Swish, thud, swish, thud...

"A shovel of ash, a shovel of dirt, bury the child first, then bury the parents~"

Caramel Snail hummed a self-composed tune while pouring all the sewer sludge inside, slowly drowning the three corpses that were denied a peaceful death, then covered them with a shovel full of dirt. He patted the surface, leveled the dust, and smoothed it out.

Friends who often kill would surely know, killing is easy, but disposing of the body is hard. Yet here in the Border Abyss, where life finds a place to rest, one can be buried with honor anywhere. Considering the workload of the Border Abyss law enforcers, it could be a while before they handle these cases.

However, as a kind-hearted Holy Mother, Li Aozi didn't push matters to the extreme. He looked at the lump of flesh kneeling in front of him and said without courtesy:

"Look at you, so careless walking around. Look, your wrist tendon was picked by a mosquito, your leg got bitten by a ladder, your kidney was pierced by a sewer glass bottle, and one of your eyes was poisoned by methane. Luckily, you met me, or you'd have lost your life."

Already beaten into a physically unrecognizable form, Asher was beyond tears.

It's not that facing this living King Yan is that terrifying; it's that the opponent removed his tear glands. The heavy pain had already turned numb, and he couldn't even focus his remaining eye on the person before him.

"So, do you think you've disguised yourself well, seeing us as undocumented and attempting to extort us? I didn't sell you to the devils not because I'm too lazy to perform the ritual, but because I'm kind-hearted. You must understand me, praise me, extol me, understand?"

Seeing the other nodding non-stop, Li Aozi was also reasonable, stepping on the other's shoulder, and said openly:

"I know who you are."

"At Victorley Port, you specifically target Layer Abyss stowaways, calling 'Young Master' — it must be the Iris Flower Brotherhood."

Asher hung his head, not daring to deny.

He had already been redeemed by Li Aozi's torment, completely losing his previous sharpness.

From a glance, Li Aozi and Caramel Snail were just two Martial Artists newly arrived at Lambda (11), weakened by a curse and supposed to be frail.

Who knew, these two were not from the Kappa Rank (10) descent. They must have arrived in the Border Abyss early, and the weakened strength on them couldn't match the power they gained here!

Originally thought they'd been doing commissions at the Strange Hotel with undocumented status, he thought he could pinch a soft persimmon — but who would have thought these persimmons were prickly, even more grounded than the locals.

Asher realized he was totally screwed and dared not resist, responding cooperatively to whatever Li Aozi said.

"Name." "Asher."

"I wasn't asking yours, who cares about a tool's name." Li Aozi said irritably: "Your young master now, is it Elliot Mahmut, or Quinn Mahmut?"

"Well..."

Asher hesitated slightly.

"Alright, I know you're in a tight spot."

Li Aozi smiled, said no more, casually pinching his ear into minced meat.

The cold wind of the underground sewer hit the wound, and Asher gradually felt the increasingly piercing pain.

"Ahhhhh I was wrong! Lord! Mother, I was wrong!"

Asher gasped with tears, violently banging his head, two legs trembling, quickly said:

"It's Young Master Quinn! Lord Elliot has already gone south to Drinking Snow Port, responsible for the Joy Fragrance business. The affairs here are now fully handled by Young Master Quinn."

"What about 'One-armed Gun' Polar?" Li Aozi asked.

"How did you know— uh, Lord Polar! He's following Lord Elliot south."

"Oh, I see. The Brotherhood surprisingly lacks strong presences right now."

Li Aozi touched his chin, recalling the task attack, and suddenly said:

"Did you just make a deal with the city senator Arkent last year, gifting him a Kingfisher Returning to Nest Painting by the Great Liang Empire artist?"

Asher was dumbfounded, mouth agape, missing teeth letting the wind blow through, completely unsure of what to say.

"Never mind, looks like your level isn't high enough to know."

Li Aozi felt a little regret, originally wanting to earn a small achievement while at it.

The Iris Flower Brotherhood is one of the city's three major forces, controlling various gray industries at Victorray Harbor, reportedly strong enough to rival the military.

Originally, in player gameplay experience, it typically served as a background character of urban legend, with players hardly encountering core figures and most task triggers involving peripheral underlings.

Gradually, players grew lazy to delve into its story.

Until one red-named player, avoiding the label, submerged into the Starry Abyss and caused a stir with the local gang due to undocumented status.

However, this bro wasn't a novice starting from Victorray. Already a veteran with players' blood on his hands, he went on a grand purge, sweeping away evildoers overnight, transforming Victorray Harbor from Gotham to showbiz.

Just as players were remarked how they no longer need to worry about being mugged when heading out, or fear getting cyber bullied — a twist occurred.

The red-name player began encountering mysterious events.

While idle in a tavern playing mini-games for a few minutes, he found his 'Mafia Overcoat' fashion color had changed from khaki to dark brown.

Initially dismissing it as a bug while flaunting his coat fashion down the street.

But then, accidents rushed in one after another.

Passersby would accidentally vomit onto him, passing children schemed for compensation, nearly resulted in ghost probe tragedies several times, dissatisfied he went to a café, invited a succubus girl to chat, and visited thrice, each time the succubus claimed to be on her period, angering him to storm into a nightclub, opting a charming elf sister,

As he indulged his hands, enjoying an emperor-like life, police suddenly stormed in, accusing him of illegal infringement of an elf under 200 years old and locking him up for dozens of days.

Couldn't play in the city, then go monster hunting outside, since women would only weaken his knife.

The red-name bro walked four hundred meters out of town encountering:

Bandit crossfire, hit by a fireball, his gear being weak to fire attributes forced him to flee naked.

A girl requested help in passing by, he assisted her, then got bitten on the neck realizing she was a Spider Demon, sapped his Vital Essence Blood, causing a significant all-attributes decline.

Reaching the task point, ready for leveling, he only fought a few minutes before his weapon was blasted into the lake.

He approached the lake trying to retrieve his weapon but found nothing.

Yet returning to shore felt increasingly odd; the environment seemed to grow larger.

Upon rising ashore, the red-name bro was flabbergasted: his body had become only as large as a pencil, nearly stomped to death by his own mount.

The following story grew even more absurd.

He tried to remove the curse but encountered players treating him as a wild monster, opening fire upon sight.

Searching for NPCs, each witch demanded heavy tolls, as he neared gathering all materials, either this witch was slain, or that witch made a run.

Due to being so small and delicate, his in-game NPC wife grew extremely dissatisfied, ultimately eloping with someone named Goby Loane.

Various bizarre occurrences persisted for months, and just as the red-name bro was nearly ready to swap accounts, he triggered a mysterious task that released all confusion over him.

And the task's name was: "Iris's Isolation Path"

Forgot the beginning, forgot the middle, forgot the end — but Li Aozi remembered the plot's key nodes and completion conditions clearly.

The complete "Iris's Isolation Path," is Apocalypse-grade, more difficult than A-grade but easier than S-grade, the main issue is...

It's a dynamic difficulty.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.