Volume 1, Chapter 381 – Encounter

In a dense forest more than ten li from Xiaohun Village, there stood a wooden cabin.

Inside the cabin were two fully armed grown men. One had black hair and black eyes, with a fierce air about him. The other was blond and blue-eyed, clearly a white man.

“The Xiaohun Village outpost has gone silent.”

The Asian man set down the walkie-talkie.

“The police?” The white man frowned.

“They used crossbow bolts. It shouldn’t be the police.” The Asian man shook his head and used the wireless set at his side to pass the message along.

“A rival operation?”

“Could be there’s a mole.”

“Should we go take a look? There’s still a hundred and thirty kilos of goods over at Xiaohun Village.”

“No. We pull out first and move the rest of the goods.”

The Asian man shook his head and got up to start packing.

They had no idea how strong the other side was. Retreating first was the wise choice.

…

After heading up the mountain, Shi Lan did not go far. She slipped into a nearby stretch of the range, found an ancient tree with a broad view, and lay down on one of its branches.

The view here was wide open, allowing her to take in all of Xiaohun Village at a glance and making it easier to observe the situation.

Unexpectedly, after waiting a long time, not a single person came.

After resting through the night, Shi Lan stopped waiting and turned toward the deeper parts of the mountains. She had not brought much in the way of supplies and could not hold out for long.

The bodies of those seven men had already been completely buried by the villagers. Clearly, they had no intention of calling the police.

Walkie-talkies had limited range, and this was the middle of a mountain range. Those people could not be very far from here, at most no more than ten kilometers away.

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There were not many villages nearby. If she checked them one by one, she was bound to catch some trace of something.

…

The road into the mountains became harder and harder to traverse. Following the markings on the map, Shi Lan traveled for nearly another full day before reaching another village.

This village was much larger than Xiaohun Village. At a glance, it had at least fifty households.

It was just getting dark. Shi Lan ate some dry rations and lay hidden in the grass not far from the village entrance, waiting quietly for night to deepen.

Jingle, jingle…

A crisp ringing sound slowly drifted out from the village. A mule carrying four crates of goods slowly made its way toward the village entrance, the clear chime of the bell at its neck carrying far along the valley.

Five people surrounded the mule, making no effort whatsoever to hide their movements. Shi Lan swept her eyes over them and recognized three at once. The remaining two she did not know, and both were white men.

From their weapons and equipment, together with the killing intent hanging about them, it was not hard to tell that they were mercenary types.

These men were obviously very different from the people in Xiaohun Village. They were clear-headed and highly vigilant. If she attacked rashly, even if she managed to kill one first, her position would be exposed.

The five of them had heavy firepower. There were four submachine guns. The moment she showed herself, she would likely be riddled with bullets in an instant.

Shi Lan quietly withdrew and disappeared into the forest.

After estimating the mule’s route in her mind, she gradually formed a plan.

At the moment, she was in the dark while these people were in the open. They did not know she was alone. There might be some room to work with in that.

To guard against reinforcements inside the village, Shi Lan widened the distance between them so she would have enough time to react.

…

The ringing of the bell gradually drew closer. Suddenly, Shi Lan felt that something was off. The noise was so obvious that it was almost as if they were afraid others would not know there were people here.

Before she could think it through, the five had already slowly entered the mountain path and were now less than a hundred meters from her.

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After hesitating for an instant, Shi Lan tightened the strap on her night-vision goggles, gripped the submachine gun, and directly unleashed a burst of fire at the figures in the distance.

The crackling explosions were like a string of firecrackers, startling countless birds into flight.

“Take cover!”

“M-35 submachine gun. Same model as ours. Eighty percent chance it’s the people who hit Xiaohun Village!”

The instant the gunfire erupted, the men reacted, scattering to find cover.

But the distance was too short. The two men at the very front, together with the mule, were cut down instantly.

The remaining three each found cover. There was not the slightest fear on their faces, only wild murderous intent in their eyes.

“Hyena, the prey took the bait. I need support!”

One Asian man spoke into the walkie-talkie. After waiting a while and hearing no more gunfire, he spoke again:

“They don’t dare fight head-on. That means their firepower is weaker than ours. There may only be two or three of them, or even fewer!”

“Arnold, Huggins, cover me. I’ll test their firepower!”

