The town square was absolutely heated up by the scorching sun blazing mercilessly above. Deserted and eerily windy, there wasn't a single soul to be seen anywhere, just empty buildings with shuttered windows and dust devils dancing across the field. The soldiers of Ironbell, carrying their precious mysterious cargo in their horse-drawn carriages, were making their way through at a steady, confident pace, completely unaware of what was about to happen.
That's when he entered the scene with his elegant grace and undeniable presence. His cape fluttered dramatically in the wind, making a rhythmic sound that announced his arrival like trumpets heralding royalty. The man, the myth, the absolute legend. Might I say, the world's most greatest and powerful cultivator, the undisputed king of martial arts, and the literal god of pure awesomeness itself.
His very breath is enough to create devastating windstorms that level entire cities. His very voice is enough to reduce towering mountains to nothing but fine dust particles. Loved unconditionally by his companions and feared desperately by his countless enemies across the land.
THE MIGHTY HAN!
That's absolutely right, folks. Being a humble restaurant owner is merely his clever cover job. A simple side hustle. Something he does purely for fun and to blend in with normal society. But reducing his enemies to individual atoms scattered across the universe? That's his real job, his true calling. And even then, when he's doing that, he's barely using a single percentage of his actual full power. Maybe not even that much.
Wearing a worn straw hat tilted at just the right angle, and casually holding a toothpick in his mouth like he didn't have a care in the world, he simply stood right in the middle of the town square, tilting his head slightly with an air of casual menace.
The soldiers immediately stopped their carriages, pulling hard on their horses' reins.
The middle soldier, clearly the leader of this particular group, let out an annoyed sigh. "Move out of the way, citizen."
"Hmm. I don't think I will," Han replied calmly, not moving even an inch from his position.
The soldier sighed again, louder this time, his patience clearly wearing thin. "Why the hell not?"
Han gave a long, deliberate pause for dramatic effect, then shrugged. "I just don't feel like it right now."
The soldier sighed yet once again, this time with barely contained frustration evident in his voice. "Look, bitch, it's been a really long day already. You either move your ass out of the way right now, or you will be moved. Your choice."
Han's lips curved into a confident smile. "I'd genuinely like to see you try, friend."
Ooh, it was fucking on now.
Having done this routine before with the gang and seeing consecutive wins one after another, this whole experience had given Han an absolutely massive confidence boost. It was honestly kind of incredible to witness. Me and the rest of the gang were strategically scattered and hidden around the nearby building alleyways, carefully watching everything that was happening while suppressing our qi signatures so we wouldn't be detected.
"Bitch, who the fuck even are you?" asked one of the younger soldiers from the back, clearly confused and irritated.
"I'm your worst fucking nightmare, asshole," Han replied without missing a beat, his voice dripping with theatrical menace.
The middle soldier, their leader, gave a dark chuckle and shook his head. "You got some serious balls on you, buddy. Talking to the king's personal soldiers this way. Do you have any idea what we could do to you?"
Han slowly shifted the toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other, maintaining perfect eye contact. "Balls? Bitch, I only got one of them now. I gave away the other one 'cause I didn't need it anymore, and they call it the Primordial Core now."
DAMN!
One of the hot-headed soldiers almost immediately got off his horse, ready to start throwing hands and beating the shit out of Han, before the leader grabbed his arm and stopped him. The leader then looked back at Han and asked with forced calm, "What do you even want from us?"
Han slowly lifted his arm, pointing dramatically towards the mysterious carriages behind them. "That cargo right there. It stays right here in this square. You're not taking those boxes anywhere. Not today, not ever."
The soldiers all laughed mockingly, like this was the funniest joke they'd heard all week. "Oh, is that so? And why the hell would we listen to some random civilian in a straw hat?"
Han's expression turned deadly serious. "Because you want to stay alive and breathing."
DAMN! This guy wasn't stopping!
"Alright, that's enough," said the lead soldier, his amusement completely gone now, replaced with cold anger. "I'm gonna close my eyes and count slowly to three. If you're still the first sight I see after opening them again, you can count on me to make sure that I or anyone else won't ever see your face again, because you'll be buried underground. Understood?"
He did exactly as he said. Closed his eyes tightly and started counting in a slow, deliberate voice. "One... two..."
Han moved during the count. But not to walk away like any coward would. No sir. Instead, he casually strolled to the nearby building, grabbed a wooden stool that was sitting there, brought it back to his original position, and sat down on it with one leg crossed over the other in the most relaxed pose imaginable.
He either had exactly the right amount of faith in us and our abilities, or he had way, way too much faith. I honestly couldn't tell which.
The soldier opened his eyes on "three" and sure enough, he wasn't even remotely surprised to see Han still sitting there, now even more comfortable than before. "Yup, that fucking does it. You asked for thi-"
"Talk to my hand," Han interrupted smoothly, holding up his palm.
