Chapter 337 Kobold

Hu Ma took back the words that he had spoken.

He widened his eyes and looked at Xu Han in astonishment. He really couldn't understand where the youth in front of him had the courage to say such words.

In the next moment, the raging rage landed on his chest.

"Yes, I have to withdraw my previous evaluation of you."

Hu Ma walked over to Xu Han with a sinister smile. His small mountain-like body stood in front of Xu Han like an elephant standing in front of an ant.

"You're not a weakling, you're more like an idiot." After Hu Ma finished speaking, he waved his big fist and whistled towards Xu Han's face.

This punch naturally controlled his strength and didn't cause any casualties, but it was enough to make Xu Han drop two front teeth.

He was looking forward to seeing a look of embarrassment and fear on Xu Han's clean face.

However, Xu Han seemed to be scared silly as he stood there in a daze. He did not seem to have the time to avoid or resist such thoughts.

Everyone looked at this scene with different expressions.

Those attendants sighed in sorrow, while Boss Gan felt somewhat regretful. At least, in his opinion, Xu Han was still a good child, and he had worked diligently along the way. As for the female escort, he looked coldly at him. He obviously did not take this matter to heart.

When the fist arrived at a distance of less than two inches from Xu Han's face, the youth finally opened his mouth. His calm voice pierced through the night and clearly reached everyone's ears.

"Everyone's lives are at stake. Don't tell me there's no room for doubt?"

It was unknown if the youth's calm at this moment had exceeded the woman's expectations, or if the reasoning behind his words had been accepted by her.

Just as the fist was about to land on Xu Han's cheek, the woman's voice suddenly sounded.

"Wait!"

The two short words were reserved, but to the arrogant and domineering Hu Ma, it was like a royal decree.

The man who was eight feet tall changed his expression. He actually managed to restrain his fist momentum.

His face was full of confusion and palpitations, and he turned to look at the woman. He was obviously very doubtful about the other party's order.

However, the woman did not look at him. Instead, she stood up and walked straight to Xu Han. Then, she looked straight at Xu Han with her pair of big eyes that seemed to be capable of speaking.

"What you said makes sense, and I would like to hear your reasoning." The woman's eyes narrowed as she spoke, as if she was smiling, but there was a blade hidden in her smile.

"However, you have to consider clearly if your reasoning is not enough to convince me that you can afford the price of the collision."

"Can I borrow the map?" Xu Han said calmly.

"Only you, can you read the map?" Hu Ma was obviously unwilling to cooperate with Xu Han as he spoke with an evil expression on his face.

Hearing this, Xu Han did not have any intention of arguing with him. He did not even look at Hu Ma. Instead, he looked at the woman again after saying this.

His gaze was extremely calm without the slightest bit of panic.

The woman who had lived in Jianghu for many years knew that this calm did not come from forced calm, but from absolute confidence in herself.

So after a slight hesitation, the woman said, "Give it to him."

"Boss!" Hearing this, Hu Ma's expression immediately changed. Obviously, he was both dissatisfied and confused with the woman's decision.

"I told you to give it to him." The woman, like Xu Han, did not even look at Hu Ma and said in a calm voice.

Seemingly sensing the anger in the woman's tone, Hu Ma's expression froze. Even though his heart was filled with unwillingness, he had no choice but to see the map in Xu Han's hand.

"Thank you." Xu Han took the map and thanked them without turning his head. Then, he squatted down and unfolded the map.

"There are a total of three paths to Great Xia. One is through the center of the antler plains, but because of the bandits, this path obviously won't work."

"The second path is to go around the Egret Forest on the east side, as Escort Zhen said. This will take more than ten days. As for the third path …" Xu Han said as he looked to the west side of the map and said, "It will be through the Red Whiskers Ridge on the west side of the Deer Horn Plain. The terrain is rugged, and it will probably take more than twenty days."

"Since there are only three paths, we can't go to the first path. Could it be that we can go to the Redbeard Ridge instead of the nearest path?" When Xu Han said this, Hu Ma found the right time and immediately sneered.

At that time, it was the first time Xu Han turned his gaze to look at him and said indifferently, "We should be leaving this Red Whiskers Ridge!"

His tone was extremely confident, but the moment he spoke, everyone was stunned, and then a burst of laughter rang out from the crowd.

