Ambushed

Wu Youren paid no mind to Liu Jingming playing the fool, looking instead at what the other carried behind him. "Got yourself a scimitar?" "Secondhand," Liu Jingming sighed. "Thanks to Cynthia's recommendation." "That must have cost at least two thousand-plus," Wu Youren said, nodding. "Congratulations on striking it rich." Such spending power would have been unimaginable for either of them back at Hostage Manor. "I'm still in debt to Cynthia," Liu Jingming said with a dry chuckle. "It's all thanks to your face, Youren." "She lent it to you, so it has nothing to do with me," Wu Youren stated placidly. "I won't be helping you pay it back." Liu Jingming was the only hostage he was still willing to welcome, but this sort of behavior could not be encouraged! "Listen to you," Liu Jingming said, rolling his eyes. "You'd better just look out for yourself." It sounded like bickering, yet as fellow hostages, was it not also a faint gesture of care? Neither of them had brought a car. Cynthia had ridden her motorcycle, while Liu Jingming had come on foot. The supplies the two brought had not even equaled the previous haul; only after returning for a second trip did they end up with half again as much as last time. Then the two watched as Wu Youren slung package after package over his shoulders, accelerated, and sprinted into the distance. For a moment, neither of them could find anything to say. Only after a long while did Cynthia ask, "Is he about to advance?" Such stamina was far beyond what an ordinary apprentice knight could achieve. "Impossible," Liu Jingming replied without hesitation. After a brief pause, he added, "Advancing before the age of eighteen means certain death." On a subject like this, only the hostages had any real say... The food and water Wu Youren carried this time weighed close to seven hundred jin. Setting aside the matter of hauling it, the sheer volume alone was enormous. Walking around as such a massive clump of supplies, avoiding attention was simply impossible. He had all the proper paperwork, but even so, drawing covetous eyes remained inevitable. The ghost outbreak was currently severe, though people were still rarely seen moving about across the vast wilderness. Nevertheless, he had been targeted. As he stepped over an earthen ridge, a cold gleam flashed into view in an instant. An archer, concealed behind a cluster of trees diagonally ahead! Almost simultaneously, beneath the earthen ridge, a brilliant, snow-white blade gleamed, sweeping upward at a slant toward the youth. An exceptionally vicious angle! Yet Wu Youren came to an abrupt, violent halt, spinning his body in an instant so his back faced forward. The motion was as fast as could be, defying all reason, almost as though it violated the laws of physics. Though he managed to stop, the heavy bundles strapped to him flew forward with the momentum. Fortunately, he had tied the bundles with march hitches, allowing him to cast them off swiftly in an emergency. Even so, as the three packages flew forward, the momentum dragged his body into a brief stumble. Taking advantage of his canted posture, however, Wu Youren drew the long saber from his back. His internal breath flooded into the long saber in an instant. With a flick of his wrist, his own blade swept upward at an angle, astonishingly fast. The ambushing swordsman had never imagined his target would be so alert, let alone possess such unnerving reaction speed. Not only had his strike been covert and sudden from a wicked angle, but it was also backed by overwhelming force. Aside from releasing external blade qi, he had multiple follow-up moves held in reserve. An ordinary knight would have found it difficult to escape. Yet he had never dreamed he was ambushing such a freak of nature! Seeing the massive packages hurtle toward his face, he slashed at them with his blade. The moment he struck the bundles, he used the recoil to burst backward and to the side, shouting, "Hold on!" How could anyone stop now? Wu Youren moved like a ghost, following right on his heels. With a twist of his wrist, his long saber whipped around in a horizontal slash. In an instant, blood sprayed everywhere! "Hm?" Wu Youren could not help but let out a soft grunt. *What the hell... he's actually a knight?* If it had been an apprentice knight, taking a strike like that would have severed the spine at the very least, if not cut them in two. Yet the ambusher had merely had his belly sliced open. The man's movement technique was nothing impressive; he had not dodged it. It was purely because his battle qi was dense, combined with thick skin and tough flesh. "Spare me! It's a mis—" Scared out of his wits, the swordsman scrambled to plead for mercy. Before he could finish his words, however, he felt his neck tighten. The only sound that came out after that was a wet gurgling... Wu Youren did not even spare him a glance. Moving like a phantom, he darted toward the trees at incredible speed. The knight swordsman had already been stripped of his combat capability; even if he gritted his teeth and fought to the death, at best he might fire a couple of shots. Wu Youren had swept a quick glance over him and confirmed the man had no long gun. A pistol posed little threat to him, much less one in the hands of a dying man. The real danger lay with the archer, who had to be eliminated as the top priority. Unfortunately, he had no rifle either; at this distance, a pistol was practically useless. As he surged forward, the archer across the way loosed another six or seven arrows in rapid succession. The rate of fire almost rivaled that of a pistol firing on semi-automatic. Rapid volleying... Wu Youren's movement technique grew increasingly erratic and elusive. The other man's archery was not only swift but exceptionally accurate. In just a few