Several bandits stared in shock as they looked at the corpse of their chief who had just fallen to the ground. They became glued to the spot.
At that moment, a voice thundered, "Drop your weapons and go on your knees. Don't play any tricks, and we won't kill you!"
Clash!
In the blink of an eye, the remaining bandits numbering more than two hundred put down their weapons and crouched in fear.
Among the bandits, there was only one exception — the Second-in-charge of the Green Mountain stronghold.
"You've got this whole thing planned out. Well played."
Looking at Shen Ling, the Second-in-charge couldn't help but praise him a little.
Shen Ling didn't say a word.
The Second-in-charge continued, "If I'm not mistaken, the surrounding houses are all filled with people holding crossbows, right? I'm also sure that the death of all my brothers here was caused by these same crossbows."
Shen Ling nodded his head.
"I can't believe you really use crossbows."
When he saw Shen Ling confirm his guess, he smiled bitterly. "Not only do you have strength, but you also manage to get such powerful weapons. We are fated to lose this battle."
The Second-in-charge turned around to look at the kneeling bandits with despair in his eyes. "Bandits! In the end, we are nothing but a bunch of mobs! Haha!"
With this statement, he pulled out his sword and walked towards Shen Ling slowly and steadily.
Before he could get near Shen Ling, a few arrows flew over and pierced his body instantly.
Immediately, he fell to the ground and never got up.
Another chief of the Green Mountain Stronghold, who didn't know anything about martial arts and was very good at strategizing, encountered his death in the sharecroppers' village just like that.
With this, the Green Mountain Stronghold, which had been terrorizing people for a long time, was wiped out in an instant.
Shen Ling waved his hand and signaled to his people.
The young sharecroppers behind him blew their whistles. The others, who had been standing by all the while, walked out of the surrounding houses and picked up the weapons besides the bandits who had surrendered.
"Elder Young Master, what do we do with these bandits who are still alive?"
The old village chief was leaning on his crutches for support, and he asked Shen Ling as the latter came down from the roof.
Although everyone knew that the triple crossbows were very powerful, this was the first time they had used them. In all honesty, they still couldn't use this weapon with much accuracy, as some of their targets were not immediately fatal.
"Try to save them. As for those with severe injuries, just kill them."
Shen Ling said coldly with a blank expression on his face.
He was not in the mood to be merciful to these bandits, even though most of them didn't volunteer to be bandits in the first place; rather, they had no choice but to go up the mountain to become bandits.
Even at that, this was never a good reason for them to rob the village and harm innocent people.
Their acts were evil and wrong.
And because of this, they didn't deserve forgiveness.
The torches still lit up the surroundings. Shen Ling said coldly, "Those who have killed innocent villagers, come out right now!"
None of the bandits made a move. They all stayed where they were with their heads bowed.
Shen Ling's eyes turned cold in an instant. He plunged his sword into the soil and raised his voice, "If no one is ready to confess, then all of you will be punished and killed."
All of them?
Immediately the bandits heard these words, they started panicking.
All of a sudden, one of them shouted as he pointed another man, "He... He has killed villagers and even raped a girl."
Another person backed him up and said, "That's true. He has killed some villagers."
The bandit, who was betrayed by his fellows, wanted to escape the village when he saw that the situation of things wasn't looking good.
A young sharecropper saw this and charged forward to stop him. He slashed the escaping bandit with his sword. Fresh blood spilled out and stained the young man's body. This alone served as a lesson to the other bandits who had it in mind to also escape. Fear gripped them.
"Go on."
Shen Ling stilled had a blank expression on his face.
They all kept pointing accusing fingers at one another, and soon enough, more than thirty bandits were reported.
With Shen Ling's approval, the young sharecroppers showed no mercy as they killed the erring bandits.
Their swords were soon covered in blood.
"Anyone else?"
As Shen Ling looked at the remaining bandits in front of him, a faint smile appeared on his face.
He knew that these bandits were guilty of certain crimes as well, but unlike those who had committed unforgivable crimes, these people could still have their rights to live.
"Leave half of the people behind to watch them closely. Don't let them run around the village. If anyone tries to resist, kill him without mercy."
"The rest of you, follow me to the Green Mountain Stronghold."
Shen Ling briefly gave his order and the old village chief quickly put some arrangements in place.
With the crossbows, Shen Ling was pretty confident that the fifty villagers would be able to suppress these two hundred unarmed bandits.
Right now, he was ready to go to the base of these bandits.
He wanted to get the spoils of this battle.
That night.
Under the leadership of a few bandits, Shen Ling arrived at the base of the Green Mountain Stronghold.
This whole operation didn't take long at all.
As soon as they got there, Shen Ling swung into action. The bandits in the base who tried to resist their orders were silenced to death. Following the confession of the other mountain bandits, Shen Ling found another cave in the stronghold covered by huge rocks.
He asked the bandits to lead the way while he made sure that it was safe before following them.
However, it turned out that his worries were unnecessary.
These simple-minded bandits didn't have any tricks up their sleeves. There were no traps set where the treasures were hidden.
There were a lot of things.
Even Shen Ling was a bit shocked as he saw all the treasures in front of him.
The treasures in this cave was worth far more than the wealth accumulated by the three generations of the Shen family.
Ultimately, this only showed how many people had become victims of the Green Mountain Stronghold.
"Elder Young Master, this way please!"
The excited voice of a young sharecropper was heard. Shen Ling looked over and saw that the young sharecropper was standing in front of a rack of weapons.
There were various weapons in this cave, which were quite eye-catching.
Shen Ling couldn't believe his eyes as he walked over.
The young sharecropper handed over a saber. It was black with a scabbard.
The blade was not very wide and it looked like those originated from the Han or Tang Dynasties.
"This is a good saber."
Shen Ling said as he pulled out the saber and waved it casually.
He felt in his heart as if he was somehow being commanded by this saber.
He instantly knew that this saber was better than the longsword he was using now.
Far better.
Shen Ling strolled around the cave majestically and then said, "Bring the treasures back to our village and leave a few people here to watch over the place."
"Alright."
The young sharecroppers nodded in agreement.
The Green Mountain Stronghold was quite large. Some of the bandits had families here too.
'Family' might not be the correct word, as most of them were just innocent women captured by the bandits.
Shen Ling escorted them back to the sharecroppers' village. Their horse carriages were filled with valuable items from the Green Mountain Stronghold.
By the time all the valuables were transported back to the sharecroppers' village, it was already the afternoon of the second day.
Right at this moment, the old village chief was carrying out Shen Ling's orders to build some temporary houses.
There was some vacant land in the village so that temporary houses could be erected.
Accommodating the bandits and their families wouldn't be a problem.
"How many days will it take to be completed?"
Shen Ling asked the old village chief with his hands behind his back as he looked at the mountain bandits who were busy building the houses.
"It will take about half a month, but for now, the temporary accommodation has already been arranged."
The village chief answered quickly. It seemed like he had already done the calculation.
"That's alright."
Shen Ling nodded.
Initially, he wanted to drive the bandits away and also send their families away from the Green Mountain Stronghold.
However, they didn't want to leave. Some of them were even willing to exchange their lives for the chance of survival for their families.
Shen Ling thought about it for a while and decided to keep them here in the village.
As far as he was concerned, they were sinners, which meant that they were still guilty of their numerous crimes.
The bandits didn't have any objections to this.
Most people in this troubled world lived a miserable life.
As long as they were still alive, they wouldn't ask for more.
Shen Ling stopped to look around the village for a long time and then turned around.
He decided to return to the Shen family.
