Night of the Full Moon

"Boss Zhan, something's wrong."

"Stop!"

On the fifteenth day, night fell beneath a full moon.

Zhan Laoshi looked around. Silence reigned. He tightened his grip on his spear, his expression grave.

"You noticed it too?"

Beneath the black pines, only sparse moonlight fell into the woods. A strong wind swept past, making the tree shadows sway and letting out a howling whistle.

They were less than five miles from the camp beside the official road.

The junior leader said in a trembling voice, "We agreed to return to camp after dark. How come we haven't seen a single person?"

One of the gang members said, "Could they have gone back early?"

The junior leader said, "Absolutely not! Forty or fifty people, all returning to camp early without coordinating?"

"Maybe they took another route, or they haven't returned yet..." As he spoke, his voice grew quieter. He also felt those explanations didn't hold water.

Zhan Laoshi's nose twitched twice. There seemed to be a familiar scent in the wind. Back when he had traveled alone across the grasslands, he had picked up some skill in identifying scents by the wind.

Frowning, he said, "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?"

Another gust blew through the woods.

His expression changed dramatically. "Such a strong smell of blood! Move!"

Zhan Laoshi started running, but he did not fire the signal arrow.

He felt they were not far from camp. He could withdraw and discuss matters with Peng Canghu before deciding what to do. Firing the signal arrow would certainly warn the camp, but it would also reveal their location to the Wild Wolf Gang.

The six men ran thirty or forty paces south when several of them suddenly fell to the ground, as if they had all tripped over something at the same time.

When they got back up, the moonlight revealed pale faces beneath the snow and ice. They were instantly horrified beyond words.

"Dead people!"

"It's them!"

"They're all dead..."

Everyone stopped and looked back. They were all members of the small teams that had split off.

More than twenty Dragon Scale Association brothers now lay in a neat row here. Their padded jackets had been stripped off, and, strangely enough, a thin layer of snow covered their bodies.

"Four teams. They must have been attacked while returning to camp..."

The junior leader said in a trembling voice, "C-could it be a snow demon? They say snow demons kill people and strip off their clothes..."

Every place had several frightening legends of the strange and supernatural, and Pingyang Prefecture was no exception.

Snow demons appeared on snowy nights, seeking out travelers returning late to borrow their clothes. Afterward, they returned the clothes to them, and anyone who put those clothes back on would freeze to death, their bodies wrapped in a layer of white snow.

Most people in Pingyang City had heard this legend.

The crowd grew even more frightened. Some even felt their legs go weak and could no longer walk, while the hands gripping their swords trembled nonstop.

Zhan Laoshi slapped him across the face with the back of his hand and cursed, "Get a grip! What snow demon? They're just those bastards from the Wild Wolf Gang! They don't dare fight us head-on, so they're using this despicable ambush—"

The instant his voice fell.

The black pines all around swayed, revealing numerous dark figures charging over with blades in hand.

"Enemy attack! Prepare to fight!"

Zhan Laoshi fired the signal arrow.

A spark trailing white smoke shot into the sky, then exploded with a bang.

The smell of gunpowder spread through the air.

"Brothers, the chance to wipe out the Wild Wolf Gang's remnants and earn great merit has arrived!"

"The young master will be here to reinforce us soon! Hold on!"

Zhan Laoshi gripped his spear and loudly rallied their morale. The five Dragon Scale Association disciples beside him formed a simple formation just as they had practiced.

The Wild Wolf Gang members carried a blood feud, and every one of them rushed to the front, each blade filled with hatred. That went without saying.

"Kill!"

Liu Dachui's two short legs pumped furiously as he charged. His ringed saber spun like a wheel, and he was the first to crash into the enemy formation, making straight for the man giving the orders.

"Liu Dachui, one of the Wild Wolf Gang's Seven Fiends?"

Zhan Laoshi immediately felt intimidated. The "Iron-Headed Wolf" had long been a renowned expert in the martial world of Pingyang Prefecture.

