Fighting the Bear, Impossible to Defeat

The Bearman's appearance gave everyone a fright. The guards immediately drew their long blades and rushed to meet it.

"Roar!" The Bearman let out an enraged bellow, its foul, bloody breath washing over them.

Before the guards' blades could fall, the Bearman's paw smashed down onto the head of the leading guard, pulverizing his skull on the spot.

Lu Xingshi's eyes widened at the sight.

This Bearman was most likely a brown bear. Its build was somewhat smaller, yet its strength and agility had not diminished in the slightest—instead, they were even greater.

It also seemed far more cunning.

It had actually used the fog as cover and could even disguise itself as a human, luring them into its trap.

If someone had carelessly approached and discovered it was a bear that looked like a human, they would probably have been scared out of their wits on the spot.

More importantly, bears ate their prey alive. It would make you watch yourself being devoured bit by bit, the entire process excruciatingly painful.

As for playing dead, that was simply no way to escape it.

Lu Xingshi now understood why this Mutant had been able to occupy this place and prey on people. First, it was strong. Second, it was cunning.

After killing the first guard, the Bearman did not immediately crush the second guard's head. Instead, it severely wounded him and dragged him into the thick fog amid his screams. A long trail of blood stretched into the mist, vanishing into uncertainty.

Naturally, the others did not possess Lu Xingshi's Mental Fortitude. Most of them were badly frightened.

"Let's... let's go..." Feng Gu shuddered. In all his years traveling north and south, he had truly never encountered anything like this.

As merchants, the people they encountered most often were the Greenwood folk. But they had already paid their respects; hand over some money, and they could pass. Wild animals generally did not dare approach them either.

So most of the time, just like the name of their caravan, their journeys were very peaceful.

"Crunch... crunch..."

The words had barely left his mouth when chewing sounds rose up, as though bones were being gnawed.

Everyone's faces stiffened. Of course they knew what was being chewed. If they listened carefully, they could even hear faint screams.

"Go back. We need to go back, quickly," Feng Gu said at once.

"It'll be dark soon. We won't make it back to Floating Goose Town in time. We can only charge through. Reaching Que Mi Village is our only chance of survival," Lu Xingshi immediately warned.

If they turned back now, the Bearman would catch up to them.

He had seen the Bearman's speed. It was quite a bit faster than his own, and its Physical Constitution was probably around fifteen points.

No wonder it was called a Mutant. There really was something wrong with it.

He became even more certain that this Martial Arts World was far from being merely Low Martial. Otherwise, how could a Mutant like the Bearman have appeared?

Feng Gu came to his senses as well, then nodded. "Charge. Charge through, quickly."

He had been scared out of his wits.

There was nothing shameful about that. If Lu Xingshi had not possessed ten points of Mental Fortitude, he too would have been badly terrified. There was no way he could have remained this calm.

"Throw away the goods. Travel light!" Feng Gu had not completely lost his head. If the cargo was lost, so be it. His father was still above him; at worst, he would lose a chunk of flesh. But if he lost his life, then he would have nothing left.

Once dawn came and the Bearman had left, they could bring some villagers back to retrieve the goods.

Everyone moved quickly. They immediately chopped through the reins connecting the wagons, separating the front from the back. Then they drove the lighter carriage straight ahead. Three horses pulled side by side, and they moved quite fast.

Because the carriage had an open-top structure, as they passed by, they could see the Bearman sprawled on the Official Road, gnawing on that guard. In just that short time, the guard's lower half had already been eaten away.

The man still had a breath left in him, but he no longer had the strength to resist.

That bite force is truly terrifying, Lu Xingshi silently marveled.

Yet their attempt to charge past seemed to enrage the Bearman. It suddenly lunged at them.

Seeing this, Lu Xingshi did not hesitate. He snatched the long blade from the guard beside him, circulated his Inner Force, and slashed diagonally at the Bearman's hairless head, from upper left to lower right.

With ten points of Physical Constitution and twenty-one points of Inner Force, he carved a wound down the Bearman's face to its chest.

Then he kicked the Bearman hard in the abdomen.

He had felt nothing when he struck with the blade before, but when he kicked it this time, Lu Xingshi finally realized just how hard its body was.

Fortunately, that did not matter. His kick directly sent the lunging Bearman flying.

Only after suffering those two injuries did the Bearman roar twice and stop pursuing them.

After delivering that kick, Lu Xingshi collapsed into a sitting position. The carriage sped onward, and the Bearman gradually disappeared behind them.

"Brother Lu, are you all right?" Feng Gu hurried over to support Lu Xingshi. His reaction was quick.

"I'm fine. Just a little drained." Lu Xingshi's Inner Force had been completely emptied, and it was his first time fighting, so he was somewhat lacking. Fortunately, his strength recovered quickly. He handed the blade back to the guard. "Desperate times called for desperate measures. Please forgive me for taking your blade."

The guard hurriedly accepted it. "What are you saying? I should be thanking you. If that Bearman had pounced on us, I'm afraid no one in this carriage would have survived."

They had all witnessed how strong the Bearman was.

"I'm afraid this isn't over yet." Lu Xingshi looked gravely toward the thick fog behind them.

"Bears have an extremely powerful sense of smell, and they are vengeful enough."

"That slash of mine was, at most, a flesh wound. That kick would not have injured it much either. The Bearman was only frightened."

"Once it recovers, it will definitely come looking for us."

Not every bear was a tame, people-friendly creature raised in a zoo. Bears in the wild were truly vicious.

"What should we do, then?" Feng Gu now treated Lu Xingshi as the one holding their world together.

"It's simple. Kill it," Lu Xingshi said calmly.

Feng Gu hesitated upon hearing that.

It sounded easy, but doing it would not be easy at all.

Lu Xingshi had said himself that his slash was only a flesh wound. How were they supposed to fight it? "Brother Lu, are you confident?" Feng Gu asked. He certainly was not. He could only place his hopes on Lu Xingshi.

"No." Lu Xingshi spread his hands. How the hell could he be confident? This Bearman Mutant was clearly not something an ordinary martial artist could handle. The Great Song Dynasty Court would need to dispatch troops to surround and suppress it.

Matchlock Cannons and artillery would all have to be brought in. Otherwise, blades and swords could not harm this Bearman at all.

As for those martial arts experts and grandmasters, Lu Xingshi did not know. He had little understanding of such people.

After all, he came from a modernized society. He knew what Heat Weapons were capable of, but Martial Arts that had not existed in his previous life gave him nothing to compare against.

As for the Martial Arts he possessed, they were merely the most common of common goods. They could not represent the upper limits of martial artists.

Fortunately, as the carriage raced onward, Que Mi Village came into view.