"How long will it take to get to the end?" Shi Lang saw that the woman was no longer talking, so he took the initiative to ask.

"The lower reaches of the river are fast, and it's very dangerous to travel at night. There is an indigenous cottage not far ahead. When the time comes, we will stay on the shore. They were still very hospitable. Wait until dawn tomorrow, and then we'll figure it out. The woman seemed to have already planned her route.

Shi Lang was not familiar with the local area, so he could only follow the woman's arrangement.

The raft had been moving forward for less than a quarter of an hour, and a simple wooden platform resembling a pier loomed on the bank on the right side of the river.

"It's here. Let's pull the raft to the platform on the shore. The woman said, pointing to the platform.

After the raft landed, Shi Lang landed on the shore first, and the woman followed closely behind. Together, they pulled the rafts up from the river and lowered them into the grass by the river along with the two oars.

At the innermost end of the platform is a path that winds upwards with stone steps. Shi Lang followed the woman and climbed up the stone steps.

"I've been to this Aboriginal cottage once and they've been very hospitable. However, Childe should be prepared to drink. According to their custom, guests have to drink each of their toasts to be considered sincere. I wonder how much Childe drinks? The woman said to Shi Lang as she walked.

"That's troublesome. Looks like I'm going to have to go out tonight. Shi Lang drank an average amount of alcohol, and when he heard the woman's speech, his face was timid.

Shi Lang's initiative to show weakness once again aroused the woman's desire to protect Shi Lang, she turned her head to look at Shi Lang, and said: "Childe, don't worry too much, then you just need to look at my eyes and act, and keep you from getting drunk." ”

"Then I'll rely on the girl to help me."

As the two spoke, they had reached the top of the stone steps. A primeval woodland appeared in front of him. There is a path in the woodland that has been tread by man.

"Follow this path and you'll be there soon." The woman was the first to step into the forest path, followed by Shi Lang.

"When did the girl come here?" Shi Lang asked.

"I came here once in half a year. But that time I came during the day, and I left that day. After only staying for a while, the people in the village must have long since forgotten me. ”

"It seems that the girl is very familiar with the local mountains and rivers."

"It's okay, after all, I've lived here for more than 20 years."

"There's a fire up ahead." Shi Lang noticed a flash of fire in the forest in front of him, about 100 meters away, and alerted the woman.

"It must be that the people in the village are dancing around the bonfire. They would gather around the bonfire to dance and sing on a happy occasion, and the atmosphere was very lively. Presumably something happy happened in the village today. It's okay, we can have a cup of wine to drink. The woman said, and couldn't help but quicken her pace.

The two of them took a dozen steps forward, only to find that something seemed wrong with the flashing of the campfire in front of them. If the people in the cottage were dancing and partying, they should be able to hear the singing or shouting clearly from the distance between the two people, but there was silence around the campfire.

The two of them hid alertly behind a tree and looked ahead.

"Hand over your young women and your money obediently, or else you will be cut alive one by one. Did you hear that? You old things. ”

There was a clear shouting from the campfire ahead. Shi Lang and the woman spotted a dozen men in black cloaks and armed with long knives forcing a group of indigenous people to kneel in an open space next to a campfire, punching, kicking, and verbally threatening them. On the path leading in and out of the stockade, a man also wearing a black cloak and holding a long knife was standing guard.

"It's not good, the people in the stockade have been robbed." The woman said.

"Who are these people?" Shi Lang asked, pointing to the man in a black cloak who was standing guard at the entrance of the village.

"They are a group of robbers who have appeared in this mountain in the past few years, and they are haunted and make a living by robbing houses and houses. Since they had no fixed residence, the government failed to arrest them several times. They uniformly wore black cloaks, which is why people called them 'black ghosts'. I didn't expect it to appear here today. ”

"How many people are in this stockade?"

"Including the elderly, women and children, there are less than fifty."

"Looks like they're hiding the young women."

"Yes. These robbers have no morality at all, and they burn, kill, and plunder all kinds of evil. No, I have to go and save them. Childe, you wait here, take care to protect yourself. The woman seemed to be born chivalrous and courageous, and she was not afraid of more than a dozen big men on the other side.

"Girl, look at me." Shi Lang forcibly pressed down on the woman who wanted to get up and go, and then lightly got up and touched forward.

The woman didn't know Shi Lang's details, and before she could react, Shi Lang had already made full use of the cover of the woods and touched behind the black-clothed man standing guard. I saw Shi Lang lightly stretch his body, wave his hand and hit the back of the neck of the man in black, knocking the man in black unconscious. Shi Lang dragged the man in black who had fallen to the ground behind a tree, and then waved his hand at the woman, motioning for her to pass.

