C19 I will Definitely be Able to Get What I Want

Intelligent beings cannot be transported.

The system's electronic voice was mechanical and icy.

Negotiation was out of the question; such were the laws of this world.

Lee Yu's eyes were bloodshot. He stopped asking questions and, with Mu Yinhua on his back, trudged through the dense forest, each step a struggle.

He had intended to take Mu Yinhua back to Blue Star, but to his dismay, he failed. It was only then that Lee Yu realized there were restrictions to world-hopping.

"You shouldn't have returned," Mu Yinhua whispered faintly.

"The real mistake would have been abandoning you and escaping alone!" Lee Yu gritted his teeth in determination.

He couldn't tell how far he had carried Mu Yinhua. Above them, a thick canopy of trees allowed only specks of sunlight to filter through. The forest floor was littered with dry leaves, hiding potentially sharp branches beneath them, and Lee Yu's feet were already bloodied.

Lee Yu was no expert in navigating woodlands, especially one as wild and untamed as this.

Having no sense of direction was the least of his worries. His primary objective was to shake off the bandits on his tail. The real challenge was the weight he bore on his shoulders.

"Phew." Lee Yu's foot slipped, and he tumbled to the ground, not shifting to lessen the blow to protect Mu Yinhua, who was still on his back.

"You can't carry me away," Mu Yinhua murmured, her voice muffled but clearly less pained. "You really shouldn't have come back."

"Save your breath."

It took Lee Yu a great effort to finally stand up. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted two figures he least wanted to encounter.

"Damn, they've caught up," Lee Yu whispered under his breath before scrambling to his feet and bolting forward.

"This way, I've spotted them!" one of the bandits called out, clearly having seen the silhouettes ahead.

"Chase them down!" the other bandit yelled, cursing, "How can this little runt move so fast?"

Lee Yu and Mu Yinhua had already darted into the forest for a short while, thanks to Ergou's delay. The bandits, inexperienced in pursuit, initially went the wrong way. If not for stumbling upon the clear signs of Lee Yu's fall with Mu Yinhua on his back, they might have lost them completely.

"Damn it, we're going to sell them anyway. I'm going to have my fun with these two first!" snarled the long-haired bandit with a vicious tone.

Lee Yu paid no mind to the bandit trailing him and bolted with all his strength. The sounds behind him grew louder, a sign he knew all too well was not promising.

"Damn it!"

Lee Yu stumbled, his pace abruptly slowing. In that brief moment, the bandit had closed a significant gap, now less than two hundred meters behind him.

"Has fate abandoned me?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Lee Yu spotted the cause of his stumble: a dead creature resembling a tiger.

"Maybe there's hope yet!" His spirits lifted as he noticed an arrow embedded in the creature, the fresh blood around the fatal wound indicating a recent kill.

There had to be hunters nearby, and regardless of which village they hailed from, they wouldn't fear confronting two lone bandits.

With this thought, Lee Yu picked up speed again.

His ears perked up at the sound of an enraged beast roaring in the distance. Overjoyed, he veered off towards the commotion.

"Help! Somebody help!" he cried out as he ran.

The bandit's silhouette grew sharper with each passing second, and the source of the noise seemed within reach, yet as Lee Yu's lungs screamed for air, he still hadn't arrived.

"Keep yelling! Scream your throat raw for all the good it'll do. No one's coming to save you!" the long-haired bandit taunted. But as the words left his mouth, an arrow whizzed by, grazing his cheek and quivering in a nearby tree trunk.

"What was that? I'm right here to save you!" came a youthful female voice.

If only the shot hadn't gone astray, Lee Yu thought with a tinge of regret. He called out for help once more and dashed towards the voice.

"This..." The short-haired bandit exchanged a glance with his long-haired counterpart, but they continued their pursuit of Lee Yu.

Perched in the tree canopy was a girl, no more than ten years old, dressed in fine garments and wielding an exquisite longbow nearly as tall as herself. She gazed down, a hint of condescension in her voice, "What's the matter? You look like your eyes are about to bulge out of your head."

Lee Yu's mind raced. When he first heard the voice, he assumed it belonged to a young woman with a childlike tone. Never had he imagined his savior would actually be a little girl.

"The two behind us are bandits. Run! Be careful, or they'll grab you," Lee Yu urged with a hint of panic. "Where's the adult in your family?"

"They've already arrived!" the girl retorted with scorn. "Peasant! You're interrupting my hunt!"

The two pursuing bandits caught sight of the girl perched in the tree and exchanged a look of astonishment. Their gaze then shifted to Lee Yu, who was carefully laying the unconscious Mu Yinhua at the base of the tree.

This girl's got a serious case of middle-school syndrome...

With a sense of resignation, Lee Yu looked up at the girl and called out, "Run! I'll hold these guys off. Can you get an adult from your family to come save this woman?"

"Think you can put up a fight, kid?" sneered the long-haired bandit.

Whoosh! The bandit sidestepped just in time, as an arrow buried itself halfway into the ground, quivering where he had stood moments before.

The archer, the girl from the treetop, scowled and aimed her bow at the long-haired bandit. "The four of you, scram! Don't mess with my hunt!"

The long-haired bandit opened his mouth to spew insults but was silenced by a tug on his sleeve from his short-haired companion.

"Let's not complicate things. We need to capture him—that's what matters," the short-haired bandit whispered. "This girl looks like trouble. We don't need to make enemies here."

Then, raising his voice, he addressed the girl, "Understood, Miss. We'll take these two off your hands and leave you to your hunt."

The girl gave a slight nod and turned her attention away from the scene below.

What a wild world this is.

Lee Yu exhaled a heavy sigh. Though reluctant, he called out again, "Miss, I may not understand your hunt, but I assure you, if you take me with you, you'll be the champion!"

The bandits were closing in, yet the girl showed no sign of responding. She continued to scan the woods for her quarry.

"Miss, I possess the Thunder Bloodline!" Lee Yu's voice was tinged with urgency as the bandits drew within ten meters.

If the girl didn't intervene soon, he'd have no choice but to abandon Mu Yinhua and flee back to Blue Star.

"Miss, take me in! I truly possess the Thunder Bloodline; with me, you're guaranteed success in any venture!" The bandits were closing in, a mere five meters away, and Lee Yu felt a sense of hopelessness.

"Whoosh!"

The alert bandits swiftly sidestepped the incoming arrows.

The girl gazed down at Lee Yu. "Lie to me, and I assure you, the pain you'll experience will be far worse than anything they could inflict."

Her hands were a blur of motion as she spoke, drawing the bow and setting another arrow. This time, however, the arrow glowed with a faint green hue as it flew.

Caught off guard by the enchanted missile, the bandits fell before they could react.

The girl descended gracefully, prompting Lee Yu to gulp and exclaim, "Wow, are you a Taoist cultivator?"

"If I'm lying, I'm a dog," Lee Yu retorted.

"Guards, mark this one and take him," the girl commanded.

Suddenly, soldiers clad in ornate green armor emerged from the forest's shadows. One pressed a seal onto both Lee Yu and Mu Yinhua.

"I might as well join you; there's no decent game left to hunt," the girl said with a dismissive wave. "Come out, let's move on."

More soldiers appeared from their cover, rallying around the girl as she spoke.

Lee Yu examined the whimsical mark on his arm, resembling a child's doodle, unsure if it was typical of this world. But the sight of the formidable soldiers gathering around the girl left him with a stark realization.

He had escaped the bandits only to fall into the hands of a formidable military force. With the village massacre behind him and this shining "regular army" before him, Lee Yu knew his chances of escape were slim to none.