He was especially famous for his tenacious vitality. In one battle, an opponent had smashed his skull open with an iron mace, splattering his brains, and everyone had assumed he was dead. Yet he had climbed back to his feet and stabbed his opponent in the kidneys from behind.

Now that people were lying in ambush on all sides, he had nowhere to run and could only fight with his back to the wall.

Zhan Laoshi shook his spear and thrust it at his opponent's chest like a venomous snake flicking its tongue.

"Dogs of the Dragon Scale Association, take your grandpa's blade!"

Liu Dachui knocked the spear aside with a diagonal slash and closed in. The two engaged in battle.

The spear was king of all weapons, capable of both offense and defense.

Zhan Laoshi's spear techniques bore traces of the frontier army. They were not exquisite, but they were highly practical, and he often produced unexpected and dangerous moves. They forced Liu Dachui to draw back his saber and defend, unable to attack recklessly.

Zhang Yu stood outside the fighting circle, his sword still sheathed as he watched.

With Zhao Xia, Liu Dachui, and thirty gang members overwhelming them by numbers, and with an expert on their side, the five Dragon Scale Association disciples fell one after another within three minutes of closing into melee range.

"They need a battle to restore their morale!"

On the battlefield, only the man wielding the spear remained, locked in a one-on-one fight with Liu Dachui.

Liu Dachui was, after all, an expert in the Armor-Breaking Realm. His Internal Energy was abundant, and his saber techniques were treacherous. Zhan Laoshi had to exert all his strength to deal with every move.

After thirty exchanges, as the battle dragged on, Zhan Laoshi began to run out of strength beneath Liu Dachui's saber techniques, which swept down like a storm. Gaps gradually appeared in his defense.

"Wolf Rips Open the Belly!"

Liu Dachui seized the opportunity. He rolled across the ground, dodging three consecutive thrusts, then closed in. Zhan Laoshi failed to pull his spear back in time to defend, leaving his guard wide open.

"Not good."

There was no time!

Liu Dachui suddenly rose and swung his ringed saber horizontally. It ripped open the opponent's entire abdomen, and a mess of colorful entrails spilled out.

Zhan Laoshi fell onto the snowy ground. After taking one last look toward the camp, he breathed his last.

Liu Dachui was drenched in blood. Having dealt with the most troublesome opponent, he felt exhilarated and shouted in delight.

Zhang Yu saw that some of the gang members still wanted to clear the battlefield, strip off the clothing, and search for silver.

He hurriedly ordered, "Pursuers are coming. Withdraw immediately!"

Upon hearing this, everyone instead looked toward Zhao Xia and Liu Dachui.

They had suffered bitterly from the cold before. In the depths of winter, who wouldn't want to put another padded jacket on themselves, especially while fleeing in defeat without a fixed home or reliable meals?

"The lord has issued an order. Anyone who disobeys will be dealt with according to the gang rules."

Zhao Xia spoke coldly. She supported the divine envoy without hesitation, though it was not entirely because of the life-saving favor he had done her at the Martial Saint Temple.

Rather, based on the information tortured out of the Dragon Scale Association disciples earlier, it had been Zhang Yu who devised and deployed the plan to "break them apart one by one and wait for them to walk into the trap."

She had already developed an initial trust in his abilities.

"Yes, ma'am!"

Everyone immediately withdrew, swiftly weaving through the woods toward Wolf Head Mountain in the north.

At that moment, a voice rang out.

"You killed our Dragon Scale Association men and think you can just walk away?"

The man blocked their path. He carried a wolf-fang iron club roughly five feet long, forged entirely from iron and weighing sixty or seventy pounds. Its thick, swollen head was shaped like a date pit and covered in iron spikes that gleamed with a cold light.

"Peng Canghu!"

When Liu Dachui recognized him, a trace of wariness appeared in his eyes.