"Who?!"
Qin Feng shivered.
He immediately rushed outside, only to catch a glimpse of a dark shadow flashing by at the end of the road.
"Still daring to seek me out!"
Qin Feng gathered his energy and sprinted furiously.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't catch up to the shadow.
"Qinggong, you can perform Qinggong too? Could it be you, Chen Sansi?!"
Qin Feng barely managed to fall behind the shadow.
The two, one in front and one behind, chased each other, leaving Yanbian Village and heading straight towards Tiger Head Mountain.
They reached Second Layer Mountain.
The shadow flashed again, burrowing into the dense forest and completely disappearing.
"Clang—"
The long sword unsheathed, Qin Feng held the sword in one hand, cautiously stepping into the dense forest.
The night sky was crystal clear, the moon bright, stars sparse.
The ghastly white moonlight scattered across the earth, broken by the dense branches into mottled shadows and light.
With every step Qin Feng took, rustling sounds emitted from the surrounding thicket, unclear whether they were caused by startled bugs and animals, or someone lurking in the shadows.
He swung his sword forward in anger, cutting down swathes of plants to clear his view, but the shadow that had lured him out remained unseen.
"Who exactly are you?"
"Weren't you to lead me to see my elder brother, where is he now?!"
Finally, that deep, eerie voice rose again.
"Your brother's head is nearly crushed by you, and you still ask me?"
What?
Qin Feng was startled and looked down.
Beneath his feet, embedded in the mud, was a stark white skull.
Around the skull, scattered bones and pieces of clothing lay around.
From the remains of the clothing, it appeared they had been torn apart by wild beasts.
This was...
Qin Xiong's clothing.
How could he have forgotten?!
"Brother!!!"
"Swoosh—"
Qin Feng roared, his heart suddenly turning cold.
A Wolf Teeth Arrow pierced his heart from behind, protruding from the front.
Thud!
Qin Feng knelt on one knee, the long sword planted into the earth for support, struggling with all his might not to fall, as blood gushed from his mouth and nose like a fountain.
He had no strength left, nor the will to resist anymore; he merely gazed blankly at his elder brother's remains.
The moonlight, salt-like, illuminated them both, one alive, one a ghost, two real brothers.
"Damn it!"
"My heart is kind, I can't bear to see this scene. Since your brotherly love is so deep, I'll grant you both a reunion!"
Chen Sansi emerged from the shadows.
He mobilized his Qi-Blood into his arms, using the plum blossom spear technique powerfully, and pierced through Qin Feng's heart, ending his life.
From start to finish.
Qin Feng had never managed to see his killer's true face.
Such is the terrifying nature of long-range weapons.
If one can neither dodge nor withstand the blow, they are almost always incapacitated by a single strike.
Clearly, mastery in Blood Refining was not enough to resist.
Chen Sansi searched the body, finding ten taels of silver.
"You're indeed richer than your brother!"
Besides that, there was a sword.
Chen Sansi thought it over but decided not to take it.
This sword, issued by Tianyuan Martial Arts Academy, was too distinctive a feature and couldn't be sold off.
In order to prevent anyone from recognizing the arrow and spear wounds on Qin Feng's body, he first pulled out the Wolf Teeth Arrow, then picked up the long sword, chopping the corpse wildly over a dozen times, ensuring that the wounds couldn't be identified before he was satisfied.
"Finally dealt with."
Having eliminated a major worry, Chen Sansi felt comforted.
This trip, both his skills in tracking, stealth, and archery had improved significantly.
[Skill: Archery (small achievement)]
[Progress:(50/1000)]
"Tracking and stealth breakthrough!"
[Tracking and Stealth (small achievement)]
[Progress:0/1000]
[Utility: Night as Bright as Day, Insight Shocking, Light as a Feather, Concealing Breath and Hiding]
On top of the original basis, two additional effects had emerged.
Though it was night, Chen Sansi could see every minute movement as clearly as if it were day.
Concealing Breath and Hiding, self-explanatory, needs no further description.
With these two skills, Chen Sansi was truly an assassin who came and left without a trace.
"It's time to go back."
Tonight, there was a big commotion in the county city, unknown if it would spill over to the outside.
Not daring to linger, he quickly retraced his steps under the cover of night.
As he passed by Su Family Village, Chen Sansi sharply noticed some activity in the woods.
Highly vigilant, he immediately climbed a tree, deploying his newly learned Concealing Breath Technique.
Instants later, he felt as if he had merged with the tree; even the birds perched on the tree were not startled.
Staggering footsteps came from the woods, resembling a drunkard who every few steps would crash to the ground breaking the undergrowth, creating a "crashing" noise.
