Chapter One: Perplexity

  Gao Huaiyuan's knife was in his hand, and he was no longer as tense as before. With a tight grip on the steel teeth, he instantly knocked open three moves from his opponents. He counterattacked with a backhand slash, swiping at an angle that caught one of the bandits off guard. The thief had just lifted his leg, making it easier for Gao Huaiyuan to slash him across the knee. The man immediately clutched his leg and fell to the ground, wailing in agony.

  The two remaining guys didn't dare to come forward again, today they were thoroughly defeated, and in a state of panic, let out a scream, both turning around and running away without looking back at their fallen comrades. Gao Huaiyuan saw the two escaping, but didn't have time to chase after them, so he raised his hand and threw the single-edged sword with all his might. One of the fleeing guys let out a blood-curdling scream, took a few more steps forward, then looked down at his own chest, only to see a several-inch-long blade protruding from it. The guy spat out fresh blood, struggled for a bit, and then fell head-first to the ground, twitched a few times, and finally went west.

  Only one guy was left, who rushed to the side of the road like a madman, plunged into the grass, rolled a few times, and then fled in disarray. Gao Huaiyuan was stunned for a moment, but he didn't have time to chase after him. At this point, the situation on Xue Yan's side had become very tense. He could only suppress the shock in his heart, bend down to pick up another long stick from the ground, and dash to Xue Yan's side. He blocked a single knife that was about to strike Xue Yan with the stick, and with a sudden burst of force, he kicked the attacker's abdomen with one foot, sending him flying out. After falling to the ground, the attacker immediately collapsed, lying motionless on the ground.

  Another guy was also clever, seeing Gao Huaiyuan had knocked down so many people, he didn't even think about it and took the opportunity to escape, his speed was simply astonishing, in the blink of an eye he disappeared into the grass with a flash.

  Gao Huaiyuan reached out and supported Xue Yan, who was on the verge of collapse, and asked urgently: "What's wrong with you?"

  Xue Yan wiped away the sweat on his forehead, turned around and looked at him, gritted his teeth and said: "Thank you, Master, for saving my life. I'm fine, I won't die!"

  Gao Huaiyuan just saw Liu'er's face turn pale as she jumped down from the carriage, crying and running over to grab Xue Yan's arm. He then let go of Xue Yan's arm and turned around, furiously wielding a long stick towards the group of bandits rolling on the ground.

  A big lump the size of an egg had formed on the thief's head, and he was still feeling dizzy, spinning around in circles, unable to find his bearings. However, he hadn't lost consciousness, and seeing that two of his underlings had already escaped, while the rest were mostly knocked out, he quickly struggled to get up, stumbling and staggering as he turned to flee. The two lightly injured guys also struggled to get up, swaying from side to side as they followed him in an attempt to escape.

  Gao Huaiyuan couldn't give them this opportunity at this time, so he strode forward, swung the stick in his hand, and with one stroke each, the three guys immediately fell to the ground again.

  Looking at the thieves lying all over the ground, Gao Huaiyuan still felt that he had not vented his anger. Listening to their wailing cries, he walked up to these people and gave each of them a kick on the head. As a result, these guys immediately fell silent, being kicked unconscious.

  "Master! You're injured too!" Liu'er exclaimed, rushing towards Gao Huaiyuan after helping Xue Yan into the carriage. She saw that several places on his body were bleeding and suddenly cried out in shock.

  Gao Huaiyuan only felt the pain of the wounds on his body, looked down and checked, fortunately, he had not been beaten by San Shan Scattered People before, this time although he was injured, but relying on his instincts, he made evasive actions at the last moment, so the injuries were not serious, at most they were just some superficial wounds. He then replied to Liu Er: "Liu Er don't be afraid, they are all superficial wounds, nothing to worry about, you go and bandage Xue Yan first, I'll deal with these guys later!"

  Liu'er saw that Gao Huaiyuan was normal and only then did she feel at ease. She quickly followed Gao Huaiyuan's instructions, ran back to the car, tore off some strips of cloth, and bandaged Xue Yan's wounds on his body.

  Gao Huaiyuan quickly found some rope and started binding the men on the ground, one by one, tying their hands behind their backs. He pulled tight several times, making sure it was as secure as possible, almost to the point of dislocating their arms, before finally stopping. When the rope ran out, he simply tore off the men's clothes, twisted them into makeshift ropes, and after a flurry of activity, managed to bind all of them up.

  When he finally walked up to the man with a single knife on his back, Gao Huaiyuan couldn't help but feel a wave of nausea, and his heart skipped a beat. In two lifetimes, he had never killed anyone before, and today was still the first time he took someone's life with his own hands, how could he not be shocked?

