Chapter 12

Translator: Tuiwen Editor: Tuiwen

It was already two hours after the incident. The bandit had arrived at the Green Mountain.

In a small house halfway up the mountain, the bandit that Shen Ling had let go of was kneeling with his face to the ground, surrounded by a lot of people.

“What? You said Dashan is dead? Who dared to kill him?”

The man sitting on the main seat stood up all of a sudden as he heard the shocking news, and stared at the kneeling bandit.

“Yes… He is dead.”

The bandit nodded and replied, his voice trembling.

The other man who was sitting in the deputy seat raised his head and said in a loud voice, “What happened? Give us all the details!”

The mountain bandit shivered in fear as he spoke, “In the beginning, Chief Third-in-charge asked us to split up and go to various villages to collect money. After a while, one of the brothers ran back and said that the others in his team had been killed by a group of villagers. More than a dozen people had died.”

“In anger, Chief Third-in-charge gathered the others to go and avenge the death of our brothers.”

As the bandit spoke, his voice kept trembling. Obviously, he was still in fear.

“What happened after that?”

The man in the deputy seat asked with a frown.

The bandit continued, “After that, we arrived at the village and saw the corpses of our brothers laying around. We walked forward, ready to fight, but out of nowhere, a youth came forward. The brothers who rushed towards him were no match for him at all.”

“When Chief Third-in-charge saw what was happening, he took it upon himself to fight him one on one. At first, he was getting the upper hand, but all of a sudden, the youth used some kind of trick which — I don’t what that was, but he just killed Chief Third-in-charge with a single strike.”

The man on the main seat asked in a deep voice, “Dashan is dead. How come you are still alive?”

“They let me go on purpose,” the bandit replied in a bitter tone.

“What?”

The Chiefs First and Second-in-charge exchanged a look in surprise.

The bandit continued, “The young man asked me to send a message to you, chiefs. He said if anybody wanted to avenge the death of Chief Third-in-charge, they should come looking for him. He would be there by midnight, and he wouldn’t wait.”

“Get the weapons ready!”

The Chief First-in-charge stood up immediately and picked up the mace beside him.

The Second-in-charge suggested, “Big Brother, this matter needs further deliberation. Since that young man sounds so calm and confident, there may be some other tricks up his sleeves. This could be a setup.”

“I know that you are very smart,” the First-in-charge said in a deep voice as he held the mace tight. “But you should know that if we don’t avenge Dashan’s death, we will never have a foothold in this stronghold in the future.”

When the Second-in-charge heard this, he became silent.

Although the mountain bandits were fond of doing bad, illegal things, they highly valued loyalty.

In all honesty, if they didn’t avenge Dashan’s death, they would be labeled as heartless and incompetent.

In that case, the bandits of the Green Mountain might not be as respectful and obedient to them as they were now.

Revenge had to be taken no matter the cost.

And it couldn’t be delayed.

The First-in-charge looked at his brother and said slowly, “Brother, we both know that you aren’t good at fighting. You should just stay in the stronghold and take charge of the routine business for now.”

“No.”

The Second-in-charge shook his head in disagreement. “I’ll go with you this time. I don’t feel good about this.”

“Alright then. Let’s go together.”

The First-in-charge agreed without hesitation.

Outside the house, the other bandits had picked up their weapons and were ready to make a move.

“Pour the wine!”

The First-in-charge ordered in a loud voice. Two bandits were already holding the wine jars and pouring the wine into the bowls that they had prepared beforehand.

“Cheers!”

After everyone held up their bowls, the First-in-charge drank his all in one big gulp.

“Avenge the death of the Third-in-charge!”

“Avenge the death of the Third-in-charge!”

“Avenge the death of the Third-in-charge!”

Loud shouts rented the air throughout the Green Mountain.

Then, the two chiefs led five hundred mountain bandits down the mountain road and slowly charged towards the village.

Meanwhile, back in the sharecropping village…

“Young Master.”

