A few seconds later, heavy footsteps came from the staircase. They sounded like many pairs of boots. They came upstairs. Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng were passive. They would be soon trapped by the villagers on the third-floor corridor.
Chen Xiaomeng and Jiang Cheng moved at the same time. They ran towards Room 307 which door was still open. Chen Xiaomeng grabbed the wooden chair beside the table and smashed it against the window. The chair flew out the building and landed with a thud on the ground. Chen Xiaomeng hoped that would grab the pedestrian’s attention.
However, when she looked out the broken window, her heart chilled. The pedestrians continued on like nothing was out of the ordinary. The hawkers kept shouting. Two women carrying grocery baskets walked past the broken wooden chair as if they couldn’t see the chair dumped in the middle of the road.
It was so strange. However, this was the nightmare realm.
Jiang Cheng yanked the blanket, swiped the oil lamp and rushed back into the corridor.
Chen Xiaomeng followed him. After all, they both knew that it would be worse for them to be trapped in the room.
At that moment, a few large men came up the stairs. There were six of them. They had tanned skin. The leading man had a beard and hostility on his face. Jiang Cheng recognised two people behind him. When the village head led the people to put out the fire at the Qian Family Ancestral Hall, these two were part of the group.
However, they looked rather pitiful now. They had ashes on their faces, and their bodies were covered in small scratches. One of the men had a bloody leg. The wound was bound with bandages to stop the bleeding.
They stared at Jiang Cheng with hostility. However, when they looked at Chen Xiaomeng, the hostility disappeared and was replaced by a baser desire. Chen Xiaomeng gripped the hairpin.
The crowd spread apart. The village head stood in the middle with an angry visage. His fake kindness had fallen away. He just wanted to cut Jiang Cheng into pieces. The village head stared at Chen Xiaomeng. She would have to die too, but not before they had their fun.
“Dad,” the man with the beard had bloodshot eyes. “They’ve blown big brother into pieces, and second brother is heavily injured…”
Qian Jianguo, or the village head, hissed, “They have killed your fourth uncle as well. Go! Kill the man and capture the woman!
“The person who murders the man will get the woman!”
The men became excited and charged forward with howls and jeers. Even though they were injured, the mountain people had great stamina. Their eyes popped with veins. Some of them weren’t even armed. Perhaps they didn’t think they needed weapons to deal with two normal people.
However, Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng were not normal people. The corridor was so small that even though there were a lot of villagers, only three could fit in the corridor.
A muscular man in a brown shirt waved his fist at Jiang Cheng. In the man’s mind, Jiang Cheng would faint or even die after taking his fist. However, just as he thought that victory was his, the man before him flickered and evaded his punch. Then, a flash appeared before his eyes. He paused as he felt something warm around his throat. Blood spurted out. Some of them even hit the ceiling. The life in the man’s eyes faded away. He knelt and fell to the floor, never getting up again.
Jiang Cheng’s blade glowed red. Everything happened in mere moments. The other man who charged at Jiang Cheng didn’t even notice this. His ropy arm swung at Jiang Cheng. Jiang Cheng didn’t move and took the punch head-on.
Jiang Cheng didn’t react, but the man’s face changed. He felt like he was hitting a tree. While the man was stunned, Jiang Cheng elbowed the man in his chest. The man floated backwards. He was knocked into the wall behind him. His heart stopped for a moment. Something fell out of his clothes. It was a shredded part of a woman’s attire. It was black with lacy trim. It was so delicate that it didn’t look like it was manufactured in this era.
Jiang Cheng’s blade, aimed at the man’s heart, halted. Something spread in Jiang Cheng’s eyes. His pupils shrunk. There was a flash, and the man lost his right arm. Just as he was about to scream, the blade accurately cut into the joint connecting his arm and shoulder. It squeezed into the bones. The tissues were shredded. Jiang Cheng didn’t hold back as he saw through the tendons.
The horrible scream echoed in his ears as Jiang Cheng elegantly wiped the blood from his face.
On the other hand, Chen Xiaomeng was also done with her opponent. It was the bearded man. Based on their conservation, the bearded man was the village head’s son. The man’s target had always been Chen Xiaomeng all along. However, Chen Xiaomeng was not a defenceless woman. After a few rounds, the girl accurately severed the man’s limb nerves. The man slumped on the ground like a cripple.
“San Yazi!” The village head also cried blood. He only had three sons. His eldest son was blown up by the mine at the village entrance. His second son was caught in the blast and was crippled from the waist down. Now, his third son…
“Dad… Help…” Before the bearded man could finish, he was interrupted by a scream. Chen Xiaomeng used the back of her heels to grind the man’s thumb.
The three muscular men were disposed of in mere minutes. This was something the villagers didn’t expect.
Even though there were many of them, Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng had the village head’s son as their hostage.
The next second, with everyone looking on in shock, the expressionless Jiang Cheng picked up one of the lifeless men by his head and smashed his head firmly into the wall.