Chapter 88

The wind started to blow in the mountain village.

Laoshan Mountain, with an altitude of over two thousand meters, is located in the Funiu Mountain Range.

The night here is cold and the mountain wind is fierce.

The air is filled with mist, and by dawn, a layer of moisture will cover all outdoor furniture.

In the courtyard, someone threw new firewood into the bonfire, and the flames were momentarily dimmed by the new wood.

The flickering flames refracted in the slowly flowing mist, like a magical light show at night.

In the shadows, a young man held a knife, standing silently at the intersection of the thin mist and shadows, observing the lone bandit outside the gate.

It was only at this moment that he understood what Ye Wan had said:

Life is indeed very fragile; a knife stabbed into the heart will kill anyone, no matter how powerful they are.

But killing is not easy.

Because you have to face the most vicious things in the world.

Qingchen tied a stolen scarf over his face and remained silent.

The cell phone signal on the mountain top was intermittent, but to be safe, the bandits had all switched to police walkie-talkies, which they clipped to their left chests.

Qingchen counted silently in his mind; the bandit would look down and press the walkie-talkie every ten minutes to respond to something.

Suddenly, a gust of mountain wind blew in, and the bonfire in the courtyard suddenly blazed up, illuminating the world outside the gate.

At this moment, Qingchen, hiding in the corner, suddenly saw that the bandit outside the gate seemed to have noticed something in the firelight, and with a puzzled look, he began to approach.

Qingchen's heart tightened.

But at this moment, Li Tongyun appeared at the inn's gate.

She stood at the door and timidly said to the bandit, "Uncle Police, have you seen my mom?"

The bandit was taken aback: "Your mom? I haven't seen her. Little kid, come here, Uncle Police will help you find your mom, okay?"

In an instant, he suddenly sensed something was wrong!

Ambush!

The bandit instinctively raised his left hand to swing the baton to the side and reached for his gun with his right hand.

In the flickering light of the bonfire that crossed the wall.

In the thin mist, the young man had already silently approached him.

At point-blank range, the distance of a single knife.

Qingchen suddenly crouched to dodge the baton, moving with the howling mountain wind to the bandit's front.

Qingchen's dagger stabbed at the bandit's left hand, which was about to draw the gun. The bandit, realizing he couldn't get the gun in time, instinctively dodged.

The young man's blade moved downward, and the bandit instinctively tried to grab the young man's hand with both arms.

But Qingchen, as if he had anticipated this, took a small step back, and the bandit's swinging left hand and baton hit nothing but air.

Not good!

The bandit looked up in shock into the darkness.

All he could see were the young man's eyes, coldly staring at him.

Just as he was about to make a final effort, the young man's dagger pierced through the mist.

Through the gap between his arms.

"Breathing."

Li Shitong said that in a battle between beasts, the most important thing is breathing.

It is the key to controlling the oxygen in your body and your clear will. Once you understand the importance of breathing, you will control yourself and, in turn, control everything.

Whether you are the hunter or the prey, you choose.

In a flash, the edge of Qingchen's scarf suddenly burst into flames!

As if all the strength surged to his right hand and then to the tip of the knife, it fiercely pierced into the bandit's spleen.

The bandit's eyes suddenly widened.

What happened in this brief moment?

The masked young man's movements were fluid and seamless, as if everything was calculated. He knew the bandit would swing the baton, knew he wouldn't dare to continue drawing the gun under the feint, and knew the trajectory of his arms in the chaos.

The bandit knew everything, so he avoided everything, not giving him a chance to make direct contact.

Until the dagger pierced his spleen, this was the first true physical contact between them.

In the psychological game of a close-quarters battle, every step he took was within the young man's calculations.

It was as if he was acting out a script written by the young man.

The young man had long written the ending for him.

Knowing he had little time left, the bandit struggled to reach for the walkie-talkie.

But he saw the young man fiercely push him forward, pinning him against the courtyard wall.

Qingchen covered the bandit's mouth with his left hand and forcefully stirred the knife with his right hand.

