Chapter 88: Chapter 87: Invention... Genius

On a small path through the mountain forest.

Wu Chen rode atop a horse whose color was no longer discernible, moving at a slow pace.

Several days had passed since the man and his horse left Fenglin County. They had already covered most of the distance to Mountain Mist City.

Wu Chen’s hair was a mess. Days of hard travel had left his face covered in a layer of dust, and the clarity his eyes held at the start of the journey was gone, replaced by a weary look.

He had braved the elements, of course, but he also had to constantly watch for attacks from wild beasts. He even had to sleep with one eye open, just in case. Exhaustion was inevitable.

The chestnut steed beneath him was no better off. After days on the road, its original coat color was impossible to make out.

Its mane was a tangled mess, and its lower body was soaked with dew, then caked with mud and grime from their travels. It had all dried and hardened, like a layer of earthen armor.

Fortunately...

SPLASH! SPLASH—

After another half-day of travel, man and horse finally heard the long-awaited sound of flowing water from the mountains.

Wu Chen was overjoyed. He could finally wash up properly.

After all, he was about to reach Mountain Mist City, and the city guards would likely judge him by his appearance. If he didn’t clean himself up and enter the city looking presentable, he would inevitably be questioned and run into trouble.

Wu Chen followed the sound of the water and soon spotted a pool, but he didn’t rush over immediately.

Instead, he stayed several dozen feet away from the pool where the stream collected, pacing back and forth and cautiously surveying the area.

’Just as I thought, something’s wrong!’

Wu Chen noticed several spots around the pool where the fallen leaves were arranged strangely.

The patterns were unnatural, showing signs of human interference. A trap had clearly been set.

’Placed near a watering hole and covered with leaves... it must be an animal trap set by a local Hunter.’

’Judging by the size of the trap, it’s meant for large beasts. If a Meridian Passage Realm Martial Artist stepped on it, their leg bones would probably snap on the spot. Even someone at the Jade Bone Realm would be in for a world of hurt.’

The Jade Bone Realm made one’s bones harder, but not indestructible.

Wu Chen decided to forget about washing up. He still had Jiang Fang’s Jade Pendant. If he showed that, surely none of the city guards would dare give him a hard time.

Besides, it wasn’t easy for a Hunter to set a few traps in the forest. If he went over there and left his scent, he might scare away any prey that came to drink, preventing them from approaching the trap.

A few families might go hungry for the next month because of it.

With that in mind, Wu Chen took a few steps back, intending to leave and continue on his way.

But just then, a voice loud enough to rustle the leaves echoed from a slope in the distance:

"Heh, quite vigilant, isn’t he? Didn’t even walk up to it."

"But for a kid like him to be out here alone, he must have something good on him!"

"Since you want to leave, we brothers will have to see you off!"

Wu Chen followed the voice with his eyes. Just as the words fell, four or five men on the slope raised powerful bows, nocked arrows, and aimed them at him.

Meanwhile, several other figures holding blades emerged from the surrounding woods, closing in.

’Not Hunters, but bandits!’

Seeing this, Wu Chen understood instantly. These weren’t Hunters at all; they were mountain bandits.

Against people like this, Wu Chen certainly wouldn’t show any mercy.

BAM!

Without hesitation, he lashed out with a whip kick against a nearby tree. Under the force of his Jade Bone Realm strength, the trunk, as thick as a bowl, snapped with a CRACK.

Then, with another lightning-fast kick, Wu Chen struck the broken, toppling trunk.

WHOOSH—

With the force of a wild bull shaking the earth, the tree hurtled through the air with a whistling wind, smashing toward the earthen slope a hundred feet away.

"Damn it! This one’s too tough! Retreat!"

Seeing the massive log hurtling toward them on a gale of wind, the bandits on the slope instantly realized something was wrong. Their leader immediately shouted for them to fall back.

From those two kicks alone, he knew their target’s strength far surpassed anyone present.

Even if they managed to take him down, the cost would be immense.

But the tree was simply too fast. The bandit leader had barely gotten the order to retreat out of his mouth before the massive trunk was upon them, filling their entire field of vision.

There was no time to draw their bows and mount any effective resistance.

BOOM!

The great log crashed down. Two men were crushed to death on the spot by its immense force.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

But three survived. The impact had knocked the wind out of them, leaving them gasping for breath. They only recovered after a fit of coughing.

Realizing his men down the slope wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, the bandit leader scrambled to his feet to escape.

CRACK! CRACK!

But before he could make a move, the sharp sound of bones snapping twice next to him reached his ears.

The bandit leader’s heart leaped in shock, and he started to turn his head to look.

WHAP!

But he had just lifted his head when a palm slammed down on it, forcing him to his knees, unable to rise.

He struggled to raise his eyes and saw a figure standing before him—it was the young man who had been at the bottom of the slope just moments ago.

The bandit leader couldn’t move his head. Using his peripheral vision, he glanced down the slope and saw that his men there were already lying on the ground, silent and still.

Then he thought back to the sound of bones cracking beside him...

Did that mean that in the blink of an eye, he was the only one of his group still alive?

