Chapter 8: The Karabaza Trail (Part 1)

Guo Shier asked, “What’s the trouble?”
Odoba took a big gulp of barley wine, wiped the droplets from his beard at the corners of his mouth, and said with a bitter smile, “Recently, a band of robbers has been operating in the Karabaza Trail. Caravans and hunters have been trapped here for some time now. Sigh, what bad luck…”
Aru grew anxious upon hearing this and said, “Robbers? The Karabaza Trail has always been a haven for robbers and bandits. A few robbers aren’t a big deal—just give them some gold coins. Sigh, I’m in a hurry to get home. My family is waiting for me. If I can’t return, they’ll go hungry.”
Wutuqi asked, “Have any caravans suffered losses?”
Odoba replied with a bitter smile, “I heard… recently, relations between the Chiska Principality and the Ek Principality have become extremely tense…”
Wutuqi and Aru were confused. Aru asked, “Why is the Chiska Principality involved again?” He didn’t understand at all, but Guo Shier did. He said, “Are these robbers not ordinary bandits? So, are they connected to the Chiska Principality?”
Odoba nodded and said, “That’s the guess. In the past, when caravans went there and offered supplies and gold, ordinary robbers and bandits wouldn’t go to such extremes. But this time is different. Two caravans were completely destroyed; only a dozen people managed to escape, the rest died. That’s why the caravans here are too scared to enter.”
Aizek said, “A bunch of fools.”
Guo Shier felt a headache coming on. Aizek was truly unrestrained. Odoba looked grim, and Wutuqi and Aru also felt uneasy. So many caravans, yet none dared to set off. They were all waiting, trying to gather enough strength. No one wanted to die. Those robbers were likely disguised as soldiers.
Everyone knew that although hunters were skilled in combat, they were no match for an army.
Wutuqi and Aru had seen Aizek’s madness before. He dared to charge straight into a group of dozens of men on horseback and defeat a bunch of hunters completely. His strength was overwhelming, so even though they were called fools by him, they couldn’t argue.
Guo Shier asked, “How many caravans do we need to wait for before acting together?”
Odoba shook his head. “I don’t know. They say at least a thousand guards are needed to have any chance. If there are more, it would be even safer.”
Guo Shier thought for a moment and said, “In that case, we can’t go with you. We’ll enter alone.”
Odoba was surprised. “Enter alone? You’ll die!”
Aizek said, “That’s for you… We won’t!”

Guo Shier took out the gold bar given by Aoduba and tossed it to him, saying, “I won’t need this reward. Here, it’s yours back!” He didn’t even bother to take such a small advantage—after all, he had plenty of gold and could just have the old man make more. Although it was different from gold talismans and coins, it was still gold in essence, just in a different form. For someone who possessed talisman fire, this was a very simple task.

Aoduba hesitated for a moment before still returning the gold bar, saying, “I can’t take it back. Let’s consider this as making friends.” He didn’t want to offend these two powerful people. Moreover, this amount of gold wasn’t much for a caravan, but having two strong friends made it worthwhile.

Guo Shier, tired of arguing, nodded and said, “Alright. We’ll set off tomorrow morning.”

Ezek muttered, “We should have left long ago.” He was impatient with dealing with locals; to him, anyone weaker than himself wasn’t even human.

……

The next morning, Guo Shier and Ezek quietly entered the Karabaza Trail.

Both Guo Shier and Ezek walked on foot, acting like tourists as they strolled slowly along the road. The path wasn’t difficult to walk on, about five or six meters wide, with deep tire tracks on the surface. Dense forests lined both sides of the road. Ezek said, “This path isn’t hard to walk on at all. Why is it called the Karabaza Trail?”

Guo Shier smiled and said, “It’s just at the entrance. I guess it gets harder further in.” His gaze kept scanning the forest, looking for any special trees or plants. Unfortunately, there were too many trees, and he couldn’t tell which ones were valuable and which weren’t.

After walking for about half an hour, the path became uneven. Guo Shier said, “This is probably where we truly enter the Karabaza Trail.”

Ezek said, “It’s not that hard to walk either.”

Guo Shier laughed and said, “That’s because we don’t have a caravan. If big vehicles came here, the path would be even harder to navigate.”

After passing a bend, a clear stream crossed the road. Guo Shier hesitated for a moment and said, “Should we follow the stream to take a look?”

Ezek replied, “I don’t mind. Go wherever you want; I’ll just follow.”

Guo Shier raised his eyebrows slightly and said, “Heh, someone’s coming. From the path by the stream… um, eight people, and three on the other side… probably archers. Hehe, someone’s trying to rob us.” His tone sounded quite pleased, knowing full well that he was a master at robbery.

