Fengyun Die moved through the pack of wolves with absolute impunity, taking enemies' heads from amidst a crowd of thousands as easily as reaching into her pocket. Watching a girl play the Assassin class with such magnificent grandeur made it impossible not to admire her.
Even Wangzhe Zongheng and the fiercely confident, badass Ying Zheng glanced over at her from time to time, thinking this woman was utterly insane.
Though Lixiang still struggled to conquer the deep-seated fear in his heart as he watched those gray wolves howl and leap madly, he pressed forward as carefully and steadily as he could.
"Just stand by my side," Purple Lily said coldly to Lixiang after loosing an arrow. Her expression seemed to say: *There are wolves ahead, don't wander off or you'll get eaten.*
"I can heal you guys," Lixiang still wanted to integrate himself into this team.
Then, just as he was about to cast a heal, he noticed that all of these players were carrying red potions and didn't need him at all. Instantly, a thought flashed through his mind: *Fine, don't use my heals then. See if your red potions ever run out.* The next moment, Lixiang watched his own experience points shoot up rapidly, leaping upward in massive chunks.
This was practically equivalent to being power-leveled by the five strongest players in the game.
"Seriously stingy, so many wolves and they only dropped two white-tier items," I Am Kind muttered as he inspected two wolf-skin pieces, showing zero interest.
"Not bad. Out in the wild, you could kill twice as many wolves and still not guarantee a drop," Ying Zheng said, then glanced over at King's Return. He had killed twenty-six wolves just now, while King's Return had killed thirty-three; he had lost this first round of competition.
"Hey! Let's move," the group said, casting a glance at Lixiang, who was still standing in his spot.
Recovering his senses, Lixiang offered an embarrassed smile and hurried to catch up. In just this short span of time, he had leaped all the way to Level Fifteen, putting another ten attribute points into stamina.
Over a full six hours, Lixiang easily leveled up to Level Twenty, while King's Return and the others each gained at least three levels. It was safe to say the harvest from this quest was massive.
Of course, Lixiang was the only one who felt that way. The rest of the group was currently filled with incomparable depression; even King's Return wore a dark, gloomy expression, a hair's breadth away from a torrent of curses. What kind of broken quest was this where you couldn't even spot a single thief? This road was nothing but wave after wave of wild beasts.
King's Return tapped continuously at his map with both hands, while Ying Zheng and the others searched back and forth across theirs as well.
"This won't do. If we keep going like this, our quest is bound to fail," I Am Kind said, growing rather anxious. The rest of the group fell silent.
"Why don't we head to Guzhong Town?" Lixiang gestured toward a fairly large settlement they had just passed by earlier. That village had only contained a few villagers and idlers soaking in the sun; they had originally thought they might find thieves in there, but turned up completely empty-handed.
Ying Zheng pondered for a moment before asking, "Why go back?"
King's Return and the others also looked at Lixiang with curiosity. Along the way, he had basically just leeched experience, even though his Healing Art had startled everyone greatly at the start.
"You guys are too slow-witted," Lixiang inwardly and ruthlessly looked down upon these experts, then asked casually, "If a bandit gang wants to rob a caravan, what's the most important thing?"
Purple Lily caught on and said, "Information. Meaning there has to be an undercover scout from the Bill Bandit Gang hiding in that village, and we simply didn't notice."
I Am Kind countered, "That could be it, but we searched every corner of the village thoroughly and even questioned every NPC."
"Maybe the scout used a stealth skill," Fengyun Die analyzed.
Everyone nodded. As a powerful assassin, Fengyun Die had the most authority on this subject; a formidable thief could indeed employ stealth skills.
King's Return looked at Lixiang and asked, "Then how do we find him?"
Lixiang glanced at the group and said, "When did I say we were going to search for a scout hiding in the shadows?" Seeing their blank expressions, he quickly added, "My point is, if thieves want to rob a caravan, the most important thing is obviously the caravan itself. Who are they going to rob if there's no caravan?"
This was practically a kindergarten-level question, and everyone's face flushed red, especially given Lixiang's matter-of-fact tone and expression.
"You mean we should wait—wait for a caravan to show up?" Purple Lily asked tentatively, eager to redeem herself since she had been the first to answer Lixiang's previous question incorrectly.
Lixiang said very sincerely, "Actually, that village is extremely abnormal. I didn't see a single patch of farmland around it, none of the villagers looked older than sixty, and most importantly, there were way too many idle, able-bodied men in the village."
