Across the snowbound expanse, the youth's hurried footsteps faltered like a kite with a snapped string, unable to keep his balance.
The approaching footsteps of the bandits grew louder and louder, like a summons from the reaper himself.
From the moment he set foot alone onto these chaotic, snow-covered grounds, a fatal mistake had already been made.
Boulders and crevasses scattered across the snowfield broke the terrain into subtle undulations. The minor slopes cast faint shadows in the light, exposing only patches of grayish white. These jagged, unyielding rocks of every shape and size lay buried in solitude beneath the snow, resembling sculpted works of nature—yet to anyone who did not spend their years living here, they were hazardous obstacles, treacherous and hard to discern.
At last, the youth's increasingly sluggish steps tripped, pitching him onto the ground. Before he could scramble back to his feet, the burly men were practically upon him.
"Keep running, why don't you?"
As the bandits' voices swelled with triumph, a hand reached out to seize him. In that instant, a transparent barrier gleaming with silver-white light abruptly materialized before him. Like a rampart constructed of thin air, it sealed him off from his pursuers.
The sudden appearance of the barrier brought the bandits to an abrupt halt.
Faced with this unexpected obstacle, their fleeting astonishment was quickly displaced by sneers.
The largest, most hulking bandit among them, a vicious smirk plastered across his face, struck the barrier hard with an iron weapon. Sparks flew in every direction, ringing out with the clamor of an anvil in a foundry.
"How long do you think this can hold us off?"
A cruel, greedy glint flashed in the bandit leader's eyes.
"Looks to me like this thing will only buy you a moment. Drop it yourself, and we might treat you a little gentler later."
The other thugs joined in the mockery, circling the barrier as though relishing this game of cat and mouse.
"I am the eleventh head of the Candis family! A legitimate noble of the Empire! If you let me reach Chinston City, Viscount Chinston will pay you!"
Trapped inside his final line of defense with nowhere left to run, Xiaya shouted at the top of his lungs, the biting air stinging his lungs.
The bandits hesitated for a moment, then burst into uproarious laughter.
They seemed to be mocking the boy's words and his absurdly naive proposal.
None of them could tell whether this youth genuinely took them for fools, or actually believed he could trick them into going to Chinston City so Viscount Chinston could have them slaughtered.
"Are you trying to make us laugh in a lawless place like this?"
"How could the legendary family of cold-blooded assassins produce someone so pathetic?"
"They've probably lived in peace for too long. Even the demon race would turn soft under those conditions."
"Fair point. If you could live out your days in the warm, stable south, you wouldn't want to come to a frozen wasteland like the north even if you couldn't find a husband, would you?"
"We just want to hurry up and enjoy the warmth of a southern young lady."
With every strike against the barrier, the bandits let loose rampant bursts of laughter.
"B-but I'm a boy!" Xiaya cried out in despair.
While his features were quite fair by his family's standards, they were hardly enough to mistake him for a girl under normal circumstances. Perhaps it was his family's slight trace of elven blood, their habit of braiding long hair, the poor visibility in the blizzard, and his bulky winter clothes that caused the confusion.
If he had known the public order in the north was this terrifying, he never would have left Box Mountain Province and stepped into this snowfield, even to keep his appointment!
"A pretty boy? Even better! That just makes us all the more eager!"
Instantly, the bandits became even more excited.
"?!"
A sickening chill ran down Xiaya's spine. It turned out these men had known his gender all along and were merely toying with him.
The moment he realized the truth, he felt these thugs were more terrifying than a billion mass murderers combined!
This went completely beyond anything he had ever imagined.
He would rather die than fall into their hands!
Yet as a mere second-tier cultivator, there was no way he could defeat these bandits, who were likely third or fourth tier.
His family had no money to hire bodyguards for him in the first place.
In the Imperial Capital of Herrom, super-tier combatants of the sixth tier might be a common sight, but out in the frontier provinces, a fourth-tier was already an exceptionally formidable adventurer or mercenary.
Or rather, in their region, guards above the fourth tier were inherently difficult to find unless one commissioned the Domination branch or the Mourning branch.
What was keeping him protected right now was a first-tier Pink Sacred spell passed down from his ancestors—and the barrier was already on the verge of collapsing.
Terror threatened to swallow him whole.
It was a divine spell infinitely close to epic tier.
A magic of the mind and telekinesis, it manifested the family head's inner heartscape into a weapon.
Yet when he cast it, all it took was the form of a protective parasol of a barrier.
No patriarch in the history of his family had ever manifested a weapon so cowardly.
Worse still, its power was steadily weakening under the grip of his mounting fear.
Xiaya watched the cracks spreading across the translucent surface, then looked at the hulking men still laughing as they licked their lips with lewd, vulgar eyes.
"Goddess, please save me!"
Driven to the brink of a complete breakdown, Xiaya could only tilt his head back in helpless despair and cry out into the sky.
The only answer to his plea was the howling gale sweeping across the desolate snowfield and a faint, mocking echo.
Harsh laughter erupted all around him once again.
"Haha, how pitiful! If praying like a little girl actually worked, would there still be bad men left in this world?"
"Across this frozen wasteland, where even mercenaries dare not tread lightly, you won't find villains crueler than us. You'd best start imagining what we're going to do to you!"
"The Church of the Goddess of Fate is considered an evil cult these days anyway! Did you think you could summon an evil god to save you?"
Yet...
Amidst the chorus of raucous laughter...
A short while later.
From the dense woods dozens of meters away came the rustling sound of branches being pushed aside, showering bursts of snow onto the ground.
"Logically speaking, this should be the only path."
"Side, we really ought to hire a scout. You honestly have zero talent for navigation. If I hadn't heard noises over here, I wouldn't have found this road even after circling around with you another two times."
"Say another word, and I'm docking your favorability points."
A young man and woman emerged from the trees.
Both were dressed in outdoor-style, fleece-lined winter windbreakers, complete with sun hats and trekking poles. One studied a map while the other peered ahead into the distance.
The hulking men who had been pounding the barrier paused their swings for a moment, turning around to stare at the commotion at the edge of the snowy woods.
Once they got a clear look, their eyes twitched involuntarily.
Were these two here hiking on vacation?
In the distance, the young man and woman tramped out from behind the thicket, their faces lighting up with relief at finally reaching the main road.
They immediately turned their eyes toward the sign of other people.
"Excuse me, which way to Chinston—"
The green-eyed youth broke off mid-sentence. His brow furrowed, and his expression instantly turned grave.
"Hey! You over there! Are you currently committing unlawful acts such as robbery, unlawful restraint, kidnapping, human trafficking, and even organ harvesting?"
The youth pointed toward them with stern, righteous indignation.
Chapter 308