“That’s right! Blackwind Hollow—that heavy shipment from the Changfeng Escort Agency—suffered a catastrophic loss!”
Wang Hai gnashed his teeth. “Head Guard Liu who escorted the goods was a peak Bright Force expert, yet with seven or eight runners in tow, they were nearly wiped out!”
“The scene was even more… too horrible to endure! According to one runner who barely escaped with his life, there was only one attacker! Clad in black with a masked face, wielding a swift blade—brutal beyond compare! Head Guard Liu couldn’t last three moves against him!”
“One person? Three moves?” The surrounding constables sucked in cold breaths.
Head Guard Liu was someone of note in the county, yet he had been so utterly outmatched? The culprit’s strength likely truly rivaled that of a second-rate expert!
Wang Hai said in a heavy voice, “This is already the third case this month! The first two were passing merchant caravans—lost some goods, but the people weren’t completely slaughtered. This time it was an escort agency! So many dead—the nature of this is completely different!”
“Now, the County Magistrate is furious, strictly ordering us to capture this beast within seven days! Bring him in alive, or bring his corpse!”
He swept his gaze around the room, his eyes landing on Meng Xihong. “Xihong, your skills have improved lately, and you’re quick-witted. This time, you’re coming with me! Bring more men, and bring weapons!”
Meng Xihong’s heart sank.
The hexagram had warned of “minor misfortune” and “avoid venturing alone into danger”—clearly referring to this matter.
The culprit was highly skilled and ruthless, absolutely not someone to be trifled with.
But he could not refuse. As a constable, capturing criminals was his duty, not to mention Wang Hai had personally named him.
“Yes, Chief!” Meng Xihong cupped his fists and accepted, his eyes grave.
He secretly resolved that on this trip, he would be on full alert. He absolutely would not court danger; his primary task was to preserve himself and his colleagues.
Three days later, in a secluded hollow near Blackwind Hollow.
Wang Hai had brought over ten elite constables including Meng Xihong, plus two local hunters familiar with the terrain, to set an ambush.
According to their leads, the culprit was highly likely hiding nearby and waiting for another opportunity to strike.
Cold winds howled. The mountain forest was deathly still.
Everyone lay concealed among ice-cold rocks and withered grass, holding their breath and focusing their minds.
Meng Xihong adjusted his physical state to peak condition. The acute perception granted by his [Martial Bone] allowed him to clearly capture every trace of unusual sound in the wind.
Time passed bit by bit.
Just as the sky was darkening and everyone’s focus had slightly slackened—
“Ah—!” A shrill, miserable scream came from not far away!
“It’s the west! Old Li and the guys on watch!” Wang Hai’s face changed drastically. “No good! We’re exposed! Quick! Follow me!”
Everyone abandoned concealment, drawing their waist sabers and rushing madly toward the direction of the scream.
Meng Xihong concealed himself within the crowd, alarm bells screaming in his heart! The divination’s warning echoed in his mind!
He deliberately lagged half a body-length behind Wang Hai and the others, his eyes sweeping the surroundings like a hawk’s.
Passing through a dense forest, the scene before their eyes made their scalps go numb!
Two constables responsible for the outer perimeter lay in pools of blood. One’s neck had been slit, already dead; the other had a bone-deep saber wound in his chest and was twitching in agony.
Before them, a lean figure clad in tight black garb was slowly withdrawing a long, narrow swift blade from one of the constables.
The instant the blade left the body, his other hand ripped off his black face-covering, and he pressed his lips and teeth against the dripping blood with desperate urgency, gulping and licking like parched land finally meeting sweet rain.
Accompanying this action, his pale cheeks flushed with a bizarre redness, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction and exhilaration as if absorbing the essence of life, while the cold aura around his body seemed to briefly flare.
“Cur! Pay with your life!” Wang Hai’s eyes were about to split. Seeing brothers who had been with him day and night die tragically, fury instantly drowned his reason.
Wang Hai exploded with a thunderous shout. His peak Bright Force strength erupted without reservation, blood and qi surging through his entire body. His waist saber carried a piercing whistling sound, wrapped in unstoppable momentum as it hacked down toward the black-clad man.
This blade was struck with contained rage, its momentum astonishing. An ordinary Bright Force martial artist would likely lose even the courage to block under such pressure!
However, facing this strike with the force of thunder, a trace of undisguised contempt and cruelty flashed through the black-clad man’s eyes.
His figure stood unmoving as a mountain until the blade edge was almost upon his head, then he swayed slightly like a ghost, unexpectedly evading the fatal blade by a hair’s breadth in that split second.
At the same time, the long, narrow swift blade in his hand arrived later but struck first, transforming into a pale viper’s tongue—silent yet so fast it tore through vision, striking from an extremely tricky angle that completely defied common sense, viciously stabbing toward Wang Hai’s heart.
This blade lacked grand momentum, yet it condensed a single point of heart-chilling sharpness, its speed far exceeding Wang Hai’s ability to react.
“No good!” Meng Xihong’s pupils abruptly contracted into needlepoints.
He saw clearly that the instant the black-clad man struck, the bones and tendons of his arm emitted a low yet teeth-grating hum—not a simple explosive crack. The contained force within was condensed like substance, faintly carrying a cold, piercing shriek that stirred one’s soul.
