The sect leader said his goodbyes and flew away in a burst of light.
The tower maiden limpingly walked away.
Zhi Rui wandered to Guan Jing.
He glared her, his sister's injury still in his mind he coldly gave a list of the items necessary for the travel.
Zhi Rui tried to speak, but he walked away. "Tomorrow, at ten. In the sect's entrance, don't be late."
'He, what a cool guy.' Zhi Rui mused. She turned around to blackie, seeing as it was around eight in the morning Zhi Rui looked for Xun Lee. for the first part of the plan, she needs to go out of the sect.
Xun Lee was laughing with some girls, as she saw Zhi Rui she immediately greeted with a smile.
"Do you want to have some fun outside?" Zhi Rui asked.
"Oh" Xun Lee was surprised for a second, she turned to the girls and waved goodbye. She mounted on blackie with Zhi Rui. both of them ran till the front of the sect.
The man at the entrance did not even bother with her presence anymore.
Zhi Rui went to the board of requests and picked one to gather three purple yin lilies. Zhi Rui took the paper and registered it as her and Xun Lee's mission. But instead of directly going to the mission, Zhi Rui examined another request. 'Submission of the bandit settlement.' She read the details. without touching it she remounted blackie and the three of them, went to the forest.
Xun Lee looked at Zhi Rui with a questioning gaze.
"You'll gather these yin lilies, I will do something else." Zhi Rui said.
Xun le's face hardened, It wasn't hard to know what Zhi Rui would be doing.
"I can help you," Xun lee said.
"I know, but help is not what I need. I need camouflage if you encounter anybody from the sect just said I'm looking for the flower in another place."
Xun Lee slowly nodded. the place where these flowers grow, is slightly deeper in the forest. But there was no real danger, she could be alone without a worry.
As they walked, the forest's trees grew taller and thicker, after a while blackie stopped. Zhi Rui let Xun lee on the ground. she reached for her pouch and gave her a healing pallet and a beast whistle. "If you're in danger blow this."
Xun Lee took on her hands, "Thank you." she said. Zhi Rui nodded and looked ahead.
The sun was starting to show its face and the humid heat crawled over her skin. Zhi Rui sighed and patted blackie.
Xun Lee watched in a daze as they went away.
---------
After a kilometer or so, Zhi Rui reached the place where the bandits were last seen. She closed her eyes. ' The estimate is of around a hundred bandits, a level two leader, and fifty or so level one warriors. the rest were mortals.' Zhi Rui opened her eyes. 'but that request paper dates to a year ago, the numbers must be higher.'
Mounted on Blackie Zhi Rui activated her sensory spell, in a twenty-meter diameter, she could feel everything around, air, ground, trees, etc. As she concentrated Blakcie walked slowly. She felt a faint tremble on the ground. she pointed with her hand at the left and blackie followed.
As they got closer the vibration increased. Zhi Rui opened her eyes. she climbed a tall tree, form the top she saw a place with no trees.
She could not see the ground but she guessed that's where they lived.
Slowly they crept close, jumping from tree to tree. finally, Zhi Rui could see the small settlement. It was almost noon, they were roasting lambs and boiling enormous pots of soup. Zhi Rui saw they were using a crude system to hide the smoke.
Looking more far away, There was a group of at least a seventy men doing exercises with swords.
Zhi Rui stood on the tree for around three hours observing calmly, she counted one hundred and fifty men. The rewards for capturing these bandits amounted to nothing. so nobody went after it. But Zhi Rui interest was another.
She needed to cultivate fast, and the best way was to gather energy with the same attributes as your own. She focused on the level two leader training the others.
She smiled. putting her weightless spell on herself and blackie. they sneaked at the trees behind the distracted men.
--------
Zhi Rui waited for them to reach the climax of the set of exercise. She grabbed the mace with her materialized energy, she willed it and the mace shot off onto the leaders head. it smashed right in the back of the head he fell down unmoving Zhi Rui smiled playfully.
'Enemy attack!" came a scream from behind the formation Blackie clawed a level one's throat. they started to scatter.
'Oh, no I can't allow you to run away.'
Zhi Rui jumped in the field.
the bandits all around saw a person involved in black. as they scattered the attacker stook gesturing with its hands as he maces spun around knocking people out. Zhi Rui aimed a the ones slightly far away. the excitement was building up on her when a sudden impact hit her left side.