The two remaining white men did not hesitate in the least. They put on their night-vision goggles, leaned out slightly, and their submachine guns spat blazing streams of fire, tearing the forest ahead into a shredded ruin.

The Asian man burst from cover like a venomous snake, weaving left and right. In the blink of an eye, he crossed dozens of meters and entered the woods.

He crawled low to the ground, and after moving forward only a few meters, he saw a submachine gun lying on the ground with its magazine already empty.

At some point, the covering fire behind him had quietly ceased.

“Arnold! Huggins!”

His heart jolted, and he turned and shouted.

The forest was deathly still. There was not the slightest response. The sudden terror of his hairs standing on end drenched his entire body in cold sweat.

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With his back against a tree, he made himself as small as possible and picked up the walkie-talkie again.

“We’ve already lost four men…”

Clink, clink…

Before he could finish, several faint metallic sounds rang out at his side. The man lowered his head for a glance, and his pupils contracted sharply.

Boom!

…

Shi Lan slowly walked to the mule’s corpse and opened the crates. Inside was nothing but a pile of stones, and nothing else. Her heart instantly turned cold.

Rat-tat-tat-tat…

Violent gunfire erupted from behind her. Shi Lan did not dare hesitate and bolted madly deeper into the mountain range.

She had run less than fifty meters when she let out a muffled grunt. Her foot stumbled, and she nearly fell.

The covering fire had been too dense. Even though she had reacted as fast as she could, she was still hit.

A bullet passed through a tree trunk and struck her left arm, lodging in the muscle.

Shi Lan did not dare slow her pace in the slightest. With no time to deal with the wound, she threw away some of the unnecessary things she was carrying, and her speed increased again.

…

More than ten men appeared from every direction, surrounding the mule’s corpse and beginning to clear the battlefield.

“Two died to submachine-gun fire, two were killed by crossbow bolts, Warthog was blown up by a grenade. All with our own equipment.”

“The fight ended fast. Less than five minutes.”

“I only saw one person just now. I didn’t pursue too far, so I don’t know whether there was support.” A one-eyed burly man spoke in a buzzing voice.

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“What can be confirmed is that they don’t have many people. Otherwise there’d have been no need to use guns at all. Just a few more compound crossbows and one exchange would have ended the fight.”

“Hyena, take two men to Xiaohun Village and see whether the goods are still there.”

A middle-aged man in a coarse long shirt and glasses crouched beside the mule’s corpse. After a moment of silence, he spoke:

“The rest of you, search the mountain. My men did not die for nothing. I want to see the person alive, or the body dead. At the very least, I want to know where they came from.”

…

Beside a mountain stream more than twenty li from the battlefield, Shi Lan washed the smell of blood from her body. The scent of blood would draw predators in the forest, and in her current state, facing wolves, tigers, or leopards would leave her little chance of survival.

After carefully cleaning herself, Shi Lan gathered some broken branches and dry kindling, found a small cave four or five meters deep, and crawled inside.

After lighting a fire, Shi Lan picked up a wooden stick and clenched it between her teeth. She took out a dagger, passed it briefly through the flames to disinfect it, cut open the sleeve on her left arm, and dug the blade into the wound.

Bright red blood ran down her arm, and the bullet lodged in the muscle was pried out.

She could not let this injury drag on any longer. The longer she delayed, the worse it would get.

In just a few short seconds, Shi Lan was already covered in cold sweat, her face deathly pale, and blood was still pouring from her arm.

She had not brought many medicines, and she had thrown away quite a few things on the road just now. All she had left were some simple anti-inflammatory drugs, nowhere near enough to stop the bleeding.

If she lost too much blood, out here in the wild, that was no different from signing her own death warrant.

After catching her breath, Shi Lan bit down on the stick again, tore a strip of cloth from the hem of her clothing, tied it tightly around the upper part of her arm near the shoulder, heated the dagger in the fire until it glowed red, and then pressed it directly against the wound.

Sizzle…

Wisps of smoke rose, carrying with them the scorched, meaty smell of seared flesh. The violent pain nearly made Shi Lan’s head explode. She almost fainted, her teeth sinking deep into the wooden stick and leaving a row of deep bite marks.

Tap.

Before she could even let out a breath of relief, a faint sound came from outside the cave.