The Origin of the Mountain Bandits

Jiang Youfu finished eating a fruit himself, then pulled out a handful of roasted beans and tossed them into his mouth:

"Could it be that Jianghe went to deliver the goods first?"

Lin Xiao looked at him, thought for a moment, and shook his head, saying:

"Second Brother Fang mentioned earlier that this place is only a little over five hundred miles from the delivery destination, Quhuai Prefecture. If Jianghe went to deliver the goods, traveling overnight, he should have arrived at Quhuai Prefecture before dawn. Since it is already afternoon, he must be on his way back. Calculating the time, he should be here by now."

Fang Manliang then asked him:

"Then could it be that Jianghe has already gone back?"

Lin Xiao, however, said:

"Based on what you're saying, Jianghe would definitely go settle the score with those bandits and wouldn't just return like that. But on our way here, I haven't detected the scent of blood anywhere."

The implication was that no one carrying the stench of blood had passed by along the way.

For a moment, everyone seemed to have reached an impasse.

Lin Xiao looked around and spoke up:

"Let's keep walking forward and see. Perhaps those bandits are hiding deep in the mountains, and I can't detect them from here."

Saying this, he took the lead and walked forward.

Meanwhile, in the mountain forest about fifty miles away from Lin Xiao and the others, Qin Jianghe was advancing quietly alone along a shrub-covered cliff.

Just as Lin Xiao had surmised, he had arrived at Quhuai Prefecture early in the morning to deliver the escort goods. Afterward, he immediately returned along the same route and arrived at the area where those bandits frequently appeared.

However, after searching a large area, he failed to find many useful traces.

He tracked the signs of the bandits' movements, but those tracks gradually disappeared deep in the mountain forest.

No wonder the government had sent people to suppress the bandits once before but returned without success. Consequently, the government grew negligent about it, and even when highway robberies occurred later, they did not dispatch troops to suppress the bandits again.

Qin Jianghe continued deeper until he reached the side of a cliff face.

Looking at this cliff face, he felt something was strange.

Having spent years roaming the mountains with Lin Xiao and the others, he immediately noticed something amiss. He reached out his hand to probe forward, and sure enough, someone had set up a concealment array here!

He immediately concluded that this was in all likelihood the hiding place of those bandits.

No wonder the government troops couldn't find any trace of these bandits before; to think there was a concealment array here.

Qin Jianghe pinched the peach leaf pendant under his hem, kept his concealment technique active, and quietly sneaked inside.

Only upon entering did he realize that this was actually a massive mountain tunnel.

The tunnel was very deep, and faint light could be seen ahead.

He walked all the way forward. Upon reaching the cave exit, he found that inside was a medium-sized mountain valley.

After Lin Xiao and the other three had searched the mountain forest for over half an hour, Lin Xiao suddenly caught the scent of blood. When they followed the scent and arrived, the battle in the valley had already ended.

The valley was strewn with the corpses of bandits.

Seeing this, Jiang Youfu couldn't help but get goosebumps. This was a ground full of dead bodies, after all...

Fang Manliang noticed that the large broadsword Qin Jianghe usually used had its edge chipped and was dropped on the ground nearby.

At this moment, Qin Jianghe was holding a peach wood sword, its tip half-buried into the body of a middle-aged man he was holding hostage, forcing the man to walk out of the mountain stronghold.

Looking up, he saw Lin Xiao and the other three at the entrance of the valley.

Qin Jianghe was slightly surprised:

"Brother Xiao? Why are you here?"

Lin Xiao looked at Qin Jianghe, who was covered in blood and walking out with a hostage. Having not seen him for over a month, he was already at the fourth level of Qi Condensation. It seemed that despite rushing about outside where the spiritual energy was not as rich as in the sect, Jianghe still hadn't neglected his cultivation.

Smelling the blood all over the ground, he felt a bit melancholic, but he cast this slight melancholy aside in an instant. He immediately stepped forward and asked:

"Are you alright?"

The other three also gathered around.

Qin Jianghe shook his head at Lin Xiao, said "I'm fine," and then threw the man he was holding captive in front of Gu Yuxiao.

"Yuxiao, this is the murderer who killed your father. Do with him as you please."

The man was covered in cuts and bruises and had long lost any ability to fight back. Thrown lightly by him, the man collapsed in front of Gu Yuxiao. If not for his faint breathing, he would be no different from a dead man.

Qin Jianghe tossed a dagger from his person to her, said, "We'll wait for you outside," and then turned to Lin Xiao:

"Brother Xiao, let's go outside to talk."

Lin Xiao nodded and followed him out of the valley.

Jiang Youfu and Fang Manliang also followed closely behind them and went out.

They left the valley to Gu Yuxiao.

Walking outside the valley, Lin Xiao sighed and said to Qin Jianghe:

"Jianghe, you've worked hard."

He knew that for those of them who grew up in rural villages, whose most bloody experience was watching pigs being slaughtered for the New Year, killing so many people in one breath—even if these people were ruthless bandits—was definitely not a good experience. It would mostly just leave a psychological shadow.

Hearing this, Qin Jianghe shook his head and smiled:

"Brother Xiao, don't say such distant words. It's impossible for the whole world to be as peaceful as our little corner. For our sect to grow, someone has to get their hands dirty. I think it's pretty good for me to be that person."

The world couldn't be a pure land everywhere. For him, Qin Jianghe, he only needed to protect the piece in his heart; as for other places, what did it matter if they were hell?

Lin Xiao smiled and didn't continue the topic. He turned to look inside and asked:

"What's the deal with that guy? A third-level Qi Condensation cultivator hiding in the middle of nowhere to be a bandit leader?"

Qin Jianghe answered:

"I just asked. This person belongs to the Cloud Smoke Sect. Because he reached middle age and his cultivation is still stuck at the third level of Qi Condensation, he knew there was no hope for advancement. So he wanted to leave the sect and enjoy wealth in the mortal world while he still had time.

But entering a sect is easy; leaving is difficult. He said he met a fellow cultivator in the sect before who applied to leave. After being rejected, that person just left the sect and returned to his home in the mortal world, wanting to use his cultivation to play the tyrant in his hometown. Who knew that not long after, he was dragged back by the sect, and there was never any news of him again.

So he knew that even if he wanted to leave the sect, he definitely couldn't return home with great fanfare, or the sect would surely step in and drag him back. Thus, he lay low in these mountains, gathered some refugees and wild bandits, and fell into banditry here." As for the method used to interrogate him, seeing the man's injuries, Lin Xiao and the others didn't even need to think to know.

In fact, had that person not been so flashy upon returning home, the Cloud Smoke Sect wouldn't have gone out of its way to drag him back; after all, he was just a low-level Qi Condensation cultivator with no hope of advancement.

Now, this cultivator had been hiding in the mountains as a bandit for several months without any issues, which showed just how little importance the sect attached to these low-level Qi Condensation cultivators.

Hearing this, everyone nodded in understanding.

Lin Xiao asked again:

"Then what's the deal with his concealment array?"

Qin Jianghe explained:

"According to him, this is an array disk he stole from his sect's Array Hall. It had been sitting there gathering dust for ages. Back when he was doing chores at the hall, he noticed that no one ever touched this array disk, so he quietly slipped away with it."

Hearing this, everyone fell silent for a moment.

They never imagined that the immortals they once thought were so high and mighty could actually have people like this among them.

Resorting to banditry, robbing and killing travelers, and engaging in petty theft.