Wu Liangchen drove the carriage to Red Leaf Village. Jin Cui, already aware they were leaving, was holding Wu ngchan’s hand with a sorrowful look on her face, reluctant to part.
"ngchan, you have to promise you’ll co back and visit ," she said.
"Mmm, I will." Wu ngchan was also feeling down.
She had enjoyed her ti with Jin Cui imnsely over the last two days. Now, she had to leave, with no idea when she might return, and her heart was naturally filled with reluctance.
Only Jin Cui’s mother-in-law was secretly overjoyed.
’Just go, hurry up and go!’
’Every day they leave earlier is another day’s worth of money saved.’
So she eagerly helped them load their things onto the carriage.
Wu Liangchen had packed a lot of supplies this ti. The end of the year was fast approaching, and judging by their itinerary, they would certainly be spending the New Year on the road.
There was no telling if they’d be able to buy provisions then, so it was better to bring extra.
With all the preparations complete, Wu ngchan and Yang Lian’Er boarded the carriage. Wu Liangchen gave Jin Cui a slight nod.
"Miss Jin Cui, thank you for your hospitality. Until we et again!"
He cupped his fist as he spoke.
Jin Cui was taken aback, returning the gesture in a fluster. "Until we et again!"
Wu Liangchen cracked his whip, and the carriage set off. It soon left Red Leaf Village, following the mountain road out of the Thousand Waterfall Mountain area.
The mood was a bit somber at first, but true to her youthful nature, Wu ngchan had cheered up before they had gone very far. She lifted the carriage curtain, peering outside with an excited expression.
This journey was different from their last. Before, they had been in a mad panic, fleeing for their lives. This ti, they were riding in a carriage, and it felt more like a sightseeing trip.
So it wasn’t just Wu ngchan; Yang Lian’Er was also getting excited, and the two of them chattered away endlessly.
Listening to the two girls laughing and talking behind him, Wu Liangchen smiled to himself and shook his head. He then drove the carriage through Bapang Town and toward the perilous, winding mountain road.
This was the most treacherous stretch of road in the Thousand Waterfall Mountain range. A towering mountain face rose on one side, while a steep cliff dropped off on the other. The path was just wide enough for two carriages to pass abreast.
As they gradually gained altitude, the cliffside drop grew deeper and deeper, enough to make one’s head spin just from looking down.
Wu ngchan no longer dared to peek outside. Her face deathly pale, she huddled in a corner of the carriage, afraid to even move.
Seeing this, Yang Lian’Er couldn’t help but tease, "What’s wrong? Weren’t you so happy just a mont ago?"
As she spoke, she reached out to tickle Wu ngchan. Terrified, Wu ngchan held her breath and pleaded for rcy.
"Don’t, don’t, don’t! I’m afraid of heights!"
But just as the two of them were laughing and fooling around, the carriage suddenly stopped.
Yang Lian’Er’s expression imdiately turned serious. "What’s wrong?" she asked in a low voice.
From outside the carriage ca Wu Liangchen’s calm voice.
"It’s nothing. Just stay in the carriage."
Feeling uneasy, Wu ngchan lifted a corner of the curtain to peek outside. She saw several large tree trunks laid across the road ahead, blocking it completely.
Clearly, soone had done this on purpose to force passing vehicles to a halt.
This spot was also the most precarious on the entire winding road. On one side was a bottomless abyss, and on the other was a steep, smooth rock face, making it impossible to turn the carriage around. The sheer malice of their intent was obvious.
Even Wu ngchan could see that things were not right. Yang Lian’Er’s face was grim.
"What’s going on?"
"It’s nothing. Just so fools who don’t know any better, courting death," Wu Liangchen said nonchalantly. He didn’t even get out, rely sat on the driver’s seat, watching coldly.
He knew very well that the purpose of those who had set up these obstacles was to lure him out of the carriage.
The mont he stepped off, they would seize the opportunity to attack the carriage.
And just as he’d expected.
A mont later, several people erged from behind the tree trunks. The leader was a burly man of formidable build, carrying a giant axe in his hand.
At the sa ti, several figures appeared on the mountain path behind the carriage, cutting off their retreat.
The burly man sized up Wu Liangchen for a mont, then his gaze was drawn to Wu ngchan and Yang Lian’Er.
"Damn, that Fatty Six is a real piece of trash. He never said there were two absolute stunners like this. We’ve really hit the jackpot this ti," the burly man exclaid, his face alight with excitent.
It wasn’t just him; all the n behind him were staring with unconcealed lust, practically drooling.
These n were mountain drifters. When their needs beca too pressing, they’d spend twenty or thirty coppers on the cheapest prostitute to blow off so steam. They had never seen beauties of this caliber before.
Feeling the malicious intent from this group, Wu ngchan quickly lowered the carriage curtain.
Seeing this, the burly man let out a lecherous chuckle. "Don’t be scared, little beauty. I’ll co and take good care of you in a bit."
He sneered at Wu Liangchen. "Listen, kid. I was just going to kill you. But for the sake of these two little beauties, I’ll let you go. Now hand over all your valuables and scram."
Wu Liangchen hadn’t said a word from beginning to end. He had been quietly watching from the driver’s seat, holding his whip. Only when the burly man spoke did he slightly raise an eyebrow.
