When Chen Ye spoke those words, the air in the desert seemed to freeze.

The reactions were immediate and visceral.

Captain Chu Che’s face darkened instantly. The man, usually wearing a mask of amiable kindness, now looked thunderous. He had never expected Chen Ye to cross this line.

Chen Ye was ruthless—Chu Che knew that. But in the Captain’s eyes, that ruthlessness had always been a tool for survival. He believed Chen Ye still possessed a bottom line.

At the very least, he wouldn’t treat his teammates like livestock to be sold.

Yet, here he was, doing exactly that.

Xu Lina collapsed to the ground, her legs turning to jelly. She had spent hours currying favor with Chen Ye, using every ounce of her charm. She believed that even if she hadn’t fully won him over, she had at least carved out a small space in his cold heart.

But Chen Ye’s offer shattered her fantasies into dust.

How could he be this cruel? This heartless?

Her body trembled violently. She didn’t want to be goods. She didn’t want to be a plaything for that lecherous old man. She refused to become a “slave” in the camel train. The very word carried a weight of ancient, suffocating terror that made her skin crawl.

Zhou Xiaoxiao’s expression was the most complex. Her history with Chen Ye was deep and bloodstained. She had hated him for her sister’s death, but time and the harsh reality of the wasteland had forced her to see things from his perspective. In his shoes, she wouldn’t have saved a stranger either.

Perhaps she only made excuses for him because he was strong.

But now… seeing the “slavery” practiced by the camel train had filled her with a mounting, daily panic. And Chen Ye’s cold-blooded transaction made her heart tremble with pure fear.

The other survivors in the convoy watched in silent fury. They were outraged, yes, but they dared not speak. They fantasized about rushing forward, playing the hero to save the beauty, but no one had the courage to move.

That was Chen Ye. A dual-Sequence Beyonder.

Fear gagged them all.

All except one. A thin, frail figure stood up and stumbled toward Chen Ye.

It was Little Fu, the naive university student.

“Kid, are you crazy?!” A nearby survivor grabbed Little Fu’s arm.

Little Fu gritted his teeth, his eyes red. “Brother Chen… he… he can’t do this!”

“He’s a Sequence Beyonder! He can do whatever the hell he wants! Who are you to lecture him? Do you have a death wish?”

“I… even if he is… I have to…”

The survivors stared at the student in shock. The boy they had mocked for being timid and soft was the only one with the spine to stand up.

Amidst the distraction, no one noticed Sun Qianqian shift her stance. With quiet, practiced steps, the pink-haired girl positioned herself directly behind the Hooded Youth from Mo’s team.

Further away, the young man suspected to be a Beast Tamer, Zhan Lei, was idly stroking the fur of his massive Wolf King. He seemed bored, ignoring the drama. The wolf was a monster, thirty percent larger than its packmates, with claws as thick as a man’s arm. It was large enough to serve as a mount.

The slaves gave Zhan Lei a wide berth. He was silent, but his presence was heavy enough that even the arrogant Demon Sequence Beyonder didn’t dare joke with him.

“Chen Ye… you…” Chu Che’s voice was strained, his face ashen. His eyes broadcast a dangerous warning. The good-natured captain was truly angry.

“Little Chu, relax. Trading is Little Chen’s freedom. You’re a good man, but you’re too rigid,” Mo Huairen interrupted, his voice dripping with condescension.

“The world has ended. We are Sequence Beyonders. Why should we live like commoners?” Mo spread his hands, lecturing Chu Che like a disappointment. “Before, we were ordinary citizens, bullied by the rich and powerful. Now? We are the privileged class! Captain Chu, you need to evolve your mindset.”

The old man, who had previously shown Chu Che a sliver of respect, now openly mocked him. He was a cunning old fox, sensing the fracture in the opposing team.

“Hahaha… Little Chen, I like your style!”

Mo Huairen dismissed Chu Che and turned his lecherous gaze back to Xu Lina. Even in the wasteland, she spent hours grooming herself. Compared to the dust-caked women of his own harem, she looked like a delicacy.

Behind him, the internet celebrity “Crossdresser” stared at Xu Lina with venomous jealousy.

