Blood Saber Stronghold

Eighty li outside Linyang City, on the Green Shade Path.

Su Mo carried a longsword on his back, deployed his movement technique, and hurried toward the Youfeng Mountain Range.

The Youfeng Mountain Range lay over a hundred li from Linyang City. At Su Mo's speed, he could arrive in roughly half an hour.

"Hmm? What a dense stench of blood!"

Su Mo, who had been rushing onward, frowned. With his keen senses, he detected a strong bloody scent drifting through the nearby air.

What was going on?

Where had such a thick stench of blood come from?

Su Mo stopped, pondered briefly, then followed the scent of blood to see what had happened.

A moment later.

A village appeared in Su Mo's sight. It was not large, with roughly a hundred households.

Yet at this moment, the entire village was in ruins. Countless houses had collapsed, and corpses lay strewn everywhere throughout the village.

Crimson blood had dyed the earth red, flowing into rivers of blood, like Asura's hell.

The dense bloody stench was emanating from this village.

"This is...?"

Su Mo was greatly shocked. Even though he had weathered great storms and seen towering waves, the sight before him stunned him beyond measure.

"Who could be so vicious as to massacre an entire village?"

Rage rose in Su Mo's heart, and a cold gleam flickered in his eyes.

Drawing a deep breath, Su Mo leaped forward and entered the village.

The entire village was deathly silent. Corpses lay scattered in all directions, severed limbs were strewn about, and crimson blood made one want to vomit.

Among the corpses were many elderly people, weak women, and children.

Everything before him filled Su Mo with boundless fury, his face dark as still water.

Who could be so utterly devoid of humanity as to commit such an outrage that angered both gods and men?

Ah! Ah!

Suddenly, a faint groan reached Su Mo's ears.

Su Mo's expression shifted. He swiftly ran toward the source of the sound, and before long, he spotted a white-haired old man beneath a collapsed pile of rubble.

The old man was covered in blood, half his body pinned beneath the ruins. He was gravely injured, but still alive.

"Sir, how are you?"

Su Mo hurried forward, cleared away the rubble, and helped the old man up.

The old man's abdomen and chest had been slashed open by a sharp blade. With so many fatal wounds, he clearly would not survive.

"What a sin! Heaven is unjust! Sob...!" The old man wore a dazed expression before bursting into loud sobs.

"Sir, what exactly happened?" Su Mo asked.

After a moment, the old man stopped crying, and clarity gradually returned to his eyes.

"Young brother, save my granddaughter! Please, save my granddaughter!"

The old man looked at Su Mo, suddenly clutching his hand tightly, his face full of pleading.

"Sir, don't panic. Tell me, what exactly happened?" Su Mo asked.

"It was the Blood Saber Stronghold! Those beasts from the Blood Saber Stronghold looted our village and killed so many villagers."

The old man's face was filled with grief and indignation, his eyes brimming with endless hatred.

"The Blood Saber Stronghold?"

Su Mo narrowed his eyes. He had heard of this Blood Saber Stronghold before.

It was said to be a bandit gang several hundred li from Linyang City. They had great numbers, were ruthless and vicious, and often burned, killed, plundered, and pillaged.

However, though the Blood Saber Stronghold committed every evil imaginable, they also knew their limits. They never provoked even slightly powerful forces, targeting only the weak.

That was why the Blood Saber Stronghold had run rampant for so many years without being eradicated.

"How many people do they have? What is their cultivation?"

Su Mo's eyes turned icy, and a towering killing intent erupted in his heart.

"They don't have many people, only one squad of around twenty. But nearly all of them are experts above the Qi Refining Realm Third Layer. They are very strong."

Having lost too much blood, the old man's voice grew weaker and weaker. "Our village only had five Qi Refining Realm cultivators. We were no match for them and were quickly slaughtered!"

"Young brother, save my granddaughter. They took her away. As long as you can save her, I will serve you like an ox and horse in my next life."

The old man pleaded with Su Mo, without caring whether Su Mo was strong enough to defeat those bandits.

Still, he could tell that Su Mo's clothing was rather luxurious. He had to be the descendant of some great Lineage and would surely be able to save his granddaughter.

"Sir, rest assured. I will definitely rescue your granddaughter."

Su Mo nodded heavily.

At that moment, his feelings were complicated. This was the nature of this world: the weak could only be slaughtered at others' whim, while the strong could act wantonly.

"Good! Good! Thank you, young brother...!"

At last, a faint smile appeared on the old man's face. Then his head tilted to one side, and he died.

"The Blood Saber Stronghold?"

Su Mo rose to his feet, clenching his fists tightly. Killing intent filled his brow. "Scum like you should not be allowed to live in this world."

Then Su Mo flashed away, following the horse tracks leading out of the village.

The village had only just been looted. The Blood Saber Stronghold's people should not have gone far.

Su Mo was going to wipe out every last one of those beasts.

Giddyup! Giddyup! Giddyup!

A group of bandits from the Blood Saber Stronghold were urging their warhorses along a mountain path.

The bandits were not traveling very quickly, because they had also brought along twenty or thirty women and girls.

"Brothers, rest here for a while. We'll continue after we eat."

The tall Mountain Bandit Captain gave the order to his subordinates.

Before long, the bandits stopped to rest, lit a bonfire, and began roasting wild game.

"Hehe! I never expected such a huge haul on this trip!"

One bandit laughed loudly. They had looted Gu Family Village and seized quite a bit of wealth, not to mention abducting so many women and girls.

"Haha! This trip wasn't for nothing!"

Another bandit with a scar on his face laughed heartily. His gaze lingered on a young girl in green among them as he said with a grin, "This little girl is truly top-grade! I've lived this long, but I've never seen such fine goods!"

Among the women was a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old girl dressed in green. Her appearance was exceptionally striking, standing among the women like a crane among chickens and drawing considerable attention.

Though the girl was plainly dressed, she could not conceal the aura she possessed, like a blooming blue lotus.

"Ma Lao San, I intend to bring this girl back as an offering to the Stronghold Master."

The Mountain Bandit Captain spoke coldly and indifferently.

"Hehe, understood, understood."

Ma Lao San, the scar-faced bandit, gave an embarrassed laugh. Then he walked into the nearby grass, followed by the sound of urinating.

Whoosh!

All of a sudden, a cold sword light appeared at his side, shooting straight for Ma Lao San's neck.

Ah!

Ma Lao San had only managed to let out a miserable cry before the sword light pierced through his neck, and his body crumpled limply to the ground.