Accident

At noon, the sun hung high in the sky.

Even the originally frigid winter carried a trace of warmth.

Many frozen roads had gradually thawed as well, making travel by carriage safer and less prone to skidding.

Yet Luo Houping's brows were tightly furrowed as he looked at the large pack of starving wolves gathered in the distance.

Every one of them was skin and bones, green light glinting in their eyes.

There had been more refugees outside the city lately. Most traveled in groups, hunting game everywhere to make a living, greatly squeezing the wolves' living space.

Luo Houping took out a yellowed sheet of paper covered in lines and many red circles.

Every red circle represented the deaths of at least one person.

This map had been carved out with human lives.

There were roughly seventy or eighty starving wolves ahead, and starving wolves were far stronger and fiercer than ordinary wolves.

If they forced their way through, several people would inevitably be injured.

More seriously, the horses could easily be startled.

Not only might they overturn the medicinal materials, they might also refuse to go any farther.

After deliberating for a long while, Luo Houping chose to take a detour.

"This road is blocked. There's a dirt path beside it, perhaps two or three li long. Once we go around, we can return to the main road."

Luo Houping called out loudly.

Li Chuan found it rather strange.

Although wolves were pack animals, it was rare to see seventy or eighty of them moving together.

Something suspicious was probably happening ahead!

He also raised his guard, nudging Wang Youfang with his elbow to tell him to be careful.

The dirt path was clearly much harder to travel than the main road.

Though the main road was not paved with bluestone and was full of potholes, at least it had few obstacles and was wide enough.

But once they entered the dirt path, everything changed completely.

Weeds grew thickly, large rocks blocked the way from time to time, and the dense forest greatly reduced visibility.

They could only observe what lay ahead through gaps in the trees.

The horses were scratched by sharp branches, leaving many wounds and making them restless and agitated.

Dirt paths often led into places rarely visited by people, where it was easy to encounter fierce beasts such as tigers.

Of course, tigers were nothing to this large medicine-delivery convoy.

But if they encountered a Monster Beast comparable to a human martial artist, they would be in trouble.

Monster Beasts possessed physiques superior to martial artists of the same realm. It often took two or three people to deal with one Monster Beast of the same level.

Luo Houping wore a grave expression. At that moment, he no longer concealed his Dark Force cultivation, and a suffocating pressure spread in all directions.

The forest, once filled with every kind of sound, immediately fell silent.

Li Chuan was startled. He had not expected Dark Force to exert such tremendous pressure on him.

It was on an entirely different level from Bright Force.

Perhaps Luo Houping's aura had worked. The rest of the journey went smoothly, without venomous snakes or fierce beasts harassing them.

As they neared the exit of the dirt path and were about to merge onto the main road, everyone's expressions finally relaxed somewhat.

Wang Youfang had just opened his mouth to speak.

Crack!

The sound of stepping on dry leaves was especially piercing in the silent forest.

Everyone turned around at once.

Wang Youfang raised his hand apologetically. "That was me."

Everyone let out a breath of relief.

Bang!

In the blink of an eye, a long grayish-white arm shot out from the bushes and lunged straight for Luo Houping's throat!

If this strike landed, he would likely die on the spot!

Luo Houping's eyes nearly split apart. He hurriedly dodged, narrowly evading the fatal blow.

Yet he was still knocked to the ground.

When the dust settled, Li Chuan finally saw clearly.

It was a long-armed ape, grayish-white all over, with mottled white brows!

"A Monster Beast, a White-Browed Ape, with Dark Force strength! Can the boss hold it off?!"

Wang Youfang trembled violently in terror.

Li Chuan said nothing. He secretly gathered strength in his legs, his vigilant gaze sweeping the surroundings.

If things went wrong, he could flee immediately!

After all, he did not need to outrun the White-Browed Ape. He only needed to outrun everyone else.

Fortunately, Luo Houping was highly skilled in combat and actually fought the White-Browed Ape to a standstill.

Wang Youfang took a deep breath.

"The White-Browed Ape is quite intelligent. If it realizes it cannot do anything to us, it may choose to conserve its strength and leave."

Just then, the White-Browed Ape's eyes rolled, and it suddenly shifted its body, charging straight at the carriages.

