Mo Xue's Outrageous Bandit-Slaying Prowess

The next morning, Luo Fanchen had not slept a wink.

He had talked with Yun Mo and Granny Zhang late into the night, drawing out a wealth of information through roundabout questions. He had learned a great deal.

At last, he understood the situation in Flying Cloud Market.

When the blessed grotto-heaven last opened, the Clear River Sect had suffered a loss it could not speak of. Nearly half its elite disciples had fallen, leaving it badly weakened. Its five markets had also been thrown into turmoil, and Azure Cloud Market had already fallen into the Yi Wood Sect's hands.

With the Clear River Sect weakened, the Yi Wood Sect pressed its advantage, seizing several spirit fields and mineral veins in succession. Its forces pointed straight at the Clear River Sect.

Fortunately, the Clear River Sect's patriarch, True Person Yuan Shui, had emerged from seclusion and personally taken command at the sect, finally halting its decline.

Most of the Clear River Sect's elites now held firm in Immortal River and Everlasting Joy and Second Market, facing off against the Yi Wood Sect.

Flying Cloud and Soaring Firmament and Second Market lay farther inland, close to the Clear River Sect's heartland. The Yi Wood Sect had almost no chance of reaching them, so more than half their stationed cultivators had been transferred away. Rogue Cultivators had also suffered heavy losses in the blessed land, leaving the markets rather thinly defended.

Bandits ran rampant around Flying Cloud and Immortal River markets alike.

It was not that the Clear River Sect did not want to deal with them. It simply lacked the strength to spare anyone, being at an overall disadvantage.

"Bandits running rampant, huh."

Luo Fanchen gave a derisive laugh, and the urgency in his heart eased a little.

With the Soul Banner, bandits happened to be something he was good at dealing with. And though Flying Cloud Market looked thinly defended, it should actually be one of the safest places in Clear River Sect territory. He need not worry about the Yi Wood Sect's advance.

If he earned enough merit points soon and gathered more souls, he could protect Mo Xue while she cultivated in peace for a while.

"This Water Marsh Gang sounds familiar."

Luo Fanchen murmured under his breath. His hands kept moving as he packed every useful spiritual material he had gathered along the way into his Storage Bag.

One purpose of this trip was to enhance the Soul Banner. Through Yun Mo's connections, he had bought plenty of First-Rank Mid-Grade Mystic Crystal and Ink Sand. He had also asked for detailed information about the Water Marsh Gang.

The Water Marsh Gang was an organization of bandit cultivators that roamed Clear River Sect territory. Rumor had it that the Yi Wood Sect was behind it. During the expedition into the secret realm, it had betrayed the Clear River Sect and exposed the locations of its elite disciples, causing devastating losses.

The first thing the Clear River Sect had done upon returning was hunt down the Water Marsh Gang. By now, those bandit cultivators had been almost entirely wiped out.

Of its three chiefs in Late Qi Refining, one had fled on the brink of death, one had died on the spot, and the last had disappeared with grave injuries. Without more than a decade of recovery, he could never regain his fighting strength.

"I have to take the first step sometime, don't I? If I keep cowering, won't I end up holding Mo Xue back?"

Luo Fanchen shook his head with a bitter smile. The rampaging bandits were naturally the work of Water Marsh Gang fugitives.

He disliked fighting—or rather, he feared battles to the death. Otherwise, he would not have shut himself away to cultivate for twenty years.

But to climb to the highest peak, he would have to contend with others. To seize a great opportunity, he would have to take great risks.

Besides, he had his pride.

Once Mo Xue entered a Dao Sect and attained Foundation Establishment, he could not keep running away and become a burden to her.

"They're just bandit cultivators who never amounted to much. Never amounted to much. I can do this."

Luo Fanchen repeated the words soundlessly. He had prepared for every contingency, yet his heart remained restless.

He was about to face bandit cultivators, perhaps more than one—and perhaps ones with higher cultivation than his own.

"Phew..."

Luo Fanchen exhaled lightly and checked his Storage Bag again and again.

