Chapter 1 I'm Just Along for the Ride (Fixed)

  Many years later, when Euler stood in front of the imperial palace wearing the crown symbolizing power and receiving the cheers of the crowd, he still couldn't forget what had happened that morning during his journey.

  Due to the heavy rain last night, a thin layer of white fog lingered in the forest until noon without dispersing. The sun also hid behind thick clouds, making the entire sky look somewhat gloomy and melancholic.

  A foraging crow seemed to be startled by something, flapping its wings and taking off from the ground, letting out an angry and shrill cry that echoed through the quiet forest for a long time.

  A moment later, a small deer poked its head out from behind the trees, its nostrils flaring as it cautiously sniffed at the scents in the air.

  Ye Feng hid behind a tree, gently raising the crossbow in his hand. He held his breath, taking aim at the beautiful prey. With a light press of the trigger, the sharp three-edged arrow easily tore through the small deer's skin, piercing its blood vessels and creating a horrific wound, but it still escaped in panic.

  Ye Feng cursed under his breath and hastily chased after him. As a carnivore, he had been eating fruit for several days and didn't want to continue doing so. He urgently needed a set of durable clothes and shoes; the ones made from leaves and tree bark that he was currently wearing were really shabby and not warm at all.

  After climbing over a hill, he suddenly froze. Before his eyes appeared a wide and spacious avenue. On the avenue, about twenty masked men in black clothes were surrounding a luxurious carriage with all their might. In front of them, more than ten soldiers wearing ancient armor were leaning against the carriage, forming a circle to resist desperately.

  Curses, the clash of weapons and wails of agony filled the air. Corpses lay scattered all over the ground.

  The situation was extremely unfavorable for those soldiers, and in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, they would all be killed. They seemed to have understood this fact as well, abandoning their futile defense, staring with bloodshot eyes, and beginning a frenzied fight to the death, exchanging one life for another.

  When Ye Feng appeared on the big road, this battle was already nearing its end. He looked at the scene in front of him with a mixture of shock and amazement, turning his head to look around, trying to find the location of the hidden camera. This scene was too realistic, no matter where it was placed, it would definitely be a epic movie that surpasses "Dinner" and dominates the box office.

  When the last rebel warrior's head was chopped off by a man in black, a watermelon-sized human head flew into the air, rolling and rolling until it stopped at his feet. Seeing the blood splattered all over the ground and the steaming muscle tissue, he finally woke up from his dream, realizing that this was real, not a movie shoot.

  The people in black raised their weapons, still stained with fresh blood, and let out a cheer. The car door burst open from the inside. A girl gripping a dagger walked out of it.

  She wore a white long gown, with a golden thread embroidered sash at her waist that outlined the beautiful curves, making people feel her slender waist that was almost too thin to grasp, and her full and high chest.

  Ye Feng gazed at her face, and suddenly felt a sense of astonishment. The girl's skin was as white as crystal snow, without any blemishes. Her eyes, like a pool of autumn water, emitted an unusual glow, and her golden long hair gently swayed in the breeze.

  Her eyebrows revealed a proud and inviolable spirit. Even in the face of strong enemies, she remained fearless, her complexion only slightly pale.

  The people in black retreated a step under her gaze, their momentum weakening unanimously.

  A man with a large axe, who looked like the leader, stepped forward and said: "Miss Nia, our boss has invited you and your brother to his place for dinner. Please cooperate a bit. Otherwise, these rough men under me don't understand what it means to cherish beauties."

  Ye Feng was taken aback. Although what they said sounded a bit strange, for someone who had studied Latin before, he could still barely understand it.

  The girl called Nia looked at him coldly and said with hatred: "When did the famous Black Wind Thief become a lackey of the treacherous Ataras?"

  The leader's face changed, and a cold light flashed in his eyes. He pulled down the cloth covering his face and said sternly, "Speak more cleanly, what does that old dog Ataras mean to us? If you and your brother follow us, you will naturally understand."

  The girl shook her head firmly and said, "We will not follow you. The people of the Yurius family would never, are not now, and will not in the future yield to their enemies."

  "Right, we will never yield to the enemy." A boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old with a short chestnut-colored hair held a short sword in his hand and also jumped out of the carriage, standing beside the girl, saying proudly.

  The black-clothed leader said with a smile: "Then let's try it out." With a wave of his right hand, several black-clothed men walked towards them.

  "Wait a minute." The girl held the dagger horizontally in front of her chest and said sternly, "If you take one more step forward, I swear to God that I will fight with all my might and not leave until death."

  The young man swung his short sword and raised his chin proudly, saying: "Can the dignity of the nobility be tolerated by you...?"

  His gaze passed over the black-clad men and landed on Ye Feng, who was standing not far away in a green suit, and he couldn't utter a single word.

  Those black-clad men also stopped in their tracks, hesitating as they turned back to look. The crowd turned their heads to look too. They saw a man standing on the big road not far from them, his entire body covered with leaves, his hair disheveled and his beard unkempt.

  Ye Feng looked down at his clothes, pulled up the tree vine that covered his lower body, forced a smile, waved at them and said: "Hey, everyone. You guys continue. I'm just passing by to get some soy sauce..."

  The man in black pointed at him and shouted loudly: "Get rid of him, no one can be left alive."

  Two men in black immediately picked up their knives and rushed over with a fierce smile.

  Ye Feng instinctively drew out a crossbow bolt, placed it on the string, and without fully drawing it back, fired twice in an extremely short period of time. The two men instantly fell backwards, each with a crossbow bolt stuck in their heart.

  The black-clad leader was shocked, for under their black clothes they were wearing armor, and ordinary bows and arrows would have difficulty piercing it.