Shen Ling, who was sitting quietly, slowly opened his eyes and saw his servant standing in front of him.

“Have the goods been sent here?”

He asked calmly.

“Yes, all of them are here.” the servant nodded in affirmation.

Shen Ling looked at his servant with satisfaction and said softly, “Start distributing them then.”

“Alright.”

The servant nodded and left.

Shen Ling looked at the sky and tried to estimate the time when the group of bandits would likely arrive.

He had a rough understanding of the distance from here to Green Mountain and even at that, the time was just an estimate.

However, the bandits meant business, as they arrived earlier than he had expected.

It wasn’t even dark yet.

“Where is he?”

The Second-in-charge asked as soon as he stepped into the center of the village, but he didn’t see anyone. His heart sank immediately.

“He should be around somewhere…”

The bandit who had been sent to report the news earlier looked at the space and frowned as well.

The First-in-charge rode his horse with a mace in his hand and asked as he looked around, “Did he run away?”

Thinking that Shen Ling had probably run away, the chief of the Green Mountain felt aggrieved. “Even if he runs away, he cannot take this whole village with him. Burn this place down! Then we will begin the search for him.”

“Big Brother, there’s someone there.”

At that moment, the Second-in-charge said as he stared at the roof not too far away.

“What?”

The First-in-charge turned abruptly, and as expected, he saw a young man on the roof of a private house.

“That’s him!”

The bandit who had survived the massacre shouted in a loud voice, “He was the one who killed Third-in-charge and our brothers.”

“They’re finally here.”

Shen Ling said as he stretched his body lazily and looked at the bandits below.

At first glance, the dark mass of bandits almost filled the village center, as well as other places of the village.

The sky was already getting dark, so Shen Ling couldn’t tell how many of them there were.

All the same, it didn’t matter.

“Let’s begin.”

Shen Ling spread his arms wide and acted as if he was about to embrace the sky.

The servants behind him raised their torches in the air, and almost at the same time, the rest of the village was also lit up by torches.

In an instant, it looked as if it was daytime in the village.

“What the hell is going on?”

When the bandits saw this, they all looked at one another in shock. Before they could come to their senses and make the next move, screams sounded among the crowd.

“What’s wrong?”

“What is happening?”

The screams didn’t stop, but increased in intensity, which made the bandits panic.

One by one, the bandits fell to the ground in a miserable state. In less than a minute, half of the bandits were killed.

This small and ordinary village seemed to have become death trap to them.

Shen Ling watched all this from where he was with a cold glint in his eyes.

This wasn’t a supernatural event; neither did it involve any kind of magic.

Everything that happened was a result of the triple crossbow. It was very powerful and there was almost no sound of firing.

Initially, when he said that he would wait here for the bandits of the Green Mountain stronghold to take revenge, he already had a plan in mind.

Right now, the plan was going even more smoothly than he had imagined.

In all sincerity, it was great.

Watching his brothers falling one after another, the Second-in-charge said with a frown, “Big Brother, let’s retreat.”

“Damn it!”

The First-in-charge looked around him and opened his eyes wide, both shocked and furious. He took a quick look at Shen Ling, who stood where he was without batting an eyelid.

At that moment, he refused his brother’s suggestion. Instead, he chose to ride his horse and galloped wildly towards the house where Shen Ling was.

“Go to hell!”

With immeasurable anger and hatred in his heart, the First-in-charge, still holding the mace in his hand, jumped up and aimed at Ling.

“The intent of splitting a mountain.”

Shen Ling said calmly.

Just then, he swung his saber swiftly.

A wide saber Qi flew out of Shen Ling’s longsword and penetrated the body of the chief of the Green Mountain stronghold.

His eyes were still wide open in bewilderment. He couldn’t understand how Shen Ling could pull such a trick.

His body was cut into two halves in midair and fell to the ground with a loud thud.

With just one single shot, he fell down flat..