Former Friend, Friend Unto Death!

A sudden turn of events left matters beyond anyone's control.

The scholar had already sighed to himself and prepared to hand over everything he owned: the basket on his back, the few tattered books and dry provisions inside, and the cloth bundle at his waist—perhaps so shabby as to be laughable in the bandits' eyes—in exchange for nothing more than his life.

Yet he had never expected events to change so quickly.

Just as he had no choice but to obediently take off the old bamboo basket, waterproofed with tung oil, from his back as the highwaymen demanded—

Several figures suddenly shot out of the roadside woods like ghosts, following the same path the bandits had come from. Their movements were incomparably clean and swift. Before many shouts could even be raised, all he saw were streaks of blade light flashing like silken ribbons!

These were clearly trained fighters. In the span of a hare's leap and a falcon's dive, they were nothing like the earlier bandits, whose flailing had been little more than bluster. Their blades and spears sank into flesh in one fluid motion, striking straight for vital points.

Stunned, the scholar heard several short, muffled thuds, like a farmer's blade cutting through yellow grain—or a blunt weapon striking sacks stuffed with millet.

Then the bandits, who had been so ferocious just moments ago, crumpled without a sound, becoming the source of dark red pools that slowly spread across the ground.

The two or three people who had dealt with the bandits, along with those who had timidly emerged from Tree Woods only after everything was settled, numbered six or seven strangers in all, each dressed differently.

There were ordinary-looking men in gray short jackets, two Daoists in dark yellow striped robes and square crowns, and a Hunter