Soul-Severing Mountain had complex terrain, its overlapping peaks concealing countless natural caverns. The deeper ones could hold a hundred people, while even the shallower ones could shelter dozens.
Underground rivers crisscrossed the mountain's interior, linking its caves. Anyone unfamiliar with the terrain could wander inside for three days and nights without finding a way out.
The caverns were warm in winter and cool in summer. Some entrances were concealed by natural stone screens, leaving no sign of them visible from outside.
It was precisely these caverns that allowed the bandits of the Soul-Severing Stronghold to escape repeated extermination campaigns by the Provincial Capital.
The Provincial Capital had dispatched forces to wipe out the Soul-Severing Stronghold many times. Each time, they marched into the mountain in grand procession and emerged bedraggled and humiliated.
Once the bandits slipped into the caverns, they vanished like clay oxen sinking into the sea. No search could find them.
Sometimes, before the search parties had even left the mountain, the bandits had already circled out the other side and robbed soldiers who had strayed from their units.
After several such attempts, the Provincial Capital stopped bothering.
As time passed, the Soul-Severing Stronghold grew increasingly brazen and utterly unrestrained.
The Soul-Severing Stronghold had over a hundred bandits, all desperate martial artists with cultivation. Even the weakest had reached manifest force initiation.
They were either fugitives fleeing their crimes or down-and-out martial artists with nowhere left to turn.
Every one of them had blood on his hands and serious crimes to his name.
The Soul-Severing Stronghold accepted recruits regardless of background, judging only strength and courage. Anyone willing to murder and burn was welcome.
The strongest were Zhao Zun, the stronghold chief, and the "Four Heavenly Kings" under him-the four subordinate chiefs.
Chief Zhao Zun's cultivation realm