A lone young hunter who had ventured into the mountains, seemingly timid and carrying a bag of game, looked to them like a fat sheep walking right into their hands.
"Brother," the square-faced young man said, stepping forward with a smile forced onto his face. He cupped his fists and continued, "I'm Liu Kui, a disciple of the Gale Wind Martial Hall. These two are my junior brothers. May I ask your name?"
Chen Jianghe slowly turned around, his face taking on a suitably fearful, uneasy expression. He returned the salute with cupped fists, lowering his voice to sound timid. "I-I'm Chen Er, just an herb gatherer... What can I do for you, sirs?"
As he spoke, Chen Jianghe "nervously" shielded his pack. "Th-this is a dead muntjac I just found... I-I only cut off a little meat..."
"You found it?" The tall, thin man licked his cracked lips, a greedy glint flashing in his eyes. "You're pretty lucky, brother. But Black Wind Ridge is Green Dragon Gang territory now. If they catch you hunting without permission, they'll chop off your hand."
He paused, his tone turning cold. "How about this? Give us half the meat, and we'll pretend we didn't see anything. What do you say?"
Chen Jianghe "hesitated" for a moment, then suddenly gritted his teeth. He took off his pack and held it out with both hands. "S-sirs, if you want it, you can take it all... Just please spare me..."
He kept his head lowered, his body trembling faintly, looking as though he'd been scared out of his wits.
A look of disdain flashed through Liu Kui's eyes. He reached out to take the pack.
The moment his fingers were about to touch it—
Chen Jianghe moved.
His "trembling" hands suddenly steadied. He flicked his right hand, sending the pack flying—not toward the square-faced young man, but straight at the tall, thin man on his right!
The tall, thin man reflexively reached out to catch it.
At that instant, Chen Jianghe had already pulled a bag of lime powder from his robes with his left hand. He flicked it open with his thumb, and the gray-white powder mixed with Bone-Corroding Powder burst up like a cloud of smoke, showering all three men in the face!
None of them had expected the "timid hunter" to suddenly launch an attack.
They were too close, and the powder came too fast.
"Ahh—!"
Their screams rang out almost simultaneously.
The lime blinded their eyes, while the Bone-Corroding Powder seared their skin.
Liu Kui reacted the fastest. He shut his eyes and leaped back, wildly swinging his saber to guard himself.
The stocky man, however, roared in fury and, without a care for anything, swung his saber down at the spot where Chen Jianghe had just been standing!
The blade cut through empty air.
The moment he flung the lime powder, Chen Jianghe had already sidestepped and slid around to the stocky man's left.
The Butchery Blade came free of its sheath.
Its blade flashed like snow as it slipped between the stocky man's third and fourth ribs on the left, angling upward to pierce through his heart and lungs.
Chen Jianghe twisted the blade and pulled it free.
Blood gushed like a spring.
The stocky man shuddered all over. Eyes wide, he stared in disbelief at the bloody hole in his chest and opened his mouth, but only a mouthful of foul blood came out. He toppled to the ground with a thud.
The tall, thin man had just caught the pack when the lime powder blinded him. He clutched his face and howled in pain. Hearing a rush of wind behind him, he hurriedly swept his saber backward.
But Chen Jianghe had already crouched. Wearing Brass Knuckles, he drove a Crushing Fist straight into the back of the tall, thin man's right knee!
Crack!
His kneecap shattered.
The tall, thin man screamed and dropped to his knees.
Chen Jianghe rose. His blade flashed, plunging into the back of the man's neck and severing his tendons.
The scream cut off abruptly.
By then, Liu Kui had managed to pry open his eyes, scorched by the lime. His vision was blurry, but he could just make out his two junior brothers lying on the ground and the "hunter" standing with a blade in his hand, his eyes as cold as frost.
"You!" Liu Kui cried, both shocked and furious, as he charged with his saber.
He was, after all, a formal disciple of the Gale Wind Martial Hall with Bright Strength cultivation. His desperate counterattack was fierce.
But Chen Jianghe refused to meet him head-on.
He tapped the ground with his toes and drifted backward like a ghost, flicking up his left hand at the same time—
A second handful of lime powder!
Liu Kui had been ready for it. He hurriedly shut his eyes and turned his head aside, but the powder still grazed his cheek, leaving it stinging and burning.
