Yinshan Record

Chapter 413 Recruiting, Changing Circumstances, and a Life-or-Death Struggle (Part 1)

Lonely Cloud Village is a band of bandits in Xuan Mountain with nearly a thousand followers. Its forty-six leaders call themselves the "Forty-Six Friends of Lonely Cloud." The leaders all possess sorcery. The local government has launched several campaigns to suppress them, but each time they have been utterly defeated.

It can be said that with each campaign, their arrogance and power have reached a new level.

Behind Guyun Village are local powerful families in Cizhou, who have deep ties with this group, which is why Guyun Village is difficult to conquer.

This is the record of Guyun Village by the Cizhou Imperial Guards.

Some things were outside the records of the Cizhou Imperial Guards. For example, the Lonely Cloud Village would offer a large bribe every year to persuade the Cizhou Censorate to be lenient. Of course, many benefits would also be sent to the Cizhou Imperial Guards' Chief Justice's Office.

The reason why Guyun Village was able to survive for so long was that they ran a business of kidnapping people and selling them to the East China Sea.

This deal connected the local powerful families of Cizhou, some officials in Cizhou, and the chambers of commerce in the East China Sea into a clandestine network.

Impenetrable by needles and water.

If it weren't for the upheaval in Cizhou, their business could have continued for a long time, but today their business has come to an end.

Su Che has arrived.

Holding a knife in his left hand, "Liu Yidao" charged straight from the foot of the mountain to the summit, his attacks overwhelming all who dared to stand in his way. All those who dared to stand in his way were scattered on both sides of the mountain path.

He casually picked up a long sword from the ground, flicked it lightly with his finger, and Su Che, who had deliberately chosen a black outfit, was now completely unsplattered with blood.

The forty-six sworn brothers of Guyun were, to put it bluntly, just a bunch of mediocre cultivators. Of the forty-six brothers, ten have now fallen at his hands.

As for the rest, they will naturally walk hand in hand.

"Hey Liu, we have no past grudges or recent conflicts. We brothers have never stood in your way of making money, yet you come here today and try to kill us. Do you think we're brothers..."

A man in white emerged from around the bend in the mountain path, his arms outstretched. Before he could finish speaking, a human head floated into the air.

Su Che continued forward, his blade flashing and blood flying everywhere.

Under the vast sky, the Cangshan Mountains are shrouded in endless greenery, and the mountain roads wind like broken threads, with only corpses and bloodstains scattered among them.

At that moment, in front of the mountain hall, the chief of Guyun Village glanced at the apricot-yellow banner outside the hall and put his fingers in his mouth, biting them repeatedly.

"Brother, that guy surnamed Liu has already chosen two mountain strongholds; this is our third."

The third leader paced anxiously back and forth in the hall.

"We've used all the traps, crossbows, and siege engines we can. All we're missing is the honey trap. Half of our henchmen are dead, and half have run away. If this keeps up, I'm afraid all the old brothers will perish here."

"Brother, let's go."

The second-in-command continued, "We still have about a hundred of our men. Let's grab our valuables and get out of here quickly. That Liu fellow can't catch us. As long as we're still alive, we can raise our banner anywhere else."

go?
Where to go?

What I'm leaving behind isn't just this mountain; all the connections I've built up over the years, and the reputation I've established here, will be lost the moment I leave.

Here, the Forty-Six Friends of Lonely Clouds still have some standing; outside of this place, they are nothing more than a band of timid mountain bandits.

While the older brother was still hesitating, screams of agony rang out from outside.

"Damn it, you surnamed Liu, are you trying to wipe us all out? Huh..."

"Master Liu, Brother Liu, please have mercy..."

The screams of agony echoed outside, interspersed with the sound of the corpse falling to the ground.

The leader's face was ashen.

How did this guy surnamed Liu manage to get to the mountain hall so quickly?

"Brother, hurry, hurry!"

The fifth leader, covered in blood, staggered out from outside. "We can't hold off that guy surnamed Liu, let's go..."

As he spoke, he suddenly lunged forward and fell silent.

A long sword stained with blood appeared behind the Fifth Master, held by a clean hand.

clean.

This hand should be holding a pen, drawing, or playing the zither, but now it's gripping a long sword with a nicked blade.

The leader saw the figure in front of him.

Dressed in a black, close-fitting outfit, her hair was neatly tied into a bun with a wooden hairpin. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes revealed a ruthless and resolute nature.

Liu Yidao.

Although they had seen this person's face from afar, at this moment, right here in the mountain hall, the two were only a few dozen steps apart.

The leader felt fear was like an invisible iron hand, firmly gripping his internal organs and forcing his heart to beat incessantly.

"Lonely Cloud Village".

Liu Yidao's voice was extremely cold, making the leader unable to sense any emotional fluctuation. This made him wonder if he was facing not a ruthless killer, but an old monk meditating and seeking enlightenment.

"Who exactly is in charge of all kinds of weapons and equipment here?"

He held his left hand horizontally, looking at the blade in his hand.

The second-in-command's eyes swept over his eldest and third brothers. Now, only the three of them remained in the mountain hall; all the other lackeys and brothers had long since disappeared without a trace.

He swallowed hard and replied.

"it's me."

"You must have embezzled quite a bit, right?" Liu Yidao shook his head. "Your knives can only cut two or three people before they chip. Compared to Hengshan Village, they're far inferior. When I wiped them out before, I only used one knife from start to finish."

My knife isn't good enough?

The second-in-command looked at the long sword in Su Che's hand. These swords were all made according to the standard of the Liang army. They were about three feet long with a handle half a foot long. They could be held with one hand or two hands, and could be used for both offense and defense. Each one took a lot of time and effort from charcoal, iron and craftsmen.

This made the second-in-command feel insulted to some extent. Indeed, the quality of these knives might not be good, but that was due to the limited skill of the craftsmen and had nothing to do with him.

In all honesty, his second brother didn't embezzle a single penny, so why should he suffer such a stigma?

"How can you slander someone's innocence for no reason?"

The second-in-command regretted his words as soon as they left his mouth. The enemy had already come to their doorstep and slaughtered the entire village. Why was he still worrying about these trivial matters?
“Brother Liu, my Lonely Cloud Village has never interfered with your affairs. Today you have stormed my mountain gate and killed countless of my brothers. You must give me an explanation.”

The leader slapped the chair beneath him, and two meteor hammers suddenly appeared in his hands. The hammerheads were shaped like the heads of a Suanni (a mythical lion-like creature), connected by an iron chain in the middle. This was his famous weapon, which had earned him the resounding nickname "Double-Headed Suanni" in the martial arts world.

He wasn't refraining from action out of fear; rather, he was brewing his killing intent while seated on the throne. At this moment, he felt his killing intent had been fully accumulating like a tidal wave, and his rage was boiling like flames within his dantian.

Today, he will make this arrogant Liu Yidao pay the price.

Of the forty-six friends of Guyun, all are rooted in me, Guyun.

He stood up and shouted, then felt a chill in his chest. He looked down and saw that a long knife had been stuck in his chest.

The gleaming blade plunged deep into his chest cavity, and blood was gushing from the wound.

The second son probably didn't embezzle any money; this is indeed a good knife.

The last thought flashed through the mind of the leader of Guyun Village before he crashed heavily to the ground.

(End of this chapter)