Chapter 500: Turning a deaf ear

“Get to work!”
After the burly man left with the band of bandits, Lin Dong took a chair from the mobile counter and sat down, then waved his right hand.
Jiang Kui and the others began to hustle behind him—first pulling out wooden frames and driving them into the soil, then tying the six bandits to them with ropes. Soon, everyone except Cheng Bao and Qiao Tianhao gathered around Lin Dong.
One carried a golden sword on his shoulder, another used an iron kitchen knife to gesture at a bandit. Cheng Bao and Qiao Tianhao, the two part-time butchers, stood in front of each bandit, their faces twisted in bloodthirsty smiles.
Before long, a large number of bandits surged from all around the small grassland, charging at Lin Dong and his group like a swarm.
“What’s the matter? Back off!” Qiao Tianhao waved his iron kitchen knife, glaring fiercely at the bandits.
Unfortunately, no one paid attention. Not even Cheng Bao’s ferocity could intimidate them, let alone Qiao Tianhao.
“Scram! Otherwise, no one will get to see the fun,” Cheng Bao snapped.
“Kid, what did you say?” One of the bandits snarled. “If you’ve got guts, come at us! I’ll chop you to pieces!”
“Exactly! Daring to threaten us? Want to try getting skinned and having your tendons pulled out?”
The bandits immediately started shouting. Even if Emperor Qian Wei himself showed up, he wouldn’t be able to silence them.
Cheng Bao remained silent as he slowly raised his golden sword from his shoulder. Suddenly, he swung it across the area.
A golden glow surged ten meters wide, from right to left, carrying with it a spray of blood.
With continuous thudding sounds, fifty or sixty heads flew into the air in an instant.
“Second brother…”
“Xiao San…”
“Da Gou…”
Gritted-teeth cries rang out one after another. In an instant, over two hundred people charged at Cheng Bao fearlessly.
Cheng Bao grinned viciously, dragging his golden sword as he stepped forward.
He swung the sword—golden light flared, and heads flew into the air!
In moments, the center of the small grassland was filled with a pungent smell of blood. Just as Qiao Tianhao had twisted his neck and waist a few times to warm up and was about to join the fight, Cheng Bao stopped. Within twenty meters around him, there was no living soul left, and not a single intact corpse could be found on the ground.
Ripping open his blood-soaked robe, Cheng Bao’s muscular frame gleamed terrifyingly under the scorching sun. Standing amidst the severed heads and limbs, his massive body loomed like a demon from hell, making the air around him chilling and terrifying.
“Scram! Otherwise, no one will get to see the fun,” Cheng Bao shouted fiercely.

The bandits around them, after a brief hesitation, retreated with vicious sneers. They weren’t afraid of death, but Cheng Bao’s words, though identical to before and backed by his brutal methods, made them hesitant to act. Death wasn’t terrifying, but his overwhelming strength was evident—clashing with Skeleton Camp would undoubtedly be the most epic battle in Chongping Mountain’s history in decades. Missing it would be a real shame.
“Bandits are just bandits. With Master Qiao waving his sword, they immediately scatter in panic.”
Qiao Tianhao glanced at Cheng Bao with satisfaction, his tone carrying an undertone of criticism.
Cheng Bao picked up on it but ignored it. He was more restrained than Qiao Tianhao and knew this wasn’t the time for internal strife.
An hour later, the scorching sun hung high in the sky. The bandits watching from afar began to sit down, drinking heavily and eating heartily. The more than 200 corpses in the center of the small grassland didn’t dampen their appetite at all; instead, it added to the excitement.
From start to finish, Lin Dong remained detached, keeping only a slight vigilance toward the outside world. Nothing else reached his ears or eyes. Beside him, aside from Li Xun, Jiang Kui and the others were the same. They had killed before, but Cheng Bao’s methods still made them unwilling to witness such things.
Suddenly, chaos arose on the eastern perimeter.
The bandits, holding wine jars in one hand and roasted meat in the other, stepped aside.
A large opening soon formed in the center of the east. Together with the bandits on the other sides, it resembled a pitch-black sack or the mouth of a giant beast, seemingly ready to swallow anyone who stepped inside.
A large group of bandits, unafraid of the pressure created by this opening, rushed in boldly.
At the center of the bandit group, a black flag with a white skeleton painted on it fluttered in the breeze.
The procession continued endlessly. After the vanguard reached the center of the small grassland, they began to spread out in a circle ten meters around Lin Dong and the others.
One layer, two layers, three layers… The encirclement grew thicker, exerting greater pressure on those inside. Yet Lin Dong remained calm, not even opening his eyes, as if he saw or heard nothing. He was simply here to bask in the sun.
In an instant, within the huge encirclement surrounding Lin Dong and the others, another smaller encirclement formed, composed of over 3,000 bandits.

