'Hero'

Lu Bai made no attempt to hide his intentions. Though the mountain stronghold's guards were lax, there were living people here after all.

Night had not fully fallen yet. The glow of dusk, reflected off the snow, still provided some illumination.

"Strangers!"

The shout rang out, and people immediately began stirring.

One man even grabbed a weapon and came before Lu Bai, pointing at him as he shouted.

"This is Black Tiger Sect territory. Hundred Flower Grave, Luohe Sect, and Longshan Sect have all sent visiting cards. This friend—"

"Friend my ass!" Whether he had made it clear that Lu Bai was insulting him or not.

He sprang forward and charged at the enemy.

The bandit's heart lurched in alarm, and he raised his blade to chop down. Unfortunately, his aim was far too off.

Lu Bai tilted his foot slightly and dodged the blade. His hand shot out like a long snake, coiling around the man's wrist.

As he yanked hard, his other hand swept sideways into a hand-blade and struck forward. The man's body immediately went limp.

Lu Bai did not stop walking, nor did he release the wrist he had seized.

Dragging the corpse across the snow for a while, he finally saw a large number of people emerge from the various houses.

Then Lu Bai tossed over his meeting gift.

The corpse howled through the air, flying toward the crowd like a cannonball.

"Get out of the way?!" Cries rose from the crowd as they scattered to either side.

Unfortunately, they did not succeed. Two people were still struck and sent sprawling to the ground, spitting blood.

Putting away the modules he had Extracted, Lu Bai bared his white teeth.

Beneath that cruel smile, even the vicious bandits felt a chill seep into their hearts.

"Kill!" Someone shouted, perhaps to bolster his courage, and the bandits charged Lu Bai with their blades raised.

"Very good!" Setting aside factors like Internal Force, if one spoke only of the Martial Forest environment, modern Earth had actually surpassed the Martial Forest Dimension.

In the Martial Forest Dimension, many people still had to worry about food, clothing, shelter, and Travel. Those able to devote themselves wholeheartedly to martial arts were few and far between.

In the modern era, resources were abundant, and communication between all corners of the world was convenient.

Those with the means could even fight every day, exchanging blows with different opponents.

The frequency of all kinds of combat sparring far exceeded that of the Martial Forest Dimension.

Combat required one to consider the consequences. All manner of bodily injuries could easily become serious problems if medical care failed to keep up.

Thus, in the Martial Forest Dimension, people rarely fought opponents of the same level. Either they bullied the weak, or after a single battle, they vanished into the forests and Mountains.

Unlike in the modern era, where people from all corners could rapidly gather together and fight without end.

In Lu Bai's view, the modern environment had only one flaw: fights between people did not involve their lives. Battles were not life-and-death struggles.

Although battles in the Martial Forest Dimension were rare, every one of them could involve life and death.

Lu Bai was the same. His combat experience was exceptionally rich, and there were indeed quite a few lives beneath his hands.

Yet he likewise had little experience fighting opponents of the same level to the death.

He had equally little experience engaging a whole group of people in a life-and-death battle like this.

So in the next instant, rather than retreating, Lu Bai advanced and charged forward of his own accord.

The next instant, two pouches of lime powder collided in midair.

The man who had scattered the lime powder staggered back with a face full of shock, only to see Lu Bai, eyes shut, pass directly through the cloud of powder and appear before him.

Perhaps he was stunned by the fact that this man was clearly a Martial Forest expert, yet he scattered lime powder like a bandit just like me.

The bandit did not even have time to react before Lu Bai closed in. Then he felt a sharp pain in his chest, followed by his vision suddenly shifting.

Lu Bai grabbed the corpse with one hand while searching it for lime powder with the other.

He had been in this Dimension for so long that the lime powder he had brought was running low. This was the perfect chance to restock. It did not have honey sauce chili powder mixed into it, but it was still better than nothing.

At the same time, Lu Bai Extracted two modules from him.

One was still [Vitality], while the other was [Concealment]. This module even came with an evaluation.

Element Module [Concealment]: Conceal things. Evaluation: Only through Concealment can weak you survive better, whether concealing yourself or concealing attacks.

"A fellow traveler!" Lu Bai looked at the evaluation, then tossed the corpse aside.

Then he turned a fervent gaze toward the other bandits.

He had originally thought that high-quality modules carrying evaluations could only be formed by experts who had mastered Internal Force.

But now it seemed that was not the case.

Rather, it had much to do with a person's life.

"If someone carries a certain factor through their entire life, then in the end, they may be able to condense a corresponding factor module."

Lu Bai did not have much time to think, because during that brief pause, two stone-wrapped bolas spun toward him through the air.

Bandits used these things against mounted people or Martial Forest fighters who moved with great speed.

Once entangled, the target's speed would rapidly slow. Usually, before they could even untangle themselves, the bandits would hack them to death with a storm of blades.

At the same time, some bandits held bamboo tube canisters and squeezed them, spraying Lu Bai with a slightly viscous black liquid that gave off a foul stench.

Others held thin blowpipes and blew out slender needles carrying a fishy reek at Lu Bai.

Yet faced with this situation, Lu Bai did not dodge at all.

The air around him seemed to distort for an instant.

Like air scorched by blazing heat on a summer road.

Then Lu Bai's fairly pale skin rapidly reddened. His already swift figure was, in the next instant, accelerated to the point of leaving afterimages.

Most of the attacks missed. Of the few that did not, the instant they touched Lu Bai, they were shoved aside by some force surging from within his body.

Lu Bai felt as though he were underwater. His body possessed a strange buoyancy, while the air around him became incredibly heavy.

The wind howled in his ears, yet that sound seemed to soften, like the feverish caresses of a lover.

"No! Don't come over here!!!"

Shouting was useless. Begging was useless. Running was useless.

With the Blood Burning Technique activated, Lu Bai became the most violent killing machine.

It was as though an internal-combustion engine had been installed within his body, providing him with an endless stream of power.

Enemy bodies seemed to be made of paper. With the slightest tear from Lu Bai, they shattered.

After some time, Lu Bai stood where he was as vast amounts of white vapor rose from his body.

Snowflakes drifted down, but before they could touch him, they melted into liquid.

Looking at the corpses carpeting the ground, Lu Bai put away the modules and continued toward the interior of the mountain stronghold. There were still quite a few people here.

Of course, they were all women and children.

They were looking at Lu Bai with complicated expressions—fear, gratitude, or perhaps hatred.

"Hero, why didn't you come earlier?" A woman covered in bluish-purple bruises held her stomach with one hand and a blade with the other. As she looked at Lu Bai, an irrepressible Resentment welled up in her eyes.

First update. Please vote, love you all.