Chapter 309: The Encounter
The Jiangshi tilted its head back and let out a silent roar.
Crack!
The squad leader’s neck snapped!
Like tossing away a ragged sack, the Jiangshi flung the squad leader’s corpse aside and stepped forward. Soon, the eerie wails and screams of the mercenaries echoed through the tomb passage.
Taotie and Tom exchanged glances, momentarily speechless.
They knew the Jiangshi was fierce, but they hadn’t expected it to be this fierce.
Tom furrowed his brows and signaled with his eyes, asking Taotie if they could breathe now. His handsome face was turning red from holding his breath, and he was on the verge of suffocation.
Taotie exhaled a deep breath. “Let’s move!”
Without hesitation, he slung his Mo Dao over his shoulder and sprinted forward.
Before leaving, he quickly scanned the Golden Horned Bronze Coffin, grabbed a bronze beast-shaped ornament and a metal seal, and stuffed them into his pocket.
Tom, not wanting to be left behind, followed suit. He reached into the coffin and snatched two random artifacts, shoving them into his own pocket.
“Taotie, where are we heading?” Tom asked urgently as they ran.
“Obviously, we’re going home!” Taotie replied matter-of-factly. “Her Highness is still waiting for us!”
Glancing at the ground for signs of the Jiangshi’s movements, Taotie quickly determined its direction and decisively chose the opposite route.
With both of them moving swiftly, they retraced their path through the ancient tomb. The return trip took only a third of the time it had taken to get in.
Reaching the cavern passage, Tom took the lead.
He had already memorized the entire route from their entry—every passage was deeply engraved in his mind, making a map unnecessary.
As they approached the burnt-down nest of flesh-eating rats, Tom suddenly stopped and motioned for Taotie to stay silent.
Taotie immediately understood and halted, pressing himself against a stalactite pillar to observe ahead.
Not far in front of them, a group of over ten men, dressed in black uniforms, were examining the ground for tracks.
Each of them wore uniforms with a golden embroidered character “当” (Pawn) on their chests.
“Tom, looks like Pawnshop people,” Taotie murmured quietly.
Tom nodded. “Exactly as the rumors say.”
“What’s the plan?” Taotie whispered.
“Kill them all.”
“They’re blocking the way, and we can’t go around them,” Tom said coldly, his eyes flashing with murderous intent.
He didn’t know the history between Princess Xiaocao and the Pawnshop, but as a professional assassin, he had no intention of leaving them alive.
Top-tier assassins were never merciful.
To them, human lives were as insignificant as grass, and killing was merely a survival skill.
If someone blocked the path, and there was no way around, then the simplest solution was to eliminate them.
To Tom, a few corpses were nothing.
Taotie raised an eyebrow at Tom’s decisiveness, then grinned wickedly.
“Tom, I think I like you more and more.”
His smile was sinister and deranged.
While Tom was indifferent to life, Taotie had no humanity at all.
Apart from Princess Xiaocao and Tom, whom he would joke around with—even their allies, Hummingbird and Wan Xiaozhou, were not beyond his blade if necessary.
Tom rolled his eyes. “Stay the hell away from me.”
“Hehehe~” Taotie let out a creepy chuckle.
“Let’s go!”
Tom didn’t bother with further conversation and moved to strike.
Taotie slipped his hand into his gauntlets, then, in the blink of an eye—
BOOM!
He sprinted out from behind the stalactite, charging straight at the Pawnshop enforcers.
Watching Taotie recklessly charge in, Tom shook his head in exasperation.
He had planned to snipe a few enemies first, then pretend to be overwhelmed, luring them into an ambush before finishing them off in one go.
But now?
Taotie had just turned an ambush into an all-out brawl.
Tom was so frustrated he almost wanted to put a bullet in Taotie himself.
But then again, after everything they had been through, they were practically brothers in arms. Killing him wasn’t an option.
Sighing, Tom raised his gun in one hand and a black short blade in the other.
He stepped out from behind the stalactite—
And fired.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots echoed through the cavern.
Within seconds, four Pawnshop enforcers dropped dead.
Tom’s marksmanship was impeccable. If he had fired eight shots and only killed four, that meant these enforcers weren’t just ordinary thugs—they were trained professionals capable of dodging bullets.
Losing four men so quickly, the remaining eleven enforcers immediately returned fire.
Tom advanced while changing magazines single-handedly, the smooth motion showcasing his elite training.
As soon as he reloaded, he resumed his rapid-fire assault, sniping two more enemies who had barely peeked out to shoot.
Meanwhile, Taotie charged ahead like a raging beast, dodging bullets with sheer recklessness.
The Pawnshop enforcers, expecting to deal with the sharpshooter first, had largely ignored the sword-wielding madman.
A deadly mistake.
If they had focused on Taotie, even with his high-tech bulletproof vest, he wouldn’t have lasted under concentrated fire.
But they underestimated him.
And now, it was too late.
“YOU LITTLE SHITS DARE SHOOT ME?!” Taotie roared.
“DIE, ALL OF YOU!”
The Mo Dao gleamed under the dim cavern light as Taotie swung it like a whirlwind.
SLASH!
A Pawnshop enforcer was cleaved in half, his gun still in his grip as his body split apart.
Seeing this, the remaining enforcers immediately redirected their fire toward Taotie…
