“Bandits?” Micro repeated quietly. “I’ve met those before…”

  “When was that?” Feng asked.

  “Not long after I met you,” Micro replied. “They were planning to sell me, like a bunch of car thieves!”

  “Slavers? In my woods?!” Feng shouted.

  “Your woods?” Blue mumbled from Micro’s pocket. “Punk…”

  “I hope you taught them a lesson,” Feng continued, ignoring Blue’s remark.

  “Now that I think of it, Kel’s friends killed them all, but I thought cultivators weren’t supposed to kill normal people,” Micro answered, feeling nauseous as he recalled the demise of the three bandits who had trapped him.

  “Bandits are qualified for no such mercy,” Feng scowled. “Those we call bandits possess hearts corrupted beyond any means of rehabilitation. They bring pain and suffering wherever they roam, and they tend to roam far and wide.”

  “The kingdom currently offers a reward for the heads of bandits in this area, though it is beneath a cultivator with any honour to accept payment for cleansing the world of such evil,” Lena explained with a curious expression. “For one who cares so much for the mundane, I would have expected you to carry more resentment for their kind.”

  “What do they do?” Micro asked. “Do they sell lots of people?”

  “That is the least of their crimes,” Feng replied coldly. “They frequently find new ways to sicken me in all they do to defile the natural world. Their crimes against the mundane alone are unspeakable.”

  “There’s always news about bad people on the radio back home, but I don’t think they all get killed…” Micro replied sadly.

  “What do you do with them then?” Lena asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “They go to jail, sometimes for a long time,” Micro answered.

  “Jail? That’s barbaric,” Lena remarked disapprovingly. “Justice should serve the good of all.”

  “I’m not an expert…” Micro shrugged.

  “It’s worse than I thought,” Feng interrupted Lena and Micro. “I’ve encountered many bandits in these woods, but this is truly terrible. How blind has the kingdom become to such things, that they should thrive in these woods…”

  As they came to a clearing in the woods, a field of large tents and small wooden structures were revealed, along with a terrible smell that made Micro feel sick. Still hidden behind the treeline, they looked out at the settlement. Large men dressed in leather armour and tattered furs filled the dirty settlement. The sound of laughter echoed out of several tents, but Micro was soon shocked by the sound of screams coming from others.

  “Ugh, humans are gross…” Blue mumbled while peering out of Micro’s pocket. “How do you even come up with this stuff?”

  “What sort of stuff?” Micro couldn’t see clearly through the haze of smoke and dust hanging in the air with his right eye, but the energy he perceived told him a clearer story of what was happening in the camp.

  “If you have to ask, you’re better off not getting an answer,” Blue said with a sympathetic look. “I promise you it’s more fun not to be an expert on all the crap humans do.”

  “There are so many weak people in those tents there, and there are three cultivators over there, but the rest of those people look strange…” Micro strained his eyes as he looked closer at several of the bandits nearest to him. “The energy feels… bad…”

  “Good and evil are rarely so easy to distinguish in another,” Feng whispered. “But the evil before you is only that…”

  “Evil…” Micro said, frowning as he agreed with the term. He’d never felt so repulsed by a group of people, even counting every bad driver or careless pedestrian he’d ever encountered.

  “Energy accumulates naturally in mortals in a place like this,” Lena added. “It makes a bird’s wings faster, a lion’s roar greater, and bandit’s heart… darker…”

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  Micro focused on another group of bandits near the weaker energy sources he sensed, but looked away in horror soon after. Before he could voice his disgust, Feng and Lena suddenly walked forward, their calm auras expanding to fill a large area around them.

  “Observe the fate of their kind,” Lena stated coldly.

  “What do you mean—” Micro mumbled, wondering why they had suddenly revealed themselves to the hundreds of bandits wandering around in front of them, but his concern for their safety was replaced immediately by the shouts and screams of the bandits.

  News of the invaders spread quickly through the camp, and no bandit hesitated to attack the two elders in muddy clothes. Micro wondered why they had only released enough of their aura to alert the camp, rather than revealing their true strength, but he recalled the intimidating presence of Kel and his comrades the first time they met that made him want to run away.

  “They’re trying to attract all the bandits…?” Micro mumbled.

