Chapter One: Family Hatred

  Today's harvest is not bad, the set caught a half-grown wild boar, this beast was very fierce and didn't stop trying to bite me until it died. After killing it, I carried it home, and in front of me appeared a clump of long grass. In such places, one must be extra careful. I carefully used the long-handled spear in my hand to probe the grass several times, and only heard a few hissing sounds. A small triangular head with bright red eyes emerged from the underbrush.

  As soon as I saw the snake, my anger surged up. We call it "black charcoal head" here. My second uncle was bitten by this thing and had his arm cut off by grandfather. Since then, my second uncle, who was originally as strong as an ox, could only walk with the support of others. Grandfather said that it was because the poison was too deep and damaged his body, and my second uncle would never be well again in this life.

  With a jerk of his shoulder, he threw the wild boar to the ground, and the huge shock obviously stimulated it. Suddenly, its long body contracted backwards, and then it rushed over with a hiss, I saw it rushing over and busy using the spear in my hand to block it, when the snake fell from the air, I thrust the gun and nailed it to a tree trunk.

  The snake was writhing in coils, I pulled out a short knife and stabbed it at the seven-inch mark, now there's something for Grandpa to make wine with. After cleaning up the dead snake, I carried that wild boar on my back and walked happily towards the village below the mountain.

  As I approached the foot of the mountain, I suddenly smelled a strong smell of burning wine. My heart was slightly surprised, did Zhang Erbo's big jar for brewing private wine in the east of the village break? Is the government office at the foot of the mountain coming to catch people making private wine again? Thinking of this, I didn't dare to continue walking. The group of bastards in the government office are very cruel, and they might take away the wild boar I just caught.

  After hiding the wild boar, I came to the outskirts of the village and chose a large tree to climb up. When I climbed up and looked around, there were no government officials, but a group of people wearing armor. The armor and clothes on these people's bodies were all tattered and worn out, with some people having blood-stained bandages wrapped around their bodies. They were entering and exiting each house as if they didn't care, occasionally carrying packages out and placing them in the empty space in the village. Seeing this, my heart was stuck in my throat - how could they be taking things without anyone stopping them? Where were the villagers? Why did the smell of alcohol cover up such a strong bloody smell?

  Among those people, several set up a large pot outside, and a large pile of meat that had been washed and peeled was also thrown into the pot. As it got darker, those people gathered around the pot to eat and drink. I saw this scene and climbed down from the tree, walking quietly towards the village. The closer I walked, the stronger the bloody smell became. My heart racing, I followed the smell until I came to a small earth pit at the entrance of the village, only to find that the originally small pit was filled with corpses.

  The bloody smell in the pit was nauseating, but I couldn't feel it anymore. With that dim light, I clearly saw Grandpa and Second Uncle's blood-soaked bodies at the top of the pile of corpses.

  My heart suddenly tightened, I crawled to my grandfather's face and knelt down. That white-haired head was now stained with fresh blood, the wrinkled face was also filled with blood, his right arm was cut off at the shoulder, his left arm was stretched out tightly protecting my uncle who had already died. Seeing this, I couldn't bear it anymore, I threw myself onto my grandfather's body and let out a heart-wrenching cry.

  As soon as the crying sound started, I heard someone shouting: "There's one who hasn't died yet, go take a look quickly."

  Then someone else shouted: "On that pile of dead men, shoot him."

  I suddenly came to my senses, I couldn't just cry like this, those people would definitely kill me if they caught up. Thinking of this, I turned over the pile of corpses and ran towards the forest, with the sound of arrows piercing the air behind me. Then I heard someone say: "It's just a little brat, don't chase him, in this dark and windy weather, we might sprain our feet."

  In the midst of the dark forest, I ran wildly for a while before hiding in a dark shadow and wailing again. I don't know how long it took, but I stopped crying, only feeling like there was a huge boulder pressing on my chest, making me feel suffocated. The images of Grandfather and Second Uncle's blood-stained faces kept appearing in my mind, and the intense anger welling up from the bottom of my heart made my whole body tremble with rage. I gritted my teeth, stood up, pulled out a short knife from my waist, and crept back towards the village.

  Those people had already fallen asleep, as it was hot and they were lying all over the ground in a disorderly manner. The things they had looted from the village were piled up like small hills, with horses tied to them. I stared at those who were still eating, then turned around and went back into the forest.

  The forest was very dark, I didn't go deep, just borrowed the dim moonlight to grope around the edge of the forest and set up three traps in a row. The small trees with strong elasticity were pressed down and tied with a thick branch with a sharp tip at chest height. After setting it up, I remembered the location of the three tripwires and then walked back to the village.

  Now only one person has not lain down, I crouched behind the earth wall and quietly waited for him to fall asleep. This man seemed to be very sleepy too, relying on the almost extinguished firelight, I saw that his eyes were about to close. However, at this moment, the man walked to a sleeping companion and kicked him saying: "Don't pretend to be dead, get up, it's your turn to keep watch." After finishing speaking, he lay down beside the man and fell asleep.

