Exterminating the Stronghold
Firelight,
Blood,
Corpses,
And screams and wails echoing throughout the stronghold.
Gao Yunyi was like a tireless killing machine, mercilessly and efficiently reaping the lives of these bandits, who had committed every evil imaginable.
[Experience +5] [Experience +5] [Experience +5]
Every streak of white Sword Qi meant a head fell, and every flash of white sword light meant a body was cleaved in two.
Gao Yunyi's expression never changed, and his eyes remained undisturbed.
If not for his peerless looks, his holy immortal robes, and his Sword Qi brimming with righteous power, one might have thought some unparalleled demon lord was on a killing spree.
Not a single bandit in the stronghold could escape the death-dealing Sword Qi. Whether they hid under beds, inside water jars, or in woodpiles, all met gruesome deaths beneath the righteous Sword Qi.
Every red dot on the minimap represented a bandit, with its direction and position clearly marked. So, in Gao Yunyi's eyes, no matter how well these bandits hid, they had nowhere to conceal themselves.
Only when the red dot representing a hostile monster's life vanished from the minimap would Gao Yunyi turn his attention to the other bandits fleeing and hiding.
[Experience +5] [Experience +5] [Experience +5]
The merciless slaughter continued. From the moment he accepted the mission, Gao Yunyi had come intending to pull the weeds up by the roots and leave no survivors.
Every bandit here was worth five experience points. How could he possibly let them go when he was in such urgent need of experience to level up?
He might have felt a little guilty about killing innocent people, but when it came to killing these utterly heartless bandits who had committed every evil imaginable, he felt no moral restraint.
The high walls built on three sides left these bandits, frightened out of their souls, with no road to heaven and no gate into the earth. Their only escape was the stronghold gate Gao Yunyi had shattered with a single sword strike.
But every bandit who tried to escape through the ruined gate drew Gao Yunyi's most precise and rapid killing blow. The surviving bandits utterly despaired and broke down.
Pleas for mercy, cries of repentance, and the sound of heads knocking against the ground rang out incessantly. But rather than feeling pity, Gao Yunyi found them noisy.
From the moment the butcher's blade fell, it would not be sheathed until every one of these inhuman bandits had been slaughtered.
The bearded leader no longer possessed the domineering air and imposing presence he had shown atop the wall. His face was deathly pale, his whole body trembled, and his eyes were full of terror and fear.
Although he had built the stronghold to be impregnable, he had still dug a secret passage leading straight to the mountainside.
The passage was his escape route, its entrance hidden beneath the bed in his bedroom. He was the only person in the entire stronghold who knew the secret.
The secret passage he had dug as a precaution was now his only chance to escape with his life.
The bearded leader silently gave himself a thumbs-up for his foresight as he lifted the bed and prepared to escape through the passage.
But his plan soon fell apart.
A familiar scarlet flame came hurtling through the doorway. The scorching wave of fire sent the temperature in the room soaring in an instant, and even the air warped from the heat.
Instincts honed through years of fighting and killing allowed the bearded leader to narrowly dodge the center of the scarlet Sword Qi, but his beard and hair were curled and scorched by the terrifying heat wave. The acrid stench of burning filled his nostrils.
He was so frightened that he collapsed onto the ground, his back soaked in cold sweat and his eyes filled with terror and cowardice.
That terrifying power, which did not belong to the mortal world, shattered his arrogance and pride.
When he recovered from his shock, he discovered that his house had been split in two, its beams tottering and ready to collapse at any moment.
A long, narrow trench had been plowed into the ground, and everything within it had been reduced to scorched earth and charred wood.
His escape passage had collapsed and been buried.
"No..."
A shrill, anguished roar of unwillingness escaped the bearded leader's mouth.
At the other end of the stronghold,
More than a dozen constables and yamen runners waited anxiously in the woods, their eyes wide and fixed on the stronghold.
From the immortal walking openly toward the stronghold gate like a lantern, to the volleys of arrows from the walls leaving him unscathed, to the terrifying scarlet Sword Qi splitting the gate apart, and finally the screams that came from within after the immortal entered the stronghold.
Their nerves had been taut the entire time, their bodies sweating with tension, their hearts like surging waves that could not calm for a long while.
Only when all sound finally ceased within the stronghold, as though the dust had settled on everything, did they let out a long sigh of relief.
"Is it over?"
"What's happening in there?"
"Should we go take a look?"
"But the immortal told us not to intervene."
Everyone turned to Constable Chen in unison, hoping he would make a decision.
Constable Chen hesitated for a moment, then said, "The immortal told us not to intervene, but he didn't say we couldn't go inside. Besides, the county magistrate ordered us to protect the immortal. If anything happens to him in there, we won't be able to escape the blame."
It sounded as though he were speaking to the others, but also as though he were reassuring himself, trying to persuade himself.
"Then shall we go in?"
"Come on. Everyone, follow me into the stronghold."
With their chief's order, the constables and yamen runners hurried toward the stronghold, not only to check on the immortal's safety, but also to satisfy their curiosity.
Yet after they passed through the collapsed and shattered gate, they saw a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives.
Corpses lay strewn everywhere, blood flowed in rivers, walls stood broken and ruined, and devastation met the eye.
The interior of the entire stronghold seemed to have become a purgatory on earth.
The bloody, horrifying sight stunned them. Some could not bear the appalling scene and bent over to vomit.
And the immortal they regarded as cold-faced but warm-hearted, kind and merciful, stood amid that mountain of corpses and sea of blood, his immortal robes fluttering as he stood calmly alone.
Not a single drop of blood or speck of dust stained those holy, otherworldly robes, forming a stark and shocking contrast with the bloody, brutal scene around him.
"Gulp..."
The sound of someone swallowing finally broke the chilling silence.
Constable Chen took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the shock and fear roiling in his heart. With heavy steps, he crossed the blood and severed limbs on the ground, walked up behind Gao Yunyi, and bowed respectfully.
"Exalted Immortal, are you all right?"
Although he forced himself to remain calm, he could not hide the tremor in his voice.
Gao Yunyi did not answer. He merely gazed ahead, his eyes serene.
Constable Chen followed the immortal's gaze and saw a house that had been cleaved open by some terrifying force.
He thought of the scarlet Sword Qi he had seen from the woods, tearing through the night sky. That terrifying power, which did not belong to the mortal world, was a true Immortal Method belonging to an immortal from the heavens.
But he could not understand why the immortal was curious about this ruined house. Could there be something in the dilapidated building that interested him?
But soon,
Constable Chen found out why.
A tall, burly man with rugged features and a full beard emerged from the ruined house, holding a woman hostage.