Dark Night, High Winds, Slaughter in the Shadows

Just as he was about to leave, he thought better of it and returned to the cell.

He tore clothes from Wang San's corpse, fashioned them into a face-covering scarf, and concealed himself, leaving only his eyes exposed.

His strength was still lacking. Better to hide his identity for now.

Three Tiger Mountain consisted of three peaks. The Third Boss occupied the outermost and shortest one.

The dungeon exit happened to be halfway up the mountain. Looking downhill, everything was pitch-black.

Ning Chuan was unfamiliar with the terrain and had no idea which houses were occupied and which stood empty.

Keeping low, he felt his way down the mountain path, passing one house after another as he focused on sensing the sounds within.

At night, he could now see as clearly as in broad daylight; everything within twenty feet was visible down to the finest detail.

Sure enough, when he reached only the second house, the sound of snoring came from inside.

He crept to the door and saw that it wasn't even locked.

Ning Chuan slipped inside on silent feet. A bandit was sleeping on the bed.

His mouth opened and closed, his cheeks puffing in and out as he snored away merrily.

"Brother, if you must blame someone, blame yourself for snoring in the middle of the night!"

He aimed the great iron rod at the bandit's mouth and thrust it down with a wet pfft. The tip burst out through the back of his skull in a spray of blood.

The bandit's legs twitched a few times, then fell still!

He smoothly gained one attribute point and added it to his physique without hesitation.

Feeling a warm current surge through his limbs and bones, Ning Chuan no longer felt any discomfort after killing. Instead, excitement rose in his heart.

"Awesome!"

The ability to gain attributes and increase his strength by killing was like an addiction. Ning Chuan seemed to be getting hooked.

It seemed Heaven had given him this system so he could sprint down the road of becoming a crazed killer!

Half an hour later, Ning Chuan had silently killed twenty-three bandits and gained twenty-three attribute points.

His physique had risen to 75 points, and he had reached the seventh level of the Body Tempering Realm. His strength had increased greatly.

After searching the bodies, he had unexpectedly obtained the enormous sum of twenty taels of silver and three thousand copper coins.

This was the first time Ning Chuan had touched silver in this world.

By then, every bandit below the mountainside had been slain by Ning Chuan.

He followed the path back to the mountainside and began feeling his way toward the houses above it.

A quarter of an hour later, Ning Chuan slipped into a room and looked toward the bed.

"Oh ho, isn't this the bandit who stabbed me with a knife yesterday during the day?"

Enemies meeting face-to-face made their eyes burn red. He had to repay this favor properly.

Ning Chuan quietly crept to the bandit's bedside and first knocked him unconscious with a chop to the neck.

Then he stuffed his mouth full of cloth strips, fetched some hemp rope, and trussed the bandit securely to the bed.

"I'm a reasonable man. I'm not going overboard at all—just putting what I've learned into practice and returning the favor in kind!"

Through the blanket, Ning Chuan jabbed the bandit's ribs with his saber.

The bandit awoke from the searing pain and opened his eyes wide. In the darkness, he saw a black shadow fiercely stabbing down at him with a blade. Frightened out of his wits, he desperately writhed on the bed.

Ning Chuan was very considerate and stopped what he was doing.

He lit a candle for the bandit, pulled off his hood, and leaned close to the bald bandit's face so he could see clearly.

"Mmph... mmph..."

The bandit's eyes were filled with terror, stretched wider than an ox's. He thrashed desperately as muffled grunts came from his nose.

Before Ning Chuan could even reach one hundred and eight jabs, the man breathed his last and died on the spot!

"Ah, my strength has shot up so much that I didn't know my own limits!"

Pulling back the blanket, he saw that the bandit's chest had been smashed inward, his internal organs reduced to a mangled mess.

Just then, a rapid series of gong strikes rang out from outside, followed by frantic shouts:

"Something's wrong! Something's wrong! They're all dead! They're all dead!"

A bandit frantically beat a bronze gong while shouting in terror, scrambling and tumbling up from the foot of the mountain.

The cries shattered the silence of Three Tiger Mountain. Lights gradually came on as numerous bandits ran out of their houses with weapons in hand.

"Zheng Dahu, what is it? Why are you panicking like this? Have you no sense of propriety?"

The Third Boss came out while getting dressed.

He had been studying calligraphy with the Bandit Queen, guiding her hand as they wrote the character "Kun."

Zheng Dahu's shout had interrupted him, leaving a blaze of pent-up fire three inches below his navel with nowhere to vent it.

