26: Chapter 26 The Purpose of the Rebel Army

The tea stall was deathly silent.

That sentence, "It is said that the Prince of Xiushan has already discovered that it was the Yellow Robe Army who acted to abduct the Princess," was like a needle that instantly pierced through all the clamor.

Chen Fan's hand, holding the teacup, paused steadily in mid-air.

So that was it.

In an instant, all the clues connected together.

That stubborn woman in brocade who claimed to be a family member of a fleeing merchant.

That pointed threat from Chiliarch Zhou Tong of the Yellow Robe Army.

The movements of the imperial army.

And this scandal of the missing Princess that had the whole city in an uproar.

What a masterful move of shifting the blame, and what a brilliant ploy of killing with a borrowed knife.

The Yellow Robe Army didn't have the guts to touch the Prince of Xiushan's woman.

They only needed a target, a target prominent enough to attract all the fury of the Prince of Xiushan.

A bandit leader who had just repelled government troops in Qinghe County and made a name for himself with "robbing the rich to aid the poor," currently basking in the limelight.

Black Wind Demon.

Which was his current self.

That guy, Chiliarch Zhou Tong, hadn't come to recruit him, but to confirm.

To confirm that he, this chess piece, was still sitting safely on the chessboard.

As long as the Princess went missing and the Prince of Xiushan was enraged, and then an "interested party" revealed that the Princess had been abducted by the bandits of Black Wind Mountain...

By then, the imperial army wouldn't even need to lift a finger; the private soldiers of the Xiushan Princes Mansion alone would be enough to grind the small Black Wind Mountain into dust.

And they, the Yellow Robe Army, could take advantage of the chaos in Xiushan Province to shed their skin like a cicada and escape calmly.

What a well-calculated scheme.

"Chief, what's wrong?" Smiling Tiger leaned over, his fat face full of excitement. "Now we're in for a good show! The Yellow Robe Army is going at it with the Prince of Xiushan!"

Chen Fan set down the teacup, the bottom of the bowl making a soft sound against the tabletop.

He didn't explain.

Explaining these convoluted schemes to this group of simple-minded bandits would only make them collapse prematurely.

"The show is over; time to get down to business." He stood up and tossed a few copper coins on the table.

Smiling Tiger was stunned and quickly followed. "Chief, where are we going?"

"Scouting."

...

Life on Black Wind Mountain continued as usual.

The bandits didn't know that an invisible mountain was already pressing down on their heads.

They only knew that the stronghold's granary was about to be full again, enough for them to live comfortably for a while.

Three days later, in Liu Village, east of Qinghe County, cries rang out through the middle of the night.

Squire Liu, a notorious local despot, relied on his distant kinship with the county magistrate to annex land, drive tenant farmers to their deaths, and commit all sorts of evil.

Iron-Armed Monkey led his men and kicked open the tightly shut gate of Liu Village.

This operation was just as smooth as before.

Squire Liu's few hired guards were no match for the ferocious bandits.

Gold, silver, treasures, grain, and cloth were loaded onto a dozen fully packed carts.

Following the new rules set by Chen Fan, when they returned to the foot of the mountain, Smiling Tiger directed his men to throw down three carts of grain while grumbling curses.

The refugees gathered at the foot of the mountain were more numerous than last time.

They looked at those fierce-looking bandits with fear, yet also with a hint of expectation.

"The heroes of Black Wind Mountain are truly living Bodhisattvas!"

"Indeed, if it weren't for them, my whole family would have starved to death!"

Someone in the crowd shouted.

The bandit in charge of distributing grain paused, a trace of extremely unnatural awkwardness flashing across his face.

Living Bodhisattvas?

They were cold-blooded robbers.

But this praise sounded... surprisingly pleasant.

Chen Fan stood on high ground, taking all of this in.

He didn't feel any sense of accomplishment; he just found it somewhat absurd.

He turned to head back to the inner hall to continue researching the true meaning of life.

Just then, below the mountain path, two scouts who had just returned from the county town were bragging to the bandit leader guarding the mountain, spitting as they spoke.

"You didn't see it! That scene! The entire Yuelai Inn was in an uproar!"

"Exactly! A martial arts Genius! A once-in-a-century encounter!"

Chen Fan's footsteps stopped.

He heard that familiar word again.

Genius.

"What Genius? Tell me about it." He walked over, carrying his blade on his shoulder.

When those bandits saw it was him, they immediately bowed and saluted.

"Chief!"

"Hehe, Chief, we were just talking about some fresh news we heard in the county town!" The scout said excitedly. "Qingyang Taoist Temple has produced an extraordinary figure!"

Qingyang Taoist Temple.

Chen Fan's heart stirred.

"A young Daoist named Zhang Shan. Guess what?" The scout deliberately kept him in suspense. "In less than three months, he went from an ordinary person with no strength to truss a chicken, all the way through Breakthroughs, to become an Eighth-Rank Martial Artist!"

"Eighth-Rank!" The bandit leader next to him gasped.

What kind of concept was that?

That was an expert in the same Realm as their Chief!

"Really? Eighth-Rank in three months? You're bragging, right?" Someone didn't believe it.

"It's absolutely true! Several heroes of the Jianghu at the Yuelai Inn saw it with their own eyes! That young Daoist came down the mountain for training, got into a conflict with someone, and with one move, Sword Qi surged, instantly frightening off a Seventh-Rank expert who had been famous for years!"

"They all say he received the teachings of an Immortal, that he is the True Martial Emperor descended to earth!"

The scout spoke so miraculously that the surrounding bandits listened in stunned silence.

Chen Fan listened quietly.

Zhang Shan.

That young boy who knelt on the ground, as thin as a bean sprout.

Eighth-Rank Martial Artist.

How long has it been?

That boy who didn't even dare to raise his head back then had now grown to stand at the same height as his current identity.

A Genius is ninety percent hard work plus ten percent talent.

That kid had truly carved those words into his bones.

It was just that his hard work, his persistence, had the ultimate goal of killing "Black Wind Demon."

Killing him.

A subtle feeling spread in Chen Fan's heart.

It wasn't a sense of crisis, nor fear.

It was a... strange feeling, similar to watching a pet you raised yourself in a cultivation game rapidly increase in Rank, almost catching up to you.

A bit gratified, and a bit amused.

"Chief, this kid... he wouldn't be coming for us, would he?" Iron-Armed Monkey had approached at some point. He remembered that the young Daoist who had killed several of their brothers last time was named Zhang Shan.

Chen Fan didn't answer.

He just turned around, carrying his huge ghost-head broadsword, and walked step by step back to the stone chamber in the inner hall.

Coming for him?

Of course.

It was just that he didn't know, when the boy finally stood before "Black Wind Demon" after going through all sorts of hardships, ready to kill his enemy with his own hands, what would happen if he discovered that "Black Wind Demon" was actually "Young Master Zhao Long," whom he had been yearning to repay?

What kind of spectacular expression would be on that delicate face?

Chen Fan's fingertips tapped lightly on the rough handle of the blade.

Of course, he couldn't expose that he used to be Zhao Long.

Substitution Rebirth was his greatest secret and could not be known by outsiders.

As for Zhang Shan, he was indeed a bit troublesome.

It wasn't that he was afraid of death; what he worried about was that if he really died at Zhang Shan's hands, then Zhang Shan would also die.

Regarding Zhang Shan, his former little brother, he didn't wish for that scene to happen.

He hadn't expected that a casual act from the past would turn into what it was now...

Chen Fan sighed with emotion; Daoist Master Xuan Yangzi indeed had a good eye, Zhang Shan truly had the potential of a Grandmaster!