"You'd better come up with one now, or I'll kill you myself, you hear me," said Zhao Gun, his voice heavy.
"Relax, I got this," replied Long Huang. Zhao Gun, hearing this, was about to give Long Huang a good trashing.
But Long Huang was already strolling toward the bandit camp, whistling a jaunty tune as they neared the bandits' stronghold.
"Hey, fellas!" Long Huang waved.
"Life's short. Have you considered… changing your ways and not being bandits?"
The bandits who heard this all gasped in disbelief at this random kid. The largest of them, a brute with a club twice his size, stepped forward.
"Kid, you got a death wish?" the brute asked.
"Not particularly, and you?" responded Long Huang, and as his last word left his mouth, the bandit rushed forward, bringing his club down upon Long Huang.
Long Huang sighed as he dodged the attack. "See, this is why I hate small talk."
Without giving the bandit a second to think, Long Huang's fist connected with the large bandit's nose, causing him to drop to the ground.
Thud!!!---
Long Huang looked to the rest of the bandits, his emerald eyes glazing with battle intent, and said,
"Who's next?"
"Seems like the boy has some strength," said one of the bandits in the far back after hearing Long Huang's words of provocation.
"Let us show him that life isn't all fun and games," the bandit said with an evil grin.
"Yes," said the others as they closed in on Long Huang. Seeing the bandits approach, Long Huang smiled as his battle intent began to rise.
"Are you sure you wanna so this? It's your funeral."
"Don't get cocky, boy!" one bandit warned.
Just then, the caravan leader exclaimed, "Young master Zhao, aren't you going to help Young hero Long fight the bandits?"
"Why should I help that trash? He caused this on himself by rushing in like a fool without a plan," Zhao Gun replied arrogantly.
"But still..."
"Enough! Unless he begs for my help, then I will step in," said Zhao Gun as he cut off the caravan leader.
As the bandits closed in, Long Huang's calm smile morphed into a focused glare, his eyes narrowing with a fiery intensity. The atmosphere crackled with killing intent, the kind that sent shivers down the spines of even the hardest criminals.
He could feel the doubt filtering through the ranks of the bandits, but their leader's jeering words struck a nerve.
"Don't be scared, brothers," the leader called out, waving his sword like a toy.
"He's just one kid. Look at him, he looks like he just came out of his mother's womb!"
"Hahaha, you're right. But what mother would allow their son to come here?"
"Maybe his mother was a whore who doesn't want him anymore and sent him to find his father, or... maybe one of us is his father," said the leader.
"Haha Haha kid, which whore from the Red Fairy pavilion is your mother? Maybe I've slept with her, you never know, you might be my son," said a bandit in the back.
The mockery hung in the air like a heavy fog, but for Long Huang, it felt like a slap. The taunt ignited something fierce within him, a whirlwind of emotions he thought he had buried long ago.
Memories of abandonment, loneliness, and a desperate longing for acceptance surged to the forefront of his mind, fueling his rage.
With a fierce snarl, he unleashed his killing intent like a tidal wave, the very ground beneath him trembling in response.
"How dare you speak of my MOTHER!"
Long Huang roared, his voice echoing with the weight of his pain and fury. The bandits faltered, momentarily taken aback by the ferocity that radiated from this figure that looked like he was a boy toy for rich women's pleasure.
"I'm... going to make you... swallow those words."
Long Huang sprang into action, the pain of his past morphing into a lethal weapon as he charged forward. He moved with a primal grace, a blur of motion that took the bandits by surprise.
With each strike, he poured every ounce of his anguish into his fists, each blow carrying the weight of his unresolved feelings. He dodged and weaved through their ranks, a whirlwind of focused ferocity.
One bandit attacked him from behind with a crude axe. Long Huang, without looking back, sidestepped effortlessly, countering with a quick jab to his gut that sent the man crashing to the ground, gasping for breath. As some of his men rushed in, they were easily defeated.
The leader's bravado began to falter as he witnessed his men falling like flies around him. The aura radiating from Long Huang was dark and heavy.
"What are you waiting for? You, cowards, attack!!!!"
The leader shouted, desperation seeping into his tone as he attempted to rally his men. But Long Huang was relentless, the roar of his blood thrumming in his ears, drowning out the bandit's rallying cries.
The fight was embarrassingly swift.
Long Huang was a whirlwind of controlled violence, dispatching the bandits with well-placed kicks, sharp jabs, and a dismissive flick of his wrist. One particularly unfortunate thug found himself hoisted and dangling from a tree branch by his underwear.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every blow Long Huang landed was fueled by a raw, desperate need to prove himself, to show he was more than just a boy abandoned to the whims of fate. It all culminated in a final, powerful strike that sent the leader sprawling to the ground.
