Encounter

The following day, the Shu brothers bid their goodbyes to the Han Valley chief and to some of the elders who accompanied them onto the gates of the valley.

"We'll be back in a month with our team," Shu Wu said.

Xing Yi simply bowed and smiled.

"Please do not forget to say my thanks to your father," she said.

"Of course," Shu Wu replied. "We shall take our leave now.."

***************

The Shu brothers rode the War Horses accompanied by Shandian on their way. They decided to drop by the Moon Village to inform the village chief about the development of the event.

However, the two weren't yet getting too far from Han Valley when they spotted from afar a village being attacked by a small group of bandits.

Thanks to Qai's 'Hawkeye' skill which he activated earlier that they were able to see the group of bandits without them being discovered.

The brothers looked at each other and nodded as they thereafter dismounted from the War Horses.

They mutually decided to stealthily approach the village—and when the two of them got near, Qai then immediately went up a tall and sturdy Bodhi Tree and looked for a good spot to check the numbers of the enemies while Shu Wu and Shandian took the War Horses behind tall bushes.

Qai activated his 'Hawkeye' skill and ascertained that the group of bandits consisted mostly of cultivators in the Expert realm with three Sages in the earth stages.

All in all, there were nine bandits composed of six Experts and three Sages.

Realizing the opportunity in front of him, Qai then took out his Darkwood Composite Bow and mentally communicated to Shandian to get ready.

Qai first attacked Expert cultivators who were isolated in a spot in the village.

'Swooosh,' 'swooosh.'

'Baaam,' 'baaam.'

'Roooarrr.'

As always, Qai first tried to neutralize the movement of the target by assaulting him with arrows infused with lightning. Then Shandian would appear from the target's blindspot after being stunned to deal the fatal attack.

'Wabooom.'

Such combination the master and contracted demonic beast had mastered always resulted in an instant kill—especially when the target was of lower cultivation level.

Every after a kill, Shandian would hide his presence at the instruction of Qai—on order to strategically eliminate the enemies without being noticed.

Soon after, all the expert bandits were slain only through the treacherous attacks employed by Shandian. And when only the three sages were left, Qai and Shu Wu did not hesitate to divide the workload.

"Big brother..," Qai called, "..you should take on the leader in the left."

That was sensible since the leader appeared to be in the initial Sky stage while the other two sages were in the initial Earth stages.

And even if the enemy was one level higher, Shu Wu's ability was enough to match the bandit in terms of strength—particularly with Shu Wu's rare skills.

"And me and Shandian will take on the other two..," Qai added.

'Grooowl.'

***************

The three sage bandits were initially bossing around and let the Expert bandits do the ransacking—so they had no idea that they were the only left of the group.

And when they realized that all the others were killed, they instantly became clueless how their companions got slain—there were no signs of the enemies.

"It was an archer!" One of them yelled when he noticed some arrows still stuck on the dead bodies of their companions.

They initially thought that the assailant must be alone, they nodded to one another and separated from each other to try to locate the source of the attacks.

Such situation was actually what the Shu brothers hoped for since they planned to fight them individually.

And so, when the three bandits were significantly isolated from each other, the Shu sibling and the black tiger also made their move.

***************

'Swooosh,' 'swooosh.'

'Booom,' 'booom,' 'booom,'

'Wabooom.'

'Roooaaaaar.'

'Baaam,' 'baaam.'

'Thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' 'thud,' thud.'

The small village was filled with reverberating sounds of fights in three corners.

The Shu brothers took advantage that they hid themselves first and knew the whereabouts of the bandits. The three bandits were obviously surprised by the sudden simultaneous attacks—they were in fact unable to quickly retaliate.

Apart from the two initial Earth sage bandits who met their doom quickly, the Sky stage sage was able to recover from Shu Wu's onslaught—obviously the difference in stages had been a bit of a factor for the bandit to survive the unexpected attack.

Qai was quick to realize that Shu Wu was yet to finish off his opponent so he communicated with Shandian for the two of them to rush to the location.

Even if Shu Wu was unable to take advantage of the situation, he himself was nevertheless formidable for his opponent—not because of his strength but because of defensive capability of his Earth element. What he lacked in cultivation in the face of the bandit, he compensated it with toughness.

And so, the fight between the appeared to be in stalemate.