“What about you?” Wendy asked. Zhang Heng was not precisely an expert horserider. If the situation turned ugly, he probably wouldn’t be escaping on horseback. “I may be desperate to find my father, but I don’t want you to risk your life either. If things don’t work out here, we can always get out of this town. We can still seek help in the other towns nearby.”


  “Where? Rensselar or Spurs? These two are the nearest towns, but they only have one sheriff. Or were you thinking about going back to Glen and ask Sheriff Doland, whose horse I killed, for help? Let’s not talk about his stand first. Once we leave, they will surely suspect something isn’t right.”


  Zhang Heng was just finished cleaning the rifle. “Don’t worry. I can handle it.”


  “How? You said before that they could be a whole group of them-five, seven…… Worst-case scenario, there could be dozens of them, and you’re only one man. Not to mention your horseriding sucks.”


  “Thank you for reminding me of the unfortunate fact, but thank your lucky stars I don’t plan to run.”


  “Are you out of your mind? You’ve only got three guns!”


  “And six boxes of ammunition. That’s enough,” Zhang Heng retorted. “Their biggest mistake would be to make a move at night.”


  “Why?” “You’ll see,” Zhang Heng answered calmly.

  Wendy was a little distracted throughout dinner. Zhang Heng’s words kept replaying itself in her mind, and no matter how hard she thought about it, she could not figure out how Zhang Heng planned to eliminate an enemy that outnumbered him.

  If they were planning to attack Zhang Heng and Wendy tonight, they would come prepared. Even if Zhang Heng could ambush a couple of them, there was no chance of a victory once the rest joined in.

  However, the person concerned did not seem worried at all.

  Night fell quickly. To avoid raising suspicions, Zhang Heng and Wendy returned to their respective rooms.

  Zhang Heng loaded bullets into the firearm he just serviced. Picking up a stool, he sat by the window. The curtains were drawn, leaving only a tiny slit that allowed him to look down at the street below. Once he was in position, he took out the (Filter Lens).

  This small D-grade item was one example in which grade did not represent an item’s function. With Zhang Heng’s shooting and archery skills, the more he used it, the handier it became. His field of vision within 300 meters became completely unhindered by factors including natural light and weather, so fighting in the dark was pretty much a breeze.

  In fact, this would become his most significant advantage tonight.

  Zhang Heng was ready. All that was left to do now was to wait for the prey to come. Lowe, the fake sheriff, and his men were earlier than Zhang Heng expected. It was not even midnight yet when they arrived in front of the hotel. They probably thought that they were going to win, hands down.

  That was expected. What kind of danger could the strange combination of a Chinese man and a little girl pose?

  Wendy did as was instructed, and blocked the window to keep stray bullets from hitting her. She even flipped over the heavy desk in the room, thus using it as a barricade for the window. As she built her little fort, she became a little less anxious, but her heart was still racing.

  She pressed an ear against the wall, but all she heard was silence from Zhang Heng’s room next door.

  It was so quiet that Wendy wondered if Zhang Heng had left. Soon, though, her thoughts were interrupted by the hooves of horses arriving downstairs. A wave of panic washed over the girl. There was still no sound coming from the room next door.

  Zhang Heng did not open fire but waited for Lowe to enter the building.

  There were a total of six men. Two guarded the entrance, while another two watched over the first floor, ready to jump in whenever needed. Lowe and another guy walked up to the second floor, terrorizing the stricken innkeeper. Just as one of the men guarding the door made a gesture for him to keep quiet, the poor man collapsed onto the ground.

  Wendy saw the men stopping briefly in front of her room through the crack in the door, then walking away. Clearly, Lowe and his men didn’t see her as a threat. In their opinion, once they got rid of the easterner, the battle would be over.

  Wendy felt that if she had a gun, she might be able to take the men on the other side of the door by surprise and kill them. Unfortunately, even though her marksmanship had improved, Zhang Heng said that he would not give her a gun to defend herself this time.

  And this was actually what worried Zhang Heng the most. He did not care if Wendy could help or not-he was even concerned this kid might be too bold for her own good. If she had a gun, she would indeed allow all hell to break loose. It was a common problem amongst most firearms dabblers-once they had a gun in hand, an inconsolable urge to do something would overwhelm them.

  Zhang Heng experienced that once in the river valley, he was not about to go through that again.

  SCI

  Wendy’s heart was in her throat. She kept screaming in her mind for Zhang Heng to start shooting at the men outside her room, but yet, all seemed eerily still next door. Lowe and his companion looked at each other. The latter stepped back, kicked the door open while Lowe prepared to fire his rifle. To their surprise, however, there was no one in the room.

  Lowe and his companion entered the room and saw the empty stool by the window. “Where did that bastard go?”


  The answer to his question was a gunshot, followed by Lowe’s companion dropping to the ground with a thud.

  Lowe was startled. He wasn’t caught off-guard by the ambush, but by the fact that the gunshot had come from above. By the time he thought of aiming his rifle at the ceiling, it was too late. Zhang Heng released his left hand from the beam and jumped down, firing a shot right in Lowe’s face.

  The men downstairs hastily drew their weapons when they heard the gunshots, but Zhang Heng moved quickly. Instead of aiming at his assailants, he aimed at the kerosene lamp on the table downstairs. The lamp shattered as he pulled the trigger, plunging the entire hotel into complete darkness. Then, abandoning the men downstairs, Zhang Heng repositioned himself by the window again.

  When the two men keeping watch outside heard the gunshots, one of them dismounted his horse, and the other scanned the windows, ready to fire.

  Instead of opening the window, Zhang Heng fired through the glass, shattering the window and killing the armed man. The other one, who had just dismounted, crouched down, thinking that the shooter should not be able to see clearly in the darkness. But Zhang Heng pulled down the trigger guard, reloaded his weapon, and then with a click, the hammer was depressed, the trigger returned its position, and the barrel closed. The fourth bullet was discharged, and Zhang Heng had completed three kills.

  The other two men downstairs had their weapons drawn, but they were like headless chickens without a source of light.

  Zhang Heng leaned against the door, noted their positions, and killed them, one after the other. He had the complete advantage at fights like this. He barely even broke a sweat.