  Not allowing him to speak again, a crossbow arrow had already flown over and accurately shot into his throat. He covered the wound with his hand in disbelief, making gurgling sounds from his throat, then fell softly to the ground like a mud lump.

  "Big brother, big brother."

  "What's wrong with you, boss?"

  "The leader is dead." Several men in black cried out in panic.

  "What's the panic? Rush over and kill..." Another black-clad man shouted loudly, but before he could finish speaking, a crossbow arrow had already been nailed to his forehead.

  The remaining dozen or so people saw this, but instead of fleeing, they let out a loud roar and charged at him with their long swords. Ye Feng quickly drew several crossbow bolts, loaded them onto the string, and fired in rapid succession. With each twang of the bowstring, more black-clad men fell to the ground.

  However, in a matter of dozens of steps, they arrived in an instant. The remaining seven or eight people had already pounced on him. Ye Feng didn't have time to shoot his arrow, so he could only use the crossbow in his hand to strike one of them with great force. That person was unable to dodge and was instantly smashed, covering their face in blood, wailing as they fell to the ground.

  Ye Feng's body spun around, his toes lightly lifted, and a thick branch on the ground had already jumped into his hand. Both hands raised the branch to block the sharp knife that was chopped down, then his right foot kicked out, accurately hitting the man's groin area.

  A cracking sound like an egg breaking rang out, and the man's eyes rolled back, a thread of white foam flowed from his mouth, and he fainted.

  At this moment, the sound of wind was heard by his ear, Ye Feng listened to the wind and identified the position, immediately knowing that there were people attacking from both sides.

  Two large knives came flashing down with a sharp whistling sound, he calmly dodged to one side, avoiding the knife, and swung the branch in his hand backhandedly, hitting one of them right on the back of the head.

  Right after that, he tossed the branch in his hand into the air, and another black-clad man was momentarily stunned, involuntarily raising his head to look at the branch. Ye Feng took advantage of this opportunity, stretched out his left hand, grasped the long sword in his hand, pulled it back, and changed its direction, stabbing a black-clad man who had already pounced on him through the chest.

  The man in black was shocked to see his long sword accidentally injuring his comrade.

  Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, Ye Feng landed a vicious elbow strike squarely on the man's ribs, the sharp cracking sound of the bones shattering echoing clearly for all to hear.

  The rest of the people were so frightened that they immediately stopped in their tracks, with fearful eyes, and retreated one after another.

  Ye Feng caught the falling branch in mid-air and swung it into a staff flower, smiling at them with his eyes narrowed.

  He stretched out his index finger in front of him and shouted loudly: "Damn it, you guys are really not harmonious. I said I was just passing by to buy soy sauce, but you didn't believe me? Now do you believe it?"

  Those men in black saw Ye Feng being so fierce, and with a raise of his hand, more than half of their own people had already died. Suddenly, they lost their courage, shouted loudly, and turned around to flee. They rushed into the forest and disappeared.

  The girl led the boy over with some trepidation, stopping cautiously about five or six meters away from him. The boy looked at the corpse lying on the ground, then at his clothes made of coarse, rotten leaves, and asked hesitantly: "Are you human or a monster?"

  "Ora. Don't talk nonsense." The girl pulled him, saw Ye Feng's starry eyes glance over, and her heart skipped a beat, thinking: His eyes are really black.

  She bowed elegantly and said from a distance, "Thank you for your help. The Ulysses family will be eternally grateful. May I ask your esteemed name?"

  "Major Ye Feng, Staff Officer of the 1st Marine Division of the Hua Nation Navy."

  With a snap, the thin vine tied around his waist could no longer withstand the force and broke off. The fearless girl facing the strong enemy let out a loud shriek and quickly turned her back. The boy widened his eyes, pulled at her clothes, and said in a low voice, "Take a closer look, what is that thing? It's so big."

  The girl took a step back and blocked his way, saying in a low, angry voice: "Don't look."

  "Why?" The young man asked in puzzlement.

  "When you grow up, you'll understand. Don't ask silly questions now." The girl scolded him, grasping his wandering head.

  "Here we go again." The young man hung his head and kicked at a pebble on the ground, muttering discontentedly.

  On this side, Ye Feng hastily stripped a piece of clothing from a black-clad person on the ground and put it on himself. He awkwardly chuckled twice and loudly said: "Alright, now you can turn around."

  The two turned their heads to look, and at this time Ye Feng had thrown away the bark and leaves, put on his clothes, tied up his long hair behind his head, although he still had a full beard, but looked much less intimidating.

  That young man ran over, picked up the crossbow he had thrown on the ground, played with it for a while in his hand, and handed it back to him. He said: "Hua Guo? Never heard of it. What is a lieutenant colonel?"

  Ye Feng's voice was low as he said, "That is a country in the East. Lieutenant Colonel, not a high-ranking official, probably just managing a few hundred people."

  The two of them exchanged a glance, feeling that he was bragging. How big is the official in charge of several hundred people? Even if it were their father's heyday, there would be no more than 500 soldiers under his command.

  Ye Feng looked at their clothes and felt a bit strange, asking: "By the way, what's today's date?"

  February 28th.

  "February 28th?" Ye Feng was taken aback and immediately asked another question: "Which year?"

  "What year? Which year are you asking about?" the girl asked.

  "Yes, I asked which year."

  "It's been 618 years since the Guangming calendar." The young man said hastily.

  "Light... Light Calendar 618..." Ye Feng's butt landed on the ground.

  "Hey, I'm asking where you live? You don't even know that?" The young man asked, circling around him.

  Ye Feng didn't say a word, and with a dejected expression, he pointed behind him at the towering mountain that pierced the clouds.

  "That's a forbidden place," the girl looked up and said in surprise, "It's said that there are ancient gods' caves in the mountains. In the laws of ancient times, it was already stipulated that no one can go there."