Annihilation

Hiss!

The crescent-shaped cyan wind blade swept lightly through more than a dozen zhang of air like a flying swallow. In the space of a breath, it sliced across Third Brother's neck as he stood frozen in place.

With a dull, muffled thud,

Third Brother's head roared, and his consciousness sank into chaos. He never had a chance to react before his head tumbled to the ground.

His headless body remained standing where it was, blood gushing from his neck like a spring.

At the entrance to the main hall,

Shen Changchuan had appeared without a sound.

He held the Soul-Absorbing Bell in his left hand and Zhao Hangao's body in his right.

As he looked at the Soul-Absorbing Bell in his hand, a flicker of delight passed through his eyes.

It truly was an unparalleled weapon for magical combat.

With just a single strike,

Third Brother, at the fifth level of the Qi Induction Realm, hadn't managed to react at all before Shen Changchuan easily killed him.

Though the process had consumed quite a lot of magical power,

with a magical artifact like this,

below the late stages of the Qi Induction Realm,

there probably weren't many who could stand against him!

He was practically invincible!

Satisfied, Shen Changchuan tucked the Soul-Absorbing Bell back into his sleeve.

Holding Zhao Hangao's body in his right hand, he entered the main hall

and tossed it onto the floor.

"Did you see that clearly just now? It seems that these people's deaths, as well as the devastation of Zhao Family Village, were all the work of those 'guests' you invited."

As he spoke,

a faint trace of mockery appeared at the corner of Shen Changchuan's mouth.

"Inviting wolves into your home and bringing disaster upon yourself—Brother Zhao, I have to say, your move truly leaves me astonished."

By then, half an hour had passed since the battle in the woods twenty li away.

Half an hour earlier,

after cleaning up the battlefield, Shen Changchuan hadn't returned to Dawan Village right away. Instead, he had found a secluded spot nearby, sat in meditation, and restored the magical power within him.

To recover as quickly as possible,

Shen Changchuan had even drained the spiritual energy from both Spirit Stones.

At last, he had recovered eight or nine tenths of his magical power,

and his depleted mental energy had also recovered considerably.

His fighting strength had been restored as well.

At the time,

Shen Changchuan had initially planned to take Zhao Hangao back to Dawan Village and pry information from him about the people who had ambushed him.

But soon, he realized something.

During the fight,

the Scar-Faced Man had clearly called the weakest of them, the one at the fourth level of the Qi Induction Realm, Fourth Brother.

There were three of them, so why was the youngest called Fourth Brother?

Did that mean

they had another accomplice ranked Third Brother?

At the thought, Shen Changchuan could no longer sit still.

Who knew whether, after this failed attempt to kill him, one of the fish that slipped through the net might escape

and bring him trouble later?

Besides, though the Zhao cultivation family of Zhao Hangao's was small, they had managed Zhao Family Village for years. They must have accumulated some wealth.

For Shen Changchuan, who was now poorer than a church mouse,

it was best not to let any of it go to waste.

So Shen Changchuan turned around and hurried toward Zhao Family Village with Zhao Hangao.

When he was still a few li from the village,

he spotted black smoke rising from the direction of Zhao Family Village.

After quickly drawing closer,

he found that more than half of Zhao Family Village had indeed been reduced to ruins,

with flames blazing fiercely.

Since he would need to extract information from Zhao Hangao's mind later,

Shen Changchuan had thrown cold water on him to wake him up,

so that he would see everything before him with his own eyes and have a seed planted in his heart.

Then, aided by the Spirit Eye Technique, Shen Changchuan had tracked the culprits' trail all the way to the main hall in the center of the village.

There, he had happened to witness Third Brother stab Zhao Jingming to death.

"Brother Zhao, as the saying goes, debts must be paid by those who incurred them. That man killed your son, slaughtered so many of your family and friends, and destroyed your village. Such a deep grudge—I've now avenged you."

"In return, I'd like to know who these people are and why they attacked me. That's not too much to ask, is it?"