The bandit called Zheng Dahu flung aside the bronze gong, scrambled over, and threw himself around the Third Boss's leg.

"They're all dead, all dead!"

"What do you mean, all dead?" Third Boss kicked Zheng Dahu aside and demanded angrily.

"The brothers below the mountainside are all dead!" Zheng Dahu wailed.

Third Boss frowned, thinking he had lost his mind.

What a joke. So many brothers lived below the mountainside—how could they all be dead? Who would dare come to Three Tiger Mountain to kill?

Third Boss looked down the mountain. A vast stretch of buildings below the mountainside lay shrouded in darkness.

He threw back his head and roared, "Brothers down the mountain, get the hell out here and make a sound!"

Make a sound!

Make a sound!

Third Boss's furious roar echoed across the mountainside. Below it, darkness blanketed everything, and no one answered.

The bandits looked at one another as an eerie atmosphere slowly settled over the scene.

By rights, such a huge commotion should have roused every bandit already.

Third Boss immediately recalled Zheng Dahu's words and shouted several more times.

Down the mountain, there was still no movement at all!

"Could it be... all the brothers below the mountainside are dead?"

Third Boss suddenly felt the hairs on his back stand on end. He swallowed hard, then screamed in alarm.

"Assassin! Quick! Gather up and form a defense! Send word to Great Tiger Mountain and Second Tiger Mountain for reinforcements!"

Signal fireworks shot into the sky. Several hundred bandits converged from every direction, forming a circle around Third Boss with their blades drawn in wary guard.

Above and below, it was still pitch-black and utterly silent.

"Who is it? Get the hell out here!"

"Out here..."

"Out here..."

Standing amid the crowd, Third Boss bellowed, his voice echoing down the mountain.

Above and below, there was still no movement—only an eerie silence.

Third Boss's expression grew even grimmer as he swallowed with difficulty.

The longer one wandered the martial world, the smaller one's courage became.

Third Boss was already past the age of charging headlong into danger. He had done far too many evil deeds in his youth, and now he feared death more than ever. Even in his sleep, he worried someone would cut off his head!

At that moment, Ning Chuan was dressed in bandit robes, mingling among the bandits.

In the pitch-black night, no one could make out anyone else.

A layer of dark grime was smeared across his face as well, leaving only two bright eyes and two rows of gleaming white teeth exposed.

"Brother, why is your face so black?"

"And why don't I think I've seen you before?"

A bandit beside Ning Chuan poked him with a hand and asked softly, his face full of suspicion.

Ning Chuan wiped his face, pulling away a handful of black mud. His eyes darted, and he answered in a muffled voice:

"I only joined yesterday. It's black because I was putting on a face mask and didn't have time to wash it off!"

The bandit looked utterly baffled.

"Brother, what's a face mask?"

"Oh, it's when you smear mud on your face and sleep with it on to nourish your skin!" Ning Chuan explained patiently.

"Huh? That works?"

The bandit looked puzzled, then suddenly realized something and shouted:

"The assassin's here!"

With a wet slash, Ning Chuan raised his blade and brought it down. A flash of cold light streaked past, and a fine head flew into the sky.

"Brother, farewell—no need to see you off!"

A pillar of blood shot more than a meter into the air, and one attribute point was credited.

"Ah..."

The surrounding bandits let out strange cries and quickly scattered, pointing their blades at Ning Chuan.

Ning Chuan was instantly surrounded on all sides.

Ning Chuan sheathed the saber across his back and switched to an iron staff.

He had never learned any martial techniques. Since he fought with brute strength, an iron staff that could be swung wide and freely suited him better—after all, the longer the weapon, the stronger the advantage.

Having just replaced his iron staff, the Third Boss shoved through the crowd and strode forward, his face so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water.

"Who are you? You dare break into my Three Tiger Mountain at night—what do you want?"

The Third Boss's face was dark. Ning Chuan had killed a bandit in an instant just now; clearly, this visitor had come with ill intent!

This man's strength is unknown. I should stall him for a while until the First Boss arrives, then we'll join forces and kill him!

The Third Boss calculated in secret.

Hearing a faint, piercing howl rise from down the mountain, Ning Chuan knew the other two bosses were coming to help. He did not dare waste any more time.

With a cold laugh, he said, "Break into my ass—take this staff!"

The iron staff shrieked sharply through the air as it smashed straight down at the Third Boss's head.