Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

"I……"

----

"Whoosh!"

Suddenly, a whooshing sound rang out. Just as the three were arguing about it, an arrow shot out from the dense forest, piercing the rope in one go. Leon, who had been hanging there, was finally freed and fell to the ground with a "thud," splashing black mud everywhere.

Archers?!

Zhang Renfeng immediately drew his two pistols, aimed them in the direction the arrows were coming from, and shouted, "I don't know what you want to do, please show yourself quickly, or I'll shoot!"

……

In the silent depths of the forest, a white horse slowly approached them.

The man on horseback had a serene face, devoid of sorrow or joy, like a tranquil Buddha statue.

He appeared to be about the same height as Zhang Renfeng, with his hair loose and wearing a deerskin shawl adorned with dark red flamingo feather ornaments. Around his neck hung a necklace made of the teeth of some unknown wild animal. A bow was slung across his back, a quiver hung from his saddle strap, and a double-action revolver was strapped to his waist.

"Indians?" Mike was somewhat surprised, recalling the dreamcatcher he had just seen. "They really exist?"

Chapter Twenty-One: Life and Death, the Endless Cycle

"What do you want to do?" Zhang Renfeng could hardly read any emotion in those calm eyes, and he couldn't figure out his intentions.

He didn't speak, but stared at Zhang Renfeng for a long time before raising his hand and pointing to the corpse on the ground.

"Want the body?" McDonagh was puzzled. "Listen, this unlucky guy was probably ransacked by the gang before he died, there won't be anything left. There's no point in him taking his body."

"..." He remained silent, but showed no intention of leaving. Instead, he stared intently at Leon's body.

The wind blew through the forest, causing the fiery red feathers on her shawl to sway rhythmically.

Xiaomei glanced at his saddlebag, and from her angle, she could just see a shovel handle sticking out of the bag. She immediately clicked with the man's gaze and asked timidly, "Could it be that you're planning to bury the body?"

His eyes remained expressionless; he simply nodded.

"You know him?" Mike glanced at Leon, who was sprawled on the ground.

Shake his head.

"If that's the case, why help someone you don't know?"

The next moment, the silent Native American raised his hands, clasped his ten fingers tightly together, and pressed them to his lips, making a gesture of prayer to God.

This action transcended the limitations of language, conveying a message that shocked all three and instilled in them a sense of respect for the person before them. In this land where savagery and evil coexist, death was inevitable, and no one wanted to be left to rot in the wilderness, their eyes pecked at by crows and vultures. To have someone to take care of their affairs after death was a great comfort.

"Thank you, you're such a kind person." Xiaomei's voice choked with emotion as she took out the gold nugget Lyon had given her from her pocket. She first asked the two adults for their permission, "Mr. Mike, Mr. Red, is this alright?"

Mike's gaze burned as he looked at the gold nugget, his brow furrowed. After a long internal struggle, he finally sighed and waved to her. As for Zhang Renfeng, he wasn't particularly concerned with material possessions, so he naturally had no objections.

"Here, this is for you. Thank you for helping us bury him." Xiaomei tossed the gold nugget over, and he caught it.

Interestingly, even upon seeing the dazzling gold, his expression remained peaceful and calm, without the slightest change, which puzzled Zhang Renfeng. To date, he had only met two people who could remain completely unmoved in the face of wealth, and this man before him was one of them.

“Don’t worry, it’s real gold,” Mike added. “The guy lying on the ground was a gold prospector; he should have been on his way home by now.”

The Indian didn't answer, but flicked his wrist and tossed the gold nugget to Zhang Renfeng, the leader.

"What do you mean?" This small piece of gold felt incredibly hot to the touch. "You don't want it?"

"..." He didn't speak again, as if the three people in front of him had become air and no longer existed. In the vast world, only he and this pitiful corpse remained.

With unhurried steps, the Native American took a bottle of ointment from his satchel, squatted down, and began to apply it to the corpse's face. As he applied it, he chanted a long, drawn-out tune in a strange tone. The three then realized that he wasn't mute; he simply didn't speak in their language.

Some people are in charge of digging, and some are in charge of burying; it seems that for the time being, they are no longer needed.

But... this isn't over yet.

Do you know where the person who killed him is?

The Indian raised his head, and his stagnant eyes finally showed some change. Zhang Renfeng felt that those eyes had some kind of magic, taking advantage of the eye contact to penetrate his brain, wanting to see all his secrets.

After a long while, he seemed to have let it go, nodded, and pointed out a direction for the three of them.

There, a wisp of smoke was rising.

----

"Did you just see that? That idiot... hahaha..." The hunchback sat in front of the fire, biting off a piece of meat with his yellowed teeth and laughing loudly, "What kind of gibberish was he spouting? He actually thought of resisting, a moron who can't even fire a gun."

"Come on, let's drink to this unexpected joy as soon as possible!"

No wonder they were so excited. Night patrols are usually a tough job, but at the end of this patrol, they unexpectedly discovered a super fat sheep—a gold prospector who happened to be passing by. Despite the language barrier, they recognized him immediately from his nervous expression and the hand he kept protecting his saddlebag; they knew they had caught a big fish.

