Several bandits were passing around a wineskin, each taking a swig. Fierce, ruthless glints filled the eyes of every bandit. They all understood clearly... they were the attackers, and the Iron Mountain Gang was the defender. To annihilate the Iron Mountain Gang, with its three thousand core disciples, the White Horse Gang would certainly suffer heavy losses.
Very likely, this was the last drink they would ever share in this life.
"Smash!" A wineskin hit the ground hard. A bandit jumped onto his horse, blade in hand, and shouted, "Brothers, let's go! When we win, we'll drink again!"
"Drink again!"
These formidable bandits mounted their horses one by one.
This scene played out in many places across this desolate land. Everyone knew... this battle would claim countless lives! This world was just like that; never mind how the bandits swaggered and reveled in their dominance over ordinary folk. If they wanted to be the foremost gang in Yicheng, they had to tread over every other faction.
It meant legions of brothers would spill their blood!
Large gulps of wine, huge bites of meat, piles of silver, and endless women!
Such exhilarating days were built upon an endless foundation of gore!
...
Amidst the dense mass of bandits, one group was encased entirely in armor, even their horses fitted with protective gear. These armored riders surrounded the Young Leader, 'Hong Zhenjie'. On the ground lay numerous women, utterly still.
"Brothers," Hong Zhenjie surveyed his surroundings, his gaze chillingly sharp. "Those Wang family trio are formidable, but every brother in our White Horse Camp is a true hero! You all know, by this evening, out of the two hundred brothers in the White Horse Camp, some will surely fall to the Iron Mountain Gang. But I, Hong Zhenjie, have sworn an oath: as long as I have a mouthful of food, the women and children of my fallen White Horse brothers will also eat!"
"Young Leader! The Wang brothers have a fierce reputation outside, but one charge from us, and we'll turn them into sieves! Why should we fear them?" roared a hulking man, easily eight feet tall.
"Young Leader, the brothers have drunk their fill and claimed their women! Let's go slaughter those Iron Mountain whelps now. Even if I die there, this life will have been worth it!"
The fierce bandits in armor glared with raw malice.
To be part of the most elite White Horse Camp within the White Horse Gang, every single one had to be utterly ruthless!
"Good!" Hong Zhenjie suddenly vaulted onto his horse, his face contorted in a savage mask, and roared, "Brothers, mount up!"
The two hundred heroes of the elite White Horse Camp sprang onto their horses simultaneously. The surrounding bandits instinctively gave them space.
Teng Qingshan and Teng Qinghu watched from a distance as many bandits drank and shouted, bursts of howling rising occasionally. Clearly, these brigands were using shouts and liquor to bolster their courage.
"Qingshan, if they yell like that, won't the Iron Mountain Gang notice?" Teng Qinghu suddenly inquired.
Teng Qingshan observed the vast number of robbers ahead. "Of course they've noticed! Yicheng is only so big. With thousands of bandits moving in such force, the Iron Mountain Gang must have received word long ago. However, the Iron Mountain Gang has fewer men, so they'd rather rely on the impregnable defense of their mountain fortress than charge out. The White Horse Gang knows this too!"
Teng Qinghu nodded.
"Cousin, the White Horse Gang has eight thousand core disciples, and they've mobilized at least six or seven thousand today! And the Iron Mountain Gang has their sturdy stronghold to fall back on... this battle will likely be brutal," Teng Qingshan murmured softly.
"Qingshan... Luo, will Luo Xiang die?" Teng Qinghu lowered his voice.
"I don't know," Teng Qingshan replied.
In truth, Teng Qingshan understood internally that the probability of Li Luoxiang dying was over ninety percent! These bandits, before the final clash, needed to vent their frenzy. To avoid leaving these unfortunate women as burdens, it was highly probable they would simply kill them after satisfying themselves! Dumping the bodies in the wilderness!
The bandits on the wasteland ahead kept mounting their horses and setting off, their numbers dwindling.
A moment later—
"Everyone's gone." Teng Qinghu was the first to rise from the tall grass and ran toward the area.
