Xia Huanao was instantly enraged by the bandits, thinking, 'Who do you think you are, acting like you're on my level? Pick on anyone but me, just beat me to death!'
If Xia Huanao could get out right now, he'd definitely join forces with Guagua and the others for a righteous beating.
As for the three bandits who were "pecked in the eye" by Xia Huanao, the goose, while confident their Pokémon could win, realized something was wrong after a few rounds. Hua Hua and Xiao Gongzhu alone could sweep through the bandits' Pokémon. Halfway through, they started watching the show with Meng Kaqiu. Four Pokémon beat the bandits' subordinates soundly.
A few minutes later, Xia Huanao looked at the three bandits with bandaged heads and nodded with satisfaction. "Very good, excellent. With your kind of behavior, you dare to rob people?"
The three bandits, scorned by Xia Huanao from inside the car, retorted, "Heh, if you're so brave, stop talking big from inside the car. Come out and fight me one-on-one. You'll see if we're cowards or not!"
Xia Huanao was amazed. "Heh, how interesting. You want me to come out? You're asking for death, aren't you? Come on!"
Despite being beaten badly by the Pokémon, the three bandits seemed confident in the rope net they had used to block the road. Seeing Xia Huanao about to come out, they continued their taunts. "Don't even think about it. We spent a lot of money on this net..."
As soon as they finished speaking, Xia Huanao kicked the rope net, and it fell to the ground. Xia Huanao looked at the net on the ground and pointed at it. "How much did you spend on this useless piece of junk?"
The three bandits' faces changed. They had spent so much money, who would have thought this would happen?
Xia Huanao shook his head. "Nowadays, although characters in the bandit class in all sorts of games don't have much intelligence, for the three of you combined to be this dimwitted..."
Saying this, Xia Huanao casually tossed the net from the car door aside. "By the way, this RV can be accessed from the back to the driver's cabin. And, don't you see this window here?"
Xia Huanao briefly introduced his RV, then, along with his Pokémon, tied the few brainless bandits to a large tree. He then pulled a branch from somewhere and began his interrogation. "Tell me, where is your stronghold?"
The leader, tied to the tree, blinked and asked, "What stronghold are you talking about?"
Silence. Xia Huanao never expected such a response at the very beginning. Three bandits forming a group was one thing, but no stronghold? A bandit organization of this size dared to block roads in the suburbs of Linglong City? The Alliance couldn't be so busy that they wouldn't deal with these pests.
Xia Huanao swung the branch in his hand, hitting the ground twice. "Tell me, where did you put the things you robbed?"
Since these dimwitted fellows didn't know what a stronghold was, he'd just raid their homes directly. As for these guys, he'd deal with them after he'd ransacked their place.
The three bandits initially didn't want to say anything, seeing Xia Huanao's ferocious expression. But then they saw Xia Huanao and Guagua raise a Water Shuriken, seemingly intending to draw blood, and their minds suddenly changed. "Uh, uh, over there, our stronghold is over there."
Xia Huanao looked at the third bandit, tied to the tree and struggling wildly. "I don't understand your way of expressing things. Is it that way?"
Xia Huanao said this while pointing in a random direction. To his surprise, the third bandit nodded. "Yes, yes, yes, it's that way. I've told you, can you let me go now?"
Xia Huanao thought for a moment. "You wait here. I'll let you all go after I return from your stronghold."
"Don't! I'll tell you, our stronghold's biggest treasure is in our kitchen!"
"Oh, this information is somewhat useful. I'll remember it."
With that, Xia Huanao picked up Meng Kaqiu and placed him in the car. "A Qiao, I'll have to trouble you to watch them here. You can do whatever you want, I won't stop you."
Xia Huanao whispered persuasively. Meng Kaqiu, hearing that he could do as he pleased if trouble arose, was overjoyed. He clapped his hands and urged Xia Huanao to leave. Xia Huanao looked at the three bandits and pointed at them. "Don't cause trouble, or I won't be responsible."
With that, Xia Huanao headed into the forest to find the stronghold. About ten minutes after Xia Huanao left the main road, a little boy emerged from the woods on the other side of the road and came up to the three bound bandits. "Are you all right?"
