Inner Demons Volume 1 Chapter 11

The man with the sword turned around to face the youngsters, and pointed at the camp: "Go stand there."

While being watched by the escort guards, Li YunXin and Qiao JiaXin walked up to them.

For a moment, Li YunXin wanted to call Lord Nine for help, like he did last time, but he knew that demons were moody, so Lord Nine wouldn't like to be disturbed too often. Maybe this time, Lord Nine would think that he's "not fun" and eat him.

Even if Lord Nine could help him one more time, other people of the escort team may be eaten by him, including the girl named Qiao JiaXin. n.o.body wants "someone who likes me" to get killed for no reason, Li YunXin was the same.

Apart from that, Li YunXin found something suspicious about the swords of the strangers – they were similar to the swords of the priests who chased him.

Differing from any kind of the usual swords produced in the Great Qing Empire, their swords looked unique. Their ridges were so low, that they looked like flat pieces of iron. This made these swords lighter, but also easier to break, so no one would ever use such a sword to fight.

However, the man with the sword didn't kill them at once, and it seemed that he didn't even know Li YunXin, so Li YunXin decided to wait and see what they wanted.

When the whole escort team was gathered, those 6 men in Taoist robed started to make their demands.

They wanted them to burn their carts and goods.

The escort guards got angry and confused about this.

Escort teams running into bandits was not unusual. Jianghu was not black-and-white, there were only interests. When an escort team pa.s.sed by an area controlled by bandits, they would be safe if they gave the bandits some tokens. Bandits were not killers, the only thing they wanted was money. If people got killed there, n.o.body would want to travel in that area, which would make the bandits lose their jobs.

n.o.body would ever want to kill anyone. If the murder was heard by the government, they might send soldiers to clean them up. Here, a murderer would be beheaded once he was caught.

Therefore the request of those 6 bandits sounded ridiculous – They didn't want their goods.

Standing by Qiao DuanHong's side, Qiao SiFu whispered: "Uncle, this is weird. Shall we…"

He glanced at the blade on the ground by his side.

Qiao DuanHong breathed out, and shook his head: "I know it's weird, but we are not a match for them."

These bandits' martial skills were abnormally strong.

Those 5 strangers showed up from the side of the road and beat them all up in an instant. It happened so quickly that the guards didn't even have a chance to warn their partners.

Although the attackers only aimed for their weapons, Qiao DuanHong knew that if they wanted to, they could have killed anyone in their team in one hit.

In jianghu, these 6 people could be rated in the second cla.s.s from top, which meant that they could easily get the position of hall leader or incense leader in any martial schools. Then why were they gathering here and robbing them?

He couldn't help but glance at Li YunXin – He was the only one that he didn't know before. However, soon he abandoned his suspicion, because those 6 bandits didn't have any special reactions when the young man walked up.

Qiao DuanHong had been doing this job for years, and it was his first time to have no clue of his situation.

Finally, he sighed, and made the hard decision: "Burn our goods."

He was not a coward, he just didn't want to die. n.o.body could stay strong before the threat of death. He was not weak in fighting, so it was possible for him to run away alone, but he couldn't. Most of the members of the team were his relatives or close friends, and he didn't think any of them was strong enough to escape.

He took one step forward and said: "I'm Qiao DuanHong of the HongFu Escort Team in Luo City. Friends in jianghu call me the Water-Parting Blade. Today we failed to stop you, my friends, from doing your business. We'll burn the goods as you said. However, could you please tell me, what exactly you are looking for? What do you want? If there is anything that I can help…"

"Shut up."A man said. He had high cheekbones and narrowed eyes, and of course, a sword in his hand. "One more word, and you die."

Qiao DuanHong's face turned red immediately – It was his first time being treated like this during his escorting career. He wanted to fight the man, but he managed to hold back his anger. He saluted the man with his hands folded together, and stopped talking as the man had told him to.

"Burn them."Qiao DuanHong repeated, and glared at the man.

The man responded with a quick sneer.

An alarm went off in Li YunXin's heart.

The man is going to kill somebody.

