One evening more than ten days later, at another famous mountain stronghold over seventy li from Funiu Village, a dark figure stood atop a great tree, swaying in the wind. The figure blended into the night, moving with the breeze, while the bandits in the watchtower more than half a li away swept their gazes over this spot several times without noticing that someone was standing there.
"Burning, killing, looting, committing every imaginable evil—Black Cloud Village, you're the one."
Along the way, Lin Xiao had not slaughtered every bandit stronghold. Before taking action, he always conducted a rough investigation. He let those that generally did little evil off the hook, but Funiu Village, which he had wiped out before, and this Black Cloud Village were truly vicious bandits.
Robbing travelers was one thing; they especially liked killing people after robbing them or receiving ransom. They often descended the mountain to extort nearby villages and abducted respectable women to the stronghold.
These wicked bandits were precisely the sort Lin Xiao wanted to eradicate. No matter how many he killed, he would not feel the slightest psychological burden.
Once night had fallen completely, he leaped down from the tree and, using the darkness as cover, swiftly crept toward the rear of the stronghold.
His strength had improved somewhat, but he still needed to be cautious. Experts overturning in a gutter in some small place was not unheard of, and he had no desire to become a boastful achievement in the mouths of bandits.
After wiping out nearly a hundred bandits and robbers at Funiu Village, he had accumulated thirty-three Potential Points. Adding the eleven he already possessed gave him forty-four in total. He spent eighteen and twenty-four points respectively, using forty-two altogether, to raise Flying Heaven Steps to the sixth layer. He had reached the same level as Yin Sha Maiden back then, and was only one step away from bringing this two-star Lightness Skill to perfection—just thirty Potential Points short.
Lin Xiao had long since witnessed how exquisite Yin Sha Maiden's Lightness Skill was. Now that he had reached her level, and his internal force was far stronger than hers, he could naturally unleash the skill's might even more fully.
He lightly skimmed over to the rear mountain of Black Cloud Village. Behind the walls stood a watchtower, where two bandits leaned against the wooden railing and bragged. He drifted over as silently as a dark cloud. He climbed all the way up the watchtower without either man noticing. Only when he suddenly appeared beside the bandits chatting against the railing did the two start in fright and prepare to shout. Two palms were already pressed against their backs. Surging internal force erupted, thrusting their bodies forward. A ring of clothing and flesh exploded from each chest, and they collapsed without a sound.
With his total internal force surpassing three centuries, and the power of Yang Sha Scripture alone reaching two centuries, even without using Yin Sha's internal force, his abundant Yang Sha internal force could easily shake a person to death.
Though this was merely a low-martial small world with an extremely low level of martial power, the same amount of internal force was still a tier weaker here than internal force in higher worlds.
It was like having the same hundred years of internal force: its power absolutely could not compare with the hundred years cultivated through Nine Yang Divine Skill in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. Thus, in other worlds, a practitioner with sixty years of internal force could kill someone one or two meters away with a single palm, like the Hundred-Paces Divine Fist, but in this world, sixty years of internal force could not even leave the body.
This was also the main reason Lin Xiao clearly possessed over two hundred years of cultivation yet did not display the same exaggerated power seen in other martial-arts worlds: the level of the internal force was too low.
Of course, no matter how low the level, as long as one's cultivation was high enough, a hundred years not being enough meant two hundred years, and two hundred not enough meant three hundred. As long as the internal force was sufficiently profound, one could still kill an enemy several meters away with a single palm.
Lin Xiao was not far from that step now. Once the internal forces of the two techniques merged and he could simultaneously unleash more than three centuries of cultivation, he would become formidable.
After silently killing the two bandits, he used the darkness to quickly slip into the stronghold from the rear mountain. He killed everyone he encountered. Ordinary bandits could not detect him at all, and by the time they did, they were already dead.
He slaughtered his way unhindered to the Gathering Hall at the center of the stronghold. The bandits still had not discovered him, but after he killed most of those sleeping in their rooms, the thick stench of blood finally roused the dogs kept in the stronghold. Enormous barking rang through the night.
A bandit woke groggily and pointed at the black dog barking outside, cursing loudly:
"You bastard, keep barking and I'll stew you!"
He rubbed his eyes and went to urinate. The moment he opened the door and saw several corpses in the courtyard, he instantly sobered up and shouted at the top of his lungs:
"Someone's here! An enemy has sneaked into the stronghold!"
The moment his voice fell, before his comrades could react, the neighboring door opened and a black-clad figure stepped out. He froze, then shouted and turned back into his room to grab a saber. But the instant he turned, his vision blurred. The black-clad figure had somehow appeared in front of him and struck him in the chest with a palm, sending his entire body flying out of the room as though riding clouds and mist, before crashing into the courtyard.
Several bandits were sleeping in disarray inside the room's large pits. Before they could wake, Lin Xiao cut their heads off one by one.
Since he had been discovered, there was no need to kill them with palm strikes one at a time. Using a saber was much more satisfying.
With no restraints on his slaughter, more and more bandits were roused. The stronghold instantly descended into chaos. The three leaders of Black Cloud Village were also awakened. Without even putting on their clothes, they took up sabers and swords and surrounded him under the escort of a group of subordinates. Their gazes swept over the corpses covering the ground and Lin Xiao, who was completely unharmed. They inwardly sucked in a cold breath, twitched their lips, forced out a smile, and cupped their hands.
"My Black Cloud Village has never had any grudge against you, Young Hero. Why slaughter my stronghold?"
Lin Xiao shook the Hundred-Forged Fine Steel Saber in his hand, sending the blood clinging to it flying, then flourished the blade and pointed it at the village chief.
"No other reason. I'm merely upholding justice on Heaven's behalf!"
The village chief's face immediately darkened. With a cold snort, he said:
"What a fine 'upholding justice on Heaven's behalf.' Then come on! What kind of storm hasn't my Black Cloud Village weathered? Today..."
"Why are you spouting so much nonsense?"
With one stride, Lin Xiao had already rushed seven or eight meters into the crowd. He swung his saber, and a layer of dazzling saber light flared along the blade. One slash cut several robbers and their sabers in half, sweeping through them like a tiger among sheep, with no one able to withstand a single exchange.
The village chief's words had been bold enough, but after seeing Lin Xiao's strength—and especially the saber light blazing along the blade—his expression changed several times. Then he abruptly turned and fled.
The remaining bandits were quickly routed by Lin Xiao. He ignored those who escaped, leaped onto the rooftops, and pursued the village chief in the direction he had fled.
Two minutes later, he arrived at a small hut in a secluded part of the stronghold. The village chief had fled there with several trusted men.
The tip of his saber pried up a roof tile. Through the opening, he saw seven or eight bandits digging at a thick brick in the floor of the hut. They soon unearthed it, revealing an underground passage beneath. The group hurried inside, replaced the brick, and sealed it tightly. If one was not paying attention, there was no way to discover it.
"How interesting!"
He stamped once and jumped straight down from the roof. Then he planted his foot on the thick brick. With a boom, the stone shattered and split open. After a moment's thought, he jumped down.
Less than two meters below the entrance was a slope, followed by a passage farther down. But at that moment, a thick stone wall was slowly descending. Clearly, they had heard the noise and activated a mechanism to block the passage.
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