28 Chapter 28 – Scaring the Bandits

Zhu Xuan didn't know how long passed before his feet touched the ground.

He felt dizzy; He sat down and cleared his mind. After a while, he stood up to check his surroundings. He was in a forest, but he was sure this place was not anywhere near Qinglu city. The landscape, forest, trees are completely different.

He realised he has been teleported somewhere he has no clue about from Qinglu city. If he had known, he would have simply stayed in his courtyard and told his aunt he will be undergoing close door cultivation.

He would have been glad if it had been near a city or a village so that he can check where he is, but he realised he is in the middle of nowhere.

He couldn't help but curse loudly "Where the hell am I?"

He heard Shen Long's voice as soon as he cursed "You are in the area where the Blood claw bandit group is active. You have one week's time to kill everyone of the bandit group. Once you finish the mission, inject your Qi into the pendant and you will be able to go back. If you haven't finished the mission in a week, you will be taken back to Qinglu city anyway and you will receive penalty."

Zhu Xuan asked Shen Long once he finished "Senior Long, so where am I?"

But there was no more response from Shen Long, he waited for a while and realised he was not going to say anything to him. He calmed down and chose a direction to walk. After half a day of walk, he saw smoke rising from a distance. He got elated and realised there must be some people towards the direction. He immediately started running towards the direction of smoke and found a village in the distance. As he got near to the village, he realised it's not smoke from any village activities, but the houses of the village were burning.

He increased his speed to the maximum and reached the village. He was furious when he found dead bodies everywhere; men, women, children, all are brutally murdered. He was boiling in anger when he realised what the bandits did to the whole village.

Suddenly he heard sounds and wails from the other end of the village. He quickly ran towards the direction of sound and found around fifty villagers were chased by more than ten bandits who are swinging the weapons in their hands crazily. He saw a young boy who was running in the back was cut by a crazy bandit and died.

Zhu Xuan ran towards them like a ferocious tiger and started beheading them without a word. The bandits were merely at sixth or seventh stage of body purification, so they didn't stand a chance.

After killing every bandit only Zhu Xuan calmed down. He looked at the remaining villagers and found them scared of him too. He sheathed his swords and explained "I mean you no harm, please calm down. I was only passing by the village and found these bandits, so I killed them."

They still didn't say anything to him and was in fear. One middle aged man walked out of the group and said "Thank you for helping us Young master."

Zhu Xuan simply waved his hand said "Not a problem. Are you the only people escaped from the bandits?"

The middle aged man replied with a sad tone "Yes Young master, we are the only ones alive in the village. But, the Blood claw bandits took some young men and women of our village with them and the few of the bandits you killed just now were left here to kill the remaining villagers."

When he heard the bandits are from Blood claw bandits, Zhu Xuan confirmed his doubts. He asked the middle aged man "Do you know where their stronghold is?"

The middle aged man shook his head and said "I don't know Young master. But I did hear them talking among them, that they are going to the next village few miles away from here to pillage."

Zhu Xuan immediately got excited and asked "How long where they gone? And can you tell me the location of the village and how to get there?"

The middle aged man was shocked and said "Young master, don't go. It's too dangerous, that group has a leader of the Blood claw bandits leading them, and he is very powerful."

After Zhu Xuan assured him that he won't be in trouble, the middle aged man shared him the location of the other village and drew a rough map to the other village. He also informed there are about little less than hundred bandits in the group. Zhu Xuan know he can't take all hundred of them on his own. So he thought of a plan.

Zhu Xuan handed the healing pills he got from the Zhu clan disciples he killed early to the middle aged man and said "Use these pills to heal the injured people, and there might be survivors in the village. Search through the village, take any survivors you find and leave the village few miles away. I'm planning to lure the bandits here and kill them."

He paused and said with a resolute tone "I will come find you people once I kill them and I will save those people from your village the bandits took I promise."

After the middle aged man heard that, he took the rest of the villagers to search the village for any survivors and leave to a clearing few miles away.

Zhu Xuan also got busy and made some arrangements outside the village.

Once he finished, he left the village and changed himself to one of the bandits he killed using body transformation technique and his clothes.

Then he started running towards the direction of the bandits and moved fast through the forest to catch up to them. After an hour of travel, he found a group of around hundred resting on the side of the road. He observed closely and found around forty young men and women were tied up in the centre and the bandits were laughing around them. He also found a man sitting nearby who was giving a stronger aura from the rest. He understood that must be the leader, Wolf claw.

According to the middle aged man from the village, the blood claw bandit group has four leaders and one commander. No one knew their real name and each of them call others by nicknames. The commander is called Blood Claw, and the four leaders are called as Lion claw, Tiger claw, Wolf claw and Eagle claw.

Zhu Xuan observed for a while, and then ran towards the group frantically. The others in the group noticed him running and realised something was wrong and they took him to the Wolf claw.

Wolf claw also realised something went wrong and asked "Big Rat, what happened? Where are the others?"

Big Rat is the person Zhu Xuan changed into using the technique. He shouted at the leader with sadness and anger "Leader, when we were trying to kill the remaining villagers, a young man with sword came. He suddenly started shouting he is going to kill every bandit and started killing our brothers. He is stronger than us and we couldn't do anything, everyone died and only I was able to escape."

Wolf claw became enraged after hearing what happened and shouted "Who dares to attack and kill our Blood claw bandits. I will go kill him right away."

He let half of the bandits to stay to look after the prisoners and took the rest back to the village along with Zhu Xuan.

Zhu Xuan slightly relaxed because first step of his plan worked. He can't attack the hundred directly and even if he did, the men and women will be in danger. He wanted to split them up and also wanted to make sure the women are left behind.

Zhu Xuan realised if he said the young man attacked them was too strong, the Wolf claw would have either brought everyone to the village to kill or he would have retreated with everyone to their stronghold, both would have been troublesome. But, if he said the assailant was only stronger than them, and that too by someone who escaped from that young man, wolf claw would think that young man is not too strong to let Big rat escape.

So Zhu Xuan thought the Wolf claw's choice would be to leave some people to guard the prisoners so that they won't slow him down and take the rest with him to have assurance that these many can kill the young man definitely, even if he has someone along with him.

And, that's exactly how Wolf claw acted and split the group in two half. The group travelled for a while and reached outside the village. They stood there in shock and were scared by the arrangement Zhu Xuan left for them outside the village.

Outside the village, there were poles lined neatly and on top of each pole is a head of the bandits. Each face was with wide opened eyes showing terror and unwillingness.