Bandits

For the villagers of Lujiang Village, going into the city was no easy matter.

The journey took more than four hours on foot. The fatigue and time involved made it difficult for villagers to go there and back in a single day.

Staying overnight in the city was another problem, because of the expense.

A few years earlier, when Chen Yan had gone to Xingyuan City with Chen Dasheng and Chen Dong, the three of them had spent the night hiding in a ruined, abandoned temple in the southern part of the city.

Of course, they weren't the only ones who had spent the night in that temple.

It was stuffy and crowded inside, and the air was thick with a mixture of sweat and urine.

More than twenty poor people who didn't want to pay for an inn had squeezed into the temple and spent the night amid a chorus of snores.

Even for Chen Yan, that experience had been undeniably novel.

But now, it was already afternoon. The sun hung in the west, dyeing the sky gold.

Traveling at night was difficult.

If they set out for Xingyuan City now, it would probably take them more than four hours.

And the road was dangerous.

A few months ago, someone had reportedly been attacked by bandits on the way into the city. They'd been stabbed several times and left in the woods beside the road.

Only when passersby noticed the stench had they discovered the body, half-rotted and gutted by wild dogs.

Even now, the bandits were still at large.

That was only to be expected. There were no bandits who had seized a mountain and made it their stronghold around Xingyuan City. The remote southeastern reaches of the Great Yan Dynasty were nothing but impoverished backwaters; make a