Striking Back at Lei Jun, Ambushed on the Way Home

Inside the Medicine God Pavilion, the air crackled with tension.

"Hahaha!" The burly man with a face full of gristle let out a mocking laugh. "Who did I think it was? Turns out it's you country bumpkins again! Couldn't buy medicine at Jisheng Pharmacy, so you came here to try your luck?"

"Oh, isn't that the young master of Leiming Martial Hall?" Qin Meng didn't even look at him. He glanced sidelong at Lei Jun and deliberately raised his voice.

Lei Jun's face darkened, but he said nothing.

The bookkeeper's expression turned cold. "What a nuisance. They're like a ghost that won't leave."

"Take your time in line, Young Master Lei. We'll be going ahead." Qin Meng couldn't be bothered to waste words with him. He led Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu away.

Seeing Qin Meng and the others skip the line, the burly man deliberately raised his voice. "Duobao Pavilion has rules. Even our Leiming Martial Hall has to line up properly when buying medicinal herbs! Some people wouldn't actually think they can cut in, would they?"

The people waiting in line turned to look, their eyes full of scorn.

Qin Meng paid no mind to their stares. He led Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu straight past the line and toward the counter.

Under countless watchful eyes, he pulled the Bronze VIP Token from his robes and gently set it on the counter.

The shop assistant behind the counter had been wearing an impassive expression. The instant he caught sight of the token, his eyes changed.

He picked it up with both hands and examined it carefully. When he looked up again, his face was wreathed in a respectful smile. "An honored guest has arrived. Please come with me."

The shop assistant bowed and led Qin Meng and the other two through a side door toward the back, leaving the entire hall staring in astonishment—and Lei Jun's face darkening by the second.

Not even half a quarter of an hour later, Qin Meng returned with the others.

Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu each carried several parcels of medicinal herbs, tightly wrapped in oiled paper and marked with labels. A rich herbal fragrance wafted faintly from them.

They were thrilled. The herbs were better quality than those sold at Jisheng Pharmacy, their effects thirty percent stronger, yet their prices were about the same.

"Young Master Lei, we got our medicine." Wang Tieniu waved one of the parcels at Lei Jun and the others, loud enough for half the hall to hear.

"Cut it out!" Li Tiezhu smacked Wang Tieniu on the head, though he couldn't hide his grin. "We're just a bunch of country bumpkins. Let Young Master Lei take his time in line. He's the one who follows the rules!"

The three of them laughed and joked as they followed Qin Meng out.

As they stepped through the doors of Duobao Pavilion, Qin Meng glanced back coldly. Through the open doorway, he saw Lei Jun still standing in line, his chest heaving with fury at their taunts, his knuckles white from clenching his fists.

Inside the hall, Lei Jun glared after them with the venomous eyes of a snake. The burly man beside him understood at once and slipped away without a sound.

Outside Duobao Pavilion, the cold winter wind rushed into their faces.

The smile vanished from Qin Meng's face in an instant, leaving a chilly curve at the corner of his mouth. The look in Young Master Lei's eyes made it clear he was already contemplating murder.

Qin Meng was almost hoping they would make a move. If they attacked openly in town, he could use the chance to report them to the authorities. If they ambushed him on the way, he would simply kill them in return.

At the mouth of an alley beside Duobao Pavilion, Qin Xiaoshan sat crouched on the handcart. He jumped up when he saw them. "Brother Meng, did you get the medicine?"

"We did. It's thirty percent better than Jisheng Pharmacy's." Wang Tieniu patted the parcels. "We ran into Lei Jun again, too. Finally got to let off some steam."

Then he briefly recounted what had happened inside the pavilion.

Qin Xiaoshan took his own parcel of medicine, unable to suppress his delight.

"Let's go. We've got some other things to buy." Qin Meng called out and took the lead.

The group made their way through the bustling East District, spending their remaining money on grain and salt. They also bought thick winter clothes for their families at a clothing shop.

Qin Xiaoshan touched his brand-new padded coat, his eyes turning red. In past winters, the family had been so poor that they'd often braved the cold in thin clothes stuffed with straw.

When they left the last shop, Qin Meng weighed the emptying money pouch in his hand. Everything they'd earned from hunting, after paying for the medicine, had gone toward supplies.

With goods slung over their shoulders and heavy bundles in their hands, Li Tiezhu and the others headed back. Just after they left the market, Qin Meng's steps faltered almost imperceptibly.

