Lu Xuan, who had been watching their “monkey show” with cold eyes, twitched an eyebrow. “Take my life?”
If they were just simple-minded fools who hadn’t learned their lesson and wanted to rob him, breaking a few of their bones would have sufficed. But daring to covet his life? That was a different matter entirely.
Lu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly and curled his lips. “You want my life? That depends on whether you have the ability to take it.”
He looked back at the city walls of the prefecture, which were no longer visible.
It was inconvenient to commit murder inside the city, but in the desolate wilderness, it shouldn’t matter, right?
Lu Xuan flexed his fingers, and his aura changed silently.
The thug leader was anxious to get his hands on the silver. After spitting out a few threats and seeing that Lu Xuan had no intention of backing down, he lost his patience. He waved his hand at the others with malice. “You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit. Get him!”
“Kill him—!”
Twenty or so men let out a shout, waving their weapons from all directions and charging toward Lu Xuan with savage expressions.
The coachman inside the carriage covered his ears in terror when he heard the commotion, but the panicked, agonizing screams soon seeped through his fingers.
“Ah—”
“What is this! Help me!”
“No! Ahhh—!”
“Monster—!”
If the coachman had summoned the courage to peek outside at that moment, he would have witnessed a scene he would never forget.
In the vast wilderness, countless thick, giant vines danced through the air. Their tips tightly coiled around the terrified robbers, and the omnipresent thorns on the vines pierced deeply into their flesh and blood. A heavy, metallic stench of blood quickly permeated the surroundings.
More than a dozen of the twenty men were ensnared. The remaining few “fish that slipped through the net” were so frightened by the sudden appearance of the vines that they peed themselves. As they scrambled to escape, they were seized by the throat by Lu Xuan, who was weaving through the sea of vines.
Realizing what was happening, the robber’s pupils contracted. Just as he was about to beg for mercy, Lu Xuan twisted his hand with force, snapping the man’s neck.
The man stopped breathing while still wearing an expression of disbelief.
The thug leader, who had narrowly avoided the vines, witnessed this scene and was scared out of his wits.
At that exact moment, Lu Xuan looked up and locked eyes with him.
From the bottomless depths of Lu Xuan’s gaze, the thug leader detected a danger that made his hair stand on end—more terrifying than any vicious, desperate criminal he had ever encountered.
Cold sweat continuously seeped from his forehead, and an unprecedented fear welled up in his heart.
A voice in his mind kept issuing a warning: Run, run! If you don’t run now, it’ll be too late!
Instinct drove him to throw down his weapon, turn around, and run for his life.
Unfortunately, before he could run more than a few meters, he felt an indescribable, intense pain in his neck. His consciousness blurred rapidly, and before long, he lost all sensation.
Lu Xuan dealt with the remaining men in the same way. The one or two who had tried to ambush him while he was busy were whipped away by the blood-sucking vines, their bones shattered throughout their bodies.
In the blink of an eye, everyone who had come to stir up trouble lay on the ground without exception. Aside from a few who still had a breath of life left, all of them—whether handled by Lu Xuan personally or entangled by the blood-sucking vines—were dead.
The viewers in the live stream held their breath unconsciously. The barrage of comments paused for a long time before they began to scroll again.
【…I thought the streamer was only ruthless toward his prey. I didn’t expect him to be just as brutal toward humans. I underestimated the streamer!】
【These people were too weak. The streamer cut through them like chopping vegetables.】
【That was truly “killing” it!! Thrilling!!】
【I admit the streamer is cool, but wasn’t the MVP of this match the mutated blood-sucking vine?! It took out a dozen people so easily, so cool!】
【I only followed this streamer because I heard he contracted a mutated plant. After waiting for so many days, I finally got to see the mutated blood-sucking vine appear again! It’s so powerful!】
【Ahhh! I also want such a powerful mutated plant!】
【First, you need a Wood-type ability. Second, you need enough strength so that when you encounter a mutated blood-sucking vine, you don’t get strangled to death first.】
There were more people in the live stream now, so naturally, there were some with bizarre thought processes. While most people were excited and hyped, these eccentric viewers interjected, questioning whether the streamer was going too far—did he really have to kill everyone?
【???】
【No way, no way. These people brought deadly weapons, and yet there are still people playing the “saint” here??】
【If the streamer didn’t have enough strength, the one lying on the ground right now would be him.】
【Even if they didn’t intend to kill, who knows how many bacteria and germs were on those weapons? Medical levels are backward in the ancient era; one accidental outer wound and you could get a fever, infection, and die.】
【The streamer has a system, so he doesn’t need to worry about infection, but these people didn’t know that. They had no intention of letting the streamer go when they were robbing him; falling into this fate is just what they deserve!】
The Interstellar era followed the rule of “might makes right.” It didn’t mean the weak couldn’t live well, but the rule was: If you don’t attack me, I won’t attack you. If you start the trouble, don’t blame others for fighting back and taking your life.
Soon, the few eccentric viewers were silenced by the others.
Everyone shifted their attention back to the streamer.
More than sympathizing with the robbers who brought this upon themselves or engaging with the “saints,” they were more interested in Lu Xuan himself.
They had already guessed he had secrets when he went into the mountains to search for treasure, and now they were even more certain of it.
