Chapter 40: The Bandit Attack

Shen Qingxue glanced back at the jaw-dropped border patrol shrinking in the distance, a sweet, melodic chuckle slipping past her sheer veil.

"Husband," she teased, pulling her horse level with mine over the rocky ground. "Was this one of those moments where we didn’t need to hide our identity?"

"Exactly." I grinned, winking at her over my shoulder. "Showing the badge saved us twenty minutes of going around and hearing all of them revere us. We aren’t staying in their territory anyway, so throwing our weight around to cut the line is just good time management."

She smiled brightly beneath her veil, thoroughly amused by my practical, unapologetic logic.

We plunged deeper into the jagged wilderness, slowing our pace to a steady, leisurely canter. For the next hour, we meandered through ancient pine valleys and rocky ravines. Whenever we stumbled across a low-tier beast nest, I had Qingxue dismount to sharpen her blade work, and whenever a tougher Tier 3 predator crossed our path, I stepped in, suppressing my cultivation to test out different sword stances and harvest clean cores.

Just as the afternoon sun was beginning to dip, a thick, dark column of black smoke rose into the sky from the valley ahead.

I pulled my reins, bringing my horse to a halt on an elevated ridge. Down below, nestled in a dusty clearing along the trade route, a merchant caravan had been ambushed. Four heavy, iron-reinforced wooden carriages were circled defensively, but the wooden frames were already ablaze, cloaked in thick canvas that completely obscured whoever was hiding inside.

Surrounding the burning wagons was a brutal mob of nearly thirty scarred, bloodthirsty bandits clad in wolf-pelt armor, hacking ruthlessly into the few surviving caravan guards.

She gripped the hilt of her sword with white knuckles, turning her face toward me, her eyes practically begging for permission to strike.

I glanced down at the burning wagons, feeling the subtle, bizarre energetic fluctuations radiating from the lead carriage. A faint, knowing chuckle slipped past my lips.

"Go ahead," I said with a faint smile, leaning casually over my saddle horn. "You can step in. But on one strict condition, Qingxue."

"Not a single corpse," I said, meeting her fierce gaze with an easygoing smirk. "Shatter their limbs, break their weapons, beat them into the mud until they weep for their mothers, do whatever you like. But do not take a single life."

Shen Qingxue found the restriction strange, especially given the bandits’ ruthless cruelty. But her absolute trust in my wisdom ran far deeper than her bloodlust.

She clenched her teeth, took a sharp breath, and nodded firmly. "Disciple obeys."

I remained standing casually by the ridge, resting my forearms over my saddle horn while watching Shen Qingxue sprint down the embankment.

To any outside observer, a teenage girl charging into thirty armed, bloodthirsty men was pure suicide. But watching her move was like watching an exquisite, deadly dance.

The bandits were all cultivators in the Body Strengthening Realm. Even if most of them were only at the early or middle stages, possessing coarse, unrefined muscles, their sheer numbers gave them a suffocating advantage. I had deliberately avoided teaching Qingxue group-combat formations yet, mostly because I wanted to see how that terrifying Indomitable Asura Dao Heart of hers adapted when the odds turned against her.

She didn’t disappoint.

Reaching the edge of the clearing, she didn’t blindly throw herself into the center of the mob. She targeted the stragglers on the perimeter first. Her steel sword flickered like silver lightning under the dim afternoon sky. Remembering my strict command not to kill, she flipped her wrist at the final millisecond, using the flat and the spine of her blade rather than the edge.

CRACK!

A brutal blow shattered the lead bandit’s knee. Before the man could even scream, Qingxue drove her heel into his solar plexus, sending him flying into two others behind him. She moved with frightening economy, slipping through their swings, cracking wrists, breaking shins, and turning their own clumsy momentum against them.

However, the bandits weren’t brainless beasts. Realizing they were dealing with an elite, their scarred leader roared a guttural command.

"Surround the little wench! Lock her blade!"

Nearly twenty men abandoned the burning wagons, swarming her from all directions like starving jackals.

Instantly, Qingxue fell onto the defensive.

She was locked in an enclosed circle of steel. Curved sabers and heavy iron axes slashed at her from every angle. Her movement technique was forced into narrow, desperate bursts. Even with her peak Body Strengthening speed, dodging ten simultaneous strikes in a tight circle was nearly impossible.

Tear.

A jagged blade grazed her shoulder, slicing through the dark-green fabric of her traveling tunic and opening a shallow, bloody line across her pale skin. Another spear tip nicked the side of her thigh, drawing a thin crimson streak.

She didn’t flinch. She didn’t cry out either. The pain seemed to do nothing except make those dark obsidian eyes burn with an even colder, sharper brilliance.

Instead of panicking, she actually started using her brain.

Seeing that the open dirt offered zero cover, she abruptly retreated toward the burning carriages. She lured four bandits into a narrow corridor between two blazing wagons, instantly neutralizing their numbers advantage. When a brute swung a heavy broadaxe at her skull, she didn’t block it, she ducked low, letting the axe bite deep into the burning wooden wagon frame, trapping his weapon.

Before he could yank it free, Qingxue slammed her elbow into his jaw, disarmed his dagger, and swept his legs out from under him.

Next, she kicked a burning wooden crate straight into the face of three oncoming thugs, showering them in sparks and blinding their vision. In the chaotic haze of smoke and fire, she moved like a ghost. She broke their fingers, drove sword hilts into their temples, and slammed their heads into the dirt.

It was five times harder to suppress an entire gang without severing a single throat, but through sheer tactical brilliance, spatial awareness, and raw grit, she dismantled every last one of them.