Li Somebody Got Carried Away

In the Qilian Mountains, a dozen or so bandits searched the woods with sabers in hand, their faces vicious and their killing intent surging.

Not far away, Li Ziye hid cautiously in the grass behind a large boulder, trembling like a bullied little beast.

Qin Enuo, damn you!

Li Ziye seethed inwardly. What kind of master screwed over her disciple like this?

Women were truly unreasonable when they held a grudge.

From behind the rock, Li Ziye poked his head out, checking the bandits' positions and constantly calculating how to escape.

It was getting dark. Once the sun set, he would slip away under cover of night.

Ha, Qin Enuo, you're still too green to get one over on this young master.

Just as Li Ziye began to feel smug, a streak of Sword Qi tore through the air from afar and struck the boulder in front of him with a bang.

The deafening crash immediately alerted the four or five bandits closest to him.

Li Ziye froze, then realized what had happened. His face flushed with alarm and fury as he cursed, "Qin Enuo, fuck your ancestors!"

Having finished cursing, Li Ziye immediately sprang up and took to his heels.

"He's over there! Brothers, hack him to death!"

Five bandits spotted Li Ziye fleeing from behind the boulder and chased him at full speed.

Far away, a beautiful figure stood quietly atop a tree, watching the boy run for his life through the woods, the corners of her lips curling slightly.

The sun was about to sink below the horizon, and the light in the woods grew dim.

"Die, brat!"

A bandit caught up with Li Ziye and brought his iron saber straight down.

In his haste, Li Ziye rolled aside, dodging the blade in a thoroughly bedraggled fashion.

"Haha, trash!"

The bandit laughed and kicked at him.

On the ground, Li Ziye hurriedly held his sword crosswise to block, but he could not withstand the force of the bandit's kick and was sent rolling several meters away again.

Far away atop the tree, Qin Enuo frowned slightly at the sight.

Had this brat forgotten everything she had taught him?

That wasn't how a sword was used.

It seemed she had been right to make him enter the mountains and fight these bandits. Without actual life-and-death combat, no matter how strong his body became or how many times he practiced his swordsmanship, it would be useless.

In the woods, Li Ziye, who had no real combat experience whatsoever, was battered within an inch of his life by the bandit, barely able to fight back.

Not far away, several more bandits heard the commotion and were about to come over.

"Those clothes, that delicate skin-you're obviously some rich family's young master. Haha! Instead of enjoying your cushy life, you had to come looking for death. This lord will grant your wish!"

Seeing Li Ziye's miserable state, the bandit before him grew even more brazen and approached with his iron saber in hand.

Ten paces away, Li Ziye watched the approaching bandit, fury rising in his eyes. With a young man's spirit, how could he admit defeat so easily?

This bandit was no martial artist, just an ordinary person like him. If he could not even beat someone like this, what was the point of learning martial arts?

Ten paces, five paces, three paces-close now!

Li Ziye held his breath, forcing himself to calm down in the face of mortal danger.

With three paces between them, Li Ziye suddenly sprang up from where he lay on the ground!

He drew his sword and swung, all in the blink of an eye.

Whoosh!

In the last rays of the setting sun, the sword gleamed dazzlingly, like a startled swan in flight-one stroke sealed the throat!

Far away atop the tree, a gleam appeared in Qin Enuo's eyes at the sight.

Not bad!

"You!"

In the woods, the bandit clutched his spurting throat and opened his mouth, trying to say something, but no words would ever come again. His body toppled straight backward.

"Villains always die from talking too much."

Li Ziye slumped to the ground in exhaustion, looking at the bandit lying in a pool of blood as he spoke weakly.

So this was what killing felt like? It really wasn't very pleasant.

"Ninth Brother!"

Just then, three bandits hurried over from nearby. At the sight, their faces filled with fury.

Seeing three men arrive at once, Li Ziye forced himself to his feet and turned to run without another word.

He could not fight three of them yet.

"After him!"

The three bandits immediately gave chase.

The sunset faded completely and night descended, gradually plunging the woods into darkness.

The bandits lit torches and continued searching the woods, apparently determined not to stop until they found Li Ziye.

"You really are ghosts that won't go away."

Watching the clusters of flickering firelight in the woods, a chill flashed through Li Ziye's eyes.

Facing several bandits at once was indeed still difficult for him, but with the night so dark, his enemies were in the light while he remained in the shadows. This was the perfect opportunity to defeat them one by one.

At that thought, Li Ziye crouched low and quietly approached the nearest bandit, using the darkness and grass for cover.

Whoosh!

Under cover of night, Li Ziye slipped noiselessly behind the bandit, clamped a hand over his mouth, and slit his throat with a stroke of his sword.

"Mmph!"

The bandit trembled and opened his mouth, then soon stopped breathing.

After killing two men in succession, Li Ziye felt inexplicably nauseated, but he forced it down and retreated into the weeds again.

In an age where the weak were meat for the strong, he had to adapt. If he did not kill, he would be the one to die today!

Among the weeds, Li Ziye wiped the blood from his hands and carefully steadied his breathing. His eyes followed the clusters of flickering firelight ahead, his gaze gradually turning cold and savage, like a wild beast staring fixedly at its prey.

Tempered by life and death, Li Ziye's state of mind finally began to change. His tension and fear gradually receded, and the more dangerous things became, the calmer he grew.

Among the distant shadows of the trees, Qin Enuo felt reassured when she saw the transformation taking place in Li Ziye. Her gaze shifted toward the bandits' distant stronghold.

Now she could attend to her own business without worry.

She had not lied about the blood ginseng herb king. When she entered the mountains a few days ago, that blood ginseng herb king had indeed been growing on the cliff.

To be honest, even she had been startled when she first saw that herb king.