  But he comforted himself, those people deserved to die and were not worthy of sympathy. If he couldn't win today, the final outcome would probably be worse than theirs, and Liu Er would also suffer their humiliation. So, he couldn't show mercy like a woman. In this chaotic world, it was all about strength; they asked for trouble by picking a fight with him!

  After realizing this, Gao Huaiyuan felt a bit better and gathered the guys on the ground again. He retrieved his flying knives that he had thrown out earlier. After searching for a while, two of them were still nowhere to be found. In the end, he could only give up, unfortunately losing the two flying knives left by his master!

  If he hadn't been carrying this set of flying knives with him today, he would have been in real danger. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and took the initiative to attack, knocking down three or four opponents in a row, dealing a heavy blow to their morale, which gave him the opportunity to win in the subsequent fight, otherwise it would have been really troublesome!

  After making sure that nothing was left behind, Xue Yan was also helped onto the donkey cart by Liu Er. Gao Huaiyuan then crouched in front of the leader of the thieves and pulled down his face cover, but he didn't recognize him because of his thick beard and pockmarked face. He then pulled off the face covers of several other men, but didn't recognize any of them either. This made him wonder how these people could have targeted him if they didn't know him.

  He kicked and beat the thief, waking him up. The thief's eyes were dizzy and he regained his senses, but after a moment of confusion, he finally understood the situation in front of him. His eyes immediately showed a look of horror, and he shouted: "Young Master Gao spare my life!"

  "Ah-choo!" Gao Huaiyuan spat out a mouthful of blood and phlegm, earlier his cheek had accidentally taken a blow, the soft flesh inside his mouth was crushed by his teeth, until now there was still a bloody taste in his mouth.

  "Now you know to be afraid? What's the point of being early? Weren't you very arrogant just now? Damn it! Tell me honestly, who are you? And how do you know me? How did you catch up with me? I'm telling you, you'd better confess honestly, otherwise take a look at that guy lying over there, he's your next stop. I'll chop you up and feed you to the dogs right now!" Gao Huaiyuan scolded the thief leader with a ferocious face.

  This thief is already scared to death, how did he end up picking on this little Yan Wang today! It's really unlucky to the extreme! Seeing Gao Huaiyuan stretch out his hand and take over a single knife, using the icy blade to pat his own cheek, seemingly with the intention of chopping it off at any moment, the chill that rose from the tailbone made this guy's hair stand on end, and he suddenly collapsed spiritually and shouted: "Master Gao spare my life! It was all our fault for listening to others' slander, saying that Master Gao you are a heartless person, wanting us to harm the people! That's why we ran here to plot against you, we're all poor people too! It's our mistake, please magnanimously spare our lives!"

  Gao Huaiyuan immediately slapped the man with the back of his knife, leaving a bloody mark on his face, and scolded: "You dare to play tricks on me when you're about to die!"

  He pulled out a cloth bag from his waist, shook it, and a lot of silver coins fell out. Then he sneered: "You have a lot of money! How dare you cheat me by saying that you are poor people? Don't try to deceive me, if you don't speak, others will. I'll cut off your head first, then ask one by one, I won't believe it until someone speaks up!" As he spoke, the knife in his hand was raised.

  "Ah! Spare my life! Don't kill me! I'll tell you, I'll tell you... My name is Jing Heihu, and I'm from Yangxin County. We were all misled by Xiang Er's slander, saying that after you arrived here, you got a lot of money and then had evil intentions, so we followed Xiang Er to bind you and get rich! Master Gao, spare my life! I didn't mean to harm you! Please forgive me, Master Gao, my family has an 80-year-old mother and a 3-year-old child! From now on, I'll never dare again!" This guy saw that Gao Huiran had seen through his lies and was about to kill him, so he immediately became scared out of his wits and confessed everything.

  "Xiang Er?" Gao Huaiyuan furrowed his brow after hearing this, thought for a moment, and immediately remembered who Xiang Er was. It turned out that this guy had been harboring resentment in his heart since being driven away by himself, and had actually gone to Yangxin to collude with this Jiang Heihu, coming to take revenge on him!

  He immediately stood up, pulled down the masks of these guys lying on the ground, and did not find Xiang Er in the crowd. He sternly asked Jin Heihu who was lying on the ground: "Where is Xiang Er? Didn't he come?"

  "Damn it! I remember now, this is the one who escaped earlier! Now he's probably run off to who-knows-where! Master Gao, please show mercy! We were all misled by Xiang Er's slander and made a huge mistake! If you spare my life, I'll give you all my wealth and never dare commit such crimes again!" As he spoke, he struggled and bumped his head on the ground, repeatedly kowtowing to Gao Huaiyuan.

  Gao Huaiyuan took a look at this guy, who was also a bandit, and wondered why the gap between people was so big? Xue Yan used to do this too, but Xue Yan was a real man, while this guy was just a mangy dog! So he started thinking about how to deal with this guy.