At dusk.
Yang Taozhi, dressed as a village woman, buried several corpses, then wandered around the village entrance, picked some wild vegetables from the barren fields, and caught a pheasant.
Zhao Cheng took out dried meat and sauce from his saddlebag, along with wild vegetables, pheasant, and leftover dry rations from the villagers' homes, and enjoyed his dinner immensely.
This rustic farmhouse experience made Zhao Cheng unable to resist taking a few sips of wine. His only regret was the lack of drinking buddies to listen to his boasting.
Night falls very early at the foot of the mountain, and once night falls, it is pitch black; in places without lights, you can't see your hand in front of your face.
Yang Taozhi had changed into her own black fitted sleeves and was lying on the bed. Zhao Cheng was sleeping on his side next to Yang Taozhi, snoring.
After several days of continuous travel, Zhao Cheng was already exhausted.
The snoring wasn't faked; it was genuine sleepiness.
In Zhao Cheng's mind, sleeping next to Yang Taozhi was the safest place. Even if he knew that assassins were coming, he could still sleep soundly, let alone bandits.
Yangtaozhi was also taking a nap, maintaining even breathing.
The village was not only dark at night, but also unusually quiet.
Even the slightest sound can be amplified several times over, not to mention that with Yang Taozhi's hearing, she can immediately hear any movement at the village entrance.
An hour passed.
Two hours have passed...
Yang Taozhi didn't hear any noise, so she let herself sleep even more soundly.
At her level of cultivation, she can now control her sleep at will.
After a long while, Zhao Cheng suddenly turned over, put one hand on Yang Taozhi's body, and nuzzled his head against Yang Taozhi's neck.
“Cai’e…Cai’e, oh Cai’e…ah…oh…”
Yang Taozhi didn't open her eyes, her lips twitching, and said, "Get over there."
“Cai’e… oh…”
"roll!"
Zhao Cheng suddenly woke up with a start, immediately rolled over to lie flat, wiped his drool, and said, "I had a nightmare."
Are you sure you were having a nightmare?
"A beautiful skeleton, how terrifying!"
Zhao Cheng sat up halfway and looked towards the window. It was still dark, but it wasn't as dark as before, and he could vaguely see the gray outside the window.
"It's almost dawn, why hasn't anyone come yet?"
Yang Taozhi said, "Maybe no one saw me and thought the village was deserted."
"What a disappointment." Zhao Cheng lay down again and said, "Then let's sleep a little longer. We'll go up the mountain to find the old man after dawn."
"Um……"
Yang Taozhi had just responded when her ears suddenly twitched, and she said, "Lie down and pretend to be asleep."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Cheng immediately turned to the side and started snoring, deliberately making the sound extremely loud, as if afraid that others wouldn't be able to find him.
A moment later, the door creaked softly.
Yang Taozhi sensed three footsteps approaching.
"There really are women."
“I told you I saw it, but you insisted the village was empty. You should have come sooner; this woman is already in our bed.”
Yang Taozhi realized that someone was approaching her.
"That woman is really beautiful!"
"Make your move. Kill the man, take the woman with you."
One person approached the bedside, raised a knife, and swept it across the starfruit branch, about to chop at Zhao Cheng, but at the same time staring at the starfruit branch's face.
He saw that Yang Taozhi suddenly opened her eyes!
Almost instinctively, the man shuddered, feeling as if he were being watched by the King Cobra. A chill ran down his spine, and the knife fell from his hand.
Yang Taozhi caught his knife and plunged it directly into his chest.
"ah--"
A piercing scream.
"Damn it, it's a trap!"
Seeing this, the other two did not hesitate at all, burst through the door and ran away!
Yang Taozhi and Zhao Cheng got up at the same time and rushed out to chase after the person.
Seeing that the two bandits had split up and were running up the mountain in two groups, Zhao Cheng pointed to the one on the right who had run further away and said, "You chase that one, I'll chase this one!"
After saying this, he chased after the bandits on the left.
Yang Taozhi glanced at Zhao Cheng in surprise, hesitated, and then went to chase after him.
At this moment, the sunlight gradually broke through the clouds and mist, and the area below the mountain gradually changed from black to gray.
The bandits were incredibly fast and knew the terrain well. Zhao Cheng was panting heavily, but he couldn't close the distance with them.
Zhao Cheng wasn't surprised. Mountain bandits who abducted people at night weren't necessarily highly skilled in martial arts, but they were definitely agile and adept at running. Zhao Cheng felt he was already thankful he hadn't lost them; either he had underestimated his own abilities, or the other party was just a novice.
The village was small, and the two of them quickly passed through the village and the fields, reaching the hilltop.
Lingshan is not a rocky mountain, but a densely vegetated, tree-shaded area where bandits darted left and right, very cunning.
Zhao Cheng was not to be outdone, staring intently at the bandit's back, refusing to follow his lead.
It's your business if you take the winding path, I'll just take the straight path.
Did you think you could confuse me with just a few trees?
Too flashy!
As it turned out, Zhao Cheng was right. The bandit in front of him was probably a novice. After struggling for a while, he found that not only had he not shaken off Zhao Cheng, but Zhao Cheng had actually closed the distance between them. So he changed to running straight ahead.
As the altitude increased, their physical strength rapidly declined, and both of them slowed down.
As the first rays of morning sunlight filtered through the leaves, Zhao Cheng saw the bandit stop ahead, hunched over and panting.
What's wrong?
So you're not running anymore?
Zhao Cheng quickly caught up and stopped ten paces away from the bandits, panting heavily as he took the opportunity to rest and replenish his strength.
"Aren't you a monster? Why do you need to rest too? Are monsters' stamina so poor?"
The bandit turned around and said, "Hoo, hoo... what the hell are you doing?"
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