Long Huang stepped forward and placed a foot on the man's chest, pinning him down. He stood there breathing heavily, his eyes ablaze with a terrifying determination.
"I am not a mere child," he declared, his voice steady despite the storm raging within him.
"I am someone you will never forget."
The leader's eyes widened in pure terror. In that moment, he felt a fear more true than any he had ever known.
As the last of the bandits fled, a stunned silence fell over the clearing, broken only by the quiet sobs of relief from the merchants. Long Huang walked over, brushing the dust off his robes.
"Teamwork," he declared, his tone dry as he cast a sidelong glance at Zhao Gun, who was still standing with his blade half-drawn. Zhao Gun, who had been reduced to little more than a glorified spectator, looked as though he had swallowed a lemon whole.
Long Huang clapped him on the shoulder. "See? Easy as stealing candy from a baby."
Zhao Gun jerked away, his face a storm of indignation. "You...you!"
At that moment, the caravan leader rushed forward, bowing so low his forehead nearly scraped the dirt.
"Young masters!" the man cried, tears of gratitude and fear mingling in his eyes. "How can we ever repay you?"
But before either could respond, the air grew heavy. The wind died down. Even the ravens perched in the trees fell silent. A man emerged from the shadows. Tall and clad in dark robes with an axe in hand, his aura so dense that it made the ground tremble beneath their feet.
The caravan leader paled. "Oh no…" he whispered. "The Bandit King. Why is he here? Wasn't he supposed to be held up by the others?"
The aura radiating from the man caused Zhao Gun's earlier arrogance to disappear in the blink of an eye.
"Peak Blood Tempering Realm, the information was false," he hissed, fingers tightening around his sword.
"Haha Haha, the big boss is here, you're so dead," said a bandit as he lay on the ground, blood spewing from his lips.
Meanwhile, Long Huang's grin only widened.
"Now it's getting interesting," he said, cracking his knuckles.
Zhao Gun, on the other hand, was drained of color as the aura of the Bandit King pressed down on them like an oppressive mountain.
"We.... we...can't win," he muttered, his fingers trembling around the hilt of his sword, knuckles white with anxiety.
"Oh, stop being such a wuss, would you, Zhao Gun."
Long Huang scoffed, rolling his eyes with exaggerated annoyance. He cracked his knuckles with an expression of anticipation.
"You don't understand. We don't stand a chance."
"Honestly, for someone who brags so much, you fold faster than a cheap fan," said Long Huang.
Zhao Gun's frustration simmered; his eyes blazed with fury, the urge to curse Long Huang's entire lineage bubbling just beneath the surface.
Just then, the Bandit King's voice boomed across the rocky pass, slicing through the tension like a knife.
"WHO DID THIS TO MY MEN?!!!"
The bandit dangling from the tree whimpered, trembling in fear, and pointed a quivering finger.
"It was the pretty boy, Boss!"
The Bandit King's gaze, cold and filled with rage, locked onto Long Huang with an intensity that could ignite steel. His lips peeled back in a snarl, teeth bared like a feral beast.
"Boy, you're going to regret what you did."
Long Huang yawned as he responded. "Oh? And how exactly are you going to make me regret anything?"
"First, I'll break your arms, then your legs, and then I'll..."" the Bandit King said each word heavy with killing intent and rage.
"Ugh! Spare me the villain speech," Long Huang interrupted, waving a hand dismissively as one would shoo away an annoying fly.
"We get it. You're big, scary, and compensating for something. Can we skip to the part where I humiliate you?"
The Bandit King's eyes twitched.
"Boy, didn't your parents teach you any manners? Or are they as impolite as their bastard son?"
A heavy silence fell, thick and stifling. Long Huang's smirk vanished in an instant, the wind in the pass seemed to stop blowing, and it went still, as if waiting to be allowed to breathe. While beneath his robe, the tattoos of the blades of slaughter began to glow a faint red, the killing intent fogging Long Huang's mind.
"Nothing to say, boy, or are you so afraid of me that you can't speak?" The Bandit King's smug smile widened, reveling in the moment.
Then
"Parents... parents... parents!" Long Huang's voice dropped to a whisper, raw and jagged, slicing through the air.
"You want to talk about parents?"
Zhao Gun stiffened, his heart racing. He'd never heard that tone before. It was laced with something deeper than bravado; it was dangerous.
The Bandit King blinked once — just once, before the chaos that was Long Huang's rage erupted.
"DIIEEE"
Long Huang's furious roar echoed through the stronghold like that of an angry god. As he leapt into the air, unleashing his full fury upon the Bandit King.