Chapter 253: Small Bandit Camp on the West Side of the Pass — Interrogating for Intelligence and Testing the Mushroom

Zhao Ji did not even pull out the gun-blade piercing the opponent's palm; he simply returned to the side of the Bandit he had just stabbed to death, stared blankly for a while at this Human he had killed for the first time, and without saying anything, retracted his Long Sword.

The Bandit whose palm had been nailed through had been trying to pull the Long Spear out of the ground for some time; perhaps it was because he was too nervous, or because of the pain radiating from his palm and lower leg, that he could not muster the strength.

Right up until Zhao Ji returned to the Bandit's side, the Bandit's self-rescue had not succeeded.

Zhao Ji reached out and pulled the belt used to tie the opponent's trousers from his waist, binding the opponent's leg at the knee; this was partly to prevent the opponent from escaping, and partly to stop the bleeding.

This Bandit seemed to realize that the young man would not kill him, and finally calmed down.

"Are you a Bandit?" Jier asked with a strained smile at the corner of his mouth.

The Bandit squinted his eyes and replied eagerly: "You've got it wrong, I'm not a Bandit, not a Bandit, really, I'm not."

"Heh." Jier pointed at the opponent's clothing, which was of mismatched sizes and clashing colors, and said nothing.

Seeming to realize the impropriety of his attire, the Bandit argued: "We're all poor people; I bought these clothes at a low price from thieves in the city, really. There are no women at home to make clothes. The clothes in the shops are too expensive, so I can only buy the low-priced stolen goods from thieves. You really have the wrong person, and I'm not actually that close with those two people either."

This excuse was truly laughable; when they saw him alone just now, this group had immediately drawn their weapons and pressed in, and they hadn't been so easy to talk to back then.

Jier was amused by the opponent's sophistry, which somewhat diluted the feeling of having killed for the first time just now. Jier pointed again at some tears in the opponent's clothes and the bloodstains near the tears that had been washed but still remained.

Both sides fell silent; after the silence, tears streamed from the Bandit's eyes, as if he had seen his own death, and his teeth chattered as he began to beg for mercy again.

Is begging for mercy useful?

As Bandits, when facing the small Caravans and travelers they defeated, did they ever let them go properly?

Looking at the messy clothes the opponent was wearing, Jier did not feel that this group had the attitude or capacity to empathize.

Sighing, Jier made up his mind and began to interrogate the opponent.

Facing Jier's interrogation, the opponent stammered that they had all come from other places to Bingxun Pass to make a living, and after living lowly in the pass for a period of time, they were incited by others to become Bandits.

Having worked like an ox or a horse for various Caravans before, after becoming a Bandit, he had successfully pulled off a few jobs, killing or releasing people from small Caravans and passing travelers.

When those who looked down on them as laborers knelt before him, it made him and his partners very excited.

However, his partners were now dead, and he was wounded and captured.

Jier asked how many people were in the Bandit Group he was part of; the opponent's eyes darted around before he gave an answer of three.

Knowing the opponent was not telling the truth, Jier punched him.

The heavy fist broke two of the opponent's teeth, which were spat onto the ground along with the blood in his mouth.

"Don't feed me lies! When I approached you earlier, I heard that you still had people outside. Let me guess, are they scouting for Caravans leaving the pass for you? Once they see a suitable one, they tell you, and then you all rush over to intercept and kill them?"

The Bandit, who stopped talking after being hit, ignored Jier, but upon hearing Jier's words, his body began to tremble, as if his last shred of hope had been seen through and shattered.

Feeling that questioning him this way probably wouldn't yield any truth, Jier pulled back the Long Spear that had pinned the opponent's palm, tore a strip of rag from the opponent's clothes, and bandaged the palm slightly, just enough to keep him from bleeding to death.

Jier tied the belt on the opponent's lower leg into a tight knot, not worried about him untying it to escape. Leaving this Bandit there, Jier returned to the two dead Bandits, checked them, and found some copper coins.

They really were poor; the money on these Bandits was at the same level as their combat ability—not very good.

Returning to where he had stored his Backpack, Zhao Ji picked it up, came back, stripped the clothes off the two dead Bandits, used the Iron Shovel to casually dig a shallow pit, buried the two corpses, and covered them with the excavated soil.

Collecting a few weapons to store away for now, Zhao Ji dragged the bound Bandit back behind the mound they had emerged from earlier.

