9:30 PM.
Jiang Cheng stood on the hillside, looking down from a high vantage point at the entire Banlai Village.
The moonlight stretched his shadow long, like a blade thrust into the ground.
Zhou Guanshan stood half a step behind him, silent as a stone statue.
Xia Li stood to his right, her fingers gripping the hem of her clothes so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Her eyes were fixed on the village, like a cheetah ready to pounce at any moment.
"Young Master Jiang," her voice was soft, but every word trembled. "Let me—"
"Wait."
A single word.
It wasn't heavy, but it carried a weight that commanded silence.
Xia Li bit her lip and said no more.
Jiang Cheng's gaze fell upon the village.
Wang Sheng's voice came through: "Young Master Jiang, I'm already in the trees..."
"Good. The people sent by Tyrande have already scaled the cliff."
"Roger that!" Wang Sheng whispered.
Chaqin's men were walking into the village.
They moved slowly, looking exhausted.
After hiking mountain trails all day, the soles of their feet were covered in blisters.
"Damn it, Chaqin insisted on taking this shitty path..." The man in the lead grumbled, slinging his AK over his shoulder. "Can't even find a single woman in this godforsaken place."
"Shut up," the man behind him carrying a light machine gun glared. "We can rest once we're in the village. Kun Tui's men are pinned down. Once we finish this job tonight, you can rest however you want when we get back."
They entered the village and leaned against the walls in small groups, lighting cigarettes, drinking water, and rubbing their feet.
One fellow even propped his gun against a wall and unzipped his pants to urinate.
"Where are the sentries?" the machine gunner shouted. "Get two men up there."
"What's the point..." someone muttered. "There isn't even a dog in this dump. Kun Tui and those bastards are trapped in the middle building and can't even move. Who the hell would come to save them?"
Several men burst into laughter.
"True. That son of a bitch Kun Tui is dead meat this time."
Perched in a tree, Wang Sheng aligned his crosshairs with the machine gun nest on the second floor to the left.
The man with the machine gun had just reached the second floor, propped his weapon on the windowsill, and lit a cigarette.
"Damn, this place..."
As he finished speaking, a soft "click" came through the earpiece.
Hearing this signal from Tyrande's Security Squad,
Wang Sheng took a deep breath and exhaled halfway.
His finger began to tighten.
"Da—da-da."
With the first shot, the machine gunner's head on the second floor to the left exploded like a watermelon, his cigarette butt flying out and tracing an arc through the air.
The second and third shots, fired in a burst, hit the machine gun nest on the right.
The man crouching behind the sandbags now had two holes in his chest. He tumbled backward, the cigarette still in his hand.
Two seconds. Two machine guns silenced.
The men at the village entrance were stunned.
Someone had just reached for his gun when a hole appeared between his eyebrows.
Someone else had just opened his mouth to scream when his throat was torn open by a bullet.
"Fuck! There's someone in the trees!"
The man who shouted this had the top of his skull blown off by a bullet the very next second.
The survivors finally reacted.
"Get down! Get down!"
"Damn it! How do they have an RPG?!"
"Weren't they supposed to be saving Kun Tui? This is saving someone? This is a fucking massacre!"
A group of men immediately raised their AKs and sprayed the trees.
"Da-da-da-da-da—"
Bullets struck the branches, sending wood chips flying.
Wang Sheng ducked, changed positions, and poked his head out from another branch.
"Da."
One shot.
The man who had been firing now had a hole right in the center of his forehead.
His eyes wide, his body slowly, slowly toppled forward like a felled tree.
"Da-da-da—da-da—"
Burst, burst, burst.
Every man left standing collapsed the moment the shots rang out.
"Brother Sheng! RPG!"
One of the squad members rushed over from the side and thrust an RPG launcher into his hands.
Wang Sheng took it, dropped to one knee, and propped the launcher steadily on his shoulder.
Through the scope, the crosshairs aligned with the second stilt house on the left.
A pile of Chaqin's ammo crates sat by the door.
A smirk played on the corner of Wang Sheng's mouth.
"Go to hell."
"BOOM—!!"
Flames shot into the sky.
The stilt house was blown to bits, its wooden structure scattering like matchsticks.
The ammo crates detonated, and the shockwave from the secondary explosion sent two nearby militants flying. They hit the ground like ragdolls, motionless.
The blast wave flattened the surrounding weeds.
The entire battlefield fell silent for a second.
And then—
"Run! Run!" Someone threw down his gun and turned to flee.
"Don't run! You're dead if you run!" another grabbed him. "They have RPGs! Can you outrun an RPG?!"
"Then what do we do?!"
"Surrender! Surrender!"
"Stop shooting! Surrender! We surrender!"
The remaining militants threw their guns to the ground, put their hands behind their heads, and knelt in a row.
"Don't kill us! We're just hired hands!"
Wang Sheng slid down from the tree, landing soundlessly.
He glanced at the AK in his hand, then at the RPG beside him, muttering, "I'm getting rusty. Back in the day, that first RPG would've taken out both nests at once."
Several security members gathered around, their eyes full of admiration.
"Brother Sheng! Those shots just now were incredible!"
"That RPG! One shot, one soul, Brother Sheng!"
Wang Sheng waved them off, his tone impatient, but the corners of his mouth were turned way up. "Cut the damn chatter. Those are just basic skills, nothing to brag about."
He paused, glancing at the weapons in the team members' hands.
"By the way, take good care of the RPG. It's on loan from Uncle Zhou, and we have to return it when we're done. If any of you lose it, I'll make you pay for a new one out of your own pocket."
Everyone nodded quickly, replying with a grin, "Got it, Brother Sheng! We'll make sure it's safe!"
Carrying his AK, he walked over to the kneeling men and looked down at them.
The men were trembling all over, not daring to look up.
"W-who are you people..." one of them asked with a shaky voice. "Kun Tui... how could Kun Tui possibly have this kind of firepower..."
A few minutes later, after clearing the remaining pockets of resistance, Wang Sheng picked up his walkie-talkie and notified Jiang Cheng: "Young Master Jiang, it's all clear."
"Good work."
Having said that, Jiang Cheng turned around and looked back at Xia Li. "Xia Li."
Xia Li's body jolted. She turned to look at Jiang Cheng with anticipation. "I'm here."
"Let's go," Jiang Cheng said. "Let's find the Snake Girl."
His certain tone made her eyes well up instantly.
She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She simply nodded vigorously.
"...Yes, Young Master Jiang."