Ambush! Please Keep Reading! Please Vote!

On the official road from Qingshan Town to Wutan City, an ordinary-looking carriage traveled silently along the road. An elderly man with white hair, dressed in plain cloth, sat at the front of the carriage, holding the reins and driving it.

Jiang Lin, clad in Black Knight Armor beneath a loose black robe, had been resting when he suddenly opened his eyes. He lifted the carriage window curtain slightly and glanced outside. It was already afternoon, the sky somewhat dim, and their carriage was the only one on this rugged road.

"Uncle Fu, there may be trouble." Jiang Lin opened a chest inside the carriage and took out a blackish-gray helmet, lowering the faceplate over his face before putting on a black robe and bamboo hat. At that moment, Jiang Lin seemed like a completely different person inside the carriage, transformed into a taciturn and mysterious Black Armored Warrior. At the same time, he placed a hand on the carriage floor, opened a hidden compartment, and revealed the rag-wrapped greatsword inside.

Tap. Tap.

The carriage on the rugged path gradually slowed, then returned to its normal speed after passing a bend.

Within the forest, the Black Armored Warrior with a greatsword strapped to his back silently watched the carriage recede into the distance. He then looked up at the sky and, without a word, began a silent sprint through the shadows of the forest.

Beneath his black robe, the Black Armored Warrior's full set of equipment weighed over two hundred pounds. Every leap he made through the forest seemed to carry the force of thunder, yet every landing perfectly dispersed the force, producing only a faint clanking sound of mechanical friction.

"The Forging Fire Art is definitely a top-tier body-tempering foundation technique. Once I become a Dou Master, I need to find a way to solve the problem of cultivation speed. At the very least, I need to develop Magic Core Dou Qi purification."

With the mechanical greatsword on his back, Jiang Lin moved through the forest a hundred meters away from the carriage driven by Uncle Fu, maintaining pace alongside it. Because he cultivated the Forging Fire Art, Jiang Lin's meridians and physique far surpassed those of ordinary Dou Zhe. Coupled with his usual fondness for training, the two hundred pounds of equipment was the limit of the high-intensity combat load he could currently endure.

Rustle, rustle.

An evening breeze swept through the dim forest. Jiang Lin gradually slowed down. The feeling of danger had arrived.

At that moment, Uncle Fu's carriage had just reached the entrance of a narrow little gorge.

Jiang Lin immediately left the carriage behind, silently and swiftly moving through the shadows from the forest on the other side toward the place where his Spiritual Sense had detected something amiss. Meanwhile, Uncle Fu, driving the carriage on the road, seemed to have noticed something as well. Looking at the terrain ahead, which was ideal for an ambush, and the empty road, he gradually slowed the carriage but did not stop. As they neared the gorge, the carriage slowed bit by bit, as though he were hesitating and considering, yet he still had no choice but to proceed cautiously.

"Damn it! Did they notice something?" In a patch of forest on one side of the gorge, a group of mysterious black-robed figures lay prone on the ground, their eyes fixed on the carriage as it suddenly slowed at the narrow entrance to the gorge. Its hesitant, half-entering movement made them itch with impatience.

One black-robed man could not help saying, "Now I finally understand how those women feel!"

The black-robed captain, a Three-star Dou Master, frowned. "Shut up! If they don't come in, we'll force the kill! Remember, don't leave too many traces of battle, and leave survivors!"

"Why is this so troublesome?" someone complained.

The black-robed captain shot the speaker a vicious glare. His icy gaze made the man shut his mouth instinctively.

They wanted to leave no traces because they did not want to expose their identities. In the eyes of some mercenary scouts, every trace left by a Dou Technique was an opportunity to identify whoever had made the move.

If possible, the black-robed captain would not have wanted to accept this job either. If things went badly, his reputation among Qingshan Town's Mercenary Groups would be ruined. But there was no helping it—the other side's price was simply too high.

That was the highly respected Myriad Medicine Hall of Qingshan Town!

They had to pay more!

"They're coming in! They're coming in!" A black-robed assassin suddenly shouted in a low voice.

The black-robed captain immediately looked over and saw the Myriad Medicine Hall carriage finally entering the gorge at a leisurely pace. With their strength, they could have launched a direct assault, but Uncle Fu of the Myriad Medicine Hall was still a Dou Master. What if he escaped? Thus, they would rather abandon this attack than alert the enemy. These people still had to return eventually, which meant another good chance to attack, didn't it? Besides, it was rumored that Mr. Yao of the Myriad Medicine Hall had revealed himself to be a Da Dou Shi, and no ordinary one at that—at least a five-star Da Dou Shi. Alerting the enemy could cause the situation to spiral out of control.

As for why no Da Dou Shi had participated in this ambush?

There were no more than five Da Dou Shi in all of Qingshan Town. If any of them left town for a job, Mr. Yao would be able to notice. Furthermore, most of Qingshan Town's Da Dou Shi had a good relationship with Mr. Yao, making exposure a real risk.

Besides, the reward offered by that person held great appeal only for Dou Masters. To Da Dou Shi, it was barely worth mentioning.

"Proceed according to plan!" The black-robed captain had just prepared to give the order when he suddenly sensed danger.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Several projectiles tore through the air from behind the black-robed assassins. The black-robed captain immediately rolled aside to evade them, but when some of the other black-robed assassins saw that the incoming objects were merely small stones, they directly gathered Dou Qi and threw punches at them.

Bang!

A first-tier Magic Core, struck by external force, became unstable and exploded. Violent Dou Qi burst forth into a fireball one meter across. Since it was an airburst, the fireball merely flared before extinguishing. Yet that sudden burst of flame made the eyes of the nearby black-robed assassins ache intensely!

"Ah! My eyes! My eyes!" The black-robed assassins whose eyes had been burned by the Magic Core Bombs rolled endlessly across the ground. Quite a few had suffered the same fate. There were ten black-robed assassins in total, and three of them had been burned to varying degrees by the Magic Core Bombs. Most had chosen the safer option of rolling away to dodge.

"Who is it?!" Dou Qi surged around the black-robed captain like armor, forming a Dou Qi Garment. Seeing three of his companions injured in an instant, he immediately turned toward the forest behind them in vigilance.

But the only response was a faint sound!

Bang!

A flash of fire lit up the shadows, and the black-robed assassins saw a burly black figure dart past.

At the same time, one black-robed assassin suddenly cried out, clutching his head before collapsing to the ground without another sound, his limbs twitching violently. The others hurried to take cover behind nearby trees and rocks before looking toward the man who had suddenly fallen. They discovered that a thick spiral steel needle had pierced his head!