Traveling at night, the biggest concern was undoubtedly the bandits entrenched throughout the region.
Recently, the Balak Kingdom, in cooperation with the Spirit Hall, had launched an anti-bandit campaign across the kingdom.
Most of the bandits within the kingdom had already been wiped out. Only a few managed to escape in time and survive by going into hiding.
Yu Xiaogang was clearly unaware of the bandit situation.
For nearly the past twenty years, he had never left Nuoding City. Before that, he had always been accompanied by either Bibi Dong or Liu Erlong, so his personal safety had never been an issue.
Naturally, Yu Xiaogang didn't consider traveling at night to be a problem.
Unfortunately, his luck wasn't great today. In order to take a shortcut and reach Shrek Academy as quickly as possible, he happened to cross paths with a group of bandits who had recently fled to the area.
Instinctively, Yu Xiaogang didn't feel afraid. He pretended nothing was wrong and calmly walked past the group.
"Boss, we've been running for days and spent all our money. Should we...?" one of the bandits, clutching his long-empty stomach, couldn't help but ask.
The leader glanced at Yu Xiaogang but was uncertain.
Seeing that Yu Xiaogang wasn't afraid of them and was traveling alone at night, he began to suspect—could this man be a powerful cultivator?
Already hunted by the Balak Kingdom's forces, offending a strong expert could spell certain death for them.
Just as they were hesitating, Yu Xiaogang, not watching his step, tripped on a loose stone and fell flat on his face.
A true expert had extremely sharp senses—how could one be tripped by a stone? And even if he was, how could a real cultivator fall face-first like that?
Realizing this, the bandit leader immediately understood: Yu Xiaogang wasn't a strong cultivator at all—just a fool pretending to be calm.
At his signal, the group instantly turned around and surrounded Yu Xiaogang from all sides!
"What do you think you're doing!" Yu Xiaogang instinctively became alert.
After all, he was still a Soul Master—ordinary people wouldn't be a match for him.
The leader stepped forward and laughed heartily, saying, "Well, well, look who it is—just some old man."
"What, seeing us brothers and not even saying hello?"
Yu Xiaogang thought to himself, I don't even know you people—why would I say hello?
Before he could open his mouth, the rest of the group had already started moving in closer. They were holding long knives, eyes full of malice—clearly not decent folk!
Yu Xiaogang gave a cold snort as two soul rings—yellow, yellow—appeared beneath his feet.
Luo Sanpao materialized beside him, letting out a snorting, rumbling sound in the direction of the bandits.
Seeing that he was a Soul Master, the group instinctively took a step back. But when they saw Yu Xiaogang's martial soul, they couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"So this is the so-called powerful martial soul? Turns out it's a pig!"
"Haha! Kill the pig, brothers—we'll have meat with our dinner tonight!"
At the leader's command, the bandits had no more hesitation.
So what if he's a Grandmaster-level Soul Master? With a useless martial soul like that, how much power could he really muster?
Some of the bandits even had one soul ring themselves. Facing Yu Xiaogang, they felt no fear whatsoever.
"Second soul skill—Farting Like Thunder, Earth-Shattering Luo Sanpao!"
Yu Xiaogang swiftly pulled on a mask.
Pfffft!
Luo Sanpao released a cloud of earthy yellow gas, and a putrid stench instantly spread through the air.
At such high concentrations, the gas could be highly explosive if ignited and had considerable deterrent power—enough to scare these bandits away.
Unfortunately, Yu Xiaogang didn't know any chemistry or physics and had no idea it could be used that way.
Surrounded by the stench, the bandits were nearly blinded by the fumes, their eyes stinging and their stomachs churning violently.
"This old bastard actually has some tricks up his sleeve," the leader snorted, as a white and a yellow soul ring appeared beneath his feet.
He was also a Grandmaster-level Soul Master, but his soul ring configuration was even worse than Yu Xiaogang's.
Even so, when the fight broke out, all Yu Xiaogang could do was command Luo Sanpao to charge forward and hold the enemy off.
But Luo Sanpao was the weakest of the weak when it came to martial souls. Once he had exhausted his internal reserve of foul gas, he had no offensive abilities whatsoever.
The burly man's martial soul was a Grey Wolf. With almost no effort, he subdued Luo Sanpao completely.
As expected, Yu Xiaogang was captured by the group.
Now, he was being held down and forced to kneel before the leader.
He was filled with rage and indignation.
The son of the patriarch of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, once the heir of the family, now reduced to such humiliation—how could he accept this?
If it weren't for the fact that no one he knew was nearby, he might have already thrown himself headfirst into a tree to end it all.
"Old man, we brothers are all about etiquette. But you? Not only did you ignore us, you had the nerve to fart at us? Now tell me—how should we deal with this?"
The group was already wanted by the authorities and didn't dare to kill anyone and make things worse.
The leader had no intention of killing Yu Xiaogang—just extorting some travel money would be enough.
But Yu Xiaogang didn't know that. He truly believed he was about to die here.
He started kowtowing repeatedly, frantically apologizing, and even slapped himself across the face several times.
"Please don't kill me! You can have all my money!"
The leader chuckled and said, "See? Wouldn't it have been easier if you'd said that from the start? We're not some kind of bandits—we don't go around robbing people. But since you attacked us without reason, you should at least compensate us a little."
"How about this—hand over all the money you've got, and we'll call it even."
Yu Xiaogang nodded hurriedly and pulled a coin pouch from his chest.
Over the past years, he had lived off of others at Nuoding Academy and naturally had no personal income.
The money in his possession came from the soul master stipend he'd received from the Spirit Hall over the years.
Inside the pouch were a little over one hundred gold soul coins, along with a few scattered silver and copper coins.
"This old man's seriously broke, huh?" one of the bandits muttered under his breath.
The leader shot a glare at Yu Xiaogang. "Old man, if you're holding out on us, don't blame us for getting rough."
Yu Xiaogang was already terrified out of his wits. A foul stench suddenly emanated from between his legs.
With trembling hands, he reached into his inner pocket and pulled out a gold soul card worth one hundred gold soul coins.
Altogether, the two hundred-plus gold soul coins would be more than enough for the group to enjoy themselves for a while.
Seeing that there was nothing more to squeeze out of Yu Xiaogang, the leader said with a look of disgust, "Old man, you scare way too easily. Scram, scram—get out of here!"
Yu Xiaogang acted as if he'd been granted a royal pardon and ran off without looking back.
In fact, he still had some money hidden away in a storage-type soul tool disguised as a shabby bracelet.
Because the bracelet looked so worn and worthless, the bandits hadn't noticed it—leaving him just enough money for the rest of his journey.
…
About the time it takes to burn an incense stick later, Yu Xiaogang finally stopped to rest under a large rock, seeing no one chasing him.
In just thirty minutes, he had summoned a level of strength he'd never known before—managing to run over ten li (~5 km) without stopping.
"Those bastards… if I ever catch them again…" he said between breaths, turning back with hatred in his eyes.
If only Flender had been with him, there would've been no need to beg and grovel or lose his money like that.
This debt—his uncle could bear it, but his aunt sure couldn't!
One day, he swore those thugs would pay for this—with blood!
After this encounter, Yu Xiaogang no longer dared to travel by night or take shortcuts on his journey.