Shen Changchuan's voice drifted softly.

But

Zhao Hangao didn't respond.

At that moment, Zhao Hangao stared blankly at Zhao Jingming's corpse not far away.

His eyes were vacant.

He knelt beside Zhao Jingming's body,

the scenes of the village strewn with corpses continually surfacing in his mind as he murmured words like, "A damnable sin, all of it..."

In that instant, he seemed to have become a sixty-year-old man in his twilight years, on the verge of dying.

It was as if the last breath holding him upright had finally escaped.

Shen Changchuan glanced at him.

He didn't say anything more to provoke him.

This was good for Shen Changchuan, too.

With Zhao Hangao's mental defenses shattered,

it seemed Shen Changchuan would be able to pry more out of him once they returned.

That was good.

The dantian within Zhao Hangao had already been destroyed. He couldn't put up much of a fight, so Shen Changchuan stopped worrying about him and left him there.

He walked out of the village's main hall,

then sprang lightly into the air and landed at the highest point.

Facing the village's blazing fires and the deathly silent woods in every direction, he shouted:

"I am Shen Changchuan, the immortal master stationed at Dawan Village! The bandits who attacked this village have all been killed. Villagers, return at once and attend to what remains!"

With magical power bolstering his voice,

Shen Changchuan's words rang through the woods, echoing across the open valley.

Shen Changchuan called out three times in a row.

But clearly,

after suffering such a terrible disaster,

few of those who had survived by sheer luck dared to come forward.

Fortunately,

just as Shen Changchuan was growing impatient,

a few people finally emerged from the woods, one after another.

Then,

more and more people came out.

Amidst sobs and wails, they began clearing away the wreckage of Zhao Family Village.

Afterward,

Shen Changchuan chose a new acting village chief from among the first few people to emerge that day.

He ordered them to handle Zhao Family Village's affairs for the time being

and keep things from falling into chaos.

At the same time,

he sent someone to Dawan Village with a message, asking his maternal grandfather, Han Qinhu, to bring some people over.

After this disaster,

Zhao Family Village had suffered heavy losses,

and Third Brother had been especially ruthless.

Everyone with a direct blood tie to the Zhao cultivation family of Zhao Family Village had been slaughtered.

It had been an outright massacre.

As a result,

Zhao Family Village was now effectively without an owner.

After all, it had two mu of Spirit Fields.

Now that they had practically been handed to him, Shen Changchuan had no intention of letting them go.

Having Han Qinhu bring people over

was naturally part of his plan to take actual control of the place.

"Since Zhao Hangao dared to plot against me, and I managed to kill his people instead, then all this property is rightfully my spoils of war!"

Though Zhao Hangao was still alive,

Shen Changchuan could take the two mu of Spirit Fields in Zhao Family Village with a clear conscience.

Who could blame Zhao Hangao for conspiring with outsiders to kill him?

They had failed to kill Shen Changchuan and had instead been killed by him.

Everything they owned naturally became his spoils of war.

"However, outsiders don't know what really happened."

"To keep rumors from spreading, I'll need to let the facts speak for themselves and silence all those wagging tongues!"

A glint flashed in Shen Changchuan's eyes.

He remembered the three corpses in his Storage Bag.

At first, he had put the three corpses in the Storage Bag simply as a precaution.

If Zhao Hangao refused to talk, he could still use their appearances to track down their origins.

But now,

there was clearly a better use for them!

Immediately,

Shen Changchuan issued another order,

having his men summon the cultivators in charge of the six villages under Dawan Village's authority and tell them to come to Zhao Family Village as soon as possible.

The corpses of the enemies who had attacked him, the terrible state of Zhao Family Village—

the culprits

and the truth were all there for everyone to see.

"The witnesses and evidence are right before them."

"Some people might still have doubts, but it won't matter. Most will accept this explanation."

"And then there won't be much trouble with me taking these two mu of Spirit Fields."

Shen Changchuan quietly pondered.