Chapter 58: Fighting the Horse Bandits (Part 2)

  Xiao Ziyang's series of actions in between didn't stop for a moment, as if he had been facing the sneak attacker all along.

  The ambusher was Cao Tianhao, his long knife heading towards Hou Bei Dao. Although he had already seen that his opponent's strength was unmatched, when the two knives intersected, the tremendous force transmitted through the hilt still made him change color in shock. His block was actually unable to make Hou Bei Dao change direction in the slightest!

  Luckily he had a wealth of experience in dealing with enemies and was extremely quick to react, using the force transmitted through his long sword to bend his waist and lean back, narrowly avoiding this knife.

  Xiao Ziyang stabbed at the air with one knife, then turned his long knife in a smooth motion, raising the tip of the blade and slamming the hilt into his opponent's chest.

  Cao Tianhao didn't dare let him hit, in this life and death situation, he quickly thought of a plan, a lazy donkey rolled over, and he narrowly escaped in a most undignified manner.

  Xiao Ziyang would not let him off, step by step, with a long knife in his hand, stabbing, sweeping, wiping, and hooking, a series of small and exquisite knife techniques were made, and the long knife in his hand suddenly became as agile as a long sword. However, this agile move was matched with his powerful strength, making every collision between their blades weigh a thousand pounds, leaving Cao Tianhao struggling to cope for a while.

  Xiao Ziyang's hard work over the past half year had paid off, and his mastery of the martial arts had made tremendous progress, all of which was now on full display.

  However, Cao Tianhao's experience was extremely old, and after the initial confusion, he immediately changed his knife method to borrow strength and strike with force. The technique of using four ounces to move a thousand pounds barely managed to hold off the attack. Although he was still at a disadvantage, Xiao Ziyang couldn't do anything to him for the time being. Moreover, Cao Tianhao occasionally made a strange and unpredictable move while defending, which often added new injuries to Xiao Ziyang's body.

  The remaining horse thieves saw that the boss had dragged down Xiao Ziyang and once again surrounded him desperately. Xiao Ziyang let out a cold snort, his left hand, which was free, reached into his cloak and grasped the hilt of the Flying Dragon in his palm; his right hand tightened its grip on the long knife, his feet took several swift steps forward, creating some distance between himself and the horse thieves closing in behind him. At the same time, he raised his left hand, and the crossbow was aimed directly at Cao Tianhao.

  Cao Tianhao saw Xiao Ziyang's left hand holding something under his cloak, and was startled in his heart, so he planned to retreat and meet with his subordinates.

  Xiao Ziyang pulled the trigger from behind the windscreen, and three crossbow arrows shot out. Although Cao Tianhao had been prepared, at such a close distance and with such rapid arrow speed, he didn't even have time to react before being pierced through the chest by the arrows.

  Xiao Ziyang took advantage of the momentum and beheaded his Six Yang with one knife, flying high.

  He then stepped back with his feet and rushed towards the horse thieves.

  Xiao Ziyang charged into the group of horse thieves like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and in just a few breaths, five more horse thieves were cut down by him. It was unclear who shouted first, but the horse thieves scattered and fled in all directions.

  Xiao Ziyang didn't chase after them, instead he took down his longbow and the continuous arrow shots unfolded once again. The horse bandits who were fleeing with their backs to Xiao Ziyang became living targets without any obstruction.

  The fastest horse thief could only escape more than forty feet before being shot through the neck by Xiao Ziyang and fell off the horse.

  Xiao Ziyang did not kill all of the Ma bandits. He only shot and wounded four of them who had clearly intentionally fallen behind during the battle earlier.

  Xiao Ziyang roughly grabbed the collars of the four and threw them together, saying: "Only one of you can survive, there is only one condition, take me to Cangshan Village, and I will spare his life."

  Although he knew that the Second Master was mostly deceiving him, and the so-called thousand-year-old blood ginseng probably did not exist, the temptation of the thousand-year-old blood ginseng was too great. Even if there was only a slight possibility, Xiao Ziyang would not give up.

  He casually pointed the long knife at a horse thief and asked, "Are you willing to lead the way?" The man hesitated for a moment before Xiao Ziyang beheaded him with a swift slash of his knife.

  He then pointed the long knife at another person, repeated the question, and seeing that this person still did not speak up, he raised the long knife again. This person, seeing the situation, hastily shouted "I'm willing to lead the way!" However, Xiao Ziyang simply ignored him and swung his hand in a knife motion.

  When Xiao Ziyang's long knife pointed to the third person, this person hastily and without hesitation shouted "I am willing to lead the way!" However, upon hearing this, Xiao Ziyang raised his hand and with one knife stroke beheaded the last person.

  That man saw Xiao Ziyang being so cruel and was frightened to the point of bursting his liver and gallbladder; Xiao Ziyang took out a bottle of golden wound medicine from her bosom, threw it at that man, "Bandage your wounds, I, Wu Mou, keep my words, as long as you take me to find Cangshan Village, I will let you go."

  Xiao Ziyang touched his shoulder and several wounds on his body, finding that the wounds had scabbed over, so he didn't bother with them anymore. He had long discovered that since practicing "Zi Yu Sheng Yan", his physical constitution had become extremely special, with a strong recovery ability, very little bleeding when injured, and almost as soon as the blood flowed out of his body, it would start to scab over quickly, and within a day, the scab would fall off and the wound would heal.

  Xiao Ziyang gazed out at the mountain valley littered with corpses, and let out a soft sigh. What had happened to him? Although these bandits had been wreaking havoc on Nanba County, attacking villages, plundering goods, women, and slaughtering anyone who dared resist... it was likely that every single one of the bandits in Cangshan Village had bloodstained hands. In Xiao Ziyang's eyes, each and every one of them deserved to die a thousand deaths. And yet, he couldn't accept how suddenly ruthless and unfeeling he had become, treating human life as if it were worthless.

  Xiao Ziyang vaguely felt that the influence of his sudden madness back then might not have been completely eliminated. Should he go up the mountain again? If he found Cangshan Village, he would have to take action again. Would he go mad again if he continued killing like this? But if he didn't go, the thousand-year-old Blood Ginseng was probably just a myth, and the wealth of the mountain bandits was also insignificant to him. However, if these ferocious horse bandits were not eradicated, they would continue to harm the region in the future, which was not something Xiao Ziyang wanted to see.

  As soon as Xiao Ziyang saw this group of horse thieves, he found that almost everyone had bloodstains on their bodies, and not far away, there were several women tied up with ropes, disheveled.

  It's clear that they didn't come down the mountain tonight just to attack Lao Jun Guan. This is also why Xiao Ziyang, under the influence of his heart demon, was able to slaughter without too much resistance in his heart earlier.

  Xiao Ziyang looked at the woman who was crouching on the ground like a quail not far away, and made up his mind to eliminate Cangshan Village.

  Xiao Ziyang's luck can be said to be extremely good, the heart demon can magnify and expand various desires in people's hearts and all sorts of ideas that are usually hidden deep within and dare not be implemented. Causing people to do some crazy things they would never normally do.

  So when dealing with heart demons, on the one hand, you must restrain yourself and not be swayed by the desires and pleasures they bring. On the other hand, you absolutely cannot retreat or escape. Heart demons can make people cruel, so you must restrain yourself from indiscriminately killing innocent people, but you also absolutely cannot see someone who should be killed and yet not dare to take action. If a cultivator hides in their cave and doesn't dare come out when heart demons arrive, although they won't be controlled by the heart demons, on the path of future cultivation, they will make no further progress.

  To overcome the heart demon, one must face it head-on and defeat it, only then can it be considered a true passage through the heart demon tribulation.