The 3 disciples Wufa, Jijia, and Jiuzi advanced towards where Xushuo was, near the path, and hid near a bush to observe the amateur expert in action, as he approached the lead and sole driver of the large cart which was full of wood.
Xushuo: "Hello, good sir, may I have the courtesy of knowing your name?"
Driver: "Just call me Yi."
Xushuo: "Yes, master Yi, I am a customs official hailing of this area."
Yi: "Aiyaaa, now there's this trouble."
Xushuo: "I sense there is primarily logs in your cart, is that a correct sensing?"
Yi: "Yes, sir, there is nothing else in it. May I,.. get going now again?"
Xushuo: "Ah, you see sir, I need to temporarily hold your wood."
Yi: "Why'd you need to do that, you weirdo!?!?!"
Xushuo: "..."
Xushuo: "You're the one being weird here..."
Yi: "..."
Xushuo: "Anyway, I'll carry off the logs for you."
Yi: "Not so fast. How do I know you aren't fooling me? Was I born yesterday?"
Xushuo: "Master Yi, the [Uninterpretable gibberish] of the [more of that] law from the [???] says [illuminati confirmed???] ..."
Yi couldn't bear listening to one more syllable of that.
Yi: "Alright, alright, alright, I get it. Just be quick for goodness sake."
Xushuo carried all the wood one-by-one over to a pile somewhere in the tree grove. After taking the second-to-last log, instead of returning, he went back to the group of disciples in the forest.
Xushuo: "I left one log so he doesn't get too suspicious. Now we need to somehow convince him to screw off."
Wufa: "Can't we just beat him up?"
Jijia: "This is a country of laws! If we do that, the Qi Government will be very mad. We can't provoke them at the moment."
Wufa: "I thought cultivation was just about beating people up."
Jijia: "They don't interfere between cultivators but common people are a no-go."
Xushuo: "Blah, just pretend some tragic accident happened to me. Let's have lunch while waiting for enough time for a plausible 'tragic accident'."
Jiuzi: "How lucky! I picked up some bugs from the ground that will be very nutritious and tasty, as well as great for our cultivati-"
The other 3 disciples managed to produce killing intent without a cultivation base.
** 3 minutes later **
Jijia closed in near the cart, while overhearing Yi complaining.
Yi: "Why the hell is this guy not coming back? There's just a single piece left, come on, I have things to do!"
Jijia: "Hello, good sir. What may be your name?"
Yi: "Are you another customs officer? One's already examining the logs. I had way more than one."
Jijia: "Ah, no nonono, good sir. I am here to inform you that that officer has had a tragic accident."
Yi: "What? What was it and how'd you know?"
Jijia: "Quite frank, we have no clue. All the officers carry a death detection talisman, and this one popped. Being honest, we are considering you as a suspect for his murder."
Yi: "W-w-what? I was just sitting here, how..."
Jijia: "Don't worry. In any case, you will be compensated for the logs. Just wait a bit."
Yi: "...alright..."
Jijia then unclosed off away from the cart.
Jijia: "Alright, as we discussed, yeh?"
Wufa and Jiuzi: "Yeh."
Jiuzi repeatedly smacked himself against a particularly wide tree trunk, giving himself a host of bruises, cuts, and tearing his clothes a lot.
Wufa helped the process along by also punching Jiuzi.
"What the hell is that sound???" Yi questioned in the distance.
Then Jiuzi started frantically run-jogging away from the grove at a path that would nearly miss the cart at 45 degrees, intentionally limiting his speed so Wufa could keep up the speed.
Jiuzi: "No!!! Senior, I am wrong!!! Senior, please, I will repay the debt!!!"
Wufa: "Heh? Repay the debt you say? Almost as if you haven't been saying for the last 20 years!"
Jiuzi: "Senior, please, I am serious!!! Please, give me a chance!!"
Jiuzi: Fake sobbing
Wufa: "If you wanna repay the debt so much, I'll start by repossessing your organs!"
Jiuzi: "NOO-!!!"
Yi: "What in the world..?"