Herb kings were unimaginably rare, beyond comparison with any great medicinal herb.

To temper Li Ziye, she had left it unpicked.

She had never expected that, upon returning today, the blood ginseng on the cliff would already be gone.

The only possibility was that the bandits in these mountains had discovered and picked the blood ginseng herb king, then hidden it in their stronghold.

Hopefully, the brat's luck would be good enough that the blood ginseng had not yet been eaten.

Otherwise, finding another herb king would not be as easy as he might imagine.

At that thought, Qin Enuo pushed off lightly and sprang through the woods toward the distant bandit stronghold.

A dozen or so breaths later, a graceful figure arrived through the air before the stronghold deep in the woods. Like a startled swan in flight, she swept inside in the blink of an eye.

Most of the bandits in the stronghold were already asleep, with only a few still on patrol.

Qin Enuo avoided the patrolling bandits and began searching for the blood ginseng.

Inside the stronghold, gold, silver, jade artifacts, great medicinal herbs, and precious stones lay piled in chest after chest. Clearly, these bandits had committed no shortage of raids and robberies.

Qin Enuo did not spare the gold and silver a glance, not because she had no interest.

Rather, she did not care for such paltry wealth.

No matter how rich these bandits were, could they be richer than her useless disciple?

Ignoring the gold and silver, Qin Enuo turned her attention to the chests containing medicinal herbs and searched them one by one.

The chests held an abundance of herbs-ginseng, deer velvet, fleeceflower root-everything one could want, a very complete selection.

"Found it."

Finally, after searching for quite some time, Qin Enuo opened an exquisite wooden box. Seeing the blood-red ginseng king inside, she could not help letting out a soft sigh of relief.

The brat was lucky. The blood ginseng was still here; these bandits had not ruined it.

"Who's there!"

Just then, an angry voice rang out within the stronghold. On a tiger-skin chair nearby, a burly man with a savage face opened his eyes and abruptly rose, grabbing a wine jar beside him and hurling it straight at her.

Ten zhang away, Qin Enuo unhurriedly put away the blood ginseng, then shifted slightly to dodge the wine jar.

"Woman, you dare steal from me? You must be tired of living!"

In the dim firelight, the burly man could not make out Qin Enuo's appearance. Stamping hard against the ground, he shot toward her like a cannonball.

"Noisy!"

Qin Enuo frowned slightly and waved a hand. Instantly, an immensely powerful ribbon of Sword Qi tore through the air and, with a thunderous crash, sent the burly man flying more than ten zhang.

"Pfft!"

More than ten zhang away, the burly man hit the ground and spat out a mouthful of blood, his face filled with shock.

How was that possible!

"I'll spare you this once. Someone will come to take your life another day."

Qin Enuo spoke indifferently, then turned and left.

This bandit chief was a martial artist who had opened one Divine Repository, neither particularly strong nor particularly weak.

He was just right as an opponent for that brat.

As a master, she really did put painstaking care into things.

In the woods, Qin Enuo walked draped in moonlight. After walking for a long time, however, she had seen neither Li Ziye nor a single bandit.

Along the way, there was only blood, staining the woods red.

An unusual gleam flashed through Qin Enuo's eyes as she headed out of the woods.

At the edge of the woods, a slender boy sat covered in blood, panting heavily.

"Where are they?"

Qin Enuo approached and asked.

"All dead."

Li Ziye answered wearily.

Qin Enuo narrowed her eyes slightly. Just as she had thought.

She had underestimated him somewhat. This boy was more ruthless than she had imagined.

At the edge of the woods, Li Ziye drew a heavy breath and looked at the woman beside him. "Fairy Master, you did that on purpose!"

"Yes."

Qin Enuo answered without the slightest attempt to deny it.

"..."

Seeing her admit it so readily, Li Ziye instead found himself at a loss for words.

"How did killing for the first time feel?" Qin Enuo asked.

"Not good."

Li Ziye answered honestly, "A little nauseating."

"You'll get used to it."

Qin Enuo spoke indifferently, then headed toward the carriage outside the woods.

"Come on. We're going back."

"Mm."

Li Ziye nodded, got up, and followed.

"Fairy Master."

Beneath the moon, the carriage rumbled along, and Li Ziye's voice came from inside.

"What is it?" Qin Enuo replied.

"If I were about to die at those bandits' hands, would you step in?" Li Ziye asked tentatively.

"I don't know."

Qin Enuo said calmly, "You could try it."

"..."

Li Ziye was speechless. His life mattered; he did not dare gamble with it.

Inside the carriage, the atmosphere grew somewhat oppressive. After a long while, Qin Enuo spoke indifferently. "Starting today, besides practicing your swordsmanship every day, you must also come to these mountains to exterminate bandits. A word of warning: their leader is a martial artist who has opened one Divine Repository."

"A martial artist?"

Startled, Li Ziye hurriedly admitted defeat. "Fairy Master, I don't think I'm strong enough yet. Let's leave exterminating bandits to the authorities."

"My mind is made up. There's nothing more to discuss."

With that, Qin Enuo casually tossed him a wooden box.

Li Ziye opened the wooden box in confusion. When he saw the blood ginseng inside, his face filled with wild delight.

"Fairy Master, I love you! Give me a hug!"

So excited that he nearly forgot his own surname, Li Ziye reached out to embrace her.

Qin Enuo's eyes turned cold. Instantly, even the air inside the carriage seemed about to freeze.

Li Ziye shivered and quickly came to his senses. His expression froze, and his arms stiffened in midair.

Bang!

The next instant, a powerful surge of True Qi erupted in the carriage. The compartment shattered with the blast, and Li Ziye was sent flying out, landing face-first in the dirt like a dog gnawing mud.

Beneath the moon, the carriage rumbled swiftly away.