Chapter 41 He Was in the Blood
“Boss, he’s calling us names!” Wang Yuexiong shouted indignantly. “Don’t waste time, just let me kill him!”
Li Xiongdao was also feeling angry, he was staring at him and said: “Who’s the boss, you or me? It’s his last meal, just wait till he finishes it. A man must stand by his word. It’s principle!”
“But Boss…” Wang Yuexiong hesitated. He twirled his chain slowly and murmured, “uh, what if he doesn’t finish the meal?”
Li Xiongdao pointed a big knife at Jiang Shaoliu. “Hurry up, it’s your time.”
“And you’ll die immediately if you call us names again!” Sun Daxiong added.
Jiang Shaoliu took another bite and shook his head at hem. “Idiots.”
“Grrr…” Sun Daxiong couldn’t stand any more of this. “Let me kill him, Boss. He’s disrespectful!” he grumbled at Li Xiongdao.
“Since we’ve promised,” Li Xiongdao rasped through gritted teeth, “we’ll give him three more minutes. Then, we’ll kill him whether he finishes his meal or not.”
“All right.” Wang Yuexiong started a countdown on his smart watch.
Staring at the wolf leg in Jiang Shaoliu’s hand, Sun Daxiong swallowed loudly and snickered, “Hey, boy, leave some for me and I will kill you so quickly you won’t even feel it.”
Jiang Shaoliu finished the meat and threw the bones away. “You want to eat my food? You are just lackeys of the Gangxing Group, aren’t you?”
Their expressions changed instantly.
“You’re dead!” Sun Daxiong screamed and charged forward with bronzed fists.
Jiang Shaoliu charged straight at him and caught his fist and yanked.
“Argh!” Sun Daxiong screamed, his shoulder dislocated.
Sun Daxiong winced and gasped in pain, covering his shoulder and retreating quickly, but Jiang Shaoliu was faster.
Before he knew it, his other shoulder was dislocated as well.
Next to him, an enraged Li Xiongdao leaped up seven meters high with a trail of blue air and brought his knife down on Jiang Shaoliu with full force.
Bang!
Jiang Shaoliu smashed his fist against the blade.
Li Xiongdao landed, staring down at the knife in his hands with wide eyes.
The blade bent and the sharp edge crumpled inwards. It was not a high-quality alloy metal, but cheap iron.
“You, you just…” Li Xiongdao retreated, pale with fear, as if he was staring at a monster. “Your fist…”
Wang Yuexiong came up from the back, his chain rattling loudly, and wrapped it around Jiang Shaoliu’s neck with all his strength, screaming, “Die!!!”
Jiang Shaoliu grabbed the chain with both hands and directed a torrent of true qi into his arms.
With a creak, the links stretched and warped, until one finally snapped in half.
Pieces of chain fell to the ground by Jiang Shaoliu’s feet.
Wang Yuexiong staggering back a few steps, staring down at the half chain in his hand.
“It’s not easy to be a lackey.” Jiang Shaoliu turned around and went away from them.
After a short while, his voice echoed in the forest: “You’re free to go, just behave yourselves from now on!”
The three bounty hunters stood still for a long while and looked at each other silently.
Li Xiongdao’s face went through several expressions until he settled on disappointment. “He’s too damn strong. Now our weapons are ruined and we can’t go to Liang Duan Mountain. We might as well head back to the city.”
With these words, he turned around and headed off.
Wang Yuexiong had nothing to say. He sighed sadly for his broken chain and followed suit.
Sun Daxiong lagged behind, shouting frantically: “Wait! Fix my arms first!”
…
Jiang Shaoliu crossed over a dozen meters with each stride, leaping high into the air.
Sometimes he grabbed onto the vines on the trees and swung like an ape and sometimes he ran as fast as a leopard.
He stopped abruptly and scratched his head. After a moment’s thought, he chuckled to himself and ran back the way he came.
