When the thugs he's going to fight don't even matter(strength or plot wise), why even bother putting it in the story? It's literally just patting. Boring patting. It's to the point of being bad writing.
@lolmaolol : it's been a while we didn't see Nie Li fighting alone. The last battle was more the whole city fighting and him giving the final blow through the array.
Even if the encounter doesn't advance the story further it'd serve as a power check (for us and MC). And maybe with some luck it'll add some story elements.
But yeah, if you already red the LN, you already know if it add things or not in the story and you don't need the power check (since you know it already).
This part maybe not for you, but for me, I like it :)
@Merilirem They wouldn't be able to even if it wasn't the MC. They're only fighters, but he's a demon spiritualist, who are a magnitude stronger than the former if they're both the same level, e.g. gold.