Extra Scene: Dangers in the Road

~~~

“Step outside! Take off your valuables and leave them behind!”

Rather than quaking in fear at the sudden appearance of bandits, those inside the Flame-Wheeled Wagons sigh and roll their eyes. A few crack their knuckles.

It is the third time already.

To the surprise of many, Murong Bang did send someone to escort them from Tiger Storm Fortress all the way to his seat of power, Cloudburst City. That meant their mission could continue.

While they had flown on the Flame-Wheeled Wagons to the border, the journey that followed was made at ground level, mainly to avoid startling anyone. However, this left them exposed to the dangers of the road.

Not that those dangers have been any dangerous so far.

“I’ll take care of it this time, Brother Qing,” Ten says, raising his hand eagerly. Liu Jin shakes his head.

“No,” he says. “I’ll do it.”

“Brother Qing, you don’t need to bother yourself with this rabble!”

“I’ll do it,” Liu Jin repeats, rising to his feet and opening the door. “It is not just the bandits that need to be set straight.”

“Ha! So you finally come out of hiding!” One of the bandits, likely their leader, yells at him. There are six of them in total. “If you kowtow to me right now, this daddy will-”

“How foolish are you?”

His question stuns the bandits into silence.

“Can you not feel the difference in our strength?” Liu Jin asks with genuine puzzlement in his voice.

Lady Bai Wen might be using a special ring to hide her Qi, but that still leaves a group of people where the weakest among them is in the Spirit Realm.

“Are you perhaps untrained? Is that it? Have you somehow never learned to sense Qi? Or perhaps you simply lack a frame of reference? Are you truly so deficient that you cannot sense that every single person inside those wagons is stronger than the lot of you?”

The bandit leader’s face turns red. He opens his mouth.

His men are defeated before he gets a single word out. The bandit leader can only gape at the scene.

“Run,” Liu Jin tells him. “Do not test me.”

The man flees, not that Liu Jin is watching him anymore. He marches straight to their guide, who has watched the proceedings with an amused smile.

“This is the third bandit group,” Liu Jin says.

“It seems that way, yes.”

“One might find it suspicious we keep running into very stupid bandits.”

“One might.”

Liu Jin stares at the stone-faced soldier.

“The information of our route was deliberately leaked, was it not? I assume Murong Bang or someone else wanted to see how we’d react?”

“I’m a soldier,” their guide says, shrugging his shoulders. “Complicated things like that are not my business.”

“I see. How brave of you. Usually, one would naturally fear that his passengers might take their anger out on him.”

The soldier smirks confidently.

“You can’t do anything to me. I am your guide to the capital. Without me, you will not get there in one piece.”

“I see.” Liu Jin rubs his chin and nods. “That is indeed a strong argument. However, consider this.”

The soldier suddenly feels a dozen consecutive strikes on his chest.

However, no pain follows.

“What?” The soldier blinks and looks down at his seemingly unharmed body. His armor is not even dented. Nevertheless, he feels something has changed. “What did you do to me?”

“Impotence,” Liu Jin replies.

The soldier pales. “What?!”

“I struck your acupoints in such a way that it will cause impotence,” Liu Jin explains matter-of-factly. “It is surprisingly easy when you understand the position of every acupoint in the body.”

“You’re lying!” The man shouts, one hand moving to protect his crotch. “You’re lying… right? It’s a joke! Right?”

“I am afraid not,” Liu Jin replies. “You will not be engaging in recreational activities anytime soon. Perhaps not ever.”

“Wait!” The soldier says, voice trembling. “I’ll avoid all the bandits from now on. I’ll head straight to the capital. No detours. Just undo this! Please!”

Liu Jin thinks it over. Personally, he’d prefer to take care of every bandit group between here and the capital. Still, he cannot waste time right now. The priority is meeting Murong Bang.

“Very well.”

~~~

AN

This scene takes place in between chapters 213 and 214. Didn't fit the tone of Chapter 214, though. Bit too tongue-in-cheek, so I cut it out.