…
“Boss, can you imagine how strong that Jiang Shaoliu is? Even masters with silver rings couldn’t break my chain!” Wang Yuexing played with the mangled length of chain he had left. “How is he so strong?”
Li Xiongdao looked at his bent knife and shook his head. “He’s not only strong, but he also has a punch like a wrecking ball. He can give even a silver-ringed master a run for his money…”
His eyes lit up: “No, he’s even stronger than silver-ringed masters.”
Sun Daxiong nodded. He stretched his sore shoulders and said in a low voice, “He’s so accurate he dislocated my joints without me even noticing!”
Wang Yuexiong was about to speak but he was cut off by a sudden sound.
With a swish of wind, Jiang Shaoliu landed not far away in front of them.
“Whoah!” They froze in fear.
“Are you going to eat your own words, Jiang Shaoliu?” Li Xiongdao gritted his teeth and threw his knife down at Jiang Shaoliu’s feet, then tore apart his shirt to expose his chest: “Kill me, but let them go!”
Wang Yuexiong and Sun Daxiong immediately stepped in front of him, shouting in one voice: “Kill me, but let my brothers go!”
Jiang Shaoliu shook his head. “I’m not here to kill you. I just want to find something to eat.”
There was a complex expression on Li Xiongdao’s face. He rubbed his ears, in case he misheard.
“Are you serious?” Sun Daxiong stared at him quizzically. “Didn’t you just eat a giant wolf’s whole leg?”
Jiang Shaoliu nodded and replied seriously: “I did, and it’s finished, that’s why I’m turning to you for more.”
They started backing away apprehensively.
The wolf’s leg…
Was he planning to eat their legs too?!
“We’re not as strong as you. We admit that we’ve lost.” Li Xiongdao pushed his brothers away with a tear in his eye. Then he came forward and bent down to pick up his knife from the ground.
With great courage and determination, he turned the knife toward himself and was about cut himself on the leg when the knife suddenly left his grip.
Jiang Shaoliu was quick with his hands and sharp-sighted. His fingers shot forward and closed around the blade with great force, stopping it in midair. The metal crumpled like paper in his hand.
“I don’t care if you want to eat my legs, but do they have to be still attached to me?“ Li Xiongdao trembled all over, unable to imagine what disaster was about to befall him.
Wang Yuexiong and Sun Daxiong went pale, not daring to move an inch.
“I think you’ve got the wrong idea.” Jiang Shaoliu dropped the knife and smiled, “Do you have any field rations or energy bars? Do you mind giving them to me? You are such nice guys, it’d be a shame to eat your legs.”
Li Xiongdao’s knees gave in and he fell on all fours, breathing heavily.
“Yes, we have some!” Wang Yuexiong cried with mild confusion and desperately pulled out several packages of energy bars from his bag.
Sun Daxiong dug a couple more out of his pockets.
“Thank you.” Taking the packages, Jiang Shaoliu waved goodbye to them and was about to leave.
Li Xiongdao looked up from the ground and said weakly, “Please, wait.”
“Hmm?” Jiang Shaoliu glanced him. “Is there something else?”
“A lot of masters in Sector 2 are hunting you. I suggest you go back to the city as fast as you can,” Li Xiongdao said. “The Hongfa Group and the military cannot protect you. Well, I just want to say, don’t take it too lightly.”
With a smile, Jiang Shaoliu replied: “Don’t worry about it.”
He disappeared into the forest with a few great leaps.
…
A blue human figure zoomed over the dense forest.
A monster howled in the distance. The blue figure landed heavily and slowly straightened up.
“Sounds like he wants to be killed.” The man pricked his ears and headed towards the sound.
Leaves swayed in the wind and the play of light and shadow blinded his vision. He could hear an indistinct roaring, as of a waterfall falling from a distant cliff.
“Hmm…”
The man’s ears became covered in silver. He carefully turned his head side to side until his eyes suddenly lit up with surprise: “Gunshots!”
The sound of distant, sharp cracks drifted over the forest, so faint that it was almost entirely obscured by the ambience of the forest.
But he could hear it.
