SHINK. SHINK. Two stabs.
The man writhing on the ground was finished off instantly.
After delivering the finishing blows, Tang Wen calmly gave chase.
The two men from before were fast, but it was impossible to run at full speed in this jungle.
And Tang Wen was much faster than both of them.
He ran like a swift cheetah, and within a few breaths, the two were in range.
WHOOSH. WHOOSH.
"Ah!"
The stones he threw struck them right in the back of their knees.
Their legs gave out, and they crashed to the ground with a THUD, tumbling a good distance away.
"Who sent you to your deaths? Take me to him!"
Before Tang Wen had even finished speaking, the man with the knife suddenly sprang up and killed his own underling with a single slash.
Tang Wen: 'What kind of move is this?'
Before Tang Wen could say anything, the man turned, knelt, and held the knife up with both hands. The series of actions was flawlessly executed. "Spare me, my lord! I'm willing to take you to him!"
Tang Wen remained expressionless, but he scoffed inwardly: 'You're quite practiced at this.'
"Stick the knife in the ground!"
"O-okay."
Tang Wen walked over, took out a rope, and tied the man's hands behind his back.
After retrieving his own back-basket, Tang Wen tossed the man's knife into it and made him carry it on his back.
"Lead the way."
"O-okay, but, my lord, we can't go back the way we came."
"Why? Does he have more men with him, or a Bow and Arrow? You'd better be straight with me! I guarantee that if anything unexpected happens, you'll be the first to die!"
"I wouldn't dare lie, I wouldn't dare! It's just that the man has a Thousand-Mile Telescope. He can see for a great distance. If we go out there like this, I'm afraid he'll run..."
"A Thousand-Mile Telescope? Fine. We'll do it your way."
The man had expected he would have to explain what a Thousand-Mile Telescope was.
He never thought Tang Wen would believe him so readily. He opened his mouth, but the words wouldn't come out.
"Walk faster!"
The two of them circled wide through the woods. By the time they neared the target, it was already past noon.
"That's him."
'Who the hell is that?'
Tang Wen stared at the back of the figure sitting by the roadside, having no memory of ever offending such a person.
He tied the guide's legs as well, then cut a strip from his clothes and gagged him.
Once that was done, Tang Wen slowly approached his target.
THWACK!
The back of the blade slammed into the man's neck. He swayed for a moment before crumpling to the ground.
'Hmm, I probably didn't use too much force this time.'
'This face?'
Tang Wen studied the man's face carefully and finally remembered that they had met once before.
'At the blacksmith's? Was this the person Li Daniu warned me to watch out for?'
'Why would he come after me?'
The man wasn't tall, but the back-basket sitting beside him was.
Tang Wen tied him up, stuffed him directly into the back-basket, and carried him away.
...
SPLASH!
A bamboo tube of water splashed onto Hooked Nose's face. He slowly regained consciousness, the back of his neck aching as if it were about to break.
He reached up to touch his neck, only to find he was tied up.
"What's going on? Guard, Guard! Help me, help... I-it's you?!"
He saw Tang Wen and realized this was the little brat he had hired men to take care of! He started yelling for help even louder.
Tang Wen didn't stop him. His face was devoid of expression as he let the man shout.
They were deep in the jungle, by a pool of water far from the camp.
The camp's Guards would never patrol this far out.
"A misunderstanding, this is definitely a misunderstanding! It must be those Scavengers framing me."
"Heh! I haven't even asked you anything, and you've already confessed?"
Hooked Nose knew he had misspoken. He shot Tang Wen a vicious glare, then defiantly squeezed his eyes shut and said nothing more.
In reality, his mind was racing, trying to come up with a plan to trick Tang Wen.
"My lord, untie me. Let me question him!"
A familiar voice rang out. Hooked Nose opened his eyes and saw that it was, indeed, the man he had hired to take care of Tang Wen.
"You dare!" His eyes darted around, and he suddenly came up with a scheme. "My cousin is the camp's Guard Captain! There's no one he can't find. If you dare lay a hand on me, he won't let you off! Let me go now, and I can choose not to press charges..."
