Volcanic Age

"Huup!"

Zhou Xuchuan turned swiftly, catching the ax hurled at him by the blade with his left hand.

"Petty tricks!"

He swung his left shoulder backward, causing his left arm muscles to bulge.

Flash!

With a swift motion, he swung his left arm forward, releasing the ax from his grip. The axe flew back with even greater speed than before.

Whoosh!

The ax spun rapidly through the air, hurtling back toward its original owner, aimed squarely at his head

Smash!

The ax, infused with potent qi, struck its target, causing the bandit's head to explode and sending blood and brain matter everywhere.

Zhou Xuchuan darted forward again, this time into the shocked group of bandits.

"That bastard!'

A burly bandit thrust his spear forward, it was a rather intimidating attack for his level. However, it was painfully slow for someone on Zhou Xuchuan's level. He couldn't help but wonder if time had stopped.

He took a step to the left to dodge it, and the spear brushed past his waist.

"God dam—"

Slash!

He severed the bandit's head before he could finish talking. The head tumbled to the ground.

"One, two, three, four… nine, ten," counted Zhou Xuchuan.

He once again moved with lightning speed and displayed his sword arts.

"H-hieek!"

The morale of the bandits plummeted. They all paled at the sight of overwhelming power.

Zhou Xuchuan was like a storm as he went wild amidst the bandits.

"One."

With a vertical swing, a bandit trying to defend himself was split in half like firewood. His next move came right after. His sword movements were fluid like water.

The second, the third… six bandits fell down, spurting blood in an instant. They were like leaves before the wind.

"You're telling me that is Peak Realm?" someone shouted in disbelief.

"Hm, good catch." Zhou Xuchuan sneered.

The bandit was right. He was not at the Peak Realm, but the Absolute Realm.

"But the reason I seem strong to you all is because you're weak."

Forest bandits, and even bandits in general, had some influence in Chongqing. However, their influence wasn't that strong.

They simply had large numbers and weren't subjugated due to concerns about upsetting the balance of power. It wasn't that they had no experts, but apart from the fort lords and their closest aides, everyone else was pretty much pathetic. At most, only their numbers were a threat.

"Seven, eight, nine, ten!"

Zhou Xuchuan darted forward, creating a shockwave that rippled out in all directions.

"D-don't come near me!"

The seventh bandit turned around, which was a foolish move. With a swift move, Zhou Xuchuan cut him in half at the waist.

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The eighth bandit clenched his eyes shut and tried to block by raising his sword. However, he had his hand cut off along with his sword.

The ninth and tenth bandits resigned themselves to their fate. This was their last memory. A moment later, they were falling to the ground, blood spurting from their wounds.

"Fifteen minutes… I think I took less?" muttered Zhou Xuchuan as he flicked the blood off his sword.

"A-aack!"

"Run!"

The remaining twenty-something bandits all lost their will to fight and scattered, fleeing without looking back.

"Whoa…" The Gold Will Combatants were dazed. The merchants, once stricken with fear, had the same reaction.

"Let's see…"

Some of the bandits even discarded their weapons in their haste to flee. Among them was a bow and a quiver full of arrows.

Zhou Xuchuan picked up the bow and quiver.

"You should go ahead to Sichuan. I'll make sure that the bandits don't follow us."

"Great lord, what do you mean by…"

"It'll take too long to explain. Just follow my orders for now."

Zhou Xuchuan started running in the direction the bandits had fled.

*

There was a mountain near the road they were on, so Zhou Xuchuan could easily tell where the bandits were located.

Originally, there was no bandit hideouts near this area. It wasn't that there was none at all, rather, they were always subjugated by the Mount Hua Sect whenever they appeared.

However, it seemed a new one was built during the Nine Forest Gangs' recent expansion. Given its distance from Chongqing, Zhou Xuchuan suspected that the bandits must have a hidden base somewhere to store the wealth they had plundered.

That's why he let the bandits flee. His suspicions were confirmed when he reached the fortress after tracking them.

"There are more people here than I expected."

He could count about forty with his eyes, who were all talking in the middle of their base. Half of them were the bandits he had soared earlier. He could already guess what they were talking about.

"Ah."

He thought about the remaining half of the bandits when a thought struck him, promoting him to reabsorb the yang qi he had imbued into the arrow.

He had reached the fourth stage of the Eclipse Divine Archery Art. It became pretty useful after the third stage since he could imbue arrows with yang qi in the third stage and yin qi in the fourth stage. Initially, he planned to use the yang qi of the third stage to start a fire in the fortress and kill them easily, but he couldn't do that.

"Oh well." He released the bowstring.

Whoosh!

The arrow streaked through the air, leaving a comet-like trail as it drew a perfectly straight line.

"Ugh!"

He was one li away from the fortress, but the person standing on the lookout tower clutched the arrow embedded in his neck and fell, lifeless.

Zhou Xuchuan nocked another arrow, the bandits still unaware of his presence.

Whoosh, whoosh!

"Urgh!'

The bandits standing on various lookout towers fell powerlessly with arrows embedded in their necks or hearts. Zhou Xuchuan had a perfect streak so far.

When he reached into the quiver, he could feel six arrows, so he decided to make his move now, abandoning long-range sniping.

Utilizing the Shadow Scattering Steps, he dashed towards the fortress with lightning speed.

First of all is the guy that looks like the leader.

The eighteenth entry of the Offensive Stratagems of the Thirty-Six Stratagems mentioned a tactic titled "Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief." From the perspective of the strategy, soldiers were bound to fall into chaos if they lost their leader.

An hour earlier, Zhou Xuchuan had neutralized the leader of the attackers when he fought to protect the Gold Will Merchant convoy, which proved to be very effective. With no law and order, the bandits weren't able to do anything.

