5 VS 1

Ryujin initially wanted to berate himself for being too careless, however he knew it would be a fruitless waste of his limited time; thus, he instead began to deduce the situation around his current plight.

He knew these men had no intention of killing him.

At least, killing himself wasn't their first priority, otherwise he would have already died several times over. He had been caught so off his guard, that the chances to deliver him a killing blow most likely came droves.

Furthermore, If they wanted to kidnap him for ransom, then staying here would be a stupid idea; after all, Luo Fei would eventually return.

As a seasoned hunter, and also the owner of the house, she would be able to easily tell that something was amiss.

Even if one argued that they didn't want anyone to see them kidnapping a kid; what were the chances that anyone would be roaming around such a harsh weather?

So, the only conclusion Ryujin could quickly arrive at was that, these men were mercenaries sent by the other two grand families, to pry out some information about his family's plans out of him.

He knew they must have been watching him for a while, otherwise there was no way they would have succeeded in capturing him.

Firstly, his mind had been preoccupied by the mystery surrounding what he felt was a Qi Stone.

Secondly, he had been overly eager to go gather all the information Ella's repository had to offer.

Then finally, he was at Luo Fei's house; barely five minutes from his, so he had dropped his guard; after all, who within the village dared to kidnap him? In a hunter's house for that matter?

'It doesn't matter... This is the second time Long's warning has been proven correct. I need to learn how to always treat every environment around me as enemy territory.'

Ryujin noted mentally, before turning to face his attackers.

"I have to hand it to you guys, it was really smart of you to catch me off-guard with superior numbers and sizes." 

Ryujin worded his statement in such a way that it somewhat sounded condescending and taunting.

He knew there was bound to be a hotheaded weak link among them, from whom he could confirm his speculations.

Nonetheless, Ryujin could tell that these men were strong. The very fact that they could monitor Luo Fei's movements without her sensing it shows that they were most likely stronger than her.

"You think you're tough, don't you?"

One of the men with a scar running from his jaw to his neck walked over and squatted before Ryujin, coming face to face with him.

"You think your father or uncle will come and rescue you?" 

"Heh. Let me break it to you, you enabled brat...

Firstly, no one knows you're here.

Secondly, I can assure you that we have multiple means to break you and get what we want.

Finally, I want you to keep up your bravado.

There is nothing I love doing more than to terrorize noble brats like you who think they've got nothing to be scared of."

The man spoke with a tone so low and dangerous that Ryujin's heart couldn't help but skip a beat and pound harder.

Though, Ryujin had found the hotheaded weak link he was looking for; however, the link didn't seem like the type who answers questions, rather, he seemed to to prefer getting answers instead.

Realizing that things might start getting dangerous serious from henceforth, Ryujin slowly began to seep his mental sense into the surroundings, in hopes that it would escape the five men's senses.

Moreover, the ropes he was bound with were relatively thick, and they were positioned in a way that would require him to dislocate a joint in order to escape.

Ryujin had not practiced any form of escape art or technique; even his Chaotic Shadow Steps was a movement technique meant for assault and evasion.

Furthermore, the thought of dislocating his shoulder was practically useless at this point, as it would only leave him handicapped against these men.

"You don't scare me?" Ryujin spat in the man's face, prompting the latter to give him a slap that literally sent him spinning on the spot.

Ryujin fell to his face, as blood trickled out of the side of his lips.

However, a few breaths later, he sat himself up and taunted him once again.

"Even my late grandmother could slap harder than that."

"You-! Fine, your funeral it is!"

The man dashed from his spot, arriving before Ryujin in a blink and sent him flying into the wall with a fierce kick to his jaw.

"Lugard, are you crazy?!"

"Are you trying to kill him, dumbass?!"

Two of his comrades blurted anxiously, worried that Ryujin might have been knocked unconscious.

They rushed over to Ryujin side, but soon realized that the latter was fine, asides his dislocated jaw.

"Why don't you try spouting more nonsense now, unh?!" Lugard sneered as before returning to his initial spot.

"You hotheaded bimbo! How will he be able to tell us anything now?!" Lugard's comrade fumed.

"Hmph! I only shifted his jaw to one side, a punch in the opposite direction should heal him fine."

Even as he spoke, Lugard didn't bother spare them a glance; to him, they should be praising him that the only thing Ryujin dislocated was a jaw.

"Sorry about that kid, he is simply all brawns and no brains." One of the two men who came to lift Ryujin up, spoke nicely.

However, just when Ryujin began to think they were playing good cop bad cop; the other man suddenly planted a sharp hook to his jaw, snapping it back in place.

Ryujin's ears echoed with a piercing ring, as the scent of iron filed his nostrils.

He swallowed a mouthful of blood before spitting out two molars.

He gazed at the group of five, and whilst the gang were expecting him to rage or throw a few tantrums, Ryujin simply grinned instead, revealing his bloodied set of teeth.

