The Devil's Tribulation

After leaving the Novice Village, Pan Chengfeng headed west. Although he didn't know the exact location of Fancheng, he wouldn't get lost if he knew the direction. He originally wanted to follow a caravan, but Pan Chengfeng thought they were too slow. It would take at least ten days or half a month to get there if he followed a caravan. Although they were all mountain roads and small roads, and nine hundred miles, or four hundred and fifty kilometers, it did take a lot of time for this world with backward transportation. But for him, who was carrying a tripod all over the mountain, it was just like that.

Pan Chengfeng was not in a hurry to travel, and he kept moving at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. Maintaining physical strength is a basic rule of survival in the wild. Although Pan Chengfeng was not afraid of mountain bandits and wild beasts, he could not guarantee that he would encounter some immortal cultivators or something like that, so safety was the first priority, and maintaining physical strength was necessary. After three hours of travel, it was already dark. Pan Chengfeng did not plan to travel day and night, so he found a place on the side of the road and started a fire. Pan Chengfeng estimated: "It's about nine o'clock in the evening now, no wonder I'm hungry. Hehe, fortunately I saved some meat before." He took out the meat and salt, about 100 kilograms of meat, and the storage ring was too small. Pan Chengfeng had to bring a lot of things, so he could only bring this little bit of meat. After taking out the dagger and cutting the pork, Pan Chengfeng was already a little impatient. Although this little bit of meat could only fill his stomach, it was better than having an empty stomach.

After eating a few pieces of meat, Pan Chengfeng suddenly frowned: "How can there be someone here so late?" Pan Chengfeng remained calm and continued to grill the meat. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a group of five people slowly approached Pan Chengfeng. The leader was a sturdy man with a scar on his face, carrying a large ring knife, and followed by four minions. One of them laughed after seeing Pan Chengfeng and said, "Someone dared to light a fire here, are you afraid that others can't find you? It looks like a kid who just came out to travel, without any experience in the martial arts world. Brother, our trip today was not in vain."

Pan Chengfeng heaved a sigh of relief: "They are all mortals." He had sensed it before, but now that he was so close, he was more certain that these five were all mortal warriors. Although they were stronger than ordinary people, they were still mortals and posed no threat to Pan Chengfeng. Pan Chengfeng continued to eat meat without even glancing at the five people. The big man also observed Pan Chengfeng and saw that he had no reaction at all. He was a little nervous. The other party was too calm. He was either an idiot or a capable person. Being a mountain bandit also requires good eyesight. The big man knew very well who could be robbed and killed and who could not be provoked.

The big man was not originally in this area, but he was forced to retreat here to do business some time ago because of Sun Erleng's bandit suppression. He had about fifty brothers before, but they were almost wiped out. Now there are only these few people left, but the big man did not despair. He was alone at first, and slowly gathered a group of brothers. He believed that as long as he was alive, he could make a comeback. What's more, the big man heard that the biggest bandit in that area, the big boss nicknamed "Zuoshan Diao", had more than 500 people under his command, but he was not good at vision. When the soldiers came, they didn't run away, thinking that they could use the terrain to fight guerrilla warfare with the soldiers. As a result, they were surrounded by thousands of people. Even Zuoshan Diao himself was killed. He was lucky to escape, because many bandits in that area were scared away.

The big man was a little undecided, and the minions around him were already impatient: "Brother, I'll go get that guy, why are you pretending!" The minions took a step forward, passed the crowd and was about to catch Pan Chengfeng. The big man hurriedly grabbed the minion's collar, pulled hard, and pulled the minion to the ground, and hurriedly bowed and said: "Sorry to bother you, we will leave immediately." Several minions were confused, but since the big brother had spoken, they could only follow him. As soon as they turned around, Pan Chengfeng said: "Did I let you go?" The big man who turned around was already sweating profusely when he heard what Pan Chengfeng said. But he still turned around and said: "I wonder if the young master has any other instructions?

One of the minions couldn't stand it anymore when he saw the big man being so humble, and he shouted, "Damn it, you have no shame! Big brother! Why are you being polite to him? Just kill him, he's a fat sheep!" The big man was shocked, and just wanted to stop him, but he felt that the minion who was talking had already flown out and hit a big tree, and his life or death was unknown. The remaining few people were shaking like frightened quails. Because they didn't see Pan Chengfeng do anything at all, their companions were beaten to death. Pan Chengfeng's trick of hitting the bull from a distance to hit these mortals was really a waste of talent. Seeing that the few people were shocked, Pan Chengfeng said coldly: "You guys have blood on your hands, right?" When the few people heard Pan Chengfeng's question, they knelt down and begged for mercy, shouting: "Master, please spare us! Master, please spare us! We have no choice but to become bandits, and we are forced by the government!"

