Ambush Killing, Continued

Although this was already some distance from where the Tusk Mountain Boar was, there was no telling whether other people might come if he delayed. It would be difficult to explain if they saw this scene.

So Lin Sheng tucked the items into his clothes, grabbed Liu Jie's corpse, and went over to Ma Qiang.

Pinned to the tree trunk, Ma Qiang was half-crouched on the ground. Blood still streamed from his chest in waves; he had not quite died yet.

Both hands clutched the iron spear as he tried to pull it from his body, but his strength was far from enough to accomplish that.

Instead, his frantic movements only made the blood flow faster. He could feel the strength rapidly draining from his body.

Hearing footsteps behind him, a flash of joy appeared on his face.

"Save... save me..."

He shakily forced out a few words, but when the footsteps drew near and their owner came into view, his face filled with terror.

"You... you... My brother... won't... won't let you off..."

"Be less stingy in your next life. Maybe you'll live a few more years."

Without any intention of wasting more words, Lin Sheng slowly uttered a sentence, yanked out the iron spear, and drove it into Ma Qiang's heart again.

This time, Ma Qiang had no reaction whatsoever. Only the unwillingness frozen on his face remained.

After searching Ma Qiang from head to toe, Lin Sheng took the two corpses and swiftly vanished into the forest.

After traveling a good distance, he heard waves of wolf howls nearby. Faintly visible amid the bushes were pairs of bloodthirsty red eyes—several mountain wolves.

Without hesitation, Lin Sheng set down the corpses before turning and racing toward the foot of the mountain.

Though he was heading downhill, he had no intention of leaving the mountain right away.

The squad had been ambushed by two Tusk Mountain Boars this time. The Ninth Squad would certainly suffer grievous losses. Going down too early would be far too conspicuous, and he would have no way to explain himself.

Besides, he needed to clean himself up.

At the moment, his body was covered in red and white substances: blood and lime powder.

Only his face was relatively clean. When he had been ambushed with lime powder, he had not expected the other side to be so insidious as to carry such a thing on them.

If it got into his eyes, then without prompt treatment, both eyes might be ruined.

Fortunately, he had reacted quickly and raised a hand in front of his face before the lime powder exploded. Otherwise, with his vision damaged, let alone killing them, whether he could have caught up would have been a problem. He might even have capsized in the gutter.

It also made him realize that battles between martial artists in this world were not limited merely to differences in cultivation realms.

No matter what methods you used, as long as you were the one left standing in the end, you were the victor.

If it had been an ordinary Body Tempering martial artist, they truly might not have been Liu Jie's match.

With his decent throwing-dart skills and ruthless way of doing things, Liu Jie had likely been an expert among Body Tempering martial artists.

Lin Sheng took a map from his clothes. It was something Beast Hunter Hall hunters were required to carry with them.

It marked the activity areas of some powerful beasts on the mountain, as well as several relatively safe routes. It also showed the locations of mountain water sources and temporary supply points.

Before long, Lin Sheng arrived beside a pool. He removed his outer garment and scrubbed it in the water, then washed himself clean as well.

Holding up his outer garment, he saw a small hole at the shoulder—the spot where Liu Jie's dart had landed. Lin Sheng reached out and touched the inconspicuous white mark on his shoulder.

Fortunately, after the boost from his physical enhancement, the toughness of his body's surface had increased greatly. Otherwise, Liu Jie's dart would truly have pierced him.

Thinking of the relaxed, smug expression on Liu Jie's face at the time, that dart had definitely been poisoned.

His skin had simply been hard enough. Otherwise, he really might have fallen for Liu Jie's scheme.

After wringing out his clothes and putting them back on, he checked the map again and headed for the nearest temporary supply point.

More than half an hour later, he arrived at a ruined temple. This was one of the Beast Hunter Hall's supply points.

Calling it a supply point, it was actually more like a temporary camp—a place to rest for the night, but still better than sleeping exposed in the wilderness.

There were already people inside the ruined temple. Before he even entered, he could hear suppressed groans of pain coming from within.

When Lin Sheng went inside, he indeed found several hunters from the Ninth Squad there. They had clearly escaped from the Tusk Mountain Boars as well.

A few of them were covered in blood and clutching their arms, likely having suffered some injuries.

When they saw Lin Sheng enter, they merely glanced at him without paying much attention.

As for these people, Lin Sheng only found them vaguely familiar. He knew they belonged to the Ninth Squad, but he did not know their names.

Since they had no interest in speaking to him, he naturally would not go out of his way to approach them.

Another half hour passed, and several more people arrived one after another. Two of them were seriously injured.

"Brothers, I think we should head down the mountain first. Everyone has suffered injuries to some extent, and it won't do to keep wasting time here..."

At last, someone could no longer sit still and made the suggestion. The others had no objections.

Lin Sheng naturally had no issue with it. Going down the mountain with these people was better than going alone.

Soon, the group set off. The way down the mountain was somewhat long, but fortunately, nothing unexpected happened.

By the evening of the following day, the group had left Yangping Mountain. Beast Hunter Hall personnel were waiting at the foot of the mountain and sent the injured to the medical clinic.

Lin Sheng was naturally fine, and he returned straight to the station with the remaining few people.

An older hunter went to report the situation to the hall. As a newcomer, Lin Sheng had little to do and soon returned to his residence.

After locking the courtyard gate, he went back into his room and took out every bit of his haul from his clothes.

Looking at the miscellaneous items before him, the first thing Lin Sheng picked up was the thin booklet with only a few pages.

There was nothing written on the booklet's cover, merely a bare, blank sheet. After flipping through it a few times, he frowned.

"Not a cultivation manual!?"

This booklet was actually a hidden weapon technique, recording various methods for using concealed weapons.

I was overthinking it. How could cultivation manuals be so easy to obtain?

He slightly shook his head and put the booklet away.

Though it was not the cultivation technique he wanted most, this hidden weapon technique still had some value and was worth practicing.

Liu Jie's impressive dart-throwing skills had likely come from this very booklet.

He then took out several throwing darts. Each was around ten centimeters long, with sharp tips coated in a layer of dark green. He had no idea what poison Liu Jie had applied to them.

However, Liu Jie had also carried a small bottle containing dark green powder. That should have been the deadly poison on these darts.

I can find an opportunity to test just how powerful this poison is.

As Lin Sheng considered this, his gaze had already fallen upon the other pile of items.

Other than these things, Liu Jie had only a few taels of silver left. As for Ma Qiang's belongings, who knew what they contained.

With a good elder brother in the Muscle Forging realm, he shouldn't be too poor.