  The one who was kicked got up, muttered something in his mouth, and came to sit down by the fire in a daze. I knew I couldn't wait any longer, once he woke up, there would be no chance of making a move. Thinking of this, I held a short knife in my mouth and crawled over the earth wall towards his back.

  I slowly crept up behind the man, suddenly covering his mouth with my hand, and the knife in my hand fiercely slashed across his neck. The man struggled violently in my arms for a few moments before falling still. But the low, faint sound he made as he died still sent chills down my spine. I slowly lowered his body to the ground and continued on towards the group of sleeping people.

  When I successfully stabbed the sixth person, a loud cracking sound came from the fire pit, and the man whose mouth I had covered woke up with a start. He grasped my wrist with one hand, and with the other, he pried open my hand covering his mouth. I struggled to press the knife towards his chest, but it was no use - the man's strength was too great, and I couldn't match him in a test of strength.

  My hand holding the knife suddenly relaxed, and the blade fell onto his chest, sinking in by about half. The man let out a blood-curdling scream, and with a surge of strength, he pushed me away and reached to pull out the knife stuck in his body. I sprang up, and with a swift motion, I struck him on the head with my fist once more before jumping up and running towards the forest.

  Behind me, I heard a chorus of panicked curses, followed by the sound of many footsteps chasing after me. I sprinted across the area with the hidden pitfalls, and soon, several blood-curdling screams echoed from behind - it seemed that those traps hadn't been laid in vain. After leading this group on a wild goose chase, I returned to the village, untied the horse's reins, mounted up, and rode off.

  After galloping on horseback for over 20 miles, I finally stopped. By this time, the sky had already brightened up. I took a look at the things tied to the horse's body - a bow, five arrows, and two large leather bags that were bulging with contents. As soon as I pulled out the stopper from one of the bags and took a sniff, the pungent smell of liquor hit me right in the face, making me wrinkle my brow. I gazed at the two large bags for a moment before reaching into my clothes to pull out a packet of medicinal powder, which I sprinkled into the liquor.

  This is the poison that Grandfather himself concocted, specially used to capture and kill those wild beasts with poor-tasting meat but extremely valuable fur. At this moment, I looked at the two large wine bags with some concern, the poison was too little, it's easy to say for the greedy drinkers, but for those who drank less, they might not die.

  I straddled the horse and chased after him again, when I was about to enter the village, I hid the horse in the woods and peeked out at the situation outside. The people outside had already dispersed, leaving only a few corpses on the ground. I checked around first, then walked over and rummaged through the bodies. It seemed that someone had searched them before me, but didn't find anything. The man I had killed half to death was also lying there, with my knife still stuck in his chest. I saw that his hand was still trembling slightly, so I went up to him and gently pushed him a few times. He woke up, but it seemed he didn't recognize me, only weakly saying: "Little brother, give me some water to drink."

  I nodded and took out the water bottle from my body to give him a small mouthful, saying: "What kind of person are you? Were those dead ones with you?"

  That man forced a smile and said, "We are soldiers under Liu Wuzhou's command. After being defeated by the Tang army, we fled to the northern Black Stone Mountain to hide out. Little brother, please save me! I have money, and as long as you can save my life, I'll give you all of it."

  I nodded and said: "Okay, I know the place of Black Stone Mountain. Don't go back on your word at that time. How long has your companion been gone? Do you need me to send you back?"

  "That man said: 'They've been gone for more than two hours, don't see me off...'"

  I didn't hear what he said next, slowly pulled out the knife stuck in his chest and mounted my horse without looking back, accompanied by that person's mournful cry, I galloped north. An hour later, I slowed down, observing on the road, vaguely hearing voices coming from ahead, I dismounted, shouldered the quiver, drew an arrow and viciously shot it into the horse's rump, the horse let out a sorrowful whinny and ran forward, I listened again to the voices, turned around and slipped into the woods by the side of the road.

  A flurry of panicked voices came from the front, then someone shouted to quickly catch that horse. After a while, I saw three people holding long knives walking in my direction.

  These three people walked while occasionally looking around, I hid in the thicket and watched them pass by me. After they were a little farther away, I emerged from the woods, raised my hand and shot an arrow at the one on the far left. As that person fell to the ground with a mournful cry, I immediately nocked another arrow on the string. The other two had just turned around when my second arrow felled another man. The remaining one saw this scene, let out a shout, and rushed headlong into the tall grass by the side of the path. Seeing him flee, I hastily retreated back into the woods.

  As I just hid in the woods, the group of thieves who were attracted by the calling voice also arrived at those corpses. All I heard was a voice saying: "It seems we've been targeted by someone, this person is not ordinary, he killed two of my brothers with a lame horse, let's kill that lame horse and get some meat to go quickly."

