A Clash of Gods - Chapter 23

Chapter 23 Blood Bats
Mr. Lu was shocked but not flustered. After his arrangements, the panic quickly settled. Many people ran out of the tavern and drew their broadswords to guard the escort carriages. Some of them also began to look for bamboo fire tubes all over their bodies.

The men who wandered from place to place were professionals. They often carried some essential items with them. In addition to some medicines to treat superficial injuries, bamboo fire tube was also one of the essentials.

Yang Ning only saw busy figures inside and outside the tavern dimly. But he still grabbed the icy blade tightly with one hand, thinking that maybe some people wanted to rob the escort team.

However, in this escort team there were about ten to twenty people all together and they were all strong. If the other party really planned to rob the escort team, they would not be weaker than those people in this team.

Soon, a few lights suddenly went on in the house because several escorts had already ignited the bamboo fire tubes. Yang Ning’s eyes ran over the tavern by the firelight, and found that there were fewer people in the tavern. Most of them had pulled out their broadswords, and Mr. Lu held a steel broadsword in his hand, standing in the center. His face stiffened with dismay, and his eyes were sweeping over the house.

But the old man and the young man who had been close to him before were not in the previous position. At this time, they had leaned against the wall. The elder in brown robe carried the long package in his right hand, and lifted his left hand up slightly to cover the young man behind him.

Yang Ning couldn’t see the relationship between the two men, but he could feel the elder’s exceptional care for the young man.

The elder in brown robe previously said that he brought a valuable thing with him, but he was not sure whether it was the thing wrapped by the package in his hand.

“It’s a hidden weapon!” Yang Ning was thinking about what would be in the package when he heard a low voice over there. His eyes followed the voice and he saw a person standing beside the oil lamps with his left hand raised. He seemed to have sandwiched something between his two fingers, “It is this thing that smashed the oil lamps. It’s a good method.”

The two oil lamps hanging on the wall were broken. Sure enough, they were extinguished by a hidden weapon.

“Drop it down now…” Mr. Lu turned his head and when he saw that the man picked a hidden weapon with his fingers, his look changed greatly. “How can you be so silly? Drop it down now… Be careful of the poison on it!”

Yang Ning was surprised inwardly when he heard the words, thinking that Mr. Lu really had rich experience in wandering all corners of the state. He had never thought that the hidden weapon would be poisonous and now he had learned this trick. But the man who picked up the hidden weapon didn’t seem to be well-experienced in wandering the country. Or maybe he rarely had encountered such a situation before, so he just made such a mistake.

He was in contemplation when he heard several people screamed, only to find that the big man near the edge of the oil lamp had fallen to the ground, his body twitching.

It was really poisonous!

“Don’t touch him!” Mr. Lu’s face also changed a lot, and he said sharply, “Be careful. Our opponents are very strong. Protect the escort carriages.”

Everyone held a weapon in their hands. They just had doubts at the very beginning. But the man had fell to the ground and kept twitching all the time now. So the escorts were immediately on their guards for possible enemies and all of them were alert. They grasped tightly their weapons, and looked around. For a time, the tavern was deadly still, and only the sound of wind and rain outside could be heard.

That man twitched on the ground for only a short moment, and then he didn’t move anymore. No one was sure whether he was dead or alive.

Another flash of lightning shoot across the sky. In the dazzling flare, he suddenly saw a few black dots swept into the tavern from the window, and then they pounced on the man standing by the window.

But the man also found that something was unusual. He roared, and lifted the bench beside him to throw at the black dots.

Although those black dots came in suddenly, the bench still hit some of them. But two black dots escaped the attack and sprang on the man’s face.

Yang Ning looked at the two black dots by the light of the bamboo fire tubes. Seeing that the black dots seemed to be birds, he wondered how those birds could fly into the tavern in this wild weather.

That man hurriedly backed away, but the black dots were extremely fast and one of them had already been as close as to his face. Someone next to him had exclaimed, “It’s…it’s a bat!”

The black dot spread its wings, its mouth sticking out and its cheeks sunk in. It’s exactly a bat!

“Here… Be careful. Over there, over there!” Another man shouted in exclamation again, and Yang Ning had already seen it at this moment. In these short moments, dozens of bats appeared.

“Don’t be touched by them…” Mr. Lu shouted, and in this moment a bat had flew toward him. He waved his arm and the light of his broadsword flashed. He had already cut the bat flying directly to his face in two. Its blood gushed out, but Mr. Lu stepped back, avoiding the bat blood that burst out in all directions.

The bat which was chopped into two pieces fell on the ground and its wings were still quivering, presenting a spooky atmosphere.

Others also waved their swords to kill the bats. Their skills in using the sword are not at the same level. Several men had beheaded the bats flying to them, but they failed to retreat in time like Mr. Lu, so the bat blood splashed over their faces.

At this time, outside the tavern, there were the neighs of horses and shouts of men, which seemed extremely messy.

Yang Ning saw the bats were flying around in the tavern, so he simply hid under the table.

