Hunchback Thrall didn’t even flinch. He moved with impossible speed, flipping backward like an acrobat and disappearing into a nearby house. The bolt struck empty air.

Nana’s eyes narrowed, a dangerous light igniting within them. She drew her blade across her fingertip. A drop of crimson blood welled up, only to be instantly absorbed by the steel.

The sword hummed, a low, resonant vibration that felt like a living thing.

“Red mark as pact, sword soul shares my body!” Nana chanted, her voice cutting through the panic. “Drink my essence blood, roar through the three souls! Shatter emptiness, sever delusions, split the soul, divide the spirit! Nine heavens dragon’s roar, ten thousand blades return to truth!”

“Break!”

With the final syllable, the sword flared with blinding white light. Nana gripped the hilt with both hands and slashed at the house where the thrall had vanished.

A wave of pure sword aura erupted from the blade. It was white, laced with a faint, terrifying crimson vein.

Sword aura? Chen Ye’s heart hammered. He had heard the legends, but seeing it—feeling the sting of the air as it passed—was a different reality entirely.

The energy wave sliced through the adobe house like a hot knife through butter. It didn’t stop, carving a path of destruction far into the distance.

A terrifying scar appeared across the building’s midsection.

Rumble!

With a groan of failing structure, the house collapsed inward, disintegrating into a cloud of dust and rubble.

The survivors stood frozen, mouths agape, as if paralyzed by a spell. Only Iron Lion nodded, as if this level of destruction was perfectly reasonable.

Nana flickered into motion, appearing amidst the ruins in a blur. Her sharp gaze swept the debris, her sword still glowing with residual power. But after a moment, her expression darkened.

“Gone,” she hissed.

The Hunchback Thrall had vanished.

The survivors looked at Nana with new eyes—fear mixed with awe. Before, “Sequence Beyonder” was just a title. Now, they understood. These people were walking gods.

Even Chen Ye was shaken. Iron Lion’s Titan form was brute force, but this… this was finesse and devastation combined.

They rounded the corner again.

The Great Willow loomed over the village square, its presence oppressive. Countless branches draped down like green serpents, each ending in a grim fruit: a corpse.

There were over a hundred bodies now.

The survivors huddled closer to Nana, seeking the safety of her sword. A few gravitated toward Iron Lion. No one stood behind Chen Ye. In the face of absolute horror, a support class offered little comfort.

“The bodies…” Chen Ye’s voice was cold. “There are more of them.”

He remembered the count from their first pass. It hadn’t been this high.

And they looked familiar.

Backpacks. Modern clothes.

“Those are… our people,” Chen Ye whispered, a chill settling in his gut.

“It’s not just that they increased,” Nana said, her voice icy. “From the moment we entered Longevity Village, no one has left. Those who tried to run… they’re all here.”

“That’s Old Liu!” a survivor screamed, pointing at a swaying corpse. “He left hours ago!”

“My god… Little Zhang, Little Zeng… they’re all…”

Panic surged through the group. People they had spoken to just this morning were now decorations on a monster’s tree.

The reality of Longevity Village crashed down on them. This wasn’t just a dangerous zone. It was a slaughterhouse.

“Damn it!” Nana gripped her sword until her knuckles turned white.

“Playing ghost tricks,” Iron Lion growled. He dropped his mountain of supplies with a heavy thud. “Watch me smash it to pieces!”

The Titan strode toward the tree. With every step, his body expanded. Denim jeans ripped into shorts. Boots burst open to become sandals. His shirt strained and tore as muscles ballooned, transforming him from a large man into a three-meter behemoth of raw power.

Chen Ye didn’t stop him. If the tree wouldn’t let them leave, destroying it was the only option. Iron Lion was the perfect battering ram.

Suddenly, movement caught Chen Ye’s eye.

A corpse hanging near the trunk twitched. Its stiff, grey head slowly rotated, dead eyes locking onto the charging Titan.

“Big oaf, watch out!”

Chen Ye raised his crossbow, aiming at the reanimating dead.