Khan squinted at the old man, it was obvious that he was trying to remember this person. The old man didn't move and became increasingly enraged the longer Khan took to remember him. Hui stood by his side nervously and remained silent, not wanting to further aggravate the situation .
Khan's eyes widened and a smile spread across his face. He recognised this old guy! After all, he had slept with this elder's wife not too long ago!
"Ah, old cuck!" Khan exclaimed, then smiled and nodded as if greeting an old friend. "How's the wife doing?"
"You vile- tch." The old man stopped himself from engaging with Khan's provocation. He knew from experience that it wouldn't end well for him. He cleared his throat and stood up straight, trying to maintain a dignified appearance as more people noticed his arrival.
Those who Khan robbed earlier on started appearing from the woodworks. Seriously, they all arrived within half a minute, were they all following him until now?
"Elder, disciple Khan broke my ribs and stole my spatial ring, you must enact justice on my behalf!"
"Elder, Khan is the top ranked disciple of the outer sect, yet he uses this respected position to bully the weak! He is a disgrace to the sect, he must be punished severely!"
"Elder, Khan punched my- ahem, well, he injured me severely!"
…
They all said similar things, except for one girl with a blank expression and no emotion in her hidden eyes. She had long black hair that mostly hid her face and she didn't attract much attention, Khan only saw a glint of her dull eyes through her hair for a single moment.
"Ah, I just want my spatial ring back elder, I'm not here to petition for Khan to be punished. Actually, he didn't break the rules, did he? Ah, but I still want my ring though…"
Khan stared at this girl who talked slightly too slowly, then he burst out laughing.
"Interesting! Out of all of you, this girl is the only one who isn't completely braindead!" He laughed some more and everyone glared at him, but they remained silent.
After the girl spoke, the elder hesitated. She was right, but his hope was that nobody would bring this up, and he could make up Khan's crime later on after capturing and torturing him.
Khan stared around the group mockingly, before his gaze finally landed on the elder.
"Do you think that this will end well for any of you?"
After another moment of silence, a boy stepped forwards and pointed at Khan heroically.
"Y-you are the one who wronged us, so of course you will be punished!" His stammer at the beginning slightly dampened his brave speech, but everyone else agreed with him, so they ignored it and cheered.
"Oh, so you're expecting me to be executed then?" Khan nodded as he spoke back to the boy.
"E-executed? Well, no, the sect only issues executions for serious offences like the planned and deliberate killing of a fellow sect member…" The boy was a bit confused by Khan's question, but for some reason, he had a bad feeling in his heart.
"Then if I'm not killed, what is to stop me from returning and robbing you all again? Do you all believe that I am the type of person to let this slide?" Khan's smile sent chills down their spines. As a few people's eyes widened, three people slipped away silently, realising that they'd made a big mistake.
It dawned on the others too…
This person was crazy! He would definitely come back and beat them up again, rob them again, even if it resulted in him being punished once more!
It was true…unless he was dead, then they would definitely suffer for scheming against him like this!
"Sorry Khan!"
"My mistake!"
"Cough, ah, this isn't the outer sect disciple alchemists annual convention, I must be in the wrong place…"
…
People made up various excuses, or just said a word of apology, then quickly left. In the end, only the elder and two girls remained. The first girl was the same girl who contacted the disciplinary elder, whilst the other was the strange, and slightly gloomy looking black haired girl, with hidden facial features.
"E-elder, we, we can't just let him off!" The first girl trembled as she pointed at Khan, for some reason holding her breasts with a pained expression as she did so. She had originally worried that Khan would publicly tease her about how he punched her breast, but this was even worse…he didn't even remember her!
The outer sect head disciplinary elder maintained his calm facade, but inside, he was sweating. He had no legitimate reason to detain Khan right now, since Khan hadn't broken any sect rules…none that he knew of anyway.
The elder just wanted to use the enraged mob as an excuse to capture Khan and interrogate him under the pretence that he had indeed broken some rule. This way, he would be able to release his bottled up anger regarding Khan sleeping with his wife before letting him go due to 'insufficient evidence'.
He learned from his last mistake when he tortured Khan over a personal grudge. He was even demoted temporarily, but managed to claw his way back to his previous position via some underhanded means.
He at least needed justifiable cause to take Khan in, since he was certainly being watched closely by the outer sect head elder after his last misuse of power.
The enraged mob would have been enough for him to say 'sigh, well I'd better take him in, just in case…'
But the damned disciples got scared and fled! And after he went to all the effort of gathering them before meeting with this girl and pretending that everyone arriving was just a coincidence!
"Hey old cuck, you're wasting my time, so I'm leaving." Seeing that the old man was just standing on the spot and trembling, Khan turned to leave. He wanted to get a a couple more robberies in today, before returning home, drinking a bottle of spirit wine with a good feast, then resting well before another day of robbing his fellow sect disciples tomorrow.
The elder trembled. Every time Khan called him…that word…his body shook involuntarily with rage and shame. He didn't even know what it meant until he went to the sect library and found it in a dictionary…but now, after learning the word's meaning and typical connotations, there was no other word in this world that he hated more.
