chsdbacks Chapter 24 Bandits
Chapter 24 Bandits
"What a sharp knife."
Chen stood at the door and said softly.
"Not fast enough."
Lin Yan sheathed his sword. "Mother, we still have to go. It's too close to Black Wind Ridge; it's not safe here."
Ms. Chen nodded and turned to pack her things.
Lin Xiu had already rolled up her bedding and was standing obediently at the door waiting.
Lin Yan carried his mother on his back, held his younger sister's hand with one hand, and left the dilapidated kiln, continuing south.
Five more days passed.
In these five days, Lin Yan encountered three groups of people.
The first wave consisted of refugees.
A dozen or so refugees, their families in tow, were starving and emaciated, surrounding a corpse lying dead by the roadside... but not in mourning, but in sharing food.
As Lin Yan and his family of three approached, the dozen or so refugees all looked up, their eyes filled not with curiosity, but with hunger—the kind of hunger a wolf has for meat. Some of them had already stood up, holding sharpened wooden sticks in their hands.
Lin Yan stopped and drew his knife.
The blade gleamed coldly in the setting sun.
The group exchanged glances, then looked at the knife in Lin Yan's hand, and slowly retreated back to the corpse. An old woman in the group looked up at Lin Yan, her eyes vacant, then lowered her head again to continue gnawing on what she was holding. Lin Yan didn't look at what it was.
He lifted his mother up and quickly led his sister across the area.
Lin Xiu kept her head down, trembling all over.
"Don't look," Lin Yan said. "Keep walking forward."
Lin Xiu bit her lip and quickened her pace.
The second wave consisted of mountain bandits, whom we encountered three days later at Jiming Ridge.
Five people, all riding horses, each holding a gleaming knife.
"Halt!" The leader reined in his horse, looked Lin Yan and his companions up and down, his gaze lingering on Lin Xiu. "Leave the child, leave the things, and you two can get out of here."
Lin Yan put her mother down and had her sister help her mother back to the side of the road.
Then he drew his knife.
"Kid, you think you can get away with just a broken knife..."
Lin Yan didn't give him a chance to finish speaking.
[Micro-Dust Step] activated, and the whole person pressed against the enemy like a gust of wind. The first strike was a downward slash; before the leader could even raise his sword, he was struck under the armpit, screaming and falling off his horse.
Then, he turned his foot and used the momentum to slash down with his sword.
The second bandit raised his knife to parry, and as the two blades clashed, his blade snapped with a crack. Lin Yan's knife slid down and struck his shoulder, the sound of bone breaking clearly audible.
The remaining three bandits were taken aback.
In that brief moment of hesitation, Lin Yan had already closed in on one of them, spun around, and plunged his knife into the man's chest. The man only had time to let out a muffled groan before collapsing to the ground.
Seeing the situation was bad, the second man turned his horse and fled. Lin Yan chased after him, swung his knife in a backhand motion, and the tip of the blade pierced through the man's ribs, knocking him to the ground.
The last one immediately knelt down: "Hero, spare my life..."
A knife was held to his neck, the cold blade pressed against his skin.
"How many of you are still at Jimingling?"
"Ten...twelve people. Besides the five of us, the leader led seven others to rob people on the north road."
"What level is the leader at?"
"Nine... First rank, it should be first rank."
Lin Yan sheathed his knife. "Take out all the money you have on you."
The four men had a dozen or so taels of loose silver and a bag of dry rations. As for horses, Lin Yan only took one mule to carry the loads, and sent the rest of the horses away.
The five men watched him lead the mule away, not daring to utter a single word.
After walking two miles, Lin Yan stopped and leaned against the mule to catch his breath.
The battle just now looked swift and decisive, but in reality, he used almost all his trump cards. The镖师's footwork [Micro Dust Step], the hunter's axe technique [Firewood Cleave], and a few fancy knife moves he had secretly learned on the roadside... He was able to defeat his enemy in such a short time entirely by taking him by surprise.
If it were a direct confrontation, and those five bandits attacked together, he might not be able to win.
What's more, they also have a top-ranking leader.
"Brother, are you hurt?" Lin Xiu ran over and pulled him to check.
