Chapter 86: The Bandit Leader Blessed with Extraordinary Fortune

“Who dares to cause trouble under my nose!”
A thunderous roar exploded across the entire camp and its surroundings as a towering, broad-shouldered figure burst out from one of the tents.

Whiz, whiz, whiz...

There was a bonfire by the tents, and his imposing frame made him an ideal target. The warriors from the Shen family, unsure who to aim at, immediately loosed several arrows at him as soon as he appeared.

“Despicable! Attacking by stealth!”

The burly man bellowed, snatching up an iron rack and brandishing it fiercely. He struck down the incoming arrows with ferocious skill; not a single shaft pierced his defense.

After failing to take him down, the Shen warriors fired again—a volley of arrows sliced through the air with shrill, cutting winds. Yet aside from the clangor of metal upon metal, not a scratch was left on him.

“Let me show you how a real man shoots!”

Shen Shi paid the brawny man little mind, calmly focusing on the bandit chief lurking in the shadows. Suddenly, Shen Shi felt a chilling sense of being targeted. Before he could react, three arrows shot forth like lightning. Strangely, their flight paths didn’t aim for him directly. Yet as they neared, the arrowheads veered midair, hurtling straight for his vital points with uncanny precision.

What remarkable archery!

A flicker of admiration darted through Shen Shi’s mind; this skill surpassed even his family's own archery techniques. In a contest of bowmanship alone, he would have yielded, but his strengths did not lie solely in the bow. His gaze remained steely and unreadable; with a powerful sweep of his arm, a surge of internal energy erupted, conjuring a tornado that swept the three arrows away in an instant.

He abandoned conventional archery, instead enveloping his arrows in true energy, seamlessly drawing and loosing three more shafts that shot forth like meteors toward the burly man.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The large man, evidently their leader, wielded his iron rack with extraordinary prowess, deflecting all three arrows. Yet the energy imbued in them forced him back three steps, leaving his guard wide open.

Strike while the iron is hot!

A faint smile curled Shen Shi’s lips. With one hand gripping his bow, the other plucked another arrow from the quiver. The bowstring thrummed again and again as he unleashed three more energy-charged arrows, their fierce aura enveloping the big man.

“Damn it!”

The man glared furiously, swinging his iron rack with all his might.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

This time, the impacts rang out with explosive force; each arrow shattered midair into a fog of powder that drifted and hung in the air.

---

“Hahaha! How exhilarating!”
Shen Shi laughed heartily, leaping into the sky with the poise of a descending immortal, radiating an unassailable presence. His arrow quiver already emptied, yet his hands never ceased their motion; arrows of pure energy formed visibly at his fingertips.

Qi Arrow Technique!

Suddenly, Shen Shi’s figure paused midair, then streaked down like a meteor toward the burly man. The bowstring vibrated repeatedly, unleashing a ceaseless rain of energy arrows, pressing forward relentlessly behind the barrage.

“Die, all of you!”

Grimacing, the big man hurled his iron rack to meet the onslaught. The forceful winds howled as the rack shattered into fragments.

Shen Shi’s feet landed, his body vanishing in a flash; when he reappeared, he stood directly before the giant. In his hand, seemingly conjured from nowhere, was a blade. In the next instant, the burly man’s body split cleanly in two.

With the champion slain, the remaining foes were swiftly dispatched by the Shen family warriors.

“Take care of the bodies. We’re heading back.”

Shen Shi frowned, gazing into the distance. In these times, wild beasts were everywhere, and the scent of blood had already drawn many. If the corpses weren’t dealt with, the beasts would develop a taste for flesh. Moreover, the luck of these men was peculiar—the lowest among them bore streaks of white tinged with red, while the one who had just died had luck shifting from crimson to green.

From Shen Shi’s understanding, a trace of red in one's fortune meant qualification for office; full red was about the sixth or seventh rank, blue-green signified fifth to third rank, pure blue to azure was second rank, and emerald green was first rank. The imperial family’s luck shone yellow.

For such bandits to possess such remarkable fortune! Shen Shi, though not a true official, knew they could not be ordinary. That’s why he wanted to collect the corpses and present them to Bao Zheng—perhaps Bao would recognize them.

“Young master.”

“What is it?”

“There are people inside the tent. They say they know you,” reported one of the warriors.

“People? Take me to them.”

So there were survivors… Shen Shi approached.

“Brother Shen! Brother Shen! Thank you for saving us!”

As Shen Shi drew near, he recognized them at once—Kong Xueli, Liu Yuanze, the Qian brothers, and even Xi Hou and his servant.

“What happened here?” Shen Shi asked.

Not only he, but the others were curious as well. Why had the bandits captured them but not killed them?

Their capture traced back to the Flower Viewing Gathering.

---

The Flower Viewing Gathering at Lanruo Temple was not a single-day affair, but lasted an entire month. That month of indulgence and revelry had been most pleasurable. When the gathering ended, they departed the temple, and the girls hired for the event left as well.

By ill chance, they ran into the bandits on the road.

“What rotten luck! We never expected to run into bandits. Luckily, we reacted quickly and revealed our identities—otherwise, they’d have killed us.”

They still shuddered at the memory.

“Unlucky? If you attend a few more Hundred Flowers Gatherings, your luck will only get worse,” Shen Shi warned Kong Xueli.

“Is there a connection?” Kong Xueli asked.

“Believe it or not.”

The worth of cultivation techniques lies in how purely they draw upon the world’s vital energies. The purer, the farther one can progress along the Way.

The same was true for gathering talent and fortune. But those who collected fortune could never guarantee they took only the good; they might just as easily siphon away one’s luck.

“If that’s true, then she might have taken away my bad luck,” Kong Xueli retorted. “Maybe that’s why you were able to rescue me.”

This rascal! I have words better left unsaid.

“Young master, I think he’s just infatuated with one of my sisters. Give him some time, he’ll recover,” Fourteenth Lady explained.

Shen Shi glanced him over, saw he was unharmed, and said no more.

But then—

Strange! The corpses of the slain bandits were undergoing a bizarre transformation.

The luck that had clung to them was dissipating—except for one. No, not one person, but one corpse.

The body of the burly man Shen Shi had cleaved in two; not only did its luck remain, it was absorbing the fortune from the other corpses.

An awakened eye: When a person dies but their luck remains, they may transform into a jiangshi—a corpse abomination. Thus begins the change.