Easy Win! Interrogation!

Before his scream had even faded, a more wretched sound erupted from the other side.

The moment the skinny man's gray, rock-like skin was wrapped by Huang Fei's Blue Silver Grass vines, it shattered just like an eggshell.

Huang Fei crouched on the ground, one hand pressed against the skinny man's chest while the other braced his own knee, his head tilted as he looked down at the fellow bound like a rice dumpling by the vines. A yellow spirit ring hovered by his feet, rotating slowly.

The skinny man's face turned the color of liver, and fragments of his rocky skin continued to flake off. His body was wrapped tightly in vines, leaving only his head and feet exposed, making him look like a green mummy. The tension of the vines was perfectly calibrated—not enough to injure him, but enough to ensure he could never break free.

"W-what the hell is this!" The skinny man's voice turned shrill. As he struggled, he discovered a terrifying fact: his rocky skin hadn't been crushed by the vines tightening; it had been "burst" from within. The force didn't come from external pressure, but from the growth of the vines themselves.

The vines had "grown" into the fissures of his rocky skin, much like plant roots burrowing into soil, splitting the rock apart from the inside.

This was the first time Huang Fei had used his spirit skill in actual combat after absorbing his true first spirit ring.

The eight-hundred-year-old Vine of Life was even more absurdly effective than he had anticipated.

For the same Entangle spirit skill, Tang San's vines relied on toughness and regenerative ability, but his own vines possessed an almost savage "growth force" in addition to those traits. Upon contact with a target, the vines automatically adjusted their growth direction based on the target's shape and texture, infiltrating every crevice like flowing water to dismantle the opponent's defense from within.

The skinny man's rocky skin hadn't been crushed—it had been "grown" apart by the vines from the inside out.

Huang Fei looked at the yellow spirit ring at his feet, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly.

Not bad.

He stood up, brushed the dirt off his knees, and turned to look at Tang San.

On Tang San's side, the scarred man had completely given up resistance. His Gray Wolf spirit had retracted, his short blade was discarded, and his hands were raised above his head. The vines around his neck remained tight, and he dared not move.

Over by Xiao Wu, the fat man lay on the ground, his bear paws spread wide to signal surrender.

Three bandits, from the start of the engagement to their subjugation, in less than ten seconds.

The main road returned to silence, save for the rustling of the wind through the poplar leaves.

Tang San fished a rope from his waist and tossed it to Huang Fei, then pulled another from his own robes. The two of them, one for each, bound the scarred man and the skinny man securely. Xiao Wu stepped on the fat man's back one more time to ensure he was truly incapacitated before hopping off him.

"Speak. Who sent you?" Tang San crouched before the scarred man, his voice low but carrying an oppressive weight with every word.

The scarred man's lips trembled. He didn't dare look at Tang San, his eyes darting wildly to the side.

"N-nobody sent us. We just wanted to get some money to spend..."

Tang San said nothing, merely watching him quietly.

The scarred man's gaze began to flicker, his pupils shifting frantically as he avoided eye contact. Back in the Tang Sect, Tang San had interrogated hard-cases a hundred times more difficult than this petty thief. This level of lying was no different from children playing house in his eyes.

He slowly raised his right hand. The Blue Silver Grass vines coiled around his wrist, undulating slowly like a snake poised to strike.

"I'll ask one last time."

The scarred man's Adam's apple bobbed, and cold sweat rolled down his forehead.

He opened his mouth, just about to speak—

"We'll talk! We'll tell you everything!"

The skinny man, bound like a dumpling nearby, was the first to break, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The skinny man's cries echoed down the empty road, startling a flock of sparrows in the woods.

"We'll talk! We'll tell you everything! Don't do it! Please, don't do it!" His voice was so shrill it sounded as if someone were strangling him. Combined with the fragments of rocky skin shattered by Huang Fei's vines, he looked both pathetic and ridiculous.

Tang San stopped and turned around, looking down at the skinny man from his height. The Blue Silver Grass vines remained coiled around his wrist, unretracted, as if ready to strike again at any moment.

"Then speak."

The skinny man swallowed hard, his lips trembling several times before he could squeeze a sentence out of his throat.

"N-nobody sent us... It was just us... a spur-of-the-moment thing..."

Even as he said it, he felt guilty; his voice grew quieter and quieter until the final words were squeezed through his teeth, barely louder than a mosquito's hum.

Tang San frowned.

It wasn't because he didn't believe it, but because he believed it too much.

The caliber of these three individuals certainly didn't look like they had been sent by anyone. Level 11 or 12 with one white spirit ring, combat skills near zero, and lacking even the most basic coordination between their spirits—the three of them had charged in and fought individually, like headless flies. If someone had actually sent them to do a job, that person was either stupid or destitute.

"Spur-of-the-moment?" Tang San repeated the four words, his tone light but carrying a clear sense of scrutiny.

The scarred man, hearing his brother had already confessed, couldn't hold out either. The vines around his neck hadn't loosened, and with every word he spoke, he could feel that binding force tightening slightly, as if reminding him not to lie. Beads of sweat rolled down his face, following the jagged scar and dripping onto the ground.

"It really was spur-of-the-moment!" The scarred man's voice carried a sob. "The three of us were heading to Nuoding City to find work. We saw the three of you walking from afar. Even though you were wearing coarse cloth, the way you walked didn't look like children from poor families... especially that one—" He gestured with his chin toward Huang Fei. "That way of walking, so swaggering, you could tell at a glance he'd never known hunger..."

Huang Fei leaned against a poplar tree by the roadside, his hands tucked into his sleeves. Hearing this, he raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Me?" He pointed at his own nose, his tone subtle. "What's wrong with the way I walk?"

The scarred man didn't dare answer.

Instead, the fat man, who had been lying on the ground playing dead, added in a muffled, grumpy voice: "It's just that... you look very confident. Not afraid of people. Not hiding from people. We've been robbing this road for years, and we know at a glance—kids like that definitely have money on them."

Huang Fei was silent for a moment. He swept his gaze over the three bandits, looking them up and down, then spoke slowly.

"You've been robbing this road for years, and this is the level you've reached?"

The three bandits fell silent simultaneously.

It was a biting question, because they truly had no skill. Three one-ring spirit masters with white rings were at the very bottom of the spirit master world. Other highwaymen at least had iron weapons, but these three? They flashed their spirits, saw they were white, and before the fight even started, their momentum was already half-gone.