by D cat
"Huh? Yo-You said that you would spare my life!"
Noticing that something was amiss about the current situation, Cai Feng trembled once again.
"I do intend to spare your life. While your death penalty may have been exempted, you will still have to face your punishment for you previous deeds."
Su Lang pulled out a dagger as he revealed the smile of the devil and said, "You may take your leave, but your hands shall remain behind."
Cai Feng was one of the main culprits who killed the original host of this body.
Therefore, how could Su Lang let him go so easily?
"You want me to leave my hands behind?! You.... You went back on your words!"
Cai Feng turned bleach pale with fright upon hearing those ridiculous words. He immediately said with extreme anger, "Both of us are cultivators of the Initial Body Tempering Realm! The only reason why I let you take advantage of me was that your blade was pressed against my neck!"
"Besides, I have experienced many battles by hunting down countless Vicious Beasts. On the other hand, you're just a piece of trash that just took its first step outside the city. Do you really think that I'm afraid of you?!"
"Hahahaha! You're not afraid of me?"
Su Lang asked in the midst of his laughter, "Then why did you kneel on the ground before me just now?"
"You bastard! Go to hell!"
Overwhelmed by his emotions of embarrassment and anger, Cai Feng gritted his teeth and pulled out a short sword from his waist before stabbing it towards Su Lang.
"You were the one who attacked first. Don't blame me for killing you!"
Upon revealing a smile of disdain, Su Lang unsheathed his blade and — with the flick of his wrist — sent his opponent's blade flying into the distance.
In the blink of an eye, the shining blade flashed across Cai Feng's sight like a bolt of lightning as his burning rage subsided entirely.
"This... is impossible..."
As Cai Feng's eyes rolled backward, a bucket full of blood splashed out from his neck. His once lively body had turned limp and collapsed onto the ground like a ragdoll.
Even after his death, Cai Feng still failed to comprehend how Su Lang managed to attain such overwhelming strength.
"Couldn't you just have left your hands behind obediently?"
Su Lang shrugged his shoulders and squatted down to plunder Cai Feng's remains before rushing to the stronghold of the Broken Axe Hunting Group.
With the stronghold of the Broken Axe Hunting Group currently empty, Su Lang took advantage of the opportunity to search around the place and steal some valuables.
In this world, strongholds of this size and reputation would often trade with strongholds from other areas. With how frequently they purchased precious materials from external sources, the amount of money they have accumulated was definitely not a small amount.
Even the vaults of the strongholds in the territories of F-class Vicious Beasts would leave people speechless.
According to the information provided by Cai Feng, Su Lang would have to sneak past more than ten watchtowers before arriving at the center of the stronghold.
The stronghold of the Broken Axe Hunting Group did not have many solid walls construct around its core.
This main reason was that the beast tides of the Vicious Beasts would attack every ten years or so. When that time comes, the strongholds would not be able to withstand even a single blow from the waves of those Vicious Beasts. Thus, constructing sturdy walls around the stronghold would essentially be a waste of time, effort, and money.
As a cheap way of going about that issue, most F-class strongholds ended up resorting to wooden walls as they temporary defenses, Although those walls may be simply and crude, they nevertheless held their ground against the normal Vicious Beasts.
Around walking around the city wall for a while, Su Lang finally found the underground secret passage that Cai Feng mentioned previously.
"Cai Feng's words cannot be fully trusted. Therefore, I should trudge along this path with utmost caution."
Su Lang opened the entrance to the underground tunnel and carefully walked in.
Although the tunnel was dark and damp, Su Lang had long since gotten used to such an atmosphere in his previous life as an assassin. As such, he quickly got used to his traverse through the tunnel.
He carefully walked through the secret tunnel and did not encounter any danger during this period of time.
But when he was about to reach the exit, Su Lang suddenly heard a commotion at the end of the tunnel.
"There are people guarding this secret passage!"
Despite the current situation being within his expectations, Su Lang was nevertheless slightly taken aback by Cai Feng's cunning plans.
In the blink of an eye, Su Lang arrived at the exit with nimble steps. The guard was now standing right ahead of him.
"Intermediate Body Tempering Realm."
Su Lang analyzed the guard before rushing out.
"Who is it?"
While the guard may have been quite vigilant in his job, before he could even see his opponent clearly, the glint of a blade was already bolting in his direction.
At that instant, the guard was so terriefied that every single hair around his body shot straight up.
Despite attempting to dodge the attack, he realized that it was far too late.
Before his brain had even registered the feeling of the chilling blade slicing past his throat, the world around him had already turned upside-down as his consciousness slowly faded from his body — truly a quick, painless death.
CHAPTER 18 - ONE-SIDED MASSACRE
"Next...."
After carefully laying down the guard's corpse, Su Lang followed the information provided by Cai Feng and rushed to the next place that could possibly be guarded.
As for looting the bodies, he decided to wait until his mission was over. After all, he had to assassinate as many as he could before the entire stronghold is alerted of the intruder. He definitely could not miss this perfect opportunity.
Very quickly, Su Lang found the other guards and killed them one by one like fodder. His plan was going extremely smooth.
