Suddenly, the surrounding bandits grew excited and began to clamor. They shouted loudly, accompanied by the screams and curses of women. The two men locked in combat also gradually lost their senses in this tumultuous environment, their eyes turning bloodshot as if they had forgotten where they were.
To stay alive, for their families!
However, just then, a burst of intense gunfire suddenly rang out. Chaos erupted around them. Some bandits drew their guns to return fire, but it was futile. The two men fighting suddenly felt as if something heavy had struck their heads. Immediately after, their bodies went limp like puppets whose strings had been cut, collapsing to the ground one after the other.
The bandit chieftain holding a pistol saw a large number of soldiers pouring in and his face instantly changed color. Cursing and shouting, he turned and began to flee. He darted left and right through the stronghold, running blindly in his panic, aiming for the back gate.
Finally, he saw the exit not far ahead and couldn't help but feel a surge of joy, quickly speeding up his steps to charge towards it. Yet, just as he was about to step through the exit, the cold barrel of a pistol pressed against his forehead.
The bandit chieftain's body shuddered violently. He looked up in terror to see a man with a grim expression standing before him, the dark muzzle of the gun pointed directly at his head. Yan Qi's icy face gradually emerged from the darkness.
When he escorted the bandit chieftain back in through the rear gate, he was genuinely shocked by the scene before him.
That seemingly refined Fang Zhiyi, dressed in a blue gown, holding a long sword gleaming with cold light, sat quietly atop a pile of more than a dozen corpses. His expression was terrifyingly calm.
All around him lay corpses scattered in every direction, their blood staining the ground into shocking, spreading pools. Soldiers were nervously searching for possible survivors, their shouts constantly ringing out.
Even Yan Qi, who considered himself hardened, couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine facing Fang Zhiyi's icy gaze. That look didn't seem human.
Yan Qi shook his head. Was he just too tense?
Fortunately, Fang Zhiyi finally stood up. He walked slowly, each step appearing unusually heavy. In just a few paces, he reached the bandit leader. He lightly tapped the leader's cheek with the tip of his sword, his voice eerily calm: "So you're the boss, right?"
Though pale with fear, the bandit leader forced himself to appear composed, stubbornly saying, "Do what you will! Kill me if you must! Losing a head just leaves a scar the size of a bowl! In eighteen years, I'll be a hero again!"
Fang Zhiyi clicked his tongue: "You're not very cultured either." He glanced at Yan Qi, who hesitated for a moment before ordering, "Let them in!"
The bandit leader was bewildered. Who else was there?
But when he saw the people entering through the stronghold gate, his earlier composure completely vanished.
"Take a look, is it this guy?" Fang Zhiyi asked.
Several among the twenty or so people rushed forward: "It's him! I'd recognize him even if he turned to ashes! He's the one who killed my whole family!"
"He shot out this eye of mine! If I hadn't played dead, the grass on my grave would be tall by now!"
Looking at these people and hearing their words, the bandit leader's fear surged dramatically.
As the remaining survivors were found, they were all tied to wooden stakes.
"This... isn't quite by the book," Yan Qi said gravely. He finally understood why Fang Zhiyi had brought those victims along. He clearly had a hundred percent confidence in this raid.
Fang Zhiyi looked at him: "What, you want to take them back for a public trial? Not afraid of scaring the children? Or do you want some tangible achievements?"
Yan Qi snorted and turned away. He didn't want any achievements, he just wanted to do things properly.
Meanwhile, the remaining bandits, seeing the furious commoners, were filled with panic. As two soldiers threw a large bundle on the ground with a clatter of metal, their hearts leapt into their throats.
When the bundle was opened, it was filled uniformly with instruments of torture, the kind that made one's scalp tingle just from a glance.
Seeing Yan Qi walk away, Fang Zhiyi turned to the commoners and said, "I have only one request: don't let them die too quickly." Then he addressed the new recruits: "Open your eyes wide and see clearly. These things are bandits."
Even though some people's legs were weak, they still stared at the tied-up bandits. Fang Zhiyi spoke again.
"In the fourth month of the Year of the Mao, the Mu family of Shanghe Village was attacked by bandits. The elders were tied up, the young women..." As he spoke, everyone present fell silent. He had actually memorized the entire contents of those grievance petitions!
As he recounted without emotion, the crowd, who had initially felt complex emotions, now looked at the bandits with pure hatred.
The bandits finally knew fear. Their former victims, whom they had casually tortured and killed, had now become butchers holding instruments of torture. They begged loudly, losing control of their bowels, but nothing could stop the blade of vengeance.
Until dawn, the last bandit finally breathed his last in agony. Throughout the process, Fang Zhiyi had specifically arranged for military doctors to be on standby, providing basic treatment to ensure they wouldn't die too quickly.
"Does revenge have meaning?" Yan Qi asked, hands behind his back, watching the sunrise. The other soldiers stood similarly. They had listened to screams all night, feeling both unnerved and, in some ways, satisfied.
"Some say that after revenge comes emptiness, but so what? At least revenge comes first," Fang Zhiyi said with utter detachment.
A commoner walked up to them and knelt with a thud, followed by a second, then a third. They kowtowed, their faces filled with both smiles and tears.
"In this era, being direct is better than any pretty words," Fang Zhiyi said.
Yan Qi glanced at him and nodded. What would the consequences be if he were to become this man's enemy?
Fang Zhiyi's next action interrupted his train of thought: "Alright! Stop standing around! Let's go! Time to get rich!"
Yan Qi nearly choked. Fang Zhiyi's earlier image of a lofty figure suddenly turned mercenary.
But for some reason, he found himself willing to listen to Fang Zhiyi. He couldn't explain why, but he felt following him was probably the right thing to do. As for these bandits... they truly deserved to die!
The news of the Black Wind Stronghold's overnight annihilation spread. Other bandits went to investigate and found all its bandits killed, with the chieftain and his key lieutenants tortured to death. Their bodies were hung at the stronghold's entrance, a sight that made one's heart clench.
The news spread as if on wings, instantly sweeping through the mountains around Creek City. Now almost everyone knew that Creek City had a security regiment that eradicated bandits.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
