The slightly plump man in the carriage seemed to have forced himself to calm down somewhat as he cautiously climbed out.
Wei Wuwei had heard of the Thirteen Bandits of Yan. He knew they were a band of highly skilled, utterly vicious criminals. When dealing with such fiends, ordinary people were better off not acting too tough.
"Xiang, Hero Xiang! That Blue Jade is merely an heirloom jade pendant. What could possibly be so miraculous about it? Do you want money or jewels? I can give you whatever you want. I guarantee you'll be satisfied. How about it?"
As Wei Wuwei spoke, he took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Even in the dim twilight, the panic written all over his face was plain to see. When he looked at the two guards, bleeding from their wounds with blades pressed to their necks, his expression grew even worse.
Seven fierce-looking men surrounded the carriage. Xiang Feng merely stared expressionlessly at the beardless, portly man.
"Money is certainly a good thing. How about this? Five thousand taels for the lives of the three of you. As for that Blue Jade, whether it truly possesses mystical properties or is merely a hollow reputation, I've decided it will be mine!"
As he spoke, Xiang Feng strode step by step toward Wei Wuwei.
"Hero Xiang, I really... I... Although I'm already the head of the Wei Family, Old Master only appointed me recently! The Blue Jade won't be passed to me until the family banquet on the fifteenth of next month... It truly isn't on me!"
Xiang Feng gave a cold smile.
"Hmph. So you want to die?"
In truth, whether the Blue Jade was on Wei Wuwei or not, none of the three would be leaving alive. However, Wei Wuwei was still useful for the moment, as he was connected to something else.
Watching the fierce bandit draw nearer, Wei Wuwei trembled from head to toe in fright and hurriedly reached for his collar.
"Don't, don't, don't! We can talk this over, we can talk this over! The Blue Jade is on me, it's on me!"
As he spoke, his chubby hand frantically tugged at the red rope around his neck, pulling a dark blue jade pendant from beneath his collar.
"Here... this, this is it..."
Blue jade pendants were already exceedingly rare. This one looked extraordinary at first glance, standing out conspicuously even in the post-dusk gloom.
A flicker of delight appeared on Xiang Feng's face. Seeing the slightly trembling chubby hand offering it over, he instinctively reached out to take the jade pendant.
Yet the instant he touched it, Wei Wuwei—who had been dripping with cold sweat and terrified out of his wits—suddenly flicked three silver needles from the fingertips of his right hand. They shot out like lightning, and with three puffs, struck Xiang Feng's chest in a triangular formation.
At the same time, his left hand exerted force and viciously slammed a palm into Xiang Feng's chest, blasting out an airwave.
Bang!
Xiang Feng could not even hold onto his Goose Feather Saber. He was sent flying two zhang away and crashed stiffly onto the ground.
"Eldest Brother!"
"Eldest Brother!"
Amid the other bandits' urgent cries, Wei Wuwei cast off his former cowardice. He was so ferocious that he seemed like an entirely different man. While those around him were still stunned, he charged toward the bandits holding the two guards like a galloping fiery steed.
"Get lost!"
He evaded the two slashes instinctively sent his way, then unleashed surging, savage palm force to the left and right.
Bang!
Bang!
Just as the two bandits flew away with their bodies bent over, the seemingly plump man pursued them at a terrifying speed, adding two more palm strikes while they were still airborne and had not yet landed.
Bang!
Bang!
Pfft...
Pfft...
The two formidable bandits vomited blood, flew three zhang away, and fell into the nearby forest, utterly devoid of life.
"Seventh! Eighth!"
"Bastard!"
"This beast is vicious and underhanded!"
The change had come as suddenly as a hare taking flight and a falcon swooping down. Before anyone else could react, the leader of the thirteen bandits had been severely injured, while two bandits had been killed.
"Ugh... heh... urgh..."