"Are you in league with that Shopkeeper?"
Hearing this, the burly man and his henchn roared with laughter.
"Kid, you’re not stupid. That’s right, we got a tip from Fatty Six. That’s why we set up an ambush here."
The burly man grew impatient. "Get off the carriage and scram while I’m still feeling patient. Or else..."
Now that his suspicions were confird, Wu Liangchen smiled.
"Or else what?"
"Or else you die!"
The burly man snorted, and his henchn charged forward like a pack of wolves.
Not only that, but the bandits behind the carriage also rushed forward.
But just then, there was a loud CRACK of a whip, and the bandit at the front let out a terrible scream.
"My eyes!"
He clutched at his eyes, which had been burst by the whip, and thrashed on the ground. A mont later, he went still. He had died from the sheer, agonizing pain.
The other bandits were stunned. The attack had been so vicious that they hesitated, their charge slowing considerably.
The burly leader was also startled, but confident in their numbers, he bellowed, "The first one to reach them gets first dibs on the won!"
Tempted by the reward, so of the n imdiately resud their reckless charge.
Wu Liangchen set down his whip, reached into a pocket, and pulled out a handful of pebbles. Then, his hands beca a blur.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH.
Accompanied by sharp, piercing whistles, the seemingly harmless pebbles shot out in all directions with incredible speed.
One bandit had just reached the carriage. Elated, he raised his blade to strike.
Just then, a pebble shot into his left eye at incredible speed, punching through his skull and exiting the back of his head in a spray of blood and brain matter.
He wasn’t the only one. In that instant, none of the charging bandits were spared, each one taking a pebble through the head.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
With a series of dull thuds as bodies hit the ground, the bandits who had been so arrogant monts before were, in the blink of an eye, all dead. Only the burly leader remained.
His eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He realized instantly that he had ssed with the wrong person. Without a second’s hesitation, he turned and fled.
The burly man possessed so skill—he wouldn’t have beco the leader otherwise—and when he ran for his life, his speed was astonishing.
But he was fast, and Wu Liangchen was faster.
Just as the burly man was sprinting at full tilt, his vision blurred, and suddenly Wu Liangchen was standing in front of him.
The man’s reactions were incredibly fast. He dropped to his knees with a THUD and began kowtowing, his head bobbing like a chicken pecking at grain.
"rcy, my lord! rcy!"
Wu Liangchen was unmoved. "Besides you, are there any others?" he asked coldly.
"N-no more! We’re just villagers from the nearby mountain hamlets. We only get together to do... this... when an opportunity cos up," the man stamred, while inwardly cursing the Shopkeeper with every fiber of his being.
’Damn it! A "fat sheep," he said! How could he not have realized this kid was a monster?’
The mory of the shocking scene monts ago made his bladder clench, and he nearly pissed himself.
But it was too late for regrets. He could only keep kowtowing, hoping this ruthless young man would spare his life.
"So how long have you been doing this sort of thing?"
"Only a few tis. And I guarantee you, I’ve never killed anyone before," the burly man pleaded.
Wu Liangchen nodded. "I believe you. Get up."
’Huh?’
The burly man couldn’t quite believe it. Seeing that the killing intent had vanished from Wu Liangchen’s face, he felt a wave of relief and shakily got to his feet.
"Go clean all this up, including the bodies. Then you can go," Wu Liangchen ordered.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
As if granted a royal pardon, the burly man began to work with great vigor.
The man tossed the tree trunks and all the corpses over the cliff’s edge.
Wu Liangchen watched his practiced motions from the side, his expression unreadable.
Finally, the road was cleared. The burly man said tremblingly, "It’s... it’s done!"
Wu Liangchen nodded. "Mmm, you can go now."
"Th-thank you for sparing my life, my lord!"
With that, the man turned and fled, wishing he could sprout another pair of legs.
Just as he was about to round a bend in the mountain pass, a pebble shot through the air, overtaking him in an instant.
Hearing the whistle of air, the man’s heart seized with terror. He threw himself to the side, but in the next instant, a second pebble pierced his back and blew a gaping hole clean through his chest.
The man struggled to look back at the distant Wu Liangchen, his eyes filled with bitter resentnt, as if demanding to know why he had gone back on his word.
Wu Liangchen smiled.
"I said you could leave. I never said I’d let you live."
With a final lurch, the burly man’s corpse tumbled over the cliff and vanished from sight.
Yang Lian’Er stared blankly at this scene, her face a mask of shock.
Wu ngchan had been hiding in the carriage the whole ti and hadn’t dared to co out, so she had no idea what had just happened.
But Yang Lian’Er had witnessed the entire process with her own eyes, and the shock she felt was simply indescribable.
She realized that Wu Liangchen’s strength had improved dramatically since his fight with the monk two days ago.
His skill with the pebbles, in particular, had reached a whole new level of mastery.
’I knew he was a genius, but isn’t his rate of growth just a little too terrifying?’
Wu Liangchen was unaware of Yang Lian’Er’s shock. He returned to the driver’s seat and said to them, "Once we’re over this mountain pass, we’ll find a place to rest. Then I need to head back to Bapang Town to take care of so business."
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