After killing several guards, Su Lang could no longer detect any other unusual movements within his vicinity.
"I killed them all just like that? Surely not...."
Su Lang revealed a trace of surprise, astonished by the lack guards in the stronghold. But at this moment, a strange sound lingered past and tickled his ears.
"A woman's voice? There seems to be more than one...."
Su Lang raised his eyebrows and attempted to pinpoint the source of the voice.
Slaughtering yet another patrolling member of the Broken Axe Hunting Group, Su Lang found himself in front of a particular room.
As expected, the voices of those women originated from the room.
Even through the doors and windows, Su Lang could feel the lustful aura emanating from within.
Combined with Cai Feng's mumbling, Su Lang did not even need to think to know that there must be many women locked inside for the Broken Axe Hunting Group members to fulfill their desires.
"What a despicable bunch! Their heads must have lost several screws for them to be this inhumane. It seems I won't have to worry about accidentally killing any innocent ones."
Su Lang raised his eyebrows and kicked the door open.
"Ah!"
"What the hell?! Who dares disturb my happy hour?"
"Which dumbass barged in? You scared the sh*t out of me!"
"...."
Upon barging past the door, Su Lang was immediately faced with a disgusting scene.
The three lustful men — naked from head to toe — swept their furious gazes towards the door. At the same time, the seven or eight women in the room screamed out of shock. Their unfocused eyes and numb limbs were enough to tell what took place in this unholy room.
One of the three men seemed to be an Advanced Body Tempering cultiva
tor while the other two remained in the Intermediate Body Tempering Realm.
Furthermore, it just so happened that one of the Intermediate Body Tempering cultivators was precisely Dou Zhong, one of the bastards who beat the original host to death.
"Aiya, I apologize for disturbing these three elders. How embarrassing!"
At that instant, Su Lang sneaked a quick glance at the small white figure who was about to turn completely golden in his mind. Squinting his eyes and walking past the remains of the door, he suddenly revealed a playful smile on his face.
"Who are you?"
"His earlobes aren't tattooed. He isn't one of us!"
"Tell me, who are you? How did you get in? What happened to our men?"
"...."
The three men noticed that something was amiss and felt a cold chill shivering down their spins. Pushing away the frightened woman to the side, they then looked at Su Lang warily.
"Your men? Of course, they were all killed by me! As for who I am?"
Su Lang sneered, "Dou Zhong, have you already forgotten me? How disappointing...."
"You.... You are... Su Lang?!"
Dou Zhong revealed a grim expression immediately after recognizing the young man standing fearlessly before him. It was as if he had seen a ghost. "Didn't we beat you half to death yesterday? You were just an ordinary man. How the hell are you here now?!"
"I've already heard to exact questions before, and it's starting to get on my nerves now."
Su Lang rolled his eyes and stared at the men who seemed to be the leader of the group as he asked, "Tell me, where in the stronghold did you guys store your treasures? As long as you give me a satisfactory answer, I will be willing to show mercy and spare your lives."
"Spare our lives?"
The arm man sneered, "Have you gone crazy?"
"Ugh.... What else could I have expected from you...?"
Su Lang shook his head in disappointment before unsheathed his Tang Blade and charging forward.
"This speed...! He's an Advanced Body Tempering cultivator!"
Dou Zhong was dumb-stricken as his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. Even if he was beaten to death, never in a million years would he have expected anyone to advance all the way to the Advanced Body Tempering Realm within a day, let alone an ordinary brat like Su Lang.
"What's there to be afraid of? What outnumber him three-to-one! Attack!"
The man with the tattooed arms exclaimed with disdain. Picking up the large saber he placed at the side of the room, the man rushed towards Su Lang without any hesitation.
When the girls in the room saw the three ferocious men surrounding and striking their blades down on the young man, they looked at the scene with frightened expression, pitying him at the same time.
Having personally experienced the brutality of the three men, the girls know that it would be better for Su Lang to die immediately. After all, if he were to fall into the hands of Dou Zhong and his men, he would definitely suffer a fate even worse than death itself.
"What a turn off!"
Seeing the three naked men swinging each of their two swords down at him, Su Lang revealed a deep frown as he shivered with utter disgust.
In that instant, the tattooed man swung his mighty blade down towards Su Lang.
"Hahaha! Go to hell!"
At the same time, the other two men grasped onto their curved blades and aimed their slashes at Su Lang's shoulders with cruel expressions.
"System, break through!"
Seeing the blades magnifying before his sight, Su Lang shouted as he unsheathed his own weapon.
In the blink of an eye, the violent fluctuations of Spiritual Qi exploded from Su Lang's body. As his body boiled with immense energy from the breakthrough, he immediately transferred a part of that Spiritual Qi to his Tang Blade.
CHAPTER 19 - SCARED WITLESS
"What?!"
Before the three men even had the time to react, Su Lang's Tang Blade crushed down against the leader's two-handed sword.
"Crack!"
At that moment, an invisible force pressed down like Mount Tai and overwhelmed the man's sword.
