The Hunt

It was almost summer, and the Gao Family had built a new garden beside the back mountain so everyone in the family could escape the heat.

It hadn't been opened yet, making it the perfect place to slip away.

After entering the garden along the path, Chen Ye finally managed to sneak out through the back gate of the Gao estate's gardens before daybreak, plunging straight into the bamboo forest covering Spring Mountain.

Spring Mountain, which the Gao estate backed onto, wasn't very tall, but its woods were dense.

Bamboo blanketed the mountain, blocking out the sky. When the wind blew, the leaves rustled, hiding anyone inside completely.

At the other end, the foot of the mountain connected to the official road. Follow it northeast, and you'd reach the county border of Qinghe Prefecture.

Once he crossed the border, the Gao Family's reach wouldn't extend so far.

Chen Ye didn't dare stop to rest.

The bruise beneath his ribs, where Zhang Tieyi had kicked him, still throbbed faintly.

Every breath felt as though someone had wedged a blade between his bones.

Grimacing through the pain, Chen Ye hurried over the mountain with his head down.

The short knife was tucked into his waist. The blood on its handle had dried, leaving it sticky, and it scraped noisily against the hem of his clothes.

After pressing on without a break until he reached the foot of the mountain on the other side, he was surprised to hear barking.

They weren't dogs raised by hunters. They were spirit hounds.

The Gao Family's.

A mountain ridge lay between them, making it hard to tell how far away they were.

These spirit hounds were especially good at tracking, but they were precious, and the Gao Family didn't have many.

Chen Ye heard barking from only one direction. The other three were silent.

The Gao Family was moving far faster than he'd expected.

Chen Ye ducked beside a fallen old bamboo stalk, crouched down, and caught his breath.

He scanned his surroundings.

The bamboo's roots rose from the ground in the distance, twisting together in a tangle. A dozen paces away, all that remained was a shifting mass of bamboo shadows.

He counted the voices in the distance.

There were the fewest people to the west.

He tightened the short knife at his waist, glanced at the old bamboo, then climbed it hand over hand and foot over foot. After going up a few meters, he peered down through gaps in the leaves.

Five people.

Two walked in front, carrying crossbows.

Two followed behind, with one at the far edge.

They were spread out in a fan, pressing toward his position.

After a brief moment of thought, Chen Ye slid quietly back down.

Five against one. A straight fight was suicide.

But the bamboo forest was dense. If he could pick them off one by one without alerting the others, he'd have a chance.

He considered the route, then found a thicket and slipped inside, lying in wait with the patience of a hunting leopard.

After a while, Chen Ye saw a Gao Family guard pass in front of the thicket.

The guard looked to be in his twenties, about five foot three, with a hunched back.

He gripped a crossbow, its arrow pointed toward the ground, and walked along muttering curses under his breath. Clearly, he didn't take the search seriously.

Chen Ye held his breath.

The man walked a dozen paces before pausing beside an old bamboo stalk, apparently intending to relieve himself behind its roots. His back was completely exposed to Chen Ye.

Chen Ye didn't hesitate.

He burst out from behind the thicket, clamped his left hand over the man's mouth from behind, and drew the short knife across his throat with his right.

The blade sliced through skin like a thick piece of leather—clean and swift.

The guard let out a few wet, muffled gasps. His fingers spasmed against the trigger, and the bolt shot crookedly into the mud.

Chen Ye kept his hand over the man's mouth and waited until his body went completely limp. Only then did he drag him into the thicket.

Kneeling beside the corpse, he quickly searched the man's clothes and found nothing but a few bits of silver.

Altogether, they amounted to about half a tael.

He exchanged all the silver for two days of life.

The number on the panel jumped.

[Remaining lifespan: twenty-three days.]

Afterward, Chen Ye also took the crossbow and quiver of arrows from the man's hands and slung them over himself. He secured his short knife again, then cautiously made his way in another direction.

This was the second time he'd killed someone.

Sure enough, killing got easier the second time around.

Now that he had some experience, his hand no longer trembled as he drew the knife across a man's throat.

The remaining four were spaced too far apart in the forest. Each could see only a dozen or so paces ahead through the bamboo.

Every so often, they called out to one another. They'd just checked in, and hadn't yet noticed one man was missing.

Using the rustling of the bamboo leaves in the wind to cover his movements, Chen Ye retreated deeper into the forest, then crept toward the second man, approaching from behind and to the side.

A raised old tree root stood in the bamboo forest, half a man's height. Crouching against it put him directly in the other man's blind spot.

Chen Ye had never fired a crossbow in his life, but at this distance, anyone could hit a target by setting a bolt and pulling the trigger.

Having undergone Mortal Shedding once, Chen Ye's breathing was steady.

Crouched on the tree root, he braced the crossbow against his knee and aimed at the man's back before pulling the trigger.

There was a soft thunk.

Chen Ye heard the muffled sound of a bolt sinking into flesh.

The guard staggered forward two steps and grabbed a bamboo stalk.

A few wet gurgles escaped his throat before he fell face-first into the dead leaves.

Chen Ye went over and crouched beside him, quickly searching his clothes.

One tael of silver.

Blood was still seeping steadily from the wound, soaking a large patch of his chest. Even the tael Chen Ye fished out was slick with blood.

He didn't bother wiping it off. He exchanged it for more lifespan right away.

[Remaining lifespan: twenty-seven days.]

Seeing the number steadily climb, Chen Ye felt somewhat reassured.

Just then, the remaining three finally sensed that something was wrong.

The bamboo forest fell silent for two breaths.

Then someone called out for a companion.

Chen Ye didn't answer. He reloaded the crossbow and crouched on the ground, listening to their movements.

"Something's happening over there! Hurry! Call for help!"

The three stopped searching separately and quickly closed ranks, pressing toward Chen Ye.

They hadn't gone far when they spotted him in the bamboo forest. Both sides raised their crossbows at once.

Two bolts crossed in flight and struck the bamboo behind Chen Ye, each landing with a dull thunk.

The bamboo forest offered terrible visibility, and neither side hit their target.

Chen Ye didn't linger to fight. He quickly retreated to the earthen wall of a washout on the slope and regulated his breathing using the force-generating method of the Array-Breaking Style.

"The three of us will surround him. We just have to hold him off for a while. Once the others get our message, he won't get away."

Chen Ye glanced at them. The three were gradually closing in around him.

The nearest one was on the left, where the view was most open.

Chen Ye suddenly vaulted over the washout's wall and pulled the crossbow trigger at the man on the left.

The other man reacted quickly and fired as well.

The two bolts crossed in flight again. Neither hit, but Chen Ye had already rushed up to him.

He decisively abandoned the crossbow and drew his knife, charging forward as he poured every ounce of strength into it.

The guard hurriedly raised his knife to block, taking cover behind a stalk of bamboo.

But it didn't help.

Chen Ye's tremendous force cleaved straight through the bamboo, as thick as a bowl. The blade didn't slow as it scraped past the guard on his knife hand and cut diagonally into his ribs.

The man grunted and staggered backward. His foot caught on a bamboo root, and he crashed heavily to the ground.

Chen Ye had no time to finish him off.

The other two had already arrived.

They saw that Chen Ye was alone, and both their knives were so badly nicked that they were nearly useless.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with their blades held across their bodies, they said, "You can't get away. The whole mountain is crawling with Gao Family men. Be smart and surrender, and you might still get out alive."

Chen Ye didn't answer. He weighed the notched short knife in his hand, then suddenly hurled it at them.