Killing people and stealing goods.

For them, it's as ordinary as eating and drinking.

Simply put, the weight of this piece of gold... was enough to wipe away all the fatigue from the night shift. The hunchback was even a little excited, like he'd been injected with chicken blood, his eyes bloodshot, panting heavily, and incredibly excited.

"Let me make this clear from the start: this gold must be handed over in full weight." The most composed fat man in the patrol team looked at all the members in turn and said in a deep voice, "Whatever amount is in our hands will be the same amount when it reaches Scarface Village, understand?"

Upon hearing this, the other four companions fell silent, their eyes gleaming with a greedy green light, as if they had shed their human skin and transformed into coyotes.

"Why?" Finally, the hunchbacked man stepped in to speak for them, half-flattering and half-threatening, he chuckled, "It's such a big piece, even if you cut off a little bit, you wouldn't be able to tell, would you?"

"Precisely because it's so big, this thing will definitely pass through Giselle's and Tucus's hands. Giselle is very skilled with knives, so she'll definitely notice. But if he finds out, it's not a big deal; he'll turn a blind eye..."

The fat man lowered his voice, subconsciously lowering it, as if afraid of being overheard by the person he was talking to.

"What about Tucu? Tucu Zolael, do you think he's someone who can be fooled?"

The moment the image library is mentioned, the mountains suddenly fall silent, as if even the birds have fallen silent.

“Last time, there was an unlucky guy… who was collecting prostitute fees in the village and secretly pocketed fifteen yuan. You all know what happened to him, but I saw what happened.”

“Tucus called him in, made him sit in a chair, and stared into his eyes. He just kept staring at him without saying a word until he couldn’t take it anymore and confessed that he had embezzled $15. Tucus smiled at him, then suddenly grabbed an ashtray and smashed his head into a pulp. That’s it! No one informed on him; he just ‘smelled the lie,’ that’s what he said.”

Everyone shuddered.

Based on their understanding of stock photo libraries, there shouldn't be any exaggeration in this statement.

“$15 is enough for him to blow someone’s head off. If he knew that you secretly cut a small piece from his gold… what would happen? If you want to try, go ahead. I want to live a few more years.”

"Besides, handing over the gold intact is considered a service to the gang. If he's in a good mood, it's common for him to give us a few dozen dollars. But you have to be alive to spend the money."

……

"Damn it, the Zolael family..." The hunchback curled his lip, accepting the explanation, and then vented his anger on the dead Lyon, "That damned outsider, it's all his fault. If he had cut the gold earlier, none of this would have happened!"

"Did you hear that just now? When I slit his throat, the sound was just like a cow farting... pfft pfft pfft pfft~~~"

"Brother...brother, save me... *puff puff puff*"

He covered his throat, mimicking the sound of blood flowing out, and laughed loudly.

Suddenly, everyone's expressions became tense.

An unfamiliar face strode out from the trees and walked towards them as if no one else was there.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Good Will Not Prevail Over Evil

"What do you want?" The hunchback turned around and saw a slightly hunched body with a fawning smile on his face. "I'm in a good mood today. If you don't want to die, get lost."

"Sorry, I... I'm lost. I've been wandering around here since last night, even though I was following the map. I've also run out of food..." Zhang Renfeng clutched his stomach, took out a gold nugget from his pocket, and said with a smile, "Can you give me something to eat? I have gold."

"I have gold."

Who would complain about having too much gold?

The hunchback couldn't help but laugh. Two idiots had come knocking on his door this morning. Was today really his lucky day?

He reached out to catch it, but Zhang Renfeng lost his grip, and the gold nugget slipped from his palm and fell to the ground.

"...Sorry, my hand slipped." Zhang Renfeng lowered his head slightly, looking at him with a forced smile.

"Bastard," the hunchback muttered casually, not paying much attention. At this moment, his gaze was completely fixed on the piece of gold.

Just as he bent down to pick up the gold nugget, Zhang Renfeng kicked him effortlessly, breaking his nose. With a crack, he was sent sprawling on his back. He instinctively covered his nose, letting out a piercing scream, and fell backward to the ground.

The kick was swift and powerful, but it wasn't a gunshot, so it lacked that sense of shock. No one present could react in time!

Zhang Renfeng wasn't idle either. With a flick of his wrist, two throwing knives shot out from his hand like silver snakes, whistling through the air.

The two men had barely made a move, not even touching the gun handle, when a throwing knife pierced their throats with two sharp, precise, and elegant thuds—a fatal blow. They coughed in agony, unable to even scream, as blood gushed out like a fountain, splattering onto the fat man's face.

On a frigid winter morning, when the temperature is extremely low, the blood inside the body is still warm, emitting plumes of white steam.

"Ah...cough..."

There were no last words, only the coughing sound of gushing blood.

Five people in total, and three were taken down in the blink of an eye, without even a gun. The remaining two had no will to fight anymore. One of them took off running, but Mike, who was lying in ambush behind a big tree, hit him on the head with the butt of his rifle.