He spoke loudly, growing more confident with every word. 'These two, a little brat and a Scavenger, they don't know anything. I can definitely fool them!'
"SMACK!"
"Ah!"
The long blade slapped him across the mouth, turning his words into a scream.
"F-you... Ah! Ah, ah, ah..."
When he was done screaming, Tang Wen took out the Iron Token he had found on him. "Idiot! If your cousin is so powerful, why do you live at 2nd Street, Number 4? What, does he not care if you live or die?"
The residence at 2nd Street, Number 4 was only ten or twenty meters from the city wall. The rent was cheap, and the people who lived there were the poorest of the poor in the camp.
Their situation was only slightly better than what Tang Wen and his sister had endured before.
Could a genuine relative of the Guard Captain really be doing this badly?
Tang Wen didn't believe it.
Hooked Nose was speechless. He clenched his jaw and shut his eyes.
Tang Wen wasted no more words. He took out a dagger, cut a piece of cloth from the man's clothes, wet it with water, and covered his mouth and nose with it.
Hooked Nose snorted coldly. "Don't even think about getting a single word out of me."
GLUG GLUG GLUG...
An endless stream of water from a bamboo tube poured onto the wet cloth. Several more tubes sat nearby—they had come from Hooked Nose's own back-basket.
"Mmph, mmph!"
In just a minute, Hooked Nose, who was tied to a log, arched his body, trying desperately to open his mouth, but he couldn't get a single breath of fresh air.
The feeling of suffocation was agonizing and terrifying!
After another thirty seconds, Tang Wen stopped.
To Hooked Nose, however, it felt like half a year had passed. He gasped for air, his eyes filled with terror as he stared at the calm-faced youth before him. 'Why did I have to provoke him! There are so many people in the camp, I could have killed anyone else! Why did I have to mess with him?'
"I have all the time in the world to play with you."
Tang Wen said calmly:
"This is just the beginning. It's fine if you don't talk today. I can chop off your hands and feet, hide you in a cave, and come back to torture you once a day. Don't think what just happened was torture. Here, look, there are plenty of ants, plenty of rats. I'll smear you with sugar, and you can watch them eat you, bit by bit..."
Hooked Nose's face was a mask of terror!
Tang Wen's calm gaze and the mysterious method he had just used to make life a living hell—it all convinced him that this youth would actually do it!
"If you talk, I'll cripple you, but I won't kill you."
"Really?"
"Once you're crippled, how could you possibly be a threat to me?"
"I can't, I can't, I'm no threat to you even now! I don't have a powerful cousin. I'm just a gluttonous, lazy bum. All this time, I've been getting by working with those Scavengers to kill people..."
Tang Wen stared intently at his expression, listening to every word.
Just as he said, his usual method was to target someone and then work with Scavengers to rob and kill them.
However, opportunities for robbery and murder weren't common.
Normally, he slept during the day and waited for opportunities to do some petty thievery at night.
The night before last, he had taken advantage of the bright starlight to use his telescope from the rooftops to spy on his neighbors when he saw Tangtang cooking and eating meat in her yard.
And so, he had set his sights on Tang Wen.
"That's it? Over a bit of meat."
"Th-that's, that's it." Afraid Tang Wen wouldn't believe him, he quickly added, "One time, I saw someone else eating rice in their yard while I only had soup, so I targeted them..."
Faced with such an absurd reason, Tang Wen was momentarily speechless, but he didn't doubt it.
His intuition told him that the man was probably telling the truth.
Tang Wen didn't want to talk anymore and walked straight into the woods.
The Scavenger, his hands still tied, limped after him. "My lord, are you just going to let him go? If he escapes, he'll definitely come back for revenge."
Tang Wen glanced at him. "I said *I* wouldn't kill him. I didn't say *you* couldn't."
The Scavenger froze for a second. "Understood! I'll do it right away!"
He turned back, grabbed a sharp piece of stone, and slit Hooked Nose's throat.
SQUELCH.
Almost simultaneously, a Flying Blade plunged into his back, right where his heart was.
Both men died.
Tang Wen went forward to confirm they were as dead as dead could be, then pulled out his Flying Blade and turned to leave.