On the other side, Li Han waited and waited in the room, but Scarface still did not return. Growing impatient, he rose from his chair.
"What the hell is this guy doing? Could it be I hit the nail on the head, and he fell headfirst into the snow and can't get out?"
Li Han threw on a coat and went looking for him. When he pushed open the door, the cold wind came at him like a steel blade scraping bone, as if a basin of icy water had been poured over him, chilling him from head to toe in an instant.
He became much more clearheaded. Looking around, he saw no sign of Scarface outside the door.
"This guy went to use the toilet, but who knows where he ran off to. Couldn't he have just done it by the door?"
Li Han muttered under his breath, and out of the corner of his eye noticed that the door to the room beside them was open.
The pitch-black doorway concealed the scene inside. It was as though countless shadows were lying in wait within, restless and ready to pounce.
"He didn't even close the door properly. What if those animals freeze to death? The buyer specifically asked for them alive. He's far too careless."
Li Han walked over, but his expression suddenly changed. Lying right at the doorway was a man—none other than Scarface, who had been gone so long without returning!
Li Han thought Scarface had drunk too much and collapsed there. He hurriedly reached out to touch him, but the temperature beneath his fingers sent his heart plummeting to the bottom.
This body temperature—
Scarface was lying face-down, his head buried in the snow. Whether by coincidence or accident, it perfectly confirmed what he had said earlier.
Li Han hurriedly rolled him over. But when he saw the scene before him, he recoiled in fright and could not help sucking in a sharp breath.
Scarface's eyes were wide open, his features horribly twisted, filled with pain and panic. No one knew what he had seen before he died.
Most importantly, there was a massive bloody hole in his chest. There was no need to check—Scarface was clearly dead.
He had only gone out to use the toilet. How had he suddenly died here?
And in such a short time, he had actually died just like that?
Li Han had been inside the room and had not heard a thing. There were not even any signs of a struggle nearby. It made no sense at all.
Everything about this was far too sudden and bizarre for Li Han. He swallowed hard, and for no apparent reason, his scalp began to prickle.
He glanced at the pitch-black room. It seemed to conceal a giant beast waiting to devour anyone who approached. Li Han became completely clearheaded and did not dare act rashly.
He immediately ran back to the room and grabbed a flashlight, along with a machete for protection.
He stood at the doorway, and the flashlight beam fell into the room, instantly revealing the scene inside.
The cages were empty. The animals had vanished without a trace, leaving behind only bloody fur and flesh.
"Damn it! Who's pulling strings in the shadows? Get the hell out here!"
Li Han cursed furiously. His first reaction was that someone had come by, not only moving the animals but also killing Scarface.
He subconsciously ignored the bizarre hole in Scarface's body.
It clearly did not look like something a human could have caused. Besides, the snow around them was so thick that anyone approaching would definitely have left footprints.
No matter how Li Han roared, there was no sign of anything unusual around him.
His temper flaring, he charged straight inside. The room was not large, and there were very few things in it. There was nowhere someone could possibly hide.
"Damn it, he must've run off. If I find you, just see if I don't butcher you."
"The tiger doesn't show its might, and you take it for a sick cat? You actually dared to mess with me!"
Li Han's gaze was vicious to the extreme. Anyone could tell at a glance that his hands were stained with blood. As it turned out, he had gotten into trouble back in his hometown and had once accidentally beaten a man to death.
Afterward, he had fled, hidden his identity, and taken up the shady trade of poaching.
"Damn it, the animals have all escaped. Catching them again will be a pain. And I'm supposed to deliver them tomorrow. I'm afraid I won't be able to explain this."
In his fury, Li Han failed to notice a pair of beastly pupils glowing faintly in the darkness.
As though sensing something, he abruptly turned his head. At the same time, the flashlight beam swept behind him.
There was nothing but a blocked wall. Then a round lightbulb came rolling across the floor with a rumble.
Li Han nudged it with his foot. "I thought it was something else. Turns out it's just a lightbulb. Looks like I'm simply too on edge."
But the lightbulb had been fine. How could it have fallen for no reason?
The thought had barely surfaced when a chill swept over him from behind. Almost purely instinctive, Li Han suddenly dodged to the side.
It was as though something had launched an attack from behind him. It moved so fast it was like a ghost, leaving only a fading trail through the air.
Li Han saw only a section of a slender green tail and was instantly terrified. "What the hell is this thing?"
He focused his eyes and saw that it was actually a snake of highly unusual coloring!
Its tail was green, but the upper half of its body was black. It was a little over a meter long. When he saw that its head was oval rather than triangular, Li Han could not help relaxing.
"Luckily, it's nonvenomous."
Since it was not venomous, its threat was limited.
The snake was Ye Qin, who had been lying in ambush all along. After dealing with Scarface, he had determined that the other accomplice would definitely come out looking for him, so he had waited here to catch him off guard.
He had not expected Li Han's vigilance to be so high, nor his skills to be better than Scarface's. Naturally, he also noticed the contempt in Li Han's eyes.
If it had been an ordinary nonvenomous snake, it certainly would not have been Li Han's opponent. But Ye Qin was different.
After fully mastering the First Realm, he had gained not only strength, but also astonishing physical toughness and hardness. He was entirely different from an ordinary snake.
It could be said that Ye Qin himself was an incomparably sharp blade.
The bloody hole in Scarface's chest had been punched straight through by him in a single lethal strike.
Ye Qin's body drew taut, like a sharp arrow ready to be loosed.
The next second, he shot forward like a spring suddenly released.
Snakes naturally possessed an impressive launching distance. They contracted their muscles and released them in an instant, springing forward like a coil. Their attack range rarely exceeded half their body length.
Yet Ye Qin's attack had a much greater range and was far faster as well. Like a sharp sword leaving its sheath, he rushed at Li Han with lightning speed.
"Whoosh!"
Li Han could even hear the sound of air being split. He stared at the strange snake before him in disbelief, realizing that he could not see its movements clearly at all. He could only roll away awkwardly across the floor.
Transforming Body into Sword! The wooden floor where Li Han had been standing was pierced through, leaving a small hole as though it had been stabbed through by a sword.
Having missed Li Han, Ye Qin watched him coldly, then quickly slithered over.
The fine rustling sound unique to a snake's movement made Li Han's scalp go numb. He scrambled to his feet and could not help swallowing hard.
"What the hell is going on?"
With that kind of speed and force just now, if the snake had landed on him—
Li Han looked at the small hole and shuddered. He instantly connected it to the bloody hole in Scarface's chest and compared the two.
An unbelievable thought rose in his mind.
This bloody hole seemed to match the size of this snake perfectly!
But once he realized what he was thinking, Li Han felt cold all over. As he stared at the snake before him, poised to strike, the sweat had already soaked through his back.
The End.