The big man's head was broken. When the little minion was about to step forward to catch Pan Chengfeng, he felt the momentum bursting from Pan Chengfeng, so he hurriedly stopped the little minion's action. Unexpectedly, the other little minion lost his life after saying just one sentence. It seems that everyone will die today. Seeing that several people were knocking their heads and bleeding, Pan Chengfeng did not show any mercy. After all, the bandits must have the blood of many innocent people on their hands. However, he still had something to ask, so he said, "Stop, I have something to ask you." When the few people heard that Pan Chengfeng wanted to ask questions, they seemed to see a ray of hope, and hurriedly replied, "Sir, just ask whatever you want, we will tell you everything we know!

Pan Chengfeng asked, "Are you bandits from this area? There are many bandits here?" The big man replied, "We were not originally in this area, but we were surrounded by soldiers and fled to this area to make a living. There are quite a lot of bandits around here. I know of more than a dozen mountain strongholds." Pan Chengfeng frowned and thought to himself, "It seems that they were driven here by Sun Erleng, but it's a pity that they were not wiped out, so they fled here to continue to do evil." Pan Chengfeng continued to ask, "How far is it from here to Fancheng? How to get there? Do you know the direction?" The big man hurriedly said, "I know it clearly. I often go to Fancheng to sell goods. From here to the northwest, it's another 200 miles away." Pan Chengfeng knew that those were all things they had robbed, but he couldn't care less, and continued to ask, "Do you know if there is a store in Fancheng that uses crystal beads for trading?" The big man was stunned, and Pan Chengfeng knew from his expression that he didn't know about crystal beads, let alone other things. So he sighed and said, "Be a good person in your next life." Several people were shocked, but before they had time to think about anything else, they slowly lost consciousness.

Pan Chengfeng retracted his fist and looked at the corpses on the ground. He was a little uncomfortable. Although he was decisive, it was his first time to kill someone, so he still had some psychological burden. Pan Chengfeng quickly adjusted his mentality. These mountain bandits killed people without blinking an eye. They deserved to die, so there was no need to feel sorry for them. In his previous life, he read Water Margin and felt that there were few good people among the 108 heroes. Since he became a bandit, he must have robbed houses. It sounds good to say "rob the rich to help the poor", but is it wrong to be rich? Are they not ordinary people? And where are there so many rich people for you to rob? How many people are there in the entire Liangshan Marsh? Eating, drinking, defecating and urinating is a terrible consumption. They don't produce anything, so they must have robbed houses. Maybe, there may not be indiscriminate killing of innocent people, but in that era, robbing people's food was not much different from killing people. Not to mention Sun Erniang, who ran a black shop and made human meat buns, Wu Song even killed the whole family, including the maids and servants. Can he be called a good person? Every wrong has its perpetrator and every debt has its creditor. Even if those maids and servants usually bully others by taking advantage of their power, they do not deserve the death penalty.

After eating the meat, Pan Chengfeng quickly put out the fire. This time he learned something. In the middle of the night, in the wilderness, lighting a fire is clearly telling people "I'm here." In the future, I should try to avoid making such low-level mistakes. It's true that I just left the Novice Village. Pan Chengfeng found a place to lie down and fell asleep in a short while. Although Pan Chengfeng is so casual, he will wake up as long as there is danger. Pan Chengfeng used to sleeping outdoors in the Red Mountains and was used to it. There are no monsters here. After Pan Chengfeng put out the fire, the only ones who can find him are probably wild beasts. The wild beasts will be scared to death when they smell the smell on Pan Chengfeng. After all, Pan Chengfeng has killed many monsters, and the murderous aura on his body is still very strong.

The next day, Pan Chengfeng woke up at dawn. After tidying up, he set off directly. Following the direction pointed by the bandits last night, Pan Chengfeng went straight all the way. On the way, he encountered two more gangs of bandits, which shows how peaceful the section of Lixian County was. Sun Erleng did a great thing for the local people. Pan Chengfeng showed no mercy. The two gangs of bandits, forty or fifty people, were all killed by Pan Chengfeng. From the disgust at the beginning, to a little numbness later. Although those people deserved to die, Pan Chengfeng was still not used to killing so many people at once. There was no way. After killing the last bandit, Pan Chengfeng found a place to meditate and adjust his mentality, which delayed him for another day.

On the third day, Pan Chengfeng finally saw Fancheng. Even though he had been to a big city in his previous life, he was still shocked. There was only one word for it: big! He had never seen such a big city before. How could he find a shop to trade crystal beads? With a population of 10 million concentrated in the city, you can imagine how big Fancheng is.