Chapter 416: Hero

Li Miao said it lightly.

He didn't say everything, didn't make it clear, he was taking care of Wu Mingxiao.

He was too young.

No one knew better than Li Miao, who had been an Embroidered Uniform Guard for more than twenty years, that this world and human hearts were a piece of chaos. So-called order and justice were man-made products, extremely fragile, needing careful care and guidance to grow and strengthen, until one day they could face those real filth.

Contacting such extreme human nature too early was no different from pouring poisonous water on a plant that hadn't fully grown. But if one didn't contact these at all, the so-called chivalrous heart would just be duckweed without roots, which could wither at any time.

So Li Miao just mentioned it shallowly, letting Wu Mingxiao guess and digest it himself, so as not to be unable to bear it when he saw the real thing later.

As for why Li Miao was so painstaking... it could only be said that bringing up a child was already a skill engraved in his instinct for Lord Li, he couldn't help it.

The bumps of the journey and the churning of Wu Mingxiao's heart would not be mentioned.

The carriage swayed for half an hour and stopped slowly.

There was noise outside the carriage.

"Just this much?"

"Damn it, the mountain is about to run out of food! Just this little bit of oil and water isn't enough for us brothers to have a drink!"

Clearly, they had already entered the bandit stronghold.

Li Miao reached out and tapped Wu Mingxiao's shoulder.

"Time to get off the carriage."

With that, he pushed open the carriage door and stepped down leisurely.

"Holy shit!"

"No, you didn't search the carriage?"

How could the bandits surrounding the carriage have expected that a living person would run out of this carriage for no reason?

However, they were on their own turf, so after the surprise, there was no other reaction.

Li Miao looked around.

Speaking of which, ever since he started walking the martial arts world, he had played nothing but "high-end games." He was really seeing a "novice village" like a bandit stronghold, which a young hero just starting out must pass through, for the first time.

Dirty, messy, filthy, foul-smelling.

Skin and bones, rust and iron.

Sewage flowed, torn clothes and garbage soaked in it. Not far away, several rotten carriages were piled up in an open space, and a dozen sallow and emaciated bandits with full mouths of yellow teeth were shouting some dirty words at him.

Wu Mingxiao got off the carriage and was stunned for a moment.

"Big Brother Li, this..."

Li Miao smiled.

"What, do you think a bandit stronghold should be the same as written in the storybooks, with justice halls, training grounds, eating meat from big bowls, and drinking wine from big jars?"

"Bandit strongholds are mostly like this. Essentially, besides the fact that most of them are lazy and rotten people, they are actually poor people."

"How many of them took the step of becoming bandits because their hearts were bad, and how many because they couldn't live, it's actually hard to tell."

Wu Mingxiao choked.

This was not the scene he had expected.

If he were facing a group of burly, fierce-looking villains, he could naturally kill them all. But if he were facing a group of sallow, emaciated, and scantily clad people... he really couldn't bring himself to kill them.

Li Miao raised an eyebrow.

"What, can't bring yourself to do it?"

Wu Mingxiao was silent.

Seeing him like this, Li Miao laughed.

"Your Assistant Commissioner really taught you too little. Never mind, I'll give you a make-up lesson today."

The two were talking to each other here without anyone else around, completely ignoring the bandits around them, seeing their expressions becoming uglier and more ferocious.

Then came a roar.

"Damn thief, eat your grandpa's blade!"

A rusted long sword whistled and slashed toward Li Miao's face.