This man was absolutely a Hidden Force expert who had immersed himself in this path for many years—far from someone who had newly entered the second-rate realm!
Wang Hai’s blade had struck empty air, his force spent, new strength yet unborn. Facing this counter-slash that was unimaginably fast and treacherously angled, he simply had no time to make any effective defensive maneuver! Boundless horror and despair instantly devoured his eyes!
At this critical juncture!
“Chief, watch out!” A violent shout rang out! Meng Xihong moved!
“Bam!”
“Chk.”
Two muffled sounds rang out almost simultaneously!
Meng Xihong’s iron fist containing Hidden Force crashed heavily onto the black-clad man’s hastily blocking left arm!
In the instant his fist contacted the other’s arm, Meng Xihong’s [Martial Bone] acutely perceived an extremely bizarre sensation.
The other’s muscle and skin membrane didn’t resemble an ordinary person’s in being tough and brimming with vitality; instead, they emanated an insubstantial heat, as if hollowed out inside, supported only by a fiendish force.
Moreover, a covert suction force transmitted itself, seemingly wanting to greedily seize the blood, qi, and force from his fist!
Crack! A clear bone-breaking sound rang out.
The black-clad man grunted, his figure shaking violently, pain and astonishment appearing in his eyes for the first time.
He had clearly underestimated the terrifying penetrating power contained in this fist. Almost simultaneously with the cracking of his left arm, a few drops of warm blood—carrying an indescribable rank-sweet yet decayed aura—splashed onto Meng Xihong’s hand and sleeve cuff.
And the swift blade the black-clad man had slashed toward Meng Xihong’s neck was intercepted as Meng Xihong, even as he threw his punch, sent his right hand shooting out like lightning, precisely clamping onto the other’s blade-wielding wrist!
The blade edge stopped dead less than three inches from his throat! The icy blade qi made his skin break out in coldness!
Bare-handed blade seizure!
This exchange, swift as a rabbit rising and a falcon descending, was filled with extreme peril!
In a flash of lightning and spark of flint, Meng Xihong had not only saved Wang Hai but also exchanged a hard blow with this ferocious Hidden Force expert, not falling behind in the slightest! He had even grievously wounded the other’s left arm.
Just as Meng Xihong clamped the other’s wrist, in the instant their skin touched, that bizarre sensation struck again!
The pulse in the other’s wrist beat with abnormal haste and chaos. The flow of blood and qi beneath the skin was completely different from any orthodox cultivation method Meng Xihong knew, brimming with brutality and an unspeakable hunger, as if that were not an arm at all but a venomous living creature desperate to devour blood.
“He’s tough! All together!” By now, the other constables had finally rushed up. Seeing this scene, they were both shocked and enraged, thrusting their blades forward to surround him!
The black-clad man’s left arm was wracked with pain, and the right wrist held by Meng Xihong even transmitted a craving toward such vigorous blood and qi. But now surrounded by the crowd, he knew things would not end well today.
Fierce light exploded from his eyes. He jerked violently, sending a torrential force far exceeding what came before, within which was mixed an icy, filthy vibrating force attempting to erode Meng Xihong’s fingers.
Meng Xihong’s fingers went slightly numb, and he was actually forcibly shaken off by the other.
Without hesitation, the black-clad man borrowed the force of his escape, his figure shooting backward like a great bird. After several leaps, he vanished into the depths of the dim forest, leaving only a venomous howl echoing through the woods:
“Good! What a fine Wufeng County! Daring to ruin this old man’s plans—this old man will remember you! Especially you, brat! We’ll meet again!”
Meng Xihong did not pursue. He stood in place, slowly loosening his slightly numb right hand.
The force the other had erupted with in that instant startled him—he had definitely immersed himself in Hidden Force for a long time. But the nature of his power was so fiendish.
The greedy suction upon contact, the filthy vibrating sensation, and the strange rank-sweet aura emitted by the blood splashed on his hand that had yet to fully cool—all of these made a strong sense of incongruity and vigilance rise in his heart.
‘This man’s cultivation method… how demonic!’ Meng Xihong’s eyes narrowed slightly, secretly committing this concern to memory.
He glanced at the sacrificed colleagues on the ground and the severely wounded Wang Hai, his expression growing increasingly grave.
Wang Hai clutched his bleeding arm, his face pale, but his gaze toward Meng Xihong was filled with gratitude for surviving calamity and incredulous shock. “Xi… Xihong! You… when did you acquire such skill?!”
The life-saving collision just now, that fist that had forcefully shaken the fiend, that precise bare-handed blade seizure… this was absolutely not something an ordinary constable could accomplish.
This was clearly a second-rate expert who had comprehended Hidden Force!
Meng Xihong took a deep breath. He did not answer, only saying in a deep voice, “Chief, this place is unfit to remain! That fiend is badly wounded, but he may not have gone far. Let’s save the people first and withdraw to the county city immediately!”
Looking at Meng Xihong’s steady, commanding figure, then at the miserable state of the colleagues on the ground, countless emotions mixed in Wang Hai’s heart.
The relief of surviving disaster, the grief for colleagues who had died tragically, the shocked suspicion toward Meng Xihong’s hidden strength, and the bone-deep hatred for that fiend intertwined together.
He knew that the heavens of Wufeng County were about to change.
And this Meng Xihong, whom he had always regarded as an honest junior, was likely the true key figure capable of settling this storm.