Chapter 241 - 133: Monster (3)

"If you ask me, we should pray for heaven to bless us with a few more little wenches. After the brothers have their fun, we can toss ’em in the pot for a stew..."

As he spoke, he slurped his saliva loudly and licked his chapped lips.

The firelight flickered violently across his face, revealing a long, thin tongue, like a snake’s.

"Fuck!"

The fleshy-faced leader spat, then grinned wide, his smile both lewd and depraved.

"Like hell you just want ’fun’! You just like ’em stuffed full of filling! If you ask me, the young ones are better. Tasty no matter how you cook ’em, you can even chew the bones..."

THUD—

A muffled sound abruptly cut off their crazed, vicious laughter.

In the distance, one of the Manor Soldiers had been bent over, moving a log and chatting with his companion. After the muffled sound, his head was gone.

His body remained standing, but everything above the neck was empty space. The ragged stump of his neck spewed a mist of blood, which dissipated into the darkness.

Only in the halo of torchlight could one see the fine spray of blood bursting outward.

"Who’s there!?"

The dozen or so men here whipped their heads around in unison, their hands instantly tightening on their Bows and Arrows, sabers, and spears.

The torchlight danced across their faces, illuminating expressions of shock and uncertainty.

A figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

His face was wrapped in black cloth, his clothes were tattered, and on his back, he carried a long, flat wooden box tightly wrapped in coarse fabric. He looked strange from every angle.

He was alone, approaching unhurriedly.

Yet his presence gave the dozen men the illusion that an entire army was thundering toward them.

The next moment, he backhanded another projectile—was it a stone? Or something else?

It was just a tiny speck, too fast for the naked eye to follow, glinting once in the firelight before vanishing.

THUD!

Another muffled explosion. On the other side, a different Manor Soldier’s head was also gone.

The headless body spun in place, flinging its torch far into the distance. It landed on the snow, HISSING and emitting white smoke.

"Fire! Fire the arrows!"

The fleshy-faced leader’s expression changed drastically. He shot to his feet, shrieking like a slaughtered pig. His voice cracked as it echoed through the ruined mountain forest.

The dozen or so men around him were Manor Soldiers from the Hunting Manor. They were never without their Bows and Arrows, and their Archery was quite good.

Before the leader had even finished speaking, they had instinctively nocked their Arrows. Their movements were swift and synchronized, the clear result of muscle memory drilled into them over many years.

THUD!

A third headless corpse fell.

As the mist of blood erupted, a dense volley of Arrows was already descending upon the masked man.

The Arrows flew from different directions, cutting off nearly every possible escape angle.

Crucially, the Archery of these Manor Soldiers was indeed formidable. Their aim was impeccable, and they were positioned upwind. The Arrows rode the wind, making them swift and powerful. The air whined in unison, as if a flock of night owls was diving madly for its prey.

Any ordinary person would have been turned into a pincushion by now.

However, the masked stranger, relying on an unbelievable speed and Body Technique, slipped through the gaps in the volley of Arrows in the blink of an eye.

The dense shower of arrows hadn’t even grazed the corner of his clothing.

Immediately after, a second and third volley followed, even denser and faster.

But the result was exactly the same.

He passed through a forest of a thousand arrows without a single scratch.

"Wind! To the wind!"

Seeing the masked man draw ever closer, the fleshy-faced leader suddenly shrieked three words. The meaning was unclear, but his voice was sharp and urgent.

An outsider wouldn’t have understood, but his Manor Soldiers did.

As soon as he spoke, the dozen men put away their Bows and Arrows, held their breath, and quickly retreated further upwind.

SWOOSH—

At the same time, the tall, thin man yanked a leather pouch from his waist. With a forceful heave, a cloud of ghastly white Poisonous Powder exploded in the firelight. Like a dense fog, it was carried by the mountain wind, sweeping down to envelop the masked man.

"You’re skilled to have dodged the arrow storm! But this Poisonous Powder blankets the sky and seeps through every crack. Let’s see you dodge this!"

The tall, thin man seemed extremely confident in his tactic, grinning as he let out a sinister cackle.

Beside him, the fleshy-faced leader also grinned, about to unleash a few taunts and curses to vent his frustration.

But before he could utter a word, the smile on his face froze solid.

The masked man, paying it no mind, neither dodged nor evaded. He walked straight through the center of the toxic cloud at his unhurried pace. Moreover, he appeared completely normal, showing no signs of being poisoned.

That’s right. This masked man was none other than Chen Cheng.

For the past month, he had not once stopped his regimen of medicinal baths and foods designed to cultivate his poison resistance.

More importantly, under the effects of his Unyielding Attribute, a portion of the cells in his body with weaker poison resistance were eliminated every day.

Then, the cells with stronger poison resistance would divide, creating new cells with even greater resistance.

Through this repeating cycle, his poison resistance would increase daily even without the medicinal baths and foods.

The increase was small, however, and required a long period of time for a qualitative leap to become apparent.

Of course, Chen Cheng hadn’t stopped the medicinal baths and foods.

Because of this, in the ten-plus days since his Unyielding Attribute had awakened, the improvement in his poison resistance was almost equal to all his previous progress combined.

As for this knockout-drug-like Poisonous Powder, he could ignore it completely, even if its effects were stronger than ordinary variants.

And this was just one of the marvelous uses of the Unyielding Attribute.

It was sure to have immense potential for further development.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The next instant, three more headless corpses fell.

The tall, thin man gasped sharply, his face contorting in horror.

"Th-that’s impossible! Just a tiny bit of my Poisonous Powder can take down a bull or a tiger... H-how is he completely fine?"

"Retreat! Re... Retreat!!"

The fleshy-faced leader yelled again.

This time, he was out of tricks. Only a single thought remained in his mind: escape.

The others around him weren’t fools. The thought of escape had occurred to them even earlier than it had to him. Before he even shouted, some had already turned and fled, plunging into the darkness of the deeper forest.

ROAR! ROOOAR—!!!

Just then, from a distant hillside, a terrifying roar echoed throughout the entire mountain forest.

The sound was deep, thick, and hoarse, filled with the wild ferocity of a savage beast and the grim madness of a vengeful ghost. It slammed back and forth between the valleys, shaking snow from the dead branches and causing everyone’s Heart to pound violently.

The fleeing men couldn’t help but freeze, as if pinned in place by the roar. If they wanted to plunge deeper into the forest, they now had to seriously reconsider.

Even Chen Cheng’s perpetually calm, dark eyes flashed with a hint of surprise.

He immediately gave up the chase on these private soldiers of the Bai Family, instead striding toward the source of the sound. His figure moved like a clap of thunder, vanishing into the darkness in the blink of an eye.

"Fast... too fast... What is that guy? Is he a man or a ghost?"

The fleshy-faced leader gulped, his expression fluctuating wildly.

But, at that very moment, he seemed to sense something. He whipped his head around, and his already constricted pupils tightened even further, shrinking until they almost completely disappeared.