The corpse of the magical beast crashed heavily to the ground, shocking everyone awake.
The captain of the Golden Lion Mercenary Group stared wide-eyed at the beast’s corpse in disbelief, then looked over at Muli, who was sitting calmly on the other side.
He suddenly drew in a sharp breath.
He killed a magical beast alone! Alone, in such a short amount of time, he killed a magical beast!
What kind of combat power was this? Even those leaders of large mercenary groups wouldn’t dare say they could do something like this, yet someone like that had been casually recruited by him as a temporary mercenary?! He even cut his gold coins short.
Was he not fully awake earlier?
The man crushed by the beast let out groans of pain, and the others slowly came back to their senses and began cleaning the battlefield.
Even with someone like Muli — a humanoid weapon — striking and killing the magical beast, their losses were still tragic. Several were trampled to death by the beast in the chaos, and a few others were severely injured, likely unable to survive. The group of over thirty mercenaries had suddenly lost more than half their number, which directly caused a heavy, oppressive atmosphere as they stopped to rest.
Someone tried to approach Muli and speak with him, but was pushed back by his silent attitude.
The only fortunate thing was that many parts of the magical beast could be stripped and sold for a high price, which could be considered compensation for their losses.
Although it was Muli who killed it, the captain thought again — they had also helped from the side. Since everyone was in the same mercenary group, it was normal to share what they hunted together.
He walked over to Muli with a smile much warmer and more eager than usual. “Muli, about the things we got from this magical beast, how about I sell them in Pudara and then give you your share of the gold coins?”
“You know, we’ve now lost many of our companions, and we might have to hurry on the road for a while. It won’t be good to stay too long in the smaller towns down the way. These little towns won’t sell for a good price. I know we killed this beast thanks to you, I definitely won’t treat you unfairly, you can be assured.”
Anyway, when the gold passed through his hands using his connections, he would shave off a layer of fat no matter what.
Muli silently listened to him finish, then nodded.
Seeing this, the captain immediately felt relieved. He had just witnessed Muli’s abilities and was somewhat wary in his heart, but then seeing how inexperienced and easy to fool he seemed, greed overtook his caution.
He knew a little about Muli’s background — said to be a remnant who lived in the polar lands since childhood, having had little contact with others. So not only did he dare deceive him, he even began calculating in his mind how to better use this little fellow to earn more gold coins.
Meeting such a good fighter was rare. If he could find a way to bring him under his control, maybe the Golden Lion Mercenary Group could become a large mercenary group in the future!
With such a beautiful dream, the captain left satisfied.
Inside the cage, Meili listened to their conversation… listening to the captain monologuing to himself, she couldn’t help rubbing her dress.
She had been in this mercenary group for half a month, and she had discovered that although Muli was very strong, his treatment wasn’t even as good as those two men who often slacked off and tried to come peek at her.
The captain’s words just now were most likely testing Muli. If he showed even a little of that power he used to kill beasts and bandits to threaten him, the captain would promise him more tangible benefits, or directly invite him to become vice-captain of the mercenary group. It should have been like that.
But Muli had no reaction at all. With this kind of indifferent attitude, it looked like the captain was planning to take advantage of him.
Meili, clever and accustomed to reading faces after managing her own life for over ten years, thought this to herself. Had Muli seen through the captain’s intentions? He definitely had. Perhaps because he was too strong, he didn’t care about these things.
Forget it. She herself didn’t even know what would happen to her in the future. How could she bother caring about their matters?
She lay back in the cage, watching through the gap as Muli’s blood-stained cloak dripped blood downward, recalling the moment earlier when he killed the magical beast.
Too amazing. It was a kind of strength different from that of her mother, Lady Pegg.
She hopes that one day, she could also become someone powerful, someone who could take control of her own life.
The carriage jolted and swayed as they continued on the road.
They were unlucky — not long after encountering that magical beast, they passed through a stretch of desolate forest. This desolate forest had not been very dangerous a few months ago, but recently, a large bandit group had arrived.
The bandit group had chased a magical beast here, wanting to capture this isolated, armored magical beast alive, so they could sell it at a high price to those bored nobles in the major cities for beast-fighting performances.
After chasing for so long, the beast was suddenly taken down by a small mercenary group that popped out of nowhere.
The few bandits who were responsible for gathering information and monitoring the beast did not see the Golden Lion Mercenary Group kill it. By the time they arrived, those mercenaries were already dissecting the beast’s corpse.
They hurriedly went back to report the news.
This large bandit group had at least over a hundred people. They had killed many and even eaten people before, far more ruthless than ordinary mercenary groups. They were always the ones robbing others; how could they tolerate others stealing something they had set their sights on?
Without a word, more than a hundred men swarmed out, heading straight toward the mercenary group that now only had a little over twenty people left.
“Hurry up, get to the city down ahead and rest, don’t dawdle!” The captain of the Golden Lion Mercenary Group, riding at the front, urged them from time to time.
They were carrying the magical beast’s corpse, and the thick smell of blood would attract wild beasts. So many had died, making it easy to be targeted by bandits. They had to remain even more alert.
