Having dealt with everything, Jiang Lu did not spare another glance at this room full of sin. She turned and slowly stepped out of the dark, secret passage.
The moment she stepped out from underground, she swept her delicate hand through the air.
A cluster of pure, cold spiritual fire suddenly descended, instantly sweeping through the entire secret passage.
The blazing spiritual fire surged and spread, burning away the darkness and sin that filled the room.
Such a filthy place, which concealed bloody atrocities and bred dark evils, should never have existed in this world to begin with.
Seeing her finally emerge, the others let out a breath of relief. “Junior Sister Jiang, have you finished investigating?”
They had almost thought Junior Sister Jiang had abandoned them and run off.
“I have. Senior Brother, do you want to burn this place down?” Jiang Lu looked around. The bandits' corpses were already gone; the others had likely disposed of them.
Lu Lingfeng shook his head, looking around.
“Although this is where the bandits of the Black Wind Stronghold lived, the stronghold itself is built on a rare patch of flat ground, and the buildings are all perfectly intact. The three of us have already destroyed all the weapons inside.”
“If chaotic times truly descend, this place might serve as a sanctuary for some commoners.”
Jiang Lu was quite touched by his words. “Senior Brother makes a lot of sense. You truly are a model of the righteous path.”
The group made their way down the mountain, dismantling the confusing arrays one by one.
They looked back up at the Black Wind Stronghold hidden in the mountains, then mounted their horses and rode toward their next destination.
“Huh? There are people ahead,” said a man dressed in green martial attire as he spotted the group slowly approaching them.
Jiang Lu spotted them at the same time.
Liu Qingqing looked at their group, turned to look at Jiang Lu, and finally fixed her gaze on Xi Siyu. “Third Senior Brother, do you think they're bandits trying to rob us too?”
If they were, they were incredibly unfortunate to have run into Junior Sister Jiang.
“Come on, let's go ask,” the man said to the people behind him. With a flick of his reins, he rode toward Jiang Lu's group.
“Whoa—”
The sound of hooves came to a halt as he blocked their path. When he saw their faces, he was momentarily stunned by their beauty, even feeling a sudden urge to kidnap them and hide them away.
However, he valued his life more.
He cupped his fists in greeting. A somewhat resolute voice came from his mouth: “Are you coming from up ahead? Did you run into the bandits of the Black Wind Stronghold along the way?”
Liu Qingqing blinked and covered her mouth with a soft chuckle. “Young master, the Black Wind Stronghold is up ahead. Of course we ran into bandits.”
He had expected to hear that they hadn't encountered anyone. He never imagined this delicate-looking woman in front of him would so easily admit that they had.
The man turned to look at the people behind him. They all looked bewildered, which quickly turned into deep vigilance.
He turned back to Liu Qingqing, completely lost, and stammered, “You... how did you run into them?”
“Hehe~”
Liu Qingqing let out a soft laugh.
Xi Siyu and Lu Lingfeng exchanged a glance, shaking their heads fondly. When their Little Junior Sister wasn't causing trouble, she was actually quite cute.
After laughing for a bit, a chilling statement slipped from Liu Qingqing's delicate lips: “We ran into them on our way here. But they're all dead now.”
Dead?!
“H-how did they die?” he pressed further.
The way he looked at them now was as if they were demons.
“We killed them, of course,” Liu Qingqing said matter-of-factly. To her, evil people deserved to die.
Everyone else: Did she really just talk about killing people so casually?
“Uh... ladies, young masters, let me introduce myself. I am Mu Qiu, the son of the head of the Mu Family Martial Hall.”
Mu Qiu swallowed hard, shifting his gaze away from Liu Qingqing's face.
“We came here this time hoping to confront the people of the Black Wind Stronghold and, ideally, punish evil and promote good. Is it true what you said about them all being dead?”
When he finished speaking, the others felt a bit speechless. If not for their good upbringing, they really would have mocked him.
“The abilities of those bandits in the Black Wind Stronghold are not something you can provoke. You want to confront them? Are you prepared to never return?”
Jiang Lu was somewhat curious. This young man didn't look very old. What was his backing? Could it be the dozens of people behind him?
Jiang Lu shifted her gaze to the crowd behind him. They were burly and looked like his guards.
But their strength was not even half of what the Black Wind Stronghold possessed.
Leaving aside everything else, they might be able to handle the likes of Xu Wu, but if they actually entered the stronghold, they would only be marching to their deaths.
Seeing the conflict on his face, she lowered her eyes, a slight curve appearing at the corners of her lips.
“Whether you believe it or not, you'll know once you go and see for yourself.”
Upon hearing this, Mu Qiu cupped his fists to bid them farewell and headed toward the Black Wind Stronghold.
“What are they trying to do? I don't think he could possibly defeat the people of the Black Wind Stronghold,” Lu Lingfeng said, his brow furrowed in confusion.
“Senior Brother Lu, an ordinary young master playing house with a bunch of elite guards behind him? Do you believe that? I certainly don't.”
“Oh? Could they be heading to the Black Wind Stronghold to negotiate?” Liu Qingqing spoke softly. That was how it always went in novels.
The other three whipped their heads to stare at her. Did she actually use her brain?
Liu Qingqing felt the three intense gazes, and she peeked at Jiang Lu. Her face flushed slightly as she lowered her head.
Could it be...
Junior Sister Jiang had finally been won over by her?
So Junior Sister Jiang liked smart people. In that case, she had better not act foolishly in front of her in the future.
Jiang Lu watched as the figures of Mu Qiu and his group completely vanished, then led the others forward.
“Let's go. They will come looking for us.”
The setting sun cast long shadows of them onto the ground.
Arriving at a nearby county seat, they looked up and saw the characters written on the archway: 【Peach Blossom County】.
“Peach Blossom County. I suppose there must be peach blossoms everywhere here.”
Jiang Lu swept her divine sense out. There were no demonic cultivators in the county seat, but the peach tree in the center seemed to possess spirituality. It might be worth going to ask it some questions.
“Let's go find an inn to rest.”
Jiang Lu jumped down from her horse, holding the reins as she walked into the county seat.
The commoners in the county seat were walking in a hurry. Compared to the towns they had passed through before, this place was significantly more desolate.
Jiang Lu cast her gaze toward a grain shop not far away. The price of rice had gone up.
War was about to break out.
They led their horses to the stable, opened the bags tied to the horses' backs, and poured out the fodder. Seeing the food, the horses immediately began to eat contentedly.
“Let's go rest first. We'll set off again tomorrow.”
Led by the waiter, they walked toward their guest rooms.
“Second Young Master, there are no signs of a fight at the foot of the mountain,” a guard reported after scouting ahead.
Mu Qiu frowned. Could those people have been telling the truth? “Let's go up and take a look.”
Since Jiang Lu and the others had destroyed the illusion array, Mu Qiu's group climbed the mountain much faster. However, when they saw the walls of the Black Wind Stronghold,
they couldn't help but feel a faint doubt. Rumor had it that the Black Wind Stronghold was extremely difficult to find, but it didn't seem hard at all to them.
“Let's go!”
Alarm bells rang in Mu Qiu's mind. He had a bad feeling about this.
When he reached the front of the Black Wind Stronghold and saw the wide-open gates, his footsteps ground to a halt. He stared in terror at the completely empty stronghold.
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