Chapter 46: Zhang He's Fear
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The evil spirit before Xu Yan’s eyes resembled Han Lei, except after becoming a ghost, it no longer had the massive body of its original form. It appeared thin and elongated, but its ghostly face was hideous and terrifying beyond measure.
Staring coldly at the evil spirit before him, Xu Yan’s face also began to turn fierce. His small body surged with a terrifying killing intent that alone prevented Han Lei’s soul from approaching.
The staring contest didn’t last long. Xu Yan suddenly widened his eyes, and the dim star-pattern mark in his left eye emerged once again.
Xu Yan didn’t know about the mark in his left eye – he was simply angry. If these murderous bandits couldn’t rest in peace after death, then how could the Zhao family girl in the well ever rest in peace?
“You all deserve to die!”
The low-growling youth looked more terrifying than the evil spirit itself. Xu Yan stood up and grabbed the kneeling corpse of Han Lei, dragging the body by its hair toward the fire pit.
With a thud, Han Lei’s corpse was thrown into the not-yet-completely-extinguished fire pit. Before long, the corpse’s head and face were completely burned. The small figure sat back down by the fire pit, facing the gradually charring corpse and the malevolent ghost wandering before him, gnawing on his roasted chicken bite by bite without the slightest discomfort.
Soon, under Xu Yan’s glaring eyes, Han Lei’s soul was gradually torn apart and then disappeared. Zhang He, hiding in the shadows, felt his heart was about to jump out of his chest.
He couldn’t see the ghost – he only saw Xu Yan throw the Second Chief’s corpse onto the fire pit to roast while eating…
Ugh…
Zhang He desperately squeezed his own throat, afraid of making the slightest sound that might alert that demon. Eating people! Never mind seeing such a thing – he had never even imagined such a horrific scene in his entire life.
Step by step, Zhang He crept out of the kitchen. He didn’t walk out of Yuan Mountain Stronghold – he crawled out. After crawling over the fence that served as a wall, he fled desperately down the mountain and soon disappeared into the night. He had mistakenly thought that Xu Yan eating roasted chicken was eating people.
There was only one fish that escaped the net, but Xu Yan didn’t know about it.
After finishing the remaining roasted chicken, Xu Yan rested briefly and looked up at the sky.
It was already the latter half of the night, with less than two hours until dawn.
Sitting by the fire pit, the little Taoist frowned in contemplation. There was still one Head Chief Flying Centipede left. Xu Yan could determine that Liao Jiuming wasn’t dead. Since even Han Lei could see that the poisoner came from the kitchen, why hadn’t Liao Jiuming appeared in the kitchen?
Regarding Liao Jiuming’s whereabouts, Xu Yan couldn’t quite figure it out. He was intelligent, but intelligent people all shared one common trait – they thought too much.
The more one thought, the easier it was to fall into doubt. Xu Yan couldn’t figure out Liao Jiuming’s plan, and Liao Jiuming couldn’t figure out who had administered the poison.
Since Flying Centipede could occupy the top position in Yuan Mountain Stronghold, besides having the highest martial prowess, his scheming must also be extremely deep. When seizing the Zhao family’s wealth, he had clearly seen Lu Hai’s dissatisfaction with Han Lei but paid no attention, allowing his two capable subordinates to develop grudges. This alone showed that Liao Jiuming’s scheming was definitely superior to Lu Hai’s, not to mention the rash Han Lei.
Flying Centipede wasn’t unaware that the poisoner came from the kitchen – he was speculating about the true mastermind behind the scenes.
He knew exactly who was in the kitchen. Chef Wu wasn’t an innate martial artist but relied on his strength to dominate the kitchen. There were also two other cooks with decent skills. As for the little Taoist Xu Yan, Liao Jiuming hadn’t considered him at all. Later, he focused all his attention on the Third Chief, and like Han Lei, he thought Lu Hai was the mastermind behind it all.