"Mighty hero, spar—" The bandit leader began to beg for mercy, but his hand was silently slipping into his robes.

As he was half-kneeling on the ground, the movement was extremely subtle and difficult to spot.

He had used this very move to turn the tables and survive life-or-death situations many times before.

But in the next moment, a soul-deep pain spread from the crown of his head, piercing through his limbs and seeping into his very marrow.

"AAAAHHHHH!—"

The bandit leader couldn’t help but let out a bloodcurdling scream.

It felt as if a sharp blade had been driven into the top of his head, piercing his brain. The tremor deep in his soul made all his struggles and tricks seem laughable.

The seven meridians within the bandit leader’s body trembled wildly, but they were powerless to stop the crushing, violent force on his skull.

After only a few breaths, the steel blade in his hand and the pouch of poison powder he had pulled from his robes with his left hand all fell to the ground.

"A few Meridian Passage Realm cultivators think they have what it takes to be bandits?"

Seeing the bandit leader’s eyes roll back into his head, his screams fading into whimpers, Wu Chen finally loosened his grip slightly.

"Meridian Passage Realm... is weak?" the bandit asked, his mind muddled from the pressure.

Hearing this response, Wu Chen wrinkled his nose awkwardly.

He had a point. In a small place like Fenglin County, someone with seven or eight opened meridians in the Meridian Passage Realm would be considered a member of a prominent household. It was a realm most people could only hope to reach in their entire lifetime.

It was just that his own cultivation had advanced so quickly that he’d forgotten that the Meridian Passage Realm was enough to establish one’s own house in a small city—a status that ordinary people could only look up to.

’Still, this realm is by no means weak. You could make a living anywhere. Even just by becoming a retainer, you could earn over a hundred taels of silver a year.’

’So why would he resort to robbery out here in the desolate mountains?’

Wu Chen looked at the bandit’s head under his hand and pondered for a moment. He soon had his answer.

Since the man chose to commit murder and robbery outside the city instead of living within it, he most likely had a price on his head for taking a life.

"Are you on a government wanted poster?" Wu Chen asked.

"Heh."

Knowing there was no escape today, the bandit leader, having regained some clarity, didn’t try to hide it:

"Chen He. Thirteen innocent lives on my hands. My name is on a wanted poster in Mountain Mist City."

"This fine head, worth three hundred taels of silver, is all yours."

Wu Chen laughed. The man clearly couldn’t beat him and was about to be killed. What did he mean, "all yours"?

It was as ridiculous as getting completely dominated in a game, and just before losing, typing "I’ll let you have this one" in the public chat.

But he had to admit, that line really did mess with your head.

SWISH!

Having asked what he wanted to ask, Wu Chen’s black blade fell.

Faced with a bounty of three hundred taels of silver, he certainly wasn’t going to let it go to waste.

He stripped some cloth from the corpse and wrapped the valuable head in layer after layer.

But before long, blood began to seep through the coarse fabric, dripping onto the ground.

"Tsk! This three hundred taels isn’t easy money!"

Looking at the trickling blood, Wu Chen felt a headache coming on. There was no way he was putting a blood-soaked head into his expensive storage bag.

’Looks like I need to get a few more of these Qiankun Bags.’

’One for miscellaneous items, and one specifically for the heads of wanted criminals.’

Wu Chen’s eyes lit up. ’After all, the wanted posters can’t just be for Chen He!’

’In a city as big as Mountain Mist City, even if there aren’t eighty or a hundred wanted fiends and villains, there have to be at least eight or ten!’

With this, Wu Chen’s objective for his trip to Mountain Mist City gradually became clear.

Hunt down the fiends on the wanted posters, and trade their heads for money at the government office.

Use the money to buy Martial Arts manuals, and use the Martial Arts to advance his realm.

After advancing his realm, continue hunting down fiends...

It was a perfect cycle!

Thinking of this, Wu Chen couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration:

"Whoever invented wanted posters was a genius!"

However, he then looked at the heads of the other bandits. From their brief clash, he could tell they weren’t very strong—far weaker than their leader, Chen He.

’The three-hundred-tael price must be for the leader only, or maybe it includes everyone.’

’But only having to carry one head is much more convenient.’

After all, anyone capable of taking Chen He’s head would certainly have the strength to kill his followers. The government officials had probably already taken that into account.

Looking at the scattered corpses, Wu Chen naturally wasn’t going to pass up the chance to loot them.

Perhaps because they were wanted for murder and lived a dangerous life on the edge, these guys didn’t plan for the future. They all lived for the moment.

After looting the entire group, he found less than ten taels of silver and nothing else.

"Poor bastards," Wu Chen spat, then picked up the dripping cloth bag and headed down the slope.

After using some insects and snakes to test the pool at the bottom of the slope and confirm the bandits hadn’t poisoned it...

He washed himself thoroughly and then gave his horse a good rinse.

Once everything was in order and he had changed into a fresh set of clothes, Wu Chen had returned to the handsome appearance he’d had before setting out.

Only then did the man and his horse continue on their way to Mountain Mist City.

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