  “Poor little bandits probably think they stand a chance,” Blue chuckled. “Like moths to a flame.”

  Blue’s laughter grew louder when Lena struck the first bandit to approach her. Although Micro understood the difference in strength between those who cultivate and those who don’t, the scene which unfolded made him feel sick. The way her hand, now surrounded by energy in the form of a tiger’s claw, tore through the bandit, and sent him flying in several directions at once, wasn’t something he would have imagined. Feng didn’t hesitate to strike the next bandit to approach, and though his own attack was a simple punch, the resulting mess was similar.

  The bandits became noisier, but the didn’t panic. They rallied and coordinated an attack from all sides, but Feng and Lena began to move so quickly through the crowd that it was too late for the bandits to attempt an escape. By the time many had understood the strength of their two opponents, the battle was as good as over. The two cultivators continued deeper into the camp, running after every bandit they saw, leaving a trail of blood as they sought out every evildoer. While continuing to view the energy of the camp, Micro felt the air lightening as the corrupt souls left their physical bodies, though he could no longer stomach the sight of the process.

  “Urgh…!” Micro fell to his knees as the contents of his mostly empty stomach made their way out of his mouth.

  “I guess farm tools don’t see much war on your world…?” Blue said with a surprisingly sympathetic tone, leaning back to avoid the mess Micro made on the ground.

  “No…” Micro withdrew the energy from his eyes, no longer wishing to be aware of what was happening in the camp, but the sound of swords and screams continued. He covered his ears and closed his eyes, kneeling behind a bush and waiting fearfully for the noises to stop. It was clear when the cultivators in the camp engaged Lena and Feng by the sudden bursts of energy that shook the trees, but Micro soon felt their collective presence had disappeared.

  “Where do you think you’re going?!” a hoarse voice suddenly called out near Micro. Looking up, Micro saw two small children with chains wrapped around their arms and necks running toward him, being chased by a bandit with a large scar on his head. “Who said you could leave?!”

  “Who’s there…” Micro sat up in a daze as he noticed the man was carrying a long sword, swinging it in front of him threateningly as he chased the children.

  “I can sell you whether you’ve got all your arms and legs or not!” the bandit shouted. Just as the children passed by Micro, unaware of his presence in the bush, the bandit lifted his sword and rushed ahead.

  “Stop!” Micro shouted, hoping the man would let the children escape, but the sword had already begun its quick descent. “No!”

  CRACK

  Not thinking about how he would stop the bandit, Micro had simply jumped forward, crashing into the side of the large man with his shoulder coated in energy.

  “Huh?” Micro blurted out as he stumbled forward, assuming he had missed the bandit after feeling no impact. But he confirmed that his attack had landed when he looked ahead and saw the bandit’s lifeless body tumbling across the forest floor until it came to a rest against a tree.

  “I just—he’s…” Micro stuttered. He began to look around, and eventually remember the reason he’d jumped to action. The children, a boy and girl around ten years of age, were hiding behind a tree, given away by their loud breathing. But the bandit made no sound at all.

  “Simple, but effective,” Blue said, hopping up onto Micro’s head. “Nice one.”

  Back in the camp, Feng and Lena were quickly finishing off the few bandits who were left, making sure none had escaped. The weaker people who Micro had sensed in the tents began to raise confused voices as the smell of blood filled the cool air.

  “Are you…” Micro mumbled. “Are you okay, Blue…?”

  “You’re all shook up, eh?” Blue sighed, then jumped into the hair and hovered in front of Micro’s face with a sympathetic expression. “Don’t let it ruin your day. Think about something else.”

  “Think, something…” Micro whispered. “Something else?”

  “Yep,” Blue replied, then nodded her head in the direction of the two children peeking around a tree at Micro, then continued. “They’re the only ones who managed to escape on their own. Think about that instead.”

  “Oh, that’s right!” Micro replied, turning his attention to the children nearby with a brighter expression. “You kids shouldn’t be running around the woods alone at night!”

  The children quickly hid their faces when Micro addressed them, but their presence was impossible for Micro not to perceive now that he’d had a good look at their energy.

  “It’s okay,” Micro announced while walking toward them, though his tone was more sombre than reassuring. “I’ll get you home safely.”