This was a makeshift Yingdi, with a campfire and four small Tents made of branches and tattered cloth, each only large enough for one person to lie in, surrounding the campfire.

Sure enough, the group consisted of four people; besides the three he had seen, there was one more person not here.

Pointing at the four Tents, Jier kicked the panicked Bandit and asked: "Look, aren't there several Tents here? Let me count. One, two, three, four. So, how many people are actually in your group?"

No longer stubborn, the Bandit could only admit after spitting out a mouthful of blood that there were four of them, indeed just as Jier had said, and that one person was still in the pass scouting to see if anyone or any small Caravan was departing.

After Jier asked in detail about their 'work' process, he stopped paying attention to the opponent, because this Bandit refused to say anything about the last Bandit no matter what.

Jier didn't know what the Bandit was thinking, and he didn't care much either.

Looking at what these Bandits ate, it was some long-lasting root vegetables. Jier immediately lost his appetite; how much culinary skill could this group of Bandits have? Just barely getting the food cooked was considered good.

No longer concerned with the food, Jier began to rummage through their Yingdi. He discovered they were truly poor; apart from some miscellaneous clothing, there were only some scattered goods—not anything valuable, just some pigment powders in a Wooden box.

Jier realized these were things used for painting or office work, likely loot they had snatched earlier, but since these items were different from others and hard to offload, they had probably just been left in this small Bandit Yingdi.

Zhao Ji didn't intend to kill him, but he also didn't want to have to deal with a potential attack from the other Bandit who might return at any time. Since he still had to test the Mushroom used by the goblins in combat, he might as well use this Bandit to test it.

Just in case, Zhao Ji bound the Bandit's hands and gagged his mouth with the dead man's clothes.

He took the small box gifted by old Duomu from his Backpack, opened it, and inside were dried Mushrooms with strange patterns.

The Bandit leaning against the side of the Tent, his mouth gagged, could only watch as the young man took a box of dried Mushrooms from his Backpack, not knowing what he was about to do.

"Look, see, what is this?" Zhao Ji brought the Mushroom to the Bandit, letting him see it clearly.

The Mushroom was dried, but the strange patterns and designs on the cap were still clear; that eerie, terrifying appearance—as long as one wasn't blind and had a little common sense, one would know that this type of Mushroom was best not eaten, as it was definitely poisonous.

Breathing rapidly, the Bandit shook his head in full resistance, as if he already knew what the young man was going to do.

Jier removed the dirty clothes gagging the Bandit's mouth. As soon as it was removed, the Bandit begged: "I'll tell you the truth about anything you want to ask, please don't make me eat this stuff, I don't want to die. Really, I'll tell the truth, I won't deceive you."

Pinching the opponent's mouth, Jier was silent for a moment and said: "This Mushroom doesn't seem to be a fatal one, why not try it? To be honest, heh, I don't really trust the words coming out of your mouth; after you eat the Mushroom, I think I'll feel a bit more at ease. You know, I actually don't like hurting or killing people. Hmm, I'm different from you; your line of work inevitably hurts people for survival, while I'm different—my work only brings benefits to everyone. It's just that you don't understand me."

"Don't! Don't!" The opponent wanted to say something else, but Jier still shoved the Mushroom into the opponent's mouth and then clamped his mouth shut.

Perhaps there was too much blood or saliva in his mouth, but before long, the opponent was forced to swallow what was in his mouth; the Bandit stared at the young man in front of him with despair, his eyes devoid of hatred, leaving only hopelessness.

Gagging the opponent's mouth again, Zhao Ji was afraid that once the Mushroom's effects kicked in, the Bandit would scream loudly, which would be bad if it scared off the last Bandit who might return at any moment.

He had always felt that if possible, it was best to root out evil completely.

Since he had run into this small Bandit group, it would be better to have their group completely wiped out.

The dead Bandits were an unavoidable consequence of the fight; after all, Bandits were still people, and if they could be captured alive, that would be better. Thinking of capturing them alive, Zhao Ji remembered he had to ask the Bandit if he knew the whereabouts of other Bandit nests; if he did, it would be much more convenient.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Mushroom's effects hadn't kicked in yet, Jier removed the clothes from the opponent's mouth and took out a flask of clear water from his Backpack, shaking it in front of the opponent.

