Chapter 117 - 112: Moon Obscured by Clouds

The bandits, blind in the darkness and panicked, heard Xu Mabang’s shout and immediately flocked to the sound of his voice.

Xu Mabang, Wang Mazi, Yang Dan, and Liu Huaying stood shoulder to shoulder, staring intently at the figures running toward them.

With their vision, they could barely make out the shapes of the men, but their faces were impossible to distinguish.

"Stop! Don’t move! What’s your name?"

Xu Mabang raised his iron rod, pointed at a large bandit, and barked the order.

"Sun Erlong," the bandit replied hastily.

"Get to the back!" Xu Mabang said, gesturing with his iron rod.

The bandit named Sun Erlong breathed a sigh of relief. He had just taken two steps when a sharp pain shot through the back of his head. His body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

Behind him, another dark figure had appeared.

Xu Mabang and the others were first startled, then enraged. They charged toward the dark figure in unison.

Zhao Lin scoffed. With a sway of his shoulders and a sliding turn, he blocked two bandits. His iron ruler shot out, piercing one man’s chest. He then threw a punch, turning the other man’s face into a bloody mess.

His movements were ghostly, as fast as lightning. He cut through the bandits, leaving them screaming for their mothers.

Xu Mabang and the others gave chase, but they couldn’t even touch the corner of his clothes. They howled in frustration. "You bastard Zhao! If you have any guts, fight us like a man, fair and square!"

"Fair and square? You... think you’re worthy?"

With every word Zhao Lin spoke, a bandit’s scream echoed in the night. By the time he finished his last word, he had already circled behind the leaders and resumed his hunt for the remaining bandits.

Hearing his men fall one by one, Xu Mabang was filled with extreme fury. He drew his saber and flung it toward the sounds, only to hear a scream of "AHH!"—unmistakably the voice of one of his own men.

He finally understood: in the dead of night, Zhao Lin held all the advantages.

Just then, the situation changed dramatically. The dark cloud obscuring the moon drifted past, and moonlight returned, casting a cool glow over the land.

The four leaders were overjoyed and quickly looked around. They saw nearly twenty bodies lying scattered on the ground. Only a dozen or so of their men were left, standing back-to-back in small circles, swinging their blades wildly at the darkness.

Zhao Lin stood a short distance away, his gaze cold.

Xu Mabang looked up at the sky and saw another cloud drifting toward the moon. He made a snap decision. "Let’s go! Now!"

While the moonlight lasted, he led the remaining men in a mad dash for the old elm forest behind the hill.

Zhao Lin had already scouted the surrounding terrain and guessed their plan. He wasn’t in a hurry, merely circling them, waiting for an opportunity.

Whenever a bandit exposed an opening, he would strike without warning.

He deliberately avoided killing them instantly, instead making them scream to build an atmosphere of terror.

Hearing the screams, the bandits were like startled birds. Some even slipped and stumbled to the ground, adding another soul to Zhao Lin’s kill count.

Within a few minutes, the surviving bandits had fled into the forest.

Xu Mabang and the others didn’t dare to pause. They moved quickly through the dark woods, turning a deaf ear to the screams coming from behind them.

He had no time to worry about the lives of his subordinates. His concern wasn’t saving his men, but saving his own skin.

Wang Mazi, Liu Huaying, and Yang Dan all had the same thought, silently following close by his side.

After running for what felt like an eternity, the four of them reached the edge of the forest.

"What the hell is this place?"

Wang Mazi glanced out of the woods. The pale moonlight illuminated a hillside he had never seen before.

They had deliberately avoided running in a straight line to prevent Zhao Lin from cutting them off. Besides, it was impossible to get one’s bearings in the forest, so they had no idea where they had ended up.

Liu Huaying knelt and pressed his ear to the ground for a moment. Hearing nothing, he stood up. "I’ve been here before. We’re east of Fuli Valley. It’ll take less than four hours to get back."

Hearing this, Yang Dan asked Xu Mabang, "Second-in-Command, should we leave the forest or not?"

Xu Mabang mulled it over before slowly shaking his head. "You all saw it earlier. That kid is freakishly skilled. He can see in the dark, and it doesn’t affect his movements at all."

"What if he’s waiting to ambush us up ahead? Wouldn’t we be walking right into a trap? We should wait until dawn. With our combined skills, we won’t have to fear him in the daylight!"

Wang Mazi was skeptical. "Boss, you suspect that kid is waiting for us outside? Isn’t that a bit too much?"

Xu Mabang spat. "SPIT! Fuck, the guy can fly! How is that not ’too much’?"

The other three men’s expressions changed at his words. They had all seen it with their own eyes back at the lake: Zhao Lin flying over their heads, circling and maneuvering in the air.

It seemed impossible, but it had happened.

’Is this kid a man or a ghost?’

"Who’s there!"

Xu Mabang suddenly raised his iron rod, pointing toward a certain spot in the woods as he roared.

"Your ears are sharp, Second-in-Command!"

As the voice rang out, Zhao Lin strolled out from behind a large tree.

He had just finished off the last of the small-fry bandits along the way and had been following the four leaders from a distance.

The reason he hadn’t attacked immediately was that he’d discovered the dense vegetation in the forest was causing significant interference with his echolocation.

The old elm forest was filled not only with leafy elm trees but also with low shrubs and weeds that grew half as tall as a man.

If he were only mapping a small area, he could accurately outline the shape of an object.

But the forest was a complex environment, and the bandits could be hiding anywhere. This forced him to emit ultrasound waves in all directions, leaving no blind spots.

After the first ultrasound wave returned, he could confirm the presence of an object but couldn’t be certain if it was a person or a tree.

Only after receiving the second wave could he confirm a moving person, provided the object’s position had changed.

If the position remained unchanged, it could be a tree, or it could be a person standing perfectly still.

This created a delay in his judgment, making his senses far less clear and accurate than they were in open areas. It actually negated his advantage.

It was precisely because of this that Zhao Lin had decided to wait for the four men to leave the forest before making his move.

But to his surprise, Xu Mabang had inadvertently seen through his plan and was preparing to wait in the forest until dawn.

He had no choice but to change his strategy and move in for a sneak attack.

But Xu Mabang’s cultivation was, after all, two realms higher, and he had sensed Zhao Lin’s approach. So, Zhao Lin simply revealed himself.

Zhao Lin’s voice was calm and gentle, but to Wang Mazi and the others, it was like a clap of thunder. Shocked, they all scrambled closer to Xu Mabang.

Wang Mazi stared into the pitch-black forest and took a deep breath, feeling the hand gripping his saber tremble slightly.

"Boss, looks like this kid is hell-bent on finishing us off. Do we fight him here, or do we make a break for it?"

Xu Mabang stared in Zhao Lin’s direction, his mind racing.

’Zhao Lin has been following us, but he hasn’t been in a rush to attack. That seems to suggest the forest isn’t an ideal battleground for him.’

’But why? Can’t he see in the dark?’

’Does it not work in the forest?’

Although Xu Mabang couldn’t figure out the reason, he understood one simple principle: never let your enemy get what they want!

’Since Zhao Lin chose not to fight in the forest, then we must not leave it. The moonlight outside is dim, and it might get covered by clouds again...’

With this thought, Xu Mabang’s voice grew heavy. "We fight him here! This is a battle to the death. I refuse to believe the four of us can’t take down one man!"