The Sun Brothers

"Creaaak—"

The shabby wooden door let out a piercing groan as Jiang Feng stepped into the little cabin.

By the moonlight spilling through the window, he felt his way to the oil lamp and lit its tiny flame. A dim yellow glow slowly spread through the room, and at last he could make out the furnishings:

Several crude plank beds, two pitch-black wooden cabinets standing against the wall, and an old water vat in the corner that had long since dried up.

He reached out and touched one lightly. A thick layer of dust clung to his fingertips.

"Looks like nobody's lived here for a long time. The people who came before us must have moved into the new cabins. This small, shabby old place was just abandoned."

Jiang Feng wasn't particular about where he stayed. As long as it kept out the wind and rain and gave him somewhere safe, it was enough.

He'd even managed to live in that hovel at the Medicine Hall, converted from a doghouse. Compared with that, this place was pretty decent. He raised the oil lamp and started toward the plank bed, but suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Something wasn't right.

He looked down at the floor, his brows slowly knitting together. Every piece of furniture in the room was coated in dust, yet the floor was unusually clean.

He crouched and wiped a hand across it. Sure enough, there was hardly any dust. There was only one explanation for that.

"Looks like someone came in before me. And they haven't been gone long."

He clearly remembered that before they arrived, no one from the Medicine Hall had been assigned to guard this outpost. Whoever had entered the cabin must have been an outsider.

He would have preferred if it were just a thief, someone who'd come in hoping to find something valuable.

But the other person's actions didn't fit a thief's logic at all. What kind of thief cleaned up after you before leaving?

So this definitely wasn't a robbery. It was a planned reconnaissance.

If Jiang Feng hadn't been able to figure out what Fan Qingyang was up to before, he now had a pretty good idea.

"Fan Qingyang must have contacted an outsider and plans to make a move against me here."

If Fan Qingyang had only brought those eight apprentices with him, Jiang Feng truly wouldn't have been afraid.

But the other side had actually hired outside help. He had no choice but to take that seriously. Who knew how strong their backup was?

If they sent a real martial artist, his meager skills at the sixth level of the Blood-Moving Realm wouldn't stand a chance.

But on second thought, he didn't think that was very likely. Hiring a real martial artist to assassinate him would surely cost a fortune.

Besides, in Fan Qingyang's eyes, he was just a useless apprentice who hadn't even reached the second level of the Blood-Moving Realm. There was no need to spend that much.

Jiang Feng glanced at his stats panel, then looked through the window at the cold moon in the sky and murmured:

"Time, hurry up. Once I break through to the seventh level of the Blood-Moving Realm, I might not be so passive."

At the same time, in a dense forest not far from the outpost.

Fan Qingyang was huddled with three burly men, speaking in low voices as they discussed something.

The three men looked about five or six parts alike. All had thick brows, wide mouths, high cheekbones, and rugged features. Their skin was dark and rough, and one glance was enough to tell they'd spent years scrambling through the mountains and wilds.

These were the helpers Fan Qingyang had hired to make absolutely sure of success: the famous hunters of Black Water Town, the Sun Brothers.

"Brother Sun, can you guarantee this will go off without a hitch?"

The eldest, Sun Bowei, was the most imposing of the three.

His shoulders were exceptionally broad, and a huge black-lacquered horn bow, nearly as tall as a man, was slung across his back. He stood like an iron tower, his presence intimidating. An old scar slashed from his brow to his cheekbone, like a vicious centipede coiled across his face. It looked terrifying.

He stared fixedly at the little cabin in the distance, then slowly curled his lips into a vicious smile.

"He's a useless second-level Blood-Moving Realm nobody. Killing him won't be much harder than killing a wild chicken. But, as you said, we need to make some special adjustments to the scene. That's a little troublesome, but it's no big deal."

Hearing this, Fan Qingyang smiled too. "With your word, Brother Sun, I can rest easy."

As he spoke, he pulled a heavy little cloth pouch from his robes and handed it over. "Brother Sun, here's ten taels of silver as a deposit. Once the job's done, I'll pay you the other half in full."

Sun Bowei gently pushed the silver back and shook his head.

"Forget the silver. Give us Blood-Qi Pills instead. A bottle of Blood-Qi Pills costs twenty taels, doesn't it? You're with the Medicine Hall. This shouldn't be hard for you to arrange."

Fan Qingyang hesitated. He really wasn't sure he could pull this off.

"Brother Sun, we agreed on this beforehand. Isn't it a little underhanded to change the deal at the last minute?"

A vicious smile spread across Sun Bowei's face. His scar looked almost as if it had come alive, all twisted and terrifying.

"Didn't you add new demands at the last minute too? A small change on my end isn't a big deal."

Fan Qingyang was at a loss for words. He instinctively wanted to call off the operation and use retreat as a feint.

But Sun Bowei seemed to see right through him. His palm, as big as a fan, landed on Fan Qingyang's shoulder, his fingers tightening until the pressure made Fan Qingyang's shoulder blades creak.

"Brother Fan, the Sun Brothers aren't your underlings. Now that we've started working together, we're seeing it through to the end."

Sun Bowei spoke at an unhurried pace, but his words carried a threat that brooked no refusal.

"Besides, two of us are at the fifth level of the Blood-Moving Realm, and one is at the eighth. All we're asking for in return for making this trip is a bottle of Blood-Qi Pills. That's not expensive at all."

Sun Zhongheng, the second brother, and Sun Shumeng, the youngest, also stepped closer with menacing looks.

Fan Qingyang had never faced anything like this. His face instantly paled.

What kind of mountain hunters were these men? They were bandits!

Pain kept shooting through his shoulder. He gritted his teeth and finally swallowed their demand.

"Fine! But I can't give you the Blood-Qi Pills in advance. Once the job is done and we get back to the Medicine Hall, we'll talk."

Sun Bowei smiled, eased the pressure, and gave Fan Qingyang's shoulder a light pat. He looked almost like he was soothing a well-behaved junior.

"No problem. Now just sit back and enjoy the show."

A short while later, the light in the little cabin in the distance went out.

Sun Bowei decided the time had come and gave his two younger brothers a look. Sun Zhongheng and Sun Shumeng nodded, raised their weapons, and silently crept toward the cabin.

The three brothers made their living as hunters. Though they were ruggedly built, their footwork was well-practiced.

The two moved nimbly and lightly, like mountain cats silently closing in beneath the night sky. They made their way right up to the cabin without making a sound.

Sun Zhongheng took a long, slender blowpipe from his robes, then peered through a crack in the window.

They'd already scouted the place during the day and knew the beds by heart.

In the faint moonlight, he immediately spotted a dark, curled-up shape on the plank bed at the far end.

He silently slipped the blowpipe through the window crack and aimed at the shadow. His cheeks puffed out, and with a faint whoosh, the dart struck its target.