Battle At The Roots

“Who the hell even are you? Lay down and die!”

A bandit rushed at Linfeng first things first, seemingly not possessing the brain power required to understand that Linfeng had successfully fought his way out toward this place without as much as a scratch. Of course, someone living a life of banditry, who only rarely cleaned themselves, and who probably couldn’t even read more than a few words, wasn’t exactly the model of a person with much activity up there.

This bandit was something of a cultivator, but people like him had no self-discipline or proper training routines.

He swung a blade, only to have his wrist grabbed, and his elbow forcefully bent the wrong way.

Bones shattered and pierced his flesh as he screamed in agony for only a second. He fell to his knees, only for Linfeng to smash the bandit’s skull with a kick, connecting his shin with his opponent’s face. The screaming came to a grinding halt, but shouts still filled the area as the other bandits fought one another like savage brutes.

There was no technique. There were no proper martial arts… They fought in a way that was only slightly better than a slugfest between two drunks in front of a bar.

Corpses hit the ground in quick succession. Linfeng furrowed his eyebrows.

“Seems like you aren’t like those barbarians, young man. I thought only us bandits had received the memo–Or rather… This invitation into a trap. No matter, I must kill you to get my sweet, sweet, incredibly low chance of actually surviving. Don’t take it personally, but I would burn as many orphanages as necessary for less than a single iota of chance to keep my life”

Linfeng tensed up as he looked the man up and down... He was a foreigner–Not a human from Leynlornd. The young cultivator wasn’t knowledgeable enough to know where this man came from exactly, but he wielded a sort of sabre.

With this weapon, he had cleaved down several of the other bandits.

“Sorry to disappoint, old man… But this isn’t a fight you can win”

“...I am not so old”

The swordsman bandit grinned and surged forward–Far faster than any other threats Linfeng had faced so far, but not quick enough to leave him vulnerable. He feigned a dodge, but swiftly pulled out a dagger he had taken from a bandit he had slain, blocking his opponent’s strike and subsequently creating a blast of sparks, as the steel collided with a screech.

When it came to raw strength, Linfeng had the advantage, so he brutally shoved the bandit’s weapon upward alongside the man’s arms, delivering a kick straight to his adversary’s stomach. The man was sent sliding backwards as he attempted to contract his muscles to endure the blow... But he winced–Struggling to catch his breath, and feeling the contents of his stomach desiring to exit through the way they had gotten in.

The unwashed swordsman quickly steadied him, but his next action was to deflect as Linfeng threw the dagger through the air. Still reeling from the hit, he could only defend his position, allowing the young man to close the distance again.

“You’re better than I thought! You-”

The bandit ate his words as Linfeng did more than just close the distance. He went ahead and committed to a full dropkick, which wasn’t exactly a typical move to just use out of the blue like this.

This caught the swordsman off guard, making him put up his guard in a hurry. But of course, the full might and weight of Linfeng–Alongside the momentum–Caused the bandit to be roughly thrown backwards and onto the ground.

Linfeng quickly got back up following his audacious manoeuvre, while his opponent cursed and gritted his teeth.

A soft, blue glow gathered around the man’s sabre, and with a swing, he launched a blade of mana straight at Linfeng, rushing behind it in view of capitalising on the young cultivator’s weakness whilst he dodged.

Unfortunately for him, Linfeng was prone to acting unpredictably.

Instead of dodging like most would have done in his situation, he turned around and took off sprinting, being actually quick enough to not have the blade catch up to him immediately. He ran toward the stone pillar and jumped up against it, using it as a platform to perform a backflip over the blade of mana.

Since the bandit had been running behind his own attack, Linfeng ended up landing behind his opponent.

The foreign man cursed once more, swinging his blade as he swiftly turned around so as to cut Linfeng off in case he was approaching, but the weapon never finished its course as the bandit’s forearm was seized.

“Fucker… You love grabbing people’s arms, don’t you?!”

The bandit brought out a hidden dagger from the sleeve of his left arm, stabbing at Linfeng. This attempt failed as this arm was stopped in its tracks as well, before Linfeng headbutted the bandit… Once… Twice… And thrice.

The man dropped his weapons, stumbling backwards until his back hit the stone pillar and he slid to the ground, dazed.

Looks like he was no cultivator. Instead, a typical warrior from another country, following the nameless way of power. His weapon is enchanted, pick it up to throw nice slashes of mana!

‘Nameless way of power? You can’t just drop something so interesting-sounding like it's nothing and not elaborate!’

I am afraid I am not permitted to elaborate

‘I often wonder whether you really can’t elaborate on stuff, or if you are just messing with me, System… Anyway’

Linfeng delivered a final kick, crushing the bandit’s head against the stone.

…Nothing happened for a full minute until a plant with what looked like a mouth on the end of it sprouted out of the ground.

“There are a few still hiding. Find them. Kill them… And earn your freedom”

The plant retracted into the ground, but not without saying one last thing:

“Do not even think about scaling the tower. I will kill you if you do”

Linfeng sighed.

Truth be told, he had thought about trying to climb up while others were fighting, but he had judged that it was too risky. The attacks of their captor were too quick, and while climbing, he would be especially vulnerable.

‘I’ll have to figure something else out. They seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere… Also, where the hell is Mala? I don’t believe my little rat would allow himself to get caught by any of these idiots’

Little did Linfeng know, he was absolutely right.

Mala had not been found by any bandit, but it wasn’t because of his talent at hide-and-seek… It was because it was simply impossible for anyone to find him down here.