Chapter 39: The Robber Has a Backer

  "Big brother, it seems like someone is coming." The person hiding shouted.

  As soon as he shouted, his hiding position was exposed. Li Wenjun shook his hand and threw out several stones in a row.

  He hit it right on target. The man let out a pained cry.

  Li Wenjun took a step forward and jumped into the east wing through the open window, only to see the person hiding inside covering their forehead with blood gushing out, looking at him in surprise and asking: "Who are you?"

  Li Wenjun ignored his question and grabbed the vegetable knife on the chopping board with one hand, swinging it in a flash, slashing towards that person.

  With a thud, the kitchen knife chopped into the man's chest. The man instantly died on the spot.

  "Who?" The two men who were drinking in the main room were startled, they picked up their things and jumped out of the main room. One of them had a face full of scars, wearing black clothes, holding a wooden knife, the other one looked somewhat refined, wearing a warrior's uniform with a double lapel, each hand holding an axe board.

  Li Wenjun's eyes quickly scanned the east wing, and he found a bamboo pole leaning against the wall in the corner, as thick as a child's arm and taller than one person. He reached out and grabbed the bamboo pole, then rushed out of the east wing.

  "Who are you? Where's Lao San?" the man with a scar on his face asked.

  Li Wenjun quickly glanced at the two men, his tongue burst forth like a spring thunderclap, and he shouted: "Kill!"

  He held up a bamboo pole and swept it towards the two of them.

  The burly man and the refined man both used short weapons, which put them at a disadvantage to some extent. However, their weapons were deadly instruments for killing, something that bamboo sticks couldn't compare with. The two men exchanged a glance, and without needing to communicate, they knew what to do next.

  The two quickly separated and attacked Li Wenjun from front and back.

  Li Wenjun found that these two people were much more ruthless and skillful than Li Tou, a fugitive he had dealt with before. He secretly congratulated himself on having eliminated one of them at the beginning, otherwise, being surrounded by three people, he would not have been able to gain any advantage.

  Li Wenjun dodged left and right, and the two men, one burly and the other refined, were unable to get close to him. Conversely, he also had no way of threatening them. Such a result was unsatisfactory for both parties, especially Li Wenjun, who had suffered so much and finally made some progress in his training, only to be unable to take down these two bandits, truly making him ashamed to face the people back home.

  Ouch!

  Li Wenjun suddenly let out a loud whoop and with a burst of energy, he leaped into the air.

  Neither of the two robbers had expected Li Wenjun to have this move, and they looked up in surprise at Li Wenjun flying into the sky.

  Without anything to support him, Li Wenjun couldn't stay suspended in the air for long. As he sprang up, he swept the bamboo pole towards Siwen Man's head.

  Just as they were about to clash with Li Wenjun, the two robbers discovered that Li Wenjun's strength was great. If he really hit his head with a bamboo pole, even if he didn't die, his head would be dizzy for half a day.

  Siwen man hastily retreated and fell to the ground, barely avoiding Li Wenjun's fatal blow.

  Li Wenjun made a turn in the air and landed behind the burly man. He was extremely agile, thrusting his bamboo pole forward to stab at the burly man's back.

  The burly man's hairs stood on end, he quickly turned around, holding the wooden sword horizontally in front of him, with both hands supporting the blade.

  With a loud crash, the front end of the bamboo pole violently collided with the blade of the pu knife.

  Li Wenjun exerted himself, holding up the bamboo pole and thrusting it forward with all his might. The stout man was caught off guard, stumbled backward, and staggered away.

  Siwen man saw that Lao Da could no longer hold on, so he scrambled to his feet from the ground, grabbed an axe and swung it at Li Wenjun.

  The axe rotated in the air, emitting a humming sound as it broke through the air.

  Li Wenjun had no choice but to withdraw his bamboo pole and instead used his axe to carry it over.

  It was slightly unexpected that Li Wenjun's bamboo pole, although it was placed on the axe, happened to be placed on the sharp blade of the axe. As a result, the axe was lifted open, and the bamboo pole was also cut off by one section.

  Li Wenjun was not angry but delighted, the bamboo pole originally had a flat head, now it has been cut off and a bevelled surface appeared, revealing a sharp point, the original harmless bamboo pole turned into a deadly bamboo spear.

  The burly man and the refined man realized that something was amiss, and he said in a low voice: "I don't know which path you're on, friend. If you're short of money to spend, my brother and I are willing to offer you a thousand taels of silver to buy tea."

  The scholarly man followed up and said, "There's one more thing, you have to consider carefully. Your skills are not bad, but no matter how good your skills are, can you contend with the gods? We are all covered by the old immortals of Tianhua Mountain. If you kill us, it doesn't matter, but if the old immortals find out, you will be in trouble."

  Li Wenjun's heart skipped a beat, he originally only thought of eliminating the harm, but didn't expect the cultured man to blurt out the three words "old immortal", he wasn't clear if the bandit's mouth was referring to an immortal cultivator or not, but regardless, he didn't want to take any risks. If he spared these two bandits, for him, it absolutely wouldn't be a good choice, after all, this time he came over hastily and hadn't concealed his true appearance.

