Black Stone Village was not large, and most of the houses were built with mud bricks and thatch, looking shabby and crude.
Sure enough, there was a lone mud-brick house at the western end of the village. The branches and leaves of the old locust tree at the entrance were lush, its shade covering almost the entire courtyard.
When Lin San and his party walked into the village, a few villagers who were working early saw them, and their complexions changed instantly.
"Ban-, bandits are coming!" an old man shouted with a trembling voice.
"Run! The people from Black Wind Stronghold are here!"
"Close the doors and windows! Close the doors and windows!"
The villagers panicked and hid in their houses, closing their doors and windows tightly.
A few bold ones peeked out from the gaps in the doors, but no one dared to come out.
In this turbulent era, bandits entering the village to rob things was too normal; whoever dared to block them would die.
Seeing this, Zhang San smiled smugly, "See that? The mighty reputation of our Black Wind Stronghold is quite resounding around these parts!"
Li Xi also puffed out his chest, as if he had returned to the days of old when he followed the Three Leaders down the mountain to "collect protection money."
Lin San couldn't be bothered to deal with these two, leading his men straight toward the western end of the village.
The lone mud-brick house stood in the western part of the village. Under the old locust tree at the entrance, an old woman in her fifties, wearing coarse cloth garments, was drying herbs beside a stone mill.
Hearing the commotion, she raised her head, looking startled when she saw Zhang San and Li Xi, then immediately piled her face with