Chapter 94: Bandit
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“d.a.m.n, what exactly happened to me? How could it be so inexplicable?”
After so long time, this less educated boy still hadn’t made clear what exactly happened.
He only knew that his Qi Power experienced some strange changes, and it changed twice. The first change was useless; the second change was because of being stimulated by his pair of Fiery Eyes, and the change was mysterious, turning into a black fireball.
“Bah, bah, it’s obviously a sun, a black sun. It seemed that the Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique also changed. The Internal Qi circulation routes seemed to have some subtle changes as well. It seemed to be even more perfect. Should I continue practicing this route? If that’s the case, then it should be called Black Sun Magic instead of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique, haha!”
Junior Leopard had no idea what had happened to him. He only knew that this kind of change had only benefits and no harm towards him. Upon careful observation of his own body, he didn’t discover anything surprising. The physical strength didn’t change, still at Skin-Toughening Realm. His cultivation also just stabilized at Level Three. This was something worth being happy about.
“The idea that fighting is the fastest way to improve strength is right. Only under really heavy pressure, facing a life and death struggle, the speed of advancement is the fastest. Others are all fake. However, it’s too dangerous and doesn’t suit me!”
Junior Leopard subconsciously shrank his neck. Suddenly he felt his stomach growling and the feeling of hungry struck. He involuntarily touched his stomach, “Who knows how long I have been sitting here. My stomach is so hungry that it began to growl. Can this be called forgetting myself for the sake of practice?” Junior Leopard laughed, and walked towards the outside of the cave.
“Junior brother Zhou, you have come out!” Looking at Junior Leopard walking out of the depths of the cave, Jin Nanqing invited him with a bright smile. His enthusiastic att.i.tude made Junior Leopard do not know how to react.
“Senior brother, are there any flowers on my face? Your stare made me embarra.s.sed!”
“Hee hee, no, no, your cultivation experienced leaps and bounds. As your senior brother I am very happy for you!” Jin Nanqing hurriedly said, “Junior brother, after this battle, not only you have broken through to Level Three, it seemed that you have some other gains!”
“I don’t know whether it’s a gain or not!” Junior Leopard bitterly smiled, “I still need to ask my teacher!”
“Yeah, yeah, in the path of martial arts skills, there is no end to learning. In many things, without someone teaching, it will be very easy to take unnecessary routes!” Jin Nanqing nodded repeatedly, and said to Junior Leopard, “Junior brother, this time around, we’ve gained a lot!”
Junior Leopard’s gaze flashed, and he looked at Jin Nanqing, realizing his intentions, “Yes, we indeed gained a lot. Thanks to senior brother’s plan. Oh, right, how about senior brother w.a.n.g?”
“Alas, after a day and a night, he was hopeless!” Upon mentioning senior brother w.a.n.g, Jin Nanqing’s gaze dampened. It was not because he felt sorry for his death, but because his death made this matter not be easily settled.
Originally in his plan, they kept these medicinal herbs to themselves. Then they told the outsiders that after checking for a few days, they didn’t find any clues, treating it as a failed mission. However, now that one person had died, it was hard to explain. They had to think of some way to have a closure to this lie.
In the Wu Family, the big thing was not people’s death on a mission but that they kept this batch of medicinal herbs to themselves. The lie in this matter had to have a full closure.
Junior Leopard was not a fool and he naturally knew about the consequences in the matter. “You said that you all had checked for a few days and didn’t find anything, then why a person died?”
“What happened to you?”
Although w.a.n.g Ji’s cultivation was not high, he had already reached Level Two. It was not possible for him to die so easily. Even if he really died, there needed to be some explanations.
“What do you intend to do?” Junior Leopard asked. Anyway, this time around Jin Nanqing was the one calling the shots, so this kind of thing should be settled by Jin Nanqing. The position that he had set for himself now was a thug. Then there was no need for him to worry so much.
“I have already thought through this matter!” Jin Nanqing said, “I am going to…”
“Senior brother, do you have some things to eat? I am really hungry now!”
“Yes, of course. Sorry, I have forgotten that you have already abstained from food for three days. Come on, let’s talk while eating!”
Junior Leopard followed Jin Nanqing out of the cave. Outside there was a bonfire. The rest of the Wu’s disciples were all hurt with very pitiful appearance. He was confused. Had they clashed with other people?
Seeing that Junior Leopard was puzzled, Jin Nanqing smiled. “Junior brother Zhou, this is my way of resolving the issue!”
When speaking, he tore down a piece of lamb leg from the frame and pa.s.sed it to Junior Leopard. Then he began to speak out his ideas.
This time around they left the Wu Family on a mission to track the stolen goods. Since it was tracking, then, there had to be some actions. Even if they gained nothing, there was a process.
Besides, now that one person died, it was impossible not to alert people. Since that was the case, Jin Nanqing decided to blow things out of proportion. Weren’t they going to track the bandits?
Who was the biggest suspect? Of course, it was the bandits. There were quite a few batches of bandits nearby the Black Shakou.
