Chapter 415

Chapter 415: Eradication of Bandits (Continued Two)

“Martial cultivator!”

As Wang Chen smashed an attacker into a pulp with his bronze staff, a gasp spread through the surrounding dense forest.

A martial cultivator refers to a practitioner who enters the Dao through martial arts. Before beginning Qi Training, they are innate experts, sometimes even martial arts masters.

Martial cultivators are renowned for their fierce combat strength, especially in Close Combat, where practitioners of the same level can hardly compete.

However, while martial cultivators can sweep away their peers during the Qi Training stage, breaking through to open a house is immensely difficult.

Despite this, even ordinary high-level Qi Trainers dare not provoke martial cultivators of middle or lower levels.

The attackers realized they had run into a wall this time.

But before they could take further action, Wang Chen charged in like a roaring tiger, covering dozens of steps in the blink of an eye, his bronze staff whipping up a fierce wind as he swept at two attackers armed with arrows.

Both men were terrified, instinctively retreating.

Bang! Bang!

With two resounding thuds, the attackers were forcefully smashed, their Protection shattered.

They were broken in half!

The dark brown bronze staff, drenched in blood mist, swung through the air like a dragon emerging from the sea, crashing down upon the heads of three other attackers.

These three had no time to dodge, and their heads exploded on impact!

“Grandpa, spare my life!”

At that moment, only one attacker remained in the woods—a middle-aged cultivator wearing a gray-blue robe.

He was farthest from Wang Chen, which allowed him to survive until the end. He watched in horror as his companions were ruthlessly slaughtered by Wang Chen, fear gripping him so tightly that he could hardly muster the strength to escape.

He dropped to his knees, weeping and pleading, “I have an eighty-year-old mother above me…”

“If you say one more word of nonsense, I’ll crush you!”

Wang Chen gripped his blood-stained bronze staff, a smile revealing his sharp, white teeth.

To the middle-aged cultivator, that smile was more terrifying than that of a devil, causing him to tremble in silence.

Wang Chen stepped forward, slamming the bronze staff down into the ground, and said, “I ask, you answer. Do you understand?”

The middle-aged cultivator nodded vigorously.

Wang Chen asked in a deep voice, “Why did you ambush me?”

The middle-aged cultivator’s expression was as if he had swallowed a ton of bitter gall, utterly steeped in despair.

It turned out that he, along with the cultivators Wang Chen had just killed, formed a band of mountain bandits lurking in the nearby deep mountains. They often ambushed passing merchants or solitary loose cultivators.

Seeing Wang Chen traveling alone today, they plotted to kill him and rob him.

“I was forced into this group; I’ve never done anything immoral!”

This middle-aged cultivator, being a fifth-level Qi Trainer, had a decent cultivation level, but he wasn’t good at fighting.

In fact, he was a healer, skilled in diagnosing ailments, treating injuries, and dispelling toxins.

Every time the band of mountain bandits went on the attack, they brought him along.

Like a medic on the battlefield.

Wang Chen’s intuition told him that this man was not lying, and he also sensed no aura of bloodshed emanating from him.

After a moment of thought, he said, “Here’s the deal. Take me to your mountain stronghold, and I’ll spare your life.”

“What?”

The middle-aged cultivator was stunned.

The band of bandits he had been forced to join numbered over a hundred. Their leader, Black Faced Demon, boasted the highest cultivation level, having reached the eighth level of Qi Training. Below him were three to four dozen practitioners at the initial stage of Qi Training and mid-level loose cultivators, along with several innate martial artists!

Such strength would make even a practitioner with perfect mastery in Qi Training think twice before engaging.

Though Wang Chen was a martial cultivator, how could his Qi Training seventh level possibly stand against such a formidable group of bandits?

“Black Faced Demon is not someone to be trifled with,” the middle-aged cultivator warned earnestly. “His Black Demon technique kills without a trace. He once slew a practitioner at the ninth level of Qi Training. If he discovers you’ve killed his men…”

In his eyes, Wang Chen’s decision to head to Black Faced Demon’s stronghold was nothing short of suicidal.

His reluctance to dissuade Wang Chen wasn’t entirely out of goodwill; he feared being implicated and ending up in the snake pit himself.

“Don’t worry about that,” Wang Chen said, patting the man’s shoulder. “Just take me there, and I’ll let you go.”

Wang Chen, disguised and traveling alone with bold confidence, was on a mission to fish for information.

Earlier, he had noticed prying eyes and deliberately revealed the spirit stones hidden in his bag.

As expected, he had attracted a few small fries.

But Wang Chen’s ultimate goal was to use this band of bandits to uncover the roots of the Xuanyi Dao Ren bandit group.

Many local bandit groups were interconnected, sharing information or trading with one another, and sometimes even joining forces for a major heist.

Of course, this group might have no connection to Xuanyi Dao Ren at all.

But that didn’t matter. Wang Chen had already sent Zuo Xiaomo to gather intelligence on where bandit activity had been reported around Beiwang City. He could simply follow the trail.

He was bound to find a lead!

His mission target, Xuanyi Dao Ren, was notoriously cunning, moving like a shadow and vanishing after every job.

Moreover, bandit groups were nomadic, often disguising themselves as herders or merchant caravans, making them even harder to track.

With the target moving back and forth across the borders of two states, and lacking the powerful beings to see through the earth, Wang Chen couldn’t afford to wander aimlessly like a blind man groping an elephant.

So, he decided to follow the clues step by step.

Originally, collaborating with Ji Yongtai would have been ideal. As a local insider, Ji Yongtai undoubtedly had his ear to the ground. It was unlikely he knew nothing about the Xuanyi Dao Ren bandit group.

However, Wang Chen suspected that Ji Yongtai had ties to Xuanyi Dao Ren, so seeking his help would be like asking a tiger for its skin.

Thus, Wang Chen adopted the strategy of openly taking the main road while secretly approaching from the side.

As the saying goes, an arm cannot twist a thigh. Seeing that Wang Chen was determined to ignore his advice, the middle-aged cultivator sighed in resignation and obediently led the way.

“Wait,” Wang Chen said, pointing to the bodies on the ground. “You can take their storage bags.”

These bandits, desperate enough to resort to robbery, likely had nothing of value, and Wang Chen couldn’t be bothered to scavenge.

In the spirit of not wasting resources, he decided to let the reluctant bandit have them.

The middle-aged cultivator was both surprised and relieved.

His greatest fear had been that Wang Chen would use him and then dispose of him once they reached their destination.

Now, it was clear that Wang Chen had no such intention, and he couldn’t help but feel a flicker of gratitude.

With impressive speed, he gathered the storage bags from the fallen bandits and led Wang Chen to their lair.

Black Faced Demon’s stronghold wasn’t far, but it was hidden deep in the mountains, making it nearly impossible to find.

After trekking dozens of miles through rugged terrain, they arrived at a valley nestled between perilous peaks.

“There’s a cave deep inside,” the middle-aged cultivator said, wiping sweat from his brow. “Black Faced Demon and his crew are hiding there.”

Wang Chen nodded and, without warning, struck the back of the man’s head.