"Qiao Musheng, second branch master of the Quick Sand Qingzhou Branch, pays his respects to the branch master!"
"Mu Yuwei, third branch master of the Quick Sand Qingzhou Branch, pays her respects to the branch master!"
Besides Qi Shanhe, another man and a woman knelt on one knee before Ning Que.
They were so excited that they could barely speak coherently.
The rumors were true!
The former Juzi's child had been found, and he was right before their eyes!
The Qingzhou Branch was one of the few branches of Flowing Sand that still followed headquarters.
They also accepted Ning Que's identity without reservation!
After headquarters issued the order for everyone to assemble, all the branches would have to gather, whether they had broken away from Flowing Sand or remained loyal.
This was the most momentous event since Flowing Sand's founding!
"Please rise, all three of you!"
Ning Que studied the three branch masters.
Qi Shanhe was a dark-skinned, middle-aged man, but a fearsome aura accompanied every shift of his gaze.
Qiao Musheng was slightly younger, with thick eyebrows and large eyes. A woodcutting axe hung at his waist, apparently his weapon.
As for Mu Yuwei, she was a mature woman in lavish clothes, with a voluptuous figure. At a time when most women wore long skirts that covered their feet, hers already had a slit, offering glimpses of her long, fair legs.
The surrounding bandits stared with their eyes bulging, swallowing hard.
"You three, there will be plenty of time to catch up later. We have something important to deal with right now!"
Yin Jiuyou's voice brought Qi Shanhe and the other two back to their senses.
Their expressions darkened as they looked at the several hundred bandits surrounding them.
"Juzi, these rabble dare surround you?"
Murderous intent shone in Qiao Musheng's eyes. His voice was quiet, yet it carried across the entire gathering.
Qi Shanhe also stepped forward, leading his men to face those of the Black Kui Stronghold.
"Juzi, since we've run into these people, leave them to us!"
"Hehe... my little darlings have fresh blood and flesh to feast on again."
Mu Yuwei licked her sensuous red lips and smiled seductively.
To Ning Que's scalp-prickling horror, a large, hairy spider crawled onto Mu Yuwei's partly exposed shoulder.
Whether it was their gazes, their words, or the murderous intent clinging to them...
All of it made Qian Kuidou uneasy.
In all their years as bandits, they had never encountered people like these.
He mustered his courage and demanded, "Who are you, to meddle in the Black Kui Stronghold's affairs?"
"These two killed not only our brothers from the stronghold, but my younger brother as well. We're both sons of the county magistrate! I urge you to think twice!"
Perhaps sensing that these newcomers were no ordinary people, Qian Kuidou brought up his county magistrate father.
He hoped to intimidate them.
But Qi Shanhe merely chuckled, then vanished from where he stood.
When he reappeared, he was already right in front of Qian Kuidou.
That speed sent a chill through Qian Kuidou, leaving him feeling as though his entire body had frozen.
Coming to his senses, Qian Kuidou instinctively hefted his axe and swung it at Qi Shanhe.
But before he could bring it down, a hand clamped around his neck.
Qi Shanhe lifted the burly Qian Kuidou with just one hand!
He made no attempt to conceal the murderous intent in his eyes.
Qian Kuidou was scared witless, and his axe clattered to the ground.
"Sir... sir, let's talk this over..."
"We won't demand his life anymore, we..."
But Qi Shanhe's gaze turned cold, and his hand suddenly tightened.
Crack!
Qian Kuidou's entire neck burst apart in an instant!
Yes.
It wasn't snapped!
It was crushed until it burst!
Like a pipe squeezed so brutally that it exploded under the immense force.
The horrifying sight instantly left Luo Tong, Wang Wu, and the other bandits stunned.
They were only a bunch of bandits. When had they ever witnessed anything like this?
Wang Wu's expression had turned terrified. "Who exactly are you?"
Luo Tong stared at Qi Shanhe, his expression shifting even more drastically.
The next moment, as though something had occurred to him, Luo Tong's face filled with utter terror.
"Y-you're from Flowing Sand?"
"Heh, so you know who we are..."
Qiao Musheng likewise approached them with a cold smile.
The Black Kui Stronghold's bandits clearly outnumbered them more than two to one.
Yet the momentum between the two sides was completely one-sided.
In fact, the aura of Qi Shanhe and Qiao Musheng alone was enough to overwhelm a whole swath of them.
Wang Wu held his breath, his expression grim. "Flowing Sand... what's that?"
"The largest underground power in all of Great Li... a mountain that countless underground factions can never hope to scale!"
Luo Tong's voice was already trembling as he spoke. "If there's any force that could overthrow the Great Li Dynasty, it could only be Flowing Sand!"
"W-what?"
Clang!
Clang!
Once Luo Tong finished speaking, all the bandits collapsed in terror, their weapons falling from their hands.
Luo Tong even turned to look at Yin Jiuyou. When Yin Jiuyou had taken out that token earlier, Luo Tong had been trying to place it.
Now he remembered.
That was a fucking Flowing Sand token!
He was from Flowing Sand too!
And his rank wasn't low, either!
Qi Shanhe grinned savagely. "You know who we are, yet you still dare lay a hand on our Juzi?"
"J-Juzi?"
Hearing that title, Luo Tong nearly lost his mind.
He instinctively looked at Ning Que, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints.
He's the Juzi?
Heavens...
Just who had killed the county magistrate's son?
He'd thought they were simply tracking down a murderer, only to poke a hornet's nest?
If someone from Flowing Sand really had killed the county magistrate's son, a mere county magistrate wouldn't amount to anything!
"Kill!"
With that thunderous shout, blood flowed deep enough to float shields.
But the screams soon stopped.
Though the Black Kui Stronghold had plenty of bandits, most were nothing but a disorganized rabble.
Already scared out of their wits, they had no strength to fight the experts from Flowing Sand's Qingzhou headquarters.
[Ding! Qi Shanhe, branch master of the Quick Sand Qingzhou Branch, killed Qian Kuidou, chief of the Black Kui Stronghold. Karma points gained: 100.] [Ding! Experts from the Quick Sand Qingzhou Branch killed 364 Black Kui Stronghold bandits! Karma points gained: 1,820!]
Whoa!
What a bumper harvest!
As the notifications sounded in his mind, Ning Que's eyes lit up.
Having more people really was better. It earned him more karma points, too.
"Thank you all for stepping in, but killing these bandits means we've completely offended the county magistrate here!"
"Because their leader was the local county magistrate's son!"
Ning Que looked at Qi Shanhe and the others and explained Qian Kuidou's identity.
But none of them took it to heart.
"It was no trouble! There's no need to thank us, Juzi!"
"We were planning to take this place as our base anyway."
Mu Yuwei sighed. "Our only problem now is a shortage of weapons and cloth armor. Dealing with this bandit rabble is no problem, but facing a regular army could be a serious challenge."
At her words, both Qi Shanhe and Qiao Musheng looked troubled.
Obtaining a single weapon was easy. Acquiring them in bulk was the hard part.
They couldn't very well fight government troops bare-handed, could they?
Just then, Ning Que gave a mysterious smile. "I have a way to get weapons..."
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