Bright Sword: Conquer the monk at the beginning and take down Zhou Weiguo

"Don't move, I'll go." After he said that, he bent down, walked around the corner, and quietly disappeared into the darkness.

Qin Cang and Xiao Hu huddled at the back of the house, not daring to utter a word. Xiao Hu's knuckles turned white with nervousness: "Captain... can you trust him?"

Qin Cang did not answer. His eyes fell on the door of the house, watching Liu San's figure gradually approaching the door.

The light in front of the door was still dim, like a candle, but it didn't waver at all. The wind couldn't move it, as if the light wasn't there to illuminate but to serve as a sign, a decoy.

Liu San walked up to the door and knocked gently, "Dong, Dong, Dong, Dong..."

There were three pauses, gentle and slow, like a laborer looking for someone at night, not wanting to disturb them too much, but having to ask for directions.

There was an extremely subtle sound coming from behind the door, like cloth shoes rubbing against the ground - not the quick steps of a village woman, nor the slow walk of an old man, but a deliberately light sound of footsteps.

Qin Cang was completely focused, staring at the door intently. He noticed that the door didn't open immediately, but instead, after a very slight creaking sound, it only opened a narrow crack, and an eye peeked out from it. The eyes were cold and fearless, as if they were observing rather than being surprised.

Liu San pretended to be anxious and said with a bow, "Brother and sister-in-law, do you have any water? I have been wandering in the mountains for three days and I am very thirsty. I don't even have a fire with me. Please give me some water..."

The person behind the door didn't answer, but just stared at him, as if weighing something.

Qin Cang's brows were furrowed, and his eyes... were too cold. They didn't look like a villager's vigilance towards a coolie, but more like an interrogation. He could almost imagine the man behind the door's thoughts at that moment - analyzing, deducing, and judging whether to take action.

"This is no ordinary villager," he muttered, his eyes turning cold.

"Bang!" - The doors suddenly opened wide.

Liu San suddenly took half a step back, but still looked tired and weak.

A tall, thin, middle-aged man stood at the door. His face was haggard, but his clothes were extremely neat, without a speck of dirt or dust. The most unusual thing was the thick calluses on his thumb and index finger, the kind of calluses that only come with someone who frequently handles a gun.

"Shuiyou." The man said in a hoarse voice, "Follow me."

Liu San hesitated for a moment and nodded: "Thank you very much."

He followed the other person into the house, the door slowly closed, and the light disappeared completely.

"Captain!" Xiaohu was shocked. "Is he okay?"

"No." Qin Cang's eyes remained fixed. "Liu San is very alert. If he feels something is wrong, he will find an excuse to slip away."

After a few moments of silence in the room, a very light "cough" was heard at the door - it was the code they agreed upon, meaning "something is wrong, evacuate quickly."

Qin Cang's eyes flashed: "Let's go."

He pulled up Xiaohu and quietly retreated back the way he came, moving in the darkness, each step he took on the softest mud and grass, without making a sound.

"Captain, is there something wrong with that guy?" Xiaohu asked in a low voice.

"This is a serious problem," Qin Cang said coldly. "He's a soldier, pretending to be a villager. He reeks of gunpowder, and his footsteps are so light that the calluses on his fingers can't be hidden. The key is—he said 'Follow me,' but didn't mention whether anyone was home or whether it was convenient. This is not the habit of villagers. He is trying to lure Liu San into the trap."

"What if he really does it?"

"Liu San will be able to adapt. Let's retreat first." Qin Cang's eyes flashed with a cold light. "We must find another target and test a third household. If three attempts are fruitless, then we can conclude that this village, from inside to outside, is a large network laid by the enemy."

Behind him, Liu San coughed softly again.

Qin Cang looked back and saw a black shadow lightly jumping off the wall and approaching them quickly. It was Liu San.

"There were two people in the room. The man was a soldier, and the woman didn't look like a village woman." He panted, his tone rapid. "There was no pot or stove in the room. There was a communicator in the corner, filled with a pile of empty sacks. Just now, the man wanted to take me to the back room, but I smelled blood in the room and immediately used the excuse of a stomachache to get away."

"It's really an empty shell." Qin Cang's eyes were as cold as ice. "This village is a temporary base for the enemy. They're setting up a false impression, but they're actually operating in secret. They're going to bring people in from the forest tonight, so there's probably more than one entrance."

He glanced across the village and gritted his teeth.

At that moment, it ran extremely fast, as if it was frightened by something, even with its tail tucked between its legs. Its four hooves left dust flying as it dived into the forest and disappeared without a trace.

He had noticed the dog long ago; it had never left the village entrance, one of the few creatures in this dilapidated village that still retained its "normal habits." But now, its abnormal escape was like an invisible alarm bell.

"...It ran away." Qin Cang murmured, his voice so low that it almost only vibrated in his chest.

Liu San was lightly lifting a broken door panel to observe the distance. He turned around and asked, "What did you say?"

"Xiao Hu, Liu San, did you see that dog?" Qin Cang continued to stare at the direction it disappeared in, a cold glint in his eyes. "It went up the mountain, running as if its butt was on fire."

"I saw it." Little Tiger nodded. "It had been napping next to the broken water tank at the entrance of the village, not moving at all. Now it's running around like it saw a ghost..."

"It's not a ghost." Qin Cang stood up, leaned against the old tree trunk, squinted his eyes and looked towards the mountain road, "Something is coming up the mountain."

"What do you suspect the dog smelled?" Liu San frowned, looking nervous.

"A dog's nose is sharper than our guns," Qin Cang said in a deep voice. "It's not just a fright; it's the speed of escape. The only thing that can scare a dog away is either a wolf or a human, but I prefer the latter."

After he said this, he felt an inexplicable uneasiness in his heart.

He had been pondering the enemy's intentions. This fake village was too elaborate, from the fake villagers to the fake stoves, to the communication equipment hidden behind the door, even the dog... He was now beginning to suspect that the dog had never originally been "this side."

"We just probed the village, exposing ourselves partially. The enemy can't be completely unaware." Qin Cang gritted his teeth. "The dog ran towards the back mountain. There's a high possibility of a hidden route there, or even their movement route."

"You mean, they might have discovered us?" Xiaohu tightened his grip on the dagger for a moment.

"It's not ruled out." Qin Cang's eyes grew even colder. "But what I'm more worried about is that they'll mobilize in advance and expand the trap."

He lowered his head and pondered for a few breaths, then gave an order: "Follow the direction the dog went and investigate the mountain to see if there's anything unusual in that forest. We have to figure out what's hidden there before they do."

"What if it's a trap?" Liu San asked with a frown.

Qin Cang smiled, but his smile was cold: "That means they are afraid of us, and the trap has not been set yet. They are afraid of giving us a loophole."