An entire week passed.
Liam had finished concocting his plan after reviewing all their little behaviors and intricacies.
Food was apparently a problem for the professional bandits.
Now and again, they’d send a small group of weak men (by Liam’s standards) to hunt them a pack of magical beasts in the wilderness.
It usually took them 4 hours to come and go, so being late wasn’t going to be strange.
Liam marked that as his entry point.
He could find the formation sources and break it, but that would only make things difficult.
Silence was the only way.
The sun was just setting over the horizon, painting a vermillion orange hue over the endless skies.
Just then, a group of men left the formation and headed towards the forest for another hunt.
///
“Why are we always the ones to do this, man. Randal just landed the biggest haul of our lives, can’t we catch a break?” a voice complained.
“We’re also the weakest. Just keep your mouth shut and work. He’ll kill us all if you run off,” a wise voice advised.
“He did get a Rank 4 spell though…” another voice added, making greed flicker in the groups’ eyes.
The five cultivators grew silent after that, but bitterness gripped their ugly faces.
Liam waited until they got a considerable distance away from the town, denying their ability to call for backup or return to safety.
Granted, if they had Jades, they could call them anyway, but Liam didn’t plan to let that happen.
An hour passed before the group came across a pack of Rank 3 Boulder Apes, which they spent a good hour effortlessly killing.
By the time it was over, the group let out exhausted sighs, allowing themselves a short respite.
“Come on, we’ll have to head ba—”
The chubby middle-aged cultivator couldn’t finish his sentence, since a shadow burst from the shrubbery and slit his throat in an instant.
The others instantly recoiled and jumped back, but another one was ensnared by a tight chain wrapping around his face.
He screamed in agony as the dark bonds sizzled and corroded his skin, digging into his flesh.
Liam silenced those shrieks with a quick severing of his head, before his eye fell to the remaining three bandits.
Anger held their faces as they charged Liam instantly, three mental pressures converging on his mind.
Liam used Thicken, then reeled back his chains and ensnared the one closest to him, wrapping his feet and halting his charge, before sticking his shortsword in the man’s eye.
He fell with a coarse scream, causing the two remaining to flinch in fear, horrified.
The slender man in the back took out his Jade and began running away, but a dusky light tore through the air and pierced his wrist right after.
The Umbral Needle exploded, engulfing the man in corrosive gas that invaded his lungs. Blood leaked from his nose and mouth, choking as he succumbed to death.
Only one remained, and the short-statured cultivator looked mortified, the inscribed shortsword in his hands trembling.
“Put your blade down. I’ll make it quick if you answer my questions.”
Liam’s words seemed to anger the man, enough to overpower his fear.
He charged with shooting an arm-sized spike from his arm, before weaving in to slash horizontally at Liam’s head.
Liam sidestepped the spike and ducked under the blade, lining the bandits chest with three quick thrusts of his shortsword.
Blood spurted from the man’s back like gunshots, followed by a scream louder than one.
“I told you,” Liam sighed. “Answer my questions and I won’t let you suffer.”
A cold air suddenly grew around the screaming man, slowly freezing his screams. Clutching his wounds, he made a slow reluctant nod.
“What Rank is your boss? What other formations are there in your base? How many people are there in total? There’s nothing that could notify them of my arrival, right?”
“R-Rank 1 Magus, Rank 3 body and a Rank 2 core. Nothing besides the camouflaging formation, and 62,” the man said with a shaky voice, mixed with regret and pain. “And no, you can just enter…”
Liam hummed in understanding.
A wet slash sounded right after, followed by a thump and a rolling head on the ground.
Liam looted the bodies for their space-rings, then exchanged swapped clothes with the shortest bandit he’d killed.
It was a simple leather tunic with a hood that covered his head, paired with a similar mask for his face.
Liam discarded the bodies in an downstream river, before instantly making his way towards the town.
Night fell, stars flickering in the sky. Shadows stretched across the forest and darkened the entire region, adding to Liam’s bleak silhouette.
‘I’ll attack when they’re all sleeping. Only a few people would be awake at that point, but even if they find me out, I’d already taken out half of them,’ he thought, putting on his hood.
Another two boring hours passed, the sounds of cheering and joyous chants gradually dying down. Only when the entire town grew silent did Liam steele his gaze.
‘It’s time.’
The disappearance of the five thankfully weren’t noticed due to their partying and drunkenness.
Liam silently entered the town and hid behind one of the small wooden buildings, his blades unsheathed and his senses spreading all throughout the space. ．
Most of the cultivators who were outside were drunk out of their mind, and some were flatout asleep on the ground, snoring obliviously.
‘I better start, then.’
Some of the drunkards needed to empty their bladders, choosing to head towards the edges of the town to do their business.
Liam found at least three of them going in different directions.
He chose the one closest to him and silently walked up behind the man, casually thrusting his shortsword into his neck.
With a choke and bloody gurgle, the man slumped on the ground limp.
Liam chucked his body behind a dark alley between two small buildings, then shifted his focus to the others.