Chapter 932

Flame Dynasty, Great Black Mountain, Black Wind Old Stronghold.

This stronghold has existed for many years.

Over a thousand years ago, the Black Wind Old Stronghold set up camp here, gathered bandits, gradually began to harass the neighbors, loot homes, even attack cities and seize land, damaging towns and cities; several nearby prefectures suffered greatly.

With the strength of the Flame Dynasty, wiping out these mountain bandits and rebels should be easy.

Yet the situation is strangely odd: the seven or eight neighboring prefectures, whether they sent troops individually or jointly surrounded and suppressed, all suffered losses and were defeated soundly; even several times, the prefectural commanders leading the troops were heavily injured and routed.

Such ruthless bandits have become a menace; the local commanderies and counties cannot endure the harassment, repeatedly memorializing the throne, but the memorial documents always sink like a stone in the sea, with no response.

Logically, the prefectural governors of the Flame Dynasty, all capable, have avatars stationed in Sui Du, able to meet the Flame Emperor at any time and present memorials in person.

However, an invisible force obstructs these governors' actions.

Several prefectural governors tacitly fell silent, pretending the Black Wind Old Stronghold never existed, and no one raised the matter at court.

Thus, the Black Wind Old Stronghold has peculiarly persisted for over a thousand years against reason; the bandit numbers in the stronghold have gradually increased, its power has steadily grown, and each day they loot homes, bully men and women, eat huge chunks of meat, drink big bowls of wine, and divide gold and silver by the handfuls—truly indescribably enjoyable.

Especially during the Nine Princes Rebellion, the Black Wind Old Stronghold took advantage to cause chaos, wildly attacking and capturing dozens of prefecture and county seats; the stronghold's chief, the Black Wind King Heifeng Dawang, effectively carved out his own domain, and his bandits ravaged those prefectures and counties to the point that the people could not survive.

The Nine Princes Rebellion was quelled by Wu Tie; the elite, mighty Heavenly Martial Army awed all directions.

However, the Flame Dynasty's territory is too vast; the Heavenly Martial Army's mobility and numbers are limited, so for a time it could not attend to such minor troubles as the Black Wind Old Stronghold, and dozens of prefectures and counties remained under its control.

At the foot of Great Black Mountain lies Black Mountain Prefecture City.

Half-burned by fire, the beams and pillars of the prefectural mansion are dense with broken arrows and covered with countless knife and sword marks; a loud 'dong' echoed from the council hall.

Seated on the prefect's throne, the Black Wind King Heifeng Dawang smashed his bronze tripod wine cup hard onto the head of a subordinate leader, instantly shattering the subordinate's skull; he lay on the ground, his whole body twitching.

All the bandit leaders in the council hall fell silent like cicadas in winter, heads lowered, daring not to speak.

"Trash!" Heifeng Dawang pointed at the twitching subordinate leader: "Trash, you deserve to die! So, drag him out and chop him up!"

A group of bandits strode in, dragged the heavily wounded, dying subordinate leader out.

Heifeng Dawang stroked his beer-soaked beard, his eyes gloomy like an evil spirit, fiercely glaring at the subordinates in the council hall. He looked around for a while, then pointed at a tall man standing a zhang away.

"You, Luo Xiao san'er, go, give you ten thousand brothers, dig three feet deep, and find me a hundred fresh, tender girls for the Great King. The Great King doesn't believe it—this huge Black Mountain Prefecture really has no beauties?"

He snorted coldly, Heifeng Dawang snapped: "If Black Mountain Prefecture has none, what about the neighboring prefectures? Counties?"

He slapped hard on the case file spread with meat and wine before him, Heifeng Dawang roared: "Even if the prefectural and county seats have been completely looted by the brothers… what about the towns below? The villages? The refugees who fled into the mountains?"

"Hurry up, the Great King's anger is rising—if you don't bring back a hundred tender girls, Luo Xiao san'er, don't think your past merits count; you're just trash… trash, all deserve to die!"

The big man Luo Xiao san'er's body twitched; he gritted his teeth and snarled: "Great King, watch closely—we'll go find people for you… even if our occupied territory has no women left… we'll now attack a county seat; there will surely be plenty of girls there!"

Heifeng Dawang laughed, waving his hand: "Exactly, if there's none on our own turf, we go rob others' turf… turn their turf into ours, turn their girls into ours—isn't that easy?"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry—you have three shichen… if you don't bring back enough quantity and beauty of girls, just cut your own throat; no need to come see the Great King again!"

Heifeng Dawang laughed heartily.

He gleefully watched Luo Xiao san'er dash off like his butt was on fire, his laughter growing ever more frenzied.

As a mid-rank divine general of the Barbarian God Clan, descending to the Flame Dynasty via a blood essence avatar, under the protection of the Flame Dynasty's reincarnated nobles, he so wantonly committed evil and enjoyed himself—it was… exhilarating beyond words.

He is merely a mid-rank divine general of the Barbarian God Clan; among the clan, those higher in status, nobler in blood, stronger in power and ability—divine generals and divine kings—are unknown how many better than him.

In the clan, he can only obtain scraps and leftovers from those superiors.

But in the Flame Dynasty, under the banner of "monitoring human movements," he can act without restraint.

Wealth, resources, beauties, power…

He truly wishes his true form would directly descend onto the Flame Dynasty continent… but it's coming soon; after scraping the land for over a thousand years, he will soon gather enough funds to bribe his direct superior, persuading the superior to allow his true form to descend.

"What a good life!" Thinking of the fierce, savage, crude, ferocious spouse assigned to him by the clan, and recalling the various kinds of human beauties he has enjoyed over the years on the Flame Dynasty continent, Heifeng Dawang couldn't help but feel moved.

"Ah, such a fine Flame Dynasty, yet Your Highnesses want to destroy it… tsk tsk, such a fine human race, yet they want to kill so many at once… in there, how many lovely maidens are there?"

Heifeng Dawang sighed deeply, feeling sorrowful.

But he knows he is merely an ordinary mid-rank divine general; in the Black Wind Old Stronghold he is the supreme king, but among the Barbarian God Clan… he is merely a stronger lackey, that's all.

A lackey must have the awareness of a lackey.

He understands this well.

The sound of footsteps "nie nie" approached; Wumian Fo and Xia Rumeng strode straight into the council hall.

Heifeng Dawang stared blankly, astonished at Wumian Fo and Xia Rumeng.

After a moment of silence, Heifeng Dawang coldly snorted: "What are you here for? Ah? Even if you have business with the Great King, wouldn't you come secretly?"

Irritated, he stood up, the Black Wind King pointing at the baffling bandit leaders filling the hall and shouting angrily: "With so many trusted brothers here, you, the venerable abbot of the Scarlet Lotus Temple, and Princess Yinghe's consort, have come to find me, the Great King… Are you deliberately trying to expose my identity as the Great King?"