Transmigrated as a Stepmother: Time to Bring the Family to Prosper!-Chapter 115 - 114: Hunt Begins

Chapter 115: Chapter 114: Hunt Begins
The woman inside the shed took about two minutes to realize she’d been rescued.
A shadow had joined the others in her view, its silhouette barely discernible against the firelight from outside, making it impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman.
A dagger was tossed over to her.
"Kill him, and I’ll take you out of this bandits’ den," Qin Yao said in a low voice.
It wasn’t a tone of negotiation; it was purely a command, leaving no room for a second option.
Only if this woman killed the bandit leader under her blade would she be on the same side as Qin Yao, minimizing the chance of the woman turning against her.
She turned out to be a woman too!
Lying on the ground, the woman was filled with astonishment. She wanted to ask who the other person was, but upon hearing a "shh," she felt the cold killing intent and fell silent.
She groped for and picked up the dagger, drew it from its sheath, took a deep breath, gripped the handle tightly with both hands, and stabbed it into the man’s chest!
One stab wasn’t enough, so she stabbed again.
Qin Yao had already covered the man’s mouth, ensuring no sound was made.
"Enough."
Seeing the woman was about to stab a third time, Qin Yao stopped her.
The man was already dead, and too much blood would attract attention.
Fortunately, the man had cut off one of his own fingers today; a bit of blood smell in the tent was not unusual.
"Who are you?" the woman asked, holding the dagger trembling.
In extreme fear, she felt none of the discomfort or confusion typically associated with a first kill. Her heart pounded like a drum, and she wasn’t even sure what she was doing or supposed to do.
So at this moment, every word Qin Yao said felt like a command to her; whatever was said, she did.
Qin Yao didn’t answer her question but instead asked, "What’s your name?"
The woman replied, "Yin Le."
"Do you know who Xiang Wang is?"
"Yes."
"Was it the man in scholar’s robe who just gave you to this person?"
"Yes."
"Are the three beside him the Three Kings?"
"Correct."
"Do you know where they sleep?"
"They all sleep in the cave; only these four sleep there. The Three Kings are particularly skilled; one of them sleeps with his eyes open and has excellent hearing. Even Xiang Wang lets him keep watch at night."
Qin Yao raised an eyebrow; the fact that Yin Le could offer so much information in one breath indicated her clarity of mind.
The room was quite dimly lit, so Qin Yao couldn’t see the woman’s expression clearly, but she could feel her increasingly severe trembles.
"Don’t be afraid; I won’t kill you. Consider the information you just gave me as compensation for your rescue," Qin Yao said.
She then dragged the corpse to a corner and laid it flat, making it look like it was sleeping.
Afterward, she sat down by the door of the tree shelter.
Yin Le asked, "Are you going to kill Xiang Wang?"
Qin Yao didn’t answer, just extended her hand, asking for the dagger back.
"Can I hold it a bit longer? I don’t have a weapon for self-defense, and this dagger..."
"Hand it over!" Before Yin Le could finish, Qin Yao snatched the dagger, wiped it clean of blood, and tucked it at her waist.
Silence engulfed the room, and only through sheer will did Yin Le keep herself from succumbing to sleep.
The wait was long, but Qin Yao was used to it.
No one among the bandits suspected that an outsider was among them.
Qin Yao sat by the tree shelter, watching them revel through the night until they were claimed by Zhou Gong.
The campfires slowly dimmed, replaced by the sound of snores.
A faint flicker of firelight shone in the cave, and a robust figure paced back and forth at the entrance before yawning and reclining against the cliff wall, narrowing his eyes.
But from the sound of his breathing, Qin Yao deduced he wasn’t truly asleep.
No worries, she would make his slumber eternal.
A cloud covered the moonlight as dawn approached, heralding the hunting hour!
Qin Yao nonchalantly walked out from the tree shelter. True to Yin Le’s words, the man at the cave entrance, with exceptional hearing, immediately opened his eyes and looked over.
With a "swish!" an arrow pierced the air, carrying immense force, and penetrated his throat.
With a hoarse cry of "ugh!", the man fell.
Qin Yao sprinted over, standing in front of the cave, and swept her gaze over the three people sleeping on bamboo beds inside, illuminated by the firelight.
She rushed in, and before the nearest person could react by opening his eyes, she drew the dagger and plunged it into his neck.
As she pulled it out, blood gushed forth, but Qin Yao had already moved to the next bed.
This person, surprisingly quick to react, jumped up to avoid her dagger while reaching for a large knife beside him to slash at Qin Yao.
But against absolute strength, such resistance was futile.
The bow pierced through the blade, the bowstring coiling around the thick arm; a fierce twist forced him to release his grip, and the knife clattered to the ground.
Qin Yao raised her right hand, brought the sword down, and the head fell!
"Who dares—"
Xiang Wang bolted upright from the bamboo bed, and as he started to speak, Qin Yao swiftly lunged forward, kicking him down. Her left hand looped the bow around Xiang Wang’s neck, strangling him, as her right hand raised the sword and struck hard!
Hot blood splashed over Qin Yao’s face. Using the back of the hand holding the sword, she wiped the blood drops from her eyes, picked up two heads from the ground, then sliced off the remaining heads. She stuffed all four into Xiang Wang’s scholar’s robe before dashing away.
She sprinted to Yin Le’s side, grabbed her, and they ducked into the woods. No one in the camp had realized yet that Xiang Wang and the Three Kings had met King Yan.
Qin Yao dragged Yin Le all the way up to the mountaintop, looked back at the cave camp below, and laughed with satisfaction.
Putting down the heavy bundle in her hand, she took out a flare and shot two rockets into the sky.
"Bang! Bang!" Two loud explosions echoed from the top of Yuhua Mountain. In the darkest sky before dawn, two red flares blossomed.
Down below, Lord County Magistrate, who was about to drift off to sleep, suddenly awoke with a shiver, lifted his head to the sky, and saw the red light piercing the darkness, filling him with alarm and delight.
The alarm was that Qin Yao had succeeded as promised.
The delight was that with Xiang Wang dead, the government office’s moment of glory had arrived!
"Wake up, everyone, wake up!"
The guards on duty roused everyone, all thirty-six officials charging towards Yuhua Mountain with newfound fervor.
Meanwhile, the bandits at the camp noticed the flare Qin Yao had released. Sensing something amiss, they rushed to the cave only to find four headless bodies, shocked that Xiang Wang and the Three Kings had been killed.
"The King is dead!"
Someone cried out, throwing the entire camp into chaos.
Confusion ran rampant as the light of dawn began to appear, and a sharp whistle sounded from the sentry post.
"The officials are attacking!!!"
As those words fell, Qin Yao suddenly appeared behind the speaker and killed him with one strike.
She quickly took down the bandits at the gate, and with great strength, moved the two-meter-tall barricade, opening the door for the advancing officials.
To prevent the bandits from feeling cornered with no escape, she left an opening, allowing them a glimmer of hope for escape.
Thanks to these efforts, if the officials couldn’t annihilate the bandits in one move, Qin Yao would be infuriated.
Fortunately, by the time Qin Yao joined Yin Le back at the mountaintop, a large force of officials had stormed the bandit nest, capturing or killing over eighty people in one sweep.
The remaining dozen or so who escaped were captured by small groups of officials strategically positioned beforehand by Lord County Magistrate.