Chapter Thirteen: There Are People Outside of Human Beings

  There were two more people, who brushed against the tree trunk with that frightening little arrow. I put it back in the copper tube and, limping on my two legs, I chased after them into the woods again.

  As I walked, I kept an eye on the marks on the ground, and from the footprints on the ground, it seemed that the two were still walking together. After following the footprints for about a stick of incense time, I stopped. A strong killing aura was just in front of me, not far away. Looking around, I saw that General Yan stood quietly watching me, standing 5 zhang (about 16.5 meters) away from me.

  I feel like I'm suffocating, my head is spinning, I take a deep breath in, my feet form a T-step, the knife in my hand slowly rises and points at his face.

  That man looked at me and smiled, walking step by step towards me, saying: "It's actually you again, if I had known it was you, I wouldn't have sent those two to intercept you. I would have taken action myself. How about those two subordinates? Were they both killed by you?"

  I didn't say a word, watching him step by step approaching, the man said again: "Do you know who I am? My name is An Tiehu. Have you heard of me?"

  After hearing what he said, my head suddenly became dizzy. I had heard of this person before. He was the first general under Xie Wenhui's command. This man has a strength of over 1,000 kilograms in both arms. Before joining the army, he was a lone bandit. His martial arts skills were said to have been passed down by a high-ranking official. In an internal activity where one gang member killed another, he single-handedly killed more than 30 people from the opposing side. He once killed two tigers with his bare hands alone. Xie Wenhui admired his martial arts skills and bravery, and spent a large sum of money to recruit him under his command. This man was grateful for Xie Wenhui's kindness and was extremely loyal to him. When fighting, he would lead the charge, and his bravery was unmatched, earning him the nickname "Iron Tiger General".

  Thinking of this, I felt a little faint in the heart. An Tiehu looked at me and smiled, saying: "Leave your name, after I kill you, I will set up a monument for you."

  When I encounter a strong opponent, I encourage myself in my heart, and before he takes a step closer, I dash forward, stabbing the pig-killing knife straight at his chest. An Tiehu took a half-step back, swinging his long knife with a burst of energy, chopping it over. My feet made a triangular turn, dodging the knife and trying to get close to him. His knife chopped halfway but turned into a horizontal sweep. I quickly plunged my body forward, falling to the ground. He flipped his wrist and stabbed the knife at my back. After rolling on the ground twice to dodge, he didn't catch up with me. I got up with a cold sweat, looking at him, my heart beating wildly like a drum, knowing that his martial arts skills far surpassed mine, and in a fierce battle, I would surely die.

  He steadied himself and took another step forward, his long knife flashing down in a powerful slash. I dodged to the side, but my body retreated a step back, just as his knife came stabbing towards me. I pushed his knife aside with my shield and lunged forward, my own knife aiming for his weak point. But he countered by punching my wrist with his left fist. I had been waiting for this moment for ages, and with a swift breath, the small arrow shot out of my mouth and flew straight at his face.

  But he suddenly lowered his head and used his iron helmet to block the arrow. The small arrow shot onto the helmet with a clang and rolled off to the ground.

  My heart sank with the arrow, my right hand throbbed heavily, and the knife fell to the ground. I hastily retreated three steps back, looked down at my right hand, and saw that my wrist was swollen. Knowing things were going badly, I turned around and wanted to run back.

  Not yet a step forward, I felt a gust of evil wind behind me. I dodged to the side and rolled on the ground, got up and saw that my pig-killing knife was deeply stuck in the trunk of the tree in front of me just now, the handle still trembling.

  An Tiehu didn't wait for me to react and pounced on me, his knife slashing down swiftly. I hastily raised my shield to block it, a massive force transmitted through, the knife and shield emitted a loud crash, my shield in hand was actually shattered by him, my entire body was smashed out over 6 feet away, after stopping I fell to the ground with a dizzy head, both arms numb without any feeling, having been shocked senseless.

  Spitting out the copper tube in my mouth, I looked at An Tiehu standing in front of me and said: "I'm not your opponent, it's not unjust to die at your hands. My name is Yan Jiulang, and later you should use small seal script to write on that tombstone, it looks better that way."

  An Tiehu nodded and said: "Don't worry, you can go at ease."

  Just then, someone chuckled softly in the tree above our heads. Hearing this laughter, both I and An Tiehu were startled. An Tiehu retreated more than a dozen steps back, shouting loudly: "Who's there making mischief? Come out!"

  I looked up to locate the source of the sound and saw a man in black standing steadily on the tree, with his face also covered with a piece of black cloth, only his two eyes were exposed outside, and his gaze was like a sharp sword shooting out two cold glows.

  The man slowly said: "You're An Tiehu? Your skills are quite good. I sent your other brother on his way, right over there." As he spoke, he pointed with his hand.

