Chapter 1-8

The dawn was silent. Even the insects that should have been chirping noisily enough to grate on the nerves were quiet, making the surroundings unnaturally still. That silence slowly woke Bai Shixuan.

-Crack, crackle.

The campfire burned steadily, warming his body. Bai Shixuan added more dry branches to keep it from dying out, then turned his head toward Cao Zhenshi. Cao Zhenshi was leaning against a tree, silently watching him.

“You’re awake?”

“Yes. Something feels strange.”

“Looks like those two years you spent as a sword attendant weren’t completely wasted.”

Cao Zhenshi replied to Bai Shixuan’s remark. Bai Shixuan had spent two years serving as a sword attendant. He could not perceive or sense another person’s qi, but he had at least developed some instinct for reading a situation. They were deep in the mountains, yet it was far too quiet. Insects should have been chirping everywhere, but not a single one could be heard. That meant there were people nearby. After traveling with so many wandering swordsmen over the past two years, even Bai Shixuan understood that much.

Cao Zhenshi rose and drew his sword. Whenever he slept, he always took the sword back from Bai Shixuan so that he could respond immediately to an ambush. After drawing it, Cao Zhenshi stared between the trees and spoke.

“Come out.”

But even after Cao Zhenshi spoke, no one appeared. Was someone really there? Unable to see anything, Bai Shixuan stared intently at the place Cao Zhenshi was watching. His eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness, yet he still saw nothing. Was that really where they were hiding?

“Kekekek.”

“What’s with this fool?”

Laughter came from somewhere completely different from where Cao Zhenshi had been looking. Bai Shixuan and Cao Zhenshi turned their heads, and three men emerged from between the trees.

‘They came from somewhere completely different.’

As a wandering swordsman, Cao Zhenshi’s internal energy was not profound enough to pinpoint them, so naturally he had simply called out toward a random direction. The men had found the sight so ridiculous that they laughed and revealed themselves. When Cao Zhenshi first drew his sword, they had hesitated, wondering if he might be a true martial artist. But when he failed to locate them and shouted toward the wrong place, he appeared easy enough to handle, so they finally stepped out.

“Bandits.”

“And you’re some idiot who only knows how to strike a pose?”

“Kekeke.”

When Cao Zhenshi identified them, the man standing in the middle mocked him, while the two men on either side could no longer hold back their laughter. Cao Zhenshi had to swallow the anger rising inside him. Bandits. Every one of them was large and burly. Had they learned martial arts? He did not know. Cao Zhenshi had no way to judge the extent of their martial skills. Still, the fact that they were operating on a small, nameless mountain in Shaanxi rather than some major mountain stronghold suggested that they were not part of the Green Forest.

“Are you Green Forest?”

He doubted it, but still asked just in case. The Green Forest was not an opponent one could treat lightly. It contained many experts and possessed strong solidarity among its members. Of course, the entire Green Forest would not mobilize unless someone at the level of a Stronghold Chief or Deputy Stronghold Chief was killed, but the chief to whom those subordinates belonged would certainly act. Stronghold Chiefs were usually first-rate experts. Naturally, Cao Zhenshi could not contend with someone like that. That was why he had to carefully determine whether these men truly belonged to the Green Forest.

“Of course! We belong to Gayue Stronghold!”

“So hurry up and hand over everything you’ve got. Heh heh.”

One of the men shouted loudly. Gayue Stronghold? Was there a place like that among the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds? Rather than becoming frightened, Cao Zhenshi tilted his head at the name. No such stronghold existed among the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds. He kept turning the name Gayue Stronghold over in his mind, but no matter how much he thought about it, there was no such place.

“Hehehehe. Too scared to even speak?”

One of the men slammed the iron mace he was holding into the ground and shouted. Cao Zhenshi, however, showed no reaction and remained deep in thought.

“You said Gayue Stronghold?”

“That’s right!”

After thinking for quite some time, Cao Zhenshi finally spoke. At his cold and strangely meaningful tone, the three men shouted back at him. Yet tension was gradually entering their eyes. Seeing their reaction made Cao Zhenshi certain. Gayue Stronghold did not exist. In other words, these men were not Green Forest bandits.

“How ridiculous. You’re wasting my time, so hurry up and come at me.”

As Cao Zhenshi spoke and assumed a fighting stance, the ones who became flustered were actually the bandits. Until now, whenever they had robbed ordinary people rather than martial artists, merely invoking the name of the Green Forest had been enough to make everyone tremble. They had been cautious because Cao Zhenshi carried a sword, but since he had failed to locate them properly, they had assumed he was nothing special. So what was this now?

“Aren’t you afraid of the Green Forest?”

“There is no Gayue Stronghold in the Green Forest.”

At Cao Zhenshi’s words, the men’s expressions hardened. Could he actually be a martial artist? But he did not look like one at all. He was some pathetic fool who could not even sense where they had been hiding. Yet he knew Gayue Stronghold was fictitious. Their unease steadily grew. Something felt wrong.

“Big Brother, don’t get scared.”

“He’s probably just bluffing anyway.”

When the men on either side spoke, the man in the middle nodded. Even so, he could not shake the inexplicable sense of unease.

‘That’s right. He’s just bluffing!’

Steeling himself, the man lifted the iron mace he had planted in the ground. The men beside him also adjusted their grips on an axe and a sword. Soon, all three charged toward Cao Zhenshi. Cao Zhenshi moved to meet them.

‘Hmm.’

Bai Shixuan watched the four men fight from behind Cao Zhenshi. The three bandits had learned some martial arts, but they seemed to possess no internal energy, as their movements were slower than Cao Zhenshi’s. They appeared to have trained only in external martial arts, and even those skills did not seem particularly profound. Despite attacking together, the three men could not overcome Cao Zhenshi alone.

‘The power of internal energy really is incredible.’

Cao Zhenshi’s own internal energy was not profound either. He had only cultivated a third-rate internal cultivation method. Yet even the tiny amount of internal energy gained from such a third-rate method gave him enough ability to toy with all three men.

‘There…….’

Before Bai Shixuan knew it, Cao Zhenshi’s sword had sliced through one man’s wrist. The axe the man had been holding fell limply to the ground. The instant Cao Zhenshi realized the man could no longer fight, he twisted his body aside to evade the sword thrusting toward him. He immediately raised his blade to block the iron mace crashing down toward his head, then lifted a foot and kicked the mace-wielding man in the stomach.

“Urgh.”

The man staggered several steps backward after being kicked in the stomach, and Cao Zhenshi immediately moved with agility. His feet shifted rapidly, his body seeming to glide across the ground, and in an instant he had moved behind the man holding the sword.

“Ghk!”

“Little Brother!”

“B-Big Brother.”

Cao Zhenshi’s sword pierced cleanly through the left side of the man’s chest. Staring at the blade protruding from the front of his chest, the man called out to the mace-wielder in a trembling voice. Those were the final words he spoke in this world. When Cao Zhenshi pulled his sword free, the man’s body collapsed, spraying blood as it fell.