Late at night, outside Chen Village.
In the hazy darkness, more than a hundred figures were scattered through the forest, all rubbing their fists and palms, their eyes gleaming with menace.
"Huyan Qing, do you remember what you said before?"
"Hmph, don't worry! I said that as long as we wipe out Chen Village tonight, you can have seventy percent of everything we gain, and I'll take only thirty. I'll keep my word!"
The two speakers were Huyan Qing, chief of the Blackwater Tribal Community, and Tucha, chief of the White Rock Tribe. They were crouched in the grass, gazing at the gates of Chen Village in the distance.
"Haha, good! Then I'll make the first move!"
Tucha was exceedingly tall and broad, and he carried a giant meteor hammer in his hand. Like a tiger bursting from its cage, he charged out of the forest and rushed toward Chen Village's gates.
Huyan Qing was only half a step behind him, leading his men in pursuit.
Clang, clang, clang!
Less than three seconds after Tucha entered the reach of Chen Village's firelight, a piercing alarm rang out.
A Chen Village villager standing watch on the lookout tower struck the bronze gong in his hand with all his might, roaring at the top of his lungs, "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"Haha, they're pretty alert! Too bad it won't do them any good!"
Tu Ling laughed heartily, paying no attention to the gong above him. The giant meteor hammer in his hand tore through the night sky and slammed into Chen Village's wooden gates.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In just three blows, taking less than five seconds in all, the wooden gates burst apart with a crack and became a pile of splinters.
"Haha! Boys, kill them!"
Chen Mu, who had been cultivating peacefully at home, was startled out of it by the commotion outside his door.
"Get up, quick! The Black Water Tribe has broken in and is killing people!"
Chen Mu immediately got out of bed, picked up the Rune Gun and short knife by his bedside, and left his room.
Chen Duo had also been woken up, but she still seemed dazed. Rubbing her eyes, she walked to the window in the main room and looked around.
"Duoduo, go get Grandpa Turtle. We're going out."
With that, Chen Mu opened the door and went outside first.
"Okay!"
Chen Duo answered, then went to the small pool in the kitchen and scooped out the White Turtle. She dried him with a cloth and tucked him against her chest.
The White Turtle liked water, so he usually slept in the pool. He was sleeping soundly, and even all the noise outside hadn't woken him.
When Chen Mu reached his front door, he found that several able-bodied villagers were already directing the evacuation of the elderly and children.
"Brother Feng, what's happening out there?"
Chen Zifeng was fourteen this year. He was one of the people in their village's younger generation considered most likely to become a martial artist, and he was also Chen Mu's neighbor.
"The chief has taken the hunting team to block the enemy at the village entrance! But a lot of people have broken in, and many of them are martial artists. I'm afraid things aren't looking good."
Chen Zifeng looked at Chen Mu, a glimmer of resolve flashing in his eyes.
"The chief gave me instructions! If anything happened to the village, I was to protect you and take you into the mountains to hide. Come with me now!"
Just then, Chen Duo ran out of the house. From the shouts around her, she had finally learned what was happening, and she looked a little nervous.
Chen Mu glanced toward the village entrance and hesitated for a moment.
"Brother Feng, please look after my sister for now. I'll go over there and take a look."
Without waiting for Chen Zifeng to refuse, he shot off, moving as fast as lightning. Even Chen Zifeng was startled.
Chen Zifeng knew that Chen Mu was a talisman master, but hadn't the chief said that talisman masters were physically weak? How could he be so fast?
His face reddened slightly. It seemed Chen Mu didn't need his protection at all.
"Duoduo, let's hide over there for now. We'll decide what to do when your brother gets back."
"Mm!"
At the village entrance, many of Chen Village's young and middle-aged men, their clothes in disarray, were desperately trying to hold back the enemies charging in from outside.
Although Chen Village's villagers had the advantage in numbers, they had been caught off guard, and many hadn't had time to grab their weapons and armor. Their enemies, on the other hand, had come prepared, well equipped, and with a large number of martial artists leading the charge.
As a result, Chen Village had suffered a major setback right from the start. Only by fighting without fear of death and staking their lives against the enemy had the villagers barely managed to hold them back.
"Tucha! Huyan Qing! If you retreat now, there's still room to settle this. Otherwise, from this day forward, Chen Village will fight you until one side is dead!"