Lu Hai, who died miserably and even took the blame for Xu Yan, was indeed somewhat unlucky. Who told him to eat too much outside before returning? When visiting the Head Chief, he had only drunk two cups of wine and barely touched his chopsticks.
Lu Hai’s unintentional action became the reason for Liao Jiuming’s wariness. Naturally, Liao Jiuming wasn’t afraid of Lu Hai alone, but what about Han Lei? What about the eight hundred to a thousand bandits? Since Lu Hai dared to poison people, he must have been planning for a long time. Who knew how many subordinates he had gathered to compete for the Head Chief position?
Innate martial artists were indeed martially powerful, but they weren’t infinitely strong. A first-meridian innate martial artist could easily handle ten people and escape from twenty, but if surrounded by thirty to fifty skilled bandits, even a first-meridian innate martial artist risked being hacked to death.
As a second-meridian innate martial artist, Liao Jiuming had the ability to move freely among thirty to fifty people and could slaughter them all. If there were more people, it would become difficult. Once surrounded by hundreds or even several hundred people, even a lone second-meridian innate martial artist might not survive.
After all, martial artists weren’t cultivators – they didn’t have the ability to fly through the heavens or burrow through the earth. Even stone-splitting blade and sword techniques couldn’t withstand sheer numbers. So after discovering he was poisoned, Liao Jiuming had never left his courtyard. He was waiting for his prey while also contemplating escape routes and countermeasures.
In the kitchen, Xu Yan had rested enough and began busying himself. First, he dug a large pit in the muddy vegetable field, then found over ten steel blades and inserted them upside down in the pit with their tips pointing upward.
The soil used for growing vegetables was soft, so digging the large pit didn’t take much time. After creating one trap, Xu Yan found a thin wooden board to cover the pit, then brought straw to carefully spread a layer over it. The first trap was officially complete.
To deal with a second-meridian innate martial artist, one trap might not be enough. So the small Taoist busied himself throughout the stronghold, sometimes placing a steel blade horizontally across a corpse, sometimes tying hemp ropes between two large trees, and even using a steel blade to puncture the bottom of the large iron pot in the kitchen, burying it outside the kitchen door. The curled pot bottom was like upright blade fragments – stepping on it would result in bloody wounds.
Xu Yan worked extremely fast. The little Taoist, who often went into the mountains to search for medicinal herbs, was well-versed in the traps set by hunters.
He now needed to create as many deadly traps as possible before dawn, because traps in the darkness were most lethal. Once daylight came and with Liao Jiuming being an innate martial artist, Xu Yan’s traps could easily be spotted at a glance.
After an hour of setting up, a pale streak appeared on the horizon. Xu Yan stopped setting traps and began cautiously approaching the courtyard where Flying Centipede lived.
Before long, the spacious courtyard appeared before him. Xu Yan didn’t take the main entrance but climbed over the low surrounding wall and silently flipped into the back courtyard.
Liao Jiuming’s courtyard was very large, currently dark and silent. The oil lamps in the main house had long been extinguished, making it impossible to tell if there were any living people inside.
Approaching the door with light steps, under the moonlight’s illumination, the small Taoist’s face was deathly pale.
Xu Yan had the opportunity to leave this dangerous place, but he didn’t. He needed to support Mei Sanniang. The tragic deaths of the Yuan Mountain bandits had already pulled out most of the barbed thorn in Xu Yan’s heart. Only by leaving with Mei Sanniang would that thorn be truly removed.
Leaving a friend to die was something Xu Yan couldn’t do, even knowing this journey was entering the dragon’s den again.
Creak…
The wooden door was gently pushed open by a thin arm. A patch of pale moonlight first poured into the room. Under the moonlight, a woman’s figure was lying against a wooden table, covered in sweat, barely breathing, her body gradually hunching over.
Xu Yan saw Mei Sanniang, who shouldn’t have been poisoned but was severely poisoned, but he didn’t see any trace of Liao Jiuming. In his urgency, as he stepped into the room, a sharp blade that had long been suspended overhead silently slashed down!
