Chapter 80: Three Cuts Sever Brotherly Bonds! Awakening Killing Aura!

Pfft!

A soft sound, the blade tip pierced through from the back, spraying a shower of blood.

The Fourth Boss looked down at the bloody blade tip protruding from his chest, his eyes filled with stunned disbelief.

He opened his mouth, but only a short, choked gasp escaped his throat; the light in his eyes vanished completely.

From the knock at the door, to the Fourth Boss opening it, to the Fifth Boss’s head falling, to the blade piercing the Fourth Boss’s heart.

All of it happened within mere breaths.

Fast.

Too fast.

So fast that even these blood-soaked bandits nearly failed to react.

“Old Five!!!”

“Old Four!!!”

“Ambush!!!”

The three bosses inside the wooden hut roared in unison, eyes bulging with rage.

Zhou Laoguai leapt to his feet, his longsword instantly unsheathed.

Bao Shanxiong and Chuan Shanlang also surged forward, eyes locked on the doorway.

Thud!

The Fourth Boss’s corpse collapsed, kicking up a cloud of dust.

From the darkness outside the door, a tall, slender figure slowly stepped forward.

He wore a gray robe, his hair streaked with white, holding a curved blade still dripping blood.

Moonlight streamed in behind him, casting a cold silver glow over his form.

“Who are you?”

Zhou Laoguai demanded in a low voice, sword tip aimed straight at the intruder; though his tone roared with fury, it betrayed a thread of unmistakable fear.

To silently kill Old Four and Old Five right under their noses—this man’s strength…

“Kill this old bastard!!!”

“Avenge Fourth and Fifth Brothers!!!”

Bao Shanxiong and Chuan Shanlang didn’t think twice.

They exchanged a glance, then lunged simultaneously, charging at Jiang Ye with murderous intent.

Bao Shanxiong led the charge, both fists the size of sandbags slamming forward like twin iron hammers weighing a thousand jin, crushing with the force to split mountains and shatter rocks, aimed straight at Jiang Ye’s face.

The punch wind howled, producing a muffled sonic boom in midair that dimmed the candles inside the hut.

This move, “Dual Hammers to the Face,” was his signature killing technique—he had once crushed a bull into pulp with a single punch, and even a boulder before him would turn to dust.

Chuan Shanlang moved like a shadow, crouching low and darting in from the side.

His black short blade reflected no firelight, slipping soundlessly toward Jiang Ye’s heart.

The blade’s tip glowed with an eerie dark green, releasing a faint, foul stench—clearly coated in deadly poison.

Left and right, hard and soft, their coordination was flawless.

A normal expert facing this pincer attack would have to retreat even at the peak of their Transformation.

“Foolish.”

Seeing their combined attack, Jiang Ye’s aged eyes flickered with mockery.

He raised his left hand, not dodging, not retreating—simply holding it casually before him.

Boom—!!!

Bao Shanxiong’s fists, capable of shattering stone and splitting rock, slammed into Jiang Ye’s left arm—and struck like iron forged over ten thousand years, unmoved.

His brutal force, before Jiang Ye, was like a cicada trying to shake a tree—unable to make even that withered arm tremble.

“What…?”

Bao Shanxiong’s furious expression froze, his eyes wide with disbelief.

Before he could react, Jiang Ye’s left arm trembled violently.

Crack.

A sickening sound of bone shattering!

Bao Shanxiong’s sandbag-sized fists were instantly pulverized into mist of blood and flesh.

Shattered bones and torn flesh sprayed everywhere, revealing the gruesome stumps of his wrists.

Worse still, a thread of crimson-gold true qi clung to his wound like a parasitic worm, burning furiously upward.

“Ahh—!!!”

Bao Shanxiong screamed—a shriek so horrific it sounded less than human, more like the dying cry of a beast.

He staggered back clutching his stumps, but the crimson-gold flames still burned, consuming his wrist, then forearm, then elbow; thick, charred stench filled the room.

“Big Brother…”

Seeing this, Chuan Shanlang’s furious face twisted with sudden terror.

He tried to pull back.

But it was too late.

Jiang Ye flicked his wrist; the blood-red curved blade twisted in his palm like a living thing, then surged forward with crimson-gold true qi, meeting Chuan Shanlang’s dagger head-on.

Ting!

A light chime.

Chuan Shanlang’s forged-iron dagger was pierced through as easily as tofu.

The blade’s momentum didn’t fade—it pierced the dagger, then his arm, and then—

Pfft.

The blade tip burst from his back, spraying a shower of blood.

That single strike pierced clean through his right arm and drove deep into his chest.

“Huh… huh…”

Chuan Shanlang looked down at the bloody blade tip protruding from his chest; he managed only two short, agonized gasps. His eyes filled with disbelief and bitter resentment, his lips quivered—but no word came out.

Then his body slumped limply to the ground, life gone.

Compared to Bao Shanxiong, still screaming in the flames, he was luckier—he didn’t have to endure more torment before death.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

Yet the eldest boss, Zhou Laoguai, who had shouted the loudest in rage, saw this horrifying scene—and didn’t hesitate.

He spun on his heel, like a startled dog, smashed through the window, and leapt out, fleeing without a second thought.

“Big… Big Brother!!!”

