"Let's keep moving. Since they slaughtered villagers here, their main base can't be far from this place."
They couldn't really call themselves good people, but they couldn't bear to leave the villagers' bodies out in the open either. The group dug a large pit and buried them all, if only to settle things in their own hearts.
After finishing the prayers, Katherine Lin stood up and said, "This country is really chaotic. In my country, something like this would never happen."
Even though they came from different nations, she still felt sympathy for those villagers.
"Never happens? Or it happens and you just don't know about it," Bai Chuan said flatly. He didn't believe any country existed without even a single bandit gang.
"It definitely wouldn't happen like this. When you get to my country, you'll feel the difference between ours."
"Oh? Then let's wait and see."
After witnessing the end of a tragedy, none of them were in a good mood. As they walked, not one of them spoke.
"Look. There's a side path over there. Do you think it leads to the bandits' home?" Katherine Lin asked as she noticed a fork in the road.
"It should." Bai Chuan pulled out a map and glanced at it. They'd bought it casually before leaving the city, just in case they got lost on the road.
But the map didn't record this path at all.
"Looks like the bandits built this road themselves," Bai Chuan said, putting the map away. Then he looked at the others. "Are you ready? If you don't want to go, you can wait here for me."
"We've been ready," Shanks and Buggy said with eager looks. Shanks especially looked like he could barely hold himself back.
"I'm going too," Katherine Lin said. "Staying here alone feels more dangerous."
"Alright. Let's head up the mountain."
For some reason, the moment Bai Chuan said that, his right eyelid started twitching hard, like something bad was about to happen.
"Hope I'm just overthinking it."
"What's wrong?" Katherine Lin asked when she saw him pressing a hand to his right eye. "Are you feeling unwell?"
"It's nothing." Bai Chuan forced a smile. "Let's keep going."
Since Bai Chuan said that, Katherine Lin didn't ask again.
They followed the path deeper into the mountains. It should have been wilderness, but they didn't see a single animal.
Not even a corpse.
The farther they went, the stronger Bai Chuan's bad feeling became.
Forcing down the unease, Bai Chuan stopped.
"Why'd we stop?" Shanks asked, and the other three stopped behind him as well.
"I have a feeling our destination is going to be dangerous."
"What, you scared?" Buggy said with disdain. "They're just ordinary people. What danger could there be?"
"I'm not scared." Bai Chuan shook his head. "I'm worried you'll be in danger when the time comes."
"Relax. With me, Great Captain Buggy, she won't be in danger." Buggy flexed his muscles as he spoke.
He hadn't even caught what Bai Chuan meant. Bai Chuan had said all of them, but Buggy thought he meant her.
Bai Chuan was about to explain when a voice cut in.
"Hey! Who are you people?"
Bai Chuan turned and saw a group blocking their way. Shanks and Buggy immediately drew their weapons, ready to fight at any moment.
"Were you the ones who killed the villagers down the mountain?" Now that he'd run into them, Bai Chuan didn't waste words.
And just from their clothes and manner, you could tell they weren't good people.
"Oh, those lowly peasants?" The man spoke with smug pride. "Yeah. That was us."
"Why?" Bai Chuan ground out through clenched teeth.
He truly couldn't understand how they could do it. They hadn't spared women or infants. They were no different from beasts.
"Why?" the man laughed. "Do we need a reason to kill? If we want to kill, we kill. Hahahaha!"
"What, who are you? Here to avenge them?"
"We're the ones here to kill you."
Now that the real culprits were confirmed, there was no point talking any further. Speaking to animals like this was a waste of time.
"Buggy. Shanks. Let's go."
"Finally." Shanks surged forward in an instant and dropped one bandit.
"Kid, you dare kill our people? Get them! Tear them to pieces!"
The enemy had numbers, but quality mattered more than quantity. In only a short exchange, the bandits were all down, leaving only the leader.
Bai Chuan walked toward him step by step.
"Don't come over. Don't come over!" The man waved his hands in panic, then fell back onto the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
"Did you ever think about what it felt like for them," Bai Chuan asked, "when you killed those unarmed villagers?"
He crouched in front of the man and spoke word by word, forcing him to feel it. The despair those villagers felt before death.
"Please, let me go! I didn't do it. It wasn't me!" The man dropped to his knees and kowtowed frantically. He slammed his head until it split open, but Bai Chuan felt no sympathy.
"If it wasn't you, then was it a ghost?" Bai Chuan asked coldly. "Huh?"
"It was the Grand General who told us to do it! We didn't plan to kill them at first!"
"The Grand General? So the Grand General is the one behind it all."
"Yes! It was him!"
"Then who is this Grand General?"
"I don't know. He showed up at our stronghold a few days ago. Our boss told us to call him Grand General."
"You." Bai Chuan's voice turned flat. "Get up. Lead us there. I want to see what kind of person this Grand General really is."
"Y-Yes, yes, yes! As long as you don't kill me, I'll do anything!"
"Stop talking. Move."
"Yes, yes, yes!" The man nodded frantically.
He led the way, with Bai Chuan and the others behind him. After about half an hour, they finally saw the bandits' stronghold.
Honestly, it looked a lot like the kind of mountain寨 he'd seen on TV in the past.
"The Grand General should be inside the stronghold right now," the man said.
The instant he finished speaking, a blade slid up to his throat and cut across.
His eyes went wide. Even as he died, he probably still couldn't understand why he was killed.
"I never said I'd spare you," Bai Chuan said calmly. "And you chose to lead us here. Nobody forced you."
They'd reached their destination. The man had no more value.
And Bai Chuan was never going to let someone like that keep living in this world.
/-\
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