Chapter 233: The Unlucky Night of an Unlucky Man

The white-light Long Sword, tilting toward the man on the ground with a faint intent to strike, drew another segment from its Sword Sheath, posing an even more aggressive threat. The white light on the metal blade flickered bright and dim, appearing as if it were in a highly agitated state, seemingly ready to draw itself out at any moment without anyone holding it to kill the person who had broken into the room.

This made the man in the room exceptionally vigilant; he lowered his knees to drop his center of gravity, preparing to dodge quickly at any moment. With a flick of his fingers, his left hand drew a fine steel Dagger from the outside of his thigh, while his right hand carefully reached to his right waist, ready to pull out the smoke canister from the leather pouch at any time.

Although he did not know if this sort of vision-obscuring item would have any effect on these two terrifying, self-acting weapons.

Probably no effect, right?

His intuition told him so; those in this line of work often trusted their intuition deeply.

Although the white-light Long Sword looked eager to strike, the man was even more afraid of the other weapon: a Blue Axe floating in mid-air in the room.

After all, just looking at the might of this axe, he knew that if this weapon were to act, he would likely have no chance of survival.

"What to do, what to do, what to do..."

He kept thinking of ways to escape in his mind, but one after another, he rejected the possibilities he considered.

He knew clearly that the Light Leather Armor he wore, designed for stealth and scouting, could only block daggers or short knives; perhaps it had some resistance against the bites of guard dogs, but against things that clearly weren't ordinary weapons, it was basically impossible to withstand.

"It's over..."

This word flashed repeatedly in his mind, causing him to breathe rapidly while remaining motionless; sweat dripped down from the hair on his forehead, soaking a small corner of the fur rug by his feet after it fell.

But it was not as if there were no turning point.

Seeming to perceive that the intruder was of low strength and mentally collapsing, the axe emitting blue light retracted the blue glow blooming on its blade, then dropped from mid-air and leaned against a backed chair in the room.

The other white-light Long Sword, unfazed, drew another segment of its blade from the Sword Sheath, and the entire sword, along with its sheath, jumped forward half a meter with a "Bang!", closing in on the man even further.

Seeing that the most threatening and terrifying weapon was gone, the man regained his composure, took half a step back with slow, staggered movements, and kept a safe distance from the white-light Long Sword before him.

"Sorry, very sorry, truly very sorry."

Saying this, the man retreated slowly toward the direction of the room's balcony.

The white-light Long Sword drew another segment from its Sword Sheath and jumped toward the retreating man; it suddenly accelerated, pulled its tip entirely out of the Sword Sheath, and simultaneously, the white light on the blade contracted, causing the entire room to suddenly turn pitch black, leaving the man—who had taken a potion to negate night vision—unable to see anything.

He knew a fatal crisis had arrived; at this moment, he had to do something!

Following his intuition, the man immediately turned and ran, darting to the wooden balcony in two large strides, grabbing the balcony railing, and nimbly swinging his body to cling to the edge of the balcony, dropping from the third floor to the second floor of the inn.

The man nimbly, quickly, and lightly flipped from the third floor into an open wooden window on the second floor; his feet hit the floor, and with a roll, he hid beside a Warrior who was fast asleep on a wooden bed.

Outside the window, within the line of sight the man was staring at, half of a black-gray metal sword blade appeared from the balcony above on the third floor, but it quickly retracted, and at the same time, the sound of the balcony's wooden door closing softly followed.

"Hoo—hoo—hoo—saved."

The man took off the pitch-black hood he was wearing and wiped his hand against his hair; his hand was full of sweat.

It turned out that in just this short while, all the hair on his head had been soaked through by his sweat.

"Too close, I must leave quickly."

Muttering to himself, the man saw that the young Warriors around him were still sleeping soundly, not woken up by the commotion of him flipping in; although he knew it was temporarily safe here, he didn't even dare to look up at this moment, knowing that only a few meters above his head were two terrifying weapons that could take his life at any time.

Only after calming down a bit did he remember that this kind of weapon capable of acting and killing on its own seemed to be a rare thing known as a Spirit weapon.

Such Spirit weapons were very valuable, but the cost of possessing them was also very high; the holder needed to use the weapon to kill enemies from time to time, otherwise, the weapon's power would be greatly diminished, and if it were purchased rather than being the weapon's first holder, such a Spirit weapon would even rebel against its holder.

"Two Spirit weapons, humph, this Knight Jier is not simple either..."

It seemed that because the name Jier was mentioned in his self-muttering, the breathing of the young Warriors who were still fast asleep around him suddenly became light, and their eyelids twitched—a sign that they were about to wake up.

