Chapter 54. A madman with a spear.
Chapter 54: 54. A madman with a spear.
The merchants quickly made the final preparations to leave.
Several climbed onto the wagons, while others checked the horses one last time.
Just as the caravan was about to move, Lin Xuan suddenly raised his hand.
"Stop."
His calm voice instantly brought everyone to a halt.
Before anyone could react, he spoke again.
"Everyone, gather together. Leave the caravans where they are."
The sudden order caught the entire caravan off guard.
Even Lin Shuhao looked at him in confusion.
"Patriarch?"
Lin Xuan did not answer immediately.
Instead, he slowly turned his gaze toward the dense forest lining both sides of the road.
There were more than three hundred people hiding within the trees, silently surrounding the road ahead.
None of them had revealed themselves yet.
However, their killing intent could not escape Lin Xuan’s perception.
He had expected the bandits to ambush the caravan.
What he had not expected was for them to target a caravan that had already been robbed.
His spiritual sense swept through the forest and his pupils contracted.
Two Golden Core cultivators...
He had not sensed them incorrectly.
Among the more than three hundred hidden bandits were two genuine Golden Core experts.
Two.
Lin Xuan suddenly felt his blood pressure rise.
His eyelids twitched uncontrollably.
A Level Nine clan only needs two Golden Core cultivators to advance into a Level Eight clan.
Do you know what that means?
It means they’re qualified to collect taxes from Level Nine clans.
Every month, the Lin family, the Zhao family, and the Huang family all handed over twenty percent of their income to the Shangguan family.
Even the City Lord of Azure Willow City had been appointed by the Shangguan family.
Although the Shangguan family had already risen to a Level Seven clan.
Meanwhile, he had been worrying day and night about how to cultivate a second Golden Core expert and push the Lin family to the next rank.
Yet here, hidden inside a forest...
A group of bandits casually had two Golden Core cultivators.
Lin Xuan felt an inexplicable surge of anger.
"What a waste."
His voice was low, but everyone nearby heard it clearly.
Lin Shuhao carefully stepped forward.
"Patriarch... Are you alright?"
Without even turning towards him, Lin Xuan replied, "No, I’m not. I’m very angry right now."
He paused before asking,
"Do you know why?"
Lin Shuhao froze.
The sudden change left him completely unprepared.
Only moments earlier, the Patriarch had been gentle and reassuring.
Now, the same calm face carried a pressure that made everyone’s hearts tighten.
He hesitated before answering.
"I-Is it because... we lost the cargo?"
Lin Xuan shook his head and pointed toward the forest.
"No, it’s because of idiots like them."
The merchants instinctively followed the direction of Lin Xuan’s finger.
Their eyes swept across the dense forest lining both sides of the road.
Towering trees stood quietly beneath the afternoon sun, their branches swaying gently in the breeze.
Nothing appeared out of the ordinary.
The road remained completely silent and the only sounds were the rustling leaves and the occasional cry of birds echoing through the woods.
The merchants exchanged puzzled glances as they could not see a single person.
Even so, a wave of relief quietly spread through the group.
At the very least, the Patriarch’s anger was not directed at them.
Just then, a burst of laughter echoed from deep within the forest.
"Hahaha! So, we’ve been discovered after all."
The laughter had yet to fade when figures began emerging from the trees one after another.
In only a few breaths, more than three hundred bandits stepped out from the forest, completely surrounding the road.
Since their ambush had already been exposed, there was no longer any reason to remain hidden.
The crowd slowly parted and a burly middle-aged man carrying a massive saber walked to the front.
His fierce gaze rested on Lin Xuan before a cold smile spread across his face.
"Young man, you have remarkably sharp eyes. You are the first person to discover our ambush before we made our move."
Lin Xuan looked at him without the slightest change in expression.
"And you don’t."
The smile on the bandit leader’s face instantly froze and he slowly narrowed his eyes.
"...What did you just say?"
Lin Xuan sighed as he repeat.
"I said your eyes are terrible. If they weren’t, you would never have chosen to rob my people."
He had flown over here on a flying sword earlier! Surely this bunch of idiots had seen that, right?!
What were they thinking, trying to pick a fight despite the obvious disadvantage?
Lin Xuan felt a surge of anger the more he thought about it.
The bandit leader’s face immediately darkened.
The mocking smile vanished without a trace, replaced by an expression filled with unconcealed fury.
"Kill them!"
His furious roar echoed throughout the forest.
"Kill every last one of them!"
He pointed his saber straight at Lin Xuan, his eyes burning with murderous intent.
"As for that arrogant brat, bring him to me alive!"
The surrounding bandits answered with deafening shouts.
More than three hundred figures charged forward at once, their footsteps shaking the earth as they surged toward the Lin caravan like a raging tide.
At the very same moment, Lin Xuan reached into his spatial ring and a dark crimson spear instantly appeared in his hand.
The moment it emerged, a chilling aura spread across the battlefield.
Lin Xuan slowly gripped the spear and looked at the charging bandits.
"I’ll fucking show you what happens when I’m not in the right mindset."
The next instant, he vanished as his figure shot toward the charging bandits like a crimson bolt of lightning.
The moment the spear made contact with one of the bandit, his body immediately withered before everyone’s eyes.
His flesh rapidly shrank, his skin clung tightly to his bones, and his entire body collapsed into a dried skeleton before crashing onto the ground.
And he wasn’t the only unfortunate bandit, every other bandit struck by its blade was drained dry in an instant, reduced to nothing more than lifeless bones scattered across the battlefield.
In the blink of an eye, Lin Xuan had already plunged into the heart of the charging horde like an Asura descending upon the mortal world.