"Boom!"

The force was just right, leaving him completely disoriented.

Mike gritted his teeth, driven by the desire for revenge for Leon. Using his arm as a noose, he strangled Leon from behind, tightening the noose until Leon was foaming at the mouth and his eyes bulged out. Leon's legs thrashed about, kicking two small craters in the mud.

Ultimately, in extreme pain, he will slowly suffocate and die.

"Ah...you broke my nose, you bastard!" The hunchback clutched his aching nose, blood trickling from between his fingers and overflowing.

But when he saw the situation before him, his expression changed instantly from anger to shock, and then to fear. Just as he was about to turn and run away, a piece of gold flew towards him and shattered his front teeth. In that instant, the gold flew down his throat and lodged there, completely blocking his breathing.

“Woo…Woo!!!”

After swallowing the gold nugget, the hunchback collapsed to the ground in agony, desperately trying to vomit it up. But the nugget was too big, getting stuck in his throat, making it impossible. Compared to the agony of suffocation, his broken nose suddenly seemed insignificant. His face instantly turned ashen, a liver-like color, and he made a strange sound as if he was about to spit.

He crawled laboriously on the ground until the hard sole of a shoe... stepped on his hand.

"Waaah! Waaah... Ah..."

“You really like gold, don’t you? Then eat it.” Zhang Renfeng slowly walked around from behind to face him, stepped on his hand, and slowly squatted down, his voice becoming cold and unpredictable.

"Cheer up, not everyone has the chance to try dying this way."

……

The brief struggle quickly came to an end, and judging from his final expression, he didn't seem to enjoy the close contact with the gold.

Zhang Renfeng slit his throat with a dagger, just as he had done to Leon. The gold nugget, propelled by the blood, sprang out of the wound along with the tongue. He took it expressionlessly and wiped the blood off with the hunchback's clothes. Interestingly, after this ordeal, the gold nugget remained intact, gleaming with an alluring luster.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I know the rules." Only the fat man was left alive. Knowing he had messed with a tough opponent, he disarmed himself, put the revolver on the ground, and tossed it over. "The gold is yours. Give me a chance. I want to live."

"I need to ask you something." Zhang Renfeng put away the gold nugget, turned around, and asked in an extremely ordinary tone, "I'm looking for someone named Giselle. Have you heard of her?"

“Giselle?” The fat man’s eyes darted around. “He’s the second-in-command of this stronghold. He’s usually… usually away on long trips. I heard he went to another town to collect debts a few days ago! People of our level rarely see him. But he has a habit of going to the flea den east of Scarface Village every afternoon at five o’clock. If you want to see him, you can try your luck there.”

"A flea nest?" Mike didn't recall seeing this place. He pressed the firing pin, his hand still gripping the gun. "What's that for?"

"Prostitutes, alcoholics, gamblers, violent freaks... and little brats who shouldn't have been born—that's the worst side of Scarface Village. No gang member of any standing would go there."

"They're just a bunch of robbers, don't bother distinguishing between them," Xiaomei said with disgust.

Only then did the fat man realize that there was a little girl accompanying him. But she didn't seem afraid of the bloody scene; on the contrary, a look of satisfaction at having avenged her was flashing across her face.

"Giselle is a very mysterious person. Except when he has a mission, I have never seen him with anyone. He always goes alone. His whereabouts are also often unpredictable. He is in this town one moment and in that city the next... In short, in this stronghold, apart from Tuku, he is the one whose words carry the most weight. No matter what you want to do with him, you had better be careful."

Zhang Renfeng and Mike exchanged a glance. They had already gained quite a bit by getting these things out of this lowly soldier.

"Who is this 'image library' you just mentioned?"

However, to Zhang Renfeng's surprise, the moment the question left his mouth, the other person's expression froze. Panic crossed his brow, and sweat poured down his fat face.

“Tuku Zolael, that’s all I can say. If I say another word, my fate will be terrible.” The fat man’s face trembled. He swallowed hard and added shakily, “He likes to execute people with his fists… Once, he stared at me for a long time, patted my shoulder, and said, ‘If I put you in a sandbag, it would feel really good.’ I don’t want to be beaten to death by him!”

"It sounds like you've met some friends," Mike said to Zhang Renfeng, with a hint of teasing.

"Please, I've told you everything I know... I won't tell anyone. You just heard it yourself, the one who killed him was this hunchback. I... I was just watching, I really didn't participate..."

……

Seeing his pleading, almost to the point of kneeling, Xiaomei's tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

----

"Alright." Zhang Renfeng's expression suddenly changed, and she smiled as she pulled him up. "You're all done here, you can go back now."

"Really?" The fat man felt as if he had been granted a pardon, and for a moment he couldn't believe it. "You're really letting me go back?!"

"Is that a lie?" Zhang Renfeng bent down to brush the dust off his knees, and casually asked in a conversational tone, "Back then, if he had obediently handed over the gold nuggets, would you still have killed him?"