### Chapter 4: Night Encounter

### Chapter 4: Night Encounter

In the treacherous mountains and wild paths, a young man leaped and bounded over hills as if walking on flat ground.

"As long as one's internal martial arts are profound, everything becomes twice as effective with half the effort. The Purple Sun Sect's Piaozong Duying lightness technique was something I could only grasp a bit of in the past, but now with my enhanced internal strength, it has truly transformed!"

This person was none other than Su Mo.

After accepting the mission, he naturally had to head for Ji Mingyi.

He had pretended to leave earlier, merely to mislead others, but in reality, he had circled back to secretly investigate those hiding in the shadows.

However, this round trip had put him behind these people.

To avoid being seen through by the others, Su Mo had to take an alternative route, using his lightness technique to maneuver ahead of them, so that he could truly act without anyone noticing.

Now that the identities were clear but the information was still unequal, no matter what methods the others used, Su Mo could easily counter them.

As long as he delivered this item to Wang Xianglin in Ji Mingyi under their noses.

Then this matter would have nothing more to do with him, Su Mo.

Any future entanglements would be between Wang Xianglin and these people.

As for himself, if there was a bounty, he would earn money; if not, he would receive rewards from the system tasks. Either way, it was a win-win situation!

"This is the way to protect oneself while navigating the world of martial arts. Otherwise, simply killing these few people... aside from whether it would be easy or not, even if he did kill them, it wouldn't necessarily guarantee safety.

"The subsequent troubles might still find their way to him.

"Only by truly passing on this trouble is the best strategy!"

With a slight pause, he roughly surveyed the surroundings and estimated, "I've covered about forty to fifty miles, which should have put me ahead of them..."

He immediately identified the path and within moments arrived at a desolate ancient road in the midst of the forest.

"Following this path, according to my original pace, traveling day and night, I should reach Ji Mingyi in four days."

Taking a deep breath, Su Mo continued to rush forward.

Time passed swiftly, and the sun began to set, casting long shadows. The sky was painted red, giving a faint sense of autumnal desolation despite it not being autumn yet.

Not long after, a small tea stall suddenly appeared by the roadside.

Su Mo's eyebrows twitched slightly, "Could this be it?"

An ancient road and a wild tea stall were not places known for safety.

Think about it, who would open a tea stall in such a remote place?

Wouldn't they fear that passersby might harbor ill intentions and rob them?

Therefore, tea stalls and taverns in such desolate areas were often quite dangerous.

One wrong step and you could end up in a black inn, becoming someone's lamb on the chopping block.

However, Su Mo was prepared to face the danger head-on. But when he arrived at the tea stall, he realized he had guessed wrong.

He hadn't guessed wrong about the beginning, but he had guessed wrong about the ending!

The tea stall wasn't large, with a few tables scattered around.

A corpse lay sprawled on the counter, pierced through the neck by a knife!

The blade had not only penetrated his neck but also the counter, with blood dripping from the tip onto the ground.

The corpse's eyes were wide open, frozen in the terror of his final moments.

Su Mo recognized this person... he was one of those who had been secretly watching him earlier!

Because of this, Su Mo hadn't guessed wrong about the beginning.

This person had set up this tea stall here clearly to lure him in.

However, he had guessed wrong about the ending.

He had thought of several ways to deal with the situation, but never imagined that none of them would be needed.

Because he couldn't have imagined that someone else had killed him before he could act!

Who did it?

Standing there, Su Mo fell into deep thought.

After a moment of silence, he walked around the corpse and went to the back of the tea stall.

There, he found two more corpses.

Compared to the one outside, these two were more decently placed.

They were neatly lined up, indicating they had been dead longer than the one outside.

"It wasn't the same person who killed them... so, they must have been the original owners of this tea stall?"

Su Mo pieced together a conclusion, resolving one of his doubts:

"I thought I had gotten ahead of them, but this person had already gotten ahead of me. Finding this tea stall by the mountain path, he killed the owners and took over, waiting for me to show up."

"I said it before; even if you had great magical powers, how could you possibly build this teahouse out of nothing in such a short time?

"Yet, for some reason, someone decided to complicate matters and actually stabbed him to death on this counter.

"This is getting interesting. Who did this? If you're doing good deeds, at least leave a diary behind?"

He shook his head slightly, momentarily puzzled, but several possible guesses arose in his mind. However, discussing them now would be pointless.

After circling the teahouse inside and out without finding any clues, Su Mo decided to ignore it and continued on his journey!

In the world of martial arts, there are countless inexplicable events.

As the saying goes, when you see something strange and don't react, its strangeness will fade away!

No matter who did this or what their reasons were, if it was aimed at him, they would eventually show themselves.

Panic at this moment would indeed be foolish!

Leaving the teahouse, he continued toward Ji Mingyi as the sky darkened.

Su Mo didn't travel at night, and he couldn't find a broken temple or similar place to rest, so he simply found a suitable spot and started a fire.

He heated up the flatbread from his bag over the fire and ate it with some water.

"Tomorrow, when I pass through a town, I must buy a roasted chicken. Eating these flatbreads every day is really tasteless."

As he spoke, he sniffed the air, catching a whiff of meat carried by the night breeze.

Su Mo was surprised: "Is this a stroke of luck? How could I smell meat just after talking about roasted chicken?"

A moment later, a person stumbled out of the darkness.

Under the firelight, it was clear that this person was quite old.

His hair was messy, his clothes tattered, and he had a large red gourd hanging from his waist, swaying as he walked.

In his left hand, he held a wooden stick, while his right hand clutched a roasted chicken, which he gnawed on as he approached. Without giving Su Mo a second glance, he sat down directly beside the fire.

He casually placed the roasted chicken aside, untied the red gourd, and the scent of alcohol immediately spread.

The man took a long drink, then sighed deeply, "Good wine!"

Then, glancing at Su Mo:

"Dare you have a drink?"