Shaonian

A quarter of an hour was enough time for everyone to make their choice.

Die in humiliation and implicate their families.

Or obey military orders and gamble on their future? It was not a difficult choice to make.

At the command, the Patrol Inspectors surged into the Dense Forest like a tide, without exception.

The mountain path was narrow, the Dense Forest quiet and secluded.

The Patrol Inspectors, who outside the Dense Forest had still barely maintained some formation, were scattered one after another under the influence of the Dense Forest's terrain.

Under He Ping's shouted orders, the scattered Patrol Inspectors each gathered toward their own unit. Taking their squads as the unit, they spread out on both sides of the small path into the mountain and headed toward Qili Village up the mountain.

"There actually aren't any footprints?"

Amid the vast white snow, Chu Mu gripped his long blade tightly, studying the whiteness blanketing the Mountain Forest, his brows knitted tight.

That wave of arrows just now could not have appeared out of thin air. Someone must have been moving about.

The Mountain Forest was covered in white snow. If people moved through it, they would inevitably leave traces.

Yet what met his eyes was a scene with only a sparse handful of traces.

The farther they advanced into the Mountain Forest, the fewer traces remained. Vaguely, signs of deliberate concealment could still be seen, but as the distance increased, everything seemed to have already returned to the wind and snow.

They had ambushed and killed government troops who far outnumbered them, then withdrawn unhurriedly while covering their tracks.

In Chu Mu's mind, the threat level of this group had already shot straight up.

"Stay with me. Don't wander off."

Chu Mu turned to look at Xu Yuan, who was following him, and gave a warning before looking at the surrounding Patrol Inspector teams.

Under heavy rewards, brave men were bound to appear.

There were no few who, like Chu Mu, wanted to find a chance and gamble.

There were also no few who, like Li Gang, were single-mindedly gambling for their futures.

Everywhere he looked were teams holding sharp weapons, searching and advancing through the Mountain Forest along the small path up the mountain.

From the foot of the mountain to Qili Village, it was only seven li in total.

It was obvious that at this pace, it would not be long before they reached Qili Village.

And once they reached Qili Village, the matter would undoubtedly become much simpler.

From the time the Patrol Inspectors were killed to now, only several hours had passed.

As long as one was a normal person, one could not possibly fail to know what the consequences would be for killing officials.

Flight was the only choice.

But in several hours, how far could they flee?

Not to mention, in this deep winter, what would they eat if they fled into Deep Mountain? If they wanted to bring enough living supplies, that would inevitably take even more time.

"Be careful. If the Rebels are trying to delay us, there will definitely be more hidden arrows attacking next."

Chu Mu stopped and looked at the Patrol Inspectors following beside him.

His team already had mostly newly appointed Patrol Inspectors to begin with, and the few remaining old hands had, just now, been wiped out to a man.

Squad Leader Li Gang, even more so, was single-mindedly bent on earning merit, and now no one knew where he had charged off to.

Therefore, the ones left in Chu Mu's team were all Patrol Inspectors like him, who had only recently taken office.

It could be said they were all a pack of burdens. No wonder Li Gang had disappeared from sight.

After giving that warning, Chu Mu paid no attention to everyone's responses and turned his gaze toward the Dense Forest.

The entire Patrol Inspector force was advancing along the mountain path in a triangular formation, and his team was positioned at one corner on the edge of that triangle.

If it was truly as he guessed, and the Rebels were delaying for time, then the position he was in was still quite dangerous.

As if to confirm Chu Mu's guess, suddenly, no more than ten or so steps in front of him, a Patrol Inspector went down with a thud.

An arrowhead had practically pierced through his entire head. Blood soaked into the snow, that pool of red glaring to the extreme.

"Enemy attack!"

A shout rang out abruptly, and the originally quiet Dense Forest instantly turned chaotic.

Chu Mu's pupils shrank. At this moment, every emotion was instantly flung to the back of his mind, and Chu Mu instinctively looked toward the direction the arrow had come from.

He saw a figure leap down from the treetop, then sprint wildly through the Dense Forest. Under the cover of the trees, in just a few breaths, the figure was gone from sight.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh...

That arrow seemed like a signal. From all directions, hidden arrows suddenly came shooting in.

For no reason he could name, an indescribable sense of crisis abruptly enveloped Chu Mu's entire body.

At the edge of his vision, a black dot was already flying toward him at high speed.

Chu Mu instinctively swung his blade. The feeling of impact traveled along the blade, clearly reaching the depths of his heart.

The arrow, severed into two pieces, fell onto the snow. The eerie gleam flickering on the arrowhead was also reflected clearly in Chu Mu's pupils.

Chu Mu's spine went icy, as if something had lodged in his throat, and even his breathing seemed to grow uneven.

Just now, he had... almost been done for!

Xu Yuan ran up quickly, hunching over to look at Chu Mu. "Mu Ge'er, are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Watch yourself!"

Chu Mu drew in a deep breath, his gaze instantly locking onto the man fleeing at full speed.

The distance between them... was at most thirty paces.

And ahead of him, several bolder patrol inspectors had already charged over.

Chu Mu did not hesitate. Gripping his long saber tight, he followed close behind and chased after the man.

A distance of several dozen paces was not all that far.

After that wave of attacks, the rebels who had exposed their tracks had clearly lost their greatest advantage.

Patrol inspectors with bows and crossbows fired back, arrows and bolts whistling through the air, while other patrol inspectors doggedly pursued the fleeing figures, wanting to hack off a head and gamble it for a future.

After sprinting a dozen or so paces, Chu Mu abruptly stopped and shouted, "Careful! There are still people in the trees!"

On the treetop, along with a scatter of falling snow, a figure leaped down like a roaming dragon.

An arm-length hunting knife sank straight into one patrol inspector's body. Blood bloomed, and the body crashed heavily to the ground.

That patrol inspector's eyes were wide open, the light in them visibly dimming, leaving only an indescribable terror carved deep into his face.

That figure was still nimble, the several-foot-long hunting knife in his hand as agile as an arm.

In the space of a few breaths, the patrol inspectors at the very front of the pursuit fell one after another into pools of blood.

Only then did Chu Mu truly see his face.

He looked like a boy, seemingly quite a bit younger than Xu Yuan.

He wore a beast-hide jacket, traces of youth still visible on his face. His eyes were clear, yet threaded with a ruthlessness that did not match his age.

The boy stared at Chu Mu and actually did not retreat. Instead, like an arrow loosed from the string, he charged toward Chu Mu.

All at once, that indescribable sense of danger once again enveloped Chu Mu's entire body.

Clang! Blades collided, and the piercing ring of metal exploded through the Dense Forest like a death-knell. Along with that bloodstained hunting knife, it swept over Chu Mu like a raging storm.

In the short span of a few breaths, Chu Mu had already retreated a dozen or so paces, and the blade in his hand had gained a row of savage notches.

"Chase him!"

"Quick, don't let him get away!"

The shouts rang close by his ear, and the storm of clashing metal abruptly came to an end.

By the time Chu Mu reacted, the boy's figure was already darting through the Dense Forest like a civet cat, and soon vanished from sight.