Shrouded Seascape

Chapter 1033: Neighbor

The thick stench of blood permeated the air in the dense forest.

Slash.

Rip.

The wet, sickening sound of flesh being sliced apart continuously echoed through the trees.

Panting heavily, Gao Zhiming raised the bloodied dagger in his hand. He gritted his teeth and charged forward. Cold, congealed blood splattered across his youthful nine-year-old face.

By this point, he was overwhelmed with exhaustion. The high-intensity, relentless swinging of the dagger burned his arms muscles; they throbbed with an aching pain.

Gao Zhiming took a glance at Anna standing nearby. Swallowing every bit of complaint he might have, he steeled himself and, once again, plunged the dagger into the calf carcass suspended from the tree branch.

Driving the blade deep into the calf was anything but easy. The cow's hide was thick, and having been dead for a long while, its flesh had turned extremely stiff. Its sinewy tendons also contributed to the resistance.

Every single time, Gao Zhiming had to muster every ounce of strength within him to be able to drive the blade all the way in.

"Don't rely on brute force," Anna instructed. "Try to aim for the gaps between muscle groups. Remember the sensation of slicing a blade through flesh. You need to get used to it as soon as possible.

"That street thug who offered you his neck from before? Enemies as stupid as him are few and rare."

"Understood!" Gao Zhiming nodded. He tightened his grip on the dagger and pressed on with the training session, his sweat mixing with the blood staining his skin.

Anna leaned against the trunk of a tree with a huge canopy and watched Gao Zhiming silently from a distance.

She hadn't voiced her opinions directly in front of her husband, but deep down, she had to admit that compared to his struggles with studying, he was undeniably gifted in this field.

Despite his short period of training, he had already acquired rudimentary combat power. If he were to make a move now, there was a high chance that he could successfully assassinate an unsuspecting adult.

However, the most important matter was that Gao Zhiming had seen blood. He had taken that crucial step of negating the fear of killing a human.

When it came to killing one's own kind, there was an undeniable difference between those who had never taken their first kill and those who had already crossed that line.

Just as Anna was contemplating the next phase of Gao Zhiming's training, a rustling sound came from the nearby woods.

She rapidly turned around to see an old man emerge from between the trees. His face was flushed, evidently sunburned, and he had a fishing rod slung over his shoulder.

The moment Anna and Gao Zhiming came into sight, the old man's attention went straight to Gao Zhiming. He stared at the bloodied dagger in the young boy's hand before his gaze landed on the mutilated cow carcass hanging from the tree.

Confused, he cast a glance at Mary before following her gaze to look at Anna. It was then that he noticed—Anna's left arm was missing.

His pupils shrank as a heavy stone weighed down on his chest. He had seen injuries like this before in the martial art films.

My god... She's so young yet...Did they travel all the way from Asia to our town because they were expelled from their sect?

Everything suddenly clicked into place. Mark finally found the reason for Anna and Gao Zhiming's reserved attitude.

Ah, I see. Damn it. I should've realized earlier. Every time I talked to her, I was unknowingly rubbing salt into their wounds.

Mark's newfound discovery erased all his excitement in an instant. Without his lively chatter, an uncomfortable silence hung over the table.

"Mr. Mark, about what happened in the forest, can you keep it a secret for us?" Anna asked, breaking the silence.

"Of course, of course!" Mark agreed readily before casting a brief glance at his collection of martial arts DVDs. His face turned slightly red before he straightened up with newfound confidence.

"I consider myself quite knowledgeable about certain aspects of Eastern culture. Don't worry. Your shimen won't come here to find trouble with you. Is that how you pronounce the word for 'sect'?"

Anna's brows furrowed slightly. "Shimen? Sect?"

She had no idea what the old man was talking about. But regardless, it seemed like the problem had resolved itself in a special way.

Out of a natural fondness for children, Mary turned her gentle gaze toward Gao Zhiming, who was devouring the food on his plate.

"Child, do you like watching TV?" Mary asked. "You can eat while you watch. There's no need to be so formal. My granddaughter does the same thing whenever she comes home for summer break."

Gao Zhiming, who had dropped out of school after only attending a year, couldn't understand a single English word that Mary spoke. With a blank expression on his face, he turned to Anna with a pleading gaze.

However, Anna didn't notice his gaze. She was too engaged in her conversation with Mark, trying to understand the town's brief history and also learn the names of its residents.

"Oh, child, there's no need to be so rigid. Just treat this place like home," Mary chuckled as she put on her reading glasses and picked up the remote.

The television screen flickered to life, and Mary flipped through the channels in search of one of the cartoon channels for Gao Zhiming.

While Mary was browsing through the channels, Anna tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear and took another bite of her pasta. She looked up just then and took a casual glance at the screen.

Then she froze.