Chapter 146: Crushing the Ant Nest

Chapter 146: Crushing the Ant Nest

The sunlight outlined this woman in a golden halo.

Xianjin thought for a moment that her eyes were failing her, squatting on the ground and rubbing them vigorously.

Indeed.

This woman was indeed surrounded by a golden glow.

The woman, with a cold gaze, looked down at the dung beetle squatting on the ground, lifted her delicate chin, and the two dark brown stallions beside her neighed and reared up. In just a few moments, they reached Xianjin's side. One of the men with a beard bent down, his accent indistinguishable, "Forgive us!"

With those words, Xianjin's arms were grabbed from behind, and her world spun.

A dung beetle soared into the air, carried away by the stallion to a place far from the swords and blades.

The dung beetle came to its senses and shouted, "The mule cart! There are three girls in the mule cart!"

The bearded man waved dismissively, acknowledging the information, and upon checking the mule cart, he found three women inside. However, one of them could hardly be called a girl...

The bearded man settled the mule cart and then plunged back into battle.

To be precise, it wasn't a battle.

It was a slaughter.

A one-sided slaughter.

Four people charged and scattered the remaining seven or eight bald men.

After scattering them, it became a hunt!

The riders acted with precision and ruthlessness, striking swiftly and aiming for the throat, each blow ending a life. The cold glint of their blades brought forth spurts of blood and lives that should have ended long ago. The hooves trampled the ground, searching for any survivors to finish off.

A strip of light blue silk lay on the ground, trembling amidst the blood and hooves.

The hooves were about to step on him!

Xianjin gritted her teeth, rushed over in a few strides, and pushed Chen Fu aside, only to collide with a small bald man covered in blood who still had a breath left.

The small bald man, half-paralyzed on the ground and barely alive, reflexively raised his knife and swung at Xianjin.

A flash of white light crossed Xianjin's mind, and without thinking, she instinctively pulled out a dagger from a nearby corpse and thrust it fiercely into the small bald man's left chest!

"Clang!"

The sound of the small bald man's knife hitting the ground.

Warm blood splattered across Xianjin's face!

In a daze, she subconsciously licked the blood from her lips.

It tasted metallic and warm.

Chen Fu, trembling and limping, pulled Xianjin up and hid her behind him, his voice hoarse like a broken sieve, "Don't... don't look... close... close your eyes..."

Xianjin stood there, frozen like a log.

She... she had just stabbed someone...

And killed them...

Xianjin swallowed hard, looking down at her bloodied hands, watching the blood drip along the lines of her palm.

Chen Fu, nearly in tears, pleaded, "Don't look! It's dirty! Jinjie!"

Xianjin's head buzzed, as if a hood had covered her head, ears, and mouth, leaving only her red-rimmed eyes. Chen Fu's voice sounded distant, like insects crawling around the edges of her ears, unable to penetrate the barrier.

"Well done."

Suddenly, it was as if Buddha's voice filled her ears, clearing the chaos, making everything crystal clear.

Xianjin struggled to lift her head.

The woman dismounted and stood before her, arms crossed, looking down at her.

"Well done," the woman repeated, her tone concise and sharp. "The human heart is in the left chest. It's better to stab it once cleanly than to stab aimlessly many times."

She demonstrated with her knife, "Or you can slit the throat, but control your strength. Too little force, and the head drags; too much, and it flies off like a ball, which isn't pretty either."

Xianjin's eyes welled up: Sister, can I please have a moment to recover? Can we postpone the one-on-one murder tutorial?

As the woman approached, Xianjin saw her face clearly—very regal, yes, regal.

Her forehead was full, her jaw square, and her slightly tanned skin gave her a healthy glow. Her eyes were slightly slanted, large and long, her nose straight, and her chin small and round, adding to her commanding presence.

She appeared to be between twenty-five and thirty-five years old. Forgive the vague range—her face showed no wrinkles, but her eyes held a firmness and detachment not seen in young women.

"I imagine this is your first time killing someone, yet you did well," the woman said, seeing Xianjin's pale face and cold sweat, and smiled. "It doesn't count as killing. That dead monk would have died anyway, so it wasn't really your doing."

Xianjin opened her mouth but couldn't speak. The extreme fear and discomfort from killing and seeing blood mysteriously dissipated.

The woman glanced around, and the two bearded men turned to clean up the battlefield.

Thirteen monks and bandits all met their end.

Zhou Ergou was slashed once on his waist and once on his leg; the eldest of the Zheng family had his right arm cut to the bone, while the second son, being the slimmest, managed to stay at the rear without getting injured; Lu Badan had blood on him, with a long scar across his face, making it look gruesome.

Li Sanshun escaped without any cuts, but he stumbled when jumping off the mule cart, ignoring his swollen head as he turned to embrace the six-zhang Xuancheng paper.

Chen Fu suffered more psychological damage than physical, trembling uncontably, his lips quivering too much to speak.

Baozhu, Suo'er, and Mama Zhang all had red, swollen eyes.

"… Where is the nearest medical hall?" the woman scanned Li Sanshun holding the six-zhang paper, her voice low, "Your worker needs immediate medical attention."

Chen Fu tried several times to speak but could not produce a sound.

Xianjin swallowed hard, then said repeatedly, "In Jing County! But there's a temple on the mountain called Baochanduo Temple. Though it’s called a temple, it’s actually where bandits camp. These monks came from there—I heard that bandits don’t act alone. Once they lose contact with their brothers in the mountains, they send people out to search."

In other words, dealing with these dozen or so monks wasn't an issue, but if the main force arrived, even with the skilled bearded man, it would be like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water.

Xianjin's mind gradually cleared, "We have two options now: go back to Jing County, or set off immediately for Xuancheng. Both routes take over two hours. I suggest going back to Jing County. We came from there, so even if the return route is unfamiliar, we can recall our journey here. If we go to Xuancheng, it’s a completely new path, and we might get lost in the mountains."

The woman turned her gaze to look behind her.

The bearded man behind her gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"Are you merchants who make paper in Jing County?" the woman asked softly.

Xianjin nodded, introducing herself, "We are workers from Chen's paper mill in Xuancheng. This is the third son of Chen's. Thank you, Sister… Thank you, Heroine, for saving our lives!"

The woman casually raised her hand, pressing it down, noticing the young girl covered in blood spots, clearly terrified but still speaking clearly and logically, and smiled, "There’s a third option."

Xianjin looked up to see.

"Attack the bandit camp—the camp must have medicine and doctors. That’s the closest medical hall to us." The woman's hair tied high, as if discussing how to crush an ant nest with one step.