"Ahhh!" the waitress screamed as the man's rough and disgusting hand, which had many old wounds and scars that had not yet fully healed, wrapped around her arm and pulled her towards him, She was powerless to resist his strength, which was around the ninth level of the novice realm, making her feel a little desperate, as she did not think that the other guests would be able to help her, let alone want to, as this was a tavern that usually attracted people who did not have much money, which often meant that their realm was also quite low.

In order to have an understanding of how this sudden situation came about, we have to have a look back to a few moments ago.

Armelia, as the waitress was called, had just returned from serving two customers, where a rather short boy or man with blood red hair had caught her eye, as he was completely immune to her beauty, or so she thought. It was the first time since she had started working here that a customer had not been fascinated by her beauty, which made her feel a little different about this person.

Instead of being duplicitous like some women, who got angry when people stared at them for their beauty, but also got angry when people did not care about their beauty. She was not that kind of person and just found it interesting.

After that, she had to serve another table, where many rough and rather unfriendly men sat, radiating intimidating auras that made her back soak a little, as she was really too weak to counteract the unconscious pressure they released.

Although she did not want to serve this table because she already had a somewhat bad premonition, she did not dare to disobey her employer's order that she had to serve everyone who was a customer of this tavern or else she would lose her job.

So she took all her courage and cautiously approached the table, but seemingly able to sense the presence of a beautiful woman in their proximity, these men almost immediately turned towards her, startling her a little, before she mustered a smile and asked politely and reservedly: "Do you already know what you want to eat and drink, or do you need a menu?"

"Oh Beauty, I haven't seen you here before, are you new here?" A man from the group said, he was a rather muscular burly looking man with a full grown beard and a scar that ran diagonally across his face from his left ear making him look extremely strange and scary, as he spoke his mouth was wide open showing that he seemed to be missing a few teeth and the remaining teeth were all in really bad condition.

Overall, this man seemed to be a scoundrel at first glance, nevertheless Armelia still remained polite and answered that she was indeed ´new here as it would probably of no use to lie since these guys seemed to be regular customers or they would not ask such a question probably.

Hearing her answer, these guys laughed in unison, and then the man who had spoken before, who seemed to be the leader of this group, raised the corner of his mouth as if he had already made some shady plans in his mind, before he spoke again and said: "Well then, Beauty, since you asked what we would like to eat, I will give you my answer now," he paused slightly and then continued speaking while the corner of his mouth rose uncontrollably; "I would like to eat you today, what do you think?"

"You what?!"

"You damn scum!"

"Absolutely not!"

Armelia shouted angrily, unable to bear such a provocation, but unexpectedly, the burly man, whom Armelia had already labelled scum in her mind at that moment, did not seem to mind being called scum by her, and was even amused by it, bursting into a roaring laugh that lasted for a few seconds before slowly coming to a halt, and then speaking in a serious and extremely domineering tone in Armelia's direction, who stood stunned and angry at the same time, "Do you think I gave you a choice? As long as I want you today, no one will be able to stop me, because we are members of the Blue Moon Hunter Group, heh!"

When Armelia heard what this scum had just said, she was extremely shocked, not to mention the other customers in the tavern at that moment.

Anyone who might have had the slightest intention of helping Armelia, perhaps to gain the favour of a beauty, had now put that thought as far away as possible, for it was tantamount to courting death.

Who here did not know the terror and infamy of the Blue Moon Hunter Group?

This group of hunters had various members who could be said to be able to do whatever they wanted in certain places and against people of lower status or background who could not be compared to them.

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The reason why they dared to be so unrestrained was because this group had several extremely powerful cultivators as its backbone, preventing any other force in this crescent city from attacking them or taking revenge for their behaviour, which was sometimes not much better than that of the evil cultivators.

In addition, the members of this group had become extremely unrestrained over the years, as no one had been able to stand up to them except for a few of the major powers around the crescent-shaped city, which was also the reason why their name sent shivers down people's spines when they heard it, and also contributed to their popularity, albeit a nefarious popularity that terrorised the people, but they did not care.

Although the scum and his group were certainly only some of the lowest ranking members of the Blue Moon Hunter Group, they were still able to deter anyone from provoking them and interfering in their affairs simply by saying that they belonged to this group.

The reason why the people around them believed them was not because they were stupid, but because no one would dare to pretend that they belonged to this group, as they would surely be found dead the next day, killed in a gruesome manner, which had happened some time ago.

Surprisingly, Thiago and Li Wei had somehow not heard the scum's speech, which had been loud enough and aimed at all the people in the area not to interfere in their affairs. Perhaps they were too engrossed in their conversation, for Li Wei had just explained to Thiago how the name of Half Moon City came to be.