breaths, the arrows came dangerously close to hitting him several times. While nocking and drawing arrows, the archer also shifted positions rapidly to evade potential ranged counterattacks. What was even more remarkable was that he kept completely silent, firing without a word. Even after witnessing his partner's gruesome fate, his arrows remained steady and rapid, offering no explanations like the swordsman had. Confronted with such steady psychological discipline, Wu Youren had no choice but to feel a grudging admiration. Yet it was precisely because of this that his resolve hardened: this person could not be left alive. The archer had originally been roughly a hundred and fifty meters away. Through continuous darting maneuvers, Wu Youren closed the distance to under a hundred meters. The other man truly held his nerve; even at this range, he showed no panic, continuing to let fly arrow after arrow. Wu Youren had no interest in gambling on when the man might run. At a distance of around eighty meters, he raised a hand and hurled two grenades. He had already depressed the safety pins beforehand and factored in the lead. Even if they failed to catch the man in the blast, they would disrupt his footwork. Otherwise, the closer they got, the greater the threat of those arrows would become. Two muffled thuds echoed in close succession, sending earth and stones flying. A figure darted on the other side, finally cursing aloud, "Fuck!" Throwing grenades from such a distance was rare; usually, an accurate throw could only be guaranteed at fifty or sixty meters. Yet that was not the point. The point was... this had been an ordinary skirmish out in the wilderness. How had it suddenly escalated into a full-scale battlefield engagement? Common sense dictated that martial artists might use ghost-destroying mines when dealing with ghost disasters; standard grenades meant for fighting humans were rarely seen. This youth was wearing a Red Pine uniform, yet he hurled two at once. Did he have military connections? The two grenades indeed broke the archer's rhythm. Realizing things looked grim, he chose to turn and flee. Now that the opponent had grenades, those few trees were no longer viable cover. There were small copses scattered across the wilderness, but why would an ordinary lone traveler approach such places? Lying in ambush there would be futile. The archer's retreat was hardly slower than Wu Youren's advance. He felt... likely like another knight. Seeing the youth in hot pursuit, the archer abruptly twisted around mid-stride and fired two more arrows in rapid succession. Wu Youren had been bracing for that exact move. Not long ago, he had been the one fleeing from three Intelligence Bureau knights. He understood the mindset of both the pursuer and the pursued intimately. Now the roles were reversed, and it was his turn to give chase. Truly... the wheel of fortune turns. The moment the man turned back, Wu Youren ducked low and hurled another grenade. By sheer coincidence, the grenade's lead matched that exact timing. His estimation of the lead was not entirely precise, however, and when the archer spun to run again, he executed a sudden sharp veer. Even so, when the grenade erupted with a deafening blast, the shockwave caused the man to stumble. His running speed noticeably slowed. Wu Youren paid that no mind. Since the man dared to turn and shoot, Wu Youren drew his pistol and loaded standard ammunition. Immediately after, he initiated pursue-and-shoot mode. Shot after shot rang out, steady and measured, as he alternated fire between two pistols. Faced with this, the archer no longer dared to turn and shoot, forced into a desperate, frantic sprint. Doubt crept through his mind. Knights among Red Pine students were rare, weren't they? Given the severity of the current ghost outbreak, a large number of apprentice knight students had been dispatched. Could this person truly be a knight? Even if he were a student who had reached the knight realm, he could not have advanced very long ago. The man refused to believe that his own endurance, honed through years as a knight, could be inferior to the kid's! From that point on, he poured all his focus into fleeing, keeping his mouth shut and praying only that he would not be hit. Gunshots cracked steadily from behind as bullets whizzed past his flanks and over his head with sharp chirps. Around him, clods of dirt sprayed outward in bursts, while clouds of dust kicked up one after another... Every second of it was grueling torture, thoroughly terrifying. His temperament was certainly resolute, yet even so, he silently prayed that the kid had not brought much ammunition. The target of this ambush was truly incomprehensible. If he were an apprentice knight, he had eliminated his partner in a single clash. Yet if he were not, why would a knight tackling a ghost disaster carry so many ordinary bullets and grenades? Warfare weapons of this grade were primarily supplied to apprentice knights and ordinary folk for use against their own kind. Knights ought to rely more on cold weapons and various ghost-dispelling gear! He had no idea that when the Intelligence Bureau dealt with Wu Youren, they had deliberately supplied plenty of standard ammunition. Such munitions could not inflict much damage on a knight. And a Jin hostage had simply had no choice in the matter! As the archer ran, he felt a sudden violent jolt at his spine, as if someone had punched him square in the back. He had been shot! He knew it instantly. By rights, with his level of battle qi, he should have been able to withstand the shot. Pistol rounds posed virtually no threat to a knight, especially fired from several dozen meters away while he retained forward running momentum. Even so, his heart sank slightly. This was definitely not a good omen!