“Hehehe… Little Chen, you want the Bone of the Man-Eating Two-Headed Cow? It’s doable. But one woman isn’t enough.”

Mo Huairen turned his greedy eyes toward Zhou Xiaoxiao.

Under that gaze, Zhou Xiaoxiao felt a chill seep into her bones. But to Mo, her fear only made her more appetizing.

Wait.

Mo Huairen paused.

What is up with this girl’s eyes?

Why were they so wide? Was it terror? Suspicion?

No… there was a trace of excitement?

Something is wrong!

Alarm bells rang in Mo Huairen’s head. He spun around instinctively.

The last thing he saw was a grinning face and a rusted Heavy Machete mid-swing.

The world tilted. Mo Huairen felt a strange sensation of weightlessness. As his perspective shifted, he saw a headless body standing below him. It looked familiar.

That’s… my back.

What a ruthless kid.

He attacked me… and I didn’t sense a thing.

The moment Chen Ye moved, the battlefield exploded.

Nearby, the “ordinary-looking woman,” Ding Dong, shed her disguise. Her eyebrows locked into a V, and her aura transformed from a timid housecat to a ferocious leopard.

She didn’t summon a weapon. She simply punched the air in the direction of the Hooded Youth.

BOOM!

The punch was so powerful it created a vacuum, blasting the sand from the dune into the air. The shockwave tore the hood off the youth, revealing a face frozen in startled disdain.

But the youth reacted fast. His black cloak seemed to come alive, rippling like liquid waves to intercept the invisible force of the punch.

The impact sent him sliding backward, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Yet, he laughed.

“Ding Dong, you—”

Squelch.

The laugh died in his throat.

He felt a cold intrusion in his chest. Looking down, he saw the tip of a sword protruding from his sternum.

The youth stared at the steel in disbelief, his expression crumbling from arrogance to horror. His life force was draining away, even as the dark energy of the Demon Sequence surged wildly, trying to stitch his heart back together.

He turned his head with immense effort.

There, the pink-haired girl, Sun Qianqian, stood with her fingers formed in a sword seal.

“You… how can you… use Sword Riding?” he wheezed.

“Just learned it,” Sun Qianqian said coolly, flipping her hair.

She opened her mouth to say something witty, but her expression suddenly warped.

“ARGH!—”

A guttural, agonized scream tore through the air.

Sun Qianqian whipped her head around.

The pack of dire wolves had swarmed Iron Lion.

The largest one, the Wolf King, had its jaws clamped around the Titan’s thick neck. Bright arterial spray painted the sand red. Half of Iron Lion’s neck was gone.

The beast swallowed the chunk of flesh, its muzzle dripping with gore. Another wolf latched onto his nape, while two more pinned his arms.

If Iron Lion had been at full strength, he could have crushed these beasts like dry twigs. But he was exhausted, his energy reserves depleted from the night’s battles.

He struggled frantically, his Titan strength flaring. If he could just shake them off for ten seconds… five seconds…

He wouldn’t die. A Titan Sequence Beyonder was a cockroach; even with half a neck, he could regenerate. He just needed time.

He didn’t get it.

A flash of cold light sliced the air.

Iron Lion’s head, eyes wide with shock, flew into the sky, trailing a comet’s tail of blood.

The killer didn’t even stop. Zhan Lei, the silent Beast Tamer, was already mounted on the back of his Wolf King, charging into the deep desert. He had sacrificed his wolves to create the opening for the kill.

“IRON LION!”

Sun Qianqian’s eyes nearly split with rage. Her pink hair floated around her as if caught in a gravity-defying storm. The flying sword ripped itself from the Hooded Youth’s chest and returned to her side in a blur.

Her cherry lips moved, chanting a lethal command.

“GO!”

The long sword transformed into a streak of white sunlight, screaming across the distance toward the fleeing rider.

Thwack.

The figure on the Wolf King jerked forward with a muffled groan. His body went limp, sliding off the racing mount and tumbling into the sand.

The entire sequence—from Chen Ye’s smile to the final body hitting the sand—had taken less than ten seconds.

Four Sequence Beyonders had met their end.

And the conductor of this bloody symphony, the mastermind who had orchestrated the chaos, was none other than Chen Ye.