novelraw Chapter 75: Wulala, the Human-Shaped Weapon
Chapter 75: Wulala, the Human-Shaped Weapon
The little girl swung her pickaxe and slammed it into the ground with a series of crashing blows, managing to carve out an eight-foot-deep tunnel in earth that had already frozen solid.
It was a good thing it was winter. If this kept up in any other season, Li Qiuchen suspected she might end up striking groundwater.
Never mind whether she was ladylike or not. As long as she was happy, that was fine.
Li Qiuchen crouched above, acting as a supervisor, occasionally offering opinions that sounded vaguely professional. Then he suddenly felt a faint trembling travel up through the ground beneath him. He couldn't help but frown, and stood up to look into the distance.
He saw two men charging toward him on horseback from far away, dressed in ragged clothes and wearing vicious expressions, waving blades and spears in their hands, howling and screaming as they came.
Bandits! Were they actually getting raided by bandits?
To be honest, Li Qiuchen didn't quite understand the thinking behind these bandits.
Blue Stone Platform wasn't a particularly ideal target.
For one thing, it was simply too close to the county seat. If they could come here to raid the place, that meant the county garrison could just as easily find their hideout.
For another, the Zhao family looked wealthy on the surface, but in reality they were nothing more than local landowners. The truly valuable things they owned were their land and the various businesses in town, none of which could be carried off.What could you actually steal? And how much of it?
But then again, he wasn't a real bandit himself.
Bandits had their own way of thinking.
Never mind how much I take. I've finally got this chance, so I'm going to take what I can.
Who says a landowning family has nothing worth taking? Landowners have the most grain. Did anyone think mountain bandits survived on the northwest wind alone without eating?
As for what came after, that could be dealt with later.
Once you've already gone up the mountain to become a bandit, what right does anyone have to expect you to think that far ahead?
Aye was standing right nearby, acting as Wulala's bodyguard. When he spotted the two bandits charging over, he drew the great sword from his back and planted it across the street, a single man blocking an entire road.
The bandits weren't stupid. One look at his size, and they immediately lost their nerve, pulling their horses around and trying to flee.
Aye let out a great roar, raised his hand, and hurled the sword.
Li Qiuchen had just yanked Wulala out of the tunnel when he turned his head and saw the terrifying sight.
That great sword, a full eight feet long, came crashing down like a door plank. The sword wind swept past, and men and horses alike were shattered.
There was no technique involved whatsoever, only pure, brute force. Both bandits and the horses beneath them were crushed into pulp by the flying sword.
The bandits still howling and shouting nearby were all struck dumb by the sight.
What in the world was that? Was this even right?
Aye grinned and hefted his other great sword, stepping forward.
The bandits in the distance instantly scattered in every direction.
This was unplayable. Someone was cheating.
Wulala waved her little pickaxe and tried to join the fight, but Li Qiuchen grabbed the back of her collar and hauled her back.
"Stop running around. Come home with me first!"
Li Qiuchen turned and ran back toward the house.
Boss Tang's side had more than enough firepower, so there was absolutely no need to worry about anyone's personal safety there. The house, on the other hand, was far more likely to run into trouble.
The premonition Li Qiuchen felt in his heart proved correct. He had barely made it to the front gate when he ran straight into a group of bandits heading directly for the Liu family home.
The other party didn't take the two children seriously at all. While directing their men to climb over the wall, their leader pulled out his blade and brought it straight down at Li Qiuchen's head.
Li Qiuchen's eyes flickered slightly. The moment his gaze met the bandit charging at him, the man's mind instantly turned to mush, and the blade in his hand slowed involuntarily.
Without even realizing it, the man had fallen under an illusion technique and forgotten what he had just been thinking.
Li Qiuchen stepped forward, seized the blade from his hand, and with a reverse swing, sent the man tumbling head over heels.
Before he could even turn to deal with the second man, he heard a sharp cry of pain.
Wulala shot out from behind Li Qiuchen like a nimble hunting hound and brought her pickaxe crashing down onto the top of the man's foot.
Li Qiuchen couldn't help but wince in sympathy for the poor wretch.
Killing someone is just a matter of dropping their head to the ground, but this move was truly vicious.
Highly effective, though not quite enough damage to be lethal.
While the man was still reeling, Li Qiuchen pulled Wulala back and followed up with one more slash.
There was a sharp crack, and the blade snapped clean in two.
What kind of decent material could a bandit's weapon possibly be made from? It was nothing but a strip of scrap iron. Even so, Li Qiuchen hadn't expected the durability to be this poor. It had only cut through two people before giving out completely.
"Lend me your pickaxe for a moment!"
"No!"
Wulala hugged her little pickaxe and shook her head furiously, "Anything else is fine, but absolutely not this. The pickaxe lives as long as I live..."
Oh, give me a break!
This was not a good time to be disciplining a troublesome child. He dealt with the two men in a few quick moves, and the remaining bandits immediately realized these two kids were not to be trifled with. With a roar, they surged in to surround them both.
Li Qiuchen didn't want to make too much of a scene.
He was a scholar, after all.
What kind of scholar would throw aside all dignity and brawl hand-to-hand with a bunch of mountain bandits? If word got out, people would laugh but there was no time for further deliberation, because someone had already flipped over the wall and jumped inside.
From inside the courtyard came sister-in-law Xiulan's cry of alarm, Liu Da's shouted curses, and the bandits' mocking laughter.
The situation was critical. There was no more room to play the pig eating the tiger.
"Wulala!"
"Hm?"
"Windmill!"
"What?"
Before the little Rakshasa ghost could react, Li Qiuchen grabbed her by the ankle and swung her straight into the bandits in front of him.
Who said he had no weapon? Had anyone in the jianghu ever heard of that rare and exotic weapon known as the One-Armed Copper Man?
Wulala was a very clever child, even if that cleverness had never been applied to anything proper.
In the instant she was flung outward, she understood exactly what Li Qiuchen meant by "windmill."
It was a game they had played a couple of days ago.
The game involved Li Qiuchen grabbing her by the feet and spinning her around in place. After three full rotations, he would throw her out and she would land in a distant snowdrift.
Dangerous, you say? If it weren't dangerous and exciting, she wouldn't want to play.
In that moment, a flash of inspiration struck Wulala. She raised her little pickaxe high and brought it crashing down with full force onto the ugly head in front of her.
This was their combined technique!
With a wet crack, the bandit's skull was smashed open like an egg, and the little pickaxe came away trailing red and white matter.
Of course, before any of that happened, he had already locked eyes with Li Qiuchen. His mind had gone completely blank, and he hadn't even thought to dodge.
Li Qiuchen had many ways he could have dealt with these few bandits, but he didn't want to expose his true capabilities.
So he used only the most subtle of his eye techniques, locking the bandits in place, then swung Wulala and her pickaxe around in circles and let her go to work.
And how did Wulala feel about this?
She was absolutely overjoyed, laughing away like a hen, her pickaxe held high.
After using the terrifying destructive power of the divine artifact, "Wulala's Pickaxe," to swiftly deal with the remaining bandits, Li Qiuchen tossed the little Rakshasa ghost up into the air and stepped across the bodies to vault up onto the top of the wall in one bound.
The two bandits inside the courtyard looked absolutely horrified.
What in the hell was going on out there? What were you all screaming and howling about?
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