Wu Guang remained standing a few dozens of feet away while the bandits traded a glance, seemingly deciding how to act. With no reaction from their opponent, they resumed their guard and started to advance. Judging from the fact that each of them was moving slightly towards opposite sides it could be guessed that they wanted to encircle him.

Wu Guang remained standing right until they had almost completed their maneuver. And at the last moment, rushed towards the spearman. His back was seemingly uncovered but before the shield bandit even thought about using this opportunity his face turned pale. Thought it was not surprising, after all, he saw flames emerging suddenly from the left hand of their opponent. The following moment he saw these flames covering and devouring his companion's head. And seeing this, he understood that the teen was simply playing with them before.

As Wu Guang turned from the now-dead spear-wielding bandit, which was unexpectedly killed in one movement his mind quickly found a reasonable answer for the fact "Seems that this one did not advance much or did not even reach the 8th level of the Body, as his skin did not have any resistance" which made him inwardly add "If I knew about this, I would have finished this one before".

The shield bandit that was still frozen did not react until Wu Guang prepared to launch against him, albeit the reaction was a bit outside the expectations generated by their previous bearing and manner

"I surrender!! Please don't kill me!!" The bandit shouted and throwing down his shield and sword quickly kneeled.

"We are on a mission to eliminate all of you, so repent on the other side" Without waiting for any response, Wu Guang rushed forward and with no hesitation decapitated the kneeled bandit before he could react.

And so, the bandit died only a few breaths after surrendering, something that he obviously did not expect. Wu Guang did not think much about the matter, as they fought to kill and so he killed on the opportunity. Still, it left him a bad impression of the fight and his mood soured, as in the end, he did not manage to use 'Flaming Fist' enough.

Wu Guang scanned the area while thinking of his next steps "I need to find the bandit that disappeared and then either search or wait for Yuan Taotu".

Thankfully the first part was completed easily, as he noticed a fresh hole near where the three were standing before. Approaching the hole while sidestepping the body of the archer bandit, Wu Guang found out that when Yuan Taotu spoke about traps, he indeed meant traps as the hole was one. It was a simple and pretty narrow ten feet hole, in which the last non-cultivator bandit had fallen and judged from the fact that he was not showing any sign of life, the trap was not only meant to stop but also had something to kill the one falling in it.

As Wu Guang carefully examined this hole he found what had killed the prey, or in this case the bandit - a simple iron stake was embedded on the bottom and judging from the narrowness of the hole, the bandit that fell in had no opportunity to evade being impaled by it.

After recovering the biter as he had called the dagger jokingly, Wu Guang decided to wait for Yuan Taotu. After all, if the latter wins he would come to find him. Although he had never seen Yuan Taotu fight yet, he was somehow sure that the latter would win his fight.

***

A pair of hours after Wu Guang sat down in meditation after finishing his part of the mission, Yuan Taotu indeed returned to the camp. Sensing the approach, Wu Guang opened his eyes only to see his partner walking without any visible injury, but the body behind him confirmed that the battle indeed happened, and the result was the expected one.

"Done?"

Answered by a nod, Wu Guang asked a few questions more, which were all responded either with a similar nod or a headshake but from which he found out that the battle took almost all this time and Yuan Taotu was not wounded, although he had spent a lot of qi so he would need to rest before moving on.

"I will then go gather the spoils while you rest, but could you be so kind as to inform me if there are more traps? Oh, and next time, don't forget to do it before you leave" The latter was said with a serious expression which changed right afterward to a smile, after all, Wu Guang did not really worry about the traps - he found out that they could be easily found out by simply concentrating on the surroundings, as the holes were not dug out but rather made by using a technique similar to 'Stomping the Hill' and so left a faint qi trace, albeit only noticeable to Spirit or superior realm experts.

Yuan Taotu did not answer to this with anything except a light shrug before loosening his grip on the corpse of 'Big Chopper' and walking a few steps before sitting down in meditation. Wu Guang actually questioned himself if the latter was true, as his silent partner expression did not change at all and his eyes were closed always anyway.

The spoils were quickly gathered and except for the time he needed to find the bandits he shot down, the rest was done in a few breaths.

