Rainwater dripped through the gaps in the broken pnks, spshing onto Lin Yuan's nose.

  He struggled to open his eyes, greeted by a world of murky mud.

  The earth beneath him was soft, soaked by the rain, and the cold water seeped into his skin, climbing up his back. A dull ache pulsed from his forehead—the mark left by the crash into the carriage frame.

  Lin Yuan pushed himself up, his palms sinking into the sludge.

  Countless fragments of memories surged into his mind.

  The Imperial Lin Cn, the "Good-for-Nothing Fourth Young Master" of the Empire.

  Stripped of his inheritance and exiled to the Frozen Wastends of the far North for failing to awaken his Battle Qi.

  Not far off, the wheel of the carriage still spun aimlessly, screeching against the ground.

  "Young Master! Run!"

  Old Butler Karl's roar cut through the rain.

  Lin Yuan turned his head and saw three guards in tattered leather armor crouching beside the wreckage of the carriage.

  Their enemies were five men dressed in bck, tight-fitting combat suits.

  The bck-cd figures moved with swift, deadly grace, their long swords glinting coldly in the rainy night. Karl stood in front, gripping a nicked, curved longsword. One assassin stepped forward, his sword creating a silver arc. Karl tried to block, but the difference in strength was clear.

  The sword sliced through Karl's defense, cutting down from his shoulder in a diagonal strike.

  The fabric tore.

  Karl's left arm flew off, nding in the muddy water.

  Blood spurted from the severed stump, diluted by the relentless rain into pale red ripples on the ground.

  Karl let out a muffled grunt, his body trembling as he crumpled to his knees. His severed arm exposed white bone, muscles twitching violently in the icy water.

  Lin Yuan watched, his fingers tightly clutching a stone on the ground.

  A tall assassin stepped forward and removed his mask. It was Vance, the leader of the killers.

  Vance stepped on Karl's severed limb, his gaze locking onto Lin Yuan.

  "Fourth Young Master, don't bme us. If you must bme someone, bme your father."

  Vance crouched down and used the tip of his sword to lift Lin Yuan's chin.

  "Lord Lin Zhentian said it himself—Lin Cn has no need for a waste who cannot cultivate. Your existence only shames the family. Only by dying in this ‘accident’ can the Lin family’s reputation be cleansed."

  Lin Yuan said nothing. He could feel the cold, tangible killing intent radiating from Vance.

  Vance stood, raising his sword high. The bde was smeared with a dark green liquid, its pungent, metallic scent cutting through the rain.

  **Ding! Host’s life in critical danger detected. Invincible Army Generation System activating!**

  A pale blue screen flickered before Lin Yuan's eyes.

  **[Host: Lin Yuan]**

  **[Territory: None]**

  **[Energy Points: 0]**

  **[Avaible Units: Heavy-Armored Berserker (10 Energy/unit), Steel Repeating Crossbowman (20 Energy/unit)]**

  Lin Yuan stared at the screen, his heart racing.

  He quickly reached for his waist.

  There, hanging from his belt, was a heavy pouch—the st bit of wealth the original owner had brought from the capital.

  He ripped it open. Inside were ten silver coins.

  His final "allowance."

  "System, top-up!" Lin Yuan ordered in his mind.

  **[Top-up successful! Obtained: 1000 Energy Points.]**

  **[Newbie period detected. First-Purchase Gift Pack unlocked: Summoning costs halved.]**

  "Summon all... Heavy-Armored Berserkers!" Lin Yuan roared internally.

  **[Command confirmed. Consuming 1000 Energy Points. Summoning 200 Heavy-Armored Berserkers.]**

  Vance's sword was already falling. The tip was less than three centimeters from Lin Yuan's forehead.

  Karl shut his eyes in despair, a feeble whimper escaping his throat.

  At that exact moment, the space behind Lin Yuan rippled.

  The curtain of rain was torn apart.

  Two hundred hulking shadows materialized on the muddy road.

  Each shadow was over two meters tall, cd in thick bck pte armor etched with dark red runes. Only a pair of crimson eyes glowed from within their helmets.

  Each Berserker gripped a massive double-edged axe.

  The width of the axe bde was greater than a man’s chest, and its sheer weight seemed to stop the very flow of the muddy water beneath them.

  "What... what is this?"

  Vance's sword froze in mid-air. He stared at the suddenly appearing steel giants, his body instinctively recoiling.

  One Berserker stepped forward.

  Its heavy iron boot smmed into the mud with a thunderous crash.

  Without a word, it raised its giant axe with one hand and brought it crashing down upon Vance.

  Vance let out a frantic cry, Silver-tier Battle Qi erupting from his body, sheathing his sword in pale light.

  **Cng!**

  The axe met the sword.

  Vance’s Battle Qi shattered like gss upon contact.

  The longsword snapped into several pieces, fragments flying into the mud.

  The axe did not slow, cleaving straight through Vance’s skull.

  There was no scream.

  Organs and shattered bones mixed with blood, driven deep into the earth by the force of the blow.

  The remaining four assassins froze.

  They tried to turn and flee, but the two hundred Berserkers had already surrounded them in a perfect circle.

  The Berserkers moved with terrifying precision, dragging their massive axes, carving deep grooves in the mud.

  One assassin shrieked, trying to charge through a gap.

  Two axes swung simultaneously.

  The assassin’s lower body remained in pce, while his upper body was sent flying several meters into a tree trunk.

  Blood spttered on the Berserkers' bck armor, slowly trickling down the grooves of their pte.

  In less than a minute, the majority of the assassins had been reduced to shredded flesh on the ground.

  Lin Yuan stood up, brushing the mud off his hands.

  He walked over to Karl’s side, gazing at the severed arm.

  Karl stared dumbly at the Berserkers surrounding them, his lips trembling, unable to utter a word.

  Lin Yuan turned his head, looking at the steel soldiers still standing in the rain.

  These soldiers had no breath, no pain, only absolute loyalty to him.

  Lin Yuan stepped on Vance’s remains.

  Vance’s head was crushed ft, only one eye still embedded in the mud.

  Lin Yuan looked down at the bloody battlefield.

  "Lin Zhentian, since you think I'm a waste, I’ll return with these wastes and kill my way back."

  He extended his hand, running his fingertips across the cold armor of a Berserker.

  "Here, truth dwells only at the edge of my axe."

  Lin Yuan’s voice rang out clearly amidst the downpour.

  The remaining two assassins, seeing their defeat imminent, pulled out a shimmering purple scroll.

  It was an expensive teleportation scroll.

  They crushed the scroll, and ripples appeared in the space.

  Lin Yuan sneered, his system panel once again flickering in his retina.

  **[Detected rge amount of recycble resources. Would you like to activate the Resource Recovery Station?]**

  He clicked on the fshing red icon.

  "All these corpses, I’ll take them all."

  Lin Yuan issued a new command.

  The Berserkers raised their massive axes again.

  The ripples from the teleportation scroll began to colpse under the pressure of the axe’s aura.

  The two assassins’ bodies froze mid-air, their faces filled with extreme terror.

  Lin Yuan watched the energy values jumping on his system screen.

  His first bucket of gold was about to be collected.