Unparalleled Duo

Although Kang Haijiao had stormed out with his third brother, they actually had no idea where Wuu had gone.

The Dragon King Cave was deep and had many branches; finding someone inside was not easy.

Of course, they had some intelligence and knew to use the process of elimination...

First, Wuu would probably not have taken the person outside the cave: it had already gotten dark, and if the girl were to scream in the open air, there was a risk of being discovered.

Secondly, those parts of the cave without oil lamp brackets were also impossible: darkness was one factor, but the key was those areas—where they specifically extended and how the terrain was shaped. Even those who had long occupied the cave didn't know; if they slipped down the rock slope or fell into an underground river, they wouldn't be able to return.

Therefore, Wuu could only have taken the person somewhere the light from the lamps reached or into the shadows around it.

Realizing this and eliminating the routes taken by San and Liu when moving stuff into the cave, Kang Haijiao quickly locked down the potential locations to just two paths.

His intuition was good, and the first path he chose to search... was the correct one.

But his luck was not so good because by that time, Sun Yixie had already finished getting the information he wanted and had "dealt with" Wuu, and was walking in the opposite direction.

Kang Haijiao was intending to find Wuu to chastise him, unaware that outsiders had come into the cave; although he had a weapon in his hands, he was not at all on guard mentally and walked forward with great strides.

Sun Yixie, on the other hand, was in a "behind enemy lines" mindset, moving stealthily and checking his surrounding with every step; moreover, he had already extracted all the information about this gang from Wuu, even down to the color of Kang Haijiao's underwear, a true case of knowing the enemy and himself.

Therefore, when the two were about to meet, but before entering each other's line of sight, Sun Yixie heard the footsteps from the opposite direction earlier than Kang Haijiao...

Hearing there were two people, Sun Yixie immediately realized—it was definitely not Huang Donglai, so he quickly dodged into a nearby unlit side passage, hiding his figure behind a jutting stone pillar, leaving only one eye out to observe.

As expected, moments later, Kang Haijiao and San appeared.

Sun Yixie knew only Kang Haijiao used a Wolf Fang Club among the six, with the others using knives; and upon confirming the identity of his adversary, Sun Yixie held nothing back... As Kang Haijiao was about to pass in front of him, Sun Yixie suddenly burst from the darkness, throwing a handful of lime powder toward his face.

Kang Haijiao was stunned at the moment, completely unprepared mentally.

By the time he reacted, his eyes were already burned by the lime powder, and Sun Yixie's kick had solidly landed on his chest.

Kang Haijiao had some resilience, but being caught off guard like that was still immensely painful; he felt a surging in his chest and nearly vomited blood.

But ultimately, he restrained himself... He forcefully held back the rising blood and immediately swung his arm, sweeping the Wolf Fang Club forward.

Unfortunately, this move posed no threat to Sun Yixie, who had already anticipated the counterattack while kicking; as he kicked, he used the rebounding force to retreat more than two meters.

"Brother!" San, who was following behind Kang Haijiao, although half a step late, reacted, shouting loudly as he moved forward with his knife, intending to assist.

But unexpectedly...

After just stepping forward, before he could launch into a charge, he heard "thwack, thwack, thwack"—three Hidden Weapons had already struck his back.

Heart, lungs, intestines... each hit by a Poison Dart, the pain slowed San's movements, and the toxin quickly merging into his bloodstream caused him to collapse to the ground in a moment.

"Ah—" Kang Haijiao seemed to also realize that he was the victim of a "double-line" sneak attack, and angrily roared like a madman, swinging his Wolf Fang Club while charging forward.

This actually posed a bit of a challenge for Sun Yixie, because the paths in the cave were relatively narrow, and there wasn't much space for maneuvering and dodging, so he was forced to quickly turn and run backwards.

Meanwhile, Huang Donglai, having just deployed the Hidden Weapons in another direction, also couldn't afford to act carelessly at this moment; now, Kang Haijiao was right behind Sun Yixie, and any careless mistake could see the Poison Dart miss and accidentally strike Brother Sun.

So, a peculiar situation occurred where Sun Yixie was running at the front, Kang Haijiao was chasing after him swinging his weapon, and Huang Donglai was catching up from even further behind.

However, this situation didn't last long as Sun Yixie quickly thought of a way to escape: he ran halfway, then suddenly leaned forward, supporting his upper body with his hands, and then using his hands and feet, he surged forward several meters, performing a forward roll; at the end of the roll, he spun around while lying on the ground, turning 180 degrees, and then with a maneuver using the inertia, he kicked from a tricky angle towards Kang Haijiao's ribs.

This move was one of the secret Martial Arts of the Sun family—Dragon Dog Boxing, known as "Burial Ground Sky Pillar."

