Chapter 23: The Shadow of the Catcher

  With a wry smile, Yang Suofeng continued to search for valuable clues in the bloodstained area. He soon discovered that among the guards were six brand-new, state-of-the-art Tuerqishi rifles. The Tuerqishi rifle originated from the Tuerqishi ethnic hunters of the Blood-colored Plateau, who crafted their own firearms with exceptional accuracy and lethality. Later, the Imperial Central government took notice, improved upon them, and mass-produced them, making them the empire's finest high-precision rifles. However, they were extremely expensive to produce, requiring complex manufacturing techniques that took a long time to complete. Even the most skilled Tuerqishi craftsmen could only produce one rifle per month. As a result, even military units had very few of these rifles, with only the Imperial Guard being equipped with them. It was surprising that the guards of the Cai household were also equipped with them, indicating that they must have spent a significant amount of money. Unfortunately, the rifles had not been able to fulfill their purpose, as their owner had already been killed.

  At the same time, a chill finally emerged in his heart, a worry and fear for the future. Under the protection of so many people, the new lord of the Cai family was still killed by an assassin's sword sent by the Capture Hand, almost imaginable is the strength of the Capture Hand. Fangchuan Island is just next to Niluo Divine Capital, which can be said to be under the feet of the Son of Heaven, and the Capture Hand's Light Empire dares to take action in broad daylight, seemingly completely disregarding the Divine Blade Camp. And the reaction of the Divine Blade Camp seems to be disappointing as well, they spare no effort in harming loyal and good people, being as cruel as possible, but when it comes to dealing with national enemies, they are always so slow and even unable to withstand a single blow.

  He bowed his head and carefully checked, among the six brand-new Türgeschütz rifles, the barrels had already been loaded with bullets, but none of them had time to fire, apparently the attacker's action was extremely sudden, leaving these shooters no time to react. From the terrain, the small woods on the left must be where the attacker hid. Two of the Türgeschütz rifles had their ammunition soaked by rainwater and could not be fired, but four rifles were intact, he picked up two, weighed them, and seemed to feel something in his heart, unintentionally pointing at the small woods.

  At this moment, Shan Ya's sharp voice suddenly shouted: "Be careful!"

  No need for anyone's reminder, Yang Shuangfeng had instinctively felt the danger behind him.

  He didn't know what kind of danger it was, it was purely an intuition, a premonition that life faced death.

  A thread of coldness was spreading in his heart.

  Yang Shuangfeng didn't hesitate and turned around abruptly, pointing his gun at what was behind him.

  All I heard was someone's low, muffled grunt, followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground.

  Yang Suofeng looked down and saw a black-clad man fall head-first from mid-air, splashing into the mud with a loud "plop". He struggled for two seconds before falling silent. The mud splashed onto Yang Suofeng's chest, making him feel an icy chill that pierced his heart.

  Yang Shuangfeng only saw at this time that the black-clothed man was tightly grasping a dark, curved moon knife wrapped in black cloth. And his brow had already burst open with blood flowers, a bursting blood hole flowing outwards with fresh blood. The bullet caliber used by the Tulga rifle is very large, so its lethality is almost unstoppable.

  Dan Ya Xuan also saw it at the same time and exclaimed: "Seven colors are intertwined!"

  Yang Shuang didn't know what "seven colors" meant, but he immediately realized the danger again, this time coming from behind him. He could almost feel two icy sword lights flashing towards him like lightning.

  Shan Ya shouted loudly, leaping up, the long sword in her hand unsheathing in mid-air, meeting the two sword lights. However, her position was too far away and those two sword lights were too fast, she couldn't save the situation with distant water, and couldn't help but cry out anxiously: "Quickly dodge!"

  However, Yang Shuangfeng seemed to be frightened by the two sword lights in front of him, and for a moment he was stunned and did not react. He turned around as if numb, with his hands still behind his back, without even putting them on his chest to slightly block it.

  Yang Ji Rui painfully closed his eyes.

  Just as the two sword lights were about to pierce Yang Shuangfeng, he suddenly pulled out two Türgesh rifles from behind his back and calmly fired at the two sword lights.

  The muffled sound of gunfire was even more muted in the rain, and the smoke from the barrel was immediately washed away by the heavy rain.

  Two loud thuds, two figures fell from mid-air and landed in the rainwater, splashing mud all over Yang Shuang's face.

  But Yang Shuangfeng's movements did not hesitate in the slightest, he immediately threw open the Tukhachevsky rifle in his hand, accurately throwing it to Yang Jirui who had not yet opened his eyes, saying in a low and majestic voice: "Load!" Almost at the same time, his right hand had already quickly picked up the last intact Tukhachevsky rifle loaded with bullets.

  Yang Jirui's eyes opened unbelievably, and before he could think about what was going on, he instinctively took over the rifle that had been thrown to him, anxiously asking: "Where is the ammunition?"

  No one answered.

  Su Yun had completely numbed, and couldn't hear Yang Ji Rui's cries for help. Cai Yun Yun and Cai Xian Xian, the two sisters, heard it but didn't react in time. Only Cai Bing Xia, who was quietly unobtrusive, calmly and quickly said: "In the hemp cloth package on your left rear."

  Yang Jirui immediately turned around and saw a package wrapped in oilcloth that had been soaked by the rain. He quickly picked it up and took a look, fortunately, due to the good waterproof performance of the oilcloth package, the bullets and propellant inside were not wetted by the rain.

