Though she had fallen to the ground, the woman still clutched the child in her arms as he wailed and sobbed.
Lin Qing's pupils contracted, and his heart clenched.
These bandits struck swiftly and cleanly. They were no ordinary mountain rabble!
There was a murderous aura about them.
They seemed more like... hardened bandits who had seen bloodshed.
This was trouble!
He immediately abandoned any other thoughts. Without hesitation, he lowered his body and prepared to quietly retreat in the opposite direction, using the bushes for cover.
He didn't want to get caught up in this pointless fight, much less reveal himself.
There were too many tragedies in this world for him to help everyone.
And if these hardened bandits had powerful backers, he would be dragged into the maelstrom for nothing.
But the instant he turned, the woman fleeing in panic might have acted on a mother's desperate instinct. Her gaze happened to sweep across a gap in the swaying bushes on his side.
She caught a glimpse of Lin Qing's indistinct figure. As if grasping at the last straw, she summoned all her strength and cried out in a pleading, tear-choked voice:
"Hero! You over there!"
"Please save my son! Save my An'er!"
That anguished cry instantly shattered Lin Qing's plan to leave.
It also made the three bandits who had just killed the scholar in robes and were grinning as they closed in on the woman and child all turn their vicious gazes toward the place where Lin Qing was hiding.
Beads of blood dripped slowly from their blades, spattering the dirt.
Lin Qing's feet froze in place.
The woman's plea was like an invisible thread, coiling around his ankles.
The three bandits' sudden, vicious stares saw through his vain hope of staying out of it.
The bushes no longer offered any cover.
He slowly straightened and stepped out from the shadows of the trees, exposed to the dappled light filtering through the forest.
Lin Qing still looked like a traveling merchant with a sallow complexion.
He appeared thoroughly ordinary, even somewhat frail.
The three bandits were startled to see that someone was there after all.
But once they saw Lin Qing was alone, not particularly burly, and unarmed, their courage quickly returned.
Their leader was a bald man with a gleaming scalp and a face full of cruel flesh. He pointed his bloodied steel blade at Lin Qing and barked in a voice like a cracked gong, "Where'd you come from, you blind brat? Take my advice and don't stick your damn nose where it doesn't belong!"
"You dare cross the Wild Mountain Bandits? How many lives do you think you've got to spare?"
"Wild Mountain Bandits?"
Lin Qing stirred inwardly. He seemed to recall hearing the name mentioned once at the Ge Pao Society.
They were a group of hardened bandits who had recently appeared around the Wild Mountain area outside Qingping County.
They were said to be vicious in their methods, with plenty of blood on their hands.
Lin Qing immediately arranged a look of apprehension on his face and hurriedly waved his hands, his voice trembling with fear. "A misunderstanding, heroes! There's been a misunderstanding!"
"I'm just passing through. I meant no offense. I'll be on my way..."
As he spoke, he pretended to retreat, but his eyes quickly swept over the three men.
The bald man's breathing was steady, and his temples bulged slightly. He was clearly a trained martial artist.
Judging by the fluctuations in his qi and blood, he was roughly in the middle to late stages of the Skin Refining Realm, but had yet to enter the Tendon Opening Realm.
The other two had erratic breathing and unsteady stances. Their eyes were fierce, but they were merely ordinary bandits relying on brute courage.
Seeing how compliant Lin Qing was, the bald man gave a smug, vicious grin and spat, "Hmph! At least you know what's good for you, you dog's bastard!"
"Now get lost, or Grandpa's blade will get its third taste of blood today!"
The faint hope that had stirred in the woman when Lin Qing appeared abruptly vanished. Her face turned as pale as paper.
The light in her eyes died completely, leaving nothing but endless despair.
Her legs gave way, and she slumped to the ground with the child in her arms, as if all her bones had been pulled out.
Her body trembled uncontrollably as she scrambled backward on her hands and feet, trying to get farther from the murderous fiend. It was all in vain.
"Heh heh, little lady, why keep running?"
The bald man ignored Lin Qing and leered as he closed in on the woman.
His eyes roved over her chest, heaving violently with fear.
"Go on, scream! Weren't you just screaming your head off?"
"Let's see if anyone comes to save you!"
"Out here in the wilds, not even the Jade Emperor could stop me from enjoying myself!"
Before the bald man had even finished speaking, he impatiently squatted down. His coarse, filthy hand went straight for the overlapping fabric over the woman's chest and tore with a sharp jerk.
"Rrrip!"
The sound of cloth ripping rang out with piercing clarity in the silent forest.
A glimpse of the plain undergarment beneath her clothes was exposed, along with the snow-white skin of her shoulder and neck.
The woman let out a despairing wail, clinging tightly to the child in her arms, who was shaking with fear and couldn't even cry.
At the very instant the bald man's attention was fixed entirely on the woman,
when his guard was at its lowest,
Lin Qing, who had seemed so frightened and eager to retreat, moved!
He moved like a leopard that had been lying in wait for ages.
Still as a maiden, swift as a hare!
The ground sank slightly beneath his feet, and his body shot forward like an arrow loosed from its string, his speed erupting to its utmost.
Lin Qing touched the ground with his toes and crossed several yards in an instant, closing in silently on the bald man's rear flank.
The two bandits on watch saw only a blur.
The traveling merchant who had just been so meek and submissive—
had appeared behind their big brother like a ghost!
The bald man had survived his share of fights. The instant Lin Qing's aura erupted and he drew close, alarm bells rang in his heart.
An icy chill shot from his tailbone straight to his crown.
He instinctively tried to twist around and raise his blade to block.
But it was too late.
Lin Qing raised his right fist. The qi and blood of his Tendon Opening Realm surged through him, gathering around the knuckle-duster on his fist!
He didn't draw the saber on his back. That would take time.
At that moment, the contest was decided in the blink of an eye!
"Thud!"
A muffled sound of flesh being pierced rang clearly in everyone's ears.
The bald man's body stiffened, his movements halting. He looked down in disbelief.
A bloodstained Kirin Spike protruded from his neck!
Relying on the explosive strength of the Tendon Opening Realm,
Lin Qing had killed him with a single move in the space of a heartbeat!
"You... you..."
A strange, wheezing sound came from the bald man's throat. His eyes brimmed with disbelief and confusion.
He couldn't understand why an apparently ordinary passerby would use such a ruthless technique.
Lin Qing's face remained expressionless, his gaze cold as ice. He leaned close to the man's ear and, in a voice only the two of them could hear, calmly murmured a few words.
"Sorry. Justice made me do it."
Before the words had faded, he flicked his wrist and yanked out the Kirin Spike, spraying a burst of warm blood.
The light in the bald man's eyes quickly faded. His sturdy body toppled like a mountain of gold or a pillar of jade.
He crashed to the ground, twitched twice, and fell silent.
It had all happened too fast.
From the instant Lin Qing sprang into action to the bald man's death, only a few dozen breaths had passed.
The two bandits didn't come to their senses until their big brother hit the ground.
Their smug grins instantly twisted into fury.
"He killed our big brother!"
"Take revenge for him! Hack him to pieces!"
Though startled, the two didn't panic. Clearly hardened bandits themselves, they roared in unison.
One on each side, they charged Lin Qing with their steel blades raised!
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