9: Chapter 9: A Textbook Example of a Counterattack

There were four of them.

Their positioning was very deliberate, two in front and two behind, blocking the dirt road completely.

The two in front were sturdy, dressed in black training uniforms with weapons hanging at their waists.

The two in the back were slightly thinner and held things in their hands; one carried a chain, and the other wielded a machete.

Li Zhengyang didn't stop and continued walking onto the dirt road.

When he reached thirty meters away, the one in front spoke up.

"Buddy."

The voice was quite amicable.

The speaker was a man in his early thirties with a round face, a neat crew cut, and a smiling expression.

However, his left hand rested on the hilt of a knife at his waist, tapping it rhythmically.

The aura of a Second-Rank Martial Master.

Li Zhengyang swept his gaze over the remaining three.

A Ninth-Rank Martial Artist, an Eighth-Rank Martial Artist, and an Eighth-Rank Martial Artist.

Not bad.

"Did you come from inside?" The crew-cut man glanced at Li Zhengyang's backpack.

"Iron-Spine Lizard tail spines?" The crew-cut man narrowed his eyes.

"Good eye."

The crew-cut man's smile didn't change, but his eyes did.

"You took down an Iron-Spine Lizard alone?"

"Yeah."

The crew-cut man looked back at the three people behind him, and they were looking at each other as well.

Clearing out a Second-Rank Magical Beast alone meant this combat strength was definitely that of a Martial Master.

The crew-cut man himself was a Second-Rank Martial Master, and he had three helpers with him; four against one, the math worked out.

The point was, the tail spines in this kid's backpack could be exchanged for quite a bit of money at the office.

Plus, the cash and bank cards he might have on him, and that alloy spear on his back looked expensive; pulling off this job would feed them for several months.

The outskirts of the wetlands, this kind of desolate wilderness, were a paradise for scavenger hunters.

So-called scavenger hunters were, put simply, people who specialized in waiting near mission locations to rob martial artists once they were exhausted from fighting magical beasts.

Murder and robbery, one of the oldest professions in history.

The crew-cut man stepped forward.

"Brother, let's discuss something."

"Go ahead."

"Leave the mission materials, hand over the valuables on you, and we guarantee we won't hurt you. We're all just out here trying to make a living; there's no need to burn bridges."

Very polite. Even with a tone of negotiation.

Li Zhengyang looked at the four of them and sighed.

"Brother."

"Yeah?"

"Actually, I lost money on this mission." Li Zhengyang's tone changed; his mouth drooped, and his eyebrows knit into an inverted V.

"It was too hard in there. I used up all three bottles of recovery potion I brought, and my phone fell into the water. I'm completely drained now. The cards and cash are all in the bag, just take them; I really can't fight anymore."

As he said this, he unslung his backpack and tossed it far away.

The backpack landed two meters in front of the crew-cut man's feet.

The crew-cut man took a step forward and bent down to pick up the backpack.

The moment his hand touched the backpack strap.

Li Zhengyang gripped the spear shaft with his right hand and exerted force suddenly.

The entire movement took a fraction of a second.

The crew-cut man was bending over, his head lowered by half a body length.

In this posture, his neck was perfectly aligned with the height of the spear tip.

Li Zhengyang didn't aim for the throat. He aimed for the chin.

The spear tip pierced in from under the chin, passed through the oral cavity, traveled up another three inches, and entered the cranial cavity.

The crew-cut man's body froze.

His hand was still on the backpack strap, knees bent, maintaining the bending posture, just like that, fixed in place.

Li Zhengyang pulled out the spear.

The crew-cut man's body tipped forward, crashing into the muddy ground, face down.

The three people behind were stunned at the sight.

Their strongest fighter, a Second-Rank Martial Master, was killed instantly?

The three's first reaction was to run.

The chain-wielding man immediately whipped the chain out, trying to buy time for himself to escape.

Li Zhengyang jumped up, the iron chain sweeping under his feet, hitting the mud and splashing up a spray of muddy water.

He landed and charged forward.

Holding the spear with one hand, he thrust forward. The spear tip pierced the chain-wielding man's right shoulder; the sound of shattering bone was crisp.

The chain dropped, and the man fell to his knees.

The machete-wielding man saw he couldn't escape, so he rushed up, swinging the knife down, aiming for the shoulder.

Li Zhengyang blocked with the spear shaft. The machete was deflected; the machete-wielding man's web between thumb and index finger split, his hand went numb, and he almost dropped the knife.

Li Zhengyang didn't give him a chance to switch hands; he retracted the spear, backhanded a thrust, and stabbed him in the left chest.

The machete-wielding man clutched his chest and took two steps back, his legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground, dead or alive.

He turned back to look at the last person.

The last thin man stood where he was, unmoving.

It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but his legs had gone weak.

It had been less than five seconds.

A Second-Rank Martial Master plus two Eighth/Ninth-Rank Martial Artists, gone just like that.

How was he supposed to fight this?

"Big brother, big brother, I'm not with them." The thin man fell to his knees with a thud.

"I was hired to do odd jobs; I'm just a lackey. I didn't do anything, please spare me."

Li Zhengyang walked over and pointed the spear tip at his forehead.

At this distance, pushing it forward two inches would kill him.

"How much money do you have on you?"

"Thr-three thousand..."

"What about cards?"

"I have two, one with over five thousand, one with eight thousand..."

"Poor bastard."

The Sixth-Rank Martial Artist tremblingly handed over the bank cards.

Li Zhengyang pushed the spear tip forward, piercing his skull, and he died.

Li Zhengyang turned to look at the other three corpses.

He rummaged through them for anything valuable.

The four corpses were left on the edge of the North Suburb Wetlands.

In places like this, low-level magical beasts came out to forage at night; after midnight, the corpses would likely be gnawed until not even bones were left.

A natural crematorium.

The system displayed the spoils of this encounter.

The crew-cut man's card: 56,000.

The chain-wielding man's card: 22,000.

The machete-wielding man's cash and card: 13,000.

The thin man's: a little over 10,000.

Plus the 60,000 in mission bonuses.

In total, he got nearly 160,000.

This trip to the wetlands was not a loss.