The old man took a deep breath, then called out:
"Disciple Khan!"
"What, you're going to arrest me again? Old Gon will be watching you know, you won't be able to do anything without your little mob." Khan's faint smile showed that he'd seen through the elder's actions in gathering the mob.
Well, it really was a little too coincidental for them to all appear so quickly, and there's no way Khan wouldn't notice so many people tailing him. He doubted that a single one of those idiots could evade his keen senses for more than a few seconds.
The elder showed nothing, then spoke one final sentence before immediately turning to leave.
"I will be watching you, disciple Khan. A vile disciple like you has surely broken some sect rules, even if nobody has witnessed it yet."
Seeing the elder leaving, the girl who initiated all of this almost cried as she chased after him.
However, the other girl, the person who ad slightly interested Khan earlier, remained behind. She didn't leave, but actually approached him slowly.
"Khan…could I have my ring back…please?"
"No." Khan shook his head firmly.
"Oh…"
"You're really not going to return it to the poor girl? Even after you assaulted and robbed her, she still didn't try to badmouth you or call for your capture in front of the sect elder! If it wasn't for her pointing out that you hadn't broken any sect rules, then-"
"You really are naive for someone who claims to be so old." Khan smiled as he watched the girl trudge away slowly.
"The reason she didn't join in with the mob mentality, was because she knew that I would definitely come back for revenge if it really did result in my arrest. As for pointing out that I didn't actually break any of the sect's rules, she was simply hoping that I would appreciate the favour and return her spatial ring afterwards. As I said before, she was the only person in that group with a bit of sense."
"Not everyone is like you, you know. You're just assuming the worst of that poor girl because of your own twisted personality."
"No, it's you who seems to have regressed into an idealistic child after following too many 'valiant heroes' over the years." Khan laughed. "You seriously think she was just being kind for my sake? Who could possibly be kind to someone after that person assaulted and robbed them out of nowhere? There is nobody so virtuous in this world."
"Ah…" The spirit thought back and remembered how Khan had ruthlessly swept the girl's legs out, then slammed down onto her body, causing her to tremble as she landed roughly. He smiled brightly as he took her spatial ring, then went on his way as if nothing had even happened.
Before the spirit could reply, Khan spotted another figure turn a corner and immediately picked this person as his next target. However, once he recognised this girl, he dropped this plan and instead waved to her and laughed.
"Little Ri, over here!"
When Fu Rian spotted Khan laughing brightly as he waved towards her, she hesitated for a moment, before sighing and making her way towards him.
"Little Ri, what brings you to this area? Were you looking for me again? It's rare to see you without your sister these days." Khan quickly made conversation as she silently joined his side and began walking with him.
"I live round here, I wasn't looking for you…"
"Oh, is that so? I guess that makes sense, since you're a Profound Roots Realm cultivator…eh, Little Riri, you broke through to the early stage? Congratulations, reaching the inner sect will be easy for you now." Khan noticed that her aura had increased once again and quickly congratulated her.
"Thanks…" She mumbled.
'Little Riri? I hope he doesn't keep calling me that, 'Little Ri' is embarrassing enough…' She thought with an internal sigh.
Khan glanced at Fu Rian thoughtfully. Thinking about it, this was actually the first time he'd been with this girl without her sister ever since he pushed her down that day…her sister seemed adamant on hanging around her since then. Honestly, he still wasn't quite sure why the Fu sisters kept on visiting him, but it at least seemed like they didn't hate him. Fu Rian didn't anyway.
"Little Ri, do you know where I can find the richest outer sect disciples right now?" Khan suddenly asked.
"Why? Thinking about it, you've been holed up in your house for so long…what are you doing now?" She looked up at him suspiciously. She had joined his side just now without much thought, her mind seemed to wonder sometimes whenever she thought about Khan. Now though, she remembered that this guy was never up to anything good.
"Oh, I was just cashing in before moving up to the inner sect, that's all." Khan said with an earnest expression. Fu Rian turned towards Hui doubtfully, who explained with a wry smile:
"Master is robbing all of the disciples in the luxury outer sect zone."
Fu Rian paused for a moment, then stepped back and eyed Khan warily. He blinked before he burst out laughing.
"Little Riri, I'm obviously not going to rob you, hahaha!"
"That isn't obvious at all." She frowned, but lowered her guard slightly and stepped back to his side.
"Little Riri, I can't believe you would doubt my moral character like this, sigh, I'm truly being mislabelled." Khan sighed dramatically, he looked genuinely hurt.
Khan's honest sigh was enough to completely stun not only Fu Rian, but also Hui and the spirit.
How could he say something like that with such a straight face? How could he wear an earnest expression like this, as if he actually believed the bullshit that he was spewing?
"Oh, look, number 15!" Khan's sad expression disappeared in an instant as he noticed a small man turn the corner. The small man was startled, but his feelings quickly turned to terror as Khan charged at him. He stepped backwards, but stumbled and fell, making him an even easier target than most.
Fu Rian stared dully as Khan robbed the poor fellow, then returned to the group with a happy smile.
"Alright, just a couple more and I'll call it a day." Khan laughed, seemingly oblivious to Fu Rian's stare.