First kill

"The map isn't with us. The person we left in the stockade to meet us has disappeared too."

At this point, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu stopped pretending.

He said frankly, "The map is gone."

"Why didn't you say so sooner? You old dog, how much of our time have you wasted? Were you deliberately playing us?

"If we can't leave by noon today, we'll all die on the road tonight!"

Peng Tianli flew into a rage. He grabbed his weapon and sprang to his feet.

Peng Tianli had thought this old dog from the Central Plains Dynasty was withholding the map because he was waiting for someone.

Who would have thought he would only tell him now?

He had never had the map at all!

He had been lying!

Lin Feng saw that Peng Tianli's weapon was a two-handed saber, which he had previously kept behind his backside.

A two-handed saber had a long handle and was somewhat shorter than a great saber. It was hardly a sophisticated weapon, and many remained in civilian hands.

It probably wasn't his imagination. As Peng Tianli's anger rose, Lin Feng saw what looked like a mass of black vapor swirling around his chest.

Seeing Peng Tianli draw his weapon, Liao Chi, whose head was wrapped up, hurried over to smooth things over.

With this sudden intervention, the black mist at Peng Tianli's chest disappeared too.

When Peng Tianli drew his saber, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu also reached for his goose-feather saber.

In those days, most members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were hardened men fresh from the battlefield. The instant the unremarkable Hundred-Household Officer Zhu touched his saber, goose bumps covered Lin Feng's back.

There was an expression for it: "a back prickling with needles."

Lin Feng truly felt as if there were a sick tiger beside him.

The officer's gaze was dark, ready to kill with a single blow at any moment.

Seeing this, Lin Feng gripped his sword hilt too, making a show of being ready to support Hundred-Household Officer Zhu at any time.

Even so, he still had time to observe the others.

Apart from Peng Tianli, neither Liao Chi nor Third Lady on the native chieftain's side wanted a confrontation with Hundred-Household Officer Zhu.

Liao Chi seemed to be a peacemaker.

Third Lady sat to one side with her head lowered, like a wronged young wife, saying nothing.

With everyone on the verge of drawing blades, Lin Feng frowned. He felt he still hadn't done enough homework.

There had to be some backstory to this situation that he didn't know.

Hatred didn't come from nowhere.

Given today's situation, either something had happened among this group on the mountain road last night...

Or Peng Tianli was simply an idiot.

There were no other possibilities.

Watching everyone waste their strength fighting among themselves,

Lin Feng felt no urgency at all.

He didn't know whether these people would die.

He certainly wouldn't.

He was happy to spend one life watching them drag this out.

He also wanted to see what would happen if they kept stalling.

What exactly had this stockade spawned?

One life to figure out the enemies and the deadline in the second act.

A guaranteed profit!

With someone offering him a way to back down, Peng Tianli took it. He snorted, put away his two-handed saber, turned, and walked out.

He cursed all the way.

Liao Chi held one hand before his chest, bowed slightly, and followed Peng Tianli outside. Third Lady did the same.

The guide hesitated, then stayed where he was.

Once only three people remained, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu withdrew his hand. His eyes became dull and clouded again, and he glanced at the guide.

"Get out."

The guide obediently left. Hundred-Household Officer Zhu and Lin Feng stood together, watching through the open doorway as the three outside walked away. Along the way, Third Lady took a bamboo tube from the pouch at her waist.

She crouched on the ground and opened the tube.

Lin Feng saw a palm-sized, brightly colored spider crawl out of it. Then countless tiny spiders dropped off its body, and these colorful little spiders scurried along the street in every direction.

Liao Chi seemed to sense their watching eyes and glanced back.

Lin Feng stiffened.

He saw that Liao Chi's eyes were a deep, solid black.

There wasn't even a trace of white.

With the sunlight leaving half of Liao Chi's face in shadow, the almost-smile on that face looked demonic.

Fortunately, that impression passed in an instant.

Liao Chi turned away, back toward the Shrine.

Not a single normal person here.

For some reason,

Lin Feng had a strange impression that Clear Spring Stockade was like a person. The road from the stockade gate to the Shrine was its spine, and the Shrine was its head. The surrounding stilt houses were like cancerous tumors, constantly sucking the life out of the stockade.

They were standing on Clear Spring Stockade's head.

The thought sent a chill through Lin Feng.

"Lord Lin."

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu spoke suddenly, snapping Lin Feng back to his senses.

"Lord Zhu."

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu ignored Lin Feng's courtesy and said gravely, "With those savages here earlier, there were things I couldn't say."

Well, Hundred-Household Officer Zhu calls them savages, and Peng Tianli calls him an old dog. They're as bad as each other, looking down on one another.

"Please, Lord Zhu, go ahead."

Lin Feng asked what Hundred-Household Officer Zhu wanted to tell him.

"The broken pots and gongs in Clear Spring Stockade weren't placed there by them. The second group of Embroidered Uniform Guards who came up the mountain put them there."

His opening words were a bombshell. Hundred-Household Officer Zhu held nothing back from one of his own. "Half a year ago, we contacted the grand elder here and learned that he seemed frightened of something. He wanted to make a deal with us, asking us to send his family—his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson—to Yingtian Prefecture.

"In exchange for his family's safety, he offered us a secret.

"He also told us that the Thirty-Six Stockades were jointly guarding a secret. The Grand Elder had someone write a confidential letter and deliver it to Lord Mao. Later, Lord Mao ordered me to communicate with the Grand Elder in secret.

"Just half a month ago, the Grand Elder sent another letter. We don't know what it said.

"After that, the Thousand-Household Officer took a number of experts to the stockade, and they disappeared..."

Before he could finish, Lin Feng suddenly saw Hundred-Household Officer Zhu's expression change.

He whipped out his Wild Goose Feather Saber.

"Hah!"

With an explosive shout, he hurled the Wild Goose Feather Saber behind Lin Feng. Every hair on Lin Feng's body stood on end. He drew his Wrought-Iron Sword and thrust behind him.

His sword shot out like a dragon, but struck empty air.

"Above you!"

Hundred-Household Officer Zhu still had two short blades behind his waist. He drew them in a swift motion. Lin Feng hastily looked up and caught a fleeting glimpse of a face that looked skinned, swollen, and pale from soaking in water!

The face was covered in bloodless folds, and the eyes within its rotting sockets were startlingly black. Realizing it had been discovered, the creature crawled toward the window so fast it almost left afterimages.

At that same moment, Lin Feng also heard Buddhist chanting rise from outside the stockade gate!

A scream rang out.

The guide standing outside the doorway had his head ripped off, along with a short section of his spine. Amid the spraying blood, a blood-red shadow drifted toward Lin Feng.

Faced with the attack, Lin Feng's hands moved faster than his mind. Guided by his Swordsmanship Mastery, he thrust, then flicked his blade upward.

It all flowed in one seamless motion.

His sword pierced the attacker, and countless red threadworms flew out of its body and burrowed into Lin Feng's eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth.

That sensation...

Lin Feng would never forget it for the rest of his life!