Chapter 39: Heizhu Mountain Stronghold

Feng Zi headed straight for the west without looking back.

He did not spend time saving anyone, not because he did not want to, but because there were no survivors left—

Even though he had exhausted his thunderous methods, what he could currently use was only the strength of a Martial Artist at Great Accomplishment as a disguise; in the end, he was still one step too slow.

Half an hour later, when Sun Min arrived "fashionably late" leading several Martial Artists and over a dozen servants, the fire had already been mostly extinguished by the surrounding commoners.

"Fellow villagers, rest assured, I, Sun Min, will certainly seek justice for everyone!" Sun Min stood before the blank-faced crowd and called out loudly.

Although the people of Daishan County did not say it aloud, they actually knew what kind of person this young master of the Sun Family was, so they just echoed him a few times and dispersed.

Seeing the crowd disperse, Sun Min whispered to the middle-aged Martial Artist beside him:

"Liu Shu, order them to search! Those lowly commoners are not important; what matters is to see if that Cun Xin died in the fire!"

"Understood, I will make sure they finish searching within half an hour." Upon hearing this, the middle-aged Martial Artist immediately ordered the servants to search in all directions.

The surrounding Sun Family servants heard the order and immediately scattered to every part of the farmstead.

Seeing this, Sun Min also dragged his body and moved slowly among the charred ruins:

Ever since "Cun Xin" rushed into the raging flames of the farmstead, his whereabouts had been unknown.

According to common logic, the other party was merely a Martial Artist at Great Accomplishment—

In such a perilous environment, fighting against three Martial Artists and dozens of bandits, it would be perfectly normal for him to have perished.

But what was strange was that those thirty-some bandits, including the Martial Artists, had not retreated from the sea of fire to report the situation to him!

Sun Min paced irritably among the ruins, even impatiently bending down to examine the charred corpses, doing this "lowly work" he would never do on a normal day.

"Impossible, this shouldn't be... My arrangements were flawless, there shouldn't have been any leaks, so how could that Cun Xin just disappear?"

He muttered to himself, but the feeling of anxiety in his heart grew more and more obvious.

Just like that, the Sun Family members searched for nearly half an hour, but it was all in vain—

"Did you find him?" Seeing the middle-aged Martial Artist walking toward him, Sun Min asked hurriedly.

To this, the other party just shook his head helplessly and sighed:

"No, excluding the commoners who died in the sea of fire, a total of thirty-five bandits, including those three Martial Artists, have all been found."

Hearing this answer, Sun Min's voice could not help but rise a few notches: "Is that certain?"

The middle-aged Martial Artist slowly closed his eyes and nodded heavily: "Although it was difficult, their identities have all been confirmed."

"Difficult?!" Sun Min was clearly not satisfied with this description: "Why? They were just charred, it should still be possible to distinguish their features!"

The other party shook his head helplessly: "Those bandits were all killed by brutal slaughter, their faces are very blurred, especially one of the Martial Artists—

"His body is extremely mangled, even the ribs on his body were crudely shattered!"

Hearing this answer, the ominous premonition in Sun Min's heart finally turned into reality; he could not help but retreat several steps, leaning against a broken wall, and muttered:

"Impossible, absolutely impossible... That Cun Xin, did he actually figure out our scheme? But, how is this possible?"

This young master of the Sun Family was indeed not very bright, but under such circumstances, he had also figured out this point—

And then, he fell into a state of mind where he did not want to face reality.

But the middle-aged Martial Artist beside him just pondered for a moment and raised a question:

"The problem now is, if that Cun Xin really did discern our scheme and has disappeared, where should he be at this moment?"

Hearing this question, Sun Min acted as if he had grasped a straw, and said repeatedly:

"Yes, Liu Shu is absolutely right! You say... since he understood this, could he have headed straight for Heizhu Mountain?"

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged Martial Artist thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "What the young master says is not without reason; this is indeed the greatest possibility."

Having said that, the other party laughed heartily: "If that is truly the case, the young master need not worry; just sleep soundly tonight!"

Sun Min was very puzzled upon hearing this and hurriedly asked: "Liu Shu means that since Heizhu Mountain has many people and great power, that person is throwing himself into a trap, so there is no need to worry?"

The middle-aged Martial Artist looked at him and smiled with relief: "Yes and no—even if those pieces of trash cannot deal with a mere Martial Artist at Great Accomplishment, they can at least trap him.

"We will ride there first thing tomorrow morning; by then, we can not only capture Cun Xin but also use this to suppress those increasingly restless bandits."

Hearing this explanation, the doubts in Sun Min's heart vanished, and he walked smiling toward the carriage parked on the street: "In that case, I have no worries!"

Before getting into the carriage with Sun Min, the middle-aged Martial Artist still looked back at the Sun Family's Martial Artists and servants and gave an order:

"You few, stay in the county town and continue to search for the whereabouts of that Cun Xin. If you find him, do not alert him, and report back immediately!"

Of course, the conversation between Sun Min and the middle-aged Martial Artist made a lot of sense, but the premise of all these assumptions was... that Feng Zi was really just a Martial Artist at the Great Accomplishment realm.

And Feng Zi, the focus of the Sun Family's attention, was currently holding a south-pointing needle, sprinting at full speed through the dark mountain forest.

Heizhu Mountain, the destination of his trip, was already right before his eyes!

It was truly as that Martial Artist had said; there were no other plants on Heizhu Mountain, and what met the eye was full of towering black bamboo.

It was already midnight; this world had no nightlife, and according to common sense, even bandits should be asleep.

At this very moment, there should only be a few bandits patrolling the mountains.

Of course, this was the usual situation—in Feng Zi's perception, on that not-so-tall Heizhu Mountain, there were many figures moving at this time, yet they were not adjacent to each other.

"Mostly in groups of two or three... Sure enough, the information obtained previously was accurate; Sun Min really is having them set up a trap aimed at me."

Feng Zi stood at the top of a black bamboo and said silently in his heart.

Roughly estimated, the total number of bandits in Heizhu Mountain was around a hundred, which was a very subtle number.

Thinking carefully, Feng Zi understood that the scale of Heizhu Mountain must be strictly controlled by the Sun Family:

If the number of people was too small, a group of bandits on the scale of a dozen or several dozen would be no different from ordinary roving bandits; they could neither become a local power nor do any "big things";

But if they reached the scale of hundreds or thousands, it would attract the attention of Baishan Jun, which would be counterproductive—

If the bandit-suppression troops arrived, on one hand, it would cause this group of bandits to be completely wiped out, and on the other hand, it would cause Daishan County to return to the order of the imperial court.

Furthermore, Sun Min was, after all, only a Martial Master without practical experience; if the scale of Heizhu Mountain was too large, it would not be a force he could control.

"It really is... more than enough to fail, but not enough to succeed; being stuck in this neither-here-nor-there situation, it is the poor commoners here who suffer instead."

Feng Zi thought to himself, and then headed straight toward the direction of the mountain peak where the Martial Artists were gathered.

If it were truly an ordinary Martial Artist, facing such a situation would indeed be difficult to handle—

But Feng Zi is a Martial Master at the Perfection realm!

His goal is only one, and that is to completely annihilate the bandits here!