At that moment, Chen Jianghe had already cut into his centerline. The blade in his right hand darted forward like a venomous snake, stabbing straight at his throat.
Liu Kui listened for the wind and struck at the blade with his saber.
Clang!
The two blades clashed.
Chen Jianghe gave his wrist a flick, unleashing Dark Strength and channeling it along the blade straight into his opponent's arm.
Liu Kui felt a soft, insidious force worm into his tendons and channels. His entire right arm went numb, and he nearly dropped his saber.
He was horrified and tried to pull away.
How could Chen Jianghe let him escape?
Five Elements Fist—Cannon Fist!
His left fist shot out like a cannon and struck Liu Kui square in the chest.
Dark Strength pierced through his body, shaking his heart and lungs.
Liu Kui grunted, spat blood, and stumbled backward.
He stared wide-eyed at Chen Jianghe and rasped, "Y-you're actually... Dark Strength... And you even used poison... V-vile..."
Chen Jianghe stepped after him, his blade flashing again.
This time, Liu Kui no longer had the strength to block.
The blade entered beneath his jaw and pierced through his skull.
His eyes bulged as he stared fixedly at Chen Jianghe. A strange "hrrk, hrrk" sound came from his throat before he slowly fell to the ground.
Chen Jianghe's expression did not change.
In this world, if you didn't kill others, they killed you. Since his opponents had already revealed their murderous intent and acted on it, they were enemies to the death.
He wasted no more time and began to clean up the scene with practiced efficiency.
First, he dragged the three bodies together and quickly searched them for anything of value—more than twenty taels of silver, several bottles of ordinary wound medicine, and three identity plaques from the Gale Wind Martial Hall.
Chen Jianghe pocketed the money and medicine, then threw the wooden plaques and other useless odds and ends into a ravine ahead along with the three bodies.
He watched as the three bodies bobbed in the rushing water and its whirlpool a few times, then were quickly swallowed by the muddy waves and disappeared without a trace.
Standing by the ravine, Chen Jianghe murmured, "Even the outer reaches aren't safe anymore."
Even formal disciples of a martial hall had begun ambushing and killing passersby for a few mouthfuls of meat. The order in the outer reaches of Black Wind Ridge had already collapsed to this extent.
If he stayed, hunting would only grow more difficult, and he would be more likely to run into more ambushes like this, needlessly increasing the risk.
He no longer hesitated. Turning around, he hurried back to the Hidden Stone Cave.
There were still plenty of strips of meat drying inside. He quickly gathered them up, wrapped them tightly in oilcloth, and stuffed them into his pack.
At last, he carefully inspected the cave and erased every trace of anyone having lived there.
Once everything was in order, he crouched in the shadows at the cave entrance and waited in silence.
Based on his observations over the past few days, the Green Dragon Guard patrol changed shifts briefly sometime between the hour of the tiger and the hour of the rabbit, for about a quarter of an hour.
That was the best time to head down the mountain.
Dusk fell, and silence settled over the forest.
Chen Jianghe closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, bringing himself into peak condition.
He slipped out of the cave and followed the map and the narrow path he had discovered, hurrying soundlessly toward the foot of the mountain.
Everything went smoothly. He was just about to cross the stretch of dense forest ahead, beyond which lay the relatively safe low hills.
The instant he was about to step out of the forest, an extremely subtle yet razor-sharp aura locked onto him.
The hairs all over Chen Jianghe's body stood on end. He stopped dead.
He slowly turned around.
A figure stood in a clearing among the trees. Chen Jianghe had no idea when he had appeared.
The man looked to be around thirty, with a hard, unyielding face.
He wore a finely made, black, close-fitting outfit beneath light armor. A sheathed-less long saber hung at his waist, its blade dark and faintly tinged with blood-red light.
Chen Jianghe's heart sank.
He recognized that attire. It marked a low-ranking officer in the Green Dragon Guard, an elite with at least Dark Strength cultivation.
The man in black swept his gaze over Chen Jianghe, lingering for a moment on his bulging pack and the Butchery Blade at his waist, before speaking in a low voice:
"Coming down the mountain from here at this hour?" He paused, his tone betraying no emotion. "State your name, which martial hall or gang you belong to, and why you entered the mountain."