Chapter 45: Han Lei
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Xu Yan, who rushed out of the kitchen, stumbled and fell after running only a short distance, nearly tumbling into the two fire pits in the courtyard.
Though the fires had long since died out, falling headfirst into them could still burn him half to death.
Seeing the little Taoist’s disheveled appearance, Han Lei, who had just charged out of the house, became even more confused. He increasingly felt his guess was correct – that little Taoist must have been threatened by Lu Hai into administering the poison.
“Third Brother!”
Han Lei’s anger flared, and he growled through gritted teeth, swinging his blade in pursuit. Even if Lu Hai was the mastermind, Han Lei wouldn’t spare the little Taoist before him.
Kill one first, then deal with the rest.
Han Lei’s low growl was heard clearly by Xu Yan. His mind raced, and after fleeing two steps, he immediately shouted toward the dark corner by the wall: “Third Chief, save me!”
This shout from Xu Yan was significant – Han Lei was startled into a sudden pause, his gaze immediately turning toward the corner.
He was severely poisoned, with most of his true qi being used to suppress the poison’s effects. If Lu Hai, who was also a first-meridian innate martial artist, chose to attack now, he would definitely not be a match.
In that moment of looking away, the disheveled little Taoist threw his long blade backward.
The long blade came slashing through the air with a whistling sound. Han Lei instinctively raised his blade to block it. With a crisp clang, he nearly lost his grip on his giant blade, which was knocked back more than three feet.
The force and speed of this thrown blade was so great that Han Lei’s hair stood on end. He couldn’t imagine how a little Taoist’s casually thrown blade could knock away his giant blade, and the other hadn’t even turned around. This shocked him into crying out: “Ah!”
Just as the “ah” left his mouth, Xu Yan, who was still running, suddenly stopped his stride. His entire body came to an instant halt, the massive inertia making his small face turn pale. But the next moment, his right arm, which had swung to the front, suddenly whipped back around. He was actually using the inertia from his body’s sudden stop to forcibly channel this momentum into his entire arm.
From his right arm to his right hand, his right hand gripped the stone tightly. The little Taoist, stepping forward and bending his body, was like an archer drawing his bow. The moment he turned around, the stone in his hand also flew out.
“Flying Locust!!!”
Whoosh!
Smack!
The lightning-fast Flying Locust stone smashed into Han Lei’s open mouth and shot out through the back of his neck.
A killing blow!
Xu Yan had been waiting for the moment when the other would open his mouth to shout.
The tower-like strong man still maintained his blade-raising posture, eyes wide open, looking quite frightening, as if he might pounce and attack at any moment. However, this Second Chief Han Lei had already stopped breathing.
His neck bone was shattered, severing the connection between his entire head and body. Once the head and body were disconnected, death was instantaneous.
The rise and fall of his chest indicated that Xu Yan was already exhausted. Using Flying Locust once with his left arm and twice with his right had made both arms extremely sore and numb, especially his right hand, which was not only numb but also experiencing hidden pain.
This was caused by excessive exertion.
His unbelievable mental acuity had ultimately allowed Xu Yan to escape from the tiger’s mouth, but his body was still that of a half-grown child. His right arm, which had used Flying Locust twice in succession, was already injured in its tendons and bones. If he threw another Flying Locust, Xu Yan’s two arms would be immobilized, requiring at least three to five months of rest to recover.
Picking up the steel blade nearby, Xu Yan collapsed beside the two long-extinguished fire pits, gasping heavily.
Thud.
Only then did Han Lei’s tower-like body fall down. The corpse didn’t topple over but knelt on the ground, looking as if it were bowing to Xu Yan. Fresh blood gurgled from his throat, soon staining the ground bright red.
Dead people posed no threat. Xu Yan paid no attention to Han Lei’s corpse. After resting for a short while, he rummaged through the fire pit in front of him and found the roasted chicken he had been eating earlier. He brushed off the grass ash and began gnawing on it heartily.
When Lu Hai had arrived, Xu Yan had only eaten half a chicken leg. After the midnight chase and the deadly struggle upon returning to the kitchen, Xu Yan was already exhausted and hungry. He needed to replenish his food.
Because there was still the most troublesome Head Chief Flying Centipede to deal with.
Since Han Lei could suppress the deadly poison, then Liao Jiuming could suppress the poison’s effects even more, and for much longer than Han Lei.
Because Han Lei was only a first-meridian innate martial artist, while Liao Jiuming was a second-meridian innate martial artist.
In the quiet kitchen, aside from the gurgling sound of blood from Han Lei’s neck, only the sound of the little Taoist voraciously gnawing roasted meat remained. Occasionally, grass debris in the dim fire pit would spark, illuminating Xu Yan’s figure intermittently, making him look like an evil spirit devouring living people.
Gulp.
From the dark recesses of the kitchen came the sound of a throat swallowing. Someone was desperately covering their mouth with both hands, afraid of making the slightest sound.
Zhang He felt he was about to die – not from poison, but from fright.
He had suffered from stomach problems all day, spending the entire day squatting in the latrine. In the entire Yuan Mountain Stronghold, he was the only one who hadn’t been poisoned. At midnight, while squatting in the latrine, Zhang He increasingly felt something was wrong.
Earlier, he had thought the wailing from the stronghold was from bandits who had lost their eyes gambling – he was used to hearing such things normally. But there couldn’t be that many people losing money, right? The wailing he heard today was basically from everyone in the entire stronghold.
Everyone lost?
Who won – did ghosts win?
The more Zhang He listened in the latrine, the more eerie it felt. When he finally managed to crawl out of the latrine and began investigating the source of the wailing, he was nearly scared into soiling himself.
Dead bodies everywhere!
And all with horrific death appearances!
The trembling Zhang He stopped walking after making one round – he didn’t dare continue. He saw a bandit who wasn’t completely dead, curled up in a ball, eyes wide open, having bitten off his own tongue. His mouth was full of blood, and when he saw Zhang He, his body began shaking. He shook and shook until he ran out of breath, dying with his eyeballs bulging out of their sockets.
The hellish scene frightened Zhang He out of his wits. When he didn’t know what to do, he heard sounds from the kitchen direction, as if someone was fighting.
Carefully creeping to the kitchen, Zhang He arrived without seeing Han Lei and Xu Yan fighting. What he saw was Han Lei’s corpse kneeling on the ground with blood flowing from his neck, while that little Taoist sat with his back to him by the fire pit, gnawing on something that seemed quite delicious.
Under the illumination of the sparks, Zhang He felt he was seeing a true demon. His first thought was that Xu Yan was eating people, which frightened him into desperately covering his mouth. Never mind leaving – that his two legs could still support him was already his limit.
Zhang He was so frightened his face turned blue, regretting coming to the kitchen. He had long known that little Taoist was not to be trifled with – not only was he ruthless, but his methods were dark. During the canyon battlefield, he had personally witnessed Xu Yan kill a living person and then perform last rites for him.
His footsteps began slowly moving outward, bit by bit, not daring to make half a sound. Zhang He decided to leave this terrifying slaughter field – he would never dare return to Yuan Mountain Stronghold for the rest of his life.
As Zhang He moved outward, Xu Yan’s gaze also became cold and sharp. He hadn’t discovered the distant Zhang He but was coldly staring at the empty space before him. In his eyes, a pitch-black evil spirit was baring its fangs and claws!
