Before trying to wake up his prisoner, Wu Guang carefully observed him. Until now he had simply taken note about them being bandits, but except for checking their weapons and armors before and during the attacks, he simply did not care or was too far away to observe them in detail. The man he had captured looked to be around 30 years, but if one shaved his unkempt beard, most probably will turn out to be younger. As the three they had killed, he was also dressed in commoner robes, albeit a bit more new and clean than one could expect.

The latter was quickly judged by Wu Guang as part of the loot from the merchants, after all, most of them transported goods that the village did not produce, and robes would be between them. The face of his prisoner was plain and except the fact that he was armed with a cleaver as the rest, one would actually take them for travelers or workers on leave.

Speaking of the cleaver, Wu Guang examined the one that his prisoner had and the one from the killed bandit nearby, finding them to be identical and at least of medium quality, which was actually nonsense for a group of bandits. These cleavers were made of the same steel and shared the design, obviously hinting that they were made by the same smith.

The latter fact was extremely strange, as weapons would be not traded even by normal caravans, and the ones who did had an armed escort that would always include a pair of Spirit realm cultivators, meaning that this group could not have assaulted one. As he only had seen a pair until now, Wu Guang decided to stop guessing until Yuan Taotu returned, as the latter most probably will notice if they are identical or at least bring them as spoils if they are of similar quality.

After finishing his examination, Wu Guang quickly formulated a plan of action for the interrogation, after all, during his past life he had enough encounters with hostiles to learn at least the basics. As he did not want to use physical torture, he decided to use one of the techniques that could be said to be among the best for non-cultivators, the fear against the unknown.

Wu Guang currently did not have any illusion techniques available, and even if he did, before reaching the Soul realm they would fail to confuse even a common beast, not to say a human so, in place of an illusion, he used his own qi to form an almost solid small ball, that if not looked closely fully resembled a pill.

He woke up the prisoner by kicking him a pair of times, and when the latter opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Wu Guang throwing a pill into his mouth. He did try to close it or at least push out the pill, but his captor held him by the chin and made him swallow it.

Qi emitted from one's dantian before dissipating or being used up in a technique that could be considered a part of the cultivator so Wu Guang had decided to use the small amount of time that the form would be maintained to make a show of a pill entering the bandit and by recalling the qi without releasing the solid form provoke him an illusion a poison or something acting inside the body, or to put bluntly make him feel the 'pill'.

The plan worked finely, as when the pill started moving inside, the captured bandit grew pale and squirmed until the sensation calmed and then glared at Wu Guang with eyes full of both fear and anger while shouting

"What the fuck did you do to me?!"

"It's a poisonous pill. Either you answer me and I neutralize it or you die in a very painful way" Answered Wu Guang calmly but letting coldness seep from his eyes. Sensing that he still had control over the qi and the bandit did not break yet, he confirmed the statement by making a few fake seals while his mind made the remaining qi crash wildly against the walls of the stomach.

"Aaaaaaa!! Stop it!! I will talk, I will!!" The bandit shouted while squirming, although his movements were limited by the fact he was bound.

"Then tell me where is 'Big Chopper' and the rest of the gang. You have an incense stick of time, then I will be unable to control it and you will die" Calmly said Wu Guang while making another fake seal and stopping the recall of his qi.

"I don't know where they went, they only left us four here to maintain a watch over the road in case of cultivators or soldiers coming" While panting the bandit answered, but after noticing that Wu Guang was about to form another seal quickly continued

"Stop! I really don't know. They always leave us here while boss and fatty along with the rest move the goods somewhere. But when they return we are paid our part and they bring booze and even weapons"

"When will they return?"

"It takes them three days to return normally, so tomorrow they should be here"

"I see"

"Neutralize the poison! I can swear that I will leave or even serve my time in prison, but please don't kill me" The bandit said pleadingly after noticing that Wu Guang did not make any movement even after he told him everything

"Oh... No need for that, as our orders are to fully eliminate your gang" Was the answer that he heard before the teen that had interrogated him suddenly approached. Then before even he could notice, he was dead.

Actually, Wu Guang had taken out the saber he had hanging from his belt and simply decapitated the bandit, but as he did not stop infusing qi at any moment, his actions were too fast to be discerned by a mortal, especially by a scared out of his wits one.

***

As if sensing that it was the moment to appear, Yuan Taotu approached Wu Guang right as the latter sheathed the saber, which he had cleaned with the robes of the decapitated bandit beforehand.

Noticing the silent question of his companion, Wu Guang recounted everything he had learned and added

"So we need to prepare to meet the bandits as they arrive tomorrow. Judging from what this guy said, they will simply come and don't expect to be received or signaled beforehand, so except stoking the fire to make it appear as the camp is active, we only need to prepare an ambush"

Yuan Taotu nodded in response, and after that simply produced a pair of cleavers that were identical to the ones Wu Guang had guessed about before, seeing them, Wu Guang explained his guesses, to which he again got an agreement nod.

"Well, no use to guess as we don't have any manner of knowing the truth at the moment. Let's hide the bodies and then look around for a decent spot near the camp for the ambush"

"Okay"

With this conversation, although better called Wu Guang's monologue was done, the pair proceeded to simply move both bodies into the high grass that they had used to hide before, not without before taking both cleavers and the belts.

***

The plans about getting an ambush nearby had to be revised by the pair after carefully examining and finding absolutely no suitable spots around the camp. After this revision, it was decided to set up the ambush directly at the camp, after all, it would not be noticeable until the gang actually enters it and gets attacked. Arriving at this conclusion, Wu Guang decided to use the rest of the day to prepare and carefully examine the tents, which as expected were a pair of living ones meant to accommodate up to eight people each while the biggest one served as both the boss place and storehouse.

The latter right now only had some food, most of which seemed to be dried meat and barrels, the latter mostly empty but one had a small amount of wine left. The firewood, which actually was something not found easily on the plains around was seemingly also looted from the merchants and was simply stacked near the main tent, considering that their plan was to make the camp seemingly normal, Wu Guang moved several stacks near the fires - intending to use it until the bandits arrived.

The group could number up to a dozen, so after thinking about the disadvantage in numbers, Wu Guang decided that he would need to first shave out a few of them with ranged attacks, judging that the direction taken by the gang to approach the camp was unknown, he decided to use the main tent which was fairly bigger as his hiding place.

As ranged attacks were involved, but he would need to try and kill or incapacitate a few of them before being found out, Wu Guang cut a few openings in the cloth of the tent, to use as a hidden shooting place. This wasn't ideal, but at least the bandits should not find out from where the first one or two arrows came, and when they did, they would not see anyone, giving him a chance to shoot another pair or so.

He did not expect to manage to kill the leader with an arrow, after all, although beginner Spirit realm cultivators still had the same senses as Body realm ones, their reaction speed was far quicker, both thanks to the qi they could infuse to improve their speed and the combat experience that they may have. The latter was even clearer in the case of a bandit or soldier cultivators. After all, during a real battle, bows or other ranged weapons would be most probably used, in hope of either scaring, wounding, or killing an opponent before the melee.

With all the preparation done, Wu Guang called out Yuan Taotu. The latter had mentioned cryptically the word "Traps" before disappearing from sight a few minutes ago.