“Well, sounds like the party’s started without me!” Ruo Feng chuckled and ran off toward the sound, a blur as he leapt from branch to branch.
Landing on a particularly tall tree, he climbed to the top and got his bearings.
A wide valley lay ahead. A massive, badly hurt tusked monster was lying on the ground, hot blood still flowing from its gaping wounds.
The blood was flowing like a crimson river into a small brook. Its huge body was twitching helplessly and it seemed to be dying.
A young master in a combat suit was washing his hands upstream, at least ten human corpses around him.
There were broken guns and alloy steel weapons scattered about.
Rui Feng squinted. “Is that…?”
After washing the blood off his face, Jiang Shaoliu stood up slowly before taking a few steps forward and facing Ruo Feng.
They stared at each other, hundreds of meters apart.
“Jiang Shaoliu!” He felt a little nervous at the sight of him.
Jiang Shaoliu shook his head at Ruo Feng, then turned to the tusked monster and punched it in the skull.
Crack.
The beast died.
Balancing on the high branch, Ruo Feng held the trunk of the tree with one hand and looked into the distance, letting the cool breeze evaporate his sweat.
There was nothing hostile in Jiang Shaoliu’s movements, footsteps or appearance.
But Ruo Feng could feel it from the moment he lay eyes on him.
There was a massive amount of energy pent up inside him, like an active volcano ready to erupt at any moment.
Ruo Feng took a long breath and felt a little better as his true qi circulated along his insides.
Jiang Shaoliu dragged the tusked monster to the stream, leaving behind a huge trail of blood and crushed stones in the dirt.
He stopped near the stream and began to skinning the beast.
After that, he cut the flesh into small pieces, washed it, and made a spit out of thick branches.
After about ten minutes, succulent droplets of fat began dripping from the roasting meat into the flames.
Jiang Shaoliu slowly turned the spit, waiting patiently until his barbecue was completely ready, and left the area after finishing his meal.
Throughout the entire process, he took only one glance at Ruo Feng.
Chapter 41 He Was in the Blood
“Boss, he’s calling us names!” Wang Yuexiong shouted indignantly. “Don’t waste time, just let me kill him!”
Li Xiongdao was also feeling angry, he was staring at him and said: “Who’s the boss, you or me? It’s his last meal, just wait till he finishes it. A man must stand by his word. It’s principle!”
“But Boss…” Wang Yuexiong hesitated. He twirled his chain slowly and murmured, “uh, what if he doesn’t finish the meal?”
Li Xiongdao pointed a big knife at Jiang Shaoliu. “Hurry up, it’s your time.”
“And you’ll die immediately if you call us names again!” Sun Daxiong added.
Jiang Shaoliu took another bite and shook his head at hem. “Idiots.”
“Grrr…” Sun Daxiong couldn’t stand any more of this. “Let me kill him, Boss. He’s disrespectful!” he grumbled at Li Xiongdao.
“Since we’ve promised,” Li Xiongdao rasped through gritted teeth, “we’ll give him three more minutes. Then, we’ll kill him whether he finishes his meal or not.”
“All right.” Wang Yuexiong started a countdown on his smart watch.
Staring at the wolf leg in Jiang Shaoliu’s hand, Sun Daxiong swallowed loudly and snickered, “Hey, boy, leave some for me and I will kill you so quickly you won’t even feel it.”
Jiang Shaoliu finished the meat and threw the bones away. “You want to eat my food? You are just lackeys of the Gangxing Group, aren’t you?”
Their expressions changed instantly.
“You’re dead!” Sun Daxiong screamed and charged forward with bronzed fists.
Jiang Shaoliu charged straight at him and caught his fist and yanked.
“Argh!” Sun Daxiong screamed, his shoulder dislocated.
Sun Daxiong winced and gasped in pain, covering his shoulder and retreating quickly, but Jiang Shaoliu was faster.
Before he knew it, his other shoulder was dislocated as well.