"You really do have some ability, but if you don't want to, then we'll make fun of you. Brat, you really want to taste your Uncle Hu's fist, right?" Hu Ma smiled sinisterly again at that moment and was about to step forward.

"I think since you said that, there must be a reason for that, right?" But at that time, the woman surnamed Zhen reached out her hand and stopped Hu Ma. She looked at Xu Han with a calm gaze.

Hu Ma, who had been blocked repeatedly, was furious to the extreme in his heart, but he did not dare to make a fuss in front of a woman. He could only stare at Xu Han fiercely with his eyes wide open.

Xu Han, on the other hand, seemed to be unaware of this as he spoke slowly at that time.

"Although the antlers are located at the border of the Xia Kingdom on Tuesday, why are there few bandits before that?"

"The biggest reason is that in the middle of each month, soldiers from the two countries will gush out of the pass and patrol the territory under their control. The bandits have to hide in the Red-bearded Ridge and the Egret Forest in order to avoid the encirclement and suppression."

Hu Ma seemed to have noticed the smell at that time, and then said, "Why do you want to say that the bandits are hiding in the Egret Forest?"

"Hmph." Seemingly extremely disdainful of Xu Han's deduction, the man laughed sinisterly at this point. "The Egret Forest is close to the Lunar Temple. Ordinary bandits and Lunar Temple's Confucian scholars may not care about it, but with such a ferocious villain, how could the Lunar Temple's characters allow them to act recklessly in front of their eyes?"

After saying that, Hu Ma was very satisfied with his rebuttal. He looked at Xu Han with incomparable pride. He waited for the appearance of this youth being exposed by him and being spurned by the crowd.

However, he didn't think that he would be able to wait for Xu Han's ci-poorer sophistry, instead waiting for a woman's furious reprimand.

"Hu Ma, before this young hero finishes his words, if you dare to interrupt him again, then leave your right hand to feed the wild dog!" The woman said in a calm voice. The anger in her tone made no one dare to doubt the authenticity of her words.

Hu Ma was speechless. He really couldn't understand why his boss had changed his temper today and was defending this brat.

He couldn't help but cast his gaze on the two of them, and his heart was suddenly shocked. Could it be that the boss had taken a fancy to this brat?

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed. Hu Ma's forehead was immediately covered in dense sweat.

He looked at Xu Han's face, which was much more attractive than his, and thought to himself that the boss liked this model, but his mouth immediately quieted down, and he didn't dare to say another word.

"Continue." The woman could not have imagined that Hu Ma would have such a wonderful idea. She just looked at Xu Hanyan again and said.

"Yes." Xu Han nodded his head lightly. Without any doubt, he said again, "The Red Beard Ridge's terrain is rugged. Every time it comes, it will take at least ten days. However, the tragedy of the Second Huang Merchant Caravan is only four to five days away from the tragedy discovered by the extremely skilled merchants. Such a period of time obviously cannot be used to travel back and forth."

"But what if they don't go back to their lair in Red Beard Ridge? After all, according to rumors, they don't seem to be interested in property, nor do they have to worry about carrying too much property with them." The woman asked with a frown.

"They have to go back." Xu Han smiled. "If I remember correctly, two days ago was the time for the soldiers of the two countries to patrol the border. If they didn't hide back in their lair, they would probably have been wiped out by the cavalry of the two countries!"

"And this time, there's only four to five days left. The only place they can hide is in the Egret Forest!"

Everyone had yet to recall these words, but the woman's face was filled with sudden enlightenment.

At that time, she gave Xu Han a deep look and actually stood up and bowed deeply to Xu Han.

When everyone saw this scene, they were stunned for a moment, and then they came to their senses. Their expressions when they looked at Xu Han also changed drastically. In the end, Xu Han's deduction was not difficult, but it was difficult to understand these things in such a short period of time.

However, just as everyone thought that his plan for advancing had been decided, a deep voice suddenly came from the carriage that the woman surnamed Zhen was in.

"Continue on the same path, cross the deer horn plains."

The voice said, and before anyone could regain their senses, something was thrown out of the carriage.

It was a heavy thing, wrapped in a cloth bag. The sound of it falling to the ground was dull. The thing inside revealed a corner, shining with a dazzling golden light under the fire.

It was actually a bag full of dog-headed gold!

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