  Another voice said, 'Boss, Xu Lao San is not here, where did he run off to?'

  "Just now, the voice said: 'Isn't he caught? If so, our whole foundation will be exposed. If we lead the Tang army here again, we'll all die. We can't care about him, let's hurry and leave.'"

  I hid in the tree to count the number of people, and after finishing, my head hurt. There were still 37 people left. It seemed that those two bags of poisonous wine I had weren't enough. This was not good. Thinking about this, I reluctantly chased towards the direction of those people. Looking at the messy footprints on the ground and the unlucky dead horse, I stood by the side of the road, hesitating. These people should know that there were not many people on my side, would they set up an ambush to wait for me? I thought they would do this, so they could return to the mountain with ease. Now, outside, everywhere was filled with Tang soldiers, and it wouldn't be easy to find a hiding place again. After hesitating for a moment, I cut off half of the horse's leg and walked into the forest.

  In the woods, I climbed up a tree and started gnawing on that half-leg of horse meat. The coarse raw horse meat was choking me, and the bloody smell made me want to vomit. I forced myself to finish eating, then hugged the trunk of the tree and fell asleep. When I woke up, it had already darkened, so I slid down from the tree, stretched my limbs, and continued on my way. Under the moonlight, I walked cautiously, and after a while, I noticed that the grass in front was quite disheveled, with many footprints on the ground. This must be where those people were waiting for me. Realizing this, I felt secretly pleased with myself - it seemed they had given up waiting after half a day.

  After chasing for over ten miles, I heard the sound of wailing coming from ahead. I crawled forward slowly and peeked out to see a group of people lying on the ground, with several still rolling around violently. It seems my poisoned wine was quite popular. I silently counted the bodies - 24 were dead, and four were struggling but would soon be joining them. That left nine who hadn't died yet. After checking that there was no one else around, I walked over to the group, picked up a few dozen arrows, and continued the chase. On the way, I saw another corpse. It seemed he hadn't drunk much of the wine - his body was still warm. The rest shouldn't be far away.

  The feeling of being startled and frightened appeared, and with every step I took, I felt a growing sense of fear. I stopped in my tracks, this feeling had happened before, 3 months ago when I was hunting rabbits on the mountain, that time it was just a feeling that made me raise the long gun in my hand, and at the same time a leopard pounced onto the tip of the gun. Now that feeling appeared again, I silently cursed my bad luck and turned around to run back.

  The sound of an arrow piercing the air came from behind, I fell to the ground and rolled away, then a shouting voice came from behind, I got up and continued running. The sound of the arrow piercing the air came again, my left leg suddenly became numb, a burning pain spread throughout my body in an instant. I struggled to get into the forest, chose the largest tree and climbed up.

  The people under the tree lit torches and surrounded the tree, I shrunk my body in the dense foliage and listened to the voices below, fierce curses came from below the tree, after a while, I felt the people below starting to chop down the tree, I took off my bow and looked down through the leaves, these few people stood under the tree in a circle, one person was chopping down the tree with an axe, another was holding a torch behind him to illuminate, I drew my bow at the illuminating one and shot an arrow, that person was hit by the arrow and fell to the ground. The people on the side shouted and hid in all directions, the woodcutter was startled by the sound, when he turned his head to look, I also shot another arrow into his body.

  The others all hid behind the trees around them, and a voice shouted out: "Little rabbit, we'll starve you to death up in that tree, just wait!"

  The sky was gradually brightening, the arrow wound on my left leg made me tremble with pain, and blood slowly flowed down the tree trunk. I knew I couldn't hold on for long, so I took out an arrow, broke off the arrowhead with force, opened my hair bun, wrapped the arrowhead with my hair, pointed it upwards and tied my hair back again. Then I shouted downwards: "I admit defeat! As long as you spare me, I'll tell you where my other two companions are hiding!" As I spoke, I threw my bow and arrow far away, then slowly climbed down from the tree.

  The people opposite me looked at me in shock, I continued to say: "Call your leader over, I have something to tell him". As I said that, I threw the short knife far away again and raised my hands. Those people only then ran towards me, raining down punches and kicks on my body. I lay on the ground letting them beat me until I was about to collapse when a voice called "Old Big" said: "Leave him some breath, I'll ask him a few questions".

  Then I saw a fierce big face say to me: 'How many of you are there? Why did you kill our brothers? Where are your people? If you tell the truth, I'll spare your life.'

  I weakly said: 'They are just.......' Purposely making my voice lower and lower, while putting on a dazed expression as if I was about to faint. The man leaned in closer, and when the time was right, I used the arrowhead wrapped around my head to heavily strike his temple. After striking him, I no longer had any strength left. In a fit of furious curses, I saw a flash of a knife heading straight for my head.