A Robbery?

"Old buddy, where are we going?"

Su Li patted the horse's neck and muttered to himself.

The horse snorted and ignored him.

Su Li didn't mind.

He glanced back. Wading Village had long since vanished from sight; even the outline of the mountain behind it had melted into the clouds on the horizon.

The feeling in his chest, as if it were stuffed with cotton, had finally eased a little.

Once he'd left the village behind, things really did feel different.

The most noticeable change was what was happening inside his body.

The spiritual energy that had always moved as slowly as an old ox pulling a broken cart was now as lively as a cat that had caught the scent of fish.

The energy particles drifting through the air were still pitifully sparse, but compared to that wretched village, which seemed to be under a seal, this place was practically an oxygen-rich paradise.

Su Li took a deep breath.

Coolness spread through his lungs.

The bottleneck that had trapped him for forty years, that barrier like a rusty iron lock, seemed to be loosening with the rhythm of the horse's hooves.

"Tsk."

Su Li smacked his lips. "If I'd left twenty years earlier, maybe I'd be flying on a sword by now."

But he didn't regret it.

Cultivating immortality was all about fate. Those decades with Saina had been a different kind of cultivation. Now that their fate had run its course and their earthly ties were severed, his body felt lighter.

Besides, all he could sense was his body getting stronger. Becoming an immortal was pure wishful thinking.

The scenery along the road grew desolate.

The neat wheat fields had disappeared, replaced by vast stretches of overgrown grass.

Every now and then, he passed a village, but they were all reduced to broken walls and ruins. Their roofs had been torn off, and their dark windows looked like mouths crying out for justice.

The world had fallen into chaos.

The Orenda Kingdom and the Baris Empire had been at war for so many years that they'd laid this whole land to waste.

The able-bodied men had been dragged off, the grain had been plundered, and all that remained were the old, the weak, the sick, and the endless bandits and deserters.

Su Li looked at a corpse by the road, reduced to bare bones, without any change in his expression.

What hadn't he seen in his many lifetimes?

It was just a dead person.

Just then, several people suddenly jumped out at the crossroads ahead.

They were dressed like typical bandits.

They wore battered leather armor, no one knew where they'd scavenged it from, and carried rusty iron blades or sharpened wooden sticks. They were all gaunt and sallow, but their eyes glinted green.

There were five of them in all.

Their leader was a One-Eyed Dragon, carrying a chipped woodsman's axe. A fresh wound cut across his face, its flesh peeled back. It looked rather gruesome.

"Whoa—"

Su Li pulled on the reins, and the black horse came to a reluctant stop.

Sitting atop his horse, he looked down at the sorry lot.

"A robbery?"

Su Li asked in a tone as casual as if he were asking for directions.

The One-Eyed Dragon froze.

This wasn't how the scene was supposed to go. Most people would be scared witless at the sight of them. Even if they didn't piss themselves, they should at least be shaking. Why was this pretty boy looking at them as if they were stray dogs?

"C-cut the chatter!"

The One-Eyed Dragon planted his axe on the ground, probably hoping to intimidate Su Li. But the ground was too hard, and the blow numbed his palm. He bared his teeth in pain before recovering. "This road is mine, and that tree—Bah! Leave the horse! Hand over your money! And take off your clothes, too!"

Su Li tilted his head, his eyes narrowing beneath his bamboo hat.

"You want my clothes too?"

Su Li looked down at the fine linen robe he'd just changed into. "My wife sewed this for me. It was the last thing she made. Taking it off doesn't seem right."

"Enough with the nonsense!"

A skinny monkey-like lackey beside him had lost patience. He charged forward with a butcher's knife in hand. "Boss, why are you wasting your breath? Look at his soft skin and delicate flesh. He's obviously some young master fleeing disaster. Let's kill him first!"

The butcher's knife went straight for the horse's legs.

These men might have been trash, but they had a good eye. They knew that if they took out the horse first, their target wouldn't be able to get away.

Su Li sighed.

"Young people these days have no manners at all."

He didn't draw his sword.

The sword strapped to his back remained wrapped in rags. He simply pulled his foot out of the stirrup and kicked the charging Skinny Monkey.

The kick was unbelievably fast.

Skinny Monkey saw a blur. Before he could make out the pattern on the sole of Su Li's boot, it slammed into his chest like a sledgehammer.

"Bang!"

A dull thud rang out.

Skinny Monkey flew backward, tracing a graceful arc through the air before landing in the crooked tree by the road. He didn't even have time to scream before his head lolled to the side and he passed out.

The scene fell silent.

The four remaining bandits gaped, their jaws nearly hitting their feet.

The One-Eyed Dragon rubbed his one good eye, seemingly unable to believe what he'd just seen.

Skinny Monkey might have been thin, but he still weighed a hundred pounds or so.

And that pretty boy had kicked him flying without even getting off his horse?

The One-Eyed Dragon reacted quickly, backing up two steps and gripping his axe tightly. "Get him, boys! The kid's just a little strong!"

As he spoke, the One-Eyed Dragon stepped back and let his men stand in front of him.

He'd figured out that the kid was probably one of those legendary knights. He was already planning to run.

The other three were afraid, but when they thought about how they hadn't had any rice to cook for the past few days, their desperation overcame their fear.

"Kill him!"

They charged forward, shouting wildly.

Su Li shook his head.

No one saw how he moved.

They only felt a gust of wind sweep past, accompanied by several sharp cracks of breaking bones.

"Crack!"

"Ow!"

"My hand!"

In the blink of an eye, all three lackeys were on the ground. Some clutched their arms, others their legs, rolling around and howling louder than slaughtered pigs.

Only the One-Eyed Dragon was still standing.

Su Li stood in front of him, half a head taller.

"Hand over all the money you've got."

Su Li held out his hand, palm up. "Don't make me do it myself. I have a bad habit: when I do things myself, I can't control my strength and tend to kill people."

The One-Eyed Dragon froze.

The scene had turned around so fast that his brain couldn't keep up.

Wait... wasn't the pretty boy supposed to be the one getting robbed? How had he become the one being robbed?

"Didn't you hear me?"

Su Li's fingers twitched slightly.

"I heard you! I'll pay!"

The One-Eyed Dragon flinched and hurriedly fumbled around inside his clothes.

After a long while, he pulled out a filthy cloth pouch and handed it to Su Li with trembling hands.

Su Li took it and weighed it in his hand.

It was feather-light.

He opened it. There were only a dozen or so copper coins and half a moldy piece of hardtack inside.

"Tsk."

Su Li tossed the pouch back in disgust. "Bunch of paupers."

He turned and walked over to the lackeys still groaning, kicking each of them once. "Stop making noise. Keep it up and I'll cut out your tongues."

The ground fell silent at once.

Su Li searched the men one by one.

The haul was even worse.