The bandit's mechanical leg tried to exert force, but the intense pain in his brain almost blocked all his effective thoughts.

The spleen is the body's blood storage organ, and in an instant, a large amount of blood flowed from the bandit's ruptured spleen, then down the dagger to Qingchen's hand.

It was warm blood, and the rapidly fading warmth in the cool night reminded Qingchen of what death truly was.

When the bandit's heart and breathing stopped, Qingchen slowly pulled out the dagger.

The masked young man stood before the corpse, breathing heavily, lost in thought.

Blood dripped from the tip of the knife in his hand, drop by drop, onto the cement road.

So, this is what it feels like to kill.

Qingchen's heavy breathing was not due to fatigue or lung strain, but a strange fear and panic in his heart.

It was then that he realized why Li Shitong said the first kill must be with a knife.

Killing with a gun, hitting someone from dozens of meters away, the person is gone.

In such a situation, your emotions and reactions are blurred by the distance. It doesn't feel like you killed a person, but rather hit a target.

You don't see the blood, don't feel the heartbeat fading.

You don't have any reverence for life.

As a teacher, Li Shitong couldn't witness his student's first kill, but he had already taught Qingchen the most important lesson: how to respect life.

"Brother Qingchen," Li Tongyun called out timidly.

This voice pulled Qingchen back to reality, like a hand grabbing his sleeve before he fell into the abyss.

The young man turned to look at Li Tongyun not far away.

The little girl was dazed and didn't speak, as if she had been scared by what she just saw.

She had witnessed the masked young man's vicious killing and the disappearance of life.

Qingchen squatted down in front of her.

He didn't remove the scarf from his face but softly asked, "Scared?"

Li Tongyun nodded with tears in her eyes: "A little."

"How did you come out? Where's your mom?" Qingchen asked.

At this moment, Jiang Xue hurriedly ran down the stairs, looking for Li Tongyun.

Even though Qingchen's face was covered, she could recognize the young man at once because the scarf on his face was hers.

So, when she saw Li Tongyun with Qingchen, she immediately felt relieved.

Jiang Xue came to the door and explained to Qingchen, "I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, she was gone. Xiao Yun, you scared your mom to death!"

Li Tongyun lowered her head: "I just wanted to help Brother Qingchen."

Qingchen was taken aback; it wasn't a coincidence that she appeared here; she was helping him.

He thought for a moment and raised his hand to pat Li Tongyun's head, but then remembered his hands were covered in blood and slowly withdrew his arm.

But before he could fully retract it, Li Tongyun reached out and grabbed his hand, placing it on her head: "Brother Qingchen, be careful. Mom and I will wait for you to come back."

"Okay," Qingchen smiled. "It's a promise."

After that, he asked Jiang Xue to help pull the bandit's body into the inn's courtyard and handed her the gun from the bandit's waist: "I plan to infiltrate the Cloud Inn. If I fire a gun there, even with a silencer, it will attract attention, so this is for you."

Jiang Xue shook her head: "You keep it. You're in more danger. In a life-or-death situation, who cares if it will attract attention? Just shoot."

Qingchen was taken aback, then smiled and removed the gun holster from the bandit's waist and tied it to his own.

Although he had never touched a gun and didn't know how to use it, and firing it would attract the attention of other bandits,

It was better to have a gun than not.

Li Shitong said that a knight's first kill must be with a knife, and he had already done that.

Killing again wouldn't be the first time.

He could use a gun.

Qingchen patted Li Tongyun's head: "This time, you must listen and wait for me to come back."

"Okay," Li Tongyun nodded.

At this moment, the walkie-talkie on the bandit's chest crackled: "Start counting, 1."

The bandits' cold voices came through: "2."

"3."

"4."

There was a brief pause, and Qingchen immediately used his breathing technique, perfectly mimicking the bandit's voice: "5."

He was about to turn off the walkie-talkie when a new voice came through the speaker.

"6."

"7."

"8."

Qingchen suddenly froze.

Three more bandits!

...

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