Perhaps, due to the continuous raids on the mountain bandit camp, the largest bandit faction had realized that something was amiss. Thus, as Du You flew overhead, he noticed many of them patrolling with torches in hand.
Nevertheless, this vigilance was futile—they had simply gathered all their forces in one place.
"Ha, if they were scattered, it could pose a headache. However, it’s different when they’re all grouped together. Not all of them are bandits, but what does that have to do with me? The families of bandits will eventually become bandits themselves," he remarked. Content orıginally comes from 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹~𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮~𝚗𝚎𝚝
Observing the bustling scene below, Du You, without hesitation, unleashed the Mucus Curse at a location he had calculated. This time, seven curses were simultaneously released. Their thick layers of mucus stacked on top of one another would burn longer when ignited, and the resulting poison fog was stronger and more concentrated.
In an instant, half of the bandit camp was shrouded in the poison fog. The bandits saw substances resembling glue appear on the ground only to be followed by a large fire. The bandits nearby were left in the dark.
"Dammit! An actual attack on us after all! I’ll have your life!" the bandit leader exclaimed.
Pulling back his longbow, he shot an arrow into the air.
Du You was initially taken aback, but quickly settled down. "He’s not a specialized archer."
The arrow flew towards him, imbued with a strong Dou Qi, but its aim was way off, missing him by several meters. Despite being able to make out his form, the archer’s accuracy was poor, certainly not the work of a professional.
It was just an attempt with a heavy bow. Pity, shooting at a distance and in the dark meant the chance of hitting Du You was minimal.
"Bastard, come down here! Face me in a one-on-one duel if you dare!"
Despite the angry roars of the bandit leader, Du You was unaffected. He flew to the calculated positions and ignited two more fires below.
Arrows from the bandit leader below consistently missed their mark. A fairly aimed arrow neared Du You, who nonchalantly cast a Shield Spell to block it. The disparity in their levels was simply too great.
Such attacks wouldn’t harm Du You, let alone Xiaozi. A direct hit would at most rough up Xiaozi’s fur and cause a momentary pang of pain. That was the absolute worst it could do.
"It seems they have antidotes, or else they would have already perished." The entire camp had fallen into a deathly shadow, but the bandit leader remained alive. Glancing at Xiaozi, Du You directed a volley of Thunder Light Orbs downwards. The first orb depleted the leader’s Dou Qi, while the second reduced him to ashes.
"Pathetically weak. He didn’t even drop anything good. Let’s move on."
With the eradication of the bandit camp, their progress vastly improved. This progress wasn’t calculated by a mere headcount, which could only mean that bandits from nearby camps had come seeking help, but all were wiped out by Du You.
After visiting every location of the mountain strongholds, Du You noticed that his progress had reached 30/32.
"There are two remaining bandit groups, with possibly three locations. Xiaozi, could you continue searching?"
Without complaint, Xiaozi headed in the designated direction. Despite searching the last three locations, Du You only managed to annihilate one group of horse bandits. The other group was nowhere to be found.
"Could it be that these people are smarter, refraining from lighting fires at night? Or, have they already fled these parts? Nevermind, let’s return and rest for the night. It’s regretful that we fell short by one, but we’ll leave it be," Du You concluded.
Du You commanded Xiaozi to prepare for the journey back. However, they were only halfway when he noticed something amiss below.
A small merchant caravan was under attack. They backed themselves against a cliff while many on horseback shot arrows at them.
"Attacking a caravan in the middle of the night, whether or not they are bandits, they can’t be up to anything good. Let’s give them a surprise," he said.
Du You ordered Xiaozi toward their direction. To avoid harming the merchants, he only used the Mucus Swamp spell, deliberately omitting the ignition and focusing his attack on the ground instead.
The terrain swiftly turned into a swamp, trapping several horsemen and bandits. Falling into the swamp wouldn’t matter much, except this one was highly toxic, and lethally so.
Though the range of toxicity wasn’t as wide as if the mucus had been ignited, its potency was much more effective this way.
Both the horses and bandits trapped in the swamp perished rapidly from the poison.
"What on earth... everyone be on guard." The horse bandit leader detected an attack and gathered his subordinates. The besieged merchants also remained vigilant.
"They’ve dispersed? Let’s calculate the area, try not to trap them all in it," Du You quietly computed.
After calculating, he cast a Mucus Swamp spell on the ground near the horse bandits but away from the merchants. Following that, he ignited the mucus swamp.
The horse bandits and the merchants watched in alarm as a fire suddenly erupted in the distance. However, before long, the horse bandits started to succumb to the poison. They were on the edge of the poison fog’s range, so initial symptoms were mild.
Although the potency of the poison escalated with time, those with stronger resilience or higher levels held on. As for the others, they fell, marking the end of the horse bandit group.
"My aim was a bit off. I’ll do better next time," Du You guiltily gazed at the caravan. Some unlucky merchants had also perished from poison as they were too close to the swamp.
The area affected by the poison fog was beyond his control. Past experiences had taught Du You that accidental harm might ensue, that’s why he had hardly used this method when fighting alongside others.
He wasn’t too worried about the few survivors. With a few Thunder Light Orbs from Xiaozi, the half-dead individuals were put out of their misery. At last, the progress on his panel was complete.
Du You marked the last bandit’s location on the map, and he steered Xiaozi back towards Qingji City.
"To the benefactor who assisted us, please reveal yourself," a middle-aged man emerged from the caravan and called out to their surroundings. Unfortunately, Du You had already left by this time.
"Master, what shall we do?" a steward whispered by his side.
"Regardless, let’s return to Qingji City first. If we encounter this benefactor in the future, we’ll find a way to repay them," the middle-aged man concluded. Commanding the caravan to move out, no one uttered a complaint despite their fatigue.