"Actually, the origin of the name Half Moon City is a bit more interesting than you may think," Li Wei said as they sat next to each other at the table sipping his Golden Gourd Punch. "It is said that the city was named after a famous Daoist cultivator named Yue, who was known for his prowess in battle and for his silvery crescent moon shaped weapon.

He fought an army of demons that had invaded the region, and during the battle, the moon was in its half phase, shining brightly in the sky.

The moon's light pouring down helped Yue defeat the demons as he cultivated a cultivation art that made him able to absorb the mana from the moon light, and he became known as the 'Daoist of the Half Moon'".

Thiago was fascinated. "So, the town was named after him?"

"Yes, that's right," Li Wei replied. "After the battle, Yue settled in this region and established a community of cultivators. The city was named Half Moon City in his honour, and it became a centre of cultivation and spiritual energy."

Switching back to Armelia at this moment, who was extremely frightened by the scum's revelation that he was from that notorious group of hunters, not knowing what to do, and in this desperate situation not caring much about keeping her job, she tried to turn around and just run away.

Unfortunately, she underestimated the scum who, with no effort at all, reached out and grabbed her arm before she could even take a step away, gripping it with a force that made Armelia feel as if her arm was caught between two steel clamps.

"Ahhh!"

This cry indicates that we are now back in the present, and we can now see how this apparent tragedy will unfold for Armelia.

"What's your hurry?" The scum smiled sinisterly, causing Armelia's face to turn pale and even bring tears to her eyes as she felt the scum's ugly and deformed face just inches away from hers, not knowing if the man would directly do something sinister to her.

Considering her age and the fact that she was certainly not an experienced cultivator, why should her behaviour in such a situation be any different from that of an ordinary woman?

And of course, the man who had already taken a liking to her body when he first saw her, did not hesitate and pulled her head towards him to kiss her on those full cherry blossom red, glamorous looking, intoxicating and seductive lips, now that he had her in his grasp.

Although this seemed truly evil and heinous, it was not uncommon in Halfmoon City and the world in general. If a woman had beauty, but no strength or background to protect herself, then she was definitely doomed in most cases, if she was unlucky enough to encounter such people, just as Armelia had just done.

Armelia had already closed her eyes, not wanting to see herself being tainted by that scum and evil bastard, as she cursed him violently in her mind, knowing that it would make no difference if she cursed out loud or not, as no one would help her anyway for fear of offending the Blue Moon Hunter Group.

That was the way of the world, and sadly many were as powerless against it as she was now.

The other men around the same table, sitting next to the scum that was now getting closer and closer to Armelia's lips, did not change a single expression, just chatting and drinking casually, obviously not surprised in the least by their leader's action.

It seemed that he did this sort of thing quite often, well, they were not innocent of course and did the same thing many times, but the reason they did not do the same thing now was simply because there was no other great beauty present in the tavern at that moment and they would not stoop to touch an ugly or ordinary looking woman.

Well, although they had previously been extremely jealous of Armelia's appearance, and under normal circumstances the women sitting in this tavern would have been cursing and complaining about their own looks, now they were secretly glad that they were not beautiful enough to be chosen by any of the members of the Blue Moon Hunter Group sitting at this particular table.

And just as Armelia thought the scum's lips were about to touch hers, she heard only a muffled groan and scream before she also felt the arm that had been holding her firmly in place loosen and then vanish completely.

Huh? What's going on now? Armelia was full of doubt before she quickly opened her eyes, which she had closed before, but what she saw made her almost faint, as she was not at all used to such scenes and it should be the first time for her to see such a scene in her life.

In front of her she could see the scum still standing in the same position as before, the only difference being that his head was missing, and blood was pouring from his neck in a large fountain.

She was instantly startled by what she saw, wondering what the hell was going on and if perhaps one of the surrounding customers had actually acted to save her.

Just as she looked away from the corpse in front of her, she was horrified to see that all the men who had just been chatting so vigorously had also lost their heads, seemingly all in the same way, as there seemed to be no difference in the way the wound looked, at least on the surface.

What sent a shiver down her spine was the fact that she had not heard a single sound before she realised that they had all suddenly been killed by someone.

"Why is there no sound from the other people? They should have seen it happen," Armelia muttered absentmindedly before turning her gaze from the corpses in front of her back to where the other customers were supposed to be sitting.

What made her already pale face turn even paler was the realisation that these previously alive customers had also had their heads cut off or were lying in pools of blood.

She was already extremely strong for not having fainted earlier, but with the addition of these unexpected deaths and the gruesome scene it was making it really hard for her to stay conscious right now, yet she was still able to see out of the corner of her eye the blood red haired boy from earlier who had caught her attention, still sitting next to someone who seemed to be just like her, not far from fainting out of fright, while seemingly speaking or giving some sort of encouragement to said person...