Teng Qingshan followed, the Reincarnation Spear strapped to his back.
The patch of wilderness was a wreck—shattered wine jars and discarded wineskins littered the ground everywhere. Teng Qingshan's gaze suddenly narrowed as he looked ahead: "Bodies!" He saw several corpses in the distance, and Teng Qinghu was frantically turning over each one like a madman.
Teng Qingshan rushed over.
"They're all women!" In the ditch beside the wasteland lay heaps of bodies—all young women, their clothes tattered, some entirely naked. A mere glance revealed perhaps dozens of corpses!
"All pathetic souls who were defiled," Teng Qingshan took a deep breath.
"Luoxiang, Luoxiang!!!" Teng Qinghu suddenly burst into loud sobs, clutching a woman wearing only shredded undergarments, weeping until he lost his voice. This was the first woman he had ever loved in his life.
Teng Qingshan stood silently behind him.
Teng Qingshan didn't know what he felt, only a surge of sharp sorrow.
"Scratch!" "Scratch!"
Teng Qinghu grabbed a shard of a wine jar nearby and furiously began digging into the earth. Dirt flew as he quickly carved out a large pit. Teng Qinghu solemnly lifted the body of the unfortunate girl named Luoxiang and placed her into the deep hole. Then he pushed the soil back to bury her.
Since cremation wasn't possible under the circumstances, this would have to serve as her grave.
Kneeling before this mound, Teng Qinghu's tears flowed.
"Cousin," Teng Qingshan finally spoke.
"Qingshan, just let me cry for once. I can't avenge Luo Xiang, but can't I even weep?" Teng Qinghu had rushed here hoping his beloved was alive, but the result was cruel. Indeed, in this chaotic era, Teng Qinghu had heard of such things happening.
But when it happened to him, he felt a heart-piercing agony.
"Who says you can't have revenge? Come with me to the Iron Mountain Gang," Teng Qingshan stated.
Teng Qinghu snapped his head up, his eyes wide, staring at Teng Qingshan, and exclaimed in shock, "Qingshan, you..."
"Still not moving?" Teng Qingshan commanded.
Teng Qinghu quickly stood up and grabbed Teng Qingshan's arm urgently, "Qingshan, my heart burns to carve the White Horse Gang's Young Leader into a thousand pieces! But, Qingshan, don't rashly go kill the Young Leader over this! Those bandits came to the Teng Family Village to collect yearly dues, and many, many people there know you, Teng Qingshan! If you kill the Young Leader, you'll surely be recognized... then the White Horse Gang will flatten our Teng Family Village! You know the fierce pride of robbers; even if they die, they absolutely must avenge their Young Leader!"
Looking at Teng Qinghu now, Teng Qingshan sighed internally. His cousin truly knew how to endure. In this turbulent age, one couldn't survive well without the ability to forbear.
As for the bandits' pride, Teng Qingshan understood that too.
In this era, many brigands were completely unafraid of death!
A big scar for a lost head!—this was a phrase many brigands lived by. Even if Teng Qingshan displayed peerless martial power and slew the Great Leader, the Second Leader, the Third Leader, and the Young Leader alone! The remnants of the White Horse Gang, whoever aspired to be the new Great Leader, their first task would be to kill Teng Qingshan and destroy the Teng Family Village to avenge their old leader! Only then would they qualify to hold the new position!
That was the rule!
If that happened, endless insidious schemes would follow. Teng Qingshan wasn't afraid, but what about the clansmen of the Teng Family Village?
"Am I that reckless a person?" Teng Qingshan countered.
Teng Qinghu paused.
Right, Teng Qingshan seemed to have made mistakes when he was in the Teng Family Village, but he always acted with caution.
"Qingshan, what do you mean?" Teng Qinghu inquired.
"Don't worry, nothing I do will put the Teng Family Village in danger. Just watch," Teng Qingshan turned. "Let's go. We'll cut through the great mountains directly to the Iron Mountain Gang."
"Okay." Though perplexed, Teng Qinghu followed.
