Seeing Lu Qian's reaction, the robber immediately realized that he had successfully frightened the little fellow. Next, he needed to figure out how to strip him of every last bit of money.
"Enough nonsense. Take out all your money and put it on the ground!"
The robber continued to intimidate Lu Qian with a ferocious expression.
Lu Qian obediently placed the few Gold Soul Coins in his pocket before him.
Although the robber before him was clearly an idiot, and Lu Qian might have been able to deal with him without even using his Martial Soul.
The fact that he had managed to intercept him so precisely here still made Lu Qian feel that perhaps this was not so simple.
So Lu Qi decided to cooperate with the robber for now. Perhaps some useful information could be pried from this idiot's mouth.
When the robber before Lu Qian saw that there were actually seven or eight Gold Soul Coins, he realized he had never seen so many in his entire career as a robber!
But the burly robber dared not show too much excitement just then. Struggling to suppress his wild joy, he continued questioning him:
"Any more?"
"N-no."
Lu Qian sounded as though he was about to cry, and the burly robber grinned and laughed in satisfaction.
"Hmph, you wouldn't dare lie to me!"
With that, the robber quickly gathered up the Gold Soul Coins on the ground.
"Can I go now?"
"Scram, scram."
Having obtained so many Gold Soul Coins, the burly robber was in an excellent mood and waved impatiently at Lu Qian.
Lu Qian abandoned the carriage and quickly ran into the bushes beside the road. At this sight, the burly robber laughed even more happily. The brat had been frightened into fleeing without even choosing his path.
"There's a carriage too. This thing should be worth a few Gold Soul Coins, right?"
The burly robber then drove Lu Qian's carriage away as well.
Before the robber could get very far in the carriage, however, a group of people blocked his way.
His head swollen with triumph, the burly robber was just about to curse, but he held back when he saw that the leader was none other than the man who had just told him about that brat.
"Brother, it's you."
"How much did you get?"
He had not expected the newcomer to cut straight to the point, and the burly robber immediately grew wary.
Without even thinking, he said:
"Ah! Don't even mention it! That little brat ran too fast. He abandoned the carriage and bolted. I didn't even get half a Copper Soul Coin!"
"Still, it's not bad. I got a carriage. I can sell it back in town and scrape together a little something for my trouble. Heh heh."
The burly robber gave a simple-minded chuckle.
"He escaped?"
The newcomer frowned as he spoke.
"Yes, he escaped. He escaped."
"Useless!"
"You!"
"Kill him. I told you these useless fools couldn't be relied on. Our carriage company should have handled this ourselves from the start."
Before the burly robber could even quite grasp what the leader meant, another man killed him in an instant.
"Boss, what do we do next?"
"The owner said that boy should be a big fish, and he very likely came from Spirit City. We're taking action ourselves this time. We absolutely cannot fail!"
"Yes!"
The group immediately spread out and began searching for traces of Lu Qian's escape.
What they would never have imagined, however, was that Lu Qian was currently up a large tree not far from them.
Hidden in the canopy, Lu Qian could not only see their faces clearly but also hear every word of their conversation.
Just as I suspected, they're from that carriage company. I just didn't expect them to be so bold.
Lu Qian could not help feeling somewhat surprised, for their conversation suggested that the carriage company's owner had already guessed he had come from Spirit City, yet still dared to send men after him.
Spirit Hall now reached every corner of the Douluo Continent, its power blazing like the midday sun. How could a mere carriage company owner dare offend Spirit Hall?
But judging by these men's strength and their ruthless methods when killing, this truly was not something an ordinary force could manage.
Everyone in that group had possessed at least Soul Elder-level strength, and their leader was an expert at the Soul King level.
Had Lu Qian's concealment technique not been powerful enough, he would not have dared linger so brazenly near them.
Did they really send this many Soul Masters just to deal with a little brat like me?
Lu Qian frowned. However he thought about it, something seemed wrong. Could someone in Spirit City be trying to get rid of him?
At that thought, Lu Qian could not help looking back in the direction of Spirit City.
The Great Enshrined, Qian Daoliu, was essentially out of the question, because he had already assigned him an extremely dangerous task.
If he wanted him dead, he could simply tell Tang Hao his identity. Why go to all this trouble?
Thinking over the other people in Spirit City, Lu Qian seemed to have had very little contact with them.
For the moment, Lu Qian truly could not think of anyone in Spirit City who would want to act against him.
Perhaps I'm overthinking it? Maybe that carriage company owner is simply greedy?
Lu Qian thought for a while but found no answer.
Forget it. Business comes first. Since they're blocking this route, I'll take another.
Since the main road was impassable, Lu Qian chose a smaller path, intending to cut through the woods beside it.
For Lu Qian, who was already a Soul Elder, crossing a forest like this would not pose much of a problem.
And to shake off his pursuers, Lu Qian chose to brave this small forest at night.
The forest at night belonged to the Soul Beasts, but fortunately, this forest was relatively small. According to what Lu Qian had learned, no particularly high-level Soul Beasts would appear here.
Yet not long after Lu Qian chose to enter the forest, the carriage company's Soul Masters gathered again after searching everywhere without success.
"Don't worry. He won't get away."
After saying this, the leader released a mouse-like Soul Beast from his pocket.
"A Fragrance-Seeking Beast?"
"That's right, this Gold-Swallowing Beast. Hopefully, it can find that little fellow soon, or the butter I brought might not be enough to feed this beast."
"Boss, just who is that brat? Why would the owner spend so much money?"
"Don't ask what you shouldn't. Have you forgotten the rules?"
The leader immediately rebuked him harshly.
Everyone fell silent like cicadas in the cold.
The leader then took out a porcelain bottle, opened it, and had the Fragrance-Seeking Beast sniff it.
After sniffing a few times, the Fragrance-Seeking Beast immediately darted into the forest beside the road.
"Follow that beast!"
Before you continue