Xiang Feng struggled to stand, but he could not muster any strength. A powerful wave of nausea and numbness and itching coursed through him. The three needles had clearly been coated in deadly poison.
"Wei... Wei Wuwei... you... you actually... heh..."
The poison acted with terrifying speed, and that palm strike had penetrated deep into his internal organs. Even though Xiang Feng forcibly raised his true qi, he could not even finish a sentence.
"Know martial arts?"
Wei Wuwei turned to look at him.
"Very surprised? Very regretful? Very unwilling? Hehehehe, I fucking love seeing that expression on your face!"
Wei Wuwei's grin was almost sleazy. He appeared arrogantly unconcerned as the remaining bandits gathered around Xiang Feng and fed him a medicinal pill, but in truth, he too was recovering his qi as he slowly approached the bandits, who faced him as though confronting a great enemy.
The two wounded guards were equally stunned, but they had already rallied and come to Wei Wuwei's side.
"Without you, Xiang Feng, the remaining four bandits are no match for me. Now I'll give you a chance to live. Tell me who told you about the Blue Jade passed down through my Wei Family. Was it the same person who previously told you that the Fan Family possessed the Sword Intent Scroll?"
"Hehe... cough... And you'll let us go if we tell you?"
As Xiang Feng circulated his qi to dissolve the medicinal power, he answered with heavy mockery.
"I, Wei Wuwei, am unlike scum of the martial world like you. I act openly and honorably, and I always keep my word!"
Having witnessed Wei Wuwei's entire sequence of pretending to be weak, using poisoned needles, and chasing down his enemies with palm strikes to kill them—resorting to every possible trick—it would have been strange if Xiang Feng and the other bandits believed a word coming from his mouth.
Watching the developments ahead, Ji Yuan was also stunned. He had not expected this Wei fellow to be pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger. Open and honorable, my ass. The martial world truly was perilous!
Wei Wuwei himself felt hearty and uninhibited. He had spent so long pretending to be an ordinary man; the more he suppressed himself, the more exhilarating the release became. Seeing that Xiang Feng seemed to be trying to stall for time, he stopped wasting words. His body went from stillness to motion, both hands raising a gust of palm wind.
"Follow me! We'll cripple the other four bandits first, then force Xiang Feng to talk!!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
As they acknowledged the order, the two guards attacked several bandits from Yan alongside Wei Wuwei.
Just then, three whooshes tore through the air.
As Wei Wuwei and the other two were forced to dodge the hidden weapons, two people dressed in dark blue night robes leaped from the forest on the other side. They stepped upon shrubs and slender branches midway, then floated lightly down before Wei Wuwei and the others.
Seeing that lightness skill, Wei Wuwei's pupils contracted, and he immediately grew tense. There were actually two more experts whose depths he could not fathom. But why had they not emerged from the start to join the attack?
"You lost the Sword Intent Scroll last time, and this time you've fallen into Wei Wuwei's hands again. The Thirteen Bandits of Yan are worse than useless. If we hadn't followed along, Wei Wuwei might really have gotten hold of something on us!"
"End this quickly. We have business of our own!"
After one of them said this, he was already moving with Ghost Steps as he launched a chilling attack, pointing towards Wei Wuwei with finger techniques. The other attacked the two guards.
Wei Wuwei retreated wildly, but he could not avoid the sharp edge of the attack. He could only fiercely swing a palm to meet it, finger and palm colliding.
With a sizzle, it sounded as though a water bag had been punctured.
Suppressing the pain, Wei Wuwei drove force through his legs and sent his slightly plump body into a backward somersault to escape. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that his right palm had been pierced through.
Damn it, I'm afraid I won't be getting away today!
The instant that thought arose, Wei Wuwei, who had just landed, suddenly discovered that the man's eerie footwork had already brought him before him. Borrowing the momentum of his backward leap, he took rapid, fragmented steps back, but the man followed him like a shadow and pointed another finger at his eye. There was no way to evade it!