He had ample Breath Concealment Pills and healing medicines, detailed intelligence, and enough elixirs to aid his breathing and cultivation for three months. The Soul Banner could at least protect him and Mo Xue long enough to escape a cultivator in Late Qi Refining.

His position was countless times better than when he had faced Ling Youdao. Everything he had done beforehand was nearly perfect, yet this time, he simply could not calm himself.

He sorely lacked combat experience and had no clear sense of his own strength. He had no confidence.

"Master Luo?"

Just as Luo Fanchen's hand trembled uncontrollably, Mo Xue pushed open the door. She hurried over and wrapped both her small hands around his.

"It's nothing. My breathing went a little awry while I was cultivating last night."

Luo Fanchen forced his breathing to steady and managed a smile.

Mo Xue said nothing. Her almond eyes watched him quietly. When he awkwardly looked away, she tilted her head with gentle understanding and a faint smile, bringing her gaze right back to his.

"I'll stay with you, Master Luo. Wherever you go, I'll go too."

The girl held his hand so tightly that when Luo Fanchen instinctively tried to pull free, he could not.

"Master Luo, watch me send those bandits fleeing with their tails between their legs!"

Mo Xue's voice was gentle, but her almond eyes shone with eagerness. There was not a trace of fear in them.

She guided Luo Fanchen's hand open and set it lightly on her head, rubbing against it again and again. Her almond eyes narrowed in contentment.

"You little rascal."

Mo Xue's catlike languor drew a soft laugh from Luo Fanchen, along with a twinge of envy.

Mo Xue was a cultivator born for battle. Fighting to the death only excited her. Even before an enemy far stronger than herself, she would not waver in the slightest.

If he had even a tenth of that spirit, he would not be agonizing over every choice.

I really am getting old.

Luo Fanchen sighed inwardly. Twenty years of secluded cultivation had worn away the hot blood of his youth.

Now, for Mo Xue, for Qiu Yun, and for his Dao Path, he would find it again!

"That brute may have cultivation. He's cunning and vicious, and there must be an ambush. Don't fight him head-on. Retreat at once."

Two days later, beneath a bright moon and scattered stars, Luo Fanchen looked toward the bandits' lair spanning two mountain peaks. To his surprise, Mo Xue's eyes curved into a sweet smile. She drew her sword and burst forward, charging straight at the lair.

"Why go to all that trouble? Master Luo, watch me bring you the bandit chief's head!"

Shouts of battle immediately erupted. Luo Fanchen covered his forehead helplessly, then hurriedly summoned the Soul Banner and followed her.

This was the first destination on their mission. Using the Soul Banner to hook souls, they had quickly pinpointed the bandits' hideout.

The bandits here were cunning. They had used a natural network of caves as their foundation and tunneled through the entire mountain range.

The place was easy to defend and hard to attack, with many exits. Even if surrounded, most of the bandits could escape with ease.

"This is trouble. The mission's primary goal is to wipe them all out. Mo Xue might startle the snakes by beating the grass."

Luo Fanchen muttered as he casually killed several bandits trying to flee. He immediately began chanting and forming hand seals to call forth the Soul Banner.

"Illusion Array!"

Luo Fanchen shouted. Qiu Yun's Soul Body appeared, and the Soul Banner swelled to more than ten times its size. It hung above the mountain range, anchoring the Central Palace.

A cold wind swept through. Miasma soon shrouded the mountains. Qiu Yun's brows knitted tightly; the strain on her spiritual power was considerable. She could barely sustain the Illusion Formation at its weakest, trapping the fleeing bandits for a short while.

"So the bandit chief really is a cultivator."

Luo Fanchen's brow furrowed, and worry rose in his heart.

Once the Soul Banner unfurled, not a single remnant soul gathered from the nearby mountains. Someone must have used those souls to cultivate the Demonic Cultivator's path.

He quickened his pace. Wails and screams rang without pause in his ears, and blood gradually soaked the ground beneath his feet, sticky and warm.

"Innate Sword Bone."

Luo Fanchen murmured as the sharp reek of blood filled his nose.

