During lunch break, Chen Yiming rode his bicycle to the address given by Senior Brother Wang.
The address was somewhere in a village in the north of the city, more than ten kilometers away.
Now that he was limited by the circumstances and did not have a GPS navigation system, it was very troublesome to go to unfamiliar places. If he had not undergone three transformations, he would never have dared to go.
Chen Yiming rode his bike back and forth between the main road and the streets. He checked the apartment numbers as he went and followed the sequence of the numbers towards the address.
The village in the northern part of the city was even more desolate than the Eastern part. There were very few pedestrians on the streets, and many of the shops along the streets looked like they hadn't been open for a long time, feeling very run-down.
Suddenly, Chen Yiming braked hard and came to a stop in front of a street entrance.
He couldn't see the end of the street in front of him. Clothes, shoes, jewelry, hair ties, and other miscellaneous items littered the street.
These items were still clean and could not have been discarded carelessly. It was obvious that something bad had happened here, and that the items had fallen as people escaped.
He went forward to check the apartment numbers on the houses at the intersection and found that this street happened to be the one leading to the address. If he didn't pass through this street, he would have to restart his search at the next intersection.
"It's troublesome with any navigation," Chen Yiming cursed.
He wasn't familiar with the northern part of the city. There were densely packed streets in the city, and once he lost his direction, he would have to spend a lot of time finding his way again. He didn't have the time to waste on that.
"Right now, I have the power from three transformations. Most of the people in the village are ordinary people, even if someone tried something on me, they won't be on the same level."
"If there's really no other way, we can just react according to the situation and find a chance to run away," Chen Yiming muttered to himself. He was confident in his own abilities and did not believe that he wouldn't even be able to escape.
He got back on his bike and sped down the lane.
Along the way, he observed his surroundings so that he could react quickly if something happened.
However, there were times when whatever one was afraid of would come to pass.
At a bend in the street, a rock blocked the way.
The rock was about a meter wide, and it was right in the middle of the street. It wasn't visible from the road before the bend. If Chen Yiming tried to force his way through, his bicycle would definitely be damaged even if he did not get injured.
"F*ck!"
Chen Yiming had to brake hard once again. Coming to a sudden stop, he pulled out the wooden sword on his back.
The wooden sword was usually used for practice. He did not expect to engage in a real battle so soon, so he did not spend any money to buy a metal sword.
About seven or eight meters ahead, the door of a house opened and two burly men walked out.
The men were each over 1.9 meters tall. They wore tattered leather cloaks and held thick, meter-long machetes in their hands.
One of the men had a scar on his face that ran from his right forehead to the corner of his mouth. The other man's right eye was covered with a black cloth, and there were bloodstains on the blade that had not been wiped clean. A bloodthirsty aura was being emitted from his entire body.
Before Chen Yiming could turn his head, footsteps sounded from behind. Another burly man walked out.
Unlike the men in front, the burly man in the back was not only holding a machete, but also a wooden shield. It was clearly used to prevent people from escaping.
The one-eyed man noticed the golden sword symbol on Chen Yiming's chest and turned to the scarred man.
"Big Brother, he's a student from Mantis Snake Sword School."
The Mantis Snake Sword School was one of the 13 martial arts schools in East Lake City. It was a big power that they could not afford to offend. The one-eyed man did not make any rash moves, and waited for his elder brother's orders.
The scar-faced man sneered. "What are you afraid of? Even if it's the Mantis Snake Sword School, what can a trainee with a wooden sword do? We'll treat him well today."
When the man at the back heard his brother's decision, he cracked his neck. Revealing his yellow teeth, he smiled and said, "Big Brother, Second Brother, the two of you stay at the side and rest. This kid is so soft and weak. Let me cut off his feet first."
The man at the back was the weakest of the three. Usually, all three of them would attack at the same time. In this rare case where they were facing a weakling, he wanted to experience the satisfaction of scoring his own kill.
The scar-faced man glared at him and said, "Don't mess around, beat him up first. Don't let him escape."
The three of them were not in any hurry to make a move. From their words, they seemed to be sure that they would defeat Chen Yiming, since the wooden sword in his hand was hardly any threat.
Chen Yiming didn't want to fight the three of them. He said in a low voice, "I'm a trainee of the martial arts school. How about we just mind our own business? I don't have anything valuable on me either. Why don't we just pretend this didn't happen?"
He did not have any actual combat experience. Furthermore, he was trapped in the street. Although he was confident in his own strength, he did not want to fight if he could avoid it, just in case the other party had any dirty tricks that could harm him.
The scar-faced man became more confident when he saw Chen Yiming holding back.
"Your little tricks won't work on us. You think that because you're a trainee, we should think twice before beating up a small fry like you since the big fish would come after us? Don't think we'll fall for it so easily. If we let you go today, we might lose our heads tomorrow."
Chen Yiming's eyes narrowed when he saw that the negotiation had failed.
"So that means we're going to have to fight to the death today."
He did not want to fight, but that did not mean that he was afraid of these bandits. Their raw strength would definitely be worlds apart from his, regardless of whether they had undergone a transformation.
The scar-faced man laughed wildly. "You'll die here, while we live on. The school will not care about the life and death of an ordinary trainee. Did you think we wouldn't know?"
The scar-faced was the strongest of the three and was also the eldest brother. When he was young, he had joined a gang and had interacted with many martial arts trainees from the gang. Therefore, he was very knowledgeable about the inner workings of the schools.
When he was young, he had learned a knife technique. With much difficulty, he had completed one transformation. He was fierce and decisive in battle, while most martial arts trainees had no combat experience and were not his match.
When he got older and his strength fell drastically, he brought along his two younger brothers and got by in the village by collecting protection fees.
Due to the war in the west, a large portion of the elites in the city patrol were deployed to the front line. The remaining city patrol was rather powerless and could not maintain public order in the village.
The three of them became bolder. No longer satisfied with collecting protection fees, they openly committed crimes and killed anyone who opposed them.
Chen Yiming stood his ground and held his sword horizontally in front of his chest to defend himself. He waited for the men to attack first.
His first battle was to be a fight to the death. His heart was pounding in his chest. He planned to rely on the raw strength of his three transformations to launch a defensive counterattack.
When the scarred man saw this, he laughed loudly. "Third Brother, this little guy is going to fight you to the death. Hurry up and make your move!"
The man in the back started to laugh wildly as he charged at Chen Yiming.
"Kid, aren't you going to run? Die!"
The burly man weighed nearly 200 kilograms. When he charged forward, he was like a small tank. He brandished his machete, which weighed several tens of kilograms, making as if he was going to cut Chen Yiming in half.