Starting from The Witcher, he slaughtered his way across the world.

Even if such a high-ranking figure knew something, it was beyond Luo Fan's current comprehension.

He had already left the labor camp, and the only thing he still missed about that place was Kant. The old man had changed jobs now, and as long as he didn't go into the mine, he should be fine.

All he wants now is to complete this mission successfully.

Time passed slowly.

Muyuan Village is located about 25 kilometers west of Shigu City. No one has measured the exact distance. Due to the rugged road, it took the team four or five hours to arrive.

The village is situated in a small plain, mainly engaged in farming and animal husbandry, and is surrounded by undulating mountains, which made everyone in the group look rather grim.

Their mission was to wipe out bandits, but the mountains were a perfect hiding place for them. If they robbed one heist and then moved to another location, finding their trail would be no easy task.

If they can't find it, they'll keep searching, and the longer it takes, the more disappointed the higher-ups will become.

This is, after all, an assessment task, and if the assessment results are poor, their dream of officially enlisting in the military will be shattered.

The village chief of Muyuan Village was an old man in his sixties or seventies. Upon hearing the news of their arrival, he immediately came up to greet them, crying and playing the victim.

"Sirs, you must do us justice! These bandits not only stole the grain we were supposed to pay the day before yesterday, but they also took several head of livestock. Taxes are due soon, how are we supposed to survive?"

He spoke with tears streaming down his face, and it wasn't an act; he was genuinely crying.

Taxes can be paid in many ways. For villages like this, which mainly rely on farming and animal husbandry, taxes are naturally paid in grain and livestock, but now they have been completely looted by bandits.

The higher-ups don't care what your reason is; if you can't pay, then you'll have to wait for military service.

Moreover, many families depend on these things for their livelihood, and if they are robbed, it's uncertain whether they will be able to survive the coming winter.

Luke looked at the village chief with a serious expression: "We shouldn't delay, let's take you to see the place where the bandits attacked."

The village chief immediately led everyone there.

"These bandits numbered about a dozen. They didn't carry much; they stole a total of 20,000 catties of grain, five chickens and five ducks, two goats, and two pigs..."

The village chief reported on the stolen items from the village bit by bit.

After understanding the situation, Luke immediately led everyone up the mountain from where the bandits had left.

On the way, he made a summary: "There aren't many bandits, only three horses. They stole so much stuff this time, even if they wanted to escape far, they definitely wouldn't be able to travel quickly through the mountains."

"We've already lost a night, and we need to speed things up now. If they get out of the mountains, it will be very difficult to catch up."

"Another possibility is that they set up camp and built a stronghold on the mountain, but these refugees certainly wouldn't be that bold."

"They also stole some livestock, which will inevitably leave traces. If they want to escape quickly, they won't be able to come back and clean up. Now, the eight of us will spread out at a certain distance, carefully search for the traces they left behind, and then speed up the pursuit once we determine their location."

"If anything happens, shout it out immediately and be extremely careful."

As the team leader, his job was to formulate plans, and the rest of the team members only needed to follow orders.

At Luke's command, the eight-man squad immediately dispersed, each man holding a torch, and began searching for the bandits.

Under the dim light of the sun overhead, even daytime was gloomy.

Torches were almost an essential means of transportation.

Holding a torch, Luo Fan carefully examined the trail along the mountain path, hoping to find the bandits as soon as possible.

Otherwise, they would have had to spend the night outside.

Spending the night outside made Luo Fan think of bad things.

He's currently under a "seeing demons" debuff, so he might attract some kind of evil spirit.

Furthermore, after encountering the demonic corpse last time, he instinctively felt that it was not safe to spend the night outside.

At that moment, he suddenly remembered what Calvin had said: wasn't he now living in fear and trepidation, knowing the truth of the world?

Luo Fan was helpless in the face of this.

In the end, his hopes were dashed.

Those bandits were most likely refugees forced into banditry. Even if they wanted to hide their tracks, they still couldn't fool Luke and his trained soldiers.

"Found it!"

With a shout, the eight members of the team immediately gathered together. There were scattered wheat grains, shallow hoofprints, and some human footprints on the ground, which were crudely covered up.

Thus, the eight men determined the direction the bandits had fled.

"Follow these trails, and keep going!"

At Luke's command, the eight men immediately set off at top speed through the mountains.

As time passed, the bandits gave up trying to conceal their tracks, and some animal droppings and stray ears of wheat could be seen on the road.

This gradually excited everyone in the team.

If we follow these traces all the way, we will surely find the bandits.

They had to carry 20,000 jin of grain and some livestock, which would inevitably slow down their escape. The eight-man squad, on the other hand, only carried weapons, equipment, and some necessary dry rations.

It's only a matter of time before we catch up with these bandits.

What Luo Fan cared about most at this moment was time.

As time slowly passed, the sky gradually darkened, and a rare color change was about to occur that day.

The daytime sky was like the early morning hours, a bluish-gray expanse, dim and desolate, with faint light covering the earth, the morning light sparse and pitiful.

As night fell, the bluish-gray faded to dark gray, then turned into a deep, inky blue. The sky, barely bright, gradually dimmed, and darkness swallowed up the last glimmer of light, plunging the entire world into complete darkness.

The torchlight shone especially brightly at this moment, illuminating the hurried footsteps of the eight people.

It's getting dark.

Luo Fan sighed inwardly. He had no choice but to spend the night outside.

In the dim light, he seemed to see blurry figures flashing by in the darkness. The branches stretched out in eerie, crooked arcs, and the shadows cast by the firelight became incredibly long and thin, turning into tendrils. He felt as if he had stumbled into a strange forest, as if countless eyes were watching him in the darkness.

Luo Fan tried his best to ignore these illusions, or perhaps they weren't illusions at all.

He was a little confused.

In short, ignore it as much as possible.

As night fell, it became much more difficult for the group to find traces left by the bandits.

Logically, after running through the mountains and forests all afternoon, and given the increased difficulty of finding traces of the bandits under these circumstances, it would be best for them to rest on the spot for the night.

"Keep chasing! We can only feel at ease once we find these bandits and complete the mission as soon as possible. At night, visibility is just reduced, so everyone just needs to watch their step."

"The faster we complete this assessment, the better our chances of being transferred to the military. Those bandits are just vagrants; we can handle them even if we work all night!"

Luke had no intention of resting on the spot, but instead ordered the pursuit to continue through the night.

Hearing his words, the others were also full of energy and showed no signs of fatigue.

After all, they were hoping to be transferred to military service and gain a guarantee of security. Compared to that, what did it matter if they didn't get a day's rest?

Everyone present was a trained soldier, and they could handle the situation perfectly.