The world may be chaotic, but an atrocity like massacring a village hadn't occurred within the borders of Yicheng for a long time.

"Brother Fan, are the Iron Mountain Gang really this insane?" Mother Yuan Lan exclaimed beside him. "Don't they realize such an act will incite the wrath of countless villages in Yicheng? And Blackwood Village... didn't we marry several girls from our clan who came from Blackwood Village?"

"Yes, which is why the clan is in an uproar right now," Teng Yongfan frowned. "But what choice do we have?"

"The Iron Mountain Gang is far too brutal." A fire ignited in Teng Qingshan's heart; slaughtering a village was utterly inhumane.

Teng Yongfan explained, "There's nothing we can do. As far as we know, the three bosses of the Iron Mountain Gang are all Internal Strength masters who made quite a notorious name for themselves roaming the Nine Provinces! Each one is ruthless. Likely, massacring Blackwood Village was a display for the other villages. It’s killing the chicken to scare the monkeys!"

Teng Qingshan nodded.

There was no need to wipe out an entire village just for the silver of one. Clearly, the act was meant to terrify the others.

"Father, Mother, Brother, will that gang come here to us?" Qingyu asked with worry clouding her voice.

"What worries me most is..." Teng Yongfan said anxiously, "this Iron Mountain Gang will very likely come to our Teng Family Village. To be precise... they definitely will. They will certainly come to collect silver. The question is... when will they arrive?"

"We must guard against this," Teng Qingshan agreed. This concerned the very survival of the lineage, and carelessness was not an option. After a moment's thought, Teng Qingshan declared, "Father, here is my thought... Starting tomorrow, when the hunting parties go out, Qinghu will lead them. With Qinghu's current strength, he should be fine in the great mountains. As for me, I will cease my arduous training in the mountains for a while and stay in the village, just in case!"

Teng Yongfan nodded. "I was thinking the same, but that's only one aspect. Many other things need to change. For instance, everyone in the clan currently practicing the Tiger Fist should immediately move their practice to the martial arts field. They need to be ready to resist any potential enemy at a moment's notice."

Normally, they practiced the Tiger Fist in the woods. But it still took time to run from the woods to the training grounds.

"If the Iron Mountain Gang's demand for silver isn't too high, we can step back, and it will be fine. If their demand is truly excessive, then we have no choice... we will have to resist," Teng Yongfan stated.

"Mm." Teng Qingshan had already made up his mind. If a crisis truly erupted, there would be no need to conceal his strength; he would slaughter them outright. For Teng Qingshan... the most precious people in his life—his father, mother, sister, and the many elders who had cared for him—all resided within the clan. The clan was his root, and the root of his loved ones. He would defend Teng Family Village with his life.

"Things haven't devolved to that point," Teng Yongfan tried to lighten the mood with a smile, sensing the heavy topic. "Our Teng Family Village is far stronger than Blackwood Village. The Iron Mountain Gang will know how to choose."

Teng Family Village was indeed much stronger than Blackwood Village. In just these four years, over thirty clansmen had managed to cultivate Internal Strength. While hundreds had practiced the Tiger Fist, only a little over thirty achieved Internal Strength—the ratio was low. But the destructive power wielded by each of those Internal Strength practitioners was staggering.

"If the Iron Mountain Gang thinks we are as easy to bully as Blackwood Village, they are mistaken," Teng Qingshan said with a smile, though a latent killing intent simmered beneath the surface. When it came to critical moments, Teng Qingshan never held back. ...

