—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The water in the tub overflowed, now murky and dirty.
My body, which hadn’t been properly washed in two years, screamed as if the warm water was not to its liking. I cupped my hands, splashing and rubbing water over my neck and chest.
Every time I roughly applied soap and scrubbed, black grime fell off like erased pencil marks on painted paper. Even so, my gaze was focused on the wanted posters I had taken from the inn earlier.
The posters promised a reward for capturing the robbers, with bounties of 30 taels of silver and 50 taels of silver. According to the innkeeper, joining a reputable sect in this martial world required dozens of taels of silver, so if I could sweep all of them, I could take the 30 taels and head straight to a sect.
And then learn martial arts in the sect, climb the ranks step by step, and finally reach the top?
“Tsk…”
But I clicked my tongue, frowning at my thoughts. Would it really be that easy? In this martial world full of martial artists, would the robbers have no tricks up their sleeves? Was it really okay to just rush into a robber gang?
There is no such thing as noble or lowly money.
Thirty taels of silver is 30 taels of silver, even for a martial arts master.
If they were easily defeated by someone like me, who had only learned the Seizing Hand, they would have been killed off by the other sects nearby. Because 30 taels of silver was a hefty sum. The fact that they had survived until a 30-tael bounty was placed on their heads meant they were a nuisance that even masters didn’t want to deal with for just 30 taels.
So, I needed to change the direction of my thinking. It wasn’t just killing all the robbers that would earn me money. Among the wanted gangs, there were some with over a hundred members, while others had only a few dozen.
I didn’t know how the robbers’ revenue structure worked, but just feeding all those men must have taken a considerable amount of operating expenses.
Therefore, there was certainly some money stored in their warehouses.
And I had the Shadow Step, a lightness technique specialized for escaping.
The lustful demon who gave me the manual didn’t just write about how to do the deed; he also wrote about how to hide his presence, ways to conceal himself, and how to run away from masters.
The robbers were skilled enough to roam the martial world, but conversely, they were still just robbers making a living in the martial world. If they were truly strong, they wouldn’t be robbers; they would be a sect.
Still, just in case, I put away the 30-tael robber gang poster. Even if it was a gamble, it was too much of a risk to charge into their den with my current skills. Would I really be the first person to ever have this thought?
It was better to aim low, and pick off the weakest first. My eyes turned to the other wanted posters.
Where were the guys I could take?
******
“Stone Spring you say? It’s quite far from here. If you go straight in the Sichuan direction… Well, I’m a local around here, so I don’t know that place in detail. If you follow the road, you’ll probably find some people who know.”
The wanted poster in my hand had a bounty of one tael of silver.
The innkeeper was telling me about the location I had to go to without any hint of contempt. I had nothing to be ashamed of, so I listened to the innkeeper’s explanation with a confident expression.
I wasn’t scared.
I was just lowering my target a little, in preparation for a possible emergency. Twenty taels was still a little dangerous. And the 10-tael robber gang seemed too far away.
Besides, I still didn’t know the level of martial artists in this area. It was better to pick the weakest-looking robbers first, gauge their level, and then start moving more seriously.
I was not scared at all.
“Hey.”
The innkeeper jumped at my call and bowed his head, saying.
“Ah, what, what is it, sir?”
“Hmm. Alright.”
Yes, I was a hero.
Satisfied with the innkeeper’s title, I nodded.
It seemed like I would be able to get a good night’s sleep tonight.
******
The next morning, I turned my body in the direction I needed to go. I wore the clothes the inn had provided me separately. They were the clothes the inn employees wore, so they were not high quality, but there were no better clothes to wear when going to meet robbers.
On the way down, I could see people walking toward Mount Hua. Their faces were full of anticipation as they stared at the peaks, shining sharply even in the sea of clouds. I followed their gaze to the top of Mount Hua, vaguely visible in the distance.
“Wow, it’s shining! Shining!”
“Mount Hua, wait! We’re coming!”
Unlike the people’s excitement, I felt nothing.
I shrugged and started walking.
The sun was rising in the direction I was walking.
