Qin Yi shouted in frustration: "Don't run!"
He took a step forward, sword swinging, ready to cut down one of the fleeing bandits.
At that moment, a thin, half-a-head shorter youth wearing a cloak woven from grass suddenly leapt from the bushes beside him, dagger aimed at his heart.
Qin Yi quickly abandoned the fleeing bandit, braced himself, parried the dagger, and stepped back.
The thin youth, missing his strike, retreated and vanished into the forest.
Qin Yi looked back—the bandit he had almost caught had disappeared.
Scanning around, not only were the other two fleeing bandits gone, but even those who had fallen were gone.
Frustrated, Qin Yi slashed at the air twice with his sword, venting his irritation.
"Where did everyone go?" Qin Wei appeared from the treeline behind him, scanning the scene. Raising an eyebrow, he asked.
"They ran!" Qin Yi snapped at Qin Wei, whose clothes bore a few scratches but bore no blood. Then he jabbed back: "Your opponents ran too! And you still dare to blame me?"
Qin Wei's face flickered with slight irritation at the remark.
"What do we do now?"
Their goal was to capture this band of brigands alive, but now…
Qin Yi looked toward the mountain peak. "They can run from us… but not from their lair. Their base has to be on this mountain. Let's track them and raid their hideout!"
He had almost said, "You can run, but you can't hide," but quickly corrected himself—he hadn't heard anything about 'Buddhism' since arriving in this world, so he substituted "bandits" and "hideout."
Qin Wei's thoughts aligned perfectly. This was their first trial under their uncle's guidance, and Qin Yi was far from satisfied with their performance. He had to redeem himself.
"Good! Since they often go to and from the hideout, there must be a path. Even if they were cautious before, after a defeat, they won't cover their tracks. If we follow their traces, we'll find the hideout. Let's go!"
Both decisive, they immediately moved.
Tracking one bandit's trail, they leapt into the forest, pursuing deep into the mountain.
After the forest regained silence, Qin Xu and Elder Huang appeared atop nearby trees.
Balanced at the tips of leaves swaying in the wind, they stood as if on a boat, unshaken by the movement beneath them.
"Elder Huang, your thoughts on this trial?" Qin Xu asked.
Elder Huang glanced at the flattened grass and broken branches, recalling the skirmish. He scoffed: "A farce!"
Two inexperienced birds pecking at each other, full of flaws.
"If either of them had even one of our levels, we could have wiped this ragtag group out without a single alarm."
Qin Xu chuckled for the first time at Elder Huang's childish words: "Qin Wei followed the traditional noble family's method, lacking real experience. Qin Yi is even more inexperienced. Their opponents were disorganized brigands. To you, a survivor of countless battles, it must have looked like chickens pecking each other! Haha…"
Elder Huang gave him a dry look. Lord, your amusement is your own; I'll stay out of it.
Qin Xu's laughter faded as he scanned the hidden mountain hideout. "Yet, unexpectedly, this tiny hideout hides talents… even someone surprising."
Elder Huang's eyes sharpened: "Lord, someone surprising? Are they here to trouble you?"
Qin Xu shook his head, smiling: "Even a dying man like me knows these so-called dignified, calculating adults won't soil their perfect images for petty gains. This is likely just a disappointed soul."
With a flicker, Qin Xu disappeared; Elder Huang followed silently.
Meanwhile, the battered and scratched bandit leader stumbled into the hideout, panic-stricken. The guards stared in shock.
"Leader, what happened to you?"
Ignoring them, he asked, "Is the Master still asleep in the house?"
Upon affirmation, he rushed to the Master's resting place.
The others exchanged confused looks. Just then, a small figure leapt forward.
"Monkey, what happened earlier?"
"Yeah, what went wrong? How did the leader get hurt?"
Monkey blinked. "What? The leader's back? Where is he?"
"To see the Master."
"Got it." Monkey darted off, disappearing around a bend.
"What… what's going on?"
"Wait for the others, then we'll question them properly."
"The Monkey really… answers nothing when we ask. Unreliable!"
"Exactly, knows everything but won't tell. That Monkey is unfair."
The bandit leader, still angry at being bested by a youth, spotted the Master, lazily sleeping and snoring on a soft couch.
In a blind rage, he grabbed a basin of cold water to pour over him.
At that moment, Monkey arrived, shouting: "Leader! Don't disrespect the Master!"
"Quiet!" The Master lazily scratched his ear, half-awake. His eyes sharpened in an instant, body flickering to perch atop a beam.
His demeanor shifted from lazy to sharp and lethal. He demanded: "Leader, what are you doing?"
The leader gulped, forced a dry laugh: "Nothing, nothing… Ah, no, there is trouble. Our hideout faced a powerful enemy, and we seek your help to overcome it."
Realizing he might have offended the Master, he hurriedly added: "Master, even if not for me, please aid the innocent villagers here!"
He and the others kowtowed, earnestly requesting: "Master, we beg you!"
The Master, about to inquire, sensed something. He glanced at the left window, then said to the bandit leader: "After this, the debts I owe are settled."
With that, his figure vanished inside the house.
The bandit leader gaped, unable to speak, leaving only a helpless sigh echoing through the empty room.