  I and An Tiehu looked in the direction he was pointing, only to see a person hanging from a tree on that side, like a dead dog, swaying back and forth with the wind. Without looking closely, I knew that the person who had become a human wind chime had already stopped breathing.

  An Tiehu finished reading and suddenly shouted: "Leave your name behind, I'll send you on your way too!"

  That man smiled and said: "Thank you, I don't want to go yet. Let me send you on your way instead." After finishing speaking, he jumped down from the tree and pounced on An Tiehu.

  An Tiehu remained calm and shouted "You've come at the right time!" as he swung his long knife in a wide arc.

  All I saw was that the man stretched out his hand and pressed it on the blade, and suddenly he jumped up from the ground. In mid-air, he flipped over and got a shiny dagger in his hand. After that, I didn't see clearly, but I saw that the man landed behind An Tiehu, and An Tiehu fell to the ground with a dagger handle on the back of his neck.

  My eyes were dazzled and for a moment I couldn't believe that An Tiehu was really dead. I pointed at his corpse and asked: "He... he's dead?!"

  That man didn't respond to my question and instead stared at me intently as he stood in front of me. I hastily forced a smile and said: "Thank you so much for your heroic help, your skills are truly impressive, it's really beyond my reach."

  Before I could continue to say happy new year, this person raised his hand and slapped me in the face. I spun around and fell to the ground, touched my swollen cheek, smiled bitterly, got up and said: "Your hands are really heavy, this slap almost made me pass out."

  That man turned around, picked up the copper tube I dropped on the ground and handed it to me. He grabbed An Tiehu's corpse and put it on my back, saying: "Carry him back quickly, you haven't even finished practicing yet and you've already come out to lose face."

  I hastily said: "What you say is right, I will certainly follow your advice."

  Before I could finish speaking, the man waved his hand and said: "Go back and inform the master that Xie Wenhui has sent four assassins to kill the master and General Li." After finishing speaking, he disappeared into the forest and was no longer seen.

  I carried An Tiehu's corpse and rolled out of the forest, the news that black-clad man said was too important, not a moment could be delayed. After running out of the forest, I saw that those government soldiers had run away without exception. I was so angry in my heart, there was no way, I had to rely on myself, and ran for several hundred steps again, I was exhausted, just about to throw down this big meat bag and run by myself, when I saw a dozen horses running towards me, the one at the front was Zheng Xiong, I hurriedly rushed to the horse's front and asked: "Where is Officer Shang?"

  Zheng Xiong was shocked by my behavior and dismounted his horse, saying: "Sir, you just came from General Li's camp, did you kill this man?"

  I didn't answer him and rushed to the big black horse, mounted it and ran towards General Li's camp. After arriving at the camp, I dismounted my horse, the camp was very quiet, most of the soldiers were still outside fighting, only a few people were guarding this camp. For some reason, after entering the camp, I became uneasy, looking at the dark tents all over the camp, my hair stood up, secretly calling out "not good", I quickly walked towards the commander's tent in the middle of the camp.

  I looked around the entrance and surprisingly there wasn't a single guard, this was really freaking me out. I stared at the tent opening but didn't dare to enter. I took out my small copper tube, loaded an arrow, and casually grabbed a large chopping knife from the weapon rack in front of the tent. I sprang up, swung the big knife and slashed towards the large tent. With one slash, the tent was cut open with a huge gash over 3 meters long. The tightly stretched cowhide immediately rolled up, revealing an opening as large as a door.

  Only two black shadows darted out of the account like lightning, one of whom raised his hand and threw something at me. In the dark night, I couldn't see what was flying over, so I didn't dare to block it, and after dodging, I threw the big knife in my hand with all my might towards one person.

  That man heard the sound and hastily turned around, using the spear in his hand to thrust upwards, sending the big knife flying. However, this person's footwork was a step slower, taking advantage of this opportunity I shot out the blow dart. It hit that man's back squarely. Not paying attention to being hit by the arrow, he continued to chase after the one ahead without stopping.

  At this time, the other soldiers in the camp also realized it and rushed towards me. The man in front was desperately running towards the wooden wall at the end of the big camp. He was almost there, I knew he wanted to climb over the wall and escape. But he was more than 3 zhang away from me, and my blowpipe couldn't reach him. In a state of urgency, I took out the remaining bottle of chili powder and fiercely threw it at the wall above his head when he was less than one zhang away from the wall. This guy clearly didn't expect to encounter this thing, and just as his hands were about to touch the wall, the bottle shattered on the wall above him, covering his entire head with a large cloud of chili powder.

  He didn't dare to jump anymore, standing under the wall and started vomiting, more than a dozen soldiers who were running behind me also rushed up, after tying him up with ropes I asked: "Where are Master Shangguan and General Li?"