27: Chapter 27 Crossing the Mountain Peak Turns the Tide of Battle

Just as the four men were taking their strength pills, Xia Shaoxin cleverly sprinted toward the nearby woods.

An arrow was still stuck in his back, swaying with every movement.

Zhang Yan's plan was simple: the soldiers guarding the checkpoint behind them would arrive soon, and it would be best to seize the credit for himself, while also preventing Xia Shaoxin from shouting and raising suspicion.

Although Liu Xinglong had previously sent three men, they had been killed by Xia Shaoxin.

But now that Xia Shaoxin was injured, he was quite confident.

Xia Shaoxin knew his disadvantage and that he absolutely could not be surrounded. By running into the woods and using the trees for cover, the enemy's numerical advantage could not be fully utilized.

Moreover, he had kept a trick up his sleeve.

The duration of the strength pill's effect varied for everyone; the later one took the strength pill, the better the chance.

He could not take out all four men quickly; he had to fight a war of attrition.

The four men chased him into the woods. With one sword strike, they slashed a small tree in half.

Xia Shaoxin was shocked and dared not hesitate. He swallowed a strength pill and darted left and right, maneuvering around the trees.

These four men did not spare any strength, putting their all into every sword strike. When they hit rocks, the rocks shattered; when they grazed trees, the trees snapped.

The small grove was not large, and soon it was covered in broken branches and fallen leaves, looking even more devastated than if someone had been chopping firewood.

The arrow in Xia Shaoxin's back was sliced off, leaving the arrowhead embedded, with blood constantly seeping out. He could no longer care about the pain in his back, barely resisting and in a sorry state.

Without realizing it, he retreated to a mound in the woods covered in low shrubs. As Xia Shaoxin leaned against the shrubs, a snake suddenly darted out from the grass.

Xia Shaoxin only felt a rush of air behind his head. He couldn't dodge in time, and the snake flew up and bit his lower leg.

His heart skipped a beat, his reaction slowed, and he was slashed on the shoulder by a sword.

"Watch out, there's a snake!"

They recognized it as a venomous snake and hurriedly retreated, which for a moment actually relieved the pressure on Xia Shaoxin.

Xia Shaoxin reached out and grabbed the snake by its throat. His eyes sharpened—with such intense fighting going on here, why hadn't this snake run away?

Looking down, he saw four bloody holes in his leg.

He suddenly felt the world spinning.

"Heh heh, we don't even need to do anything; he won't survive."

"Surround him and watch him die!"

These men were not afraid of powerful opponents, but they had an instinctive fear of venomous snakes.

Zhang Yan shouted, "He might have medicine to treat snake venom. Bug Catchers always have antidotes; they can treat any venomous snake from Dawu Mountain, so this is nothing."

The four men then stepped forward slightly, but they didn't push too hard, keeping a close eye on Xia Shaoxin's hands to ensure he couldn't pull out an antidote.

Xia Shaoxin looked at the venomous snake in his hand, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.

He quickly calmed down, recited a spell silently, and the Shangqing Profound Mirror appeared in his Sea of Consciousness, emitting a beam of light from the center of his brow.

The venomous snake in his hand suddenly grew larger.

"What is this?" Zhang Yan saw the light emitting from Xia Shaoxin's brow.

"Good heavens, that's a King Cobra!"

Back when he had caught a King Cobra on the outskirts of Dawu Mountain, even though it wasn't the largest one in Dawu Mountain, it was nearly a zhang long.

The venomous snake in the grass had only been three chi long, barely an adult, but it suddenly transformed into one a zhang long.

Xia Shaoxin was both shocked and delighted. He couldn't hold onto it at all, and with a thud, it dropped onto his feet, its massive snake head slamming into the ground.

The venomous creature, having just been transformed, was still not very clear-headed. Xia Shaoxin took the opportunity to kick the King Cobra, sending it flying toward the nearest assassin.

In truth, transformed venomous creatures had much weaker attack power compared to their original forms.

The problem was that the others didn't know that.

The nearest assassin was usually not afraid of snakes, but when a snake a zhang long landed in front of him, his hair stood on end. He hurriedly retreated, tripped over a stone, and was pinned to the ground by the King Cobra.

"Help!"

The man panicked, completely losing his composure, and even dropped the sword in his hand.

By this time, the King Cobra had also recovered from its dazed state of transformation. It opened its watermelon-sized mouth and bit down on the man's head.

Although it hadn't managed to crush the skull, the four bloody holes on his face were hair-raising.

