Chapter 77: The Second Master and the Bronze Bell

The Second Master is not a hunter; he is a fifty-year-old man with a scholarly air.

Judging by his appearance and temperament, he is more like a schoolteacher or an accountant than a leader of hunters.

Ever since he joined the group, he has helped the hunters tally goods and calculate income and expenses, causing the earnings of Pan Laoda's gang to multiply several times over.

Even the good idea of defecting to Cloud-Touching Stronghold came from him.

Although the hunters are rough men, they hold the Second Master in great awe and respect.

This is because the Second Master is also a rare expert in internal force, with strength even above that of Pan Laoda.

Why such an outstanding figure would lower himself to be with a group of hunters is a mystery.

The Shan Shen Miao at dusk...

The Second Master carries a satchel on his left shoulder and returns travel-worn; several wild dogs dash past him, their eyes red as they fight to tear at a severed arm in their mouths.

Looking at the flat ground beside the Shan Shen Miao, the soil is turned over, and large pits have been dug, with fragmented corpses buried inside.

He nods, and before even entering the door, he shouts, "Someone breathing, come answer me."

A hunter with his head wrapped in white cloth rushes over, "Second Master, you've finally returned."

Inside the Shan Shen Miao, it is filled with corpses and the wounded, with wailing sounds constant.

There are only 7 or 8 complete, living people left who can stand; they don't even add up to two handfuls.

"Where is Pan Laoda?"

The Second Master thinks to himself that they must have encountered a formidable enemy to have been beaten so miserably, with only these few left out of over a hundred.

Just as he is thinking, a hunter brings a basin to him, "Pan Laoda is right here."

The ceramic basin is filled with lime, pickling Pan Laoda's shriveled head; fortunately, it was dehydrated in time and has not yet begun to stink.

Pan Laoda is dead too! This hunter leader was fierce, cruel, and fearless of death, suppressing over a hundred hunters; his strength was not ordinary.

The Second Master takes a deep breath, "How many of you are left?"

How would I know that?

Several hunters look at each other, and some even count on their fingers in front of him.

"Forget it, forget it, tell me what happened?"

The Second Master rubs his temples; a bunch of roughnecks who only know how to drink and play with women, their brains are empty.

It turns out that Wang Jianxiong sent people to negotiate, they disagreed and started fighting, killing dozens on the spot and twisting off Pan Laoda's head.

"Could it be a Blood-Qi martial artist? Did the other party report their names?"

The Second Master feels a bit uneasy; although he is an expert proficient in internal force, he is not an opponent at the Blood-Qi level.

If those who came were Inner Court Disciples, he would have to abandon the Shan Shen Miao and defect to Cloud-Touching Stronghold.

"No, we know all the named Blood-Qi martial artists in the martial arts school; the ones who came were just two green-faced kids with unfamiliar faces."

"Pan Laoda was just careless; he wanted to get close to them, and as a result, he was killed when they got close and twisted his head off."

If Pan Laoda was just careless, then what about these corpses and wounded in the temple?

To kill or injure dozens of hunters in one go—this kind of long-lasting and tenacious power is not something an ordinary internal force martial artist can achieve.

Regarding this question, the hunters drag a few wounded men from the ground to answer.

There is no choice; all those with complete limbs who can stand and walk are those who have not met Zhou You and his companion.

All those who have faced them and fought are either injured or simply dead.

"Two little brats, calling each other Zhou You and Li Hao; the one named Zhou You is the most ruthless and fierce."

"He looks like a novice and has no experience walking in the mountains, so the brothers soon tracked his movements, launching sneak attacks with hidden arrows, setting traps, and driving wild beasts to exhaust their stamina." Hmm, this is a common method for hunters, standard and proper.

The Second Master nods upon hearing this; not bad, the mountains are the hunters' home turf, and there are many methods that can be used.

"At first we had the upper hand, but the kid is wicked; he learns ten times the skill for every loss he takes, and soon it didn't work on him anymore."

