The injured bandit kept running, not willing to stop even with the pain radiating from his caved chest.
He keeps looking back, thinking that the sect cultivator might be right behind him, but every time he looks back and sees no one following, he becomes more hopeful as the bandit camp is getting close by.
The bandit purposely uses a shortcut because he wants to get back to his camp faster. Little does he know this decision of his has brought a great disaster to them.
__________________
On the other side of the forest where the manmade road meets its end, Farco seems to be surveying the surroundings.
"This is perfect," he says as he believes the eleven sect disciple will come here as it is the only path through the forest, plus he left some fake markers to lead him here.
"I am going to torture the motherfucker for making me work so much," he says to himself, clearly annoyed by Brax.
"Now the only thing I need to do is wait," he says and disappears.
___________________
Back in the bandit camp, bandits are up to their usual activities. Some of them are training, some of them are keeping an eye out, and some are goofing around.
Something suddenly catches the attention of the bandits who are on patrol. They noticed someone running towards them.
At first, they become alert and are ready to engage, but they quickly halt their action when they notice that it is one of them.
They see their comrade rushing towards them in a frenzy while holding onto his chest. Before they can even inquire about him, the man collapses.
Seeing this they hurry to him and drag him back to the camp.
His almost dead state causes a commotion in the camp as every bandit comes forward to look at him. They see his caved-in chest and cringe physically.
They all can see that this man is a lost cause. He survived until now because he is a cultivator, but he won't be able to live for much longer. He is just a first-stage QI cultivator. His healing is not strong enough to heal the injury.
Unless he is given a regeneration pill or potion, he is not going to recover from this and they all know their boss is not going to waste a regeneration pill on a first-stage cultivator.
"What's with the commotion?" Suddenly, a thunderous voice startles everyone. They all turn their head to see their boss walk out of his tent.
His large stride adds to his menacing aura making the rest of the bandits make way for him.
The bandit leader walks up to the injured bandit and knits his brows when he sees the brutal injury on his chest.
"What happened?" He asks while staring down at the injured bandit.
"Boss... pl..please save me," the injured bandit begs while gasping for air. He exerted too much energy to make it back here. If he doesn't get a pill or potion, he will die.
His heart is compressed making it hard for him to use the stored Qi in him. Without external help, he will die.
"Answer my question first," the leader retorts back.
"Boss... th..there is an Ee..eleven mountain.. se..sect disciple in the village... He k..killed everyone..." the injured bandit manages to make a sentence.
The bandit leader frowns. "And he let you go?" He asks as it was weird for a first-stage Qi cultivator to escape and a third-stage Qi cultivator to die. It should be the other way around.
The injured bandit opens his mouth to speak but then realizes something. The sect disciple let him escape. His face becomes ash white as he realizes this.
*swiss* *thud* *thud* A crudely shaped metal ball suddenly flies in and falls right into the middle of the pack.
All eyes fall on the metal ball. The metal ball suddenly starts to turn red from heat and then expands.
The bandit leader senses danger and immediately takes action. He grabs the closest bandit to him and uses him as a shield.
*BOOOMMMMMMMM* The ball explodes and Qi-infused shrapnels fly in all directions, piercing anything that gets in their way.
The bandits who were the closest to the explosion immediately found their bodies riddled with holes. Some of them immediately died on the spot as their bodies were torn open from the explosion.
The ones who did survive are wailing in pain as multiple parts of their bodies expand before bursting like bubbles, killing them brutally. Those Qi-infused shrapnels did their job.
As for the ones who were lucky to not be in the blast radius or shielded by their now-dead comrade found the whole thing gruesome and horrifying. They have never seen anything.
They are bandits and they have committed many gruesome and disgusting acts, but nothing they did compares to what they are seeing right now in front of their eyes.
The bandit leader tosses the mangled body of his goon to the side and looks at the carnage in front of him with dread. If he had not shielded himself, he would have ended up just like all these mangled corpses.
"Get your fucking ass out here right now, you fucking coward!!!" The bandit leader yells his lungs out and immediately starts looking around for the culprit.
He is smart enough to know that this attacker is none other than the eleven mountain sect disciple. 'The bastard purposely let the idiot escape to follow him back here,' the leader thought, looking at the mangled corpse of the idiot who brought this disaster with him.
Since he was right in the middle of the explosion, his body is now unrecognizable.
'Did that old fucker betray me?' The bandit leader suddenly thinks.
He was never made aware of this eleven mountain sect disciple being inside the village. He was just told to do as ordered.
"That motherfucker!!!" The bandit growls while remaining extremely alert to his surroundings.