Chapter 17: The Returner on a Snowy Night (11)
When it comes to killing, sooner is always better than later.
Almost the exact instant their eyes met, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng understood what was in each other’s gaze. One smashed through the window while the other confronted her head-on. At such close quarters, Jin Cheng chose to use a gun.
A shot fast as lightning.
Clang! The bullet flew straight for Xiaoyuan’s face, only to be deflected by the cleaver. Tilting her head to look at the bullet hole in the blade, she asked suspiciously, “Why are you attacking me?”
Unsurprised by this outcome, Jin Cheng raised his hand and fired another shot.
Xiaoyuan dodged sideways with eerie speed, but right at that moment, Tang Cuo charged in. Lacking any better weapon at hand, he had grabbed an axe from the storage shed.
Cornered against the wall in an instant, Xiaoyuan looked terrified, crying out repeatedly, “What are you doing! Stop!”
Neither Tang Cuo nor Jin Cheng cared for idle chatter. As vanguards who perpetually walked the razor’s edge of courting death, they understood the rule that “villains die from talking too much.” When action was an option, they never wasted breath.
Crack! Tang Cuo brought the axe down onto the kitchen storage shelf, toppling jars and knocking bottles askew. Making a split-second decision, he lashed out with a kick, striking a bottle of black pepper and sending it hurtling toward Xiaoyuan’s face.
Xiaoyuan naturally paid little mind to a mere bottle of pepper, but Jin Cheng pulled the trigger right at that moment. The bullet was aimed not at her, but at the bottle itself.
With a loud bang, the glass shattered. A cloud of pepper powder rained down over Xiaoyuan, catching her completely off guard and choking her.
“Cough, cough, cough…” Amid violent coughing fits, Xiaoyuan remained remarkably agile. Seeing Jin Cheng raise his gun once more while Tang Cuo’s axe closed in, her eyes flickered, and she lunged straight toward Zhao Ping instead.
Zhao Ping specialized in supernatural abilities, specifically ice. In a snow-bound instance like this, he should have held the upper hand, but they were confined to cramped quarters indoors. In haste, he condensed three icicles and thrust them at Xiaoyuan, but she dodged with unnatural speed, evading them almost instantaneously while driving her cleaver straight for his throat.
“Watch out!” Qian Wei shouted.
Gritting his teeth, Zhao Ping quickly formed an ice shield in front of himself. As the shield shattered under her blow, he used the momentum to spring backward. He had no intention of running away, either. Behind him happened to be a water vat; stepping back, he plunged a hand into the water and channeled his power.
The sound of churning water burst forth almost instantly. Carried by a freezing aura, it surged toward Xiaoyuan like a water dragon.
Yet where was Xiaoyuan?
“Fuck!” Catching sight of her figure vaulting out the window, Zhao Ping nearly choked with rage. In that flash of realization, he understood: her charge at him was purely a diversion to escape through the window.
Qian Wei was infuriated as well. He had not even managed to strike once, so how could the boss be fleeing already?
Shameless!
Qian Wei and Tang Cuo rushed to the window almost at the same time, but Xiaoyuan had already cleared it. Zhao Ping’s water dragon merely grazed the hem of her clothes before losing its momentum.
The moment she cleared the window, Xiaoyuan shifted back into Li Yingjun’s appearance. The simple, honest young man wore a cruel, cunning smirk, looking back to sneer at them.
“Don’t run if you’ve got the guts!” Qian Wei yelled.
Li Yingjun paid him no heed, wheeling around to flee. Yet the moment he turned, an arrow shot straight toward him. His face changed dramatically; fast as his reflexes were, the arrow still grazed his arm.
Blood spurted out. He whipped his head toward the source of the shot. Jin Cheng stood right by the doorway with a mocking smile curling on his lips.
He had sprinted toward the back door the instant Li Yingjun lunged toward Zhao Ping, timing it to the exact second.
By then, Tang Cuo’s group of three had pursued him outside. Zhao Ping pressed both hands to the ground with a sharp shout, causing curved ice walls to erupt upward, encircling the entire backyard along the wooden fence.
Li Yingjun was trapped for the moment, and Jin Cheng’s arrows arrived again.
Three rapid shots in succession.
Struggling to parry left and right, Li Yingjun soon took another wound to his leg. But Zhao Ping’s ice wall was not exceedingly sturdy; while dodging, Li Yingjun managed to smash an opening through it.
Just as he prepared to bolt, Qian Wei charged in.