Lin Yan looked down and saw a shallow, superficial knife wound on his left arm. He had also been kicked in the thigh, causing him to limp. Fortunately, no bones were broken.
"It's alright." He handed the mule's reins to Lin Xiu. "Take this, we need to hurry. Once that big boss comes back, it'll be difficult to leave."
The third group of people were encountered outside Qingyuan County.
They were not refugees, nor bandits, but people from Qingfengxiang.
There were six of them, all dressed in casual clothes, but Lin Yan recognized them at a glance... These people had more stable lower bodies and longer breathing than ordinary people, they had all trained.
They stood guard at the city gate, holding portraits, questioning each passerby.
Lin Yan did not enter the city this time; he took a quick look from afar and then retreated.
"Mother, we can only keep going forward."
Madam Chen coughed twice, her voice even weaker, and said softly, "It's alright... Mother can manage."
Looking at his mother's pale face, Lin Yan felt as if a stone was pressing down on his heart.
My mother's illness can't be delayed any longer.
But Qing Fengxiang's men set up checkpoints everywhere, and his portrait was posted all over the place. Once caught, his fate would be no better than death.
We must find a way.
This thought lasted for three days, during which Lin Yan and the others remained outside the city.
He would go to the city gate to keep watch every evening.
Observe the shift change pattern of the six people from Qingfengxiang.
Wherever there are people, there will be loopholes.
What Lin Yan had to do was exploit the loopholes in these people's duty schedules.
On the third night, taking advantage of a rainy night, he sneaked into the inn where the six people were staying and stole three days' worth of dry food and a pot of wine from the kitchen.
They even took a set of casual clothes from one of their bags.
After leaving Qingyuan County.
The Lin family of three walked south along the abandoned post road for ten days.
During these ten days, Lin Yan traveled during the day and practiced martial arts at night.
He slept for two hours straight without fail, and spent the rest of his time digesting the martial arts skills he had accumulated during this period.
His body was like a dried-up sponge, frantically absorbing every move, footwork, and power technique.
Zhou Kaiquan's capture.
Among the five bandits, one wielded a short spear, and his attacks were cunning, specifically targeting the knees and ankles.
He broke down those moves and transformed them into sword techniques.
He also remembered the action of sweeping the kneeling beggar down with a single kick.
Lin Yan checked his skill panel.
【Bone Identification (Beginner) (420/500)】
【Mountain Viewing (Beginner) (12/200)】
[Rough Sketching (Basic Understanding) (301/800)]
[Basic Body Training (Beginner) (421/500)]
【Firewood Chopper (Beginner) (45/500)】
【Micro-Step (Beginner) (37/500)】
Through these days of diligent practice, [Guanshan] successfully advanced to the entry level, and his realm was completely stabilized at the first-grade body tempering realm.
Lin Yan is now much stronger than when he first broke through to the Body Tempering Realm.
That evening, they stopped to rest at a roadside teahouse.
Chen leaned against the corner of the wall, drank the medicine, and fell asleep.
The relentless travel day and night during this period nearly took its toll on Chen.
Fortunately, Lin Yan had his younger sister, Lin Xiu, talk to Chen Shi every day.
That's how the Chen family managed to survive until now.
Lin Xiu squatted outside the teahouse, writing characters on the ground with a twig... These were characters Lin Yan taught her; she had to recognize five characters and write them twenty times each day.
Without paper and pen, they drew on the ground.
Lin Yan sat at the entrance of the teahouse, placed the broken blade across his knees, closed his eyes, and focused inward on himself.
The first-grade body tempering realm, simply put, is the process of thoroughly refining one's qi and blood, allowing them to permeate every inch of the muscles, bones, and skin.
When the Qi and blood permeate the whole body and reach the muscles, bones, and skin, one will naturally enter the next realm: the True Qi Realm.
Nothing happened that night.
The next morning, Lin Yan was awakened by the sound of horses' hooves.
After [Viewing the Mountain] was activated, five people appeared in Lin Yan's perception.
He wasn't a refugee, nor a traveling merchant; his riding posture was very stable, his lower body and the horse's back fit together perfectly... He was a mountain bandit, and a trained one at that.