Lu Qing’s reaction to Zhu Yu’s teasing was extremely calm, simply nodding and sitting down on a large rock beside him, letting the hem of his robe fall casually to one side. In his hand, a dagger still glimmered coldly under the moon’s shadow.

He skillfully sliced open the belly of a wild rabbit, swiftly extracting its innards and placing them aside one by one, before beginning to slice through the connections between the skin and flesh with his sharp blade, as if peeling off a sheet of paper, cleanly removing the rabbit’s fur.

"Soon, it’ll be even colder. This can be made into a hand warmer." He weighed the rabbit skin in his hand. Because of his deftness, no meat clung to the skin, nor did the fur have any bloodstains.

The two "mountain bandits" nearby watched Lu Qing’s clean knife work, and their faces didn’t look too good.

Yet Zhu Yu, who had been watching the spectacle all along, contributed to the mess with a cheeky smile, nodding affirmatively as Lu Qing finished handling the rabbit, handing him a water bag to wash his hands while praising him: "Not bad, not bad. The way you handled that rabbit, I reckon it’s not just small animals; next time if you have a person, you’d handle them just as neatly."

Lu Qing laughed: "Disemboweling, chopping something into pieces—that I can certainly manage.

But if you want something like what you do—stitching the scattered limbs back into a semblance of a whole corpse—I can’t manage that."

"No biggie, with your guts and knife skills, give it time and it won’t be a problem." Zhu Yu responded generously with compliments.

The two "mountain bandits" initially felt a chill in their hearts watching Lu Qing handle the rabbit, and upon hearing Zhu Yu’s words, their stomachs turned violently, and they seemed to have visions floating before their eyes, making them almost retch.

Zhu Yu heard the commotion and refocused on the two men, looking at them sympathetically: "You guys better wise up; holding out isn’t going to do you any good."

The two men simultaneously turned their faces to one side, ignoring her words.

Lu Qing watched their reactions, snorted coldly, and said to Zhu Yu, "I don’t know if you’ve heard before, but some ten to twenty years ago, there was an untold secret known among the warriors.

If two armies fought long enough, if they stalemated with no winner or loser, but supplies were about to run dry, someone in the army would slaughter captured foes as if they were livestock.

Their skin was used to cover lanterns, far better than paper lanterns.

Their fat was rendered into oil, useful for lighting or other purposes.

And their meat was dried into jerky, serving as emergency rations for the army—none of it wasted."

Zhu Yu listened to Lu Qing in slight amazement, then looked at the two men with some regret, clicking her tongue and shaking her head: "That’s unfortunate. Of these three, the one who ran off seemed the burliest, as if he’d yield more jerky than these two!"

Her words made one of the "mountain bandits" unable to endure, worsening their urge to retch.

Zhu Yu was amused by his reaction, picked up a long stick, stepped forward and poked the retching "mountain bandit": "What’s the matter? Afraid? Then be honest! Let’s speak frankly, we certainly won’t trouble you two.

But if you keep dragging this out... honestly, we can’t guarantee we’ll catch rabbits every time around here..."

"You’re spouting nonsense!" The retching "mountain bandit" said angrily and urgently, "Whether it’s ten years ago or decades before, no military anywhere has such barbaric claims!"

"Shut up, stop talking!" cried his companion urgently, anxious to intervene, "We’re just ordinary mountain bandits, how would we know about military matters? If they say so, then it’s so; if they wish to kill or peel, we’ll let them!

Heads or tails, it’s still a knife; we’re mountain bandits, aren’t we? How can we fear them?"

His companion was silenced so abruptly, swallowed his words back with a pale face, turning away from Zhu Yu.

Though if not for the wet stains trailing from their temples to their shirts, just looking at their faces, they resembled the resolute spirit of one facing death.

Lu Qing and Zhu Yu noted their reaction but didn’t continue speaking with the two men, handing the skinned rabbit over to the talisman team for roasting over the fire.

The rabbit was exceptionally plump, and Lu Qing had skinned it cleanly, leaving the flesh’s rich fat intact. As it roasted over the fire, it quickly began to sizzle and emit a tantalizing aroma.

The four of them sat around, eating roasted rabbit meat, while the two "mountain bandits," though recently disturbed enough by Zhu Yu to nearly vomit, still instinctively emitted stomach growls, inadvertently drooling.

They closed their eyes, turned their faces away, but though visuals could be ignored and sounds unheard, they couldn’t cease breathing, and the savory scent continued wafting towards them, tormenting them.

Nonetheless, the two men continued to grit their teeth, remaining silent from start to finish.

Zhu Yu watched them, her heart somewhat reluctant.

As it reached 3:00 AM, the two men bound to the tree seemed quite worn out, lacking spirit.

The four people sat there casually eating, chatting casually, Fu Lu reached for the water bag, discreetly glanced around, and subtly gestured to Lu Qing.

Lu Qing glanced at him, took the water bag and passed it to Zhu Yu, tapping her hand lightly when she reached to take it.

Zhu Yu immediately understood, though her posture didn’t change, she secretly tensed up.

She knew that for sure, the accomplice who had escaped earlier had brought reinforcements.

Though confident in their plan, Zhu Yu couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous facing an uncertain number of adversaries.