Basic Arrays (1)

"What's your thought on this, Young Hero Feng?" The village head, Wu Neng, asked.

"I think we should act as fast and as thoroughly as possible. It's true that you guys can live past the day with Sister Tu here standing by as a restriction for that troupe leader. But how long do you think Sister Tu will be living here? The rest of her life? I heard that she's not one of the villagers. No offense." Feng Luotian gave an apologetic slight bow.

Tu Lingxi returned the gesture: "None taken, Big Brother Feng."

"That means at some point, she will be leaving the village to gain more experience in the world as she grows stronger; what then? Also, the longer we wait, the more uncertain the situation becomes. Who knows? The troupe leader might have already requested for reinforcement from his connection.

"If we wait until that happens, there will be no hope for you guys. That's why I suggest we should get rid of this bandit troupe as fast as possible, and not leave any survivors, as they may cause unnecessary trouble in the future. What do you think?" asked Feng Luotian.

Right after he finished his explanation, the crowd broke out into discussion. Most commented on how impossible this skirmish was.

"It's not like we don't want to do that, Young Hero Feng, but we don't have enough power to carry it out." Wu Neng concluded to one simple source of problem.

"How many bandits are there, Village Head?" He wished to see if there was really no hope like they were saying.

"I didn't kill anyone in the third squad, so there are only two less from the previous number." Wu Ya gave an update of the current situation.

Wu Neng nodded: "According to the intel we got from Miss Tu, in case of them not getting any reinforcement, then the total left should be 56 people, two less from what there were."

"And their cultivation levels?"

"The troupe leader is an Eight Fangs Fighter while their vice leader is at Seven Fangs. There are four squad captains left, and all of them are Six Fangs Fighters. Amongst them, there were also …" Wu Neng listed out every information he possessed about the enemies' strength.

"How many monster cores between Four Fangs to Six Fangs do you have in the village? Of course, the higher-level cores are welcome."

"Roughly, two hundred."

Feng Luotian smiled: "Well, this will work."

"What works, Young Hero Feng?" His words confused Wu Neng.

Not only the village head but the rest of the villagers as well as Tu Lingxi also felt the same. What on earth was he talking about?

"We will do this …" He explained his plan in details.

After he finished, everyone had no choice but to believe that his plan to kill every bandit was indeed feasible.

Once the meeting had ended, and the conclusion had been confirmed, all attendees dispersed to do their own tasks.

When the villagers all left, Tu Lingxi approached him: "It's incredible that such a plan came from someone around the same age as me."

"You are praising me too much. I just happened to have some experience with things like this." Feng Luotian humbly rejected the good words from the twin-bun girl.

"An experience of planning a strategy to battle someone with greater strength as a group? An operation of this size could almost be considered a small-scale war. Where did you experience such a thing?" Tu Lingxi asked with interest.

Feng Luotian only smiled before changing the topic: "Never mind that. I'm more curious about the reason a Vermillion Kingdom's cultivator traveling alone and almost reaching Divine Bird City's border."

"!!" The question made her expression change to a serious one. She did not expect this kind of probation to come out of the blue.

Feng Luotian added: "Not that I suspect you to be causing trouble, but as someone from Divine Bird City, may I ask your purpose of coming here?"

His voice and smile were still amicable and polite. However, one could feel the atmosphere had gone colder by several degrees.

Tu Lingxi became quiet for a moment before responding: "I don't want to answer that question, but I won't be causing trouble to your city. I can assure you that."

"Okay. I believe you." Feng Luotian retracted his pressuring intent before he turned around and walked out of the hut.

Tu Lingxi was frozen in place, not expecting him to trust her just like that. Never did she know that he only needed one glance to tell whether one was lying, let alone someone at her age.

A few seconds later, she heard a sound calling her from outside: "Is there something wrong? Let's go, Sister Tu."

After recovering from her stupor, Tu Lingxi went out and followed him.

———

The first step of the plan would be to tell the bandit troupe that Tu Lingxi had already left the village because as long as they thought she was still here, the troupe leader and his men would still be worried about her ambush.

Likewise, if Feng Luotian was to stay in the village, the bandits would stay cautious because they did not know what this new guy could do. They might even think that he could be more troublesome than the girl that left.

Thus, Feng Luotian pretended to be someone from the same place as Tu Lingxi, and he came here to drag her back. He tied her hands with ropes and dragged her away from the village.