On one side of the small encirclement, a gap quietly opened. A middle-aged giant in his early forties, with a robust build and scars all over his body, stepped in. His huge eyes, like copper bells, radiated an increasingly fierce murderous intent.
This man was Liang Feihu, the leader of the Skull Camp—a man who killed indiscriminately and was bloodthirsty, considered the most brutal figure in the Great Han Nation over the past decade.
“Are you guys the ones?”
Liang Feihu roared fiercely, his voice so loud that the grass trembled.
“What the hell? State your names!” Qiao Tianhao trembled, staring at Liang Feihu disdainfully like a scoundrel, unimpressed by his volume—Jiang Kui’s roar was millions of times more powerful than this.
“What audacity! I’ll tear out your tongue!”
Suddenly, a figure shot out from behind Liang Feihu and rushed at Qiao Tianhao. In his hand was a green dagger that gleamed with a cold light, likely coated in deadly poison.
In just over ten meters, the dagger in the bandit’s hand flashed with a dazzling light, turning into countless spears aimed at all the vital points on Qiao Tianhao’s upper body.
Qiao Tianhao dismissed it with disdain. He raised his wrist, and his black iron kitchen knife instantly emitted thousands of blade flashes, covering the bandit’s entire body, including every inch behind him, with an overwhelming number of attacks.
The sound of swishing was incessant. Tiny pieces of cloth, stained with drops of bright red liquid, flew rapidly around the bandit, making his surroundings resemble fireworks that were monochromatic yet extremely vibrant.
With a thud, the bandit collapsed backward, completely naked, as if pulled from a pool of blood, covered in a thick layer of blood. Qiao Tianhao, on the other hand, seemed unaffected, using the tip of his black iron kitchen knife to remove dirt from his fingernails. The knife, like its owner, had a dull sheen, untouched by a single drop of blood, quietly trimming its master’s nails after removing the dirt.
“Good!”
“Fast enough, sharp enough—do the same to that bastard Liang Feihu.”
“That fighting style is fast enough to rival Grandpa’s. Brother, kill Liang Feihu, and we’ll recruit you as the second-in-command of the Flying Cloud Camp.”
“Damn it, I’m the one from the Flying Cloud Camp! Prove it by revealing your real name. If you dare frame me, I’ll destroy your entire camp—otherwise, I’m not Chen Feiyun.”

Just a few hundred meters away, with dozens of layers of people in the way, it couldn’t stop some highly skilled bandits from using their mental powers to sense the chaos inside. Watching Qiao Tianhao effortlessly kill the notorious fast-hand fighter of Skull Camp with a mysterious sword technique and then slap the people of Skull Camp even harder with even faster and more ruthless methods, the bandits around him immediately became excited.

Liang Feihu’s face turned an abnormally pale blue.

Someone in Skull Camp dared to attack openly—those who were hit included him, Liang Feihu, indirectly as well.

Behind him, hundreds of bandits grabbed their knives and turned, heading straight toward the direction of the noise. Several other powerful small bosses waved their hands to stop their subordinates from rushing forward, stepping firmly on the grass until it turned to dust, ready to fight personally.

Qiao Tianhao, while fixing his nails, slowly stepped forward. After just a few steps, Cheng Bao grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him back.

“That delicate sword technique—save it for the chaos later. It’s not useful now.”

Qiao Tianhao gritted his teeth but didn’t dare argue. At this moment, Cheng Bao radiated a murderous aura, even more intense than that of Liang Feihu, the fiercest bandit in the Great Man Country.

“Kid, die!”

Four small bosses leaped up simultaneously, swinging their large knives at Cheng Bao’s head one after another.

Cheng Bao didn’t dodge or flinch. He stood there, letting the knives strike him.

The lead small boss was overjoyed and channeled his spiritual energy, determined to split Cheng Bao in two.

Crack!

The fierce blade hit Cheng Bao’s forehead, but instead of causing injury, a loud, crisp sound erupted. The blade instantly twisted and broke, with shards flying everywhere.

The knife slipped from his hand. The small boss was shocked. He kicked out with his right foot, aiming at Cheng Bao’s throat.

Snap!

With a crisp sound, the small boss felt intense pain at the tip of his foot.

Cheng Bao raised his wrist, driving the knife into the ground. He grabbed the small boss’s unconscious right foot with his right hand and pulled hard.

The small boss’s body flew uncontrollably toward Cheng Bao.

Reaching out with both hands, Cheng Bao grabbed the small boss’s head. With a ferocious grin, he held it and slammed it against his own head.

Bang…

A muffled sound, like a watermelon crushed under heavy pressure, erupted from between their heads.

Red and white splatters covered Cheng Bao’s face, his chest, and his legs.

Releasing his right hand, he stretched out two fingers. With a hiss, they pierced into the small boss’s eyes.

Then, holding the small boss’s head, he suddenly punched it down at the ground.

Boom…

The little boss’s head exploded into a mess of red and white liquid under Cheng Bao’s right fist. By the time Cheng Bao stood up, the second little boss had just arrived—everything happened in the blink of an eye. Behind him, Qiao Tianhao swallowed hard, staring at that figure that seemed like an incarnation of death. In that moment, he finally understood: the man he had always been tempted to provoke, yet who he had repeatedly criticized for being too harsh, actually truly regarded him as a comrade. And he himself shouldn’t be standing here. His proper place was with Lin Dong and the others, who were trying their best to turn a blind eye.