Xia Shaoxin took the opportunity to pull out a seven gu detox pill, threw it into his mouth, and forced it down.

After biting the man to death, the King Cobra turned and lunged at another person.

The remaining three assassins fell into disarray. The King Cobra was chasing one of them, and the other two hurriedly dodged to the sides.

Xia Shaoxin didn't dare give the assassins another chance. He moved quickly, catching up to one of them.

The man's attention hadn't shifted, and caught off guard, he could only resist feebly before being hacked to death by Xia Shaoxin's sword.

Meanwhile, the assassin being chased by the King Cobra had nowhere to run and had to turn around and fight back.

He was not a Bug Catcher and lacked the skills to deal with venomous snakes. While resisting the King Cobra, he saw Xia Shaoxin kill another person, and his heart was filled with terror.

The King Cobra that Xia Shaoxin had sacrificed had scales as tough as iron armor, and the transformed King Cobra was the same.

The assassin didn't understand the secret and couldn't pierce it at all; it was all clanging and banging, with sparks flying everywhere.

The opportunity was right in front of him; he couldn't let it slip.

Xia Shaoxin ignored this for the moment and rushed toward the other person.

In one-on-one combat, Xia Shaoxin was completely fearless, fighting more bravely as the battle went on. The man suddenly went weak in the legs and was knocked to the ground.

It was clear that the effect of the strength pill had worn off.

A golden opportunity!

One sword strike sent him to heaven!

Finally, only the assassin who had been chased by the King Cobra remained. Before long, the exuberant strength in his body suddenly vanished—the effect of the strength pill had also ended. He was swept by the King Cobra's tail and rolled in front of Xia Shaoxin.

Without any effort, one sword strike sent him to heaven!

He turned back, took out a dagger, found an opening, rolled on the ground, and stabbed the King Cobra in the abdomen. He slashed hard, and the King Cobra's body jolted violently, trying to coil around him.

How could Xia Shaoxin make the same mistake again? He rolled several times on the ground, almost dropping his dagger, and rolled under a tree before he managed to escape.

Looking back, he saw that Zhang Yan had already mounted his horse and was galloping toward Li Family Hollow.

Xia Shaoxin also vaulted onto his horse and gave chase with all his might.

In the woods, the King Cobra was writhing frantically, searching for its enemy, but the enemy had already run very far away.

After running for two li, he gradually closed the distance.

"I really didn't expect you to be such a terrifying person," Xia Shaoxin roared at Zhang Yan's retreating back.

Zhang Yan's face was livid: "I finally know where your goods come from. It's all illusions; you're selling fake goods."

Xia Shaoxin laughed out loud: "According to your style of doing things, once you know my secret, you're supposed to die, right?"

Zhang Yan didn't say a word, urging his horse to gallop forward.

As long as he could run back to the checkpoint, he would win.

Xia Shaoxin remained two zhang away from him the whole time.

Daring not to delay any longer, he gripped the dagger and, using all his strength, threw it forward.

When Bug Catchers caught venomous insects in the mountains, throwing medicinal powder was a daily action.

The farther and more accurately one threw, the greater their chance of survival.

These were skills honed from struggling in the poisonous miasma, and Xia Shaoxin was particularly outstanding in this regard.

The dagger struck Zhang Yan right in the back of his heart.

It was a dagger forged by a Great Master in the capital, worth ten thousand, and it was actually Zhang Yan who had sold it to Xia Shaoxin.

Zhang Yan let out a muffled grunt and tumbled off his horse.

With the violent impact, the dagger plunged another half an inch deeper.

Xia Shaoxin arrived quickly on horseback and roared: "Lord Zhang, get up and fight me to the death!"

"Don't you love scheming so much? Did you calculate today!"

Zhang Yan's face was pressed into the dirt, motionless, and the blood on his back had already stained his clothes red.

Xia Shaoxin was just about to dismount and stab him a few more times when he suddenly saw dust rising in the distance; the soldiers guarding the checkpoint had already caught up.

He dared not linger. He turned his horse around, and the horse stepped on Zhang Yan's head, crushing it directly into the dirt, before galloping away.

"This fellow should be thoroughly dead; the dagger is almost completely submerged, right in the position of the heart."

"To be stabbed in the back by a divine weapon purchased from the capital—this is fate."

Xia Shaoxin endured the arrow wound in his back and galloped all the way.

He lay on the horse's back, opened his eyes, and looked at the scenery around him; it was completely different from Dawu Mountain.

The air he breathed seemed to have a sweet scent he had never smelled before.

The outside world is so beautiful!

Finally, I have left Dawu Mountain.