Chapter 222

On top of the hill was a birch forest . The dense birch forest was filled with a lot of shrubs, some plains, some sea buckthorns, and a few wild walnut trees .

Yan Liqiang carried his bow on his back . With the dagger in his hand, he carefully cut his way through thistles and thorns on the hill . The vast place was filled with rolling hills and ravines . Although he saw the owl landed in here, he only realized after entering the area that looking for an owl or someone hidden here was akin to fishing for a needle in a pond, if not in the sea .

At times like this, the super vision Yan Liqiang had developed came in handy .

Under the illumination of the faint moon and starlight from the sky, ordinary people would see nothing but darkness on such terrain . Yet Yan Liqiang could still clearly see his surroundings with that minimal amount of light from the sky .

Yan Liqiang wandered around these hills for more than an hour .

His limping legs had recovered some strength and his burning lungs had also slowly cooled . However, Yan Liqiang was still feeling a little low on Qi . After all, his stamina wasn’t infinite . The long distance sprinting from earlier had practically worn his body out .

It would seem like he was still inexperienced . He should have brought a little food that could have replenished his calories with him this time .

Yan Liqiang wandered around in the forest while mumbling to himself . When he rushed out of the inn with Liang Yijie and the other guards from the Hui Clan Gathering, he didn’t expect so many things to occur, and that he would end up running here alone after the unexpected turn of events . . .

After going through the hardship of killing Aligujin, Yan Liqiang’s clothes were already quite damaged . When he was wandering around the forest, his clothes had also caught on some thistles and fine thorns quite a few times . By now, his clothes almost looked no different than the rags worn by beggars . . .

When Yan Liqiang passed by a small stream in the forest and saw that the water was clear with a few fish swimming in it, he immediately leaned forward to the stream at its side and started gulping the water to his heart’s content .

The sweet icy stream water instantly washed a considerable amount of Yan Liqiang’s fatigue away . From his past survival experience, one’s fatigue and hunger could be significantly reduced just by drinking enough water when one was physically exhausted or famished . This was one of the methods that could be used as a last resort for stamina recovery .

By gulping down huge mouthfuls of water, Yan Liqiang’s swollen and full stomach immediately tricked his body into feeling as though he was full from a meal . Some minerals in the natural stream water were also absorbed into Yan Liqiang’s body by his digestive system, giving him a small amount of nutrients . The water also quickly rehydrated Yan Liqiang’s body, quickly replenishing the water his body had lost during the long run earlier…

When Yan Liqiang was about to get up from the streamside after feeling he had essentially recovered his strength, his ears suddenly perked before a shocked look flashed across his face . . .

A sound was heard in the silent night breeze . That sound sounded so… so much like… Goldie’s bark…!

Yan Liqiang instantly stood up and listened carefully . He then started running downhill alongside the stream .

After running two hundred meters, the stream flowed down the gentle slope from the top of the hill . Below the hill was a huge grassland filled with dried needlegrass about the height of a person . Goldie’s barks were now clearer .

Yan Liqiang sheathed his dagger and switched to his Horned Python Bow . He bent down and tiptoed among the bushes as he quietly groped his way to where Goldie’s bark was coming from .

A few minutes later, a tent appeared about fifty meters ahead of Yan Liqiang . . .

There were about ten rhinodrake steeds and three spacious carriages parked outside the tent . One of the three carriages that had a canopy was rather lavish and seemed to be used for carrying passengers . On the other hand, the other two carriages which had no canopies were probably used for transporting goods . They were loaded with quite a number of things like luggage on them .

At first glance, it seemed to resemble a Shatu caravan .

A group of Shatu people was loading stuff onto the carriages .

Among the things being moved by those Shatu people, there were several metal cages with animals in them . There were three eagles and a vulture . The owl that Yan Liqiang saw just now was also locked up in the metal cage . As for the eagles and the vulture, Yan Liqiang had a feeling he had seen them flying in the sky just a few days ago .

Goldie was also in one of those metal cages . It was turning around anxiously in there while crying out .

As soon as a Shatu man placed his hand on the metal cage with Goldie inside and was about to load it onto an ox-drawn cart, Goldie unexpectedly bit his hand . Blood came gushing out all of a sudden . The Shatu man yelled painfully and promptly retracted his hand . In his anger, he immediately unsheathed the scimitar hanging on his waist . However, when another Shatu man saw that, he quickly walked over to Shatu man who had drawn his scimitar and smacked him hard across his face before berating him loudly in Shatu .

Although Yan Liqiang didn’t really understand the Shatu language, he still managed to catch a few words from that Shatu man’s loud berating .

‘Priest… found… strange dog… great efforts… capture… want to bring back…’

The Shatu man who got scolded didn’t dare to make any noises . He only nodded in fear and then unsheathed his scimitar . In the end, he found a wooden stick and inserted it through Goldie’s metal cage . With the help of another Shatu man, both of them lifted the metal cage onto a carriage . . .

Priest? What priest? Did I mishear that or did I not hear it clearly…?

Yan Liqiang’s heart was racing wildly . His intuition told him that he seemed to have caught a huge fish . However, this fish was too huge in size that it might just swallow him whole . Yan Liqiang wasn’t certain whether he could handle it either, because someone capable of discovering and capturing Goldie in this wilderness was definitely not an ordinary person . Yan Liqiang had a feeling that these Shatu people were not ordinary either . Even the aura of those who were standing guard outside the tent seemed to be way more powerful than those Blackwind Bandits he encountered today .

Yan Liqiang licked his lips as all sorts of thoughts quickly ran through his mind .

While thoughts were running through Yan Liqiang’s head, the tent flap was suddenly lifted . A fat Shatu man and a slim Shatu man dressed in dark red apparel with both their heads full of small braids came out from inside the tent . They scanned the surroundings for a moment . Upon ensuring that nothing was out of the ordinary, each of them reached out to draw the tent flap open again . An elderly man who exuded an icy and mysterious aura came out from inside the tent, fully clad in black robes . His gray hair was threaded with terrifying white bone beads, the skin on his face was as dry as tree bark, and his forehead had a tattoo which looked like blazing flames .

The old man who came out last from the tent spoke two sentences in Shatu . The other Shatu men around him started packing up the tent, looking like they were about to leave this place . . .

The distance between them was too close; it was only about fifty meters . If he were to make a shot here and the Shatu people responded by charging toward him, he could only make another two shots at most before getting surrounded . He wasn’t sure how strong the old man was, but he certainly seemed extremely mighty . The other two Shatu men beside the old man also seemed to be very powerful and were definitely experts beyond Martial Warrior . If this turned into a close combat battle, it would probably be extremely difficult for him to escape . . .

Yan Liqiang didn’t expect to suddenly be faced with such a difficult choice either when he found the target he was looking for .

He clenched his teeth in the bushes while watching Goldie who was trapped in the cage and the strange old Shatu man . He was quickly analyzing the situation before his eyes, trying to decide if he should strike, and also trying to figure out just how to stay alive after he struck . . .

Just when Yan Liqiang was hesitating, something unusual suddenly happened nearby . . .

A sharp whooshing noise rang out in the air . Two arrows suddenly came flying out from the bushes toward the old Shatu man’s face from two hundred meters away .

Just when the two arrows were about to blow a hole through the old Shatu man’s head . . .

BANG! Strange flames suddenly appeared around the old Shatu man, shielding him like an eggshell . The moment those two arrows collided against the flames, they instantly caught on fire and were burnt to ashes . . .