Although the man could not see the situation around him very clearly, his ears were the first to notice the absence of the Warriors' heavy breathing; knowing things were bad, he nimbly and quickly ran to the window and flipped out.

In the room, someone mumbled a few words, got up, and rubbed their eyes; seeing the room was pitch black as usual, they casually found their Water bottle, took a few large gulps of water, and then crawled back into the soft bed. With one person up drinking water, other Warriors in the same room also got up one after another; those who needed to pee did so in the chamber pot in the room, and others drank water.

On the other side, the man carefully retreated to the perimeter wall of the inn; although the scouting operation tonight ended halfway through, it was not without gains. He intended to just retreat and return to the Dahan Linli Red House Jiedian, but while squatting on top of the wall and looking back, he borrowed the sparse lighting of the backyard and seemed to not see the long-haired lynx Beast that had been lying there before?

Where did that stupid little thing go?

The man took out the night-vision potion he had specifically saved a sip of, drank it completely, and after a while, the effect of night vision reappeared on his body.

But perhaps because the anti-night-vision potion he had drunk earlier was still in his body, his current night-vision ability was flickering between strong and weak, very unstable.

Scanning the area a few times, he finally saw that long-haired lynx Beast next to the back door of the backyard, chattering something to the Human armored Warrior guarding the back door; the Human Warrior laughed and rubbed the head of the long-haired lynx Beast, then opened the back door to let it out.

Although he didn't know what the other party was doing, this was clearly a good opportunity for the man.

He didn't dare to break into Knight Jier's personal room, but he could clearly check these people's carriages.

After assessing the situation in the backyard, the man found the danger was not high. Although the Warrior guarding the entrance to the first floor of the inn stood in a place with an open view and had an Oil Lamp nearby providing illumination, in reality, there wasn't much this person could see.

This person could only see the area illuminated by the Oil Lamp; for the pitch-black areas that were not lit, or places where carriages blocked each other, they were quite helpless.

And the Warrior at the back door of the yard kept strictly to the key position of the back door and would not move about or look left and right, so the threat was not great.

As for the other armored Warrior who occasionally walked back and forth among the carriages, he looked like the biggest threat, but in fact, he was the easiest to avoid; after all, this person carried a windproof lantern, and wherever the person went, the light in their hand illuminated.

As long as one wasn't blind, one could avoid them in advance.

The truly troublesome things were the horses pulling the many carriages; these timid and cautious animals would make noise if one got even slightly close, so one had to keep a certain safe distance from them.

Feeling the risk was not high and that everything was a controllable situation, the man did not return to his lair, but jumped off the wall and, using the cover of shadows, avoided the various horses packed tightly in the stables and slipped into the carriages that were close to each other.

His movements were light, and his walking made no footsteps that an ordinary person could hear; the surroundings were filled with carriages blocking the view, and the patrolling Warrior seemed to have finished his patrol and was chatting about something with his companion guarding the back door.

After entering the group of carriages, the man straightened his back and silently checked the various things being transported on these carriages.

He had seen it from the wall just now: that patrolling Warrior would specifically circle a carriage with a wooden roof every time he guarded and patrolled, and would even linger for a while at the back of that carriage's cabin.

Although he didn't understand what was special about that small carriage, it was clearly special since the patrolling Warrior specifically had to circle it every time.

"Let me go over and take a look."

The man thought to himself; he lowered his body and carefully crawled under the carriages on all fours, as this was the fastest way and would not cause any noise that would be discovered by the guards.

By the time he stood up again, he had already arrived in front of this small carriage with a roof.

Compared to the other carriages in the backyard, this carriage was much smaller; the cabin could hold at most two people lying down. At the same time, the frame was not sturdy enough to carry much cargo or heavy objects, and it didn't seem very strong, as if it couldn't hold anything valuable.

"Nothing special, huh." The man muttered to himself in a low voice in his throat.

But unexpectedly, this light mutter caught the attention of something behind the carriage cabin, which made a clattering sound.

This scared the man terribly; he immediately looked up at the balcony of the middle room on the third floor of the inn, fearing that a white-glowing Long Sword or an even more terrifying Blue Axe would fly from that direction.

But fortunately, neither did.

The noise came from outside the rear carriage of this wagon. The man drew his Dagger, lowered his posture, and cautiously circled around step by step. The many areas obscured by the numerous wagons were pitch black, but the man had temporarily consumed his last drop of night-vision potion, which allowed him to barely see the surrounding situation. Although the night-vision ability fluctuated in strength, the effect was still quite potent.

He carefully extended a small Scout mirror into the pitch-black darkness and, by way of reflection, discovered that there was nothing special outside the rear carriage except for a cage.

