"Heh, third master see I didn’t lie to you, when we were foraging before we stayed here, there are still side houses in the temple. There’s a clearing 4-5 meters all around and there are several rooms inside the side houses, we can sleep quietly in there. Let’s rest and recharge for dawn tomorrow, we’ll be receiving goods and women, hehe!" He laughed twice after speaking, looking very vulgar.
The three men went inside the temple, it looked a little worn down but it was very s.p.a.cious.
A shrine was in front of them and in the backyard were several side houses linked together, with a garden in the middle. The flowerbeds had long been abandoned and shrubs half the height of a man grew there instead.
The middle-aged mountain bandit searched around a little and discovered no human trace in this temple. He ordered: "You keep guard for now and switch at midnight, do it seriously."
Said there he strutted in a side house. He saw the bed had long broken down and there was only a heap of dry straw left, he simply threw together some firewood and started a bonfire, kicking the straw away from the fire, then immediately started to sleep soundly.
The night was chilly. Was the bandit keeping vigil willing to be frozen stiff like this? Of course not, he likewise started a bonfire and sat besides, boredly observing the surroundings from time to time.
Pei Ziyun quietly waited and made no move.
One, he was waiting for the two bandits inside to fall asleep, and two, he was waiting for the bandit sentry to get tired.
In the light of the fire, that bandit’s clothes looked so dirty they had became black. He was yawning boredly when suddenly he had to p.i.s.s. He stood up and went over to a corner.
At once Pei Ziyun took a deep breath and quietly stabbed forward in a flash.
"Puff!"
The bamboo spear’s tip wasn’t that sharp, yet running the man through proved to be surprisingly easy. This bandit only felt pain in his heart, and when he looked down he saw a bamboo spear stabbed through his chest. His mouth moved, about to shout.
At this moment a machete knife sliced across his throat just like that. There was only a puchi sound and blood splashed everywhere after his throat, windpipe and carotid artery were all sliced off.
Pei Ziyun clearly saw the bandit’s body bounce and make a smothered groan, then fall down heavily, his eyes bulging like a dead fish.
Pei Ziyun wordlessly wiped off the blood from his face. This kind of sound was unavoidable. He had just killed a man. Before the killing he still felt full of wrath, but now that it was done he had the urge to puke, a little.
"Still two left!" A bright light flashed across Pei Ziyun’s eyes after he had killed this man.
Right at this moment, another sleeping bandit suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. He looked at the moonlight outside and estimated it was soon time for his turn to stand guard.
He gathered his blade, standing up and stretching, ready to switch guard. When he went outside he saw a man sitting at the bonfire with his head hanging down. It looked like he had fallen asleep right where he sat.
"Oy, get up, let’s switch." He walked forward but immediately felt something was wrong. There was a thick stench of blood in the air.
"Kill!" Pei Ziyun stabbed his bamboo spear forth.
"Puff!" This bandit had fast reflexes and cut off half the length of the bamboo spear with a back-handed slash from his saber.
At this time a blade slashed at his neck. The light reflected from the blade’s body and shone in his eyes, and he could only make out a vague shadow.
The bandit licked his lips, one side step was enough to avoid the machete knife. He charged forward with a ferocious smile and shouted loudly towards the incoming silhouette: "Little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, go die for this grandfather!"
He wanted to call up the third master!
But he only managed two steps before his foot tripped, falling down before he could react.
"A tripping rope!" The bandit realized at once. Villagers often hunted animals this way. But even as the idea flashed through his mind, a blade light shone and sliced across his neck with a "puchi" sound. Fresh blood sprayed forth from this bandit’s throat.
"Bang!" The corpse stirred a cloud of dust as it fell heavily on the ground.
"Who?"
The middle-aged bandit shouted. He’d already been woken up and by the time the bandit had fallen on the ground he had become totally alert. His hand subconsciously grabbed his weapon and he ran out.
With one glance he saw the two people he’d brought along laying on the ground, drenched with blood.
And in the distance there was a fleeing shadow, it had already reached the woods outside. The figure wasn’t big, looking very slim. It had already entered the woods carrying bamboo spear and machete.
"Little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you killed my Black Wind bandits and still want to run, go die!"
The middle-aged bandit knew what had happened at a single glance. His face suddenly twisted and his eyes turned blood red as he stormed forward.
Pei Ziyun looked back and realized the middle-aged bandit was pursuing him. Such speed wasn’t wasn’t something the other two bandits that had been killed could compare to.
In the previous life the village had handed the girl over, so he hadn’t seen this middle-aged bandit’s strength, but looking at it now he sure enough was a ferocious bandit. This time he made a big mistake letting himself be pursued.
The man behind caught up in only a few breaths’ time.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d, I still have some dao arts left!" Pei Ziyun smiled coldly. The body’s original owner had learned dao arts, and although he himself hadn’t practiced any cultivation he still had some tricks even ordinary people could display.
Of course the power would be small, but in these woods, as long as he could slow the middle-aged man down he could find a way to restrain and kill him.
"Foot Stumble!"
Breathing repeatedly, Pei Ziyun saw a dried vine across his vision and he pointed at it.
He had a deep impression of this technique in his memory. Actually it was only a little trickery that only needed some spiritual wisdom from ordinary people to use. But it could trip the middle-aged bandit and then he could finish him himself.
But the next moment Pei Ziyun’s expression froze. The dried vine didn’t have any reaction in the slightest.
"You can go die!" The middle-aged bandit behind him smiled savagely and chopped his saber his way. Pei Ziyun threw himself with no second thought and rolled on the ground. A few strands of his hair were cut off. With his body flopped on the ground he rolled between the cover of the trees.
