While sitting inside of the carriage, Chang Guan continued cultivating. No matter how fun it was to mingle with mortals, he couldn't lose sight of his objective; revenge.
After the extermination of his clan, Chang Guan had put up a barrier for his emotions. Its purpose was to prevent any distractions and force him to focus solely on cultivating until he reached a stage where he could eliminate his nemesis.
What he didn't know was, while obsession could be used as motivation, it was much more likely for it to hinder his growth. As such, his encounter with Itou Ayaka could be described as nothing less than a gift from God. That is because she managed to tear down his emotional barrier and obsession, resulting in him having an enlightenment.
*CRASH!!*
As Chang Guan was cultivating, he heard a loud sound, which was instantly followed by the carriage halting. The first to move was Yoshida Taiki, who ran out of the carriage at max speed, he was shortly followed by Chang Guan.
As Chang Guan exited the carriage, he saw that they were encircled by 30 bandits. after measuring their strength, he noticed that their strengths were all about 2, except for a big guy with a saber. He was presumably the leader of the bandits and had an estimated power of about 4. To be honest, Chang Guan had already noticed the bandits coming awhile before the loud sound.
He peeked over at the luxurious carriage, which had been shot through the wheel with an arrow. That must've been where the sound had come from.
Out of the carriage came 2 people, Itou Hacihrou and Itou Ueda. Chang Guan could tell that Itou Ayaka stayed inside due to obvious reasons. Suddenly, the bandit leader came forward and roared,
"I, your father, will be taking all of your goods! Hand them over or die!"
His voice was so loud that everyone but Chang Guan flinched. Itou Ueda took a step forward and calmly replied,
"I implore you not to rob us. If you step back and turn away now, you may still leave with your lives. Else, be free to face the consequences."
The bandit leaders face darkened, clearly furious at hearing this. He took a step back and roared,
"Charge and steal their loot! Anyone who brings the moron at the front to me will be rewarded!"
That last sentence gave a large morale boost to the bandits and they rushed forward, aiming mainly at Itou Ueda. Yoshida Taiki ran up to intercept the bandits and began fighting.
His first move was a slash into the crowd, this attack managed to, not only sever the head of a bandit but also to attract 4 bandits over to him.
While Yoshida Taiki was busy defending himself from the 4 bandits, Itou Hachirou had charged out towards the bandit leader. After reaching there in the blink of an eye, he performed 3 swift sword strikes, one towards the neck, one towards the right hand and the last toward the torso.
His first strike was barely blocked, but his second strike dismembered the bandit's hand and the final strike cut him in half, ending his life.
Itou Taiki grab the bandits head and waved it around shouting,
"I've taken your leader's life! All of you will be next!"
Then, he jumped towards the regular bandits and began slaughtering them. With the bandit leader gone and all of the bandits running away, the battle ended in the blink of an eye.
During this battle, Chang Guan, who was keeping a low profile, fought against the bandits as well, eliminating a total of 4 of them before the battle ended.
Since the battle had ended, with the Itou Merchant group being victorious, they began to plunder the bandits and repair the damaged carriage. After all, to the victor goes the spoils.
Chang Guan had the right to plunder the bandits he took down, and so he did. Although most of the loot was useless for him, he did find something nice. It was a pendant.
The pendant was made of silver and had a circle on it. The circle's rim was also made of silver but the inside of the circle was made of a black and white stone. It had the pattern of 2 dragons circling around each other.
The reason Chang Guan was attracted to it was that the name of his clan, Ryuu, meant dragon. As such, looking at that the pendant reminded him of home.
As for everything except the pendant, he put all of the useful stuff inside of a bag and kept it with him. Although he could have put it all inside of his spatial ring or not taken it, he didn't, seeing as it would seem suspicious if he didn't carry anything.
After all of the sorting out was done, everyone got back in the carriage, and it started moving again. Suddenly, Yoshida Taiki started a conversation,
"So, you're good at fighting, are you?"
"I'm pretty good but you're not that bad either."
"I see... THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU HELP ME!!!!"
Yoshida Taiki's abrupt shout caught Chang Guan off guard as, as he speedily replied,
"Woah! Where did that come from?"
"*Sigh*, remember what happened, like, a minute ago? You know, when we were attacked and all?"
"Yeah, what about it?
"Why didn't you help me when I was surrounded by 4 bandits!"
"Ahhhh, that's what you mean..."
"Of course that's what I mean!"
Revealing a look of understanding, Chang Guan replied seriously
"Ok, I guess the cats out of the bag..."
Then, after a dramatic pause, Chang Guan revealed the big secret,
"To be totally honest, I couldn't be bothered to"
After hearing the reason, Yoshida deflated like a balloon and began sulking. Seeing this scene, Chang Guan started laughing. Since he could tell that there would be no further conversation, Chang Guan laid back, closed his eyes and started to cultivate.