  "You think 1,000 taels of silver can get rid of me?" Li Wenjun said coldly. "I see you've killed many people and extorted a lot of money. I don't want much, give me 3,000 taels and I'll leave immediately."

  "Friends, it turns out that seeking wealth is really too easy. Second brother, hurry up and get 300 taels of gold for this young hero." The fatty gave the muscular man a wink, with a meaning that only the two brothers understood.

  The scholarly-looking man glanced at Li Wenjun, nodded, and ran towards the main hall.

  The scholarly man rushed into the main room, just as the burly man was about to get closer to Li Wenjun in order to buy some time for his second brother, but he found that Li Wenjun's bamboo pole swept fiercely on the ground.

  The ground here is earthy. Li Wenjun swept it, and instantly raised a lot of sand, which splashed towards the muscular man.

  The burly man hastily retreated backwards, shouting: "What do you want to do? Don't you want the silver anymore?"

  Li Wenjun took a step forward with an arrow, and the bamboo pole pierced his heart. He had reached the limit of his speed.

  Although the horizontal meat man was on guard, he fell into a disadvantage from the start. When he swung his knife to block and parry, he was still one step late.

  With a "poof" sound, the bamboo pole pierced through the fatty man's chest from front to back and emerged with a head sticking out.

  The stout man raised his arm weakly and pointed at Li Wenjun, scolding: "You... you... you will not die a good death."

  Li Wenjun pulled out the bamboo stick that had been inserted into the body of the horizontal meat man, turned his head, dragged the bamboo stick, and rushed towards the main house. He saw the literary man standing beside the window of the main house, holding a paper crane in his hand, muttering to himself as he spoke to the paper crane.

  Li Wenjun suddenly felt a sense of foreboding, and it was impossible for the refined man to take out a paper crane without reason. According to the records in "Miscellaneous Discussions on Cultivation", there is a method of communication among cultivators called "Flying Crane Transmission". Could the paper crane in the refined man's hand be a flying crane used for transmission?

  Scholar Wen heard the noise at the door and his face turned white with fright. He didn't have time to continue talking to the paper crane, so he used both hands to push it out of the window. To his surprise, the paper crane flapped its wings and flew away.

  Li Wenjun had no more doubts, he raised the bamboo pole high and threw it at Sven with force.

  How far is it from the door to the window?

  The scholarly man had nowhere to hide, and he didn't even have a weapon in his hand. In an instant, he was pierced through by the bamboo pole.

  Li Wenjun took a step forward, rushed to the window sill, borrowed some strength from the window frame, jumped up and soared several meters high. He opened his big hands and grabbed towards the paper crane.

  The paper crane surprisingly dodged and weaved, flapping its wings twice to evade Li Wenjun's outstretched hand just as he was about to grab it.

  Li Wenjun helplessly fell from the highest point to the ground, he jumped up again, first jumping onto a tree, then using the treetop as a springboard, making a second jump, his big hands reaching out once more towards the flying paper crane.

  After catching it several times, I finally managed to get the paper crane in hand.

  The paper crane seemed to come alive in Li Wenjun's hands, struggling desperately.

  Li Wenjun tightly grasped the paper crane, from the treetop to the ground, he returned to the yard, walked to a brazier, grabbed the wing of the paper crane and stretched it into the brazier.

  The spark instantly engulfed the paper crane, and in an instant, the paper crane turned into ashes.

  Li Wenjun looked at the scattered corpses in the yard, picked up the wooden knife of the horizontal meat man, and gave each of the horizontal meat man and the Suen man another knife to confirm that they were dead, only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

  Li Wenjun turned around in a few rooms and found two boxes containing gold and silver treasures, which were filled with gold and silver valuables. Li Wenjun took away the gold and silver ingots that were not easy to notice, but left behind the jewelry and gems that were more likely to be discovered.

  It's not that they're not valuable, but Li Wenjun is worried that the bandits have already told the old immortal behind them about the jewelry and pearls. If the old immortal finds him by tracing back, it'll be troublesome. In comparison, gold and silver ingots don't have this problem, as the gold and silver in the Song Dynasty all look the same, making it difficult to use them as clues.

  Even if Li Wenjun only took away the gold and silver ingots, according to his estimate, the value would be around three thousand taels of white silver, which is a windfall. Li Wenjun was recently worried about not having enough money to spend, and this was just in time to make up for his depleted wallet.

  Li Wenjun didn't search very carefully, and he didn't know if there were other more valuable things. In fact, even if he knew, he didn't want to waste any more time here. He didn't know if the owner of the paper crane would receive a message after it was destroyed.

  If the owner of the paper crane can receive the message and rush over immediately after receiving it, he might catch him off guard. He doesn't have the confidence to confront the cultivator head-on right now.

  Li Wenjun walked into the east wing, found a jar of vegetable oil and several jars of wine. He poured the oil and wine on the bodies in the house and yard, then lit a fire, setting the entire courtyard and the three bandits' corpses ablaze. Then, he left the unexpectedly discovered mansion without looking back.