Chapter 15: Bandits like these; prepare to kill!
Book 1 Chapter 15: Bandits like these; prepare to kill!
“Item grade: Low inheritance.
“Upgrade level: +10.
“Damage: 586.
“Additional damage: 338.
“+10 Additional effect: Straight thrusts have a 10% chance of causing a flaming explosion.
“Upgrade requirement: 85 soul points.”
As Bai Yunfei stroked the crimson body of the spear, a smile appeared on the corners of his mouth. He looked at the fallen large tree in front of him, put the spear away then turned around and walked to a place not far from Li Chengfeng on Li Chengfeng’s right-hand side. After sitting down, leaning on a tree, he began to recover the physical strength he had used.
For the last several days, Bai Yunfei had never stopped studying the Glacial Pricker and the spear. In terms of grades, the spear was obviously superior to the Glacial Pricker. Therefore, he had experimented with the Glacial Pricker first.
Of course, the most important thing was the upgrades. Even though he felt that a ‘rare’ item like the Glacial Pricker should not possibly be destroyed after getting upgraded to +8 like ordinary items, he still considered for a long time before deciding to continue with the upgrades: He had obtained it for free anyway, so it would not matter if it exploded. If other soul cultivators knew that he treated a soul item in such a manner, perhaps their balls would hurt so much that they would vomit blood.
The results did not disappoint him. He successfully upgraded it to +9 then failed the next upgrade, but it only went back to +8. This detail alone allowed him to be sure that ‘rare’ items would not be destroyed before +10!
When Bai Yunfei upgraded the Glacial Pricker to +10, he did not continue upgrading it because intuition told him that if he failed again, the result would be very different to what had happened when he had failed to upgrade normal items after +8, namely, the item would be destroyed. Moreover, he was already very satisfied with the additional effect that had appeared at +10.
(Glacial Pricker’s properties)
Item grade: Low rare.
Upgrade level: +10.
Damage: 237.
Additional damage: 128.
+10 Additional effect: When thrown to attack, speed and power are doubled.
Bai Yunfei also researched this additional effect. The moment the pricker was thrown out, his soulforce was sucked into it. Its flying speed was indeed more than twice as fast as that of a thrown normal dagger. Its damage was even more impressive as after piercing through a one-meter thick large tree, it could still fly forwards several dozens of meters. Bai Yunfei once carelessly shot it into a mountain wall and afterwards he and Li Chengfeng had to dig as deep as three or four whole meters to take it out.
Furthermore, if he poured soulforce into it in a proactive manner when throwing it, its speed and power would be even greater.
After confirming that there was no danger of destruction, Bai Yunfei also upgraded the spear to +10. Because the spear was crimson all over and was as hot as a flame when soulforce was poured into it, an idea sprung to his mind as he decided to give it a name — he called it the ‘Fire-tipped Spear’!
… … … …
Two days later, in the evening, Bai Yunfei observed the color of the sky then said to Li Chengfeng, who was going in front of him: “Chengfeng, it’s about to get dark. Let’s find a forest and rest for a night before continuing the journey.”
Li Chengfeng halted his steps, looked around, pondered for a while and said: “We’d better keep going for a while. I remember that there’s a hamlet not far up ahead. We can see it after climbing over this mountain top. Let’s go and stay a night there tonight.”
“Oh, not a bad idea. Let’s go then,” Bai Yunfei naturally agreed after hearing him say so. For the last several days, they had had to spend the nights outdoors in the wild, which was not something comfortable either.
The two of them kept going for a while. The sky was already getting dark gradually. All of a sudden, Bai Yunfei halted his steps and said solemnly: “Wait… There seems to be something wrong. Chengfeng, look at the mountain over there!”
Li Chengfeng had been paying attention to his surroundings all along instead of looking into the distance. After hearing Bai Yunfei’s words, he took a careful look, but the expression on his face immediately changed. He said: “This light… Not good! It’s firelight. Even the sky is lit up to such an extent, could it be…”
Both of them exchanged a look and quickened their pace, running towards the peak of the mountain.