A sharp glint instantly flashed in King's Return's eyes. He had noticed this issue as well, but no matter how he questioned the villagers, they refused to speak, so he had simply buried his doubts in his heart.
"I can't be certain either, but let's head over and check it out first."
It was the only option left. The journey back went exceptionally fast, and the sight of the dilapidated village and the idle villagers lounging about caused Lixiang's conviction to firm up just a bit.
Even at the village gate, Lixiang paused for a moment, carefully scanning the road at the entrance before striding inside.
This run-down settlement was quite large, but it was practically falling apart everywhere. Though one could clearly make out its former prosperity, the finest building remaining was nothing more than the token watchtower at the village entrance.
Lixiang took out every last gold coin he had on him, walked up to a "villager" with his eyes closed, and tossed the coins directly onto the ground. The gold coins struck the earth with a crisp, jangling ring.
The villager raised his eyelids slightly, glanced at the four or five gold coins on the ground, and then looked at Lixiang.
"I want to hire a few people to escort some grain to Sun City. These gold coins are the deposit." Since this world was real, these villagers could obviously be hired.
"Ten men, twenty gold coins each!" The villager nudged the gold coins with his foot. Lixiang looked at King's Return; that was all the gold he had on him, and he had thought it would be more than enough.
"Deal. Here is a deposit of one hundred gold coins." King's Return immediately produced a hundred gold coins from his tunic. It wasn't an exorbitant sum, but Ying Zheng and the others weren't the sort to freeload, each pulling out a portion to chip in.
The villager pocketed the money, and his expression instantly shifted to one of honest simplicity, a humble smile creeping onto his face as his villager status simultaneously converted into that of an early stage mercenary.
"It actually worked."
The group stared at Lixiang with fresh curiosity.
"How did you figure that out?" King's Return asked with a touch of sincere warmth on his face.
"Yeah, how did you come up with that?" Ying Zheng chimed in.
Lixiang could only scratch his head sheepishly and say very earnestly, "Don't books always say that money can move the gods? Even gods love money, let alone villagers who don't even own a patch of farmland."
Pure wisdom. Simple words containing profound truths. The group immediately let out sighs of admiration.
In truth, Lixiang had one more certainty in his heart: among these ten villagers, at least one was a spy, and for all he knew, all ten might be spies. Everything now depended on whether the cargo they were escorting was valuable enough to entice a strike.
At that moment, several villagers gathered under the lead of the sole mercenary captain. Though they still looked lazy, a fierce, hardened aura had appeared on each of them, and they carried weapons—swords or axes—in their hands. Checking their levels, Lixiang saw they were all Level Thirty.
"May I ask what cargo we are tasked with escorting?" the elected escort captain—the very same villager from earlier—asked the group.
The remaining villagers also dispersed around the perimeter.
"This..." King's Return immediately looked at Lixiang. They were here to wipe out a bandit gang; what kind of cargo could they possibly be escorting when they had neither money nor grain?
Despite usually keeping to himself around King's Return and the others, Lixiang could be quite outgoing when dealing with NPCs. With a deadpan, utterly serious expression, he pointed straight at King's Return and said, "The cargo we are escorting is our captain."
"Er, or rather, the item hidden inside our captain's bosom. It's an offering prepared for High Priest Draenei." Catching the expressions of his teammates, who were desperately trying to hold in their laughter, Lixiang knew just how depressed King's Return must be feeling right now.
Being treated like cargo—Ying Zheng for the first time showed great magnanimity by patting King's Return on the shoulder. "Since you have the highest level and strongest defense here, this cargo role has got to be yours."
Prompted by Ying Zheng's remark, the others finally remembered that whoever carried the item in their bosom naturally assumed the greatest danger, and wasn't stealth the very thing Bill excelled at? Could it be that Heartless Parting, that little Priest, had foreseen this from the very beginning?
The escort guards all nodded.
Leaving the village gate, Lixiang called Purple Lily and Die aside and whispered a few words to them. Both women looked at him in surprise, and seeing his affirming nod, they gave slight nods in return.
"Aren't you guys going to ask what exactly is inside our captain's bosom?" Lixiang's voice drifted back from a distance behind them. Then he continued, "You quoted your price without even asking about the item—aren't you afraid of getting ripped off?"
"Alright, everyone, stop hiding. You're the Bill Bandit Gang, aren't you?"
Boom! Regardless of whether it was true or not, King's Return and Ying Zheng's group launched their attacks instantly, each locking onto a target since they were standing close together.
Meanwhile, Purple Lily and Die vanished into thin air.