Those Who Practice Martial Arts Must Uphold Justice

Five corpses yielded only seven taels of silver.

He also confiscated five ordinary iron sabers, making Mo Chen curse under his breath at how dirt-poor they were.

"They were bandits, for heaven's sake, yet they went out carrying only seven taels of silver..."

Still, something was better than nothing.

At least killing these five bandits had not been a wasted effort.

Seven taels of silver were enough to exchange for seven months of cultivation progress.

Just then.

Thud!

More than a dozen villagers, men and women alike, all knelt before Mo Chen with their children.

"Mo Chen, thank you for saving the children."

"You are our benefactor. Please accept our bows!"

The relatives of several children had reddened eyes. They knelt on the ground and knocked their heads three times directly before Mo Chen.

"This..."

Mo Chen was startled and hurriedly stepped forward to help them up. "You mustn't, you mustn't..."

"Good!" The villagers cheered in unison, all watching this scene with excitement.

The girls of the village looked at Mo Chen with worshipful eyes, their gazes shining brightly.

"Mo Chen is so handsome!"

"He's so amazing now!"

"If only I could marry Mo Chen..."

In the past, Mo Chen had been the village's typical invisible nobody.

Thin and frail, often sick, he usually just trailed behind his strong older cousins without saying much.

Yet now, no one present had expected this.

Five vicious saber-wielding bandits had actually been slaughtered cleanly by Mo Chen alone.

"Please rise, everyone. There is no need to be so polite."

Faced with their kneeling, Mo Chen kept helping them up.

"The bandits were wrong to snatch children by force. Besides, I am from Mo Family Village too. How could I stand by and watch people die?"

"Well said!" A booming shout rang out.

His eldest uncle, Mo Zhengsheng, walked out. He patted Mo Chen on the shoulder and praised him with relief, "Good lad. I haven't seen you in a year, and you've grown a whole head taller—and sturdier too!"

"Eldest Uncle!" Mo Chen called out awkwardly.

In his memories, after the original owner's parents died, he had practically been raised single-handedly by this eldest uncle.

Not his father, yet better than a father.

"Mo Chen, you've done the village a tremendous service this time."

Eldest Uncle Mo Zhengsheng sighed bitterly as he helped the kneeling villagers to their feet.

"Third Grandpa, you're so old—quick, get up! How could this boy Mo Chen possibly deserve such a grand bow from you?"

Several older cousins, sharing in the glory, stepped forward to help people up as well.

"Second Aunt, get up."

"Uncle Youcai, please get up."

"Little Stone, this is your Sixth Brother, Mo Chen."

The three-year-old boy called Little Stone stared at Mo Chen with wide eyes and said in a childish voice, "Sixth Brother, thank you for saving my life."

"You're welcome!" Mo Chen reached out and rubbed the back of the little boy's head, a smile appearing at the corner of his lips.

Seeing this, the villagers nearby all smiled kindly.

"Village Chief, what should we do with these bandits' bodies?"

At that moment, a middle-aged man pointed at the five corpses and asked worriedly.

The noisy crowd immediately fell silent.

All the villagers looked toward Mo Zhengsheng, waiting for him to make a decision.

Eldest Uncle Mo Zhengsheng turned to glance at the corpses, his expression becoming solemn.

"Flying Bear, Cloud Leopard!"

"Here!" Eldest Brother and Second Brother answered and stepped forward to await orders.

"You two will go to the county town at dawn tomorrow to report this to the authorities."

Mo Zhengsheng instructed them gravely, "These bandits came from Blackwind Mountain. They dare harass the common people and seize children by force—the county magistrate will certainly not let them off!"

"Yes!" Eldest Brother and Second Brother clenched their fists and answered together.

When Mo Chen heard Blackwind Stronghold, his heart gave a sudden jolt and his face changed drastically.

"Blackwind Stronghold?!"

He abruptly thought of the ledger in his inventory.

That ledger had been found on the black-clothed thief. It recorded in detail the human trafficking transactions between the county magistrate and Blackwind Stronghold.

At this thought, Mo Chen's expression turned incomparably grave.

However, after looking at Mo Zhengsheng and the reassured villagers, he did not tell them about the connection.

Nor did he stop his older brothers from reporting it to the authorities.

"If they learned the truth about the officials and bandits colluding, they would probably feel utterly helpless..."

This time, if he had not happened to return to the village,

those children would already have been carried off by the bandits.

"Or... should I secretly go and kill all those mountain bandits?"

The thought suddenly arose in Mo Chen's heart.

The people of Mo Family Village were all ordinary commoners, while Blackwind Mountain was home to a gang of murderous bandits.

If he killed every last one of those bandits, would that not be the same as saving many commoners?

And besides... after killing the bandits, he could make money too!

Thinking of the seven taels of silver he had just searched off those five bandits, Mo Chen's heart immediately burned with restless excitement.

"To right wrongs and uphold justice—those of us who practice martial arts cannot shirk this duty!"

That very night.

After his eldest uncle and the others had gone to sleep, Mo Chen secretly slipped out of Mo Family Village.

An hour later.

At the foot of Blackwind Mountain, a horse and a youth arrived.

"Who knows which village the Second Boss dragged off to have fun with women again? He still hasn't returned at this hour."

"Haha, then you don't know this—the Second Boss likes young wives best. Big breasts, big ass, that feeling... tsk, tsk, tsk... absolutely incredible!"

"Hehe, now that you mention it, I had one last month too. That woman had just given birth, and with one suck, damn it, I was actually full."

"Hahahaha, you filthy bastard!"

In the darkness.

Mo Chen watched the two mountain bandits guarding below, his eyes cold as ice.

He had thought that in these troubled times, some people might have been forced into the mountains to become bandits.

But he had never expected the bandits of Blackwind Mountain to be beasts to such a degree.

Seeing the two gate guards chatting enthusiastically and leering without end, Mo Chen immediately leaped off his horse and sprang forward. His fists swung like hammers, smashing viciously into the heads of the two guards.

After the Fierce Tiger Fist reached Great Perfection, Mo Chen possessed the strength of one ox.

Now that his cultivation had broken through into the Sinew Tempering Realm, his speed had improved tremendously as well.

Though his punches at this moment carried neither tiger intent nor tiger force, his two fists alone were not something ordinary people could withstand.

Bang!!

Two muffled groans sounded at once. The mountain bandits, who had been chatting heatedly, were caught completely off guard. Before they even saw Mo Chen's figure, both were struck in the head. Their eyes rolled white, foam spilled from their mouths, and they collapsed to the ground, twitching without rising again.

"Taking one punch from me without having your heads smashed to pieces means your skulls are pretty hard."

Mo Chen sneered. Looking at the two men on the ground, dead or alive he did not know, he rubbed his fingers.

Ever since he had killed the black-clothed thief for the first time a few days ago, he had already grown accustomed to bloodshed.

Whether it was killing the five bandits today or the two lowly gate guards before him tonight, neither stirred the slightest ripple in his heart.

Why should he feel bad for people who deserved to die?

Their heads had been struck by his fists. Even if they did not die, they would become fools.

"Third Dog, what's going on with you two?"

Perhaps because their laughter had abruptly stopped, a puzzled shout came from a wooden house not far away.

Then, hidden in the bushes nearby, Mo Chen saw a burly man carrying an axe walk over.

Mo Chen burst out from the darkness and drove a punch directly into the burly man's back, over his heart.

The man died on the spot.

"Sneak attacks feel way too good!"

Mo Chen happily crouched down and searched the three corpses for silver.

Only after finishing the search and obtaining two taels of broken silver did he continue quietly up the mountain.