Qian Wei was a swordsman.
In truth, few players in the lower zones wielded cold weapons like swords or sabers, because mastery was difficult, far harder than firearms, and often less practical than learning qigong. But Qian Wei harbored dreams of being a roaming hero. Having randomly cleared a wuxia-themed instance before, he had picked up basic sword techniques by chance.
Of course, swordsmanship in Yong Ye City had a supernatural flair. Just as qigong could project actual shockwaves, swordsmanship could emit sword qi.
Qian Wei’s sword qi was pale orange. His mastery was shallow, so the projected qi was relatively weak, but he made up for it with sheer volume: “Taste my blade!”
“Again!”
“Don’t run!”
Li Yingjun did not take Qian Wei seriously, but the man was insufferably loud. While he was being distracted by the noise, Zhao Ping mended the ice wall. Panting heavily, clearly exhausted, Zhao Ping was not particularly powerful, but he still gritted his teeth and formed several icicles, coordinating with Qian Wei’s sword strikes to stab at Li Yingjun.
To his surprise, Li Yingjun merely raised an arm to shatter those icicles into dust.
Indeed, unless it was a metal-attribute attack, Li Yingjun’s defense was virtually impregnable.
Though Qian Wei used a sword, his sword qi was not metal-aligned. The only person capable of truly injuring Li Yingjun remained Jin Cheng. Jin Cheng continued fighting with effortless grace, using two arrows to force Li Yingjun back once more, yet withholding any fatal blow.
Confused, Zhao Ping looked back, suddenly realizing that Tang Cuo had disappeared.
Rewinding three minutes earlier, Tang Cuo had exchanged a look with Jin Cheng before slipping quietly back inside the lodge. He needed Jin Cheng to keep Li Yingjun occupied, ensuring the boss had no opportunity to kill anyone and swap identities.
Near the main entrance, Peng Mingfan was crouching to examine footprints nearly buried by snow. An Ning stood guard nearby. Seeing Tang Cuo approach, she said quickly, “Xiaoyuan might have slipped out. We searched the entire lodge and couldn’t find her.”
Tang Cuo asked, “Are these footprints hers?”
Peng Mingfan looked up. “Roughly size 36 shoe prints. Aside from her, there shouldn’t be anyone else. What should we do? Go after her, or leave it alone?”
“Our objective is to kill Li Yingjun; it has nothing to do with Xiaoyuan, right?” An Ning chimed in. “She kept talking about going down the mountain, so maybe she just left?”
Peng Mingfan did not think so, and his instincts told him Tang Cuo did not either. Matters were never that simple.
Tang Cuo made a swift decision. “An Ning, go find oil.”
“Huh?” An Ning was stunned. “Oil? For what?”
Peng Mingfan caught on immediately, asking in disbelief, “You’re going to set a fire?”
Tang Cuo: “Burn the mountain.”
About five minutes later, Peng Mingfan and An Ning carried a bucket of oil each as they followed Tang Cuo into the woods. Although her name was An Ning, meaning peace and tranquility, she was by no means a placid person. After the initial surprise wore off, excitement dominated her expression.
Arson on a mountain: what a grand gesture.
Tang Cuo asked her, “I’ve seen you fight. Is your skill related to wind?”
An Ning nodded. “Yes. Don’t worry, Brother Tang, I understand what you want. I’ll fan the flames as large as possible, guaranteed to satisfy you!”
No sooner said than done.
Without walking far, An Ning and Peng Mingfan splashed the oil onto the trees along the path and ignited them with matches taken from the kitchen. The instant flames roared to life, An Ning skipped any fancy posturing, planting both hands on her hips, inhaling deep, and exhaling.
Whoosh.
A gusting wind rose. The fire leaped ten meters high in an instant, spreading easily from tree to tree until a blaze formed across the woods.
It happened to be a rare clear day. The snowfall was light, and although snow covered the ground, the air was dry. Doused with so much oil and fed by persistent wind, the fire raged higher and higher, so vast that the group in the backyard saw the billowing smoke and dancing flames.
“What’s happening over there?!” Qian Wei’s sword slashed wide as he looked back in astonishment.
Zhao Ping turned to look between ragged breaths. Li Yingjun’s face darkened like stagnant water, a beast-like roar tearing from his throat: “How dare you? How dare you set fire to the mountain!”
“Retribution will fall upon you!”
“You all must die!”