After a while, on the top of the mountain, Bai Yunfei looked solemnly at a village which was burning in a raging fire not far from the foot of the mountain. Li Chengfeng even trembled all over.
About twenty to thirty houses seemed to have been swallowed completely by the monstrous fire, but it seemed only few people were fighting the fire. There were quite a lot of people in the center of the village, but… only a few were moving. Various hopeless, sorrowful cries and shouts came into the ears of them both along with the wind on the mountain.
“It’s them… It’s definitely them… It’s like this again, it’s like this again! These damned bandits! Die… Die!” Li Chengfeng’s eyes gradually become crimson and also showed some signs of madness.
Bai Yunfei gave his shoulder a pat, saying: “Don’t be agitated! There doesn’t seem to be bandits in the village. Let’s go over there quickly. Saving people comes first!”
The moment the two of them entered the village, Bai Yunfei saw an unforgettable scene.
Under the illumination of the raging flames, there were corpses lying in pools of blood all around. Ten something lucky survivors were hurriedly treating the injured who were still alive. But there were also some survivors who were sitting on the ground with blank looks in their eyes, completely still, staring at the corpses in front of them. There was basically no life in their eyes, as if they had turned into zombies.
A series of sounds of crying and shouting woke Bai Yunfei up with a start. He shifted his eyes to have a look. An old woman with a head full of white hair was kneeling in front of a middle-aged man, her trembling hands pressing on a wound from which blood was gushing out nonstop on his chest. She was crying in despair: “Da Niu… Don’t leave me, son! If you leave me… How do I live?! Da Niu…”
The middle-aged man called Da Niu were looking at the old woman with somewhat blurry eyes. Seemingly using all his strength, he raised a hand with difficulty and grabbed the old woman’s hands on his chest. He wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he gushed a mouthful of blood…
This time, Li Chengfeng was unexpectedly the first to regain composure. He gave Bai Yunfei a push, saying: “Save people first!”
Only now did Bai Yunfei wake up. Turning his right hand over, he took out from the interspatial ring all the medical items he had been carrying along, gave Li Chengfeng some then ran towards that old woman.
“Granny, you’re doing it wrong. Allow me to treat the wound quickly. He can still survive.” After pulling the old woman up gently, Bai Yunfei squatted down in front of the middle-aged man and began to treat his wound.
The old woman was stupefied but reacted immediately. She looked at Bai Yunfei gratefully but was trembling too much to say a word and could only wait anxiously with an expression full of hope.
Bai Yunfei was not too adept at treating such a serious wound, but he did it very carefully. When the wound was bandaged completely, sweat had already come out on his forehead. However, that middle-aged man’s life seemed to have been saved at last and he was looking at Bai Yunfei appreciatively with a fragile expression.
Bai Yunfei let the old woman look after this middle-aged man again then stood up and went to another injured person…
After treating the wounds of several other people, his forehead was already covered in sweat and his expression was getting more and more solemn. A fury was growing inside him unceasingly…
“Mom… Mom… What’s happened to you? The house is burning. Let’s get out quickly, mom? Why aren’t you wearing clothes? Quickly go out with Fang’er, okay? Fang’er’s head hurts so bad.. Mom? Say something to me…”
Soft and tender sounds of crying came from a burning small house on one side. Bai Yunfei was surprised to learn that there were still survivors inside! Seeing that the house was about to collapse, he did not think much and rushed inside immediately.
A four or five year old little girl with high twin-tails was kneeling on the floor. Her little face should be innocent but it looked spent and dirty at the moment. Her left cheek was badly swollen. There was even a streak of blood hanging from a corner of her mouth. Obviously she had been hit violently by someone earlier. Judging from the somewhat confused look in her eyes at the moment, she seemed to have just woken up from her unconsciousness.
