Bandits on the Road

"Stop! I opened this road and planted these trees. If you want to pass this way, pay the toll!"

Inside the carriage, Li Chen heard the voice outside. Had he run into bandits?

He lifted the curtain. Dozens of masked bandits had surrounded his carriage. Judging by their Soul Power fluctuations, most were around the Soul Grandmaster level.

"I'll give you one chance. Get out of the way now, and I can pretend none of this happened." Naturally, he only dared to be so brazen because he had yet to use creative mode that day.

"Well, well, brat. Seems you don't understand the situation. If you'd just handed over your money, we're not bad people. But now... boys, break their legs!"

Li Chen's gaze turned cold. He hadn't wanted to kill anyone, but since they still chose to attack after he gave them a chance, he couldn't let them live. They were only bandits, anyway.

He summoned his Command Block, and two Soul Rings appeared. Then he activated creative mode and flew into the air. The bandits' attacks landed on him without doing a thing. They couldn't even tear his clothes.

The bandit leader was stunned at the sight. Not only was someone so young already a Soul Grandmaster, but even a Soul Elder couldn't have come through those attacks completely unscathed.

The leader knew that someone who had become a Soul Grandmaster at such a young age probably had powerful backing. That made it all the more important not to let him leave.

He immediately summoned his Martial Soul, a very ordinary axe.

"First Soul Skill, Sharpening!"

"Second Soul Skill, Mountain Splitter!"

The leader leaped up and swung his axe at Li Chen's head. Although Li Chen was in creative mode, he still instinctively dodged.

That only made the leader more certain of his guess. The boy must have a defensive Martial Soul, and a special Soul Skill had created the illusion that he was unharmed.

But just as the axe was about to strike Li Chen, something like an invisible barrier deflected the attack.

"What?!"

Before the leader could react, Li Chen slammed the Command Block into his face. The hard block knocked out who knew how many of his teeth.

As the man flew backward, Li Chen caught up and struck him in the abdomen again, sending him crashing heavily to the ground and coughing up blood.

Li Chen advanced step by step. Seeing that the man was about to beg for mercy, he first planted a foot on his neck, then continued smashing the Command Block into his head. He only stopped once experience points burst out of him.

As for the remaining bandits, they had never seen anything like this. Some fled, while others dropped to their knees and begged for mercy.

Li Chen ignored those kneeling for the moment. He chased down everyone who ran and made them contribute their experience points.

He didn't spare those begging for mercy, either. They were all bandits, which meant they weren't good people. He wouldn't go out of his way to kill them simply for being bandits.

But since they had dared to rob him and even tried to kill him, he could only say sorry. Begging for mercy? That counted toward the time, too.

Once he had dealt with all the bandits, Li Chen came back to his senses and looked at his bloodstained Command Block.

"Pah! You've dirtied my Command Block."

Before creative mode ended, it was time to take out his items. First came the gold blocks he had planned on beforehand. Yet this time, after he took out a stack of blocks of iron, creative mode didn't end.

He didn't want to think about the reason for now. Since he could keep taking things, he wasn't going to hold back.

But there were too many options for his second item, leaving him hesitant: a Netherite sword, utility blocks such as the Crafting Table, the Teleportation Stele, or Bottles o' Enchanting.

Just as he was about to choose the Teleportation Stele, he unexpectedly spotted an Iron Golem Spawn Egg. Even Iron Golems had spawn eggs.

"That settles it. Iron Golem Spawn Eggs. You can be my bodyguards."

He took the Iron Golem Spawn Eggs out of the inventory and put them into his backpack. Creative mode ended.

"Clean this up first. Search them for anything valuable, then throw the bodies into the woods beside the road."

With that, he looked at the Iron Golem Spawn Egg in his hand and immediately used one on the ground. The Iron Golem was essentially unchanged from the original. He wasn't a Soul Master with a Martial Soul, nor was he a Soul Beast.

At first, he was only equivalent to a level 10 Soul Scholar. He could be upgraded by consuming iron ingots or by directly using Iron Golem Spawn Eggs.

After one more Iron Golem Spawn Egg was added, the Iron Golem rose to level 12. Each use could only raise his level by two.

But what Li Chen needed now was fighting strength, not tools for manual labor. The villagers were enough for that.

Sixty-four Soul Scholars were less useful than a single Soul King, so he didn't plan to summon more. He simply continued upgrading the Iron Golem.

After consuming a total of thirty-one Iron Golem Spawn Eggs to raise him to level 72, the Iron Golem reached his level cap and could no longer be upgraded.

In the end, one stack of Iron Golem Spawn Eggs became two Iron Golems with level 72 strength.

However, unlike the villagers, these Iron Golems lacked intelligence. They could only carry out simple commands, such as following, patrolling, and standing by.

"Oh well, they're still pretty good. Next time I run into bandits, I won't have to deal with them myself. My safety is covered, too."

After that little interlude, Li Chen returned to Suotuo City and listened to the information A Si and A Wu had gathered.

First was the Soul Master Tournament. Three years had passed since the previous tournament, and the next one would take place in two years.

Next came Suotuo City's notorious womanizer. Dai Mubai hadn't arrived in Suotuo City yet. Li Chen worked out the timeline using the ages and dates from the original story.

He and Tang San were very likely the same age. Unfortunately, his starting point had been near Suotuo City, so he hadn't come into direct contact with Tang San.

He had transmigrated into Douluo. If he didn't indulge in the crowd-pleasing fun of tormenting Tang San and Yu Xiaogang, wouldn't his transmigration have been wasted? As for his reason, it was simple: he didn't like them.

Still, even if he had started in Holy Soul Village, he would have chosen to flee as soon as possible. After all, Tang Hao was there, too, and Li Chen had been at his weakest right after awakening.

Forget it. He would build up his strength first. If he wasn't strong enough, he couldn't claim an opportunity even if it was sitting right in front of him.

Then there was the Soul Master Tournament, which ran through all four Douluo installments. How could he miss something like that? Of course, he didn't plan to join an academy and fight onstage. Instead, he would set up an academy to enter the tournament.

As for the academy's name, there was no rush. First, he needed to get the academy built.

Building one from scratch would take rather too long. He might as well buy an existing academy. For now, the more important thing was getting some startup capital.

After handing the blocks of iron to the villager A Da, he had him take an Iron Golem along to sell them for Gold Soul Coins. He believed that, with a villager's unscrupulous merchant tendencies, A Da would certainly earn him quite a bit.

Back in the little village, Li Chen moved into the house Brown Robe had built especially for him. As he lay down on a recliner, he suddenly felt a hint of emptiness.

Because his innate Soul Power was level zero, he couldn't meditate to cultivate. For the moment, he actually didn't know what to do.

Before becoming a Soul Master, all his motivation had come from hunting small animals for experience points to level up. Every day, he had tirelessly searched for them and hunted them down.

But now he could activate creative mode. Although it had restrictions, he no longer needed to worry about leveling up. He could simply smash Bottles o' Enchanting every day.

It was like occasionally turning on creative mode during survival mode, stripping survival of much of its fun. That was very much how he felt now.