Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Old Scar stopped chewing.

He swallowed the dry, hard crumbs in his mouth, tightened the cap of his military water bottle, and casually tossed it onto the rotten tree roots beside him.

Old Scar pulled the blood-grooved dagger from his lower back and used his thumb to carefully wipe away the mud and water from the blade. His narrow, sinister, triangular eyes stared emotionlessly at Scarface Liu, who lay sprawled in the mud.

"I'll give you the money you're owed. Why are you asking so many questions?"

Old Scar slowly scraped the thick mud off the soles of his shoes, his voice as cold as ice: "Take the money and lead the way. Don't ask questions you shouldn't. Knowing too much won't do you any good, you cripple."

As Scarface Liu was stared at by those lifeless eyes, a chilling wind suddenly ran down his spine.

"cough……"

Scarface Liu Qian chuckled twice, his chapped lips twitching, and quickly averted his gaze from Old Scar.

He hastily wiped his face with his mud-covered sleeve, laughing to cover up his embarrassment: "Scarface, look at you, why are you so angry? I was just asking casually. There's not a soul in sight in this desolate wilderness, just chatting to pass the time."

Scarface Liu lowered his head, pretending to focus on the hard pancake in his hand, biting the dry crust like a hungry dog ​​guarding its food.

But behind his drooping eyelids, his two cloudy eyes were moving rapidly.

He secretly clenched the half-eaten bread in his hand, his eyes subtly glancing once more at the bulging military green satchel at Old Scar's feet.

The money in his bag was his only hope for the rest of his life. Since Old Scar refused to tell him the truth, Scarface Liu would have to be extra careful on the road ahead.

Both of them had their own agendas, and neither of them uttered another word.

In the deathly silent forest, only the crunching sound of teeth grinding dry, hard bread could be heard.

Unbeknownst to them, the white mist in the forest grew larger and larger, gradually engulfing the surrounding outlines.

The last bit of gray-white sunlight overhead was fragmented by the crisscrossing, withered branches, and it looked like it was about to turn completely dark.

Old Scar swallowed the last bite of dry food.

He tightened the cap of his water bottle, casually stuffed it into the military green satchel at his feet, and then turned up the collar of his mud-covered jacket.

Old Scar grabbed his satchel and slung it over his shoulder, stood up, and looked down at Scarface Liu, who was sprawled in the mud.

It's getting dark.

Old Scar fiddled with the blood-grooved dagger in his hand, his voice muffled in the empty forest: "It's time to get going."

Scarface Liu was leaning against a rotten piece of wood, picking at the blood blisters on his soles, gasping for breath in pain.

Upon hearing this, he nonchalantly waved his mud-covered hand.

"There's no need to rush in these deep mountains and forests."

Scarface Liu pulled out a half-smoked, crumpled cigarette, put it in his mouth, struck a match, and lit it. "Once it gets dark, this muddy swamp becomes even more dangerous. Wandering around blindly is suicide. The path we're on now is a trail trodden out by an old ginseng herder many years ago. I'm the only one in the whole forest who recognizes it."

He exhaled a puff of smoke, his tone revealing the confidence of a seasoned veteran: "Others simply don't know the ropes, they don't even dare to go in. Even if some reckless fool dared to venture deep into this forest, we wouldn't even need to lift a finger; these muddy puddles and poisonous insects would be enough to kill them half to death..."

Before he could finish speaking...

From the depths of the dense forest in the far distance, a crisp "crack" suddenly rang out.

That was the sound of a dry, thick tree trunk being snapped by a heavy object, sounding particularly jarring in the deathly silent forest.

Immediately afterwards, the soft sound of footsteps wading through water drifted over on the cold wind of the late spring chill.

Several nightingales perched on the branches were startled and flew away, flapping their wings and screeching as they soared into the night sky.

Scarface Liu's fingers twitched suddenly, and the half-smoked cigarette fell directly into the muddy water with a soft "hiss".

Old Scar's eyes suddenly darkened.

Without uttering a single wasted word, he stepped forward, grabbed the back of Scarface Liu's tattered cotton-padded jacket, and forcefully lifted the cripple, who weighed over a hundred pounds, out of the mud pit.

Old Scarface covered Scarface Liu's mouth tightly with his other hand, forcibly pressing him against the thick red pine trunk, silently gripping the dagger in his palm.

Scarface Liu's back was pressed tightly against the rough bark of the red pine tree, and his blood froze in that instant.