Finally.
The source of the noise entered Chen Sansi's field of vision.
However, this was not a drunkard but a person gravely injured.
The man who approached wasn't tall, his clothes were tattered, and his body was covered in blood with over a dozen knife wounds deep enough to expose his bones; one could even see his pulsating organs.
Sustaining such severe wounds yet still able to walk was nothing short of miraculous.
"Where did he come from?"
Chen Sansi noted the man's attire—earrings, and a braided beard, not the style of the local people.
"A barbarian?"
"That assassin?"
"Weren't there Lord Thousand Households Xiang Tingchun in person last night along with three hundred troops and countless disciples from the martial arts academy to guard? And he still managed to escape?"
He didn't act recklessly, but observed secretly.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
As the barbarian kept coughing up black blood, he staggered and fell into the bushes, repeatedly trying to get up only to collapse back to the ground. His state was clearly deteriorating fast, nearly at his end.
There, he lay on the ground, using his hands covered in sticky blood to dig under a rock, tremblingly scooping up the mud.
It took great effort to carve out a small hole.
Then, he drew a box from his bosom and buried it with all his remaining strength.
"Is he hiding something?"
Chen Sansi watched intently.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
After burying the item, the barbarian scrambled to cover the spot with grass and branches.
By now, he was practically only breathing in and no longer out, on the brink of death, yet he still persisted in crawling forward to get as far away from the hiding spot as possible.
After about ten meters, his body stiffened, and he moved no more.
Chen Sansi waited in the tree for roughly ten minutes, confirming the man was truly dead, before leaping down to poke open the soil with his long spear and retrieve the hidden object.
"What's this?"
Chen Sansi toyed with the palm-sized box, pondering.
The fact that he strained his last breath to hide it meant it must be extremely valuable.
But the question remains.
Why would an assassin carry treasures with him on a mission?
Or perhaps.
The barbarian's purpose was to steal this item specifically from Po Yang County?
"No, that's not right,"
Chen Sansi shook his head.
There were still inconsistencies.
Had he come to steal, the barbarian should not have lingered in the area after killing the County Magistrate, and during that time, also killed the master of Yunhe Martial Arts Hall.
Moreover.
What treasure could little Po Yang County possibly possess?
Intelligence even less likely.
With the incident escalated to this level, even if it were intelligence, it would have been rendered useless; was there still a need to bury it?
The whole affair had been strange from the start.
Neither the government office nor the martial arts schools had mentioned searching for any item, only capturing the assassin.
"Ahead!"
"Quick!"
"..."
Suddenly, footsteps sounded not far off, swift and firm, clearly the pursuers had caught up.
Chen Sansi couldn't risk exposing his nocturnal activities, quickly restored the hole and placed a rock over it, then climbed back into the tree with the box.
The ones who arrived weren't from the government office or the garrison.
It was people from a martial arts academy, and only three of them.
A middle-aged man led two direct disciples.
From their attire, they were from Zhao's Martial Arts Academy.
The leader was the master, Zhao Ben.
"Master, just the one."
"And he's dead!"
They discovered the barbarian's corpse.
Zhao Ben's expression changed as he rushed over, searching the body, "Where's the item?!"
"Search!"
"Yes!"
The two disciples drew their swords and began scouring the area.
Of course, they found nothing in the end.
"Master, there's nothing. I reckon it must have been taken by some of the others."
"Damn! So close!"
Zhao Ben's fists whitened as he clenched them, it took a long while before he could suppress his rage, "Did you leak any information tonight?"
"Master, rest assured. Besides the masters of the three major martial arts academies, only a few direct disciples and Lord Thousand Households knew that we were searching for an Immortal Treasure.
"The rest of the ordinary disciples and the official soldiers from the garrison think we were simply capturing an assassin."
"Good,"
Zhao Ben warned, "This matter is critical to our hundred-year plan. If any word leaks out, the consequences are unimaginable! Therefore, if any outsider learns even a fraction of information, they must be killed without hesitation!"
"Go back. Also, carry the barbarian's corpse back and cut it open. Don't rule out the possibility that the item is inside him!"
"Yes!"
"..."
Watching as the group departed,
Chen Sansi took some time to absorb the overwhelming amount of information from the conversation.
Immortal Treasure?
They were searching for an Immortal Treasure?
And Lord Thousand Households Xiang Tingchun was in on this too?
And hell, they were so ruthless as to kill any outsider who came into contact with it?
Chen Sansi weighed the box in his hand.
"Well then, there's no way I can let anyone know I've touched this thing."
"It looks like..."
"It's mine now!"