Disrespectful

A few days later, Red Viper Bandits' cave complex...

Gao Shun sat at a large table covered in foods and beverages of all kinds, leaning his head on his fist as the surrounding women hand-fed him the dishes he pointed out. Their hands trembled as they brought the food to his lips, but they did their best to not spill any of it, on him.

They'd all seen what happened to the last girl that dirtied his clothes...

As Gao Shun partook of his meal, a bandit hurriedly entered the dining room and went to his side, kneeling at his feet in silence, head bowed low.

"Speak," Gao Shun finally said, swallowing the bite he'd been chewing on.

"Sir, the outsider reported by Captains Haoran and Lanfen is still situated at the village he was first encountered," the bandit said, keeping his gaze to the floor, "He seems to have no intention of leaving, for now, and no communications have been sent out, either."

"Hm. I suppose we'll just have to get rid of him, then," Gao Shun said, picking something from out of his teeth and tossing it to the side.

If he was someone from the empire or the sects, he would've gone back to report the situation by now, wouldn't he? Since this outsider didn't seem to have any affiliations, Gao Shun assumed it would be fine to crush him. He raised his hand, dismissing the reporting bandit as he gave his orders.

"Tell Haoran and Lanfen to get ready to depart, and to muster as many troops as possible. We'll move to destroy that village, at once."

"Yes!"

The bandit quickly saluted and retreated, leaving Gao Shun to take one last bite of food before he got up to leave. However, his sudden movement to actively take the bite caused the girl holding the chopsticks to miss his mouth, the food bouncing off of his lips to land on his robes.

The girl froze in shock as Gao Shun looked down to his stained clothing, before immediately kowtowing on the ground, tears in her eyes as her head hit the floor repeatedly.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please, forgive me!" she cried, not stopping even as her forehead became brusied and bloody. Gao Shun merely looked down at her in silence, before wiping the morsel of food from his robe and rising to his feet.

"I'll deal with you when I return."

"No... No! Please, forgive me...!"

He wordlessly let the woman break into hysteric sobs behind him, expressionless as he left the room. It seemed like there were many hassles he had to deal with, lately...

Well, he supposed he would quickly deal with this other nusiance, and return.

--

"Woah, cool!"

"Right? And you can change the way the tops spin if you change the shape and size..."

Ryker and Zhao Gui were outside playing with wooden tops Ryker had carved, spinning them into a crater-like arena Mini C had dug out for them and watching them clash against each other. However, their fun was interrupted as Mini C spoke up in Ryker's head.

[Ryker, the two we marked are on the move. Heading this direction, and they should be here within the hour,] he said.

'Got it. Guess it's time then, huh...?'

Ryker had spent the last few days staying with the Zhao family, preparing for another potential attack from the Red Vipers. In addition to the illusion array, they'd also set up a teleportation array for the villagers to escape to, should the situation go awry.

All of this was done with some help from the villagers, who he also let in on his plan. He would confront the bandits in the illusion array, and if he was unsuccessful in persuading them, he would fire a signal for the village to evacuate.

Hopefully, it didn't come down to that... But it was better to be prepared for it, than not.

"Hey Lil' Gui, looks like we gotta put this on hold, for now," Ryker said, scooping up the tops and handing them to Zhao Gui. The boy's eyes widened, clutching the tops tightly in his small hands.

"Are the bandits coming?" he asked in a quiet voice, to which Ryker nodded.

"I need you to go tell your mom and dad, and then run to the village chief and let him know, too. Can you do that?" he asked slowly, making sure to stay calm so as not to scare the child. Zhao Gui nodded vigorously, running inside the house to do as Ryker asked.

"Alrighty, then. Mini C, let's go ahead and activate those formations."

[Roger that.]

Ryker got to his feet as a blue glow emanated from his bag, Mini C activating the spell matrix controlling the scattered illusion arrays. He then leapt off into the forest, heading in the direction of the approaching bandits to prepare and lie in wait.

"Phew. Okay, let's rock this shit!"

--

Lanfen grumbled as she and Haoran led a company 200 strong through the dense mountain forest, clearing a path through the thick underbrush with their weapons. It was bad enough that they were being forced to slow their pace due to the large amount of troops, but that bastard Gao Shun even ordered them to clear the way for him, as a few bandits carried him on a palanquin like he was some kind of noble.

"Just bear it, for now," Haoran said under his breath, beside her, as if sensing her irritation. Lanfen just clicked her tongue, looking away, wordlessly. Things had been much better when it was just her and Haoran controlling this area...

At least they were getting close to the village, now, and would arrive at any minute.

... Or, that should have been the case, but for some reason, those minutes seemed to stretch on and on as they walked, with no village in sight. Lanfen looked to Haoran with her eyebrows raised after a while, and he nodded, holding up a fist to signal the troops to halt.

"What are we stopping, for?" came Gao Shun's lethargic voice from the covered palanquin.

"Sir, we should have been nearing the village, by now, but the approach is taking much longer, than usual..." Haoran answered, to which Gao Shun scoffed, getting down from his palanquin and looking around, slowly.

Suddenly, as if sensing an anomaly, he shot a blade of qi from his fingertips at some nearby trees, and a high pitched keening sounded as space around that area warped, erratically. The entire surrounding forest also distorted slightly, but soon enough, it began to stabalize, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"... Interesting."

Gao Shun observed the location he had struck with his sword qi, which had also stabilized at this point, wondering what trickery that outsider had managed to pull, here.

They were obviously in an illusion formation, and a rudimentary one, at that. He was sure that he had destroyed the formation key, with that strike, but the illusion had held?

So engrossed in his thoughts, was he, that he didn't notice the attack aimed straight for his head until the staff was right in front of his face, at which point he shifted his head to the side, dodging the strike and gazing at his attacker with mild interest.

The figure was shadowy and appeared only for a moment, before disappearing into the illusion, once more. He couldn't make out any details, but whoever it was, they were quite tall.

"Shall I take it you're the outsider that got in our way, those days ago?" Gao Shun called out. There was no response for a few moments, until a tall, muscular young man slowly materialized out of thin air in front of him, wielding a staff that was held loosely at his side.

Gao Shun scoffed at the sight. A mid-level Foundation Establishment cultivator? That's who was giving his bandits such a hard time?

He would laugh at the ridiculousness, if that very same Foundation Establishment whelp hadn't tried to strike him, just now. The only fitting punishment for such disrespect... was death!