As Chief Chen Shanyu shouted, the bone staff in his hand lit up with a dazzling fiery red glow. An astonishing, fierce and violent presence erupted from him, faintly accompanied by the sound of a dragon's roar.
"Old thief Chen, since your Chen Village dared to kill people from my Black Water Tribe, you should have known there would be consequences! From this day forward, your Chen Village will vanish from Black Rock Mountain for good! Hahahaha!"
Huyan Qing laughed wildly and joined forces with Tucha to attack Chen Shanyu.
At the house closest to the village entrance, Chen Mu lay on the roof, watching the battle in the distance.
The chief has the bone staff, so he shouldn't be in danger for now. I'll help the others first!
The Rune Gun in his hands had changed again since he first made it. Besides the more complex runes engraved on it, two lenses had been fitted above the barrel.
The inspiration had naturally come from Duoduo's eyeglass lenses. The sight made from two convex lenses could improve the Rune Gun's accuracy, and it could also be used as a telescope at other times.
The young and middle-aged villagers at the entrance fell one after another, and many of them were faces Chen Mu knew.
His eyes began to redden.
"Those bastards! Die, all of you!"
In the crowd, he saw his older cousin Chen Zihu knocked to the ground by a martial artist, his life hanging by a thread.
Without hesitation, he aimed the Rune Gun downward and pulled the trigger.
Boom! A streak of fire tore through the night sky, and a distant enemy was knocked to the ground with a boom.
Chen Mu didn't pause. Pressing his advantage, he fired several shots at each of the enemies who looked more threatening.
After firing more than a dozen shots, Chen Mu felt the muzzle growing hot, and more than half of the Spirit Stone power inside the stock had been consumed.
He had no choice but to stop and leap down from the roof.
"It's a hidden weapon! A Mu has come to support us! Brothers, fight to the death! Kill!"
Chen Zihu and many members of the hunting team had seen Chen Mu's strange hidden weapon before. Seeing the martial artists on the other side fall one after another, their confidence soared. Amid the chaos, they actually rallied a force and began to counterattack.
After Chen Mu's repeated enhancements over the past few days, the Rune Gun was already powerful enough to threaten Fourth Stage and even Fifth Stage martial artists.
Thus, most of the people Chen Mu hit were seriously wounded, with only a few receiving light injuries.
This was mainly because Chen Mu's marksmanship wasn't sufficiently professional and many of his shots went wide. Otherwise, a single shot would have been enough to seriously wound most of these martial artists.
But the results of those dozen or so shots were already enough, and the situation immediately turned around.
Chen Village's greatest disadvantage had been its shortage of experts. Nearly twenty martial artists had come to attack, while Chen Village had only nine. With no one to hold those martial artists in check, the villagers had been driven back step by step.
Now that six or seven martial artists had been seriously wounded by Chen Mu's sneak attacks, the balance of top-tier fighting strength was beginning to even out.
More importantly, Chen Mu's strange hidden weapon had given them a tremendous psychological deterrent. The enemies held back for fear of the consequences, their morale plummeted, and they no longer fought as fiercely as when they had arrived.
The battle between Chief Chen Shanyu and the two tribal chiefs gradually reached a white-hot pitch.
The bone staff in Chen Shanyu's hand was overwhelmingly powerful and could even unleash blazing flames. Even with Tuoba Qing and Tucha joining forces against him, they couldn't gain the upper hand at all, and had even been lightly wounded.
"That old thief Chen is so calculating. How come we've never seen him with such a powerful treasure weapon before? Huyan Qing, at this rate, I'm afraid we'll return empty-handed tonight!"
"Hmph! Tucha, don't even think about retreating! We've already torn all pretense of cordiality with Chen Village tonight. If we can't wipe them out in one stroke, then when Chen Village grows stronger in the future, we'll be the ones wiped out!"
A blast of flame suddenly rushed toward Huyan Qing. He swung his broadsword to block it, and with a bang, he managed to fend it off, but another bloody, mangled burn was left on his skin.
He bared his teeth in pain and turned to shout, "Amuduo, Duotu, help me!"
"That bone staff is so powerful, it must consume a lot of Spiritual Power too. Chen Shanyu's Internal Force is limited, so he surely can't hold out much longer! Tucha, success or failure hinges on this one move. Let's fight him with everything we have!"