I Left, and Now I'm Back

High in a tall tree, Qin Yan chewed on some dried meat and looked toward Black Wind Stronghold.

The bandits were now too frightened to come out.

But he was in no hurry. With his current strength, he could escape without any trouble as long as they didn't surround him.

As for his ability to recover, he now needed only two to four hours of rest to keep his strength up for an entire day.

If necessary, he could even go several days without sleep or rest.

Now, if he wanted to, he could simply wear them down until they died.

The only ones who could threaten him now were the three bandit chiefs.

Two of them were probably at the Skin-Refining Realm, but he couldn't get a clear sense of Cao Lian.

He was probably at the peak of the Skin-Refining Realm or at the Bone-Tempering Realm.

Thinking of the worst case, he assumed Cao Lian was at the Bone-Tempering Realm.

With his current formidable physical strength, he was confident he could kill him head-on.

Before that, he had to take out the other two bandit chiefs.

He checked his equipment. His arrows, which had been in shortest supply, had also been replenished.

After all, there had been plenty of archers among the bandits who had searched for him in the forest!

He could only say that most of them were fakes, good to look at but useless in practice.

Aside from a handful of notable experts, the rest of the bandits were merely ordinary people of the most vicious sort.

As long as he had time, he could wipe them all out without a problem.

Fear was spreading through Black Wind Stronghold.

Many had chosen to become bandits because they had nowhere else to turn and had been lured here by the bandits.

They had enjoyed few benefits, yet instead had to live in fear every day.

They could be killed by that mysterious expert at any moment!

Cao Lian was at his wits' end as well.

If they fought their way out, that mysterious expert would be watching from the shadows. They had already suffered a heavy loss that way.

But defending the stronghold to the bitter end left him feeling utterly stifled.

"Big brother, second brother is personally leading the guards now. There's no need to worry so much."

The third chief, Qian Renyi, comforted him softly.

Hearing this, Cao Lian's tightly knitted brows did not relax. The hardest people to deal with in the martial world were these lone wanderers.

They had no ties or burdens in life. Once you offended someone like that, you would lose a layer of skin even if you didn't die.

"Third brother, do you think we've offended someone? Someone wants to put us in our place."

Qian Renyi was taken aback at first, then frowned deeply and began to consider it.

"It's not impossible!"

Qian Renyi said quietly, "We've been able to exist for so long because the great families around here all know who we answer to.

"Perhaps someone was afraid we'd encroach on their interests, so they wanted to use this method to make us keep a lower profile."

The three brothers had been able to stay here for so many years because they naturally had someone backing them.

That connection had never been exposed.

But the bandits within a hundred li of here all had countless ties, however many or few, to certain people.

They had been expanding constantly of late, so it was not impossible that they had encroached on someone's interests.

"This person is quite capable, and when he strikes, he's clean and efficient.

"I'm afraid he's not much inferior to me.

"You two need to be careful as well."

Cao Lian had a persistent sense of unease, an intuition he had developed through years of caution.

Meanwhile, Qin Yan silently made his way to the foot of Black Wind Mountain.

The bandits in the watchtowers no longer dared show themselves. They only dared steal a few glances outside before quickly ducking back.

That gave him quite a few opportunities.

The entire stronghold had been built against the mountain, taking advantage of its terrain. Naturally, an ordinary army would have great difficulty attacking it.

But to Qin Yan, all of this might as well have been undefended.

Moving like an agile ape, he quickly climbed up to the top of the wall, which was covered in barbs, and observed the situation inside.

A large number of people were gathered at the stronghold's entrance, while two teams of five kept patrolling along its perimeter.

He pulled his gaze back slightly, gripping the cracks between the stones with both hands to avoid being discovered.

The layout of the entire stronghold appeared in his mind, its various buildings coming together piece by piece.

The bandits' gathering hall stood in the center, while a row of houses near the entrance served as the ordinary bandits' quarters.

The quarters of Cao Lian and the others were probably to the left of the gathering hall.

Men stood guard on the right, making it look like an important area.

Qin Yan waited with great patience, occasionally poking his head up to observe the surroundings.

Soon, he spotted someone carrying a sack of grain out of a building on the right.

You want to be turtles hiding in your shells? I'll burn all your grain and see how you keep hiding.

A glint flashed in Qin Yan's eyes!

The night deepened!

A ghostlike figure vaulted over the wall and moved swiftly and silently toward the granary.

Two drowsy bandits leaned against the wall, their eyelids fighting to stay open.

In an instant, a knife-hand strike hit one man squarely in the neck, knocking him unconscious.

The other had only just raised his head when a hand clamped over his mouth. A sharp pain shot through his chest, followed by another in his neck.

Two knife strikes to the heart, one to the neck.

In moments, he stopped moving. As for the man who had been knocked unconscious, he got two knife strikes to the heart and one to the neck.

After those finishing blows, even an immortal would have had trouble saving them.

After doing all this, Qin Yan first checked his surroundings. Once he was sure it was safe, he looked at the locked door.

He gripped the lock and gave it a hard yank, forcibly tearing it off.

By the faint light, he examined the warehouse and found that it was indeed packed with all kinds of grain.

"They certainly eat well."

Qin Yan found several barrels of oil, and the corners of his mouth rose!

Soon, a raging fire broke out at the warehouse, its flames shooting into the sky.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

"Quick, put it out!"

As chaos erupted in Black Wind Stronghold, Qin Yan slipped into the night and found the bow and arrows he had placed there beforehand.

Hidden in the shadows, Qin Yan's eyes showed a trace of cruelty as arrows kept ripping through the night sky.

Every arrow struck a person with pinpoint accuracy.

"Enemy attack!"

The sound of gongs and drums rang through the stronghold as Qin Yan moved constantly through the darkness.

His arrows were fast and accurate, and he prioritized the bandits holding bows.

"Over there...!"

After Qin Yan had killed seven or eight people, Liu Dongshan was the first to spot him hiding in the shadows.

"Bastard, you're courting death!"

In an instant, more than ten men followed him in an attack to surround Qin Yan.

Qin Yan smiled mockingly. With no intention of getting entangled with them, he leaped over the wall and vanished before their eyes.

"Bastard! Coward!"

Liu Dongshan was so angry at the sight that his nose nearly twisted. He had never seen anyone so shameless.

He was a petty man who only dared launch sneak attacks from the shadows, without a shred of an expert's conduct.

"Second brother, leave that fellow alone and put out the fire."

Cao Lian was also so angry he could spit blood. He had never seen anyone so shameless.

On Cao Lian's orders, everyone in the stronghold kept hauling water to fight the fire.

But how could Qin Yan possibly let them put it out so easily?

He vaulted back over the wall and unleashed a furious barrage at the people fighting the fire, his arrows flying like a string of pearls.

This time, Qin Yan did not kill them one by one. Instead, he gravely wounded them.

In mere moments, the ground was covered with wailing people.

When Black Wind Stronghold's three chiefs saw this, their eyes instantly turned bloodshot.

But Qin Yan chuckled at the three of them:

"I'm back again!"