"Haa..."
The stock he had built up for so long poured out in one thoroughly satisfying rush.
Jiang Qinghe let out a long breath, feeling utterly refreshed from head to toe.
Just as he straightened his clothes and prepared to turn back toward the campfire, his ear twitched—barely audible.
An exceedingly faint sound suddenly slipped into his ears.
Like the friction of a body pressing over dead grass and broken leaves—deliberately muffled, yet not completely silenced.
The sound vanished like an epiphyllum bloom, and silence returned. Clearly, something was wrong.
It was completely different from the continuous rustling made by little animals such as forest rats and night civets moving through the woods.
"That sound—someone's there!"
Several thoughts flashed through Jiang Qinghe's mind like lightning and sparks. Every muscle in his body tightened at once, but his face remained calm.
He even stretched naturally, yawned, and leisurely strolled back toward the campfire.
The moment he returned to the reach of the firelight, he bent down and lowered his voice.
"To the northeast, behind that earthen mound—there's movement. It doesn't sound like an animal. It's probably people!"
The expressions of the two veterans seated beside the fire changed drastically upon hearing this.
Having escorted shipments for many years, they knew exactly what an ambush in the wilderness at midnight meant.
Better to believe it existed than risk believing it did not!
The two exchanged glances. Without the slightest hesitation, they sprang up like leopards and rushed into the mud house.
"The mules are here! Grab your weapons! The mules are here!!"
The fierce roar was like thunder erupting from flat ground, abruptly tearing through the long night and spreading across the entire abandoned sheep farm.
Boom!
Inside the mud house, almost at the very instant the shout fell, the door was