The night and most of the morning were equally peaceful, without any incidents. Still, Wu Guang and Yuan Taotu took turns to guard and sleep as to meet the battle at peak condition.

The bandits arrived around midday, well, at least it seemed so as Wu Guang who was at that moment walking around the camp checking everything for the last time noticed movement on the edge of the horizon. After carefully observing for a few breaths the fact of a group of people moving towards the camp across the plains was confirmed, so any doubts about it were dispelled.

Thankfully Yuan Taotu was nearby, so Wu Guang did not lose any time to alert him. Their positions were planned beforehand, for any course of approach so after he was alerted, Yuan Taotu moved towards the small tent nearest to the point where the bandits should arrive.

Wu Guang also assumed his position inside the big one, carefully opening one of the cuts he had prepared to serve as firing points. This one was located on the right wall and looked towards the south.

It did not take him long to adjust his sight and position to both see and be able to shoot his bow, which he already unfastened and was preparing at the moment. Although the blade-bow was far bulkier than a normal bow, the tent was high enough to allow Wu Guang to shoot even while standing. And as he intended to shoot from a kneeling position, the were no problems with space.

With his enhanced strength, his range was about six hundred feet, albeit optimal accuracy would only be guaranteed at four hundred and less.

Wu Guang unfastened the quiver and put it nearby, so he could take an arrow without seeing or moving, so after finishing tensing the bow several times in preparation, he took one of the arrows and aimed.

Right now the distance was approximately six hundred feet and the bandits could be discerned without problems. There were eleven of them in total, from which seven looked like brothers to the ones they had killed until now, being dressed in similar robes and carrying something that resembled a cleaver on their sides. Another three were dressed in leather armor, which was a bit surprising as they should be the three advanced Body realm cultivators from the report - and cultivators normally relinquished armor, if they were not part of the military. The weapons they carried were a bit harder to discern, but Wu Guang still noticed that all of them were armed differently, with one carrying a spear in his hand, another one a blade on his side, and a shield strapped to his arm while the last one had a shorter blade strapped to his side and judging from the quiver that was seen poking from the other side also carried a bow.

'Big Chopper' or their main target was even more strange looking for a bandit leader, after all, right now he was dressed in laminar armor, which would be normal to see on a soldier, and the fact that he even had a helmet on indicated that such assumption was not wrong. The weapon that gave him his name, at least from what Wu Guang could judge was strapped to his back, and could not be seen entirely - but the fact that the handle extended over the shoulder and a sheath were visible near the knees, it should be a big saber or sword about 5 feet long.

As it only took him a few breaths to observe them, the bandits who were walking with normal mortal speed did not advance much, but they still had almost crossed the five hundred feet distance line that Wu Guang had internally demarcated as the start of the fire line.

As they had decided to minimize the number's advantage of the bandits and the cultivators had armor on, he aimed at the robe-dressed mortal closer to the line before tensing the bow and preparing to fire.

***

'Big Chopper' or as he, in reality, was called Pang Jun was returning after his group delivered the merchandise to his brother, who was a merchant working for a branch of the Qiu family and had made them attack all the other merchants that traded with 'Rock Island' village. Pang Jun initially did not want to, but as he was kicked from the city guard because of a fight with a noble, he had no other way to procure for his life, so he accepted in the end.

This time the exchange went better than the past three, as they managed to fill four low-quality holding pouches with Heaven Stone which was valued as one full pouch of silver - if converted to coins, one hundred gold. Half was given to them and was right now securely stored in one of the holding pouches, waiting until they reach the camp to divide them. He knew that his brother actually sold it for twice the price. Still, he did not want to lose this vein at the moment and did not try to confront him about it yet.

As he was immersed in thought, he did not scan the surroundings. And so missed an arrow from the front. It wasn't aimed at him, but still, it had good aim and directly killed one of them. Thankfully it was only one of the mortals he had been given to swell the numbers and hide that he and the other three cultivators had military training.

The arrow arrived from the front, from the camp. Guessing that some enemy had occupied it, he reacted quickly and only after a moment broke into a run towards the camp.

"Disperse and move to the west! Don't let them take aim!" He shouted a command right as he passed the others. The command was sound, well at least in this case, as there was nowhere to hide from arrows which should and in a brief moment did follow.

***

Before the first arrow landed, Wu Guang had already grabbed another and started aiming. As he shot it and started aiming for the third time. He had seen that the lamellar armored man who he identified as the boss rushed towards the camp, while the rest started to disperse while carefully approaching.

Wu Guang was not worried about being caught unprepared by the bandit's boss who moved quickly and was about to leave his range of view. The bandit's boss would first pass near the southmost tent, where Yuan Taotu was waiting for him. And so he shot the third and fourth arrows without stopping, while the fifth one soon hit the last bandit visible from this position. Now he had no more targets in view and so it was time to move. Wu Guang after notching an arrow in preparation carefully peeked from the tent.

The entrance of the tent faced the east, so after making sure there was no one seen, he proceeded to exit and slowly go around the tent. The bandits should be coming from the south, and so he carefully peeked using the corner of the tent as cover.

The remaining bandits indeed could be seen. Now they only numbered five people and seemingly were trying to find out their attackers. No traces of Yuan Taotu or 'Big Chopper' were seen. Wu Guang knew that his partner was supposed to move the boss away from the camp, and so he needed to concentrate on the remaining five.

As to reduce the number of opponents Wu Guang aimed at the nearest bandit, only a hundred or so feet away from him. He was still half-hidden by the tent and the bandits were searching the area around them, so he was only noticed after the one he shot fell with an arrow inside the skull.

Wu Guang had only taken a single arrow while the quiver was left inside the tent. And so he discarded blade-bow while unsheathing his saber.

Not intending to become easy prey for the archer bandit, Wu Guang darted forwards. His speed still wasn't a guarantee of safety against an archer, so he moved a bit to the west, placing the smaller tent between him and the bandits. The tent would also hide him from view, leaving them no option except to go around the tent.

Judging that a 4 vs 1 isn't the best to wait for, Wu Guang planned his next actions.