The chicken bone fell on Kuang Tongsheng’s shiny leather shoes.
Kuang Tongsheng looked down, then raised his eyes to look at him, and smiled gently.
…
Jiang Lian reflected: “A person needs to have at least one skill. If I couldn’t run, Master Gan wouldn’t have discovered me.”
He looked at Meng Qianzi: “What’s the most desperate moment for a thief when stealing? Based on my inglorious experience, it’s not when you’re caught or chased—as long as you can outrun everyone.”
“So when I say ‘run hard,’ I’m not joking. I truly believe that once we’re in a confrontation with no chance of winning, we should just run hard. If you can’t run, I’ll pull you along—I outran them even while carrying you before. This time, traveling light, we should have even less of a problem.”
Meng Qianzi remained silent. She still felt that Jiang Lian’s “run hard” strategy was absurd, but what was even more absurd was that she found his reasoning quite sensible.
Bai Shuixiao didn’t look like someone who could run well, whereas Jiang Lian was someone who could outrun even a dog to the point of despair.
Unconsciously, she reached out and rubbed her ankle.
When the villagers first approached, there was no significant sound, only a hazy glow of light drawing nearer from the distance.
Meng Qianzi and Jiang Lian had already climbed up a tree, holding their breath in anticipation.
As they came closer, sounds emerged: the soft breaking of twigs underfoot, the accidental clinking of blades against stones—all very faint, but precisely because of their faintness, they sparked the imagination, unconsciously causing a chill down one’s spine.
Eventually, the human shadows became distinct, one by one, as if seeping out from the dense forest, scattered in twos and threes, never stopping, still dragging their feet forward. The people at the front passed woodenly beneath the tree. Meng Qianzi could even clearly see their faces.
Now she understood what Jiang Lian meant by “not normal.”
But why were these people still moving forward? Having reached the spot, shouldn’t they stop?
Just as this thought arose, as if in response, a very light, sharp sound suddenly floated through the night sky. Those who had been walking stopped in unison, like puppets on strings.
The sharp sound seemed familiar. Meng Qianzi’s mind raced, the memory still fresh, and she quickly remembered.
It was an insect whistle, the same one Granny Tian Ya had blown when commanding venomous insects to attack her.
She whispered to Jiang Lian: “These people might be under the control of gu.”
Granny Tian Ya had lived in the village for years; manipulating these people would have been all too easy.
Jiang Lian grunted in acknowledgment: “Notice their positioning. They’ve stopped very strategically, surrounding us in the center.”
Indeed, Bai Shuixiao’s insect whistle had been precisely timed. But the whistle could only command the most basic movements: advance, retreat, and attack. To make these people completely submissive, other methods must have been used.
Meng Qianzi thought of the incense.
It seemed that what had failed on her had succeeded on these people.
Another insect whistle sounded, and the people began rapidly pacing in place, emanating killing intent, as if searching for targets. Some knocked over loose rocks, others pushed through bushes.
Meng Qianzi waited calmly: she and Jiang Lian had deliberately chosen this tree, which had already been attacked, as their hiding place, confident that the cold arrow mechanism had been used and not reloaded. It couldn’t fire again to force them down. The insect whistle couldn’t instruct these people to climb trees to find them. Bai Shuixiao would have to appear in person to give orders.
And once she appeared, they would run.
Bai Shuixiao would never dream they would “run hard.”
As she was thinking this, her wrist suddenly tightened—Jiang Lian had gripped it, saying softly: “She’s here.”
Here? Before Meng Qianzi could look carefully, she heard Bai Shuixiao’s sharp command: “They’re in the tree!”
No sooner had the words fallen than those people instantly looked up, eyes bulging, their pupils gleaming with ferocity. Just as Meng Qianzi and Jiang Lian were about to climb down, the people below had already noticed. Two skilled climbers shouted wildly and leaped up toward the tree like monkeys.
From his higher position, Jiang Lian targeted the lead climber and kicked him hard.
The man fell straight down. The moment his body hit the ground, he immediately flipped up and again began clawing his way up the tree, heedless of everything. In this brief moment, the crowd had already gathered beneath the tree. At a glance, under the not-so-large canopy, heads swarmed, with six or seven people climbing up.
Meng Qianzi urgently said, “Let’s move through the trees!”
Jiang Lian had the same idea, but seeing the commotion below, he held her back: “First, let’s draw as many people here as possible!”