Next to him, an enraged Li Xiongdao leaped up seven meters high with a trail of blue air and brought his knife down on Jiang Shaoliu with full force.
Bang!
Jiang Shaoliu smashed his fist against the blade.
Li Xiongdao landed, staring down at the knife in his hands with wide eyes.
The blade bent and the sharp edge crumpled inwards. It was not a high-quality alloy metal, but cheap iron.
“You, you just…” Li Xiongdao retreated, pale with fear, as if he was staring at a monster. “Your fist…”
Wang Yuexiong came up from the back, his chain rattling loudly, and wrapped it around Jiang Shaoliu’s neck with all his strength, screaming, “Die!!!”
Jiang Shaoliu grabbed the chain with both hands and directed a torrent of true qi into his arms.
With a creak, the links stretched and warped, until one finally snapped in half.
Pieces of chain fell to the ground by Jiang Shaoliu’s feet.
Wang Yuexiong staggering back a few steps, staring down at the half chain in his hand.
“It’s not easy to be a lackey.” Jiang Shaoliu turned around and went away from them.
After a short while, his voice echoed in the forest: “You’re free to go, just behave yourselves from now on!”
The three bounty hunters stood still for a long while and looked at each other silently.
Li Xiongdao’s face went through several expressions until he settled on disappointment. “He’s too damn strong. Now our weapons are ruined and we can’t go to Liang Duan Mountain. We might as well head back to the city.”
With these words, he turned around and headed off.
Wang Yuexiong had nothing to say. He sighed sadly for his broken chain and followed suit.
Sun Daxiong lagged behind, shouting frantically: “Wait! Fix my arms first!”
…
Jiang Shaoliu crossed over a dozen meters with each stride, leaping high into the air.
Sometimes he grabbed onto the vines on the trees and swung like an ape and sometimes he ran as fast as a leopard.
He stopped abruptly and scratched his head. After a moment’s thought, he chuckled to himself and ran back the way he came.
…
“Boss, can you imagine how strong that Jiang Shaoliu is? Even masters with silver rings couldn’t break my chain!” Wang Yuexing played with the mangled length of chain he had left. “How is he so strong?”
Li Xiongdao looked at his bent knife and shook his head. “He’s not only strong, but he also has a punch like a wrecking ball. He can give even a silver-ringed master a run for his money…”
His eyes lit up: “No, he’s even stronger than silver-ringed masters.”
Sun Daxiong nodded. He stretched his sore shoulders and said in a low voice, “He’s so accurate he dislocated my joints without me even noticing!”
Wang Yuexiong was about to speak but he was cut off by a sudden sound.
With a swish of wind, Jiang Shaoliu landed not far away in front of them.
“Whoah!” They froze in fear.
“Are you going to eat your own words, Jiang Shaoliu?” Li Xiongdao gritted his teeth and threw his knife down at Jiang Shaoliu’s feet, then tore apart his shirt to expose his chest: “Kill me, but let them go!”
Wang Yuexiong and Sun Daxiong immediately stepped in front of him, shouting in one voice: “Kill me, but let my brothers go!”
Jiang Shaoliu shook his head. “I’m not here to kill you. I just want to find something to eat.”
There was a complex expression on Li Xiongdao’s face. He rubbed his ears, in case he misheard.
“Are you serious?” Sun Daxiong stared at him quizzically. “Didn’t you just eat a giant wolf’s whole leg?”
Jiang Shaoliu nodded and replied seriously: “I did, and it’s finished, that’s why I’m turning to you for more.”
They started backing away apprehensively.
The wolf’s leg…
Was he planning to eat their legs too?!
“We’re not as strong as you. We admit that we’ve lost.” Li Xiongdao pushed his brothers away with a tear in his eye. Then he came forward and bent down to pick up his knife from the ground.
With great courage and determination, he turned the knife toward himself and was about cut himself on the leg when the knife suddenly left his grip.
Jiang Shaoliu was quick with his hands and sharp-sighted. His fingers shot forward and closed around the blade with great force, stopping it in midair. The metal crumpled like paper in his hand.