They couldn’t guess what secret Lu Xuan was hiding; they only knew one thing: he was absolutely not the “ancient country boy” who had been “slow” for ten years as they had first assumed!
Live Stream Audience: Man, you have successfully piqued my interest.
Lu Xuan glanced at the carriage cabin and snapped his fingers casually. The viewers, who were lost in various wild guesses, watched as the bodies of the robbers who were bound by the vines—those still breathing and those who had already stopped—gradually shriveled up until only a thin layer of skin remained.
【Hiss—were they sucked dry by the blood-sucking vine?】
【Mutated blood-sucking vine… the name “blood-sucking” definitely isn’t just for show!!】
Lu Xuan moved his fingers again. The blood-sucking vine quickly shrank and transformed back into a seed, which he absorbed into his body. The dozen or so skins floating in mid-air drifted down lightly.
To avoid scaring innocent people, he collected all the skins, which still wore expressions of terror, into his space ring, planning to throw them into a ravine in the mountains once he returned.
After confirming nothing was left behind, Lu Xuan walked to the carriage and tapped on the cabin twice. “We can go now.”
A moment later, the coachman cautiously poked his head out to look outside.
“Eh? Where are they?” the coachman asked in astonishment.
Lu Xuan said indifferently, “I beat them away.”
The coachman was shocked. “Your martial arts are that good, sir?” You beat away twenty people?
The coachman looked at Lu Xuan, whose robes were fluttering in the wind, as if he were looking at some hidden master.
…Though the cotton lint stuck all over the “master’s” clothes ruined the atmosphere a bit.
Furthermore… after his shock subsided, the coachman smelled the thick, pungent scent of blood in the air and felt a lingering doubt in his heart.
Inside the carriage, he had only heard screams, and then it had become quiet; he hadn’t heard any sounds of them running away.
Did those people really run away?
“What are you doing?” Lu Xuan asked quietly from behind him.
The coachman shivered violently and didn’t dare to think too much about it. “Nothing, nothing. Let’s get going quickly.”
Once Lu Xuan boarded the carriage, the coachman looked back at the empty wilderness and the scattered spots of blood on the ground, swallowed hard, looked away, and trembling, lashed the reins to drive the carriage away from the scene quickly.
About half a day after Lu Xuan had left the prefectural city, the Bai family had finally investigated his movements over the past few days.
Bai Xuefeng was completely dumbfounded when his subordinates told him that Lu Xuan had spent over six thousand taels of silver in just a few short days to buy massive amounts of grain, meat, and other supplies.
He had guessed that Lu Xuan might have bought a lot of things, but he never expected it to be this much!
Thirty-plus thousand jin of grain and hundreds of pigs—this was simply not something a few people could consume in a short time.
Lu Xuan had even bought a lot of ironware!
Iron was a highly sensitive commodity. When Bai Xuefeng saw the total quantity Lu Xuan had purchased, he couldn’t help but feel his heart jump, wondering if there was some powerful force backing him.
What was even more puzzling was that, with so much stuff, he had absolutely no idea how Lu Xuan had transported it all away.
His subordinates had investigated the small courtyard Lu Xuan rented and had asked the neighbors, confirming that indeed, many shipments had been delivered there every day, yet no goods had ever been seen moving out.
When their people snuck in to check after Lu Xuan checked out, all the supplies had vanished into thin air!
Bai Xuefeng felt increasingly flustered. His intuition told him that Lu Xuan might not have been lying to him yesterday; a massive disaster was likely going to happen!
When Father Bai learned of this news, he also perceived the crisis hidden behind it. Despite his lingering doubts, he decisively ordered the butler to collect a batch of supplies as quickly as possible, using Lu Xuan’s shopping list as a reference for the types of goods.
Items like ceramics, which they were not short of, could be excluded. Fresh meat could not be stored in large quantities, so they bought cured meat instead. As for other essentials like grain, fabric, and charcoal, the more they had, the better.
If Lu Xuan could buy that much by himself, their family certainly couldn’t buy any less.
Moving such a large amount of capital and purchasing bulk supplies were no small matters; the Bai family quickly became busy.
Many of those underneath them didn’t understand what the higher-ups were trying to do. It was only later, when the disaster suddenly descended, that they realized what had happened. The Bai family members were immensely grateful that they hadn’t dismissed the important information provided by Lu Xuan, and they remained deeply thankful to him.
Unfortunately, when they tried to find their benefactor again, they couldn’t locate him anywhere.
·
Yunlu Village, the Lu Residence.
Lu Qing was sun-drying the mushrooms Lu Xuan had brought back in the courtyard.
It had been two days past the scheduled time Lu Xuan said he would be back from the city. Lu Qing poked at the nearly dried mushrooms, murmuring, “I wonder if A-Xuan’s trip went smoothly, and if he was able to sell the…”
It had been five days, and he still hadn’t returned. Had he encountered trouble in the city and gotten held up?
“Sister! Brother is back! And he brought back so many things!”
Just as Lu Qing was hesitating about whether to discuss finding him in the city with Lei Yan, Lu Chen, who had been waiting at the village entrance for the past two days, came running back excitedly.
Lu Qing, in her excitement, carelessly let go of the dried mushroom she was holding, mangling it, and ran out swiftly.