Young Master Lei immediately cupped his hands toward Lu Chen. "So Brother Lu is a prized pupil of a martial arts school. My apologies for not recognizing you."
He patted Young Master Zhang on the shoulder. "Brother Zhang, since we're helping the two Miss Meis, it's only right that we lend a hand. Come on."
With that, he nimbly climbed down from the carriage.
Young Master Wen said nothing and followed.
Seeing his companions move, Young Master Zhang glanced at Mei Ying in the carriage. Her big eyes were smiling at him, and he felt his face grow hot.
He didn't want to seem so useless and pampered in front of the girl he admired, so he had no choice but to get down, even though he dreaded it.
Mei Ying lifted the carriage window's padded curtain and leaned out, revealing half her lovely face. Her voice was sweet and clear, as if dipped in honey.
"Brother Zhang, Brother Lei, Brother Wen, thanks for all your hard work! Keep it up! Once the road's clear, we can get home sooner!"
Those sweet words, and the way she called them "brother," worked better than any whip.
Young Master Zhang's face lit up, and Young Master Lei grinned.
Even Young Master Wen, usually so cool and distant, seemed to move a little faster.
The three rolled up their sleeves, not caring if their brocade robes got dirty. They began lifting and shoving the broken branches and rocks scattered all over the road. They were clumsy and inefficient, but at least they were working.
With Lu Chen and Liu Qi helping, the five of them soon cleared half the obstruction.
Just then, hurried hoofbeats sounded from behind them.
Lu Chen whipped around.
The three officers had returned, dragging the mother and child from earlier behind their horses.
The woman had pulled off her headscarf. Beneath it was a mess of short hair and a man's face, scruffy with stubble.
The child threw off the cloak, revealing a vicious dwarf. Both were bound tightly.
The officer in charge rode forward and cupped his hands to the group.
"Don't be alarmed, everyone! We're officers from the provincial constabulary, pursuing Iron Eagle Gang bandits. These two are notorious members of the gang, known as the Mandarin Duck Crutches. They specialize in dressing a man as a woman and a dwarf as a child to trick softhearted travelers. They've already taken many lives!"
Everyone's backs went cold, and a wave of belated fear washed over them.
Luckily, they hadn't fallen for the trap.
The leader continued, "We learned during the interrogation that this gang has set up an ambush here, and there's more than one group. They likely have accomplices ahead on the main road. If you keep going that way, you'll be walking straight into their trap. Come with us at once and take the path to the east. You'll avoid the bandits."
His words only made everyone more alarmed.
The two young ladies went deathly pale.
Young Masters Zhang, Lei, and Wen panicked, all talking at once.
"Quick! Take the side path!"
"Listen to the officer!"
"Liu Qi, hurry! Get the carriage moving!"
They scrambled aboard and urged him to hurry.
"Wait."
Lu Chen stepped forward, placing himself between the carriage and the officers.
"Officer, if we abandon the main road for an unfamiliar path, what if there's an ambush there too? Wouldn't we be walking right into a trap?" Lu Chen asked.
The leader's expression darkened.
The yellow-faced officer beside him immediately barked, "Insolence! We're only trying to help, and you're standing there making wild accusations!"
"Brother Lu!" Young Master Zhang was both frightened and impatient. "Surely the officer knows better than you! Stop talking!"
Young Master Lei chimed in as well. "That's right, Brother Lu. We can't go wrong if we listen to the officer!"
Lu Chen ignored them and fixed his gaze on the leader.
"I've heard of the Iron Eagle Gang. They're a ragtag band of twenty or thirty men who specialize in laying traps, drugging and robbing travelers, and other filthy business. But this setup—felling trees to block the road, then murdering and robbing people—is beyond what a bunch like them would dare."
A sinister glint flashed through the officer's eyes.
"You know quite a bit about the underworld. Are you one of them?"
Lu Chen's expression didn't change.
"I've only heard things. I also know the constabulary usually deals with its prisoners on the spot to save itself the trouble. You're in no hurry to go back and claim your reward, yet you're insisting on escorting our whole carriage of dead weight along a detour. That sort of saintly compassion doesn't seem like the work of government officers."
At his words, everyone looked at the three officers with suspicion.
On second thought, there was something fishy about every part of it.
The provincial government was a long way from here. Unless they were dealing with a notorious bandit who threatened an entire province or county, why would provincial officers come all the way out here to make the arrest themselves?
Seeing that his ruse had been exposed, the leader dropped the act. He snarled, "We meant to lure you into the woods and finish you off quietly. Since you won't appreciate kindness, we'll send you on your way right now."
"Attack!"
The three fake officers sprang into action together, leaping from their horses and charging in a triangular formation.
Lu Chen drew his blade. A flash of steel swept across the throat of the bandit on his left.
He wheeled around and drove his blade up through another man's jaw, the tip bursting through the back of his head.
Only the leader remained.
Roaring, he launched a fierce attack. Lu Chen blocked two strikes. When the third came down, he didn't retreat; he ducked and slammed into the man's chest, thrusting his steel blade up into the man's belly until the hilt disappeared. Then he twisted his wrist, shredding the man's insides.
The leader froze. His weapon fell from his hand, and he slowly sank to his knees.
The three fake officers were nothing more than ordinary bandits. How could they stand against Lu Chen, who had grown stronger through several rounds of draws and was already nearing the threshold of External Force?
In the blink of an eye, all three had fallen to his blade.
While Lu Chen fought the fake officers, the thin man in women's clothes and the dwarf had already slipped their bonds and charged toward the carriage.
Xiao Gao, the maid, screamed and spread her arms to shield the others.
Mei Dai clutched her terrified younger sister, Mei Ying, while all three women went pale with fear.
The dwarf gripped a gleaming dagger, his face twisted into a savage scowl.
Liu Qi was locked in a desperate struggle with the thin man.
Hearing Mei Ying scream, the three young masters steeled themselves and rushed over to subdue the dwarf.
But though he was short, the dwarf moved like a slippery eel and was skilled with a blade.
The three couldn't catch him. Instead, his dagger slashed their clothes to ribbons and left several bloody cuts on them. They looked utterly wretched.
After finishing off the three fake officers, Lu Chen turned and saw what was happening by the carriage. Three men were being driven into such a sorry state by a dwarf. He couldn't help feeling speechless.
He strode forward and reached out. His hand clamped around the dwarf's neck like an iron vise.
The dwarf was caught. Furious and shocked, he glared at Lu Chen with vicious eyes and cursed, "Fuck your mother! Let go of me!"
Lu Chen lifted the short, vicious man. The muscles in his arm bulged as he swung him high, then slammed him hard into the ground!
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The dwarf was smashed into a bloody, mangled heap, his limbs twisted as he lay motionless in the snow.
Lu Chen turned and walked toward the thin man grappling with Liu Qi, then kicked out.
The thin man had just pinned Liu Qi in the snow and raised his fist when he sensed a violent gust behind him. He whipped around in alarm.
Crack!
His neck snapped.
The thin man's head lolled to one side, and he crumpled to the ground.
Silence fell by the carriage.
Only the howling wind and snow, and everyone's ragged, terrified breathing, broke the stillness.
Lu Chen bent down, scooped up some clean snow, and wiped the blood from his blade.
"Clear the road. We're leaving now."
Lu Chen's ruthless decisiveness had frightened them all. No one dared say another word, and they immediately set to clearing the obstruction.
Without a word, Lu Chen bent down and began searching the corpses.
Before you continue