Yi: 'I certainly don't want to be involved in whether the hell is going on over there. I should keep quiet.'
Wufa: "You know how much I need that money??? My sons life depends on it, and its all your fault he is going to die!!!"
Yi: 'The situation is that serious?!? What the hell happened?!? Wait, shit, I am actually kinda invested now.'
Wufa: "If you can't repay it, I'll just have to take it from someone else..."
Yi: 'Man, any person near them should be really scared right now, that's clearly a desperate person in a position of power looking to extort someone.'
Yi: '...'
Yi: 'WAIT, FUCK, I'M NEAR THEM!!!'
Yi quickly glanced at his cart and back at the scene Wufa was making.
He decided having a life is a better outcome than potentially recovering his logs and keeping the one singular one left.
Quietly shifting down, Yi grabbed a bunch of leaves and grass, put them on top of himself, and began crawling away.
Yi: 'I hope this is good enough a disguise...'
Yi: 'This day was actually dog. Fuck me...'
Wufa ran away in such a direction that it nearly collided with Yi's path but turned just before actually hitting it.
This was discussed by Jijia. It was an intentional tactic to scare Yi to running away faster.
Which was working wonders at the moment as Yi almost soiled every piece of his clothing with sweat, and possibly other bodily fluids.
Wufa then pretended to give up, and walked back over to Jiuzi, grabbing the latter by the collar lifting him, and going back to the forest.
Wufa: "Alright, Jiuzi, good job. Although I don't understand why you're not walking yourself, I am gonna put you down now..."
Jiuzi: "No~ don't~ I like this~"
Wufa: "..."
Jijia: "..."
Xushuo: "..."
Wufa, instead of putting Jiuzi on the ground, threw him upwards. Jiuzi then slammed onto the ground, but still smiling.
Jiuzi: "That works too~..."
Jijia: "..."
Xushuo: "..."
Wufa: "...I give up."
Xushuo: "I think he may just have brain damage at the moment from all the beating."
Jijia: "Anyway, we did it. We got the logs."
Xushuo: "We should go tell master Li."
Jijia: "Let's check our systems first. Maybe we completed a mission or two!"
Wufa: "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to complete them intentionally and not as a happy little accident."
[Sophistry System
Host: Kong Jijia
Realm: Fanren
<1 unredeemed reward available>]
Jijia: "Yes! Okok system, redeem the reward!!!"
[Sophistry System
Host gains 1 level-up!!!]
[Congratulations on reaching the Lianti realm!!!]
Jijia: "Yes!!! This is the type of action I've been waiting for!!!"
The rest of the crew watched Jijia in excitement, as a blue light came over the latter.
Jijia: "..."
Jijia: "I don't feel any stronger."
Jijia: "System, open gain?"
[Sophistry System
Host: Kong Jijia
Realm: Lianti (stage 1/50)]
Jijia: "One xp point... out of... 50 points..."
The rest of the crews excitement was promptly washed away and they all halfheartedly redeemed their rewards as well.
Jijia: "WTF? The system's that stingy?"
Jiuzi: "Bro, we just masterfully conned an entire forest from a guy, and this system dares to give us just pocket change?"
Jijia: "Jiuzi just sobered up from the shock, wow."
Wufa: "Isn't this called the Zuihao sect? Can't they be a bit generous at all?"
Xushuo: "I'm the one supposed to be doing the scamming and I feel scammed."
Simultaneously,
[If you all mighty wise revered host Kong/He/Lian/Fu does not repine for this mission, he withholds the right to possess the ability to veto it in exchange for the inapplication of the efficacies of the reward outlined in the reward notification which was hitherto promptly rendered out to you all mighty wise revered host Kong/He/Lian/Fu.]
"..."
Wufa: "I guess it's... better than nothing?"
Jiuzi: "So.., anyone up to try my bug-eating idea again? I got some delicious worm-"
Jijia: "For heaven's sake, at least prepare bugs that are edible by humans and not just Lian Jiuzi's."
Jiuzi put a handful of dirt in his mouth. "But these are very tasty worms, trust me. This seasoning of dirt goes very well with it. I should open a restaurant."