These armed men were obviously not here for spiritual materials. They were here for the Feminine-moon City under the precipice. From his earlier observations, there were no demons or pract.i.tioners among these men, but they were well-trained mercenaries. They obviously had not realized the spiritual value of these Flowers of the Night or mosses by the river.

Ning Tao soon came to the edge of the precipice. An armed man was at the precipice, holding an M16 a.s.sault rifle. He poked out his head and glanced down the precipice. A rope was tethered to a tree trunk by his side. The rope was taut and someone was fastened to it.

Ning Tao did not disguise his footsteps, striding over to him.

The armed man standing on the precipice heard the footsteps and turned his head, watching Ning Tao. There was a night thermographic camera strapped on his head.

“What's the situation down below?” Ning Tao asked in English.

The armed man on the precipice said, “Someone's down there. But I guess he hasn't reached the bottom. No one knows how deep this d.a.m.ned chasm is.”

Ning Tao shook his head. “G.o.d knows. Chief got me to ask the situation.”

“What's with your accent?” The armed man on the precipice was suddenly alerted. He was preparing to raise his rifle.

If he had been watching his face, there was also a black scarf on Ning Tao's face and Ning Tao also wore a night thermographic camera over his eyes. And the light was dim. There was almost no loophole in his attire. But his accent was a giveaway he could not disguise. Although he had pa.s.sed CET-6, that was merely an examination. He rarely had the chance to speak to anyone in English. His distinct accent could easily be detected by others.

“There's some problem with my voice…” Before he finished these words, Ning Tao had leaped out. He aimed a foot at the chest of the armed man on the precipice.

Thump!

A dull thump. Before the armed man could raise his rifle, he had been kicked down the precipice by Ning Tao's foot. Although he gave a horrendous shriek, it was from far below in a distance.

The rope tethered to the trunk shook. Someone seemed to be climbing up.

“You can keep him company as well.” Ning Tao drew out his Blade of the Solar Eclipse and hacked at the taut rope. The rope, cut by the blade, seemed like a rope made out of plasticine. It snapped at once, half of it dropping into the chasm.

A faint, hideous cry resounded from the chasm, this time from even further below.

After getting rid of these two “scouts”, he turned and raced back. As he ran, he shouted, “There's an ancient city below! An ancient city below!”

This time, he deliberately adjusted his accent. Although it was still not a native accent, he would have to make do.

After shouting, he did not dash out of the forest. He took a run-up and stepped up a tree on its trunk.

Very soon, four armed men entered the forest. They were moving swiftly toward the precipice. The one leading them was aiming his rifle at their front. Another was aiming at the left. A third was aiming at their right. The last one was aiming up in the air.

Their high combat quality could be easily seen from their self-defense tactics while advancing.

But they could not protect their backs.

Ning Tao watched the four armed men under him who had come to check on the situation. At the same time, several plans of attack surfaced in his mind. He had to eliminate these four armed men, but how to do that was a question worth pondering. He could not make even a single mistake. A mistake would cause himself to be under heavy gunfire. He would not even have the chance to open the convenient door.

Kill them with one shot from the Mauser pistol?

This was the first plan he had thought of. But if he had fired, the loud explosion would draw other men from outside the forest in. He would be exposed, and more armed men would come after him.

Slit their throats with the Blade of the Solar Eclipse?

After deciding against the first plan, he came up with a second. But he decided against this as well. Hurling himself forward, he might be able to eliminate two men, but there were four before him. Even if he had managed to kill two, would the other two be fools and not fire at him? This was not a movie. Bullets from extras would never hit the hero, but this was a real battlefield. Even a stray bullet might cost him his life.

The third plan was for him to open the convenient door, return to the clinic and get Qing Zhui, Bai Jing and Yin Molan's help. But the moment he thought of this, he decided against it. Qing Zhui, Bai Jing and Yin Molan would have left the Sword Pavilion Cave by now. Yin Molan would be racing on a road, while Qing Zhui and Bai Jing might be strolling on some street in Shan City. He could not get them to join the combat at this moment when he most needed them.

While Ning Tao was turning these three plans over in his head, the four armed men had walked ten meters. Near them in the front was the hot spring waterfall by the precipice. The moment they reached the precipice, they would discover the cut tethered rope. Then they would know what had happened, even by thinking with their toes.

