Multiple bandits, many people who Alex had never met, seen, or even heard of. Given the bandits’ guts to dare attack a city, it was obvious that they were at least certain of their victory on some level.

Alex just wasn’t sure how confident they were of their victory. “What even is the point of attacking a city? That’s just asking the empire to fight back,” Alex thought.

He looked down and saw a fight breaking out. A man in an orange-colored robe was starting to attack an elder of the Tiger sect.

Alex saw that the elder for the Tiger sect was a younger man, who by his age, Alex guessed must’ve become an elder just a year or two ago.

He was merely at the 2nd realm of True Disciple realm, so he was considered weak. His opponent on the other hand was someone in the 5th realm of the True Disciple realm.

If they fought right now, the Tiger sect elder would lose for sure. Alex knew that the bandit knew that, and even the elder himself knew that.

* * * * * *

The elder was terrified of being confronted by the bandit. The spear he held showed obvious signs of shaking. Still, he stood his ground as behind him there were a few mortals that he was saving from the wreckage of their houses.

The bandit looked at the elder and the spear he held. The spear was of some quality from the way the blade shined in the firelight.

“Stay away from me,” the elder shouted.

The bandit gave a sinister smile and said, “that’s quite a nice spear you have there. I bet it costs a lot.”

“Wh-What?” the elder was taken aback.

“That spear… I want it,” the bandit said as he slowly made his way towards the elder.

The elder took a step back in fear and looked around, but there was no help for him. He heard the whimpers of a child behind him, who was being practically suffocated by their parents in an attempt to stop them from making any noise that would attract the attention of the attackers.

The elder could only see one way out.

“I-If I give you my spear, will you leave?” he asked.

The bandit stopped. He wasn’t expecting the elder to say that, but given how scared he was, the bandit decided to give it a thought.

“Sure. Give me the spear, and I will leave right now,” he said. The bandit lowered the sword he was holding a little to appear less threatening.

The elder mulled over his decision for a while, but this was the only direction he could see for himself right now.

“Here!” the elder threw the spear at the bandit’s feet. “Now leave.”

The bandit bent down and grabbed the spear. He picked it up and looked at the slightly rugged texture on the handle, the pristine blade with barely any scratches on it. The craftsmanship of the spear was on another level.

“Not bad,” he said as his eyes revealed that despite being a bandit, it wasn’t every day that he got to see something like this every day.

“Such a good spear. You must be pretty rich to afford something like this,” the bandit said as he played with the spear. He swung it, spun it on his hands, checked its balance, and finally stopped when he was in a stance to begin fighting.

And then his eyes turned sinister again as he said, “Makes me wonder what else you might have on you.”

“What?” the elder looked at the bandit with a pale face full of fear.

“I think you have stuff on you that is better than this spear, and I want it. Oh, I want it so **ing bad,” the bandit said and immediately dashed forward.

The elder wasn’t ready for this change of pace at all. He knew most bandits were trash, but he was hoping for this one to leave him alone after getting the spear.

Unfortunately, he put his hopes on a trash bandit, and that was going to be the reason for his death. The bandit had arrived right next to him with the spear, and at the next moment, he was going to—

Suddenly, a flash of golden light shined as it arched right in front of him between him and the bandit. When the light disappeared, he saw a torrent of blood flow in front of him.

The elder sucked in a deep breath as he heard the spear drop right in front of him, along with a pair of hands that were still grabbing it.

The bandit that was attacking the elder now stood still and looked at the spear and the arm on the floor. It took a moment for it to click before he looked at his own arms and realized they were not there.

That was when the pain arrived.

“AHHHHH!” the bandit shouted as he looked at his amputated limbs of his.

The elder looked in shock. He didn’t know what happened, or how the bandit lost his arms, but regardless, he was presented with an opportunity… and he took it.

The elder immediately pried his spear off of the cut arms and thrust it into the skull of the bandit who, for some reason, had his eyes turned white and his whole body limped to the floor.

The spear pierced the skull and came out on the other side. The elder pulled the spear back out and made a downward thrust to pierce the heart of the bandit just to make sure he was dead.

The elder fell on his butt as the realization of the fact that he was just moments away from death dawned on him. His body trembled with the thought that he could’ve died just now, but didn’t.

He then remembered why he was fighting for and immediately stood up and controlled his fear before confronting the family he was protecting behind him.

“Are you guys, okay?” he asked, trying to sound as calm as he could while failing miserably.

“Come, I will take you someplace safe.”