Murder and Arson Earn a Golden Belt

The falling boulder paused briefly, then a tremendous force knocked it aside.

Han Jing grunted and staggered back several steps, his arms hanging limply and trembling uncontrollably.

The boulder weighed at least a thousand jin, and its descent from the mountain had given it tremendous momentum.

Even with his considerable strength, taking it head-on had left him with serious internal injuries.

But then—

Han Jing had only just deflected the boulder and had yet to catch his breath when a fierce gust swept toward him from the side.

He looked up just in time to see a blade gleaming coldly.

"Liangshan Stronghold!" Fury rose in Han Jing's heart, but the blade came too fast. Its overwhelming pressure made him feel as though he were facing a mighty beast.

Besides, he had just exhausted his strength and had yet to recover.

So Han Jing immediately chose to retreat.

Bang!

The Tiger Head Saber descended, its edge slicing through Han Jing's clothes.

Qin Shujian's expression was cold and ruthless. He lunged forward, wheeling the Tiger Head Saber around and slashing at Han Jing again without pause.

Alarm surged through Han Jing as he backed away step after step.

First move—Tiger Descends the Mountain!

Qin Shujian's momentum soared. The Tiger Head Saber seemed to become a real tiger, and Han Jing was the prey he intended to kill.

Tiger Descends the Mountain contained six variations.

Han Jing forced his arms up, his palms striking like butterflies flitting through flowers as he countered Qin Shujian's assault.

Gripping the saber with both hands, Qin Shujian maintained his tiger-like onslaught. Fierce gusts thundered with every strike, sounding like a tiger's furious roar. They shook Han Jing's spirit and slowed his moves.

Tiger Roars Through the Forest, Thunder Across a Hundred Li!

Swish!

The blade swept past, sending a severed hand flying amid a spray of blood.

The excruciating pain instantly drained the color from Han Jing's face.

At that moment, Qin Shujian swiftly stepped past him. Han Jing instinctively turned to defend himself, only to see the Tiger Head Saber dart into his chest like a swallow returning to its nest.

The blade pierced straight through his back, slick with crimson blood.

A tiger never turned its head; when it did, blood would flow!

Blood surged into Han Jing's throat, leaving him capable of nothing but guttural gasps.

Shluk!

The blade slid free, and his corpse collapsed limply to the ground.

After killing Han Jing, Qin Shujian let out a noticeable breath of relief.

Their brief exchange had made it clear that his opponent was every bit as strong as he was.

Had he not seized the initiative, he might never have had the chance to kill him so easily.

When he saw that his attributes now showed 7... 73 points of Life Source, Qin Shujian froze in surprise.

Han Jing alone gave me 73 points of Life Source?

Before Qin Shujian could think much further, the Life Source value jumped again, rising from 73 to 74.

The change made him look toward the location of the Chengyun Trading Company caravan.

The boulder attack had crushed most of the Chengyun Trading Company's people to death immediately. Goods lay scattered across the ground amid the shattered wagons.

Only a handful of guards had survived the barrage.

But Wang Tiezhu, one of Liangshan Stronghold's leaders, had immediately ordered the Bandits to attack the surviving Chengyun Trading Company guards.

The remaining guards were already terrified out of their wits.

They could offer almost no resistance against the Bandits of Liangshan Stronghold.

As Qin Shujian watched, Wang Tiezhu hacked a caravan guard to death with a single stroke.

The Life Source field he had been watching jumped again at that very moment, rising from 74 to 75.

He sucked in a breath!

Seeing this change, Qin Shujian silently drew a sharp breath.

He had always thought he could only obtain Life Source from NPCs he killed personally.

But now—

He could also obtain Life Source from NPCs killed by Wang Tiezhu and the other Bandits of Liangshan Stronghold.

That changed everything.

Before Qin Shujian could dwell on it, a few minutes of fighting ended with all the remaining caravan guards dead beneath the Bandits' blades.

His Life Source finally settled at 83 points.

Looking at the goods scattered across the ground, Qin Shujian immediately ordered, "Carry away everything valuable. Cut the meat from all the dead horses and take that too."

The Bandits promptly got to work in an orderly fashion.

One by one, the scattered goods were carried back to Liangshan.

Meanwhile, system messages kept appearing in Qin Shujian's mind.

"You obtained ten taels of silver!"

"You obtained an antique painting or calligraphy piece!"

"You obtained five taels of silver!"

"You obtained seven taels of gold!"

A long string of messages continued to update.

At first, Qin Shujian read them with interest, but he soon stopped paying attention and turned his gaze toward Han Jing's corpse, whose eyes remained open in death.

Looting the corpse!

It was something everyone had to do after defeating a boss in any game.

Han Jing might not have been a major boss, but he was at least a minor boss on the same level as Qin Shujian, the chief of Liangshan Stronghold. Surely he would drop something.

Inside Liangshan Stronghold.

Qin Shujian sat in the Hall of Loyalty and Righteousness, toying with a jade token in his hand.

Chengyun Trading Company token: use to join the Chengyun Trading Company.

Note: if you already belong to a faction, you must leave your current faction before using this item.

Aside from that, this time wiping out the Chengyun Trading Company had yielded plenty of other rewards.

"You obtained a total of five hundred and thirty taels of silver!"

"You obtained a total of fifty taels of gold!"

"You obtained a number of antique paintings and calligraphy pieces!"

"You obtained one thousand two hundred and thirty-six jin of horse meat!"

"You killed a steward of the Chengyun Trading Company and plundered its goods. Liangshan Stronghold's current relationship with the Chengyun Trading Company is hostile (hidden)."

"Note: the Chengyun Trading Company is currently unaware of what happened to Steward Han Jing, so the news of Liangshan Stronghold's ambush has not yet been exposed. Once it is exposed, the relationship between the two sides will shift from hidden to open!"

"At that point, Liangshan Stronghold may come under attack from the Chengyun Trading Company."

Qin Shujian merely glanced at the last few messages before putting them out of his mind.

To ensure he left no loose ends, he had spared none of the Chengyun Trading Company's NPCs, including Han Jing.

As for the corpses and bloodstains, he had personally watched them all disappear before leaving.

Barring any surprises, it would not be easy for the Chengyun Trading Company to discover what had happened to Han Jing and the others.

Even if they did find out, they might not be able to identify the culprits.

So Qin Shujian was more concerned with his gains.

Setting aside the antique paintings and calligraphy, which would only be useful once sold, the fifty taels of gold were worth five hundred taels of silver. Combined with the earlier messages—

This single outing had netted him over a thousand taels in money alone.

At Liangshan Stronghold's current standard of expenditure, more than a thousand taels of silver could sustain the stronghold for at least a year and a half.

No business for three years, then one deal fed you for three more.

Qin Shujian could not help marveling as he thought, No wonder people always say murder and arson earn you a golden belt. That saying holds true anywhere!