In truth, there was no need for Zhou Xuchuan to go so far, considering the disparity in skill between him and the bandits. He would win even if he were to attack them directly.

But there must be people trapped inside.

It was common for bandits to abduct women to violate them, or capture children or elderly with the purpose of human trafficking. This was the reason he refrained from using fire tactics, dealt with the lookouts, and killed their boss first. It was all to prevent them from thinking about taking hostages.

Whoosh!

The first arrow left his bow. It still drew a beautiful straight line as it shot forward.

"Urgh!"

As a bandit listened to the report from a runaway, his eyes snapped open abruptly, an arrow piercing his heart.

"We're under attack!"

Only then did the bandits react.

"First, look for the guy that's firing arr… urgh!"

The head of the one giving the order suddenly snapped backward with an arrow protruding from his forehead.

"Where are the arrows coming from?"

Another bandit anxiously looked around.

Psh!

"Ack!"

Talking led to death, or to be precise, speaking the right words that came from normal reasoning led to death.

The third arrow landed on its target.

"Over there!'

One of the bandits pointed at a lookout tower. Zhou Xuchuan was nocking an arrow on his bow.

"Th-that guy!"

Half of the bandits, in other words, the runaways, paled in fear.

"This will be a good opportunity to practice archery."

Zhou Xuchuan had never hit a moving target besides animals, so this was a good opportunity to practice.

"What are you all doing! Get rid of that archer fi…urgh!"

The fourth arrow penetrated someone's chest.

Zhou Xuchuan jumped down from the lookout tower while pulling on his bowstring. This time, two arrows were shot at once.

"Urgh!"

"Agh!"

This time, he shot at random and killed two bandits he saw.

"He ran out of arrows. Kill him!"

The bandits, who had been flustered the moment before, smiled slyly.

"S-stop!" warned one of the bandits who knew how powerful Zhou Xuchuan was.

However, his warning came too late as another arrow flew forward, but this time, it wasn't a real arrow—it was Zhou Xuchuan himself.

A bandit holding a single-bladed ax attacked him. Zhou Xuchuan cut him in half at the chest along with the ax.

"What?"

That was the beginning. Hell let loose in the eyes of the bandits. Zhou Xuchuan used his footwork arts to freely navigate through the group of bandits and executed the Twenty-Four Forms of the Plum Blossom Sword. He didn't even need to go up to the tenth form, as by the eighth form, twenty people had already died.

Blood splattered everywhere, flesh was torn, and screams could be heard. A life extinguished whenever a sword containing a hint of the Plum Blossom flashed.

In one word, it was domineering.

"Please spare us, great hero!"

Ultimately, those who survived surrendered. They dropped the weapons in their hands and smacked their heads on the ground. They—a total of fifteen of them—had lost their will to fight after seeing how powerful Zhou Xuchuan was.

"Spare you?"

"We'll do anything!"

Zhou Xuchuan thought about it for a split second.

"No can do."

In the world of martial arts, sparing enemies rarely led to positive outcomes, especially when dealing with bandits.

"We'll turn over a new leaf!"

He could've let them go if these men were ordinary farmers who turned into bandits because of the lack of food. They tended to refrain from killing even if they robbed others, and they would return to their original occupations if the condition allowed for it.

However, the bandit factions were a different case. Most of them had become bandits by choice, enjoying the act of violating, pillaging, and killing people without repercussions. Zhou Xuchuan knew what they would do if he were to let them go.

Although stories where bandits truly turned over a new leaf did exist, Zhou Xuchuan found it hard to believe that anyone here was going to do that.

"Are you truly going to turn over a new leaf?"

"Yes! We swear to god!"

"Okay, then I'll see if that's true in the next life!"

"Arrgh!"

*

Zhou Xuchuan killed all bandits except five. Four of them, he had broken their arms and tied them up before having them act as guides. He asked if they had locked people up, and indeed, the bandits tearfully led him to the prison.

"H-hieek!"

When he got to the prison, he found about fifty people there, most of them being women, children, and the elderly. They were all shaking in the corner of their cells.

"It's okay. You can come out now." Zhou Xuchuan tried to reassure them, opening the door. "I'm here to save you. I'm a disciple of Mount Hua."

When he told them that he was a disciple of Mount Hua Sect, people burst into tears, their pent-up fears and sorrow pouring out all at once. He brought them all outside, but when he did, a tragic scene awaited them. The mothers covered the eyes of the children.

However, none of them frowned or looked away from the scene. Their eyes were all filled with gratitude.

"Thank you for saving us, Great Hero."

An elderly, seemingly representing the captives, came forward and thanked him. Tears were streaming down his wrinkled face.

"I didn't do much. You can deal with those people by yourself. I've broken all their limbs so they won't resist."

Zhou Xuchuan could imagine what kind of suffering and humiliation they must have gone through while they were locked up. That was the reason he prepared a small gift so that they could relieve their hatred and fury.

"H-hieek!"

The surviving bandits turned pale. They struggled to escape, forgetting the pain from their broken limbs.

"I saw a vault near the prison. There should be some money inside, so use it to return to your village.

"But… Great hero, we don't dare ask for such a shameless request from our savior. We're already indebted to you."

Normally, martial artists would confiscate all the wealth from subjugating bandits, and no one would say a word about it. Not only was it impossible to return them to their original owners, the captives wouldn't even be alive if not for the help of those cultivators.

"It's okay. As a Daoist, I'll be punished if I'm too greedy."

In truth, he just didn't need to worry about money because he had a lot of it.

"Sob… thank you so much. Would you please tell me your name, at least?"

"Zhou Xuchuan. I'm Zhou Xuchuan from Mount Hua."