"Two days ago, he turned around and threw a hornet's nest, stinging two or three brothers to death, and while we were in a panic, he killed his way out... ugh, they are all dead; I lost my footing on the mountain path and rolled into a pile of withered grass to survive."

The wounded man has a broken arm, half his face is sunken, his whole body is swollen, and his speech is intermittent.

He describes the scene at the time, his eyes flickering; he is clearly terrified to the extreme.

The Second Master listens patiently until he finishes and asks a few more details.

It is very clear that Zhou You has recently been active in the vicinity, fighting a guerrilla war with the hunters.

The hunters were originally familiar with the terrain, climbing and trekking as if on flat ground, but this advantage did not last long.

Zhou You learned and improved quickly, turning the tables to use the terrain to fight many with few, constantly eliminating the hunters' manpower.

"Second Master, he has eyes all over his body; no matter how the brothers ambush him, it can't be hidden from him!"

"On steep slopes, he uses both hands and feet, grabbing protruding rocks to leap like a bird; in the blink of an eye he disappears, and in the next, he appears behind us, grabbing brothers and throwing them into the valley."

The more the wounded man speaks, the more terrified he becomes; he can no longer stand steadily, stumbling and sitting on the ground, unable to get up again.

The sky is already dark, and hunters return one after another, a few scattered individuals, all looking injured and battered, every one of them in a sorry state.

Some even bluntly shout, "We can't go anymore; I barely saved my life today."

After the returning hunters enter the temple, they sit in the corner and close their eyes, as if they were dead.

The Second Master scans the area; roughly counting, there are fewer than 30 who can still breathe.

Over a hundred hunters have been beaten into this state, with less than thirty percent of their manpower left; they are already finished.

"This youth has already practiced the essence of the Tiger Form into his physical instincts; fighting in the mountains is like walking on flat ground for him, you are no match."

No matter how powerful a hunter is, they are still within the realm of humans, but if the Tiger-Subduing Fist is practiced to a high level, one becomes a human-shaped fierce tiger, roaring in the mountains as the king.

The Second Master stretches his limbs, "Now, only I can go out myself."

"After the deed is done, Wang Laohu will surely come to hold us accountable; we cannot stay here anymore, we are going to Jietian Ling to Cloud-Touching Stronghold."

The hunters cheer upon hearing this; this is what they have been holding on for until now.

Working hard at hunting, sleeping in the open—how can that be as comfortable and satisfying as being a mountain king, eating meat and drinking wine? "However, to defect to the stronghold, one must have a 'tribute of blood'."

The Second Master stretched out his slender palm, signaling the hunters to step aside, and strode to the stone bell in the center of the Shan Shen Miao.

His gaze swept over the surface of the stone bell, and he exhaled softly.

The next moment, his palm slapped the surface of the stone bell, the force penetrating the stone shell and drilling into the interior, producing a crisp clashing sound.

Clatter, a two-finger-thick stone shell peeled off, and a bronze-colored beam of light rose up.

The hunters watched, dumbfounded; they had occupied the Shan Shen Miao for a long time and had all assumed this was a large bell carved from stone.

They had not expected that the stone shell was merely a layer of concealment, with a massive Bronze Bell Zang inside.

Calculating by the volume of the large bell, the Bronze Bell Zang inside weighed at least 70,000 to 80,000 catties.

70,000 to 80,000 catties of high-quality purple copper—this was a massive fortune.

Gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin are collectively known as the Five Metals, the reason being that these five metals are synonymous with wealth.

Copper can be used to mint coins and forge weapons, and purple copper that has been refined is especially solid, hard currency.

Taking this as a pledge of loyalty to Cloud-Touching Stronghold would at least be enough to trade for a seat as a leader, living in luxury! The Outer Mountain shrouded in night was exceptionally quiet, with occasional insect chirps and beast roars, followed by a long, deathly silence after they suddenly ceased.

(End of this chapter)