He gathered 8 medium-quality cleavers that were identical to the 4 they had obtained previously as well as a medium quality spear, bow, shield, and sword. Surprisingly neither of the normal bandits or even the leather armored ex-soldiers carried anything except their weapons and a small pouch of necessities. So except for the fact that the latter four weapons were of military type, nothing could help in identifying them at all.

Before proceeding to examine 'Big Chopper', Wu Guang also recovered his quiver and blade-bow, refilling the former with the arrows carried by the bandit archer.

For the sake of respecting a possible claim of personal loot, he only proceeded to examine the bandit boss after finishing and moving the rest of the way, and his findings managed to surprise even himself.

The first surprise was actually not the spoils, but the fact that the bandit body had twelve exact pokes, most probably spear ones - which instantly made him note down to ask Yuan Taotu about it, after all, the latter carried a bronze staff as his weapon. This staff had been hidden in the holding pouch before they left the sect, at least if the normal almost silent explanation was correctly understood by Wu Guang.

The spoils did generate more surprises, especially as this 'Big Chopper' carried 6 holding pouches, of which three were empty, one was full with firewood, one had 50 gold coins and several bottles of wine, while the last was full of supplies. After taking them from the belt a small wallet was found, which except some coins contained a stack of paper, which was the first and only item useful to at least guess at the origin of these bandits.

This stack of papers on closer observation was composed of 11 equal palm-sized papers and after Wu Guang separated one of them and saw the characters 'Writ of Liberty' the identity of the mortal bandits was solved, at least partially. After checking that the writs were expedited by the 'Flowing Leaves City Guard', Wu Guang decided to ask Yuan Taotu to keep this out of the reports, at least from his, while he would do the same except the one to Elder Mo.

The finishing part of the spoils was the armor and weapon, but the former was too covered in holes to be salvageable, so Wu Guang simply checked it and the robes below for hidden compartments or items but found nothing. 'Big Chopper' carried at least from Wu Guang's first observations a five or so feet broad big saber and now as he took the 4 and a half feet sheat from the body, this was confirmed. Firstly he examined the pommel, handle and guard, finding them to be the work of a master smith, albeit a common one - as neither spirit was felt nor runes seen. Taking the blade out of the sheath, Wu Guang confirmed the fact that it was a work of the highest mortal quality. The blade was entirely made of blackened steel and had absolutely no details, neither on the blade or the lower part so except for admiring the work, Wu Guang found nothing about the blade, except the fact it's very heavy - about one hundred pounds.

After the blade was sheathed and then placed near the other spoils from the body, Wu Guang turned around and found out that Yuan Taotu had stopped meditating, at least that was the impression he got and then confirmed by being answered when he called him out.

"Hey"

"Hmm?"

"I gathered everything. The things from 'Big Chopper' are here" Wu Guang said and pointed towards the blade and pouches, before continuing

"I had a question and a favor to ask, so hear me out"

Receiving a nod as an invitation to continue, Wu Guang simply stated both of them directly

"Well, the question is, what did you kill him with? I thought you used a staff. And the favor is actually nothing big, I found several writs on his body that can be useful for an ongoing investigation - as our current mission does not ask for them, can I keep them?"

Yuan Taotu rose from his standing position and in place of answering simply brought out a scepter. Or to be exact an identical copy of his staff, but only a foot long.

Showing it to Wu Guang he proceeded to infuse it with qi and after a moment the scepter grew and became the six-foot bronze staff Wu Guang had seen before. But this still wasn't the end of the demonstration, as Yuan Taotu made a quick movement with the hand that held the staff and after it, a click was heard. The result of this click was actually the answer to his question. The circular top of the staff opened and a small cone-like spearhead had appeared.

"So both staff and spear. Thank you for the answer" And then Wu Guang added

"And the writs?"

"Keep them"

"Thank you. I can't tell you right now about the investigation as I am the lowest involved party, but when I am allowed to, I will"

This was followed by a small nod from Yuan Taotu as if accepting the explanation.

"Let's gather everything and move out. We should be able to reach the village before the sunset and then we can move towards the sect, after all, I doubt that we need to fear a bandit or a starved beast even if we travel by night"

"Agreed"