Banditry: 14 Years of Turmoil

Shen Zhixia was found by Fang Zhiyi quite by accident, in a bandit lair that had just been wiped out. She was huddled among the women who had been abducted, looking as if she had suffered considerable torment herself. Her ten fingers were bloody, and her eyes were vacant and dull.

Upon questioning, it was learned that to protect herself, Shen Zhixia had claimed her family was wealthy. The bandits believed her and sent someone to demand ransom. However, the area where the Shen family lived was not like these remote mountains; the messenger bandit never even returned. Consequently, Shen Zhixia was tortured. The bandits were planning to kill her. If Fang Zhiyi hadn't arrived just in time, who knows what would have happened to her.

Shen Zhixia thought she was saved, only to be separated from the other innocent women. She was imprisoned here instead, charged with colluding with and harboring bandits.

Today, what Fu Yunshen endured, she had already experienced once. They had tied her up in an open space, letting the common people see clearly this woman who consorted with bandits.

But it didn't end there. Every night, someone would come to tell her in meticulous detail about the atrocities committed by those bandits. She gradually remembered that the beauty she had initially seen in Qingfeng Stronghold was all an illusion. The reality behind Qingfeng Stronghold was a pile of bloody bones. Under such torment, terror had taken over her mind; her sanity was now severely compromised.

And today, seeing this man, she gave her most direct response. Like a wild beast, she fought with Fu Yunshen until he pinned her down, his hands deathly tight around her neck. Staring at this twisted face before her, she wondered how she could ever have fallen in love with such a beast? Why?

Fang Zhiyi was preparing to go home, bathe, and sleep when a bolt of lightning struck out of nowhere right in front of him. He quickly dodged, avoiding several strikes in a row purely through agile footwork, leaving the soldiers watching from not far away utterly dumbfounded.

Yan Qi, already head-aching from listening to the young men's arguments, happened to see this scene through the window and was stunned.

"What kind of heaven-defying atrocity did he commit?" He actually felt a hint of schadenfreude in his heart, but still hurried over to check.

Fortunately, Fang Zhiyi was indeed unharmed.

However, new rumors spread that very day, and this time, Fang Zhiyi wasn't the one secretly spreading them.

"Did you hear? Commander Fang has killed too many people; even Heaven can't stand it anymore."

"Why? Commander Fang only kills bad people!"

"But Heaven has a virtue of cherishing life. Killing too many is certainly not good either."

"But... Commander Fang killed them for us..."

"Ah, this damned Heaven."

Fu Yunshen's judgment day was the next day. The execution ground was packed solid; everyone wanted to see the fate of the last bandit in Xicheng. However, the sky was overcast with dark clouds that day.

"Truly inhuman, strangling his own wife even at death's door." Yan Qi spat as he looked at the kneeling figure.

But Fang Zhiyi didn't answer him, merely looking up at the sky.

As the list of crimes was read aloud one by one, the rumble of thunder gradually began.

"Bandit leader Fu Yunshen, alias 'Descending Mountain Tiger,' perpetrated numerous evils, burdened with countless blood debts. Today, he is sentenced to..." The officer reading the script rubbed his eyes, glanced at Fang Zhiyi, and said uncertainly, "Lingchi! (Death by a thousand cuts)"

The entire crowd fell silent.

“Those who have grievances against him shall each take one cut with a knife, until he is completely dead, his bones crushed and ashes scattered!”

The common people boiled over with excitement. Some had lost their families because of Qingfeng Stronghold and had been waiting for this day for a very, very long time.

Fang Zhiyi still stared intently at the sky. He wanted to see just how muddle-headed this Heavenly Way really was.

As an old woman stepped forward, took the small knife from a soldier, cursed Fu Yunshen, and sliced off a piece of his flesh, thunder suddenly cracked loudly, but the lightning didn't strike the ground directly.

The second person, the third person... By now, Fu Yunshen had lost control of his bowels, fear and pain rendering him speechless. He finally realized he might not escape this time.

The ninety-ninth person, the one hundredth person...

"Commander! He can't take anymore!" the military doctor shouted.

Almost simultaneously, a bolt of purple-tinged lightning struck down fiercely. Fang Zhiyi abruptly charged towards the person still holding the knife, reaching out to pull him away.

"Little Hei!"

Little Hei's body seemed to be pulled by an invisible hand, rapidly expanding and flying straight towards the lightning. The lightning bolt exploded mid-air, and many people felt dizzy and disoriented.

Fortunately, it was just that one strike. The sky soon cleared, and Fu Yunshen's head slumped down; he was completely lifeless.

Coming to their senses, the crowd began to realize something was wrong. Fang Zhiyi was gone!

"Where's the Commander?"

"Grand Marshal?"

"Commander?"

People called out various titles.

Many began to curse Heaven. Now there was only one explanation: the Commander had been struck by lightning, his body vanished without a trace.

Only a few discussed: "Did you see it?"

"I saw it. Something suddenly flew out from the Commander's body."

"It was a dragon! Definitely!"

"Really?" Some were doubtful, but under others' insistence, they wavered.

Yan Qi stared dumbfounded at the spot where the lightning and Little Hei had collided. He hadn't been mistaken. Fang Zhiyi had blocked that lightning bolt by some means. What... what kind of person was he? That gigantic figure could actually withstand heavenly lightning?

Thus, the legend of Fang Zhiyi was left behind. He had killed countless bandits, taken too many lives, and was settled accounts by heavenly thunder. But at the final moment, he transformed into a dragon and departed.

Fang Zhiyi disappeared. The local people spontaneously built a temple for him, and the incense offerings flourished.

But the matter was not yet concluded.

Wang Agou, wielding a hoe, was listlessly tending his fields, muttering something under his breath. When he looked up again, two people dressed in new-style uniforms were standing before him.

"Military lords? Can I help you?" Wang Agou asked with an ingratiating smile.

The two looked at him coldly. "Don't call us 'lords.' 'Sir' will do."

"Sir, can I help you?" Wang Agou began to feel uneasy.

"Wang Agou, where were you in the autumn three years ago?"

Wang Agou's heart skipped a beat. "I... I was at home farming..."

"Farming, or being a bandit?"

Wang Agou's hands started to tremble. He wanted to defend himself, but the man before him cut him off.

"Hmph, we wouldn't have come looking for you without a lead. Let's go!"

Similar scenes played out in various places. Yan Qi and the others carried out the plan Fang Zhiyi had left behind. Some long-cold cases were gradually unearthed. The bandits who had escaped back then were exposed to the sunlight one by one. However, without Fang Zhiyi the executioner, they were simply executed according to standard procedure.

The campaign against banditry in the southwest continued for twenty years, forming a set of procedures. Many aspiring individuals from other regions came to learn and then returned to implement them. As time passed, the bandit profession gradually dwindled. However, Fang Zhiyi's nickname "Fang the Bandit-Killer" remained. His methods of governance were impossible for later generations to imitate—swift, precise, and ruthless. This was the assessment given to him by later anti-bandit forces.

As for the records of him being struck by lightning, many did not believe it. Some experts believed Fang Zhiyi probably went into hiding, fearing retaliation from bandits.