"You beast!" Luo Houping cursed angrily. "Take the carriages and leave now! Wait for me on the main road—I'll lure the White-Browed Ape away!"

Everyone hurriedly drove the carriages onward, but amid the panic, someone actually fell.

Li Chuan focused his eyes and saw that he was even a Bright Force martial artist.

"How did someone with such poor nerves cultivate Bright Force?" Li Chuan had no time to mock him. He grabbed the reins and ran forward.

The main road was not far away to begin with. After sprinting wildly for a while, everyone finally emerged.

The sounds of fighting in the dense forest also gradually faded into the distance.

After hurriedly traveling another few li, everyone finally stopped to rest.

Wang Youfang's lips had turned white, and he still had lingering fear.

"We almost died back there. The White-Browed Ape pounced at the carriage beside me. If I died, wouldn't my wife have to become a widow, or end up benefiting someone else?"

"At a time like this, you're still thinking about that..." Li Chuan was speechless.

He found a place to sit and seized the time to recover his strength.

"Nothing happened the last time I escorted goods. Why is this trip so dangerous? First starving wolves, then a White-Browed Ape—each one is more terrifying than the last!" someone complained, patting his chest.

"Wait, isn't that a group of refugees coming toward us?" someone reminded them.

Li Chuan turned his head and discovered that they were a group of refugee youths, fourteen or fifteen years old.

He frowned, feeling that something was off.

He kept feeling that the light in these people's eyes was very much like that of the starving wolves.

"Masters of the Luo Family, please show mercy! We haven't eaten anything for three or four days!"

The sharp-browed youth at the front took the lead in kneeling, crying loudly.

The more than thirty youths behind him also knelt at the sound, their cries shaking heaven and earth.

Wang Youfang lifted the cloth covering and took a look, saying awkwardly,

"We already handed out all the porridge we had earlier. Go find someone else."

The sharp-browed youth hugged Wang Youfang's leg and cried,

"Master, please show mercy and give us some silver to buy food! Otherwise, we'll starve to death!"

Wang Youfang hurriedly shook his head.

"Where would we get any money?"

The sharp-browed youth's eyes spun.

"What are the carriages carrying? It would be fine if you shared some with us!"

"Yes, masters, share some with us!"

More than thirty people shouting at once was quite a startling sight.

Wang Youfang's face paled. He realized that these refugees had no good intentions at all!

Sure enough, as they shouted, other refugees gradually began gathering as well, kneeling on the ground.

It was foreseeable that, as time passed, more and more refugees would gather.

By then, if they wanted to pass through, they would likely have to pay a considerable price!

Everyone looked at one another. They were all newcomers who had only delivered medicine a few times—how could they know how to handle this?

"How about killing one or two of them to scare the rest away?" someone suggested.

Another person pointed at the fluttering Luo Family banner.

"There are so many of them. If you kill them and they still refuse to leave, are you going to keep killing? If you ruin the Luo Family's reputation, can you bear the responsibility?"

The others fell silent.

A reputation for benevolence and righteousness was both praise and shackles.

If people from the Black Bear Gang were here, they would certainly kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys without another word.

But the Luo Family Pharmacy had spent more than a decade building its reputation for "benevolence and righteousness." If they dared kill so many refugees, it would be destroyed in a single day.

After all, many people did business with them precisely because they valued that reputation.

"But this carriage of goods is worth dozens of taels of silver. If we lose it because of this, will we have a good ending either?" someone muttered quietly.

If they failed at their task, no one would hire them for such work in the future.

Without this job, where would they get the money to practice martial arts?

A smug glint flashed through the sharp-browed youth's eyes.

This "plea for help" would soon succeed.

More and more refugees gathered. Once two or three hundred people had assembled, the Luo Family Pharmacy would be unable to leave even if it wanted to.

Then they would be at his mercy!

The sharp-browed youth threw himself at the feet of the person beside Wang Youwei and continued crying.

"Master, my suffering is so great!"

He secretly raised his head to look, only to find no hesitation or uncertainty on the man's face—only indifference.

A powerful arm lifted him up.

"Then go die."

Li Chuan gripped the sharp-browed youth's throat. With a crisp crack,

he crushed it directly!

The sharp-browed youth's eyes gradually lost their light.

He was dead!

Everyone was stunned!