I felt as if I were walking into the light as I continued on my way.
******
“Damn it.”
Going from the area near Mount Hua to Stone Spring was not something you could do just for a casual stroll; it was not something that could be done in a flash either.
I was sitting in the middle of a mountain, sighing while making a bonfire.
Since I couldn’t check my location on a map in real-time, my journey felt slow and frustrating, like a snail.
I could use the Shadow Step and rush forward in an instant. But my inner energy was so weak that I couldn’t travel very far. Moreover, if I exhausted my inner energy with the Shadow Step, I would only be able to die helplessly when ‘guests’ came at night.
Thanks to that, I had been moving very slowly on foot, and there was no telling when I would arrive at Stone Spring.
Looking at the stars, I wished that I would arrive at Stone Spring or a nearby village tomorrow.
“Oh my.”
Then, I heard rustling sounds from nearby. I didn’t know exactly where I was, but I knew that I hadn’t arrived near that Stone Spring.
But the Central Plains were vast, and various animals lived in the mountains.
Enticed by the warmth of the bonfire, unwanted visitors poked their heads out and greeted me.
“Ehehehehe…!”
“Oh my, sir. Are you alone?”
They were robbers.
It was no wonder the road was rough and deserted; I had entered a forest that robbers frequented. I tried to remember the faces of the robbers from the wanted posters, but in a world where even the heads of the gangs were drawn with just black smudges, there was no way these men would be drawn in detail.
A bald man with a scar on his face and one missing eye.
A skinny minion who swung a dagger in the air.
And another minion who stood silently behind with a long sword.
Just by glancing at them, I could tell that their behavior was somewhat organized, so I guessed that they belonged to some organization.
“Who are you?”
I poked the bonfire and picked up a fire poker beside me. The blackened end scattered embers in the air, leaving red afterimages that quickly disappeared.
The robber blinked at the sight and said with a smile. The firelight reflected on his face, making him look like a ghost from a 90’s late-night drama.
“We are the Green Forest.”
The way he introduced himself with that look was quite cool.
Of course, the Green Forest was just another word for robbers, so it was no different from introducing themselves as ‘we’re nothing special.’
I tilted the fire poker to the ground and said,
“Who is this Green Forest dude? Surely, there is not just one leader?”
The robber seemed upset by my words, but surprisingly answered me honestly.
“He’s the leader of the 68th stronghold of the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest, Yunho! There is a five-tael silver bounty on his head. Anyone in this area would know of him!”
The 68th stronghold, huh?
That was really a hard number to remember.
Even if I remembered the name Yunho, I would never remember the stronghold number of Leader Yunho in the future.
But saying that I didn’t know such a person here was the same as asking for a fight.
I didn’t have any weapons, and I didn’t have any money to pay them if things went wrong.
They were mountain bandits who had faced countless ordinary people, and they knew where their base was.
Besides, I had already been planning to raid their base and run away. If they had come to me on their own, wouldn’t that be a good thing? The bounty on his head was five taels of silver. It was higher than the one-tael bounty I had been after, but it seemed like it was worth infiltrating.
I decided to change my plan.
“Ah! Leader Yunho! It was worth coming this far just to meet you!”
I widened my eyes and smiled genuinely as I said those words.
The robbers were looking at each other with puzzled expressions, and I threw the fire poker away and said,
“I am a disciple of a small sect here. I was tired of just training, so I ran away to try my hand at robbery. I came all the way here to learn from the famous Leader Yunho.”
“You want to rob?”
I moved my foot back while gathering inner energy. The robbers seemed to flinch at first but looked relieved when I created some distance between us. In front of them, I put some strength into my arm and punched a tree.
Bang!
A fairly thick tree twisted and cracked, and the robber whistled and said.
“Oh.”
I said,
“Isn’t this good enough? I want to meet your leader.”
The Green Forest bandits exchanged glances.
I clenched my fist again, waiting for their next move.
Would they welcome a stranger’s visit?
I hoped they believed in coincidence and fate as much as I did.
If not, I would just run away.
