I am dying of old age, and I have awakened to the character of longevity.

The man speaking was tall and burly, with a green, fierce glint in his eyes, looking as if he had Xie An right where he wanted him.

Clearly, they were bandits who regularly robbed merchants in this area. They had been eyeing Xie An since he was at the Yong'an Pawnshop, following him all the way here. After confirming that Xie An and the other person were naive bumpkins with no background, they revealed their fangs.

There was also another possibility… that these bandits and the Yong'an Pawnshop were in cahoots.

Xie An was speechless. He thought coming to the county town to do business would be much safer. He never expected… the danger to be outside the city, not inside.

The two sides were separated by a dozen meters. Although Xie An's senses were much sharper than before, he couldn't discern the other party's strength. He gripped the dagger hidden in his sleeve with his right hand, alert and wary.

Chen He, seeing that Xie An didn't speak, assumed that Xie An was intimidated. He gritted his teeth, jumped off the carriage, took out a ten-tael silver ingot, placed it on the ground, and cupped his hands with a flattering smile.

"Esteemed heroes, I am Chen He, the younger brother of Chen Lei, the master of the Chen Family Martial Arts School in Wuqiao Town. Please, grant us passage."

The Chen Family Martial Arts School was the only martial arts school in Wuqiao Town and had quite a reputation in the surrounding towns. Usually, when Chen He went out, if he encountered some small bandits, announcing his family name would have a certain deterrent effect. Adding some loose silver and a couple of smiles, the bandits usually wouldn't make things too difficult for him.

But today, it was an exception.

The tall man who had spoken earlier suddenly burst out laughing, "A-San, have you ever heard of some lousy Chen Family Martial Arts School?"

The man to his left, called A-San, shook his head and sneered, "Brother Wei, our Giant Whale Gang only recognizes the four major martial arts schools in the county town. Other than that… they're just a rabble, not worth mentioning."

As soon as Xie An heard the other party announce their gang, he knew they didn't plan to leave him a way out.

It was like a kidnapping victim seeing the kidnapper's face…

Sure enough—

The man called Brother Wei smiled even more playfully, "Thinking you can get away with just ten taels of silver? You're treating us like beggars. A-San, Wang Wu, stop talking nonsense with these two old geezers and just kill them. The money will all be ours."

Clang! Clang!

A-San and Wang Wu both drew their knives, the blades scraping against the scabbards, creating sparks that were particularly frightening in the moonlight.

"Esteemed sirs, spare our lives! I'll give you all the money I have."

Sensing that the three men were about to attack, Xie An feigned "fear" and jumped off the carriage, trembling as he took out five large silver ingots from his bundle and showed them to the three men.

Although it was late at night, the round moon hung high, and the bright moonlight shone down, illuminating the silver and making it gleam.

Sure enough, the three robbers, seeing the bright and dazzling large silver ingots, didn't rush to attack but revealed greedy expressions.

Xie An, out of the corner of his eye, saw the greed in the three men's expressions and felt that they looked like they hadn't seen much of the world and probably weren't master thieves.

Thinking of this, Xie An had a plan in mind, but his face became even more "fearful", "I'll give you these five large silver ingots. Can you spare an old man's life?"

The three men were very satisfied with Xie An's terrified attitude. The man called A-San said, "Quickly throw the silver over here."

The Giant Whale Gang was a vicious gang that specialized in ambushing merchants without backgrounds in the vicinity. Although these three men had been robbing for years, this was the first time they had encountered such a fat sheep like Xie An, carrying a huge sum of two hundred and fifty taels.

After all, those who dared to carry such a large sum of money out of the city at night usually had a background and would bring guards.

Today, they had really encountered a fat sheep.

No wonder they were so excited.

However, they didn't plan to let Xie An off so easily.

They would rob the money and kill the people.

Otherwise, leaving someone alive to report to the authorities afterward… would undoubtedly add a lot of trouble.

"Catch!"

Xie An threw the five large silver ingots over.

A-San excitedly reached out to catch them. Just as his hand touched the silver ingots, he suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound in his ear.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow carrying a sharp whistling sound sped towards him. A-San suddenly realized something was wrong and cried out in alarm. Instinctively, he reached out to grab the arrow, but the arrow was too fast and too powerful.

As A-San's hand grabbed the arrow, the arrowhead actually slipped away from his palm with its powerful kinetic energy and pierced through his neck with a loud "噗嗤" sound.

"嗬… 嗬…"

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something. But the trachea in his throat had been pierced, and he couldn't muster the strength. Finally, he fell straight to the ground. Only the pungent smell of blood permeated the autumn wind.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, Brother Wei shouted sternly, "What a damn hunter! Wang Wu, you go kill that old man Chen. I'll deal with this old hunter."

After clearly dividing the labor, Wang Wu swung his knife at Chen He.

Brother Wei, on the other hand, charged towards Xie An with his knife. To avoid being hit by arrows, Brother Wei didn't walk in a straight line but changed direction from left to right, alternating forward.

Whoosh!

Xie An drew his bow and shot an arrow, but because his archery skills weren't up to par, he actually missed.

"…"

Xie An was a little speechless, thinking that Brother Wei was cunning. But he didn't panic. He quickly assessed the situation in front of him: Brother Wei was less than ten meters away from him, and in another breath, he would be able to reach him.

There was one more chance to shoot.

Although Xie An felt that he could take him on, he didn't want to take any risks and engage in close combat with him. It would be best to shoot him to death before he got close.

Whoosh!

After quickly aiming, the second arrow was shot out. The bowstring hummed, and the arrow whistled out. Suddenly, with a "clang" sound, it was deflected by Brother Wei's broadsword. In the blink of an eye, he rushed in front of Xie An, raising his knife and slashing down fiercely at Xie An's face.

Xie An couldn't bother complaining about his rookie-like shooting skills. He suddenly fell to the ground, pretending to be very scared and desperate.

"A damn hunter dares to kill a Giant Whale Gang member. Die, you old geezer!"

Brother Wei was overjoyed at the sight, turning his blade and slashing down fiercely at Xie An. At this moment, Brother Wei felt that victory was in his grasp. He didn't feel much pain or anger at A-San's death. Instead, he felt that having one less person to divide the money was a great thing, at least he could go to the Yihong Courtyard a few more times to find a girl for the night…

Before Brother Wei could finish fantasizing about the wonderful things at the Yihong Courtyard, he suddenly felt a cloud of white dust sprinkling towards his face… Sand got into his eyes, and he couldn't see!

Not good…

Brother Wei immediately retracted his knife, waving it wildly in front of him to protect himself.

"You son of a bitch, playing dirty… Ah!"

Suddenly, a chill came from the back of his head, and then Brother Wei couldn't speak anymore, falling straight to the ground. An arrow had pierced through the back of his head, and his brains were splattered all over the ground, emitting a pungent, fishy smell.

"I'm too old and don't like head-on fights. Besides, when life and death are at stake, who's going to talk to you about being dirty or not. I just want to kill you without any risk."

Xie An had long passed the age of being impulsive and belligerent, and he didn't think that showing weakness would damage his dignity or anything like that. He just wanted to win steadily!

Just then, Chen He's cry for help came from a distance.

"Old Xie, save me!!"