“I don’t care if you want to eat my legs, but do they have to be still attached to me?“ Li Xiongdao trembled all over, unable to imagine what disaster was about to befall him.
Wang Yuexiong and Sun Daxiong went pale, not daring to move an inch.
“I think you’ve got the wrong idea.” Jiang Shaoliu dropped the knife and smiled, “Do you have any field rations or energy bars? Do you mind giving them to me? You are such nice guys, it’d be a shame to eat your legs.”
Li Xiongdao’s knees gave in and he fell on all fours, breathing heavily.
“Yes, we have some!” Wang Yuexiong cried with mild confusion and desperately pulled out several packages of energy bars from his bag.
Sun Daxiong dug a couple more out of his pockets.
“Thank you.” Taking the packages, Jiang Shaoliu waved goodbye to them and was about to leave.
Li Xiongdao looked up from the ground and said weakly, “Please, wait.”
“Hmm?” Jiang Shaoliu glanced him. “Is there something else?”
“A lot of masters in Sector 2 are hunting you. I suggest you go back to the city as fast as you can,” Li Xiongdao said. “The Hongfa Group and the military cannot protect you. Well, I just want to say, don’t take it too lightly.”
With a smile, Jiang Shaoliu replied: “Don’t worry about it.”
He disappeared into the forest with a few great leaps.
…
A blue human figure zoomed over the dense forest.
A monster howled in the distance. The blue figure landed heavily and slowly straightened up.
“Sounds like he wants to be killed.” The man pricked his ears and headed towards the sound.
Leaves swayed in the wind and the play of light and shadow blinded his vision. He could hear an indistinct roaring, as of a waterfall falling from a distant cliff.
“Hmm…”
The man’s ears became covered in silver. He carefully turned his head side to side until his eyes suddenly lit up with surprise: “Gunshots!”
The sound of distant, sharp cracks drifted over the forest, so faint that it was almost entirely obscured by the ambience of the forest.
But he could hear it.
“Well, sounds like the party’s started without me!” Ruo Feng chuckled and ran off toward the sound, a blur as he leapt from branch to branch.
Landing on a particularly tall tree, he climbed to the top and got his bearings.
A wide valley lay ahead. A massive, badly hurt tusked monster was lying on the ground, hot blood still flowing from its gaping wounds.
The blood was flowing like a crimson river into a small brook. Its huge body was twitching helplessly and it seemed to be dying.
A young master in a combat suit was washing his hands upstream, at least ten human corpses around him.
There were broken guns and alloy steel weapons scattered about.
Rui Feng squinted. “Is that…?”
After washing the blood off his face, Jiang Shaoliu stood up slowly before taking a few steps forward and facing Ruo Feng.
They stared at each other, hundreds of meters apart.
“Jiang Shaoliu!” He felt a little nervous at the sight of him.
Jiang Shaoliu shook his head at Ruo Feng, then turned to the tusked monster and punched it in the skull.
Crack.
The beast died.
Balancing on the high branch, Ruo Feng held the trunk of the tree with one hand and looked into the distance, letting the cool breeze evaporate his sweat.
There was nothing hostile in Jiang Shaoliu’s movements, footsteps or appearance.
But Ruo Feng could feel it from the moment he lay eyes on him.
There was a massive amount of energy pent up inside him, like an active volcano ready to erupt at any moment.
Ruo Feng took a long breath and felt a little better as his true qi circulated along his insides.
Jiang Shaoliu dragged the tusked monster to the stream, leaving behind a huge trail of blood and crushed stones in the dirt.
He stopped near the stream and began to skinning the beast.
After that, he cut the flesh into small pieces, washed it, and made a spit out of thick branches.
After about ten minutes, succulent droplets of fat began dripping from the roasting meat into the flames.
Jiang Shaoliu slowly turned the spit, waiting patiently until his barbecue was completely ready, and left the area after finishing his meal.
Throughout the entire process, he took only one glance at Ruo Feng.
