Over the next few days, they ran into another four bands of horse bandits.
Each time, Elder Bai stepped forward of his own accord and skillfully paid the "toll."
Thirty taels, fifty taels, a hundred taels.
The prices varied, but the result was always the same—spend money to ward off disaster.
Everything had gone fairly smoothly.
At this pace, in two more days at most, they would be out of this sea of sand.
Noon on the second day.
The blazing sun hung overhead, and even the air seemed warped.
Dust rose once more ahead of them.
"They're here again." Bai Fengling sounded helpless.
Elder Bai wore the expression of someone long accustomed to this as he prepared to pay again.
But when that group drew near, Elder Bai's expression changed.
There were roughly thirty or forty riders in this group.
Yet they were completely different from the rabble they had encountered before.
Their warhorses were uniformly tall and sturdy, draped in matching black leather armor. Unknown ferocious beast totems were even carved into the armor.
Every one of them radiated a hardened, capable air.
These were no horse bandits. They were clearly a well-trained army.
"Horse bandits in this lawless land can be this imposing?" Bai Fengling clicked his tongue in amazement.
Elder Bai, however, looked terribly grim. Still, he braced himself and walked forward, pulling a hundred-tael banknote from his robes.
"Sir soldier, we are..."
At their head stood a lean man, who did not even glance at the banknote.
His attention was entirely fixed on Bai Fengling.
"Money? I don't want it."
The lean man spoke, pointing at Bai Fengling.
"Let him keep this young master entertained for an hour, and I'll waive your toll."
The moment he finished speaking, the "horse bandits" behind him erupted in laughter.
Elder Bai's face instantly flushed the color of pig liver.
"Sir soldier, you jest. Young Master Bai is a man. We are willing to pay three times the toll—three hundred taels! Please grant us this convenience."
"Old bastard, can't you understand human speech?"
The lean man kicked Elder Bai squarely in the chest, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"I already said it. I'm not short of money—I want a person!"
"So what if he's a man? He's all fair and tender. This is exactly the kind I like!"
"Brothers, tell him where I used to rule the roost."
The surrounding horse bandits jeered even louder.
"Hahaha, Captain Fu Wei used to be the big boss of Chuandu!"
Chuandu was famously fond of men.
Bai Fengling's face went pale in an instant.
His whole body trembled, whether from rage or fear, no one could tell.
Shen Che had not said a word.
He merely watched the lean man called "Captain Fu Wei."
Then he raised his hand.
Without any extra movement, he simply swung a slap through the air at Fu Wei, more than ten meters away.
A crisp explosive crack rang out.
It was louder than any of the horse bandits' laughter before.
Fu Wei, who had been laughing wildly, looked as if his head had been struck by an invisible battering ram.
The flesh and bone of his face caved inward all at once, then burst apart.
Red and white splattered all over the horse bandits beside him.
The headless corpse swayed atop its horse before falling with a thud onto the scorching sand.
He had not even managed to let out a scream.
The bandit horde, deafeningly boisterous just a second ago, fell deathly silent the next.
Everyone froze in place, their smiles congealing into absurd expressions.
A few seconds later.
"C-Captain!"
"Captain Fu Wei is dead!"
"He killed Captain Fu Wei!"
All the horse bandits snapped awake.
Fury replaced their stupor.
"Avenge the captain!"
"Kill him!"
"Charge! Crush him!"
The remaining thirty or forty elite horse bandits erupted with savage light in their eyes. They were no longer robbers, but a pack of enraged hungry wolves.
Rumble!
The thunder of hooves rang out again. This time, carrying a kill-or-be-killed intent, they charged from all directions at the three people in the center.
Sand and dust filled the sky.
Elder Bai struggled to his feet, his aged face white as paper.
Bai Fengling trembled from head to toe in terror. When had he ever seen such a scene?
Shen Che stood where he was, utterly unmoving.
He did not wait for the horse bandits to close in.
He lightly squeezed the camel horse's flanks with his legs. The beast gave a shrill neigh and reared up.
Borrowing that force, Shen Che shot into the sky like a cannonball, carving a black arc through the air as he took the initiative to meet the foremost horse bandits.
He was like a hunting falcon swooping down on its prey.
The leading horse bandit only felt the sky above him darken as a black shadow descended from above.
He did not even have time to react.
Shen Che's right leg, carrying the force of ten thousand tons, came crashing down like a massive mountain-splitting axe.
Crack!
A bone-breaking snap that made teeth ache.
That horse bandit, along with the huge warhorse beneath him, was smashed from head to toe straight into the sand by that kick.
The warhorse's spine snapped on the spot, while the horse bandit's head was stomped directly into his chest cavity.
A bloody, mangled lump of flesh.
That brutal sight caused the horse bandits' charge to stall for an instant.
That instant was all Shen Che needed.
He landed, tapped his toes against the sand, and instead of retreating, surged straight into the bandit horde.
A long spear shot toward his heart like a venomous snake leaving its hole.
Shen Che did not even look. He reached out with his left hand and grabbed the spear shaft.
The horse bandit only felt as though his spear had struck ten-thousand-year black iron. It could not advance another inch.
He tried to pull it back, only to find the shaft clamped in the grip of an iron pincer.
The muscles in Shen Che's arm bulged.
"Up!"
He gave a low shout.
With one arm, he actually swung that horse bandit and his horse bodily up from the ground.
A man weighing over a hundred jin, plus a warhorse weighing nearly a thousand jin, seemed weightless in his hand.
Whoosh—
Shen Che wielded this "weapon" like a meteor hammer and hurled it viciously away.
"Ah!"
The flung horse bandit let out a terrified scream.
He and his horse crashed heavily into the bandits to the side, knocking three or four of his companions over on the spot. Men and horses toppled together, plunging the area into chaos.
Shen Che casually tossed aside the bent and twisted spear.
He then snatched a fresh spear from the hands of a horse bandit who had been stunned senseless by the collision.
He drew his arm back and drove force through his waist and abdomen.
The spear turned into a bolt of black lightning and flew from his hand.
The shriek of it tearing through the air made everyone's scalp go numb.
Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!
A string of sounds of flesh being pierced rang out.
Like candied hawthorns threaded on a skewer, that spear pierced through four horse bandits in succession without losing momentum. At last, with a thunk, it lodged deeply into a sand dune dozens of meters away.
Four bodies hung from the spear shaft, twitching faintly.
The battlefield once again sank into an eerie silence.
The remaining horse bandits were completely terrified out of their wits.
Was that strength something a human could possess?
"Devil! He's a devil!"
Someone shouted it.
The instinct to survive overwhelmed their fury for revenge.
One horse bandit wheeled his horse around, lashed its rump hard with his whip, and fled into the distance like a madman.
With someone taking the lead, the rest of the horse bandits instantly collapsed, scattering like birds and beasts as they fled in every direction.
How could Shen Che possibly let them escape?
The crimson-gold true qi inside him surged wildly.
He raised his hand, pressing his fingers together like a sword.
Streams of true qi, condensed almost into substance, shot from his fingertips and became invisible arrows.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Whether the fleeing horse bandits had made it dozens of meters away or over a hundred meters away,
A blossom of blood would always explode from the backs of their hearts or heads.
Then they and their horses would plunge headfirst into the sand.
Before you continue