Super Soldier in the City

"Is this okay?" Li Yifei’s calm voice came from behind. His English accent naturally needed no comment, it was absolutely standard, while those people were both shocked and terrified, terrified at how the man in front of them could be this strong.

The elder’s hands were trembling a bit, his heart thumping wildly. When Li Yifei looked over at him, the elder’s pupils shrank sharply, as if his heart had been squeezed.

"Don’t make me ask a second time." Li Yifei’s slightly impatient voice rang out.

"Are you... a Witch Doctor?" the elder asked in a trembling voice.

"You haven’t answered my question."

"We... admit it. You’re a Witch Doctor, we can’t beat you." the elder said, his wrinkled face scrunched up.

Li Yifei chuckled, and the sense of fear hanging over the man’s head disappeared as he said, "Admitting it isn’t enough. You were about to force her, that’s a crime, so now you have to accept punishment."

"We... fine, I’m willing to accept punishment, but... are you a Witch Doctor?"

Li Yifei ignored these people, turned his head to the little girl who was no longer quite so scared, and asked, "How do you want to deal with them?"

The little girl blinked. Compared to Huaxia People, her skin was a bit darker, but her eyes were big and pretty, black pupils like a deep pool, a very beautiful little girl. Seeing Li Yifei subdue those bad men, she was extremely happy, but along with the happiness there was a bit of nervousness. She looked carefully at Li Yifei and said, "I don’t know. They only wanted to do that, but they didn’t succeed, so I don’t know."

"Around here, what happens to men who force women?" Li Yifei asked again.

The little girl pressed her lips together; she seemed to think of something terrifying, then said, "If they succeed in forcing her... the woman will be burned to death!"

Li Yifei had been about to say, then fine, burn the ones who wanted to force you, but the words stopped on his tongue. He was the father of several daughters; hearing that the victimized woman would instead be burned to death filled him with anger and made him feel it was absurd as well. He snorted heavily, lifted his head to glare at the elder and the others, and asked coldly, "Who was it that wanted to hurt this girl? Step out yourself!"

The elder subconsciously glanced at a young man behind him and said, "Since this gentleman is a Witch Doctor, then... I can’t protect you anymore. Go out and receive punishment."

"Elder!" That young man had already been scared out of his wits; hearing this now, he was naturally terrified. The elder’s eyes bulged in anger as he barked, "Do you want me to do it myself?"

The young man steeled himself, grabbed a piece of wood beside him and smashed it hard against his own arm. There was a crack, and his arm snapped. Li Yifei shook his head, still dissatisfied, and looked toward one of his legs. The man was already howling in pain. The elder gritted his teeth and said harshly, "Beat him, beat him hard."

The others immediately grabbed him and started a vicious beating. Only then did Li Yifei speak, as if satisfied, "You’d better remember this lesson. If a girl is unwilling, don’t you dare force her."

Of course, saying these words was basically pointless. In this whole India, there probably weren’t many normal men; in their way of thinking, there was little real respect for women. In some places it was even... Li Yifei knew of a certain family with five brothers, but because they were too poor, the five of them could only marry one wife. From Monday to Friday, the brothers took turns sleeping with that woman, while Saturday and Sunday were the woman’s free-choice time. It sounded sorrowful enough, and don’t think that woman was cherished; in reality, all the work was done by the woman...

Li Yifei led this little girl named Nam out of the village. The wicked had already received punishment, and Li Yifei had no obligation to teach those people how to be men with a bottom line. They had lived this long with no concept of respect or law in their minds. He just happened to run into the little girl, so he saved her.

Nam’s home was in a place called Tahu. The little girl only knew this name; how far it was from here she had no idea. She had been kidnapped, her head covered on the way, so she didn’t know any details.

Li Yifei decided to be a good person to the end and said, "Alright, I’ll take you home. But if we really can’t find it, then you’ll have to rely on yourself."

"Thank you, you’re a good man!"

"No need to hand me a ’good man’ card! Oh, you don’t understand that. Mm, your English is pretty good, not too much of an accent. Who taught you?" Li Yifei asked.

"A kind grandpa. He taught me English, he’s very, very nice."

"Oh, really? Here, have a piece of jerky, eat it slowly!" As he spoke, Li Yifei took two pieces of dried meat out of his backpack, gave one to the little girl, then looked around. There were mountains and water here, and Li Yifei figured the water quality should be decent, so he planned to find a place to fill some water.

He could go several days without eating or drinking, but eating and drinking had already become a habit for him. If in one’s life even basic appetites had to be constantly restrained, that would be rather pointless. So Li Yifei had always eaten a lot and drunk a lot, and he also pursued quality.