The news of Blackwood Village's massacre spread rapidly. Soon, every member of Teng Family Village knew of it. Teng Family Village became fraught with anxiety; the brave men of the clan trained relentlessly on the martial arts field, and if not there, they stayed home. Few dared to leave the village. Only the thirty or so members of the hunting party occasionally ventured out to hunt. And the clan’s foremost expert, Teng Qingshan, remained inside the village, no longer venturing into the mountains. The entire Teng Family Village prepared for an enemy attack. In this era of rampant chaos, protecting one's lineage depended solely on oneself. * The martial arts field was filled with clamor. "Hah!" "Ho!" Clansmen practiced spearplay or the Tiger Fist; others lifted stone locks, rolled iron balls, and used water buckets to temper their strength. These folk training methods, though simple, were quite effective. Feeling the imminent crisis, the clansmen trained with even greater diligence. The women, meanwhile, busied themselves with the numerous chores: plowing, washing clothes, cooking, and looking after the children. Only the weak men shared the burdensome chores with the women; the strong men focused solely on hard training. "Second Sister, don't cry," three women chatted while washing clothes, one of them with reddened eyes. "My younger brother was killed, killed by those damnable Iron Mountain Gang," the woman sobbed, tears streaming down her face. "My brother was the most obedient; he used to sleep next to me when he was little. He loved the flatbreads I made." She choked back a sob, "And just like that, he's gone..." The other women's eyes also grew red listening to her. "Second Sister, your family's Great Li Village was lucky; only a few people died, and the Iron Mountain Gang left after taking the silver. But Blackwood Village was completely massacred. My husband's third brother's wife—her parents, brother, and sisters, all wiped out. Alas..." the women sighed. "It's still better to marry into Teng Family Village." "Yes, Teng Family Village is, after all, famous for being formidable within a radius of several dozen li." "In my hometown, I have a niece named Fanglan. She is quite beautiful; I also want to introduce her to one of the fine men of our Teng Family Village." These women discussed amongst themselves; in this era, the strength of a village determined whether it would be bullied. A strong village meant the men had an easier time finding wives. After all, parents had to consider their children's futures; sending them to a powerful village where they would be fed well and safe from harm—that was the dream life. "That Iron Mountain Gang has already visited many villages; I wonder when they'll reach us." "Don't tempt fate with those evil wretches; I hope I never see them in my lifetime." Amidst their chatter, the earth suddenly began to tremble. "Horses!" Almost everyone on the martial arts field turned their heads toward the village gates. The sound of hooves accompanying the White Horse Gang's annual silver collection was familiar. This earth-shaking tremor was clearly caused by horses. But... this time, it wasn't the White Horse Gang arriving! Since no one had gone hunting today, Teng Qinghu and the others practicing on the field saw their faces change drastically. It was a cavalry unit, and a quick glance revealed no end to the column of horses. Clearly... this force was vast. "It's the Iron Mountain Gang!" A shrill cry rang out! "Hahaha... you boys of Teng Family Village!" A burst of laughter, like rolling thunder, boomed out. Leading the dense cavalry was a muscular, bald strongman wearing a backplate. The steed beneath him was entirely crimson, standing nearly eight chi tall—it was a Scarlet Fire Horse from Darong Prefecture, worth a thousand taels of silver. Draped over the saddle of this Scarlet Fire Horse were two colossal hammers of deep reddish-copper, studded with small spikes. By mere estimation, each of these reddish-copper war hammers weighed over a hundred catties. The bald strongman suddenly leaped from the Scarlet Fire Horse, drifting down as lightly as a goose feather. Simultaneously, he grasped both reddish-copper hammers, which were connected by an iron chain spanning a full zhang. The bald man roared with laughter and violently swung the hammer in his left hand, shouting, "Open!" The great iron hammer streaked across the sky like a meteor, producing a terrifying, piercing whistle of displaced air, and smashed down onto the main gate of Teng Family Village. "Boom!" The entire gate shuddered, then burst apart with a loud peng, sending splintered, thick timbers flying everywhere. The bald strongman retrieved his hammers and landed from the air, the remarkably intelligent Scarlet Fire Horse trotting over just in time for him to land back securely on its back. "How is that possible?" Teng Qinghu and the others gasped, staring dumbfounded at the fragments of the gate. The clan's main gate was constructed from some of the hardest giant timbers from Dayan Mountain; even a dozen strong men ramming it with logs couldn't breach it. The cavalry leader from the Yangzhou Salt Merchants had used finesse to split the iron bolt. But this bald strongman had simply blasted the gate open. "To smash open the main gate without tens of thousands of pounds of force is impossible," that was what Teng Yunlong had once said. At this moment, the clansmen were utterly stunned. Could it be... Did this bald strongman possess the might of ten thousand jin? "Rumble~~~" A flood of bandits, led by their bald commander, swept into the martial arts field like a gust of wind. "Get out of the way!" The bandits roared with laughter, wantonly slashing their sabers at the Teng clansmen training on the field.