Three More

The wind is picking up in the mountains.

Laojun Mountain is over 2,000 meters above sea level and is located between the Funiu Mountain.

The mountain wind was strong and cold at night.

Fog condensed in the air, and by daybreak, all the outdoor furniture and decorations would be covered with a layer of moisture.

In the courtyard, someone threw new firewood into the campfire, which dimmed the flames.

The flickering firelight refracted in the slowly flowing mist, like a wondrous play of light and shadow in the night.

In the shadows, a boy holding a knife stood silently between the mist and shadows, observing the lone thug outside the courtyard gate.

Only at this moment did he understand what Ye Wan meant:

Life is indeed very fragile; a knife piercing the heart will kill even the most important person.

But killing is not easy.

Because you are facing the most vicious thing in the world.

Qing Chen tied a stolen scarf around his face without saying a word.

Cell phone signal at the mountaintop was intermittent, but as a precaution, all the criminals switched to police walkie-talkies clipped to their left chests.

Qing Chen silently counted in his mind that every ten minutes, the thug would look down and press the walkie-talkie to answer something.

Suddenly, a mountain breeze swept in, and the bonfire piled with firewood in the courtyard suddenly blazed brightly, illuminating the world outside the courtyard.

At this moment, Qing Chen, who was hiding in the corner, suddenly saw that the thug outside the door seemed to have noticed something by the light of the fire. He looked at him with a puzzled expression and slowly approached.

Qing Chen's heart tightened.

However, at that moment, Li Tongyun appeared outside the inn's gate.

She stood timidly at the door and said to the assailant, "Officer, have you seen my mother?"

The assailant paused for a moment. "Your mother? I haven't seen her. Little friend, come here, let the police officer help you find your mother, okay?"

In an instant, he suddenly realized something was wrong!

Enemy attack!

The assailant instinctively raised his left hand and swung the baton to the side, while his right hand reached for his waist to draw his gun.

The campfire casts flickering light and shadow across the wall.

The boy had already silently arrived beside him in the thin mist.

So close, just a knife's throw away.

Suddenly, Qing Chen ducked to avoid the baton the other man was swinging, and appeared in front of the thug as if carried by the howling mountain wind.

Qing Chen thrust the dagger in his hand toward the assailant's left hand, which was about to draw his gun. Knowing that he didn't have time to grab the gun, the assailant instinctively flinched away.

The boy's knife was pointed downwards, and the thug instinctively reached down with both arms to grab the boy's hands.

As if he had anticipated this, Ke Qing Chen took a small step back, and the opponent's waving left hand and baton hit nothing but air.

Not good!

The thug looked up in astonishment into the darkness.

But all he could see were the boy's exposed eyes, staring coldly at him.

Just as he was about to exhaust himself, the dagger in the fierce boy's hand pierced through the thin mist once again.

Passing through the gap between his arms.

"Breathe."

Li Shutong said that in battles between wild beasts, the most important thing is breathing.

That is the key to controlling your body's oxygen levels and your mental clarity. Once you understand the importance of breathing, you will be in control of yourself, and then in control of everything.

The choice is yours: to be the hunter or the hunted.

In a flash, Flame Markings suddenly burst forth on the edge of Qing Chen's masked scarf!

It was as if all the power surged and gathered in his right hand, then passed to the tip of the knife, piercing the thug's spleen.

The thug's eyes suddenly widened like copper bells.

What happened in that brief moment?

The masked boy's movements were fluid and seamless, as if everything had been planned out. He knew he was going to swing his baton, knew he wouldn't dare draw his gun under the feint, and knew the trajectory of his arms in the chaos.

The other party knew everything, so they avoided him completely, giving him no chance to make direct contact.

It wasn't until the dagger pierced his spleen that there was any real physical contact between them.

In a psychological game of close combat, every move you make is within the opponent's calculations.

It's like I'm acting in a script written by a teenager.

The boy had already written his own ending long ago.

Knowing he didn't have much time left, the assailant struggled to reach for the walkie-talkie.

But then the boy fiercely charged forward, pinning the assailant against the courtyard wall.

Qing Chen covered the other person's mouth with his left hand, while vigorously stirring the knife with his right.

The assailant's mechanical limbs tried to exert force, but the intense pain transmitted to his brain almost blocked all his effective thinking.

