Lu Jiaojiao looked at the man before her, who was clueless when it came to romance, and felt compelled to briefly recount her past. Of course, her purpose was to demonstrate loyalty to Chen Pingchuan.

Deep in her heart, she harbored a shadow of a belief: those without value didn't deserve to live. She had mistakenly drunk the water from the mountain village and hadn't been much help in the subsequent battle. So now, she needed to remedy the situation quickly, or she might be abandoned by this new boss at any moment. She didn't want to die for nothing.

Although her nickname was the Poisonous Widow, that was just to make herself more intimidating, not because she was truly a husband-killer!

"Hmm." Chen Pingchuan grunted noncommittally.

He was indifferent to Lu Jiaojiao's words. Because the characters in the simulation wouldn't really die, he wasn't very concerned about the life and death of those around him. This created an inexplicable pressure on his underlings, a kind of suppression stemming from the depths of their souls that made them afraid to take their new boss lightly.

Hearing Chen Pingchuan's dismissive response, Lu Jiaojiao was so embarrassed she wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it.

He has such a handsome face, so why is he so cold to the core?

As she was complaining silently, Chen Pingchuan suddenly remembered something. "By the way," he said, "ask that village elder what he gave you to drink and if there are any side effects."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Pingchuan changed his mind again. He stood up and walked directly toward the village elder.

Don't be fooled by the elder's withered appearance. His eyes were exceptionally sharp, radiating a disdain for life and death.

"Boy, don't think you can rest easy just because you defeated our Divine Tree Guardians. I'm telling you, your end is near."

"You old coot, who are you saying is about to die? Watch me crush your head!" The Porcupine, who had been sitting to the side eating compressed food, was already in a bad mood. The elder's words sent him into a rage. All he wanted was to eat his fill every day—why was that so hard?

Porcupine puffed up his mountain-like body, ready to teach the old man a lesson. But unexpectedly, before he could reach him, a piercing scream shot through the sky.

"AAAAAHHH! IT HURTS! IT HURTS SO MUCH!"

It turned out Chen Pingchuan had already reached the elder's side. Like a meticulous manicurist, he took out his sharp alloy dagger and shoved it under the old man's fingernail. He moved slowly, so slowly that every bit of bone-deep agony could travel with perfect clarity to the elder's brain.

The village elder couldn't withstand the heart-drilling pain and screamed. They say the ten fingers are linked to the heart, and this pain truly felt like it was tearing his apart.

"AHH!" A few seconds later, the screams, which had just started to fade, erupted again. Chen Pingchuan had started on the nail of the right index finger. The old man tried to struggle, but Great Fierce Bear held him in an iron grip, making it impossible to move.

What followed was a symphony of wails. One finger, two, three... By the eighth, the piercing screams had faded to a near-inaudible whimper. Unable to endure the torment any longer, the village elder begged in a hoarse voice, "Grandfather, you're my grandfather! I give up! Ask what you want, and I'll tell you everything I know!"

"Please, stop torturing me... please..." By the end, the elder was howling, a mess of tears and snot running down his face.

Hearing this, Chen Pingchuan pretended to glance at Great Fierce Bear and asked with a puzzled look, "I didn't ask?"

Great Fierce Bear's expression was strange. This new boss is so damn erratic, he thought. I really thought he just enjoyed the pleasure of torturing his enemies. Now he's saying he forgot to ask? What kind of twisted game is this? I'm scared. I want to run. Is it too late?

Great Fierce Bear wasn't the only one thinking this. The others had similar thoughts, and they all felt a cold sweat break out. Although each of them had been imprisoned in the villa jail of Hantan City for different reasons, when it came to being twisted, Chen Pingchuan was in a league of his own.

If his own men thought he was a monster, the village elder facing him felt he must have been cursed with the worst luck of eight lifetimes to run into such a fiend. He was scared to death, but he was helpless. He was the fish on the chopping block, and Chen Pingchuan held the knife. He could only continue to beg in a trembling voice.

"That's right, you didn't ask! How was I supposed to answer? If you hate me, just give me a quick death, I beg of you!"

"Oh, I really did forget to ask," Chen Pingchuan said. "Alright, talk. Tell me everything you know, from start to finish."

Then, the village elder recounted everything in painstaking detail: the sudden appearance of the Divine Tree, how it defeated the giant insects attacking the village, and how it gave the villagers its seeds.

After listening, Chen Pingchuan rubbed the stubble on his chin, thinking deeply. So, the giant Corpse Worms came here, and it looks like they were driven off.

Suddenly, he realized something was wrong. His brow furrowed as he demanded, "If the Corpse Worms came to your village, it's impossible that no one died. Tell me, are you lying to me?"

As Chen Pingchuan's words fell, another fingernail dropped to the ground.

"AAAAHHH! I'm not lying! It's not that villagers didn't die—they were saved by the Divine Tree! The Lord Divine Tree used its seeds to bring them back! I'm really not lying!"

Hearing the elder's words and seeing his tear-streaked face, which was anything but the expression of a tough man, Chen Pingchuan knew he was probably telling the truth. Still, he feigned anger and pressed him. "Keep talking. Explain everything clearly. Otherwise, I'll start working on other parts of you next."

The village elder's face was ashen. A look of release came over him, and he broke down crying again with a loud wail.

"I'm not human! I deserve to die! Everyone is dead, and I'm the only one left!" His voice trembled, and his body began to convulse. "Those seeds... they weren't for saving people. They turn the dead into monsters! The whole village died, every last one of them! I'm the only one left. If those monsters weren't so stupid, I'd be dead too."

"The Divine Tree kept me alive only because I could command these monsters to provide it with regular sacrifices. But with all the villagers dead, where was I supposed to find more sacrifices? We killed all the chickens and ducks, all the livestock, even every last bird. In the end, we could only turn to killing people."

"At first, it was people passing through. We killed them and sacrificed them to the Divine Tree. But in recent months... forget people, there hasn't been a sign of life. You're the first living beings I've seen in months."

"If I wasn't such a coward, so afraid of death, I should have died with the other villagers."

After he finished speaking, the elder slumped into a heap on the ground. He stared blankly ahead, as if completely drained of all strength, seemingly unable to face the sins he had committed.

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