Chapter 11 - Surrounded

Fang Dingwu still felt bewildered.

A day had already passed since the conflict with the Mountain Wolf Bandits.

Actually, Fang Dingwu was not the only one who felt that way. The entire group of armed escorts and managers also felt as if they were imagining things, occasionally casting apprehensive glances at Ye Beizhi, who was riding on a horse with a cloth bag hanging on the saddle. Inside the bag was the head of Old Dog Chen, the chief of Mountain Wolf Bandits.

Every time Fang Dingwu's eyes were drawn to this cloth bag, he would remember the flash of a blade, the memory as sharp as the blade from yesterday.

"So your head is worth three hundred taels of gold?" asked the man standing in front of Chief Chen.

Chief Chen was stupefied by the question before he quickly grabbed his broad ax and retreated.

"Didn't expect there'd be a challenge here," Chief Chen said with a grin. "What? Do you want to claim my bounty? Let's see if you're up to it, huh!"

He waved his hand to signal his underlings and ordered, "Get him! Cut him down!"

The bandits behind him were eager and had long been waiting to attack. Hearing his command, they drew their weapons and rushed towards Ye Beizhi.

Seeing Ye Beizhi in such a precarious predicament, Fang Dingwu anxiously shouted, "Brother Ye! Retreat quickly!"

However, Ye Beizhi remained as still as a stone, seemingly oblivious to the group of bandits charging at him. His eyes were fixed on Chief Chen, the leader who now hid behind the bandits.

Just as their weapons were about to strike Ye Beizhi, he powerfully pushed off the ground, soaring high into the air!

The surging bandits could do nothing but look up helplessly as Ye Beizhi swooped over them toward the isolated Chief Chen!

Chief Chen was shocked, his eyes wide open in fear as he panickedly retreated.

While mid-air, Ye Beizhi firmly grasped the Tang blade by his waist.

At the instant when Ye Beizhi descended upon the fleeing Chief Chen, a brilliant flash of blade light illuminated the forest.

A head soared into the sky.

Landing on his feet, Ye Beizhi sheathed his blade, picked up Chief Chen's head, and turned back.

The bandits retreated like the tide, not daring to block his path.

Fang Dingwu swallowed hard, snapped back to reality, and shouted at the remaining bandits in the way, "Still not clearing the path for the rest of us!? Whoever wants to become a ghost under our weapons can stay behind forever!"

Without their leader, the mass of bandits promptly scattered like frightened birds taking flight.

Fang Dingwu watched as Ye Beizhi cleaned the head by the stream, then carefully sprinkled lime on it to preserve it. When he finished, he found a clean cloth to wrap it up.

Noticing Fang Dingwu observing him, he turned his head and asked, "Three hundred taels of gold... Is it enough to buy a new box?"

"Uh, It should be enough." Fang Dingwu paused momentarily and said, "Let's continue on our journey, Brother Ye."

Ye Beizhi nodded.

Riding on his horse, Fang Dingwu still couldn't quite believe how well things turned out yesterday. He fully believed that this escort mission was doomed to failure and could scarcely dream of such a dramatic turn of events. It seemed that Master Wu had foreseen the possibility of trouble along the way, which is why he had insisted that Ye Beizhi join them on this escort mission. Thankfully, with the unexpected roadblock out of the way, the convoy was able to proceed on their journey to Meizhou.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Tiger Mouth Mountain, within the Mountain Wolf Stronghold.

Inside the Mountain Wolf Stronghold, Chief Chen's headless corpse lay in the center of the main hall. Second Chief Yin Wanjie sat on a chair with a dark expression. He and Chief Chen had always been very close, treating each other like real siblings.

Yesterday, while he stayed behind to guard the stronghold, his elder brother headed a group of their underlings to rob the Changfeng Escort Agency's convoy. Unbelievably, the fleeing underlings who returned reported that his elder brother had been beheaded with a single strike.

He was utterly enraged and demanded vengeance against the Changfeng Escort Agency, so he gathered all the remaining bandits to plot revenge for their elder brother's death.

"Although my elder brother's corpse is not yet cold, the stronghold cannot be without a Chief for even a moment, so I will temporarily assume the role of the Chief," Yin Wanjie said grimly.

"The top priority now is to avenge my elder brother's death. As for yesterday's matter, I will not investigate who did what. Even if over two hundred of you were scared off by just a dozen people!"

By the end of his sentence, he was so furious that he slammed his hand on the table, smashing it to pieces.

The leaders of the various mountain bandit gangs gathered around the table all hung their heads, not daring to speak. The more than two hundred bandits listening from outside the hall, who had been whispering, all fell silent and shuddered fearfully.

Yin Wanjie composed himself and announced, "From now on, if any convoy from Changfeng Escort Agency dares to pass through our Tiger Mouth Mountain, kill them all! When the time comes, I will annihilate the entire Changfeng Escort Agency!"

"Well... you’re certainly ambitious." At this moment, a discordant voice sounded in the hall as a man emerged from the shadows on the side of the hall.

The man had long, silky black hair draped over his shoulders and wore a robe with purple and gold cloud patterns embroidered with gold thread. He held a long jade pipe in his left hand and wore a gold-threaded silver glove on his right hand, looking slyly at everyone in the hall.

"And who the hell are you?" Yin Wanjie glared fiercely at the man and then turned to look at the onlookers. "Who the hell let him in?"

The bandits looked at each other, all shaking their heads to show they didn't know either.