Acute pain came from her left arm and her feet left the ground, as she flew away she was able to catch a flitting glimpse of the attacker. She hit the ground and rolled. she came to a forceful halt feeling the iron on her mouth and the deep pain of her broken arm Zhi Rui snarled and tried to stand up
with an impact at her back. Zhi Rui smashed face first on the ground. out of despair. she slapped her hands with all her strength and flew three meters to the side.
She heard a stomp
As she got up she saw a bulked up man stepping on the place she just fell in. she turned her eyes and sighed the other enemy. a man with a shield as big as himself.
Both of them surrounded her flanks. 'they both are level two. one focused on strength and other seems to rely on defense.' Zhi Rui sighed internally.
'I underestimated them too much. these robbers must be financed by some noble.'
She saw as the other stopped running and gathered around. they even surrounded blackie.
Zhi Rui narrowed her eyes. 'I cannot defeat them. my only form of attack is my mace and a weak curse of fatigue. they are both physically stronger than me.' Zhi Rui felt a pang of pain from the hand she slapped the ground with.
'A broken arm and hand.'
Zi Rui though for a second. the bulky man smiled and threw a straight punch at her, Zhi Rui crossed her arms intron of her THUMP
"cough" she hit a tree and the two of them were slowly encroaching on her.
Feeling the blood coming up her throat Zhi Rui eyes turned red.
Zhi Rui reached for her pouch and took the pink pallet that Bianca gave her, she shoved it in her mouth without hesitation. THUMP. Her blood pumped, Zhi Rui felt her mind go reeling, and she lost the sense of weight on her body. The red on her inner energy turned crimson.
She smiled, insanely she smiled. 'there's no way to run. I can only bet everything again.'
She used her spell to overwhelm her muscles and with her dense energy, she grew increasingly stronger. she could feel her veins painfully bulging.out. She materialized her energy and shot off to the man with the shield.
They did not think she would attack first. The man bashed the shield forward, but Zhi Rui with her weightless spell reinforced by her dense energy threw herself above the man and stood behind him. Before he could react she punched out at his nape of the neck, he stumbled forward from the impact.
the bulky man came running to stop her, but Zhi Rui just laughed and made her energy into a repeling shield his charge was slowed down by the materialized energy. And Zhi Rui overwhelmed her broken arm with energy and smashed the disoriented men's head.
'CRACK'
The bulky stopped struggling with the invisible shield and slowly looked at his partner's broken neck. His face Went red "I'LL KILL YOU SLUT!"
He charged at Zhi Rui. She did not put up a shield this time.
the moment he punched at her, Zhi Rui wit her agility barely evaded the paunch and tried to strangle him, then she looked her broken absent-minded. the man smirked at her expression with a sweep of his feet he threw her on the ground.
He exhaled with pleasure as he choked her with his bare hands.
"How retarded do you have to be to forget the state of your own hands?"
Zhi Rui struggled but she could not bring strength into her body.
"Nevermind" the man smiled "I'll knock you out, tie you up and slowly take every information out of you."
Zhi Rui's eyes went red and she smiled maniacally.
The man frowned
"BOSS ABOVE!" the bandit around screamed
the man's scalp went numb and he tried to look up, but it was too late.
'CLUNG'
His vision went dark and the men fell beside Zhi Rui. She breathed in deeply. Giggling she took her bloodied mace out of the ground. She had it on her energy and slowly brought without him noticing. She looked at the men, as his eyelashes started to tremble threating to awake. Zhi Rui swung the with her barely good hand, She hit his nape. then his head. One, two, three times. when the only thing left was a small pond of pink goo. Zhi Rui stopped. She turned and looked at the men around.
'There is no more level twos..' As her eyes wondered she took a healing pill. She then sighted blackie surrounded and filled with injuries. The men were laughing.
"You lot, not one of you will live." Zhi Rui said.
------------
Half an hour later, every bandit at level one was laid down on the ground. Zhi Rui sat crosslegged amidst the corpses, blackie was sleeping due to fatigue.
Zhi Rui closed her eyes and felt the spirit of every dead around. ' a total of a hundred and two levels one spirit she sucked them out with her energy and gathered them on a small black ball she could feel the energy inside it.
when she refined it, she would be a step away from level two.
'After all the trouble, it was worth it.' She smiled between the crows and bodies.