“How was it? Did that guy drink the ginseng soup?”
As soon as Niu Dashan came down, Niu Laosan rubbed his hands and asked impatiently.
“I don’t know.”
“What? You don’t know? You sent the soup, but you don’t know if he drank it? He’s messing with me!”
This time, Niu Lao Er was also a bit surprised.
“Damn it, he just told me to leave the soup there. He also told me to warn everyone else that anyone who disturbed him again would be killed without mercy. How would I know if he drank it afterward?”
Niu Dashan said with a sullen expression, grumbling under his breath.
“Hehe, I almost wronged Brother Dashan. It’s fine, I don’t believe he can resist the temptation of two old ginseng soups. The poison will lose its effect after half an hour, so we’ll act according to the plan we discussed earlier after half an hour. He’s already in such a terrible state, I refuse to believe we can’t take him down.”
Niu Lao Er’s eyes darted around twice, and he said with a sinister smile.
Normally, half an hour would pass in the blink of an eye, but tonight, the three men truly understood what it meant to feel like a year had passed, restless and anxious. As time went on, their breathing became more and more rapid, like fish out of water gasping for air.
Finally, the incense stick used for timing burned out. The three men came back to their senses, fine beads of sweat appearing on their foreheads in the late autumn night.
Niu Lao Er took a deep breath of the cold air, waved his hand, and shouted, “Move!”
The three men then took their respective weapons and walked up the small hill. They held their breath, their footsteps as light and silent as cats.
About fifty paces from Huang Yuanya’s tent, the three men stopped, took down their hunting bows from their backs, nocked arrows, and drew the strings. The arrowheads gleamed ominously in the moonlight, all tipped with poison.
“Shoot!!!”
Niu Dashan roared, being the first to shoot his arrow. Niu Er and Niu San also shot almost simultaneously. Three feathered arrows, forming a triangular shape, flew towards Huang Yuanya’s tent. Although the three men were not doing honest work, they were all hunters. Even at night, they were confident in hitting a tent fifty paces away.
It was a simple tent used by hunters in the wild, so it naturally had no defensive capabilities. The three sharp arrows shot into Huang Yuanya’s tent without any obstruction.
A strange scene occurred. As the three arrows shot in, there was no sound from inside the tent. There were no screams, no angry shouts, as if nothing had happened. It was so quiet!
“Shoot again!”
Following Niu Er’s shout, three more sharp arrows plunged into the tent.
Still no sound!
Now, Niu Dashan and Niu Laosan were starting to feel uneasy.
“What are you standing around for? Use fire arrows, rapid fire!”
Niu Lao Er shouted as he blew on his tinder, igniting the arrows wrapped in oilcloth.
With a whoosh, a fire arrow streaked across the night sky like a meteor, plunging into Huang Yuanya’s tent. The tent instantly began to burn, though the fire was not large. After all, the tent itself was stitched together from cowhide and pigskin, making it not so easy to burn.
The two who had recovered also began to shoot fire arrows. Although there were only three men and three hunting bows, the power was not small. The ignited arrows were like a small meteor shower, hitting the tent one after another. In a moment, the three men had each shot more than ten ignited arrows, and by now the tent had become a small sea of fire, burning fiercely. A smell of burning flesh wafted over.
Even more strangely, under such intense fire, Huang Yuanya’s tent remained silent. There was only the crackling sound of the tent burning, so clear in the quiet night.
The three men exchanged glances, cold sweat like small snakes running down their faces to their necks and finally disappearing into their collars.
“Damn it, I don’t believe he can just vanish into thin air! Charge!!!”
Niu Dashan gripped his long saber, his heart hardening, and he spoke with hatred. As soon as his words fell, he charged towards the tent with his saber. Niu Lao Er and Niu Laosan exchanged glances and followed with their sabers, though whether intentionally or not, the two lagged about ten paces behind Niu Dashan.
Sui An watched the three men charging through a gap in his tent, secretly glad they hadn't shot arrows at his own tent.
Sui An had been watching Huang Yuanya’s tent the entire time. When Niu Dashan brought the ceramic pot, he was certain there was poison inside, and that it was most likely his grandfather's bane. He was so certain because Sui An felt that the best way to deal with Huang Yuanya was to poison him, and Sui An didn't believe the villagers here would have any Advanced poisons. The possibility of them obtaining bane from his grandfather through some means was naturally very high.
Sui An was also puzzled as he watched the burning tent. He had been watching Huang Yuanya’s tent closely and was sure he hadn’t seen Huang Yuanya leave. But the tent was burning fiercely without any other movement, and it didn't look like there was anyone alive inside. Sui An didn't believe an Immortal Master could be killed so easily by a few Mortals, even a severely injured Immortal Master. It seemed the methods of Immortal Masters were truly strange, and he secretly congratulated himself for not rashly attacking an Immortal Master.