He looked over from under the table, and suddenly saw someone raised his hand and scratched his own face. Then the man made a shrill cry, rolling on the ground. He rolled all the way until his head hit the wall. His legs and feet twitched for a while, never to move again.

Yang Ning was thrilled by this, and suddenly heard the shout of the elder in brown robe, “These are the East Sea Blood Bats. Don’t let the bat blood stain your skin.”

Mr. Lu was surprised when he heard the shout of the elder in brown robe. He was very knowledgeable and had also heard of the East Sea Blood Bats before. Its blood was of severe toxicity. If people were stained with its blood, their skin would fester.

But he just had heard of it, and had never seen it before, nor had he expected that the East Sea Blood Bats would appear in the tavern in the wilderness. The blood of these bats seemed more horrifying than they were said in the tale.

Yang Ning also felt strange, thinking that since the blood bats originated from the East Sea, they should live near the sea. But this was an inland area, so the blood bats would never fly to this place if there was no particular reason. What was the scheme behind it?

At this time, several people fell to the ground for being stained by the blood of the bats. They rolled and twitched for a time, and then died. Seeing that the blood bats were so vicious, Yang Ning was also very nervous. He simply pulled out the icy blade and held it in his hand. If any bat approached him, he would immediately kill it.

Now everyone knew that the blood bats were poisonous, so they all became careful. These blood bats hurt people mainly through its poisonous blood. As long as the poisonous blood didn’t stain their bodies, the threat would not be great. Since everyone knew the truth, they just needed to be cautious and prevented the poisonous blood touching their bodies. Some people had already taken off their straw rain capes or bamboo hats, patting the bats with them and then covering the bats under them. In this way, the blood could not touch their bodies at all.

Although four or five people were dead, most of the blood bats had been killed.

Under the table Yang Ning glanced at the elder in brown robe and saw that he was standing in front of the young man all the time. Although a few bats wanted to get closer, the elder in brown robe just raised the package in his hand and hit the bats away, so the bats couldn’t get close to them at all. Yang Ning saw all of this, knowing that the elder in brown robe was also a master.

All of a sudden, Yang Ning saw that the elder in brown robe looked up at the roof. Just when he was wondering about this, he heard the elder in brown robe made a growl, his arms raised and the long package revolving like a windmill over his head. Immediately, a “crackle” sounded, and from the roof, there were rain-like iron caltrop pouring down. However, all of them were knocked away by the revolving package.

Yang Ning’s heart sank, and had already guessed that there were other people on the roof.

When he saw that the elder in brown robe had soared into the air, Yang Ning stuck his head out from under the table and looked up. In the dim light, he saw that the roof had caved in and there were several holes on it. Through the holes, several people had come down from above. The elder in brown rope sprang up, like an agile ape, waving the long package in his hand and hitting a man. The man was blew off by the package and immediately plunged to the ground.

It was until now that the escorts finally found those people on the roof. At the moment, there were people jumping off the roof continuously. They were all in black, wearing black masks on their faces and only showing their eyes. Even their heads were covered with black scarfs without revealing even a hair.

They also wore black leather gloves, so from top to bottom, they were totally in black. Except for a pair of eyes, no other skin could be seen.

The stranger thing was that these people all carried a package on their backs which seemed to be stitched together with their clothes. There was also a black belt tied around their waists which would be difficult to see clearly if people didn’t look at it closely.

The weapons in their hands were all slender scimitars, the blades of which were much narrower and shorter than ordinary broadswords. But there were cold light glinting on these blades, so just with a glance, he knew that its forging was excellent and they were extremely sharp.

In a blink of an eye, more than a dozen people in black had successively dropped on the tavern, and they had already fought with the escort team.

Yang Ning’s pupils contracted, and he thought that these people really wanted to rob the escorts. The number of those people was quite large, and they were well prepared. They first extinguished the lights, used the blood bats to lead the way later, and then descended from the roof. Every step was careful and thorough.

He had originally planned to find an opportunity to see if there were people hidden in those escort carriages. It seemed that this likelihood was minimal. Nine out of ten, this escort team should not be the one he was looking for.

The other party had sent so many masters, so they impossibly came here just for the sake of a few trafficked girls.

Moreover, they used the evil creature like blood bats and their behaviors were sneaky and furtive, so they didn’t seem to be people of good will. Certainly, they wouldn’t help others to uphold justice.

The sound of the dust-up echoed inside and outside the tavern. Although the escort team was caught off guard, their kung fu was not bad for making a living as escorts, so the two parties were well-matched in strength. The most important thing was that the elder in brown robe was really excellent in kung fu. At this time, he completely stood in advantage even he was against three enemies. Just in a flash, he poked the package in the chest of a black man, and the black man flew out.

Yang Ning thought that this place was not suitable for a long stay and he might get involved in the fight, so he wanted to find an opportunity to leave the tavern. He glanced at the counter not far away and found that no one was over there, so he thought it would be safer to hide behind the counter. Seizing an opportunity, he came out from under the table, and ran to the counter in the shape of a cat. After only two steps, with the corners of his eyes he saw a dark shadow springing on him. That man in the midair chopped his slender scimitar in his hand at him, the cold light of the scimitar glinting.