He hurried onward, passing severed limbs and mutilated bodies that turned his stomach. When he finally sensed Mo Xue deeper inside, she was fighting a one-eyed brute with her sword.

Mo Xue's Sword Manual techniques were exquisite. Though she held only an ordinary iron sword, she moved like a roaming dragon and drove the one-eyed brute back step by step.

"Second Level of Qi Refining?"

Luo Fanchen paused in surprise. Rather than help at once, he hid in the shadows and watched, focusing all his attention on preparing to ambush the chief and deliver the final blow if Mo Xue's strength gave out.

A common bandit actually had Second Level of Qi Refining cultivation. He was most likely from the Water Marsh Gang.

Luo Fanchen wondered how long Mo Xue could hold out. Ever since he had stopped being her match in sword practice, he had not tested her true fighting strength in ages.

"What a vicious little girl! I've done you no wrong. Why are you trying to kill me?"

"Enough chatter. Die!"

The bandit swung a ring-pommel saber half as tall as a man with enough force to make the air howl. From time to time, he unleashed a couple of First-Rank Low-Grade Talismans. The dense flashes of steel mixed with fireballs made Luo Fanchen's heart tighten.

Yet Mo Xue moved as calmly as a wisp of smoke, like a butterfly drifting through flowers, untouched by a single leaf.

"That's Smoke Cloud Escape. When did she become so proficient?"

Luo Fanchen had the strange impression that the chief's attacks had all slowed to a crawl in Mo Xue's eyes. Her instinct for battle was terrifyingly sharp; she always seemed to anticipate her enemy's next move.

"I surrender, I surrender! Damn it, don't push me. I'm with the Water Marsh Gang!"

The chief panted like an ox, sword wounds covering his body. He kept begging for mercy, but his one eye darted craftily about.

His gaze fixed on Mo Xue's iron sword, its edge chipped all over and close to breaking, then on the clear slowing of her attacks. He threw his saber to feign surrender, then turned and drew the dagger at his waist, bringing it down toward her head as though cleaving Mount Hua.

"She's still too young."

Luo Fanchen sighed and moved to intervene.

Mo Xue raised her sword in haste, but the saber the chief had thrown blocked it. The blades collided, and her overstrained iron sword shattered at once.

The dagger's edge bore straight toward her brow, yet Mo Xue showed no panic. A mocking smile touched her lips.

"Geng Metal Sword!"

Mo Xue pressed two fingers together like a sword. The Geng Metal sword energy she had gathered in her Meridians rose from the perineum along her Conception Vessel, traveled up her abdomen to her chin, and burst from her index finger.

The sword-light flashed gold, there and gone in an instant. Nothing could withstand its edge. In the blink of an eye, it split the dagger and the chief's entire arm in two.

Blood gushed like a spring. Mo Xue withdrew her strike and stepped back half a pace, catching a broken sword blade in midair. With a few casual flourishes, she severed the chief's tendons in his wrists and ankles, then destroyed his dantian and the three main Meridians through which his qi flowed.

Every movement flowed like clouds and running water. When Mo Xue sheathed her sword, not a drop of blood stained her.

"Ah... aaah—"

Only then did the chief register what had happened. The pain jolted him back to his senses like a pig at slaughter, and he began screaming without stop.

Mo Xue's brow furrowed. She sliced off his tongue and the tip of his nose, leaving him able to make only the grunting sounds of a feeding boar. Satisfied, she tossed aside the broken sword and walked up to Luo Fanchen, her bright almond eyes fixed on him.

A faint blush colored the girl's face, and the afterglow of the killing still lingered. But what mattered more to her was a reward from Master Luo.

She lowered her face and stared at the tips of her shoes, her delicate head swaying slightly, as if to say, Pet me already.

"She won, just like that."

Luo Fanchen pressed his lips together. The chief's wailing filled his ears, while the blood beneath his feet cooled until it felt icy.

He managed a thin smile and reached out to stroke the girl's head, but cold sweat soaked his palm.

She was at Qi Refinement First Layer, yet she had butchered someone at the Second Level of Qi Refining like a pig. What kind of joke was that?