The spleen is the body's blood storage organ. In an instant, a large amount of fresh blood flowed out from the opponent's ruptured spleen and then flowed down the dagger into Qing Chen's hand.

It was warm blood, and the rapidly fading temperature in the cool night reminded Qing Chen of what death truly meant.

Only after the assailant stopped breathing and stopped beating did Qing Chen slowly pull out the dagger.

The masked boy stood panting in front of the corpse, silently lost in thought.

Blood dripped from the tip of the knife hanging in his hand, falling drop by drop onto the cement road.

So this is what it feels like to kill someone.

Qing Chen's panting was not due to exhaustion or the strain on his heart and lungs, but rather to a nameless fear and panic within him.

He then realized why Li Shutong had said that the first murder must be committed with a knife.

He could kill someone with a gun, hitting them with a single shot from dozens of meters away, and they would be gone.

In that situation, your emotions and reactions become blurred due to distance; it's not like you've killed someone, but more like you've shot a target.

I can't see the blood, and I can't feel the heartbeat as it gradually disappears.

You will also have no reverence for life.

As a teacher, Li Shutong couldn't witness his student committing murder for the first time, but he had already taught Qing Chen the most important lesson: how to respect life.

"Brother Qing Chen," Li Tongyun called out timidly in a low voice.

The sound pulled Qing Chen back to reality, as if a hand had tightly gripped his sleeve before he fell into the abyss.

The boy turned to look at Li Tongyun, who was not far away.

The little girl remained silent, as if she had been stunned by what she had just witnessed.

She witnessed the masked boy brutally committing murder and saw lives slip away.

Qing Chen knelt down in front of her.

He didn't remove the scarf covering his face, but simply asked softly, "Are you scared?"

Li Tongyun nodded, tears welling in her eyes. "A little."

"Why are you out? Where's your mother?" Qing Chen asked.

At this moment, Jiang Xue hurriedly ran downstairs, seemingly searching for Li Tongyun.

Even though Qing Chen's face was covered, she could recognize the boy at a glance because he was wearing her scarf on his face.

So when she found out that Li Tongyun and Qing Chen were together, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Xue came to the door and explained to Qing Chen, "I went to the restroom, and when I came out, she was gone. Xiaoyun, you scared your mother to death!"

Li Tongyun lowered her head. "I just want to help Brother Qing Chen."

Qing Chen was stunned for a moment. It turned out that the other party's appearance here was not accidental, but to help him.

He thought for a moment and was about to raise his hand to pat Li Tongyun's head, but then he remembered that his hands were covered in blood, so he slowly withdrew his arm.

Before he could fully retract his hand, Li Tongyun reached out and grabbed his palm, placing it on her head. "Brother Qing Chen, be careful. Mom and I are waiting for you to come back."

"Yes," Qing Chen smiled, "It's a deal."

After saying that, he asked Jiang Xue to help drag the assailant's body into the courtyard of the guesthouse, and then handed the gun from the assailant's waist to Jiang Xue: "I plan to sneak into the Cloud Inn. If I fire a shot there, even if it's equipped with a silencer, it will attract attention, so this is for you."

Jiang Xue shook her head. "You should take it with you. You're in more danger. In a Life and Death Trial, who cares about attracting attention? Just shoot."

Qing Chen paused for a moment, then smiled and removed the gun holster from the thug's waist, tying it around his own.

Although he had never touched a gun before and didn't know how to use it, firing a gun would attract the attention of other criminals and lead to him being surrounded and attacked.

But having a gun is always better than not having one.

Li Shutong once said that a knight must use a knife for his first murder, and he has now done so.

This shouldn't be the first time he's killed someone.

You can use a gun.

Qing Chen patted Li Tongyun's head. "You must be good this time and wait for me to come back."

"Yes," Li Tongyun nodded.

Just then, a voice spoke from the walkie-talkie on the assailant's chest, "Begin counting off now, 1."

The thugs' cold voices rang out. "2."

"3."

"4."

There was a slight pause, and Qing Chen immediately activated his Breathing Technique, perfectly replicating the assailant's voice with his perfect memory. "5."

He was about to turn off the walkie-talkie when a new countdown came from the speaker again.

"6."

"7."

"8."

Qing Chen suddenly froze.

There are three more thugs now!

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