Who gave you permission to travel through time with Earth?

"..."

The one-eyed man wanted to retort, but his tongue was tied in knots in his mouth. He had just thought his hastily come-up excuse was flawless and had a very high chance of getting him to survive.

After all, Tang Zhanmenzhang did owe the Fang family a favor. Using the excuse of repaying the favor and misunderstanding to cover it up, anyone else might have fallen for the trap. How could this kid have seen through the flaw from the side?

"If you came here to repay a debt of gratitude, how come you don't even know what Fang Jiazi looks like? If you knew who I was from the beginning... don't you think your monologue just now was so clumsy it was nauseating?"

Fang Jin sneered. The cleaver was already embedded in the other man's neck, squirting out several spurts of black blood at the edge. Pressed against the fatal artery and spine, she continued,

"I believe you are from the Ronghuo Dao sect. After all, you are not related, so how would you know about the little scandal between the Buddha Maiden and the Fang family? There is at least 30 or 40% truth in what you say."

"Unfortunately, his orders to you were to use my existence to confirm the Buddha's identity, and then kill her to eliminate any future trouble. After all, your subordinates focused all their killing intent on my people from the moment they met."

"I thought the Tang Clan Chief still had some of the integrity of a martial artist, but now it seems... the old man is shameless and despicable. When it comes to squandering his inheritance, he is even more ruthless and vicious than others. No wonder he was able to sit in the position of Clan Chief."

Fang Jin suddenly felt that her father had died in vain. He had saved people of high rank and power, but they were all truly ungrateful wretches who showed no mercy when they attacked the descendants of their saviors.

In fact, of the six groups of bandits that Fang Jin and his group encountered, apart from the first group which were just ordinary mountain bandits, the others were all assassins sent out to test their strength. The Black Snake Gang was just one of them.

"...I lost."

"But you realized it too late."

The one-eyed man suddenly revealed a relaxed smile. His two gouged-out eye sockets lifted, two lines of blood flowing from the dark holes, yet he seemed to still possess sight as he looked at Fang Jin, and said in a sinister voice,

"You are very strong. It's amazing that the Xuanwu Guard was able to assemble such a formidable force. Plus, you are an unexpectedly strong individual. It's normal that our brothers couldn't stop you, but it's not a loss!"

"We're merely playing a guiding role, using the enemy and the bandit hideout as bait to gradually lead you off course until you're trapped in our pre-planned encirclement!"

"The moment you stepped into the Black Serpent Gang's territory, your escape routes were blocked and cut off. This Serpent Valley before you will be your final resting place!"

"...An encirclement? Impossible!"

Tao Shan said decisively, spreading out the route map Zhou Bensi had given her earlier on the table, confirming the respective spheres of influence of the Three Mountains and Six Ridges, and frowned as she spoke.

"Among the three mountains and six ridges, the Ronghuo Dao only controls Tieling, and it is quite far from here. There are only two large mountain strongholds near us: one is Murder Ridge, and the other is Red Ridge."

"Killer Ridge is a purely uncontrolled force, residing year-round in the deepest part of Snake Valley. It's impossible for us to come out of the mountains without encountering members of Killer Ridge; they simply don't have time to form an encirclement."

"Red Ridge is even more bullshit. The head of Red Ridge Village is a third-rank official of the imperial court, and the entire Red Ridge is the private property of the Li Dynasty. What right do they have to surround and intercept us?"

"unless……"

The only scenario in which an encirclement could be formed is when Chiling helps Tieling to cross the river, both villages simultaneously lead troops to block the valley entrance, and then members of Killer Ridge advance from the depths of Snake Valley to form an encirclement.

The absence of any one of them would have prevented this situation from occurring. Abandoning Red Ridge would mean its main gate is wide open, while abandoning Killer Ridge would mean its interior is empty. They could easily linger in Snake Valley for ten days or half a month.

They could even venture directly north along other roads to avoid the fighting, since the characteristic of the winding corridor is that it is interconnected in all directions, and without an overwhelming number of people to suppress them, no place in the corridor can imprison anyone.

...That is to say, three of the six ridges formed a cooperative relationship.

Fang Jin suddenly stood up and looked at the road they had come from. Outside the lush, grassy, ​​circular snake valley, the soft silk he had laid out had been trampled and disappeared on a large scale, indicating that something unusual had indeed happened at the valley entrance.

"No need to look anymore. The entrance to Snake Valley, along with the lower-lying hillsides, has now been blocked by the Red Ridge Village. The difficulty of heading north along the original route has increased dramatically."

Outside the cave, Li Qinglian pulled out a telescope from his sword case (his sword case really did have everything except a sword), and having already spotted the red-armored soldiers positioned at the entrance of Snake Valley, he whispered,

"Since half of what this person said is true, then we have to consider the possibility that the other half is also true. We may be facing pressure from three mountain strongholds at the same time."

Xuanwu Guard was already divided, and some of them immediately wanted to sever ties with Fang Jin and his group. They jumped off the cliff and escaped by water. The terrain of Snake Valley, where waterways coexist, made it easy for a single target to hide.

But the man's face immediately froze, because the water below, which was originally dark green, had at some point turned into a fine, boiling black color, which was enough to make one's scalp tingle just by looking at it!

Those are snakes... a large number of strange snakes intertwined together. The name Snake Valley is not just derived from the terrain, but the number and density are definitely not normal. It is obviously manipulated by someone.

Even from this side of the cliff, the originally gray-white stone wall is now covered with all sorts of strange snakes, densely packed like a carpet, and some even hiss and stick their heads out when you get close, wrapping around someone's ankle.

"...Ouch!"

"It really is Killer Ridge. Only those evil women from Miao territory have the special ability to control insects and snakes. We... we deliberately jumped into a snake pit that they prepared."

Tao Shan sighed, and at the same time, she cut off the spotted snake that was wrapped around Cuicui with her sword. As if venting her anger, she disemboweled Cuicui from top to bottom, scattering a large amount of filthy and hot internal organs all over the ground.

It was her suggestion to come to the Black Serpent Gang, and it was also her mistake, but who could have imagined that Red Ridge Village would actually help Killer Ridge? What are the nobles of the Li Dynasty and the one on the throne thinking?

Fang Jin, however, had a strange expression. He tilted his head and looked at the filthy snake carcass on the ground. He seemed to see through the shiny skin... several short, thick bones, mixed with clumps of undigested fur and eyeballs.

The corpse resembled a toad or a rabbit, but the inside of the bones was hollow, as if someone had sucked out the flesh and marrow, leaving it so clean and tidy that it reminded him of someone... a group of people.

"This family...is playing this big?"

Incidentally, Li Cuicui truly showed no resemblance to a Buddhist nun. She carelessly grabbed a withered branch and fiddled with the corpse, turning it over and over again, completely wasting any trace of compassion bestowed upon her by the relics.