A fourth plan suddenly surfaced in Ning Tao's mind. He put down the backpack and opened his medicine chest, pulling out the herb-collecting rope. Then he put on his backpack again and leaped down the tree. He injected spiritual power into the herb-collecting rope and the runes on it sparkled. The magic tool had been activated. Instantaneously, he flung his arm, hurling the herb-collecting rope at the four armed men walking in a single file.

Whoos.h.!.+

The herb-collecting rope flew away from Ning Tao's hand. Its end was enwrapped in a plume of spiritual energy, intermingling in black and white. This spiritual energy was an energy field released using his special spiritual power. A bullet from the Mauser pistol was in it. It could make the bullet unleash a power even more terrifying than a bomb. The end of this rope was no bomb, but something akin to a javelin hurled by a Shennongjia primitive!

The sound of something whizzing through the air was heard. The armed man at the back heard it and instinctively turned his head. Before he could duck, the rope had penetrated his brain. His brain at that very moment instantly exploded, like a watermelon hit by a bullet!

The herb-collecting rope did not stop but continued to hit the second and third men's heads.

The armed man leading the four had not reacted. The rope skimmed over his face. In that instant, he realized it was no rope but a rocket missile! If his head had been aligned in a straight line just now, it would have exploded like a watermelon hit by a bullet!

The armed man in front turned back his head. In his line of vision, his three headless colleagues had slumped to the ground. He had undergone hundreds of battles, and would not even blink killing a man. Yet seeing this situation, his face tensed from sheer horror. Then, he saw behind him a masked fellow with a rope in his hand. But the armed man was well trained and a seasoned, professional veteran. In the next second, he had turned vigorously, waving his arm and raising his rifle. His right index finger was on the trigger.

Whoos.h.!.+

A streak of sudden cold light. When it halted, it was already upon his forehead.

A surgical scalpel, the Blade of the Solar Eclipse.

The last armed man dropped dead stiffly to the ground. Even at his death, he could not pull the trigger, nor let loose a cry.

Ning Tao heaved a long sigh of relief. He walked toward the four corpses, gathering the herb-collecting rope as he approached. This was the first time he was using the herb-collecting rope as a weapon. It had turned out unexpectedly well. Actually, it was no risky decision. He had great faith in the herb-collecting rope since after activating it into a magic tool, it could penetrate solid rocks to a depth of one-third of a meter. Such strong prowess could easily penetrate through a few brains. A magic tool of Sky Clinic would far surpa.s.s those from anywhere else!

Ning Tao stopped by the last corpse, stretched out his hand and drew out the Blade of the Solar Eclipse. He casually slipped it into the canvas sheath on his right thigh. He would not keep the herb-collecting rope in his medicine chest now, tying it to his backpack instead.

Just when Ning Tao was about to depart, a voice suddenly rang out. “17, what's the situation out there? 17, please reply!”

The voice had emanated from a communication device hanging on his shoulder.

17 was not a real name but a code name. These men would mask themselves even when they had the situation completely under control. They would not use their real names but numbered code names. What could be ascertained was that these men could not be traced even if the Hua Country's intelligence unit had investigated the bodies. It was not the first time Ning Tao had encountered this. They were all undercover mercenaries of the Black Fire Company.

Ning Tao took down the communication device and said in a deep voice, “Discovered the ruin of a city under the precipice.”

“Okay, I will come with men right away.” From the device came the voice of their white commanding officer.

Ning Tao slung the communication device back onto his shoulder. Then he pushed all four corpses into the hot spring river. Following that, he returned to the precipice, untied the half length of rope from the tree trunk and threw it down the chasm. He could do nothing to the splashes of blood and brain mush on the ground. He had no time to care about them. He strode across the hot spring river, sneaking swiftly from there to the edge of the forest.

Not long after Ning Tao departed, the burly white commanding officer brought seven or eight armed men into the forest. They followed the direction of the hot spring river. Capturing Shennongjia primitives was nothing great. They preferred bigger targets like the Feminine-moon people's city.

Very soon, Ning Tao reached the end of the forest. With one glance, he could see the five people—Tang Zixian, Tu Wenjin, Ma Tongtong, Ji Wengui, and Yang Chen—kept hostage by the two armed men. There were two more armed men guarding the cave entrance, one of them an Asian with a sniper rifle. Both his and the other black man's eyes were focused on the cave interior, not on the hostages.

Ning Tao emerged from the tree trunk hiding his body. He strode with long steps toward the two armed men guarding the hostages.