The rest of the villagers would act out and stop him from taking her away while causing a ruckus as loud and noticeable as possible.

But after Feng Luotian showed what seemed to be a token, which was actually made of random mud, the villagers could do nothing but let Tu Lingxi go.

Not only that, the direction Feng Luotian took Tu Lingxi away was where the rest of the bandit's third squad was beaten out cold by Wu Ya. So, he was going that way to collect some souls.

Eventually, the ridiculous act was actually seen and reported back to the Vulture Bandit Troupe's leader.

———

"Boss!! Boss!! Big news!!"

A skinny man stormed inside the bandit leader's private room as he cried out.

A middle-aged man with crimson hair and a face full of beards like Zhang Fei from Three Kingdoms, along with a lion's mane around his neck, scolded the man: "What's all this uproar? You don't have to tell anyone that I'm a boss around here. Come back again and act with a little more civilized manner!!"

Then, he kicked his subordinate out of the room.

The man scrammed back in a quieter manner and said in a low voice: "Boss, I have something to report."

"Why are you acting tiny like a woman? If you're one of my men, act a little more barbaric!!" After that, the leader slapped the man out of the room again.

The pitiful guy got up but did not know what to do anymore. He sent his S.O.S. glance towards the two guards standing outside the room, but they ignored him completely, not wishing to get involved in this stupid mess.

Fortunately for the guy, another scholar-looking man came from behind and invited him into the leader's room.

"Jiu Hao, why do you always have to bully your own men?" The scholar asked. He was the vice leader of the bandit troupe, named Mao Quanzhou.

The bandit troupe leader, Jiu Hao, made an excuse to Mao Quanzhou's claim: "What? I didn't bully him. I'm teaching him some manners."

Even though he was stronger, Jiu Hao was still courteous toward Mao Quanzhou as he had always been guided and instructed by his vice leader.

"Like you have some manners yourself." Mao Quanzhou rolled his eyes as he said.

"…" Jiu Hao had nothing to say. He then turned to the man: "Hmph!! So, what do you want to report?"

"Boss, that damn girl has left the village." The man quickly reported with a little anticipation.

"What girl?" Jiu Hao asked with an indifferent expression.

With all the excitement of being the one delivering good news, the man choked at the dumbness of his boss.

The man collected himself as he answered: "Boss, it's the girl who tried to set our camp on fire every time you reached their village."

Finally, understanding the news, the fire burnt within Jiu Hao's eyes as he laughed out loud: "Hahaha!! Finally, my time has come."

But his fiery spirit was instantly put out by his vice leader as Mao Quanzhou asked: "Wait. Why did she leave? With how much she cares for the village, she can't just leave them to suffer in our hands. This might be some sort of trap prepared by the village."

"It's that new guy who arrived at the village this morning. I think he came from the same place as that girl. He tied her up in ropes and dragged her away from the village." The man reported.

Mao Quanzhou frowned as he commented on the news: "New guy? Strange. With what's going on, the villagers should have stopped him from taking her away."

"Yes. That's what actually happened, Vice Leader. The villagers caused a huge ruckus to stop him, but once he flaunted out a token, they became silent and let him do as he wanted." The man described what he saw.

"I see. That explains it. He must come from some big sect in the city or kingdom neighboring Warland Thicket. When the villagers know where he's from, they must be afraid and choose to let her go instead of offending the sect. That girl should come from the same place. It's no wonder why she's so capable, given her young age. Did you send someone to follow them?" Mao Quanzhou concluded and asked.

The man nodded: "Yes. But after ten minutes, we lost sight of them. They were too fast. Should we send another squad to follow them, Vice Leader?"

Mao Quanzhou shook his head: "No. They'll be long gone before we can catch them. What about Xiong Fan and his squad? Are they back yet?"

"No. I've not seen them since last night." The man answered.

"What are they doing?!" Jiu Hao was enraged.

However, his vice leader knew too well that this dumb leader did not get angry over the fact that his men were missing. He should be infuriated at the thought that they might be having some fun but not inviting him.

Mao Quanzhou waved his hand, ignoring his leader's stupidity, and ordered the man: "Never mind, we'll raid the village without them. Without that girl interfering, they have no hope of fighting us in the first place. Tell everyone to prepare for the raid!!"