  Cai Bingxi carefully walked over, using an umbrella to cover the mutton cloth package, allowing Yang Jirui to safely open it. Inside the mutton cloth package were neatly wrapped propellant and small, finger-thick solid steel bullets, with a layer of butter applied to the outside of the bullets, making them look shiny and bright.

  At this moment, Yang Suofeng's low voice shouted: "Quick!"

  Cai Bingxu suddenly raised his head and saw two figures jumping out of the small woods, pouncing on Yang Su like a giant bird spreading its wings.

  Yang Shuangfeng made almost no extra movement, raised the muzzle and pulled the trigger.

  It was as if it had been pre-arranged, the sound of gunfire rang out and a man in black fell headfirst to the ground, rolling twice in the mud before lying still. A faint thread of blood seeped from his body, only to be washed away by the rain.

  Yang Shuangfeng immediately threw away the rifle in his hand.

  He was empty-handed and had no more weapons.

  The remaining black-clad man seemed to have seen the prey being pierced through the chest by a long sword, and his eyes revealed a hint of cruelty without any concealment. He immediately let out a sharp, cold laugh, as if mocking Yang Su's impending doom.

  Yang Shuang's face was very calm, but his eyes were extremely focused, tightly locked onto the black-clothed person's eyes.

  The man in black let out a long howl, his voice shaking the mountains.

  The long sword in Shuang's hand was actually shaken by the black-clothed man's long guandao, making a "ding ding ding" sound.

  The long sword was less than three zhang away from Yang Shuangfeng.

  At this moment, Yang Ji Rui handed over the rifle loaded with bullets to Yang Shuang Feng.

  Yang Shuangfeng quickly grabbed the Tuerkesh rifle and fired without hesitation.

  A dull thud accompanied the sound of the black-clad figure hitting the ground heavily.

  The man in black struggled violently on the ground, as if trying his best to get up. However, a blood stain between his eyebrows slowly expanded and finally turned into a drop of blood that fell gently onto the rainwater, quickly dispersing into faint circles of blood threads that spread out with the rainwater. But just a moment later, a large amount of bright red and white ** flowed out from the back of the man in black's head, immediately dyeing the rainwater a terrifying deep red color.

  The gunshot was so close that the back half of the black-clad man's skull was blown off by the steel-core bullet with tremendous impact force, but he wasn't dead yet. The black-clad man's legs twitched involuntarily, and his remaining half-head struggled to lift up, trying to get a clear look at Yang Suofeng's face. Finally, his eyes locked onto Yang Suofeng's calm face, the light slowly dispersing, until it completely disappeared, and then his head fell limply downwards.

  His dying gaze was filled with incredulity and unbelief. Yet, he had to believe that the thick, solid steel bullet had deeply penetrated his forehead, pierced through his brain, and shattered half of his occipital bone; even if Buddha himself were in this world, it would be beyond his power to save him.

  Su Yun saw a person with only half of his head left, yet he was still struggling to lift his head up, and let out a scream before fainting again. Cai Fengfeng and Cai Mianmian were also pale as death, their eyes frozen in place, completely frightened out of their wits.

  Only Yang Shuangfeng calmly put down the Tulga rifle, his face as calm as ever.

  Yang Jirui quickly loaded the other three rifles with bullets, but Yang Xuanfeng only took one, holding it upside down with the muzzle pointing at the ground, silently staring at the five black-clad men who had already died on the ground.

  Life and death were on a thin line, but he was already used to it.

  After being stunned and dumbfounded, she finally realized that her palms were all covered in cold sweat.

  Yang Ji Rui was even more frightened, panting heavily and frantically wiping the cold sweat that continued to seep out of his forehead with a handkerchief.

  Only after carefully rewrapping unused bullets and gunpowder with oil paper did the extremely calm Ice Jade put them away.

  Suddenly, Yang Suofeng said in a low voice in the small forest: "Catcher, are you inside?"

  Yang Jirui and Shan Yaoyu both stared at the small forest in stunned silence, but it was so calm there, where were any signs of people?

  But it was in the small woods that a long, gentle voice said: "Your shooting skills are divine, and I admire them to the extreme. I wish you all the best on your journey, and we will meet again in the Minnis area."

  The sound went further and further away, finally becoming a distant hum.

  Yang Shuangfeng put the rifle on his shoulder, gazing intently at the east for a while, seemingly lost in thought. After a moment, he turned back to Yang Jirui and Shan Yanzhuang, who were watching the small woods with extreme tension, and said, "The captor has left."

  "Are you sure that's the catcher? How can you be so certain it's him?"

  Yang Shuang said faintly: "I think that person is the catcher, he is the catcher."

  Shan Ya looked at him with a suspicious expression, her face full of incredulity.

  Yang Suofeng put down the rifle in his hand, and the muzzle was casually slanted towards the back. He slowly moved back and forth in the rain. Suddenly, he found something on the black-clad man who lacked half of his brain. He squatted down to dig it out and took a look. It turned out to be two silver tickets worth 200,000 gold coins each. Although they had been dampened by mud and water, the bright red numbers still greatly lifted Yang Suofeng's spirits, making him feel that this trip was not in vain. He stuffed the silver tickets into his bosom, and with great expectation, he carefully searched all the black-clad men's clothes, but found nothing else.