Unable to withstand the violent attack, the man's hands wielding the two-handed sword ruptured as blood spurted out like a leak in a pipe. Only after staggering back more than ten meters in shock did the man fall down on his butt.
Without even giving the other men any room to breathe, Su Lang pounced forward and charged up his next attack. With a twist of his waist, the blinding light surrounding the Tang Blade sliced against the waists of the two men like a smooth stream of water.
The wicked expressions of the two men instantly froze. Their faces gradually colored in pain as they twisted in agony.
"Aghhhh!"
"It's gone! My knob is gone!"
"It hurts... It hurts! So much blood!"
"Noooo!"
The two men — unable to tolerate the intense pain — rolled and wailed on the ground like shrimps.
The women at the side were dumbfounded as they watched all the scene unfold. Their faces were filled with utter disbelief.
Never would they have expected such a ridiculous scene to happen. To think that the three ferocious men would be completely crushed by that young man!
Those three ferocious men, who looked like devils in their eyes, were actually defeated with ease.
Overwhelmed by their surge of emotions, none of the women knew what expressions to make.
On the other hand, they simply gawked at Su Lang with their wide open eyes. At the same time, their bodies trembled uncontrollably due to their intense emotions.
"How noisy!"
Su Lang revealed an irritated frown after wiping the floor clean with two slashes of his blade.
"How dare you kill the people of the Broken Axe Hunting Group! You are courting death!"
The tattooed man shouted as he fumed with overwhelming rage.
Since the Broken Axe Hunting Group has dominated this stronghold for the past three years, no one had any thoughts of charging into the stronghold and massacring their members, let alone actually daring to do so.
However, the person standing fearlessly in front of them had murdered two of them in the blink of an eye. He was truly the definition of audacious and reckless.
"So what if I killed your people? Does your Broken Axe Hunting Group only allow your men to kill others? Why can't others harbor any intentions to kill you? What a bunch of hypocrites!"
Su Lang sneered as he shook off the blood on his blade. Slowly walking towards the tattooed man, he then stated with a menacing tone, "How interesting!"
"Stop right there! Don't come any closer!"
The tattooed man panicked after realizing his dire predicament. He wasn't foolish to think that he was a match for Su Lang.
Moreover, since no one came to help despite making such a ruckus in the room, it could only mean that everyone outside had died.
At this moment, he was the only member of the Broken Axe Hunting Group left in the stronghold!
"Why should I stop? Give me a reason."
Su Lang's lip curled up into a smile. As he walked forward step by step, the vibrations of his footsteps struck down on the tattooed man's heart like a hammer.
"I...."
Standing between the point of life and death, the tattooed man's heart was struck with fear.
"You're so scared that you can't even speak anymore? What a piece of trash!"
As Su Lang spoke, he lifted his Tang Blade. The chilling glint of the blade reflected on the tattooed man's face, further hinting at his imminent death.
"Wait.... Please wait!"
The tattooed man was absolutely horrified and immediately said, "We have many kinds of treasure in our stronghold. I know where they're all stored!"
Having gotten used to the leisure of his unfettered, carefree life, how could the tattooed man be willing to die?
"Very well, I'm only looking for gold coins and silver coins. Tell me qui
ckly, don't even think about stalling for time!"
Su Lang's words broke the last glimmering hope in the man's heart.
"Alright, I'll tell you everything I know. The gold coins in the stronghold are all in the boss'...."
The arm man swallowed his saliva and proceeded to say everything he knew about the location of the gold coins.
According to the tattooed man's words, the riches of the stronghold were all handled by a Quasi Martial Cultivator.
The gold coins and silver coins were locked in the giant vault in his room.
Su Lang said with a smile, "Since I'm not sure whether your words are true or not...."
"Huh?"
The tattooed man suddenly felt a cold shiver down his face.
Su Lang remained silent as he smiled and swung his blade.
"Ah—!"
In that instant, the tattooed man could no longer feel anything below his knees. As he looked down, an agonizing pain surged through his body, causing him to nearly go unconscious.
"If you lie..."
Su Lang looked down at the man and continued, "I will come back and personally send you to hell. If you did not lie...."
Speaking up to this point, Su Lang smiled at the group of lifeless girls, "Tie him up. If I don't come back within five minutes, I will let you handle him instead. If you are lucky today, you may be able to leave this hellish place alive."
CHAPTER 20 - SUFFERING BEFORE DEATH
"No, I swear I'm not lying!"
The tatooed man woke up from his half-unconscious state and let out a shrill cry, "You promised to spare my life!"
"I did indeed. However, these girls did not."
Su Lang said to the frightened girls with a smile, "The chance to exact revenge is right in front of you. What are you still waiting for?"
"If you don't have the courage to do so, why don't I lend you a hand instead?"
Having been abused for a long period of time, the girls trembled in fear. After recalling the various kinds of bullying they had suffered, on the other hand, the hatred within their hearts surged uncontrollably.
"I.... I'll do it!!"
One of the girls stood up as she continued trembling. Although her teeth were still chattering, the killing intent in her eyes were practically overflowing.