The more people gathered under this tree, the fewer obstacles they would face when escaping by jumping down from other trees.
As they spoke, someone had already leaped up the tree. Meng Qianzi kicked him down, then, seeing another head emerging, without thinking, she quickly delivered another kick. Too many heads and too few legs—now she envied the centipede for its many legs. On the other side, Jiang Lian was also kicking and stomping. Seeing that the ground below was now a churning sea of people piled on people, he finally shouted: “Let’s go!”
Together, they leaped to the nearest tree, then quickly slid down.
As soon as they hit the ground, Jiang Lian grabbed Meng Qianzi and ran at full speed.
Although most people had been drawn to that tree, not all were there. Small groups were scattered everywhere. As soon as they started running, people rushed to ram into them. Jiang Lian had to dodge, and this brief delay allowed the mass of people from under the tree to pour toward them like a flowing stream. Amid the chaos, Bai Shuixiao’s angry urging voice could be heard. In the urgency, they couldn’t make out what she was saying, but could guess it was along the lines of “stop them,” “don’t let them escape,” and so on.
The two stumbled, breaking through and avoiding several people trying to block them. Seeing the path ahead relatively clear, they knew victory or defeat hinged on this moment. Almost telepathically, they accelerated simultaneously. This burst of power was tremendous, creating a whistling sound in their ears. But after successfully charging forward only a dozen steps, a dark shadow suddenly lunged from the side and firmly grabbed Jiang Lian’s leg.
It was the man with only half a body. Being able to move only by supporting himself with his hands, he was slower than others and had positioned himself on the outskirts. Seeing Jiang Lian and Meng Qianzi attempting to escape, he had hidden in the shadows. In this dark spot, with his abnormally short stature, when lying motionless, he truly blended with the tree shadows and rocks.
His sudden, fierce attack hit its mark. Jiang Lian’s swiftly raised leg instantly carried over a hundred pounds of extra weight, which he couldn’t withstand. He immediately tumbled over, and Meng Qianzi, being pulled by him, also rolled to the ground. For ordinary people, this fall might have broken their necks or spines. Fortunately, both were trained fighters who knew how to protect vital areas in emergencies. Even so, they were dazed, seeing stars and feeling dizzy.
But they had no time to catch their breath. Dozens of rushing shadows were already swooping down like ghosts. Meng Qianzi was better off—she had rolled further away and could stagger to her feet, avoiding the first wave of attacks. Jiang Lian could hardly get up: the half-bodied man seemed determined to hold him down. No matter how Jiang Lian kicked, the man held on firmly, refusing to let go. Seeing a hoe about to smash down on his head, Jiang Lian had no choice but to ignore this person. With more than a hundred pounds hanging on his leg, he rolled to dodge, barely avoiding the blow when his other leg sank—another person had locked onto it. Just as someone swung an iron shovel at his side, Jiang Lian gritted his teeth, let out a great shout, raised his upper body off the ground, and slid forward like doing a sit-up, barely escaping.
Meanwhile, Meng Qianzi was also in peril. Although a first-class fighter, she had never encountered such reckless fighting methods. Normally, if you kicked, the opponent would dodge; if you swept your leg, they would evade—that was the give-and-take of combat. But these people felt no fear of pain. They would rather take kicks and hits while desperately trying to grab her, block her, or lock her. Once they got hold, they wouldn’t let go. A woman in a red spaghetti-strap top, who walked unsteadily, took a direct kick to the face. Despite her bloodied face, she still fiercely grabbed Meng Qianzi’s lower leg, twisting to bring her down.
Just then, hurried shouts came from nearby—
“It’s Miss Meng!”
“Miss Meng is here!”
“Brothers, charge!”
Before the words faded, several agile figures quickly cut into the battle. The crowd hadn’t expected others to appear and were momentarily stunned.
It was Qiu Dong and his men who had arrived.
Earlier, they had only been following from a distance. Suddenly, this area erupted with voices and chaos like boiling water. The few men were bewildered and quietly approached to look. In the confusion, they couldn’t immediately recognize what was happening, but when they saw Meng Qianzi in danger, they were all shocked and rushed to save her without hesitation.
Meng Qianzi seized the opportunity to kick away the woman, flip up to her feet, and felt great joy.
The Mountain Ghost’s people had arrived!
But when she saw who had come, her heart sank: Where was Meng Jinsong? Where was Liu Guanguo? Why were there no familiar faces, only these few people?