The Martial Lord of the Troubled World

Chapter 28 Bandits

At the end of the alley next door, there were piles of miscellaneous items such as bamboo baskets and broken wooden boxes, and the sound was coming from behind these items.

Fu Juemin approached step by step, and the sound gradually became clearer. In addition to the noise he had heard before, there was also a strange humming sound, like a faint sound squeezed out of someone's nose after their mouth was covered.

When Fu Juemin arrived, he looked back through the clutter and saw a woman being pinned against the wall, her body rising and falling with the movements of the person beneath her.

The woman was enjoying herself when she inadvertently opened her eyes and suddenly met Fu Juemin's gaze, causing her to scream in fright.

"what!"

The man on top of her was startled by the shout and jumped up on the spot, pulling up his pants.

Two panicked faces stared at Fu Juemin.

"you you."

"You guys continue."

Fu Juemin was speechless for a moment, then shook his head, put away his revolver, and walked back.

After this commotion, Fu Juemin felt that his search for a tall, thin man was now over.

But as soon as he stepped out of the alley, the group of kids who had given him the pan-fried buns earlier immediately swarmed around him.

"where have you been?"

A group of children pointed at the street and shouted, "The person you're looking for just got on a bus here and headed towards Dongchengkou!"

Fu Juemin was startled and, without saying a word, quickly chased after the child in the direction he pointed.

Just a dozen meters away was the street corner. Fu Juemin ran to the street corner and immediately saw a gray carriage slowly driving past the end of the street.

"drop--"

As the horn sounded, Fu Juemin turned around and saw his own IWC car stop beside him, with the driver sticking half his head out of the window.

"Master."

Fu Juemin quickly got into the car.

"Uncle Zhang, go to the east gate and chase after a gray carriage."

"Yes, Master."

The drawbacks of the times became apparent at this moment. Without the constraints of traffic regulations, the pedestrian order on the streets was chaotic. Even though Fu Juemin was riding in a car worth tens of thousands of silver dollars, he could not go fast in the county town.

Traffic was congested all the way, and we had to stop every now and then to wait for people or livestock to cross the street first.

The gray carriage would occasionally appear in the distance, as if deliberately tantalizing him—he could see it, but he couldn't catch up with it.

Fu Juemin wanted to get out of the car several times to find another way to catch up, but he held back each time.

Once the carriage left the city through the east gate, it finally disappeared completely from sight.

But at this moment, Fu Juemin's heart calmed down.

"Young Master, which way to go next?"

The car stopped at a fork in the road a few miles outside the city, and the driver turned around to ask a question.

"No need to chase anymore, let's stop here."

Fu Juemin got out of the car, stood at the fork in the road, and looked at the muddy road beneath his feet.

Three roads extend from this intersection in different directions, connecting the surrounding villages and towns. Each road has new carriage tracks on its surface, and heaven knows which road the gray carriage he was looking for had taken.

"The person those children saw might not actually be the one I'm looking for, and this carriage might not be the one I'm looking for either..."

However, if there are clues, we should still investigate.

Fu Juemin walked to the car and instructed the driver, "Uncle Zhang, go back and tell Qian Fei and Ma Daikui to bring people over immediately."

Then I need to go to the county government and the police station to help me track down someone.

Fu Juemin described the tall, thin man's appearance from memory, then added after a moment's thought, "Just say this man stole a Western watch from me. Whoever can find him will be rewarded with five hundred silver dollars." "Young Master, aren't you coming back with me?"

Fu Juemin shook his head. "I'm just getting some fresh air here."

The driver was helpless but couldn't say anything, so he turned the car around and slowly drove back the way he came.

As he watched the car slowly drive away, Fu Juemin stood on a slightly elevated loess slope, gazing at everything around him. For the first time, he felt so close to this world and this era.

The distant mountains resembled a dark blue scar, while a river flowed nearby. From the waist-high reeds and wormwood growing along the riverbank, the outlines of several solitary graves could be faintly seen.

The air was filled with the pungent smell of wild grass and cow and sheep dung. In this season when autumn had not yet fully arrived, the surroundings already presented a desolate, green-laden, and grayish-brown hue.

A small patch of wild forest a few hundred meters away from Fu Juemin was probably the only decent view in this area.

As Fu Juemin casually walked towards the woods, he pondered the events of the day.

He sent Qian Fei and Ma Daikui out, but when they finally discovered the clues, they found themselves in the awkward situation of having no one else available.

If there were instant messaging tools like mobile phones, the situation would be different. A single phone call could have people waiting at several city gates in advance, instead of just watching someone escape.

However, this was a limitation of the times, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"That person is probably similar to Huang Youde."

Based on the Black Scale Snake Demon of Peach Blossom Village, the Water Demon at the Dock, and the old white ape and other demonic events that Qian Fei had mentioned, Fu Juemin roughly concluded that the evil spirits in this world are, to some extent, born from humans.

They treat humans as food, while their fellow demons and monsters are perhaps some kind of "highly nutritious food" to them.

This also explains the sudden urge to eat that he felt when he saw the tall, thin man today, and the inexplicable dream he had of the dock water monster a few days ago.

Everything originates from the connection between demons and evil spirits.

Fu Juemin suddenly understood why the [Soft Bone] attribute on the panel was displayed as a talent, rather than a skill or something.

Because he obtained not only the Black Scale Serpent Demon's [Soft Bone] ability, but also its memories and a part of its soul. These things may be hidden in his bloodline, so much so that he was regarded as half a "kind" by other demons.

"There are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that if I want to hunt demons in the future, I'll have a built-in search radar, so I won't have to go through too much trouble to find them."
The downside is that I myself will also join the ranks of those hunted by other evil spirits and monsters.

Fu Juemin casually picked a reed, intending to make a whistle.

Suddenly, he saw tire tracks in the grass at his feet, stretching all the way to the nearby woods.

"Could it be that the carriage hid here?"

Fu Juemin's expression changed, and he immediately followed the wheel tracks. After taking only a few steps, he realized something was wrong. The wheel tracks under his feet did not look like those made by a horse-drawn carriage, but rather by an ordinary oxcart or donkey cart. Moreover, there were obvious drag marks on the grass.

He quickened his pace, following the trail, and swiftly entered the wild forest.

I had only walked a short distance in the woods when I heard a commotion coming from there.

Fu Juemin crouched down, slowly parted the bushes and weeds in front of him, and looked toward the source of the commotion.

-

In the middle of the woods, a two-wheeled cart was parked in a clearing. There were no animals pulling it, but seven or eight men dressed in tattered clothes were gathered around it.

"Refugee?"

Fu Juemin frowned. "That's not right."

Most of the refugees were starving and emaciated, but these seven or eight people in front of them, though their clothes were patched all over, were all strong and sturdy, and some of them, judging from their physiques, seemed to have practiced martial arts.

At this moment, a man stood up from beside the car, revealing the bottom half of a gleaming broadsword.

Fu Juemin felt a chill run down his spine and immediately realized what was happening.

"They're bandits!"

New author, new book! Please vote and promote it! Thank you so much! (ORZ~)

(End of this chapter)