In the hunting laws of the wilderness, the hunter and the hunted could switch roles at any time.
For their own safety, he continuously urged everyone to speed up. Once they reached the next city, he would be able to deal with some of the less valuable materials from the magical beast, then hire some temporary mercenaries to ensure a safe journey.
Unfortunately, in just such a short distance, misfortune descended again.
The vibrations of hooves, accompanied by strange sharp howls — a sign of bandits approaching. Only large bandit groups would dare to show off with such an imposing formation.
When the Golden Lion Mercenary Group’s captain heard this sound, his face darkened, even more despairing than when they encountered the magical beast earlier. If they encountered a magical beast, there was still a chance to escape. But with a large bandit group, there was basically no way to survive.
Wasn’t this road supposed to have no large bandit group?! How could something that rarely happened in years suddenly all appear today!
In just a moment, their convoy was already surrounded.
The bandits surrounding them were different from the wild tribal bandits they had fought before. These bandits rode on horseback, wearing armor made of various animal hides and bones, their weapons glinting coldly — far better than what the mercenaries had.
The mercenary captain used his peripheral vision to find Muli’s position in the group, his mind spinning rapidly. He put on a friendly smile and said, “Everyone, we are a mercenary group delivering goods to the Giant Boulder City Auction House…”
Usually, large auction houses and wilderness bandits had some business dealings. They tacitly understood each other and wouldn’t make things too ugly.
He wanted to try whether these bandits would give face to the Giant Boulder City Auction House.
“Hmph, auction house.” The bandits snorted twice, their tone full of disdain.
They were bandits, their favorite thing was to turn hostile and deny relationships. Even if they truly had cooperated before, if they were angered, they would still rob without hesitation. As long as they killed cleanly enough, no one would know. Besides, what was the Giant Boulder City Auction House worth?
The leader didn’t bother speaking more. With a raised saber, the bandits howled strangely as they charged, scattering the mercenary group that had just suffered heavy casualties.
Just as expected, these greedy, damned wild dogs were all bad! The mercenary captain cursed inwardly and picked up his weapon to resist.
The other side’s numbers were several times theirs. No matter how much they resisted, it was only the struggle before death. Thinking of his goods and the mercenary group he had worked hard to build up, his heart bled as he shouted, “Muli, come here quickly!”
He might not be able to defeat these bandits, but maybe the powerful Muli could bring him out of the encirclement alive.
Muli stood on the carriage frame. With one hand, he grabbed a bandit’s hacking blade, snatching it away by gripping the blade directly. A toss and a catch — the tip thrust forward, piercing a bandit to death.
With the other hand, he used the same motion to seize another blade. A horizontal slash — and with one strike, three bandits were cut in half at the waist.
The others had just begun clashing weapons with the bandits, yet he had already killed four.
The horses pulling the carriage were frightened and galloped forward. The convoy was in chaos, everyone trying to break out of the encirclement, but most were cut down by the bandits surging in. Only Muli stood at the front of the carriage — the bandits swarming him were all flung flying, some whole, some shattered to pieces.
Noticing the situation here, the bandit leader who had been riding leisurely outside the battle narrowed his eyes. He took up his own heavy, long spear, his arm bulging as he hurled it toward Muli with overwhelming force.
He had used this move to kill many enemies before — no one had ever survived his heavy spear.
Muli’s ears twitched beneath the skull helm. Hearing the sound cutting through the air, he raised his hand, five fingers spread, and caught the incoming spear without budging an inch. With a twist of his wrist, he took it as his own weapon, swinging it in a horizontal sweep — more than a dozen bandits had their chest bones crushed and fell in a heap.
When he moved, he was simply too ferocious. All bandits who approached did not survive more than five seconds. The others, seeing that even their leader’s spear had failed to subdue this monster, were terrified and backed away, clearing a path that let his carriage charge straight to the front of the group.
The mercenary captain rejoiced. Seeing Muli about to reach him, he kicked off from his horse, attempting to jump onto Muli’s carriage.
“Pft—” He felt himself fly, his body suddenly becoming very light. Too light. Confused, he looked down — only half his body had flown off. The other half was still firmly seated on the horse.
His upper half crashed heavily onto the carriage, his wide eyes meeting Meili’s gaze through the gap in the black cloth.
Muli lowered his head to glance, seeing the captain’s still-twitching corpse. His movements paused slightly. But only slightly — the bandit leader who had killed the captain charged forward with a raised blade.
“Where did this brat come from? Killing so many of my men — so arrogant! You really want to die!”
He swung, chopping off the head of the horse pulling the carriage. The cart suddenly jerked and overturned.
The two short blades in Muli’s hands were split apart by the leader’s large saber. Muli discarded the short blades, stabbing the heads of two bandits trying to sneak up on him, then grabbed the chromium-silver cage on the carriage that was also about to flip, lifting it up.
The black cloth had long since fallen off during the battle, so the bandits finally realized there was a woman in the black cage. Even the bandit leader was stunned.
Chromium-silver was hard and heavy. Yet the large cage looked light in Muli’s hand, before it came crashing down heavily onto the mounted bandit leader, knocking him messily off his horse.