"MOTHERFUCKER!" The soldiers all began dismounting from their horses at top speed, weapons drawn, faces red with rage.
That's when Han casually pointed one finger towards the cargo carriages and flicked it dismissively, like he was swatting away an annoying fly. I immediately looked towards Jian and Liangyu's hiding positions and gave them the signal with a sharp nod. They both got into their combat stances, focused their energy, and in a moment's notice, thick tree roots began sprouting violently from underneath the cargo carriages and took hold of every single box, wrapping around them like protective barriers.
The soldiers were startled as hell, several of them screaming in shock and confusion, looking back at Han with wide, terrified eyes.
"What the fuck did you just do?!" one of them shouted, his voice cracking with fear.
Han simply threw both his hands up in mock innocence, the picture of confused helplessness. "What? Me? I didn't do anything at all. Must've been the wind, man. Strange weather today."
"It's definitely some kind of trap or an elaborate trick, boss," one of the smarter soldiers said urgently to their leader, his hand shaking on his sword hilt.
Their boss was absolutely fuming with rage at this point and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Charge!" All of them began running directly towards Han with weapons raised.
That's when Han simply looked upwards towards the sky and yawned loudly, like this whole situation was incredibly boring to him.
That was Qinyue's cue. She quickly began channeling her fire cultivation technique from her hidden position. The clear blue sky started to rapidly get cloudy and dark above the town square. But it wasn't the usual grey storm clouds. It was red, flaming, burning red, swirling and circling menacingly above like a vortex of pure fire.
The charging soldiers stopped dead in their tracks and looked up in absolute horror. "What the fuck is tha-"
It started raining fire! Actual flames falling from the sky like an apocalypse!
Each and every one of them began screaming in pure terror and pain. Some of them desperately tried taking cover, others frantically buried parts of their burning clothing in the dirt, and most of them just straight up ran away in complete panic, abandoning their posts entirely.
Among all that chaos and screaming, Han calmly raised his voice above. "Go tell your precious king that if he wants his cargo back, he can come down here himself and try taking it from the Mighty fuckin' Han!"
The fire rain stopped as suddenly as it started, and the remaining soldiers who hadn't fled were all lying on the ground crying in agony and pain, their uniforms smoking. The boss soldier quickly scrambled to his feet, took one look at Han's smirking face, and made a desperate run for it back towards the palace, limping the whole way.
Me and the gang immediately came running out from our hiding spots and surrounded Han, lifting him up on our shoulders triumphantly! "That's how you fucking do it!!" We all screamed enthusiastically.
Han screamed too, pumping his fists in the air, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'm fuckin' awesome!"
"You all can come out now! It's safe!" Qinyue screamed towards the buildings. All of the hidden crowd members who had been watching from windows and alleyways came rushing out excitedly and quickly took the groaning, defeated soldiers inside various buildings, their bodies wrapped up tightly in rope and cloth like they were birthday presents.
"Man, that was some serious A-Class acting right there!" Jian said enthusiastically as he patted Han hard on the shoulder, grinning widely.
"I'd hand you an award for Best Performance in a Confrontation right now if I could," Liangyu added with genuine admiration.
"If it were me standing out there, I probably would've pissed my pants halfway through," I said, trying to encourage Han and boost his confidence even more. Obviously I personally wouldn't have. I'm courageous as fuck and everyone knows it, but Han didn't need to know that. "Well done, Han. Seriously impressive work. Now let's just hope that either this whole situation goes according to our plan, or the king doesn't waste our time and decides to investigate this whole thing himself."
Meanwhile, back at the Blade Palace, King Cangyuan seemed to have just finished some kind of exhausting official work and wearily sat down on his luxurious bed. He gave out a long, tired sigh when there was a sharp knock on his chamber door from a servant.
"Come in," the King said, with a heavy voice of fatigue.
The servant entered quickly and immediately dropped to his knees. "Your majesty, there seems to be a significant problem developing. Our daily cargo is currently being held hostage at the Northern town square by someone who calls himself the 'Mighty Han'. Apparently he's some kind of extremely powerful earth cultivation user who managed to take down an entire squad of our soldiers with a mere flick of his finger. He's demanding you come personally."
"What?!" The king shot up from his bed, all exhaustion forgotten. "Who could it even be? And with a mere flick of his finger too? I don't think we even have an earth user in our town who's that powerful! Has he concealed his power? If so, why and what does he want?"
"We don't know, sire. Do you want me to immediately send in the Royal Guard to handle this situation, your majesty?"
The king paused, thinking carefully, then shook his head firmly. "No. If it's our cargo being held hostage, then I want to investigate this matter myself personally. Prepare my horse."