Bao Shanxiong’s arms were severed, his whole body burning, emitting inhuman screams.

He stared with bulging eyes at the fleeing figure, filled with despair and venomous hatred.

He never imagined that the Big Brother who always swore “brothers united” would flee faster than anyone else when death came.

Shhh!

A slash of blood-red moonlight flashed.

Bao Shanxiong’s screams cut off abruptly.

His thick-skulled head rolled from his neck, thudding to the ground, bouncing twice.

His wide, staring eyes fixed on the direction Zhou Laoguai had fled—unwilling to close.

Jiang Ye sheathed his blade, glanced at the corpses on the ground, then looked toward Zhou Laoguai’s escape route, and sneered:

“Don’t worry—I despise men who betray brotherhood. I’ll send him to join you soon.”

He was about to step forward and pursue.

“Ambush! Ambush! Ambush!”

“That’s the Big Boss’s voice!”

“Who dares attack Black Wind Mountain?!”

From all directions, chaotic footsteps surged like a tide.

Bandits rushed out of their wooden huts, wielding swords, spears, clubs—disheveled, half-dressed; flickering torchlight turned the entire stronghold as bright as day.

They had clearly been startled by the earlier roars and screams.

“Perfect!”

Jiang Ye’s eyes flashed with cold light.

These little thugs coming to die on their own saved him the trouble of hunting them one by one.

As for the fleeing Zhou Laoguai—he wouldn’t escape Jiang Ye’s grasp even if he ran a hundred miles.

“There he is!!!”

The foremost bandits spotted Jiang Ye standing by the wooden hut’s door and shouted at once, calling their comrades.

But as they drew closer, their eyes passed over the tall figure and fell upon the familiar corpses inside—

“Wait…”

Someone suddenly halted, voice trembling with disbelief.

“That’s… that’s the Third Boss’s body!!!”

“And the Second Boss, Fourth Boss, Fifth Boss… their bodies too…”

What on earth is going on...

The cries of battle ceased abruptly, as if a chicken’s throat had been slit.

Every bandit’s footsteps came to a halt.

They stared at the several corpses sprawled across the ground, a bone-deep chill surging from their soles straight to the crown of their heads.

Countless eyes simultaneously fixed on the old man clutching the blood-red curved blade.

Under the moonlight, the old man wore a gray robe, his hair streaked white, his face expressionless—as if he had merely done something trivial.

His aged eyes calmly swept over the crowd, like a man gazing upon a herd of pigs and sheep awaiting slaughter.

On the bandits’ faces, disbelief gave way to confusion, then fear spread like plague through the crowd.

Some of the sharper ones had already begun silently shifting backward, ready to flee at any moment.

Jiang Ye casually glanced around.

Bandits rushing in from all directions formed a dark, dense mass—roughly seventy or eighty men.

Excluding those still posted as sentries outside, all the bandits in the stronghold had gathered.

Good!

Jiang Ye nodded slightly, a cold smile curling at his lips:

Then—kill!

The moment the words left his mouth, he lightly tapped the ground and vanished like a phantom.

The next instant, he appeared at the densest part of the crowd.

“F-f-f…”

“Run, run!!”

“It’s this old man who killed the Second Boss and the others!!”

Even the dumbest bandit now understood.

This old man was the one who had slain the bosses.

If even the Cultivation-Refining bosses were dead, were they to stay here and wait for death?

The crowd exploded apart like startled ants, fleeing wildly in every direction.

Hmph. Think you can escape?

They were fast—but Jiang Ye’s blade was faster.

Jiang Ye’s true qi surged violently, crimson-gold light instantly engulfing the blood-red curved blade.

Then he swung it, spinning a full three hundred and sixty degrees.

Shhhhh!!

A breathtakingly gorgeous crescent of blood-red light, infused with searing crimson-gold true qi, erupted into a ring of flame, spreading outward from Jiang Ye in an instant.

Where the blade-light passed, the air itself seemed to ignite, leaving behind scorching trails.

The next instant.

Every fleeing bandit froze in place.

The entire stronghold fell into an eerie silence.

No one screamed. No one groaned. Not even a breath could be heard.

The bandits stood there, utterly motionless—as if petrified by a spell.

Moments later.

A mountain wind blew.

Poom! Poom! Poom! Poom! Poom!

Every bandit’s upper body slid cleanly off at the waist, crashing heavily to the ground.

Blood gushed forth like a dam broken, instantly staining the entire ground red.

Seventy or eighty corpses, seventy or eighty fountains of blood, wove under the moonlight into a scene of hell.

The air reeked with a thick, almost solid stench of blood—so foul it made one gag.

Jiang Ye sheathed his blade and stood still, glancing down at the sea of corpses, then nodded slightly.

After perfecting the Blood Moon Blade, with the aid of the Great Sun Heavenly Flame true qi, he could sever a dozen large trees at waist-height from twenty meters away.

These bandits were mere flesh and blood—killing them was as easy as mowing grass.

Suddenly—

Jiang Ye sensed, amid the sea of corpses, a profoundly yin, icy, evil, and poisonous aura.

The aura rose from the blood, swirling around him, then slowly dissipated.

Your talent is extraordinary—you have preliminarily grasped a thread of killing intent from the essence of death and slaughter!

The system’s notification suddenly sounded.