C18 (1/2)

Wiping the corner of his mouth, Hong Ling made a fist with his left hand. Hong Ling felt that his severed arm had already completely joined together.

As a famous bandit at the edge of Shiwan Mountain, the Black Mountain Stronghold had plundered a lot of money in the recent years. He walked over and opened all the wooden boxes, revealing shining gold ingots.

There were a total of five boxes in the secret room. Hong Ling reckoned that these gold should be worth at least tens of thousands of gold taels, other than that, he did not find anything else.

He wasn't in a hurry either, slowly recovering the Authentic Qi in his body. Not even two hours had passed since the youth returned to his peak state.

Although Hong Ling was not sure if Zhang Yan still hid other valuable things in his secret room, it would still be good to pay attention.

Suddenly, the youth shifted his gaze to the pile of ashes in front of him. He walked over and used his hand to brush away the charred ashes, then he took out a ring from within.

There was nothing else in this secret chamber except for the existence of this ring in Zhang Yan's ashes. There must be something fishy going on.

Hong Ling felt that the ring was unexpected. He did not expect that after he used the Authentic Qi s and his soul power to use the Flame Mantra, the ring would still be unharmed.

One must know that even the ring blade forged from fine steel in Zhang Yan's hand had completely melted in the blazing sword Qi, and this ring, unexpectedly, was completely unharmed. It was truly amazing.

He tried to bite down on the ring, but he didn't expect that when he recovered his Authentic Qi s, he would force the clotted blood out of his body. At this moment, there was still some blood that surged out of his mouth.

When the blood made contact with the ring that Hong Ling was biting on, it was actually absorbed by an invisible force. Hong Ling immediately felt that something was amiss, he stared at the ring, and started to slowly reveal lines after lines on its surface.

He knew that there were some precious treasures in this world that needed to be opened through a special medium due to the limitations of their body formation process. And the special medium would include the blood of cultivators.

Buzz. As soon as the ring finished absorbing the blood, Hong Ling felt his consciousness being instantly sucked into a specific space, and within the space, a grid of varying sizes automatically formed.

”This is?” ”Spatial ring!”

Hong Ling's mouth was opened so wide that an egg could fit inside. According to his understanding, spatial rings were all very expensive things, even if one had money, it was not guaranteed that they would be able to buy it. The one in front of him, had a space that was not much smaller than a bedroom, and also had a large amount of treasures.

”Is this the true wealth of the Black Mountain Bandit's Zhang Yan!?”

Looking at the pile of valuables in the spatial ring, the youth's heart swayed. That was because there were simply too many of them, more than ten times more than what Zhang Yan had stored in the secret room.

Yes, these things, they must have been moved into the spatial ring after Zhang Yan entered the secret room. The few chests of gold that she left behind were purely to deceive people, and once he kills me, just by his strength alone, it will be impossible to protect the Black Mountain stronghold.

”However, if someone discovers that all the things in the Black Mountain stronghold have been moved away, then he could be hunted down.

After Hong Ling thought through all of these, he did not hold back and sent his soul power into the spatial ring. With a thought, he had already stored all the remaining boxes of gold inside the spatial ring.

He didn't dare to stay any longer, so he quickly left the Black Mountain stronghold with Zhang Yan's head. Before he left, the young man set fire to every building in the stronghold before leaving.

His eyes flashed with a dark golden light and soul power was also released into the air, causing the dark night to seem like day in his eyes. In the darkness of the night, the young man's body was jumping around in the treetops, and in a few jumps, he had already disappeared into the sea of trees.

The next day, news of the Black Mountain Thief's nest was spread far and wide, and many cultivators began to investigate the ruins, intending to find some valuable things there. Unfortunately, they were unable to find anything, and at this time, Hong Ling was standing on top of the ruins of the Hidden Dragon Village, slowly carving out a huge tombstone.

Behind him was a huge grave. As the carving knife in his hand flashed rapidly on the stone monument, familiar names appeared on the grave.

They were the simple and honest villagers of Hidden Dragon Village who had lived with him for 15 years, including Iron Ox, Old Hunting Head Li, Tigress, Iron Ox's father, and many of the villagers who usually took care of him. Unfortunately, he was the only one left, and most of the villagers were already dead.

Hong Ling placed the gigantic stone tablet in front of the grave. He placed the offerings and lit the incense, placing the Black Mountain Bandit's Zhang Yan's head in front of the stone tablet. The youth knelt down on both knees and kowtowed three times.

He stood up and smashed the head into powder with a palm. Then, he took out a pot of turbid wine from his spatial ring and drank to himself while mumbling to himself.

A drizzle fell down from the sky and covered the entire world with a layer of white gauze. He leaned on the tombstone, his eyes hazy and drunk. His heart slowly calmed down and tears began to well up in his eyes.

His master had once said that a man's tears wouldn't fall easily because he hadn't been hurt. Now, the feeling of being hurt was truly painful to the core, but everything had passed. He had his own life and a new journey to travel on.

The pot of turbid wine, the rain, and the tear were the true farewells.

In the misty, misty mountains, tears fell from the eyes of the descendants of each clan, but it was all a dream.

He took out his longsword and once again performed that nameless sword technique in the rain. The whistling sword Qi cut open the curtain of rain, shattered the long wind, and carved out a clear stretch of the universe. The sword intent that filled the sky was like a huge beast.