Pei Ziyun’s gaze sweep at the middle-aged bandit in pursuit and rolled with no hesitation in the slightest through a bush of shrubs. He only saw thorns, the bush was full of thorns; some yellowed leaves fell on him.
Pei Ziyun went through the shrub, he glanced at Black Wind bandit following him and fled towards the mountain without turning back. The mountain forest was covered in dense shadows. If only he could pull apart thirty steps, the night forest would become his best cover.
As soon as he entered the mountain forest the Black Wind bandit immediately felt something was wrong. It was choke full of shrubbery and he couldn’t see very well in the darkness. Just as he observed that the bush thickets weren’t very high, he felt the p.r.i.c.k of thorns. He had been injured by the thorns inside the shadowy bushes and felt pain that drilled inside his heart.
He ruthlessly pulled a wooden thorn stuck in his leg, his mouth pulling back as he took a light breath. He drew his saber out and immediately cut off the undergrowth with a few hacks, leaving the vegetation scattered on the ground. Some moonlight seeped through in the forest and exposed the dense aggregation of thorns under those bushes.
Pei Ziyun was swiftly running forward without ever looking back and had opened a distance of fifteen steps in three breaths. Under the cover of the dense trees the shadow of his back was moving further and further away.
The middle-aged man’s eyes became even colder, he hacked his way forward and chopped off all the undergrowth standing in his way as he led his pursuit.
Pei Ziyun panted. This body was really weak, only a trivial short burst of killing and fleeing had already caused his hand to feel pain and his lungs burning as if they were on fire. Pei Ziyun was familiar with this place, even if he had pa.s.sed the examinations he still had needed to gather mushrooms, firewood or wild vegetables to help his poor family.
Thanks to such work that he had to come to the mountains often, and it gave him the strength to flee from death right now, because although bravery coursed through his blood it was becoming difficult to move forward.
The middle-aged bandit was already catching up, although there was still seven or eight steps between them and the distance wasfilled with bushes. He didn’t dare run headlessly and chased his way hacking through obstacles. But still he was going to catch up in two or three breaths at most, it was so close he could already hear Pei Ziyun pants. Exultation flashed in his heart; this lowly boy was exhausted. As he thought like this he lifted his saber and charged through.
Five steps, four steps, three steps.
"Close, you’re dead already!" One step forward, two steps, the saber in his hand chopped down, flashing a cold light.
Right at that time he suddenly stumbled again. It seemed like something almost had tripped him down, and the blade that was smoothly traveling forward had strayed to the side, and cut off in two halves a tree trunk nearby thick as a wrist.
"Deceitful!" He saw it was a wooden beam that his prey had probably soundlessly kicked over during the flight.
Pei Ziyun gasped and rolled, he lifted his saber and was ready to slash. But when he looked over he saw the middle-aged bandit’s gaze come back on him, moving the saber in his hand.
Pei Ziyun was fl.u.s.tered when he saw the saber’s motion cause light to reflect into his own eyes , painfully stinging them. His vision instantly blurred and shock filled his heart. He blinding rolled and fiercely opened his eyes wide; chopped off bushes and trees filled his vision. Several wrist thick wooden trunks had fallen down and blocked the way forward in front of the bandit.
Good opportunity! Delight filled Pei Ziyun. He pushed on his hands, stood back up and ran straight away.
Just now, Pei Ziyun’s original plan was to entangle this bandit boss and kill him with his blade just as he had done at the ancient temple earlier, but this man’s saber skill was so fierce and his reflexes so quick. When he had wanted to counter and kill he had been dazzled by the light reflected on the blade. Sure enough this man was an old bandit experienced in close quarters fights and he couldn’t be handled with ordinary means.
The night’s darkness deeply imbued Crouching Bull village.
Human voices were gradually falling down, but not far away from the door several persons were attentively keeping watch, obviously guarding against her escape. Only, the two courtyards were linked. She pasted herself to the wall and slipped to the other side.
"Big Brother Pei.. Where are you?" Ye Su’er entered the house, but the immediate gloominess inside made her pause her steps. Although she knew her big brother Pei didn’t have the strength to save her, but… She still held on to a glimmer of hope… Even just seeing him would be enough.
No answer, no sound, gradually there was no more blood on her face.
Suddenly she remembered a similar scene from when they were very young - she sulking and leaving the house in the middle of the cold night, falling in a hunter’s trap pit in the mountains, the pit so slanted that the adults searching for her missed her several times, and her crying, crying…
Hearing the horror of howling mountain wolves in the distance, the faint brightness from the dawn, a boy sprawled on the pit, his voice hoa.r.s.e. She had only learned later that a pack of wolves had pa.s.sed through that place and adults had already given up. Only the boy hadn’t given up on finding her and was groping alone in the dark, hearing the same wolf howls as she had…
But that boy was too dumb, he had actually jumped down and crouched together with her inside the pit. She only remembered yelling "Stupid!" to vent her fear and quiet her heart.
And now, was even this feeling gone?
She opened her eyes, her trembling hands pushing the door after a moment’s hesitation.
Under the moonlight, she didn’t see anyone sleeping inside.
Seeing that big brother Pei wasn’t deliberately ignoring her, blood returned to her face and she searched around the room: "Where are you? You were here just earlier!"
Looking around a moment, she suddenly thought of something and her face went very white. "The machete knife is gone, no, did big brother Pei go…"
Without any hesitation left she staggeringly yet nimbly hid in the shadows and rushed out of the village.
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