"Actually, you still have other possibilities. Look, this is a flask of clear water. If I let you drink this water now and then vomit up the contents of your stomach, it's likely that the Mushroom won't have been digested yet and will be vomited back out just as it went in. Don't you want to try?"

Hope rose in his eyes again, and the Bandit stared intently at the clear water sloshing in the wooden flask, making faint sounds: "Please, let me live, I beg you."

"Then, do you know of any other Bandit Camps nearby? Or larger Bandit nests? You're in this line of work; do you know any other information about those much larger peers of yours?" Jier asked, looking at him.

"Was your Caravan robbed by others? No wonder your skills are so good."

"Don't answer a question with a question; do you not want to live? Opportunities are truly rare. If you delay any longer, the Mushroom will be digested in your stomach, and I'm truly curious about what the consequences will be after eating this kind of Mushroom."

Seemingly realizing their current situation, the Bandit finally stopped being cunning: "Our group has been established for less than a year; we really don't know many other Bandit Groups."

"So that means there are still some you know of?"

"Yes, yes, right here, go, go... right, go in the direction where the sun is highest at midday! Walk for half a day, just start from here, walk for half a day, that's right, half a day. You'll be able to find a Bandit lair at a cliff. That bunch calls themselves the Tooth Goblins; at the beginning, they even tried to recruit us. A few in our group saw that they had strength in numbers and joined them right then. Later, when we were robbing people on the road, because we lacked experience, two people died, and in the end, only a few of us were left."

"Tooth Goblins?" Jier muttered the name. This wasn't the Bandit Group he was looking for, but judging by the Bandit's description, the group was likely quite large, and they should have heard of, or even know the location of, the other group, Luodai Cave.

He should pay this group a visit; at the very least, questioning these people to get news of other groups was a direction to take.

"Water, water, water! Give me water quickly!" The Bandit stared fixedly at the wooden water canteen in Jier's hand, urgently wanting water to induce vomiting.

With a scoff, Jier put the water away and then gagged the Bandit's mouth.

He wouldn't let this guy induce vomiting, let alone drink his water.

Seeing that this young man went back on his word, the Bandit's eyes widened, and even with his mouth gagged, he made buzzing, unintelligible curses.

Zhao Ji ignored him, took out the weapons seized earlier, and began to fiddle with them, waiting for any changes in the Bandit after eating the Mushroom.

If the other party died, he could also grind this Mushroom into powder to use as a lethal poison.

If the other party died after becoming stronger, he would treat this Mushroom as his final resort, to go out in a blaze of glory and give his enemies a show before dying.

If the other party didn't die after becoming stronger, then he could use this kind of Mushroom as a major means of enhancing his combat power in the future.

If the other party showed no changes after eating the Mushroom, he could still use this Mushroom, which looked like it shouldn't be trifled with, as a means of interrogating captives; judging by this Bandit's situation, this thing would likely be quite useful for extracting information.

Zhao Ji first took out the Bandit's previous curved Dagger and looked at it simply; this thing likely wasn't cheap, and was probably snatched from some Merchant. The Dagger was well-crafted, the curved blade was convenient for cutting, and the edge used good material, making it extremely sharp. It just looked a bit fragile, and it wasn't a local weapon style; this kind of weapon was used more for wounding Human enemies in self-defense, and it likely wouldn't be effective against thick-skinned wild beasts or Monsters.

However, looking at the exquisite appearance of this item, Zhao Ji thought he could wear it on some more formal occasions to boost his own image or something.

Zhao Ji also fiddled with a Short Bow; he pulled an Arrow from the quiver and tried to aim at a large tree nearby to take a shot, but after aiming for a long time, the Arrow still landed on the ground.

This thing really wasn't easy to use without practice; Zhao Ji put it away sullenly, deciding to find time to practice later. This thing was different from a sling; Zhao Ji had quite a talent for using a sling, but the bow and arrow would have to wait.

As for the wood-chopping axe with the lengthened wooden handle, Zhao Ji had no interest; he used his Long Sword to shave off the wooden handle, then used his Steel Dagger to gouge out the wood inside the axe head, keeping only the lightweight iron axe head with the intention of selling it for money later.

The same went for the Cleaver; this Cleaver actually had several notches, and its owner probably didn't cherish it much, not even bothering to repair the edge. Zhao Ji put the Cleaver away as well, intending to sell it as scrap iron later, or he could melt it down together with the axe head to use as iron material for iron armor.