The men exchanged glances with each other, as their faces turned solemn with seriousness.

They had treated Ryujin that way because they wanted to know how mentally strong he was.

If he had cried, raged or even thrown a few tantrums, then they'd know he was mentally weak and their jobs would be made far easier.

However, now that he was grinning back at them in defiance, it meant they'd have to get their hands dirty, and that was a stain on their prestige.

No, they couldn't have that.

"Enough games!"

The only one amongst the five who had yet to speak a word so far, finally spoke, and Ryujin could immediately tell, that he was the leader of their bunch.

Not only was his aura much stronger than the rest, it was only slightly weaker than that of the Winterhowler.

"We want answers kid, and we want them now. Tell us everything you know or else..."

"Or else what?"

Ryujin interrupted, slowly rising to his feet; and before their stunned gazes, snapped the ropes around his body loose.

He had been thinking of the best way to free himself, and dreading the idea of dislocating his own joints, but who woul have thought Lugard's kick which sent him crashing into the wall would do just that.

He had feigned himself to be okay, so that the two who came to lift him up wouldn't suspect the dislocated shoulder, but his shifted jaw had already grabbed their attention.

"Impossible!"

"Didn't someone tie him up?!"

"I did tie him up; several times in-fact. He shouldn't have been able to do that."

"It's Lugard... It must have been Lugard's kick just now."

"Hmph! What are you all fretting over; don't we simply have to beat him up and tie him up once again?"

Little brat, obediently hand yourself over. Each of us here is more than capable of killing you several times over!"

Lugard snorted in disdain, pointing to the ropes on the floor.

"Is that so? Then why did five of you need to ambush me, if one of you could have easily done the job?"

Ryujin responded with a taunt. If anyone could be lured into triggering a chaos with which he could escape from, it had to be Lugard.

"Then let me be the one to prove my point and show you just how high the heavens really are." With that, Lugard pounced towards Ryujin with a belly full of rage.

'Damn it; I'm so stupid!' Ryujin chided mentally upon realizing that they were still inside Luo Fei's house.

'Well, I'll cross that bridge when the time comes; I can't afford to be distracted at this time.' He thought , even as he braced for the incoming Lugard.

"Die brat!" Lugard yelled as he planted a fist towards Ryujin's gut.

Bam!

"Huh?!"

Lugard's let out a surprised grunt.

To think his fist strike; backed with his full strength, had just been blocked by the palm of a kid that was half his height.

"Such big words from a man with an empty skull and a measly strength?"

Ryujin sneered before sending his palm straight into Lugard's jaw.

Bam! Crack!

Lugard felt the impact of a force almost twice that of his fist hit his jaw, crushing it on impact as he was sent flying through the wall.

Boom!

After dispatching the loudest of the bunch, Ryujin slowly gazed at the rest before slowly waking out through the hole he just created.

The rest of the gang watched him walk out in shock.

Just now, they had sensed an inky aura of killing intent slowly corrupt the air around them; it was as though someone was pouring ink into the clean bowl of water they were drinking.

Ryujin knew this battle was going to be extremely difficult, as these men were more of a warrior than a hunter.

Being a hunter was just all about killing beasts who (most often than not) had no intelligence, and utterly predictable in both their attacks and movements.

Being a warrior however, meant that one not only fought men or beast with intelligence, but also on multiple occasions, against multiple foes even. 

Thus, even though he couldn't tell their ranks due to having no knowledge about the ranking system of this world, he could still take a close guess.

Using the body tempering cultivation manual back at Ella's place as a reference, then Ryujin felt that these men were at least in the Bone Forging Stage.

Furthermore, from the way their body was glowing with an outercoat of atmospheric Qi, he could tell that, unlike himself, they had cultivated using Herbs and Treasures, as opposed to him who had only done so using the atmospheric Qi.

One needed to know that, even if both parties had used Vital Qi to cultivate the body tempering stage, the difference between the atmospheric Vital Qi, and Treasure/Herb Vital Qi were like day and night.

If one could call the atmospheric Qi a diluted orange flavored drink, then the Qi from treasures and herbs could be called the concentrated juice of the orange itself.

This is simply because, treasures and herbs, absorb Qi from the atmosphere, (in form of plasma), and then refine it further (into a gas) which they use to saturate and improve their unique properties.

In fact, if left for long, some herbs and treasure could even refine this gaseous Qi into Qi droplets.

Thus, when one considered the fact that Ryujin had only used Qi plasma to generate his Vital Qi then the severity of this battle would begin to come to mind.

Then, if one considered their difference in age, which includes; amount of time spent cultivating, mastering techniques, and gaining fighting experience, Ryujin's disadvantage skewed even further.

However, the only reason why Ryujin was still confident in this matchup was because, whilst he was a little weaker than them in terms of physical strength, he far superior in terms of mental strength.

And all of these was excluding the obvious fact that he also had two overpowered treasures at his beck and call.