Suddenly, a rhythmic "tap-tap-tap" of footsteps came from the darkness ahead, carrying a peculiar cadence, like a soul-hooking divine melody entering everyone's ears and seeping into the depths of the apprentices' hearts.
Their scalps prickled, their pupils dilated at once, and they stared tremblingly at the figure emerging from the darkness.
The newcomer was splattered from head to toe with red and white fluids, half his face dyed crimson with blood. His eyes were indifferent. Beneath the boundless night sky, he looked exactly like a vicious ghost crawling out of hell, terrifying to the soul.
By the faint moonlight, they recognized him. Yang Heng!
"Yang... Yang... Heng, are you... human... or... a ghost?"
Their lips had gone pale with fright as they asked in quavering voices.
"Heh heh heh, what do you think I am—a human or a ghost?"
Yang Heng shook the blood from his face and gave a savage, sinister grin.
The makeup on his face had been deliberate. He wanted to frighten them, make them lose their nerve and their will to fight.
That way, he could deal with them effortlessly, without wasting the slightest bit of strength.
After all, they had blades and superior numbers, while he was not invulnerable to swords and spears. It would not be pretty if he got hurt through carelessness.
Since there was an easy way to win, why not use it?
The apprentices were indeed frightened out of their wits by Yang Heng's ghostly appearance. Their fighting spirit vanished completely. They immediately threw down their woodcutting knives and fled blindly down the mountain in terror.
But the mountain path was narrow, and the night was pitch-black. They shoved and jostled one another, all tumbling to the ground like dumplings dropped into a pot.
In an instant, the scene became a complete mess.
Yang Heng wasted no more words. He picked up a woodcutting knife from the ground and strolled calmly among them.
The cold gleam flashed eight times.
Splat!
Splat!
In the blink of an eye, a red line appeared across every throat. Blood burst forth like a spring, forceful enough to spray far into the distance.
At once, a fine red rain began to fall from the sky, pattering onto the ground. The earth was dyed scarlet, resembling the scene inside a slaughterhouse.
Bloody!
Terrifying!
Chilling!
Just then, a light breeze drifted past, carrying the scent of blood like a veil deep into the forest.
Before long, countless pairs of green "bronze bells" appeared amid the pitch-black, silent woods. Accompanied by wave after wave of howls and rumbling thunderous noise, they surged this way.
Yang Heng smiled at the sight.
This saved him quite a bit of trouble. He no longer needed to make the arduous trip into the depths of the mountain, hunt down the beasts' dens, and drag them here one by one. Beasts had keen noses; they came on their own once they caught the scent.
Wolves!
More than a dozen wolves charged over like a tidal wave, their momentum immense. Dust billowed in their wake, while countless dead branches and fallen leaves were crushed into fragments beneath their paws.
The moment they smelled the blood, their eyes changed from green to red, gleaming with bloodlust.
Soon, the pack reached the corpses. Without slowing down, their bodies leaped into the air, their fangs flashing with cold light as they viciously pounced upon the bodies on the ground.
Meanwhile, Yang Heng had long since used his movement technique to leap onto a tree trunk, standing thirty feet above the ground as he quietly watched the wolves feast.
Time slowly passed. By now, not a single intact corpse could be seen on the ground. Everywhere lay chunks of flesh, bloodstained bones, fur soaked in blood, and tattered clothing mottled with gore.
Standing in the tree, Yang Heng watched this bloody scene unfold without expression, his heart utterly unmoved.
They had brought all of this upon themselves.
If they had not come to ambush him, none of this would have happened.
Once a person made a mistake, they had to pay for it. That was the law of the world.
Of course, the price might be steep; sometimes, it even meant paying with one's life.
Yet reality was just like this. Once one took a wrong step, one might well fall into a state of eternal damnation.
After crossing into this world, Yang Heng had set a principle for himself.
If others did not offend him, he would not offend them.
But if others offended him, he would surely kill them!
No matter their purpose, so long as anyone dared lay a hand on him, Yang Heng would not hesitate to cut off that person's head.
A quarter of an hour later, the wolf pack left in satisfaction. They were no longer as nimble as before, their bellies round and swollen. Blood coated the corners of their mouths like a leaking faucet, dripping down drop by drop, leaving a trail of blood that stretched into the forest and vanished into the darkness.
The ground was now a complete mess. Not even the smallest scrap of flesh remained. Only a patch of dark-red earth, medicine baskets chewed to bits, and bloodstained rags shredded like paper remained, proclaiming that a fierce and bloody conflict had taken place here.
No matter who looked upon it, no one could tell how many people had died here, nor would anyone know whether Yang Heng was alive or dead.
Seeing that his goal had been achieved, Yang Heng swept his gaze around and found no loose ends. Spreading his arms, he leaped from the tree trunk and drifted down like a flying swallow. Then he sprang forward, stepping on the tips of grass like a dragonfly touching water, borrowing the force to head deep into the mountains.
After several rises and falls, Yang Heng's figure disappeared completely into the night.
Not long after, Yang Heng arrived at the place where he had hidden the herbs. He loaded them all into his medicine basket, carried it on his back, found a shortcut down the mountain, and washed himself in a river before racing nonstop toward Qingyang Town.
The sky was high enough for birds to fly freely; the sea was broad enough for fish to leap.
Yang Heng's departure was like a dragon rising into the heavens and a fish entering the sea, shedding the shackles upon him and returning to nature.
Yang Heng raced along the Great Dao leading to Qingyang Town, throwing back his head in a long howl to release the exhilaration in his chest.
He ran faster and faster, smoke seeming to rise beneath his feet. His body appeared to meld with the wind, weightless as he leaped thirty feet, then forty feet, until... fifty feet!
Without realizing it, Yang Heng's movement technique had broken through to Minor Accomplishment!
Being able to cross fifty feet in a single instant was precisely how the manual described the Minor Accomplishment realm.
After reaching Minor Accomplishment in a movement technique, one would occasionally no longer sense the weight of the items on one's body, feeling only as light as a swallow, traveling with the wind and roaming between heaven and earth, carrying a certain unrestrained charm.
Once the movement technique reached Major Accomplishment, even carrying a hundred catties of weight would feel weightless and would not affect one's speed in the slightest.
Yang Heng continued racing along the Great Dao like a thousand-mile horse, tireless as he traveled day and night.
In the blink of an eye, dawn gradually broke. After running all night, Yang Heng finally arrived at Qingyang Town.
Yet he did not enter the town. Instead, he turned and headed toward the place where he usually practiced.
One night passed, yet the nine apprentices had not returned. The medicine shop masters did not care in the slightest.
This often happened during previous herb-gathering trips into the mountains.
As the task deadline approached, some apprentices feared they would fail to complete their assignment and be whipped. So they would find a place to stay in the mountains, continue gathering herbs once daylight came the next day, and save the time spent traveling back and forth.
This left them more time to search for medicinal herbs.
However, Yang Heng had not returned either, which came as a surprise to the medicine shop masters.
Among the apprentices gathering herbs in the mountains for the first time, Yang Heng had achieved the best results and given the most dazzling performance. Completing the task should not have been a problem, so they did not know why he had also failed to return to the camp.
The masters could not make sense of it and had no idea what had happened.
Not long after the apprentices went up the mountain, a scream suddenly rang out from above, shattering the camp's calm.
"Something terrible has happened! Something terrible has happened! There's blood everywhere on the mountain—it's flowing into a river!"
An apprentice came running frantically down the mountain, shouting wildly upon returning to the camp. His voice was so loud that it instantly spread throughout the entire camp.
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