Fifty paces, forty paces, thirty paces, twenty paces!
When Niu Dashan was only twenty paces from the tent, Sui An slowly raised his crossbow. Twenty paces was already within the crossbow's attack range. The most advantageous outcome for Sui An, of course, would be for them to both be injured, allowing him to reap the benefits. Sui An naturally knew this was a bit too idealistic and unlikely. Next, Sui An needed to see who would win, and he would seize the opportunity to be a mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.
When Niu Dashan was only ten paces from the tent, a sudden change occurred! With a soft whoosh, a faint blue light shot out from the tent. The light was incredibly fast and instantly struck Niu Dashan, who was holding his long saber, in the chest.
With a soft bang, Niu Dashan’s chest was blown into two sections. His upper body was blasted backward, and his legs took one more step forward before he collapsed. Blood mixed with minced meat splattered everywhere. He was deader than dead.
In the firelight, Sui An clearly saw the ferocious expression on Niu Da’s face. He didn't even have time to feel fear before he died completely.
This scene happened too quickly and was too bizarre. Sui An was stunned, and Niu Er and Niu San, who were a dozen paces away, were also stunned. They remained frozen in their charging postures, having even forgotten to flee.
As the two brothers stood there with expressions as if they had seen a ghost, a figure slowly emerged from the burning tent. The figure was enveloped in a strange, light blue light shield, with faint ripples of water flowing on it. It was Huang Yuanya.
“Run!!!”
The two brothers finally came to their senses, their expressions more terrified than if they had seen a ghost. They let out a loud shout and tried to flee.
“Hehe, trying to run?”
Huang Yuanya scoffed disdainfully, a blue light flashed in his hand, and another blue light shot out.
With another bang, Niu Laosan’s head exploded like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer. Brain matter mixed with blood splattered everywhere, leaving only a headless corpse that softly collapsed to the ground. The bloody stench in the air rushed straight to the crown of one's head, so strong it made one want to vomit.
Niu Er finally came to his senses. Only then did he realize how ridiculous he and his companions had been, actually trying to attack someone who could casually eliminate them. He fell to his knees, kowtowing repeatedly with loud thuds. In no time, his head was bleeding, yet he continued to kowtow forcefully.
“Immortal Master, spare my life, spare my life! This lowly one was blinded by greed and had dog eyes, offending you, great Immortal Master. Please spare my life!”
Huang Yuanya walked to within seven or eight paces of Niu Er and stopped. After a brief thought, he still sent out a blue light, shattering Niu Er’s head. He clearly couldn't be bothered to ask anything, or perhaps disdained to ask.
Sui An, in his tent, watched the entire process without missing a single detail. His mind was in turmoil, and it was also his first time gaining some understanding of an Immortal Master’s methods. Sui An put the crossbow in his sleeve. He no longer believed this thing could pose much of a threat to an Immortal Master.
From the moment Huang Yuanya’s tent caught fire, to the men charging up, to Huang Yuanya casually eliminating the three men, only a short moment had passed. Yet, Sui An felt as if an entire century had gone by.
Sui An struggled for a moment before still stepping out of his tent. With such a large hole, pretending he knew nothing was clearly unrealistic.
“Immortal Master Huang, please rest in my tent. I will keep watch outside for you.”
“Keep watch? No need. If there are any more bandits, I’ll just kill them.”
Huang Yuanya’s tone was calm yet utterly cold. He walked a few steps forward, then turned back to Sui An and asked, “You, a child, aren’t afraid seeing several dead people?”
Sui An lowered his head and respectfully replied, “This junior has practiced medicine with my grandfather since childhood, so I have seen many dead people. My courage is naturally greater than that of ordinary people.”
Huang Yuanya said nothing more, nodded, and slowly walked towards Sui An’s tent. A Mortal child, he didn't put him in his eyes.
Sui An clearly saw from behind that Huang Yuanya’s steps were noticeably lighter, indicating that killing the few men was not as effortless as it appeared on the surface.
Sui An added a lot more wood to the burning tent to ward off the cold night air. After sitting by the fire for a while, he simply lay down on the ground, looking up at the still-shining stars.
Currently, he knew of two attack methods Huang Yuanya possessed: one was the blue light he had seen three times just now, and the other was a fireball. There was also the blue-glowing light shield, which could withstand ordinary flames and likely could also block ordinary arrow attacks. Each method was incredibly miraculous and astonishingly powerful.
Sui An put himself in the shoes of Niu Er and his companions, thinking of many methods, but he rejected them all. The feasibility was too low. Sui An felt that Niu Er and his companions' plan had no flaws; they simply greatly underestimated Huang Yuanya's strength. Sui An constantly reminded himself internally that he must never underestimate any enemy in the future.
Amidst a flurry of thoughts, Sui An ultimately couldn’t resist sleep and soon fell into a deep slumber.