"Thank you, you’re a good person, just like that grandpa."

Tahu wasn’t marked on the map, so Li Yifei had to ask along the way. Luckily the little girl knew roughly where it was; they needed to head northeast, which happened to be the same direction Li Yifei was going.

His getup, plus the fact he was leading a little girl, really drew attention. People came over to ask if he’d sell the girl—they could pay with ten cows.

Cows are Divine Beasts in India, with very high status, and they’re a symbol of wealth. A woman traded for ten cows isn’t cheap. But there’s no way Li Yifei would sell her. He sneered at them and refused several times. They still kept pestering him, so Li Yifei had no choice but to use his ultimate move... one kick to send them flying.

Nam looked at Li Yifei with deep admiration and said it was a pity she was a girl, otherwise she could learn that kind of kung fu.

She was such a cheerful little lass that Li Yifei felt having her for company on the road wasn’t bad at all. As the two walked through the dense forest, they ran into all sorts of rare animals, including two giant pythons. The pythons had just hunted down a wild boar; one was coiled around it, slowly swallowing, when the other slithered over to snatch the meal, clamping its big mouth onto the other side. Neither python let go, neither gave an inch.

In the end they each swallowed half, and then just stayed locked like that, frozen in place. The sight left the two of them dumbfounded. Nam stared at the two pythons, each about five or six meters long, biting onto each other, and couldn’t stop saying she’d never seen anything like it.

Me neither, Li Yifei thought. Even though he’d seen more pythons than he could count—just in that Formation Method in Vietnam alone he didn’t know how many giant pythons he’d run into—and those giants were terrifyingly huge by comparison, he’d never seen two that refused to let go over food, ending up with their mouths stuck together, glaring eye to eye.

Who knows how long they’d been "eating" like that. If they starved to death like this, it’d be one hell of a joke.

The two watched for over an hour, and the pythons still wouldn’t let go, so they eventually left.

"Sir, where are you going?"

"I don’t know either. Maybe I’m just wandering around," Li Yifei said.

Nam nodded seriously and said, "I really want to invite you to visit our village. My mom will make you the best food, delicious food, and my dad will welcome you too!"

"Oh yeah? How many days have you been captured?"

"Uh... about ten days, I think. I don’t remember. They locked me in a small hut. Only today, when they were drinking in the back house, did they loosen up on watching me, so I ran out."

"Mm, you’re very lucky."

"Yes, I’m very lucky. Sir, this is for you. This is a kind of lucky flower—you’ll be very lucky too."

They chatted now and then along the way. By the time Li Yifei finished all the jerky in his backpack, two days had passed. He still hadn’t found Laxman, but he did manage to get information on where Tahu was. He learned it from a monk, a wandering monk who happened to have been there. It was about fifty-odd li along their route, not far. At noon, Li Yifei hunted a small wild boar, cleaned it by the stream, seasoned it with oil and salt, then roasted it. The two of them had a fragrant, hearty meal.

It wasn’t that Li Yifei wasn’t anxious to find that Laxman. It’s just that searching for someone like this couldn’t really be rushed, and right now he was in the evidence-gathering phase. As long as he didn’t startle the snake in the grass and alert that Snow Falcon, it was fine.

Li Yifei didn’t believe the other side could foresee all this and guard against it—well, assuming this whole thing wasn’t a trap set up by them in advance.

"Sir, we’re about to reach my home. I’ll ask my mom to make delicious food to thank you," Nam said.

Li Yifei, however, made a shushing gesture, signaling the girl to stay quiet. He bent slightly, pushed aside the big leaves in front of them, and covered the little girl’s mouth with his other hand. Dozens of meters ahead of them, a massacre was underway—two groups were in a pitched fight. Crude as it looked, they were going at it with real blades and real guns.

"We’ll go around them. Don’t let them notice us," Li Yifei whispered. The little girl nodded hard. This sort of brawl could be a tribal clash, or something else... Either way, Li Yifei didn’t want trouble. If they pissed him off, a few more people dying wouldn’t be a big deal.

After skirting around that group, Li Yifei and Nam had already walked more than ten li. In a few hours they’d be home. The little girl was extremely excited; if Li Yifei hadn’t intervened, she’d probably already have met a horrible fate—maybe raped, or worse, beaten to death. That kind of thing happens in India almost several times a day; you could say it’s frequent.

But now it was different. The little girl had been rescued, lucky as can be. They crossed a low mountain, and Nam pointed excitedly to the foot of the hill ahead and said, "Sir, it’s right there. I remember this mountain, and I remember that terrain."

"All right, let’s rest a bit, then we’ll head straight to your home," Li Yifei said with a nod, and found a big rock to sit down on.