The woman also used the cover of the woods to come to Shi Lang's side.

At this time, Shi Lang had already put the cloak of the black-clothed man who had passed out on himself. When he saw the woman approaching her, he whispered to her, "Later, I will pretend that their men will escort you to them, and then I will find an opportunity to subdue them." ”

"Good strategy! Unexpectedly, the son was not only polite, but also wise and brave. The woman looked at Shi Lang with admiration and whispered.

"Do you know who is the leader of the robbers?"

"I heard that their leader was a man with a visible scar on his face."

"Good. Get moving. ”

After Shi Lang finished speaking, holding the robber's long knife in one hand and the woman's neck with the other, the two walked towards the bonfire.

"Fuck, if you don't hand over the young woman and the money, you're welcome." A robber of great size walked up to an old man in a fit of rage, kicked the old man to the ground, and raised his long knife to slash at the old man who fell to the ground.

By the light of the bonfire, Shi Lang, who was about to approach the bonfire, keenly noticed that the robber with the knife had a scar on his face that slanted across his face.

"King, I grabbed a young woman." Shi Lang shouted at the Scarface.

"Three dogs, where did you find that woman? Come over and let me see. Scarface put down the raised knife and shouted to Shi Lang.

"Look, the king, it's pretty beautiful." Shi Lang buried his head deep in his cloak and escorted the woman towards Scarface.

"Yo, really. This little lady is really chic. Scarface's eyes were drawn to the woman, completely unaware of the impending danger. As he spoke, he reached out and touched the woman's face.

Just as one of the other party's hands was about to touch his face, he saw the woman kick Scarface's other hand to the wrist of Scarface's other hand with lightning speed.

"Ahh Scarface screamed, and the long knife in his hand fell to the ground. Before he could react, Shi Lang had already flown past the woman, clasped Scarface's neck from behind, and pressed the long knife in his hand against Scarface's neck.

They all put down their knives. Otherwise, I'll kill him with one sword. Shi Lang controlled Scarface and shouted orders to the other robbers.

At this time, the woman had quickly picked up the long knife that Scarface had fallen to the ground, and seeing that the robbers at the scene were still in a daze, she waved the knife in her hand and scolded loudly: "Didn't you hear? They all threw their knives into the fire, then knelt on the ground with their heads in their hands. Otherwise, kill your leaders first, and then kill you one by one! ”

Only then did the dozen or so robbers at the scene understand what had happened, and they stood in place one by one, not knowing what to do for a while, so they had to look at Scarface, who had been controlled by Shi Lang.

Shi Lang saw that all the robbers, including Scarface, were still hesitating to watch, so he quickly pulled the knife in his hand at Scarface's neck. Blood suddenly flowed down Scarface's neck. "Throw the knife into the fire, or I'll cut off his neck!" Shi Lang scolded sharply.

"Fuck, don't you get the knife away!" Scarface endured the pain and shouted orders to his men.

Hearing Scarface's order, the robbers did not dare to slack off, and lined up to walk to the fire and threw the knife in their hands, and then knelt on the ground with their heads in their hands as the woman requested.

The woman was armed with a long knife and kept a close eye on the robbers' every move. As the ninth robber in line walked past her, she noticed that the robber suddenly swung his long knife and slashed at her. The woman deftly dodged, then kicked the robber into the fire. The robber suddenly became a fireball and rolled on the ground screaming and desperately.

"Little Liuzi, Lao Tzu knows that you have long wanted to take Lao Tzu's place. Fuck, you're trying to take this opportunity to kill me. You deserve to burn you, bastard! You guys don't hurry up and throw the knives! Scarface yelled and cursed.

The rest of the robbers obediently threw their knives into the fire and fell to their knees with their heads in their hands.

"Folks, don't be afraid. We were sent by the government to rescue you, and the government's army arrived. Tie these robbers to a tree and wait for the government to send them down. In order to dispel the concerns of the people at the scene, Shi Lang deliberately made up a lie, because he felt that he and the woman could not give the villagers enough security.

Sure enough, as soon as they heard that the government army was coming, the people at the scene were immediately excited, and found ropes to tie all the robbers at the scene to the surrounding trees one by one.

"Two heroes, and a robber." I don't know who shouted among the people at the scene.

"Where?" Shi Lang asked loudly.

"Look, there." The shouting villager pointed to the entrance of the village.

Shi Lang looked up, only to find that it was the robber who had just been knocked out by himself who had woken up and was staggering about to escape.

"Look at me." The woman picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it at the robber.

Hearing only a scream of "ouch", the robber was hit in the back of the head by a stone and fell to the ground.

Several villagers rushed up and ran over to drag the robber to the campfire and tied him to a tree.