The furious shout was shattered by an incoming arrow. Jin Cheng stood atop the roof of the storage shed, his expression unreadable. “The trees sprouted from human corpses, so burning them is burning our own kind. What are you howling about?”
The logic was airtight, leaving even Li Yingjun momentarily stunned.
Zhao Ping and Qian Wei exchanged glances. That actually sounded entirely reasonable.
Yet Li Yingjun was not so easily swayed, barking a furious laugh. “So what? You burned my firewood, and you’re still going to die!”
“Tsk.” Jin Cheng despised unreasonable people. Having one unreasonable person like himself in the world was more than enough; any more would throw everything into chaos. Since Tang Cuo had already stirred up such a massive commotion on his end, there was no longer any need to hold back.
Smiling, Jin Cheng drew his bow once more.
Sensing danger, Li Yingjun took advantage of Qian Wei and Zhao Ping’s distraction with the fire to bolt toward the breach in the ice wall. Indeed, he had battered another gap into it, and Zhao Ping lacked the energy to mend it again.
He ran fast, but Jin Cheng’s arrow flew faster.
It was another metal arrow, seemingly identical to the previous ones. But Li Yingjun dared not let down his guard. Keeping his peripheral vision fixed on it, he dodged to the side in advance.
Yet a bizarre sight occurred: mid-flight, the arrow suddenly split into three, cutting off all avenues of escape.
Li Yingjun’s pupils contracted as he scrambled backward, but it was too late. Two of the three arrows drove violently into his arm and chest, the sheer momentum flinging him back to crash hard against the ice wall.
Crack. The ice wall fractured.
Li Yingjun coughed up a mouthful of blood, though he was not dead yet. He lifted his head with venom, a glint of cold malice in his eyes. Just as he was about to speak, Jin Cheng cut him off:
“Where is your axe?”
Li Yingjun froze again.
Jin Cheng asked once more, “Where is your axe?”
Tang Cuo had grabbed an axe from the storage shed to use as a weapon, but that was clearly not Li Yingjun’s axe. Li Yingjun’s axe had terrifying armor-piercing capabilities, yet here he was on the verge of death, so where was the axe?
Qian Wei and Zhao Ping caught on as well, cold sweat breaking out across their backs for reasons they could not quite name.
Could their judgment have been flawed? Was this person not Li Yingjun after all?
Whoosh! Another arrow pinned itself into Li Yingjun’s leg, shoving him back half a meter. Jin Cheng watched him with a half-smile, asking again, “Where is your axe?”
Meanwhile, deep in the forest.
The vanished Xiaoyuan was smiling pleasantly as she handed a black axe into Qu Li’s hands, saying, “Take it. From now on, you are Yingjun. Congratulations on officially starting your job.”
Qu Li did not take it. She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging into her palms, using pain to retain the last shred of her willpower. “Why? I was supposed to replace you, wasn’t I?”
“Well,” Xiaoyuan tilted her head adorably and said, “I don’t know either. That’s just what Mr. Crow told me. Besides, being Yingjun isn’t bad at all; the term of service is shorter. I can’t even go down the mountain for now; I have to wait until the next newcomer arrives. It’s so unfair.”
“Mr. Crow?” Qu Li’s head buzzed abruptly, recalling once more the horror of being struck by the Soul Pendulum. She stepped back instinctively, not daring to touch the axe. Right then, she caught sight of a glow of red in the distance. “What is that?!”
Hearing that, Xiaoyuan turned around and finally spotted the roaring flames, covering her mouth in shock. She panicked, truly panicked; in all her years here, she had never witnessed a situation like this.
“Quick, quick, it’s spreading this way!” Without another word, Xiaoyuan shoved the axe into Qu Li’s hands and bolted. Holding it like a hot potato, Qu Li instinctively moved to throw the axe away, but a dull throb seized her head.
A familiar chime followed immediately.
Ding!
Player K26453 has officially entered the karma-clearing process.
Not far away, a crow was stomping in frustration atop a tree branch.
“Abominable! Utterly abominable! These two wretched humans, they actually committed such a treasonous act again! They have no respect for the great Mr. Crow, no respect for supreme Yong Ye City! It infuriates me to death!”
Flapping its wings, it was so angry it was shedding feathers from its head. Unaware for a split second, flames flared up beneath the tree and nearly singed its feet. That made it even more furious. Taking off with a whoosh, it wanted to curse them out, but choked on its words.
After fuming for a long time, it managed to squeeze out only one line:
“Infuriating! I am furious to death!”