Ezekiel had already noticed. He never cared about weak creatures. With a smirk, he said, “You deal with it. The meat of people here isn’t tasty at all.”
Guo Shier said, “Alright, I’ll handle it. But don’t stay idle either. Those three archers are up to you.” He could clearly see those sneaky guys through his soul vision. He found a rock, sat down, and said with a smile, “Hmm, it’s still a few minutes before we get there. Ezekiel, take a break.”
Ezekiel replied, “What break? I’m not tired.”
Guo Shier had no choice. This guy wasn’t even human; his animal nature far outweighed his humanity. It was already quite good that he could behave like this, considering he had inherited human professional skills and knew some things couldn’t be solved using the habits of aberrant beastmen.
Seeing Guo Shier silent, Ezekiel said, “Alright, I’ll go take care of those bastards…” With that, he staggered across the stream and entered the woods across from them.
Guo Shier remained seated on the rock, one hand under his chin, staring thoughtfully at the stream. In reality, he was waiting for those robbers to make a move.
The eight men sneaked up to the stream like thieves and surrounded them. One of them shouted, “Hey! Hold up! It’s a robbery!”
Guo Shier couldn’t help but laugh. He raised his head, eyes wide and motionless, watching as the eight men closed in. But he couldn’t hide his laughter at all. To him, these people were just easy targets.
Another man shouted, “Hand over your valuables. We won’t kill you, but if you resist… well, it gets complicated. Surrender!”
A thin man yelled, “We just want money, not our lives… Surrender quickly!”
Guo Shier burst into loud laughter. These robbers were too amusing. It was a typical robbery—no killing involved. But their luck was terrible. After waiting so long, they ended up facing a super expert, a master of robbery.
Ah… ah… ah!
The eight men turned in shock. They all knew there were three of their companions across from them. Three screams came through, and they didn’t need to look closely to realize they were their own people. The moment they turned around, Guo Shier suddenly rushed out at lightning speed. With crackling sounds, in the blink of an eye, all eight men were knocked to the ground.
Guo Shier’s skills were superb. Everyone had their leg bones dislocated, lying on the ground, with one even half-submerged in the stream. They cursed loudly, “Despicable…!”
“You ambushed us…”

“You, you… you’re shameless! Have the guts to fight me head-on!”
“Ah… my legs…”
Ezek dragged three men out of the woods. He said, “Just these three guys? Hehe, they’re so weak I’m too embarrassed to kill them.” He was happy to kill stronger opponents, as it showed his bravery, but he had no interest in killing the weak.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The three men collapsed together. Ezek shook his head and said, “I can’t understand… Are these people blind? If we weren’t strong, why would we travel alone? Idiots!”
Eleven men lay on the ground, terrified—this kind of defeat was beyond their expectations. One of them asked, “You… what do you want?”
Guo Shier didn’t hold back his laughter before turning serious and saying coldly, “Robbery!”
Ezek was stunned. He turned to look at Guo Shier, confused—what was this guy doing? The robbers were also shocked, as if they couldn’t believe their ears. One of them stammered, “R… robbery? You… you mean… we’re being robbed?”
Guo Shier nodded. “I want wealth, not lives! If you want to stay alive, hand over your possessions! I don’t like killing, but… if I’m not satisfied with what you give, I won’t hesitate to kill!”
The eleven robbers were dumbfounded, so angry they almost cried. They hadn’t had any success in days, and after finally finding two easy targets, they found instead that these “targets” were actually two tigers. We’re the real robbers—specializing in stealing from others—but now we’re being robbed ourselves. This was too unfair for robbers.
Ezek also laughed. He said, “That’s right! Robbery! Hand over your stuff… or else, I’ll eat you!” He was even more ruthless, threatening to eat them.
The eleven men’s eyes almost popped out—eat them? Upon closer inspection, their hearts sank. Ezek was worlds apart from ordinary people; he was a beast, an extremely dangerous one. There was no doubt he would eat them.
Guo Shier said, “Alright, hand over your possessions. I have no patience to wait!”
The eleven men took out their valuables—gold and silver bars, many crystals, and a small amount of precious leather. Guo Shier stepped forward and collected everything, then pulled the eleven men together and said with a smile, “Is this all your wealth? It’s too little—just this little bit… Tell me, where’s the rest?” He didn’t believe these people had stolen only this much.

He reached out and grabbed a thin man. The man had an unpleasant appearance, with sparse beard on his face and messy linen clothes that clearly were patched together. His leather armor no longer showed its original color, being dark and dirty. One of his left eyebrows was broken in half, with a healed scar on it. He cried in terror, “Don’t kill me, don’t kill me!”
Guo Shier said, “Hmm, just answer my questions… If you can satisfy me, I won’t kill you.”