He looked cold and calm, but from his eyes, Li YunXin saw that he was regarding them as dead people.

The man thought the whole escort team would die, sooner or later.

Li YunXin was sure about this. a.n.a.lyzing one's mind by reading his face used to be part of his work after all.

The fire was lit. Those 6 men with sword forced members of the escort team to stand together, and walk towards the wilderness, away from the road.

Li YunXin was in the center of the team, and the old priest Liu was by his side. The old priest was nervous, and was whispering to himself, cursing his bad luck, regretting his choice to follow this team.

Qiao SiFu glared at him and said: "Stop b.i.t.c.hing, 'leader of Mysterious Insight School'! You can't do nothing."

The old priest sighed, but didn't give a response. He was too worried about his life, and was in no mood to argue with anyone.

Qiao SiFu was increasingly angry, he turned to Li YunXin and continued : "You embroidered pillow*! Aren't you a man? Why weren't you protecting my little sister! A man should risk his life to save a woman!"

Li YunXin smiled at him, and said: "Yeah."

His att.i.tude made Qiao SiFu even angrier, but he didn't know what to say to Li YunXin, so he spitted, and turned his face back.

By his side, Qiao JiaXin glanced at Li YunXin, and also turned back her face.

Actually she was a little bit disappointed about him. She knew the young man was probably a scholar or something and was not good at fighting, but she didn't expect him to be so shameless.

She thought she would have felt better if Li YunXin had argued with her Brother Si.

Those 6 men didn't stop them from talking, just walked after them with haughty faces like dignified shepherds.

Qiao DuanHong whispered in a voice which was just loud enough to be heard by the few people around him: "Beware. If things go wrong…don't just stand there and wait to die."

He glanced at his daughter Qiao JiaXin, clenched his teeth, and continued: "If they attack us…Follow my commands, we'll fight to death."

Qiao JiaXin nodded.

They continued to walk for an hour.

They had gone deep into the woods. The trees around them were so tall, that the sky was blocked by them, making it almost look like evening.

Qiao DuanHong felt increasingly worried on the way. When he was thinking about attacking them by surprise, the one with narrowed eyes spoke again: "Save your steps. Let's take a break for now."

His expression was strange, but everybody understood.

Li YunXin frowned, and thought that he had figured something out.

"Save your steps" is only used when someone is stopping others from seeing him off, while "Stop your steps" would be more suitable for telling someone to stop.

"Take a break" sounded fine, but wasn't it too polite to say to his captives?

Li YunXin found that the man looked kind of proud of himself after saying that.

These guys, well…

They were acting.

They wanted to act cool and professional so they didn't talk in the normal way. Unfortunately, they failed on that and looked weird due to their low levels of education.

Being the only one who was calm enough to think, Li YunXin noticed that these 6 people thought they were of high status, but were not used to their status, which meant that their status had just changed recently.

While making them walk, these 6 people showed no expressions on their faces. However, Li YunXin knew that they were just acting, because when conflicts happened between the escort team members, Li YunXin saw schadenfreude in their eyes.

Apart from that, they were in Taoist robes, and that was another point that made Li YunXin think that they were related to those 2 priests.

n.o.body knew what Li YunXin was thinking about.

Hearing the 6 men telling them to rest, Qiao DuanHong waved his arm: "Take a break."

He was trying to be calm, he was the leader of the team after all. He thought that maybe the bandits would consider talking with him after noticing his status in the team.

The sky was turning dark, and winds started to blow through the forest. After a quarter of an hour, they had set up 2 campfires. The members of the escort team were standing by an ancient tree which was tall and thick. The 6 bandits were not far from them, sitting around a campfire. They sometimes talked with each other, or glanced at their captives as if they were looking at pigs and dogs*.

They seemed to be waiting for something.

Notes:

A embroidered pillow: Someone who looks good outwardly, but empty inside. Pigs and dogs: People of very low status

6 tradional domestic animals in China: Horses, cattles, sheeps, pigs, dogs and chickens.

Translator: 

Editor: Dropped

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