The Iron Mountain Gang was built into the mountain, heavily fortified. Ever since the fortress was constructed, it was prepared to withstand the furious assault of the White Horse Gang.
Logically, breaching the Iron Mountain Gang's main gate should have cost the White Horse Gang a tremendous number of lives.
But...
The main gate had already been broken open.
"Kill those brats! Brothers, charge!" Roars and shouts echoed everywhere in the Iron Mountain Gang's lair. At this moment, everyone fought with bloodlust, a knife slicing in, a blade cutting out. Both the Iron Mountain Gang and the White Horse Gang members were dying in massive numbers.
...
Halfway up the mountain slope, Teng Qingshan and Teng Qinghu looked down upon the scene.
The main gate of the Iron Mountain Gang had long since been breached. Fighting raged in every corner of the fortress. This kind of close-quarters melee was the most savage; some charged wildly on horseback, others hid in the mountain houses firing crossbows. It was purely a fight of trading lives. Blood and corpses stained the walls and ground throughout the entire fortress.
"This..." Teng Qinghu's face turned pale.
Even Teng Qingshan gasped sharply! In his past life's society, how could one ever witness ten thousand people engaged in such a frenzied, close-quarters slaughter? The bandits below had their eyes entirely bloodshot—if someone wasn't one of their own, the order was simple: kill!
"Human lives are cheap as grass!" This sentiment rose in Teng Qingshan's heart.
Never mind that those bandits captured women and seized wealth; now... they were losing their lives one after another.
In this chaotic era, regardless of who you were, to gain something, you had to pay a price.
To gain an exhilarating life meant paying with daily close calls with death.
To secure a good life for one's clan meant the men in the clan had to possess sufficient martial might.
"Qinghu, wait here," Teng Qingshan said. A trembling sound resonated through his bones and muscles. His entire body height unnaturally shrank by almost a full measure, but his arms and legs visibly grew thicker. "I'm going down for a bit. Hold my Reincarnation Spear for me."
Teng Qinghu watched this transformation in shock. "Qingshan, you..."
"When your Tiger Fist reaches its apex, one day you'll be able to do this," Teng Qingshan said confidently.
Ordinary people build muscle, and when the muscle hardens, it bulges. But ordinary people cannot control their bones and joints.
This internal martial art, when cultivated to the level of Grandmaster, allows one to control every single bone in the body. Many know that there are gaps between bones. Some people practicing yoga can temporarily increase their height by a few centimeters; it’s the same principle. Teng Qingshan, having pushed his physical conditioning to the limit, could completely alter his height, making himself shorter or taller.
As for his appearance...
The bone structure of the face is fixed and difficult to change. But appearance itself is a minor issue. A person's look changes drastically when their face is stern versus when their eyes are narrowed in a smile. If one then smears on some dirt and smears on some blood, who would recognize them in the chaos of battle?
Teng Qingshan pulled the string tying his hair, letting it fall loose. At the same time, he smeared some dirt onto his face, and his flowing hair obscured his features.
"Qinghu, can you recognize me?" Teng Qingshan asked with a faint smile.
"This..." Teng Qinghu was still stunned.
The young man who was tall and handsome moments ago now stood nearly a head shorter, his frame thicker, and Teng Qingshan's posture even slightly stooped. His entire demeanor seemed to have shifted. Even Teng Qinghu found it hard to believe that this was the previous refined Teng Qingshan standing before him.
As a former assassin, this simple disguise was nothing. As for faking temperament, many television actors accomplished it. It wasn't impossible for a young girl to convincingly portray an elderly woman.
"Qinghu, just wait for me here," Teng Qingshan finished and charged down the mountain.
"Be careful," Teng Qinghu said immediately, while thinking to himself, His height and physique can change. Even I can barely recognize him as Qingshan. Those robbers who come to the Teng Family Village and aren't familiar with Teng Qingshan definitely won't recognize him. If any highly observant brigands did harbor suspicion, comparing heights would likely dismiss their doubts immediately.