Legend of the Heavenly Fruit
Eps. 95 — Up the Rankings
Zhou Yuan's sword ability had already increased beyond his ability in the first life, the Five Elements Sword technique he had learned during these three years made his comprehension of sword arts improve to a higher level.
One of the elemental sword techniques alone was already considered a high-level sword technique in the martial world let alone Zhou Yuan who used five element sword techniques at once, his swordplay became much more deadly.
The chief rogues gulped watched everything, his gaze on Zhou Yuan began to shift with time until there was a feeling of fear in his heart.
The fear began to become real in the next minute, Zhou Yuan managed to finish off half the number of his subordinates and continued to decrease every second until their number was only tens.
The action made the new bandits come to terms with Zhou Yuan's strength, ganged up on him unable to get Zhou Yuan killed and from the start, their numbers were completely meaningless before the young man.
They immediately took a distance of fear of being targeted by Zhou Yuan's sword next but Zhou Yuan did not let that happen.
"You want to go, I'll help you go to the afterlife..." Zhou Yuan smiled coldly. "The Sword of the Five Elements — Thunderbolt Shadows!"
Zhou Yuan's body was split into five pieces of self, each of his mirrors instantly attacking in a different direction and killing every single rogue that was within range of his attack.
The rogues were shocked by the technique and they were not prepared Zhou Yuan suddenly became numerous, the move killing ten other rogues.
The robbers' knees went limp, they felt helpless against Zhou Yuan. They wanted to run but their bodies were too trembling to do that.
Zhou Yuan killed the rogues without showing any expression of doubt in his heart, his still clear gaze made the rogues suspect that Zhou Yuan was a high-level criminal.
Zhou Yuan intended to kill even more but the roaring Chief stopped his swing.
"Stop, if you keep killing my members then you should be prepared to fight the figure behind us!" The chief rogues had no other way, he felt he could not escape Zhou Yuan so once again he threatened him.
Zhou Yuan frowned. "What do you mean?"
The chief thief tried to dare himself to explain even though his words trembled a little. He said that the reason his group blackmailed the village was because there was an organization behind him that ordered it.
"If you kill us, the organization will wrath and chase you all over the world. You're not gonna survive... Apologize now before it's too late..." The chief rogues said loudly, trying to cover up his anxiety.
Zhou Yuan shook his head softly, without hearing the chief thief's words he moved again to attack the nearest thief. Zhou Yuan started to do the action again.
The chief rogues smile faded away changing in fear of enveloping him even more than before.
Zhou Yuan was not only affected by his threat, instead slaughtering the remaining bandits without mercy.
The rogues felt unsure of escaping Zhou Yuan so they tried to fight to the end, hoping that Zhou Yuan could be defeated by such an amount without knowing that what they were doing was not much different from ushering in lives.
The chief thief was about to run away but he felt his actions would get him killed sooner. Before he came up with another idea Zhou Yuan had already wiped out all his subordinates.
Zhou Yuan swung his sword to clear the blood he was sticking to, his gaze fixed on the chief thief then stepped towards him.
"All right, I'm sick of you guys. If you still love your life talk, tell me who's behind you."
This time the chief rogues did not have the courage anymore to threaten, he was already very frightened looking at Zhou Yuan's cold gaze. It finally explained everything he knew including the organization behind them.
***
"Today your village is safe, I have overcome the bandits." Zhou Yuan explained the situation to the village chief and the other residents regarding what happened. "Maybe you'd be surprised to see out of the village, but I suggest you don't look at it."
Zhou Yuan suggested that they take another path if they wanted to get out of his village if they did not want to see something terrible.
The Village Chief nodded, since earlier he and the others were waiting for Zhou Yuan behind the gate without knowing what was happening there. Seeing Zhou Yuan alright and safe, made them feel relieved.
Zhou Yuan originally intended to buy some food and seasonings in the village but the Village Chief gave them away for free.
"Thank you, I owe you guys so much." Zhou Yuan received a gift from the villagers.
"No swordsman, it is We who should speak this way..."
Zhou Yuan nodded. "Then we split up here, it's good to see you guys." Zhou Yuan spurred his horse, leaving the village.
***
From that village, about two days Zhou Yuan rode on his horse he found a city.
Zhou Yuan stopped by the city, the first thing he looked for while there was to look for the hero guild.
After asking some of the locals Zhou Yuan managed to find him, it was not difficult to look for him because the hero guild was quite famous in this city.
The hero guild had a two-story building that had a fairly large land, Zhou Yuan entered it, there seemed to be only a few people inside so that Zhou Yuan's arrival was quite aware by others.
"I'd like to report that I've completed this mission..." Zhou Yuan handed the letter of the village chief to the administrative officer who was a man of twenties.
"Oh the mission of this village..." The administrative officer seemed to know the village that Zhou Yuan was visiting, he checked Zhou Yuan's letter and matched the completed mission. "You have defeated the bandits, how do you finish them off, arrest them or imprison them?"
"I took them all out."
The administrative officer coughed, not expecting Zhou Yuan's reply to be so.
"Hm, did you say that?" Make sure his ears don't hear wrong.
"I killed them, there's nothing I let them live."
The attendant looked at Zhou Yuan from bottom to top, clearly the man in front of him was still a dozen years old.
"After I investigated about the bandit group, I put the mission of enhanced B class. Did you overcome them with your group?" The clerk thought it impossible for Zhou Yuan to handle hundreds of robbers by himself so he thought Zhou Yuan had a group.
"Nothing, I overcame them alone."
The attendant scratched his head awkwardly, confused as to what to say. He hoped Zhou Yuan's talk was a joke but the young man's expression was quite serious.
"Ehm, may I know your badge?"
Zhou Yuan nodded and showed his badge which was an E-class hero.
"It's hard to believe you've completed the bandits myself but I have no other choice because you've actually completed the mission..." The administration officer then placed a sizable leather pouch on his desk. "It's a gift for you."
Zhou Yuan opened the leather pouch which turned out to contain hundreds of gold coins. "The pay is more expensive than I thought."
The administrative officer nodded then explained that the village that Zhou Yuan had occupied earlier was not the only one the bandits had attacked. Many villages reported the same thing so that the price of the bandit group became higher.
"By the way that you've completed a class B mission, do you want to move up to the next hero class?"
Raising the hero rank should take a long time but since Zhou Yuan completed a high-class mission far above his class he was able to rise even if he only completed one mission.
Zhou Yuan thought for a while to consider a few things before finally agreeing to it, the administrative officer then gave another badge where the badge had the letter D written in front of him.