Old Scar's large, iron-like hand covered his mouth, his palm covered with calluses from years of wielding knives, emitting a nauseating smell of blood.

A cold dagger was silently pressed against Scarface Liu's carotid artery.

Scarface Liu didn't dare to breathe. His eyes bulged out of their sockets from extreme fear and shock. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead and trickled down his face, which was covered in mud.

"rustle--"

The sounds of wading in the water grew increasingly chaotic, and the sticky squeak of rubber boots being pulled out of the mud filled the air.

Suddenly, seven or eight ghastly white beams of flashlight suddenly shone from the white mist not far away.

The beams of light, like intertwined swords, swept back and forth across the crisscrossing withered branches and the stinking, muddy ground, illuminating the forest in a ghastly white light.

Seven or eight men, wearing rubber boots and raincoats, waded through the mud, one step at a time. Each of them carried a black five-shot shotgun or a homemade gun with its barrel sawed off, and their waists were bulging with machetes, clearly indicating that they had come fully armed and prepared.

"Snapped!"

One of the henchmen slapped himself hard across the neck, smashing a swollen grasshopper to pieces and splattering his palm with foul-smelling black blood.

"Fuck you, what the hell is this place?!"

The henchman, disgusted, smeared the blood from his hands onto the tree trunk while cursing irritably, "I'm covered in bites from these poisonous insects under these rotten leaves, my whole body is covered in bloody blisters, and I'm scratching myself raw! Monkey King, can that half-dead cripple Scarface Liu really wade through this ankle-sucking mud pit?"

The gaunt figure at the front stopped.

He raised his flashlight, shone it at the bottomless mud pit in front of him, and let out a piercing, cold laugh.

"You don't know anything."

Ma Hou turned around, pulled a machete from his back, and casually chopped down a bush blocking his path: "This path is called the Wild Ghost Path. It's a dead end, forged by old ginseng herders in the old days. Even wild animals wouldn't walk on it. Later, that damned eunuch accidentally discovered it. Back then, all the smuggled contraband we dealt with was secretly smuggled out of the province through this hidden Wild Ghost Path. He was the only one in the whole forest who knew it all!"

He struck a match, cupped his hands to light a cigarette, and the flickering flame instantly illuminated the greed gleaming on his weasel-faced features.

"The entire underworld and legitimate society have gone mad. The main roads and train stations are completely blocked by spies and mobs; not even a fly can get out. Old Scar, that outsider, wants to run away with the money. The only way out is to bribe that cripple to lead him down this dangerous, deserted path that nobody dares to touch! There's no other way!"

Ma Hou flicked out the match, exhaled a puff of smoke, and said with absolute certainty, "So they're definitely on this road!"

Upon hearing that voice that was so familiar it was ingrained in his very bones, Scarface Liu, who was hiding behind a tree, trembled violently.

Ma monkey!

That ingrate who stole his woman, took all his wealth, and publicly trampled him underfoot, calling him a dead eunuch!

Scarface Liu's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, his teeth grinding together as he desperately wanted to rush out and bite Ma Hou's throat. But the moment he exerted his strength, the cold dagger at his neck pressed down sharply, the blade instantly slicing through his skin, blood flowing down the groove into his collar.

Old Scar leaned against the tree trunk expressionlessly, even his breathing became long and even.

He ignored the commotion outside, lowered his head, pressed the dagger firmly against Scarface Liu's carotid artery, and brought it close to his ear.

"The good dog you brought out has not only stolen your den, but now it's come with a gun to take your life."

Old Scar's voice was as soft as a breeze, yet it carried a cruelty that sent chills down your spine: "If they touch this tree, I'll push you out with a knife. You'll take the first volley of gunfire for me, and I'll find a chance to slit the throats of these bastards. Understand?"

Feeling the icy chill on his neck, a desperate fear flashed in Scarface Liu's eyes.

He didn't even dare to swallow a sound; he could only nod frantically, his face pale.

Old Scar stared coldly at him, slowly releasing his rough hand from his mouth, but his right hand still gripped the blood-grooved dagger.

Just as Old Scar let go of her hand.

The pale beams of light that had been swaying wildly outside suddenly stopped and focused on the muddy ground a few meters ahead.

A henchman holding a homemade gun pointed at a deep drag mark and a few drops of dark red blood on the ground, his voice suddenly rising.

"Monkey King! Look, what's this!"