Wu Yuntian had checked before, but it was none of their business. Jin Nanqing was not Wu Yuntian. Maybe Wu Yuntian was s.h.i.+elding those bandits. Hence, to hide the truth, he decided to pin it down on the bandits, and create a conflict. Once there was a conflict, there would be injuries and death. Thus w.a.n.g Ji’s death could be covered in this manner.
As for that batch of bandits that were maligned, who would have the time to care about them? Those bandits killed people and s.n.a.t.c.hed goods for a long time. They had done numerous evil deeds. Even if all of them were killed, it was also a form of executing justice and getting rid of evils for the people, not to mention maligning them. Would there be any opposition to them?
“A few days ago we went to find Beard Ma’s trouble, and killed a few of his followers, engaging in a conflict with them. Unexpectedly, Beard Ma’s followers were so strong that we suffered a bit. However, this is good and they have the capability to kill junior brother w.a.n.g!”
Listening till here, Junior Leopard understood. Jin Nanqing was intending to push all the blame onto Beard Ma’s group of bandits.
“Now what do we do?”
“Beard Ma has underlings of more than 200, and they are divided into four small teams, each team 50 people. There is a Captain for each team. These Captains aren’t weak. They are all masters at Level Two. Furthermore, they have 50 people on each team. Although their strength is not high, each one of them is trained and even practiced the battle array of unison technique. They’re very difficult to deal with!”
“You mean…”
“I mean we should just ambush one small team, and kill off their Captain, and then kill some more bandits. Then we can say that junior brother w.a.n.g was killed in the battle with the bandits!”
“That’s a good idea!” Junior Leopard nodded.
In the process of tracking down the bandits, they found some clues, which could possibly be connected to Beard Ma. When investigating, they suffered clashes with these bandits. In the end, they killed Beard Ma’s Captain and dozens of bandits. However, due to careless, w.a.n.g Ji got struck by the bandits, and died from a heavy injury.
As for whether the things were s.n.a.t.c.hed by Beard Ma, that wasn’t important, because they were only investigating, and did not come to a conclusion.
By doing this, there would be a closure to the lie!
Once he understood this point, Junior Leopard naturally agreed. Jin Nanqing’s martial arts might not amount to much, but he was smart.
“Then please, tell me what to do next!” Junior Leopard chewed on the last lamb leg and cupped together his oily hands.
“Beard Ma’s bandits’ battle array is somewhat troublesome. By then please use your twin hammers to smash apart their battle array!”
“That’s easy for me!” Junior Leopard said, “They are just a few non-established bandits, leave them to me!”
“Good!”
…
…
The wind in Black Shakou became stronger and stronger as if it never stopped.
A wave of carriage noise traveled from far away.At the end of the official road, there was a black dot. Slowly, that black dot became bigger and bigger, closer and closer. It was actually a small merchant group.
There were not many people in the merchant group. They had six carriages, and two of the carriages were used to carry people not goods.
There were a dozen rides guarding the group around the carriages. Besides, there were dozens of men armed with swords and sabers. One would know that they were the bodyguards at a glance.
Looking again at the riders on the horses and the black clothes of the armed men, you found there was a tiger with wings sewn on their clothes. On the top of the five to six carriages, there were also triangular flags with a similar flying tiger on it.
This was one of the four big escort agencies Zhonghe Prefecture, Flying Tiger Escort Agency.
“Third Master, they seem to be the Flying Tiger Escort Agency. There might be some trouble!”
In the woods not far away from the official road, there were dozens of men and horses lying in ambush. These dozens pair of eyes were greedily looking at the goods on the official road. These people were all dressed in green-grey combat clothes with a yellow band on their heads. The one leading them was skinny, with dry skin. He looked wretched, and his eyes like mung beans were flas.h.i.+ng with greed and cunning.
“Flying Tiger Escort Agency? Indeed it is somewhat troublesome. However, there’s no choice. Who asks them to b.u.mp into our hands? Get the brothers to be ready, we must kill them all. Also, tell those few lechers, this time around we want the goods. No matter men or women, young or old, we kill them all. There isn’t a time for them to enjoy the women!”
“Yes!”
Third Master’s eyes stared deadly at the merchant group on the official road, “If there’s anyone to blame, blame yourselves. You just show up in a wrong time!”
Because of the robbery of the Wu Family, now the situation was extremely tight. These few bandits in Black Shakou wanted to avoid suspicion, and not invite troubles on themselves. They almost restrained themselves and did not dare make trouble.
However, bandits were also human. They needed to eat which all needed money. If they didn’t rob, what would they eat?
Because the news was tight, and there were tight controls. Big transactions couldn’t be done. However, they had to do the small transactions.
This merchant group only had few men. Although they invited the Flying Tiger Escort Agency, there were only a dozen of normal escorts. With one look, you would know they did not have much background. Of course, the spoils would not be much.
However, at this time, they couldn’t care that much. No matter how small the sparrow was, it was still meat, wasn’t it?
This group of bandits was a small team under Beard Ma. That Third Master was a favorite subordinate of Beard Ma whose name was Jin Yubao, nicknamed Qing Feng’er. He was very cunning and vicious. This time around, he brought men and horses to hide in the woods, and watch the official official road. He didn’t dare to rob big merchant groups. However, when faced with this small merchant group, he would show no mercy.