The Wild Instinct talent stirred faintly in his mind, like a small stone dropped into water. The sensation wasn't strong, but it kept coming.

Someone was following them.

Qin Meng's expression didn't change as he continued onward, his gaze sweeping over the street corners and alley mouths.

The pursuers were cautious, keeping their distance—and there was more than one of them.

"Turn in up ahead," Qin Meng said suddenly, leading them into a quiet alley.

A wall blocked the end of the alley. It was a dead end.

Li Tiezhu blinked. "Meng, did we take a wrong turn?"

"No." Qin Meng set down his belongings and began unfastening his new padded coat. "Hurry up. Everyone change back into your old clothes."

"Why?" Wang Tieniu asked, baffled.

Li Tiezhu and Qin Xiaoshan had already caught on. They quickly stripped off their new clothes, revealing old coats underneath, patched and spattered with blood.

Seeing them, Wang Tieniu was still confused, but he followed suit.

A moment later, they had turned back into poor hunters, a jarring contrast to the brand-new supplies in their hands.

"Stay alert once we're out of town," Qin Meng warned tersely. He had already checked his gear: his bow and arrows were slung over his back, positioned for quick access, and he held the Zhanma Dao in his hand, its edge gleaming coldly.

Li Tiezhu, Wang Tieniu, and the others changed expressions.

They had grown up on the frontier and seen too many hunters return with a full haul, only never to make it home again. There were infiltrators from other peoples, bandits running rampant, and even fellow hunters driven by envy. Beyond the forests, danger could be deadlier than wild beasts.

No one asked questions. They silently checked their bows and blades. Their quivers were full, their blades bright as snow. The ease of their shopping trip fell away, and their eyes sharpened.

They left town and took the dirt road back to the village. The winter fields lay barren, and the wind swept through the dead grass.

There were fewer and fewer passersby, and the old pine forest along the road grew denser, its branches interlacing until they blocked out the sky.

Qin Meng walked at the front, his eyes narrowing slightly.

His transformed vision proved remarkably useful. To ordinary eyes, the pine forest was dim and shadowy, but to him, mottled outlines of heat sources appeared within it.

The trees were cold green, but several human-shaped red glows were lurking deep in the woods, shifting position as the group moved.

Five, six... eleven.

"Get down!" Qin Meng suddenly roared, throwing himself forward.

At almost the same instant, bowstrings twanged in the forest, and arrows shrieked through the air!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Seven or eight arrows shot out of the trees, skimming over their heads and embedding themselves in the dirt road, their fletching quivering.

Li Tiezhu was half a beat too slow. An arrow grazed his shoulder, tearing his old coat and leaving a streak of blood.

"Someone's in the woods!" Wang Tieniu roared.

Qin Meng was already on his feet, nocking an arrow to his bow in one smooth motion. He didn't need to aim—the heat sources in his sight made perfect targets.

The bowstring twanged, and the arrow flew like a shooting star.

"Argh!" A scream rang out from the forest, and one of the red glows suddenly dimmed.

Li Tiezhu and Wang Tieniu reacted as well, quickly drawing their bows to fire back. Their archery wasn't as precise as Qin Meng's, but they could still target the direction the arrows had come from.

A wild volley followed, and two more screams rang out.

"Damn it! Charge out and finish them!" someone roared from the woods.

Seven or eight men rushed out from their hiding places, all masked and wielding steel blades, their eyes glinting with malice as they charged in a swarm.

"We're the heroes of Liangshan Marsh! Leave your money and your game, and we'll spare your worthless lives!" shouted the bandit leader, pointing his blade at Qin Meng.

"You sons of bitches are asking for death." Qin Meng's face turned dark. He gripped the Zhanma Dao with both hands, its blade glinting coldly in the sunlight.

"You rotten bunch think you're Liangshan heroes? You want our things?" He stepped forward, dust stirring lightly beneath his feet.

"Then trade your lives for them."

Before the words had left his mouth, Qin Meng kicked off with both legs, leaving several small craters in the ground.

The Blood Shadow talent activated in an instant, making his short burst of speed ghostlike. The others saw a blur, and Qin Meng was already in front of the nearest bandit.

The bandit's pupils shrank. He had just begun to raise his blade—

Qin Meng was faster. The Zhanma Dao tore through the air with a sharp whistle. The blade flashed, and a head the size of a bushel shot into the sky!

Blood gushed like a spring. The headless body swayed, then crashed to the ground.

[Life Source +4.5%]