When he walked out and took a closer look, he discovered that a rather large, fluffy fox was coiled up inside the cage!

Because he was in night-vision mode, the man could not accurately judge what color the fox's fur was, but he could still tell that this little beast seemed to be well cared for; it was plump and had thick fur.

Its ears twitched, and its wet nose tip seemed to have sniffed something. The fox climbed up inside the cage and caught sight of the strange man standing right in front of it.

The man immediately raised a finger and whispered a "shh" at the fox, which was clearly being kept as a pet. Fortunately, this little beast did not seem to fear humans; it did not bark randomly upon seeing him, but instead stared at the man with burning eyes.

"Don't make a sound. Yes, just stay quiet like that."

The man looked at the calm fox and finally understood why the patrolling Warriors always lingered here for a while; it turned out they were just coming over to look at this fluffy little animal every time.

He had thought there was something special here, but it was just this?

It stood to reason that patrolling and standing guard in the middle of the night was a very boring task, and the man expressed his understanding of this.

Subconsciously, the man felt that since the caravan's Warriors could all look at the fox in the cage during their patrols, this little thing shouldn't be too dangerous. So, he reached out his right hand through the wooden cage and used his fingers to stroke the fur on the fox's body.

The fox was emotionally stable and seemed accustomed to being stroked by Humans, so it did not avoid the man's actions but instead squinted its eyes comfortably, letting the man use his fingers to groom the fur on its body.

"It really feels comfortable to touch. No wonder they went to the trouble of finding a cage to keep you," the man said in a low voice to the fox in the cage, his tone filled with a smile.

But it was unclear what part of this sentence angered the fox; the creature suddenly turned its head and bit down on one of the man's fingers. It didn't use force; it just gave a light nip.

The man was about to subconsciously pull his hand back, but he soon realized this was the fox playing with him, so a smile appeared on his face as well.

But his smile vanished the next moment, because his right index finger, with a crisp "crack," was actually bitten clean off in one go by the fox in the cage! Intense pain struck instantly; if the man hadn't undergone special pain-tolerance training, he would have screamed out loud right then and there.

Even so, he was stunned by the intense pain and the sudden attack. He looked at the fox in the cage in disbelief; the fox that had looked so cute and quiet just a moment ago now seemed like a completely different creature!

A strange, satisfied smile appeared on its face. The fox's eyes widened, reflecting the sparse light around them—round and bright, but devoid of any emotion. Looking at the man outside the cage, it didn't feel like it was the one in the cage, but rather that the man was the one trapped inside.

The man wanted to pull his right hand out, but the fox in the cage simply pressed down with one paw, and the immense force made it impossible for the man to withdraw his right palm. Then, the man saw sharp claws extend from the fox's paw, and, defying all logic, they grew larger and sharper, piercing directly through the man's right hand.

Intense pain radiated from his right hand. The man's left hand, holding the Dagger, stabbed directly at this strange fox in the cage, but the creature didn't dodge at all, letting the man's Dagger pierce through its chest. The man even twisted his left hand. Logically speaking, a fox of this size should have died from just this, or if not dead, it should have been lying in the cage, wailing in pain.

But the fox didn't even move; it just looked at the man outside the cage with those emotionless eyes.

It was as if the man were the prey, and the fox in the cage was the true Hunter.

The man felt that everything was wrong now. He gasped in panic, wanting to call out but not daring to, fearing he would be caught by the armored Warriors of the caravan and hacked to death. After all, he was still carrying the dozen stolen Gold Coins on him.

If he were caught by the Warriors, these Gold Coins alone would be enough to enrage these Warriors who had lost their money and cause them to kill him cruelly.

So the man didn't say a word; he just wanted to pull out his left hand that was holding the Dagger, but he tried and tried, and no matter what, he couldn't pull it out!

It wasn't just the Dagger; he suddenly discovered that his left hand had also strangely sunk into the fox's entire chest and could not be pulled out at all!

"Hhh—hhh—hhh—hhh—"

The man shook his arm, but not only was he unable to free his hand, his left arm was even strangely sinking into the fox's body—no, it was as if it were being devoured.

"You—hhh, what kind of—Monster are you!" the man whispered, cursing.

It seemed his cursing had an effect. The fox's head leaned forward and, strangely, poked out from the cage, as if the cage made of sturdy wood didn't exist at all.

"What kind of Monster am I? Hehehehe, you'll know soon enough."

The fox spoke!

This was the man's final thought, because the next moment, the fox defied all logic and opened its mouth, and with a mouth larger than the man's head, it swallowed the man's entire head in one bite.

?? I'm back. Sorry for not updating these past few days. Starting tomorrow, I will post two chapters a day, hoping to make up for some of the ones missed this month.