The bandit leader saw the boy and immediately shouted for him to free them. The boy fumbled with the ropes for a long time but couldn't untie the knots Xia Huanao had tied. The leader, exasperated, yelled, "Are you an idiot? Can't you use a knife if you can't untie it? And where did those bastards go? Why are you the only one out here?"
The leader was cursing and scolding the boy, who was apparently one of his subordinates, but before he could finish his tirade, a group of people burst out of the woods. The leader of this group also wore an eyepatch, but it was on the opposite side from the bandit leader's. "Yo, who's this? Isn't this our Blockhead Leader? How did you get tied up?"
After speaking, this person ordered his subordinates to take away the RV Xia Huanao had parked by the roadside. But before they could open the car door, a Pikachu leaped out of the window, waving its paws at them with a "Pika Pika." Frankly, Pikachu wasn't very threatening. The bandits looked around and, not seeing any other trainers besides Xia Huanao, one of them directly picked up a hoe, walked over, and kicked Meng Kaqiu.
As a result, Meng Kaqiu raised its hand to block the kick, then retaliated with a Hydro Pump that blasted the ground, knocking out everyone who had emerged from behind.
Meanwhile, Xia Huanao searched the forest for a long time but found no trace of any stronghold. This led Xia Huanao to look at a mountain in the distance. "Damn, could it be in the mountains? It's too far to run."
As he was speaking, Xia Huanao heard a loud noise from the direction he came from. He looked up at the sky. "Ah, why bother? Although I knew it wouldn't be such a foolish small group of three, oh well, I still have important business to attend to."
Xia Huanao was primarily driven by greed. No matter what happened to his RV, he was determined to take down the stronghold today. Thus, Xia Huanao quickened his pace towards the likely direction of the stronghold. Moreover, to speed things up, he released Guagua and Rockruff a few steps later. The two Pokémon lifted him up and ran forward. It had to be said, these two Pokémon ran faster than Xia Huanao himself and had more stamina. In just a few minutes, Xia Huanao arrived outside the stronghold. Looking at the rundown settlement, Xia Huanao stroked his chin. "Can this place be classified as 'poor mountains and bad waters'?"
While Xia Huanao was pondering the geographical classification of Linglong City's suburbs, on the other side, not a single car passed by the road swept clean by Dream. This made Dream very bored. Finally, some people arrived, and he knocked them all down with one Hydro Pump. No one was conscious now, so there was nothing to play with.
Bored, Dream turned to look at the three people tied to the tree, making them shiver. If they were hit by one of his Hydro Pumps, they wouldn't know how they died. The third bandit's legs started to twitch. "Hey, do you think being killed by a Hydro Pump or being crushed by this big tree behind us is a more painful way to die?"
The third bandit's question made the second one panic, and he started to fidget on the tree, seemingly trying to break free from the ropes. The leader was calmer. Since the Pokémon present hadn't killed them during the earlier fight, their lives were somewhat guaranteed. Thus, the leader urged the boy who had been busy behind them, "Hey, it's just a few ropes, why is it taking so long?"
The boy emerged from behind the tree with a dejected expression and cut the ropes in front of the three bandits. "It's not that I'm not trying, it's just that these ropes are outrageous!"
The three bandits looked at the part of the rope that had been cut. Who would have thought that the rope Xia Huanao had taken out contained a core, and it was reinforced with steel cables! With this boy, forget a knife, even a saw wouldn't help him save anyone. The three bandits exchanged glances and shook their heads, seemingly resigned to their fate. Dream, who had been idle, looked at the people lying on the ground and seemed to have come up with an interesting new game.
Dream floated down from the roof of the car, picked up one of the unconscious men, and brought him to the tree where the three bandits were tied. He chose a spot and began to dig. With a shower of dirt and stones, a round pit appeared on the ground. Dream then plunged the man he had just picked up headfirst into the pit and filled the hole with dirt.
If Xia Huanao were here, he would have provided a voiceover: "Dig a pit, bury some dirt, count one, two, three, four, five. My own soil, my own land, anything I plant will grow Elf Coins!"
However, Dream had a completely different idea. He casually buried each of these people in the ground, then floated into the air and looked around, utterly puzzled. "That's strange. I had it all clear in my head. Why does it look so wrong after planting? Maybe I should ask Xia Huanao properly when he gets back. Is planting chrysanthemums with soil that difficult?"