However, in front of the little girl, there was a completely naked woman lying motionlessly on the floor. Her entire body was covered in countless bruises and bloodstains, looking like someone had cut her spotlessly white body with a saber again and again. The woman’s mouth was stuffed with a piece of clothing which seemed to be her underwear. Obviously she had been violated and tortured before her death and had been unable to say anything. The endless pain and horror she had suffered could still be seen in her wide open eyes…
The little girl was pushing the body of her mother nonstop. The soft and tender sounds of her crying contained fear, puzzlement, confusion and pain.
Seeing this scene, Bai Yunfei fell into a trance instantly. It seemed he did not dare to believe what he was seeing. A burning, broken timber smashed down beside the little girl. Bai Yunfei finally woke up with a start. He rushed up like an arrow and kicked away a beam that was threatening to smash down on the girl. Then he took off his coat and wrapped it around that woman’s body. Lifting the little girl with one hand and the woman’s body with the other, he rushed out quickly.
After giving the little girl to the villagers on one side to take care of, he observed the surroundings carefully. It seemed there were already no survivors left in any house, and all the curable injured people had basically been cared for.
Suddenly, there was a clamor in the opposite direction. Bai Yunfei turned around to take a look and saw that Li Chengfeng was being surrounded by five or six villagers. They seemed to be saying something.
“What’s going on, Chengfeng?” Bai Yunfei asked after walking up to Li Chengfeng’s side.
“I don’t know either. Just now I revealed my power when saving an injured person who was trapped under a heavy object. They then surrounded me.” Li Chengfeng said while shaking his head in a somewhat doubtful manner.
Right at this moment, the people around suddenly knelt to the two of them. A middle-aged man whose both legs and left arm were injured said loudly: “Young heroes, please go save my younger sister! She was captured and taken away by those bandits. They’re simply not humans! My younger sister, she… In the end, she’ll definitely be tortured to death… Please go save her! I’m going to kowtow to you…” After saying so, he knocked his head on the ground loudly regardless of the injuries on his body. His forehead immediately bled, but he did not pause at all.
The other people around also started to implore, saying that their own daughters or wives had been taken captive by the bandits and begging Bai Yunfei and Li Chengfeng to save them and bring them back. For a few moments, many people knelt down before the two of them and begged piteously.
It turned out there were still the people who had been captured by the bandits!
Only after being stupefied for a while did Bai Yunfei and Li Chengfeng react by raising everybody up hurriedly. Without saying anything, Bai Yunfei gave Li Chengfeng a look. They nodded to each other. He then turned to the villagers, saying: “Take good care of your injuries, everybody. We’ll definitely do our best to save them and bring them back!”
… … … …
According to the villagers, those bandits had already left about three hours ago. Bai Yunfei and Li Chengfeng asked for the direction then gave chase at a very fast speed.
As they galloped, the scenery on the sides of the road fell behind them quickly and their ears were filled with never-ending sounds of the wind blowing. With a solemn expression, Bai Yunfei was thinking about something, but Li Chengfeng was already holding the two daggers in his hands, his eyes glittering with rage and hatred.
After they ran fast for about one hour, the silhouettes of a group of people appeared in a meadow ahead of them. Making use of the bright moonlight, they could see clearly that thirty to forty ferocious-looking bandits divided into several subgroups were surrounding several campfires, seemingly eating something.
Beside each campfire, there were three to five men doing something together. After taking a careful look, Bai Yunfei immediately could not suppress the fury in his heart anymore. He reached out his right hand and the Fire-tipped Spear appeared in his hand. Pushing his foot against the ground fiercely, he rushed out one step ahead of Li Chengfeng.
Those bandits were laughing obscenely while violating several women in messy clothes.
“Chengfeng, you pay attention to the surroundings. Don’t let any bandit get away. They all deserve to die!”
“Let none survive… Kill!!”