The latter half of the move had principles similar to Judo's sacrificial technique "Body Drop," but it did not require use of the hands, and the method of applying force was more ingenious.

Although this technique did not look like something that would bring honor, it was a very practical way to escape when being chased and about to be caught.

Not to mention that Kang Haijiao couldn't see now, even if he could, he couldn't defend against such an unexpected move.

Thump—

The next second, only a muffled sound was heard, and Kang Haijiao felt a stagnant force hit his rib area, transforming his forward-moving force into a lifting force at a diagonal upward angle; his stance was already unstable, and with this kick, his whole body flew off the ground, passing over Sun Yixie, who was lying on the ground...

Since he couldn't directly confirm his posture in mid-air with his sight, Kang Haijiao had to throw away his Wolf Fang Club in mid-air and curled up to protect his head.

Coincidentally, there was a dark side passage ahead with a slope right after it; Kang Haijiao fell into it and tumbled down like rolling down the stairs... disappearing into the depths of the dark cave.

By the time Huang Donglai caught up, Sun Yixie had already got up; without saying much, just a glance was exchanged, and they both turned and quickly went to the passage Kang Haijiao had just fallen into.

Huang Donglai struck a match to look down into it, and apart from a Wolf Fang Club near the entrance, no one was visible; then, he threw a small stone inside, listened to the sound of the stone falling to ascertain the depth and steepness of the slope.

"Do you think he's dead?" Sun Yixie asked.

"He must be dead," Huang Donglai pointed at the blood stains on the uneven rock slope, "A normal person would die from rolling down the stairs and hitting a few times, let alone this slope... bottomless, and the slope is covered with so many jutting irregular sharp stones, plus being blinded by your lime powder... even if he didn't die right away, he would've suffered multiple fractures and internal bleeding, no chance he'd climb back up to be rescued."

"Mm..." Sun Yixie pondered, Huang Donglai was right, the chances of Kang Haijiao surviving were minimal, "Right... let's go deal with the others then."

And so, the two exchanged information and moved towards the remaining three thieves.

At this time, they had no idea... not only had Kang Haijiao not died from the fall, but he had encountered a fortune in the underground river at the bottom of Dragon King Cave, so much so that by the time Sun Yixie "played with Kang Haijiao" again, the latter's cultivation had greatly advanced.

Of course, that is a story for another time... let's return to the present.

Having learned there were only six thieves total, and that the best fighter among them was Kang Haijiao, the matter was quite manageable.

Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai returned to the room where the second, fourth, and sixth brothers were drinking; Huang Donglai kicked in the door, and without needing to use any poison or Hidden Weapons, he went straight into physical combat; Sun Yixie only stood behind and shouted encouragement for a while, and Huang Donglai had them subdued.

They didn't kill them all but left the least skilled in martial arts but the strategist, the fourth brother, tied up; they prepared to deliver him to Chens Village.

Unexpectedly, just as Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were escorting the fourth brother out of Dragon King Cave, they coincidentally ran into a large group of villagers from Chens Village carrying torches.

It turned out... the girl they had rescued, had ultimately managed to escape back to the village, and the villagers reacted just as Sun and Huang had anticipated, mobilizing en masse to bring her back...

Fortunately, by this time, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had already dealt with the gang of thieves, otherwise, it really could have been a mess.

Facing the perplexed villagers, Sun and Huang kicked the fourth brother to his knees and forced him to confess the truth about the so-called "Dragon King"; by this point, the fourth brother knew he was beyond redemption, knowing once the villagers entered the cave, everything would become clear; moreover, he was well aware that these villagers would never let him off lightly, so he had no other request except for a swift death after telling the truth.

To make a long story short, that night, the "Dragon King" that had plagued Chens Village for over a year was effectively eliminated, and the villagers also moved all the unused "offerings" from the cave back to the village.

The girl who was originally intended as an offering to the "Dragon King" was finally released by the villagers; yet the next morning, she left Chens Village, and where she went after that... remains unknown, the only certainty being, she had lost all hope in the village where she was born.

In any case, those matters after the fact were beyond the control of Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai—at least they couldn't handle it at the moment.

The villagers of Chens Village didn't give them any gifts of thanks, as the revelation of the Dragon King's truth made their strongest feeling one of realizing how much they had been deceived over the past year; asking them to give away anything at that time would have been painful.

Of course, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai weren't driven by the desire for rewards in their acts of chivalry; they didn't care about receiving anything, as long as the villagers didn't repay their kindness with ingratitude.

The next noon, the two packed their luggage and, amidst verbal thanks and farewells from the villagers, they left Chens Village to continue on their journey.

Yingzhou was now in the near horizon.