"Nobody knows?! You’re all worthless, just come! Capture him and drag him out! Later, I’ll interrogate him slowly to find out where he came from," Yin Wanjie shouted as he waved his hand for people to take care of the inexplicable intruder.

The mysterious man leaned against a pillar in the hall and blew a cloud of white smoke from his pipe.

"I only want to ask a few questions... Assuming you all are kind enough to answer."

"Fuck! You must be crazy. Hurry and throw him out of here, but make sure to break his legs first, so he can't just run away later," Yin Wanjie said impatiently.

Two mountain bandits with sinister smiles on their faces answered Yin Wanjie’s summons and strolled toward the mysterious man.

The mysterious man tapped his pipe against the pillar, knocking aside the accumulated ashes.

"Get back..."

Suddenly.

Crack

With a gut wrenching sound, the heads of the two bandits twisted in a full circle. They could not be more dead.

A woman had materialized, the twisted neck of a bandit gripped in each hand.

"You filthy things." The man finished speaking, and shook off a few stray ashes.

"You bastard!" Yin Wanjie jumped up from his chair and shouted, "Brothers, draw your weapons! How dare you attack us in Tiger Mouth Mountain! You’re dead!"

With practiced ease, over two hundred bandits surrounded the mysterious man and woman in the hall.

The man shook his head with his eyes closed and sighed. "Do you still not understand?"

Yin Wanjie pointed his weapon at the mysterious man and sneered. "Hey, you've really got some balls, to stay so calm before we hack you to death. Now I'd really like to know what you want me to understand."

"Haven't you realized? I have you surrounded," the man said lightly as he opened his eyes.

"You... have us surrounded?" Yin Wanjie considered for a moment before he burst into scornful laughter. "Hahaha! You're quite a funny guy!"

"Second... Second Chief."

Yin Wanjie felt someone nudging him from behind. Turning around he demanded, "What is it?!"

"Second Chief... look, look around," stuttered a subordinate behind Yin Wanjie.

"What is there to look at—"

Yin Wanjie raised his head to look around, only to see that several rings of people had soundlessly appeared at some point outside the circle formed by the bandits. These people were eerily silent; motionless like statues, or puppets, or corpses. The mob was formed of all sorts, there were men and women, old and young, fat and thin, but they all had one thing in common: a pair of empty soulless eyes, as if they were pulled straight from their graves.

"When did these-these people appear?" Yin Wanjie felt his scalp go numb as he quietly asked his subordinate.

"I don't know. Second Chief, could it be... could it be that ghosts have come for revenge?" the subordinate whispered back.

"Ghosts, my ass! The way I see it, it must be some trick of this pretender in front of us! Watch as I chop him down first!" Yin Wanjie hissed viciously.

"I can hear you." The man leaning against the pillar smirked condescendingly. "It seems that you really don’t want to talk to me."

"Listen all you want, I’ll kill you here anyway! Let me show you how it’s一"

Yin Wanjie was just about to swing his weapon when his vision blurred and he felt himself get yanked off his feet! The woman who had killed his underlings earlier was somehow now gripping his neck with one hand and lifting him into the air.

Yin Wanjie, who was suspended in the air, was finally close enough to study the appearance of his ambusher clearly. Up close, he realized that she was not even human at all! Those people encircling the circle of bandits were actually puppets crafted with exquisite workmanship too. However, looking at the female puppet before him, they couldn't even be compared! Each part was carved so precisely that the puppet would be indistinguishable from a real person without such a close-up observation.

At this time, a cold pressure was spreading from the puppet’s hand to his neck, and the stranglehold was still tightening.

Yin Wanjie's face gradually flushed. He wanted to beg for mercy but couldn't gasp out a single word.

"As I said, Get away from me... you filthy things." The mysterious man exhaled a cloud of smoke.

The rowdy mountain bandits filling the mountain hall instantly stiffened.

The man patiently lectured the stupefied bandits, "Do you know... what you should do when encountering an unbeatable enemy?"

Rivulets of cold sweat began to flow freely down the backs of the mountain bandits.

"When you encounter an unbeatable enemy... and have to face them... crouch down and grip your weapon tightly." The man's voice sounded somewhat hollow, echoing directly in their skulls.

The atmosphere grew more tense. Except for the mysterious man, no one dared say a word. The puppets loomed silently while the mountain bandits were scared stiff, seemingly indistinguishable from the surrounding group.

The silence was petrifying.

The mountain bandits subconsciously crouched slightly, clinging to their weapons with a death grip.

"Hold your breath..."

Huuuuuu

The stagnant air stirred as more than two hundred bandits collectively took a deep breath.

"Face your enemy..."

The bandits did not take their eyes off the man.

"Then... Kill him!"

It was as if a taut string in their minds that held them back had suddenly snapped. At once, the bandits suddenly erupted in a chaotic charge!

"Kill!"

When the dust settled, the man rapped his pipe against the pillar again, fully clearing the last of the dirty ashes.

"And at last... peacefully perish."

Only silent puppets remained in front of the man. Fresh blood dripped from their hands to the ground.

"Filthy things." The mysterious man frowned, sidestepping splotches of blood as he walked to the only survivor, Yin Wanjie. "Let’s talk now... Where is the Transcendence Stone?"

Yin Wanjie’s eyes gazed vacantly at the spotless man as if he were a devil. He sounded like he had been scared silly as he stuttered, "It's-it's with Fang Dingwu of the Changfeng Escort Agency. He's going to Meizhou! Don't kill me! Please!"

"Hmm... Meizhou...Fang Dingwu..." The man contemplated briefly, stroking his chin, then cast his gaze toward Meizhou.