Our Family Has Fallen

The fuse burned out, and in an instant a blast several times louder than gunfire roared out, drowning the shriek; fire burst forth right after, and white gunpowder smoke billowed out.

Lance was shoved hard by the violent recoil, but fortunately, after advancing to Legendary his strength was far greater; his inhuman physique was like a steel‑cast turret, and he brute‑forced it without taking a single step back.

At such close range, the shell’s speed was so great it seemed to tear space itself, yet the Screamer Demon actually let out a strange howl as if it had sensed it in advance; its already agile body sharpened a few degrees more—and it dodged.

The Bombs landed where it had just been, veered off and smashed into the nest woven from branches and corpses; neither the arm‑thick branches and vines nor the rotting cadavers managed to stop it in the slightest, and in an instant they were torn apart into utter wreckage.

With its nest destroyed, and having witnessed the weapon’s terrifying destructive power, the Screamer Demon had already made up its mind; it spread its wings to gain altitude, letting out a wretched wail from its mouth.

The Screamer abandons the nest!

Lance had even preemptively blown out its eyeballs, and he still hadn’t expected it to dodge?

Guess having extra eyes really does help; lose a few and it can still see just fine.

But there was absolutely no way he could let this monster escape, otherwise this whole trip would’ve been for nothing.

"Hmph! Trying to run?"

Lance casually tossed aside the hand cannon, directly pulled out the Dark Gold Harpoon he’d gotten from the Bay, and hurled it.

Whale Hunting Harpoon!

Poured full‑force with Lance’s power, it exploded with a terrifying speed and punched straight through the Screamer Demon’s body.

The tip burst out through its chest, but in the next second the barbs were yanked back; the rope connected to the Hooked Spear suddenly went taut, and the immense force instantly made the Screamer Demon’s flying posture hitch, its body twisting out of control.

But the Screamer Demon quickly adjusted its stance, frantically flapping its wings to climb, while Lance gripped the rope and hauled it back section by section, just like flying a kite.

Anyone who tries to test strength with Lance basically never has a good outcome; the Screamer Demon was no exception.

Its body had already been pierced through, and with the added pulling, its skeletal frame simply couldn’t bear that tearing force; the barbs embedded inside churned its Flesh to pulp, finally catching on its spine.

After suffering such grievous wounds, in just a few seconds the Screamer Demon was like a helicopter gone out of control, starting to wobble and sway, shedding parts and leaking oil mid‑air; after a few struggling flutters it still ended up crashing.

It fell from mid‑air, practically a hundred meters up, but halfway down it was jerked and arrested by the Harpoon; after one brutal yank it stabilized, slamming into the outside of that big tree.

Lance didn’t linger; he quickly hauled it up and saw that although the thing only had a single breath left, it actually wasn’t dead yet.

Lance had always been a kindhearted man, couldn’t stand seeing suffering, so he cleanly swung his blade and ended its pain.

The Screamer Demon, which had still been flopping a moment ago, instantly went still, and Lance couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at the corrupted, twisted corpse.

"And thus the Screamer Demon goes extinct..."

He had no mind to dwell on that; he raised his hand and directly performed the Sacrifice.

No Spiritual Essence—Lance wasn’t surprised; the Screamer Demon was, after all, a powerful Extraordinary creature, and it had been corrupted, so it was bound to be tainted with some weirdness.

This thing hadn’t kicked up any waves in front of Lance because its most powerful screech simply didn’t work.

For normal people, hearing it once at this distance would mean instant death, and even a Transcendent couldn’t endure it—the only difference being one scream versus two.

Not to mention Lance’s strength had skyrocketed; at the same Legendary level, he could press the other side down a notch.

But he’d still been out‑sped by the Screamer Demon just now, with several shots in a row being dodged—that was already a loud slap in the face. Luckily he hadn’t brought anyone along, or he’d have lost a lot of face.

The Screamer Demon was, without doubt, a terrifying monster; even after being corrupted it still retained a sliver of consciousness, which said enough.

He just didn’t know what the gift from such a strong being would turn out to be.

Soon the Void gave him an answer; it wasn’t an item crafted from the Screamer Demon’s body parts as Lance had imagined, nor was it an ability or trait condensed from the Screamer Demon’s power.

It was an ancient scroll that looked steeped in the marks of history, with a black‑iron clasp shaped like a crow upon it.

Lance reached out with both hands to take it, unclasped the lock, and unfurled it.

On the scroll he could see the design of a crow with its wings spread, lifelike, with even the fine feather patterns clearly visible.

Before he could react more, in the next second it was as if a flood of information surged into his mind, and in that instant he understood something.

Wrong! He’d understood it wrong!

The Ancient Bloodline of the Hamlet Family didn’t originate from the Screamer Demon; rather, only members of the Hamlet Family who awakened the Ancient Bloodline were qualified and capable of controlling Screamer Demons.

Damn it, that ancestor bastard was half‑baked at best—losing the family’s inherited Extraordinary path was bad enough, but the records he left behind ended up misleading him.

That’s right, it’s all the ancestor’s fault...

Lance shifted his focus back to the scroll cradled in his hands; that crow motif wasn’t the content, but a Seal. To open it, he still had to kill three more Screamer Demons.

But where the hell was he supposed to find three more of these things?

Lance instinctively loathed all acts of hyperbole, even ones painted by the system itself, because chips you can’t cash in—no matter how good they look—are meaningless.

He hadn’t gotten anything out of this; this run basically counted as a wasted trip...

No matter how disgruntled he was, reality was just this full of accidents and frustration; nothing ever goes perfectly smoothly.

Adults have to learn to accept reality, and make peace with themselves.

Lance did a quick cleanup of the scene, and from the shattered nests he found a few multifaceted crystals.