NOVEL SIMPLE The Bandit Escaped
"Shit, an Eleven Mountain disciple!" One of them says as he recognizes the white robe Brax is wearing.
"Can you tell what stage he is?" another one of them asks, turning towards the third stage Qi cultivator.
The third stage Qi cultivator shakes his head with worry, as he can't gauge Brax's cultivation level.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Let's gang up and kill him. Since he is a sect disciple, he must have some valuables on him," Another one speaks as greed flashes in his eyes.
Hearing his words, the others think the same as well.
"Just as I expected. Cannon fodders," Brax murmurs seeing their cultivation level, Farco just sent them here to die and from their reaction, it looks like they didn't know about his existence here in the village.
Farco only sent these cannon fodders to die and make sure that Brax doesn't leave with all the riches. Now that the bandit's existence is confirmed, Brax will have to get rid of them. There are too many witnesses to ignore.
"Attack!!!!" The third stage Qi condemnation bandit shouts and immediately the other four rush Brax with weapons in their hand.
Two first-level and two second-level cultivators close the gap between them and Brax extremely fast, pulling their weapons to inflict damage on Brax.
Brax loads his legs, jumps high up in the air, and dodges all attacks directed towards him.
In the air, Brax turns his body, pulls out a dagger strapped to his waist, and throws it at one of the second-stage cultivators.
The dagger cuts through the air and pierces the back of the bandit's skull, immediately killing him.
Brax unsheathes his sword and lands on the ground.
The other second-stage bandit, shocked by the death of his comrade, immediately turns to confront Brax to find Brax right in front of him with his sword inches away from his neck.
Before the bandit can even react, he sees his own body standing still without its head. The second one bites the dust.
The other two first-stage cultivators back up in terror, but it is too late for them. Brax takes out two small knives and throws it at them.
The two knives lodged right between their eyebrows, immediately killing them as well.
The third-stage Qi condensation bandit doesn't even think twice before turning his back and making a run for his life. But his vision immediately goes black. His body collapses and a small knife can be seen lodged in the back of his skull as well.
If you can kill enemies from a distance, why risk closing the gap even if they are weak? It's the best advice Brax can give to anyone. Who knows what they might be hiding up their sleeve?
Now only one bandit remains.
The bandit who has his chest caved in, seeing his comrades getting dropped one after the other, immediately gets back to his feet, ignoring the pain in his chest, and starts running.
It's the only thing he could think of. He is overwhelmed with fear to even beg for mercy.
He runs and runs; he finds himself at the gate of the village. He crosses the gate and continues running. He thinks he should be dead, but he is not. He turns his head back to find no one following him.
Excitement fills his heart, thinking that he has successfully escaped. So, without any further delay, he runs back to his camp.
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The mortals are thrilled seeing how efficiently Brax dealt with the bandits. Their eyes sparkle with reverence for him.
Some children in the crowd immediately made him their role model.
"Immortal lord, one of them escaped," The middle-aged man from before approached Brax, thinking that Brax might have missed him.
"I know," Brax says and doesn't elaborate further. And the mortal knows to not ask any further questions.
The mortals then begin putting out the fires and cleaning up the streets, while some of them enter the houses and help those who suffered the most from these bandits.
Brax saw women being assisted out of houses crying. Brax lets the villagers comfort them and carry on with their duties, while he keeps his focus on the escapee.
He didn't just let the bandit run away out of pity, Brax wants him to run back to his hideout.
When Brax kicked the bandit on his chest, he infused his own Qi into the bandit's body, allowing him to track down the bandit as he would leave behind a trail wherever he goes.
And how did Brax learn how to do this? Well, it was right after he was done studying the dead Farco's body.
He realized that a cultivator's Qi could be altered through external means, such as the poison Farco was subjected to. This made Brax wonder if it was just poisons that could be infused into Qi. What about another Qi itself?
So after he was done consuming all the knowledge in Farco's residence, he began experimenting on one of his spirit stones.
Spirit stones are naturally formed crystals that contain Qi energy in them, so Brax tried infusing his own Qi into the existing Qi energy inside the spirit stones.
This caused a Qi overload causing the crystal to shatter, but Brax doesn't give up after just one failure. He studied the Qi inside the spirit stone and observed how it moves around, and how it interacts with the crystal itself.
Every time he shattered a crystal, he got closer to his goal.
On his seventh attempt, he channeled his Qi energy into thin strands and intertwined them into the gaps he found during the Qi flow state. Once his strands were in, they wrapped around the natural Qi like vines around a tree.
This might not be a complete infusion, but it's the closest Brax can get without any reference.
The Qi inside Brax's body is very different from that of a normal cultivator. Because of the unique cultivation method he created, the Qi inside him is very potent and dense. It also has its own signature. There is nothing like it elsewhere, so Brax is very good at tracking it.
Now that he has some good distance between him and the escaping bandit, Brax begins his pursuit.
He did all this so that he wouldn't get noticed for following the bandit into his hideout.
Who knows what else might encounter if he didn't, so it is always better to be safe than sorry.