Chapter 423: Night Thief (4/5, Autumn Subscription)

"Lord Han..."

"It's a knockout drug. There's something wrong with Dedao Village."

For a knockout drug to work, someone usually has to be nearby, lighting the incense.

Lord Han had clearly thought of this too, and gave Fang Yue a look toward the tent flap.

Fang Yue's gaze shifted to the tent entrance.

One look was enough to give him a fright.

He saw a dark shadow, behind the tent's curtain, lifting up an unconscious person and slitting their throat on the spot!

The unconscious person, like a slaughtered chicken or duck, bled all over the tent. The blood loss was massive — there was no saving them.

His face darkened, and Fang Yue charged straight out.

The instant that dark shadow pulled back the tent curtain, Fang Yue's hand shot straight through the curtain and locked precisely onto the shadow's neck.

"Mmph—?!"

The shadow seemed terrified, thrashing wildly, but its neck was clamped so tightly by Fang Yue that it couldn't even draw a breath.

Only then did Fang Yue notice that this dark shadow was none other than the fat guard who had been standing watch at the gate earlier!

"Speak! Why did you kill my men!"

Staring at the team member on the ground — neck gushing blood, already dead — Fang Yue demanded in a dark voice.

"Mmph—!"

The fat guard desperately tried to pry Fang Yue's hand off.

Seeing this, Fang Yue gave him just a sliver of room to breathe.

But the moment the fat guard could speak, he immediately screamed out.

"A Cai! There's a loose fish! A loose fish!!"

His voice was extremely loud, carrying into Dedao Village.

As for their own people inside the tent, they were all still unconscious from the knockout drug.

"Shut up!"

Fang Yue slapped the guy unconscious with one palm.

Looking around, there were two pools of blood at the tent entrance.

One pool was from the team member the fat guard had just slit the throat of — the one on lookout duty on Fang Yue's side.

The other pool should have been from another team member, but his corpse was nowhere to be seen — only a trail of dragged blood on the ground.

The direction of the drag led straight into Deyun Cun.

His expression darkened. Fang Yue knew Lord Han was right — Deyun Cun definitely had a problem!

After a moment's hesitation, Fang Yue didn't rush into the village, but instead returned to the tent.

Inside, Lord Han had somehow already dropped down from the table and was bumping Lin Ling with his head, trying to wake him.

"Lord Han, is there any way to wake them up?"

"Hard to say. This is a knockout drug that even got Lin Ling — though part of the reason is that Lin Ling's body is badly injured. But without a doubt, this kind of drug can knock out even martial artists.

Still, the stronger someone is, the weaker the drug's effect. The strongest in the team is Lin Ling, then Wu Wu. Lin Ling's body hasn't recovered, so he couldn't resist the drug. We'll have to try waking Wu Wu first."

"How do I wake her?"

Fang Yue asked quickly — he was still in a rush to chase down and kill the other thin guard. If he weren't worried about Lin Ling and the others' safety, he would have charged over long ago.

"Slap her face. Pain is the best wake-up call!"

Fang Yue:...

L-Lord Han told me to hit her, not me on my own.

Silently moving to Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's side, Fang Yue slapped her across the face with a sharp *pa*, knocking her sleeping posture from lying on her left side all the way over to her right.

A bright red palm print bloomed on Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's cute little face.

"Still not awake?"

Fang Yue was a little frustrated. Finally, under Lord Han's encouraging gaze...

*Pa!! *

Another palm strike, sending Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu tumbling right off the bed, rolling twice before stopping.

That crisp slap sounded painful even to Fang Yue's ears — surely Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu had to wake up now?

If she still didn't wake, then Lord Han's method had to be the problem.

Because Fang Yue suspected that two more slaps from him and Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu would be slapped to death on the spot.

"Mm..."

Just as Fang Yue was debating whether to put in a little more effort, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu finally let out a dazed little sound.

"Wu Wu! Wake up!"

Fang Yue hurriedly shook her a few times. Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu slowly opened her hazy eyes, yawned, and said: "Ye Ge? Is it morning? I don't have class today..."

"Who cares if you have class — snap out of it, we're still in the game!"

"The game... ah! Right, I was sleeping in the game, so why was I woken up? Wait, wait! Ow ow ow ow ow!!!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu seemed to suddenly realize what had happened, clutching both of her swollen cheeks, eyes brimming with tears.

"Y-Ye Ge, what happened to me? Was I Possessed? Was I attacked by something?"

"Uh... yeah, but don't worry, the thing's already been killed by me. The injuries on your face just need some time to heal."

"Oh! Oh oh! Ye Ge protected me!!"

Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu's cheeks were swollen on both sides as if stung by hornets, but she still spoke excitedly, though she kept hissing in pain every now and then, making it painfully clear just how much it hurt.

"R-right, what's the situation now? If Ye Ge already drove the thing off, why did you wake me up?"

Only now did Fang Yue remember the real business at hand, and he hurriedly told Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu about the Deyun Cun Guard Team's attack on them.

"There's such a thing?! How despicable! Not letting us into the village is one thing, but they actually want to kill us — are they trying to act with complete impunity?!"

Lord Han frowned at this point and said, "No… I suspect those two people aren't from Deyun Cun, but are Night Thieves!"

"Night Thieves?"

Fang Yue was stunned for a moment — this was the first time he had ever heard the term.

However, with Lord Han's explanation, he quickly learned what Night Thieves did.

The so-called Night Thieves were bandits, robbers, and brigands who lived by plundering the resources of other villages.

They did not rely on Di He to survive.

They lived by looting passersby for supplies, horses, Human Soul Lanterns, and other resources, drifting about outside in guerrilla fashion.

Their targets were mostly lone travelers or small groups with few members, whom they would rob and slaughter.

Once the resources were plundered, they would immediately leave, giving the Qing Si and Guard Teams no chance to strike back.

Because of their high mobility, catching them was no easy task.

Today they might be at Gu Yue Cun, tomorrow they could have run off to Man Shui Cun.

That kind was still manageable — having a village as a target allowed their movements to be tracked.

But some of the more ruthless Night Thieves would fire a shot, then hide out in the wilderness without showing their faces — those were the real headache.

It was bad enough that their whereabouts couldn't be found, but they were also especially dangerous.

The danger of the Night Thieves, added to the danger of the wilderness, and the threat of the uncanny.

Under these threefold threats, basically no one was willing to actively go looking for trouble with the Night Thieves.

However, a band of bandits without Di He protection rarely lasted long out in the wild — usually after a period of activity, they would vanish without a trace, dying in some unknown corner of the wilderness.

Moreover, these people were basically fugitives wanted by the Qing Si and the Qing Guo — capable, ruthless, and utterly without scruples! Dealing with them was also troublesome, requiring massive amounts of manpower and resources to grind them down.

Therefore, these Night Thieves were despised by everyone, yet catching them was infuriatingly difficult.

(End of this chapter)