Taking no chances, Feng Luotian activated Pinnacle Flash Lightning. Golden sparks wrapped his body, crackling with the strength of his recent breakthrough.
Without wasting a second, he dashed toward the source of the scream at maximum speed. His movement was no longer just a sprint; it was a horizontal bolt of energy that left faint, sizzling arcs of lightning trailing behind him like the wake of a storm.
In mere moments, he crested a small hill and arrived at the scene, his Momentum Eyes instantly cataloging every detail of the standoff below.
Four figures stood in the clearing. Two of them were unmistakably bandits—one gripping a massive, notched ax, the other hunkered behind a heavy iron shield. Their rough, unkempt appearances and the raw, malicious greed in their eyes left no doubt about their nature. Opposite them stood a mother and her young daughter.
The mother clutched a basket of herbs in one trembling hand; the other was wet with blood. From the fresh wound, Luotian could tell she had been slashed when she screamed. Pale with pain, she tried to pull her daughter behind her.
The little girl, no older than seven, stood defiantly in front of her mother. Her small frame was trembling like a leaf in a gale, yet her eyes remained resolute.
"So, you're not going to hand me the herbs, huh?" sneered the ax-wielding bandit, his voice thick with a low, guttural menace.
"Never!!" the girl cried out. Her voice was thin, but it carried a weight of courage that seemed to echo through the trees. She spread her arms wide, a tiny, fragile shield for her parent. "These herbs are for the people in my village who were hurt by you bad uncles! We will never give them to you!!"
The bandits exchanged amused glances, their mocking laughter sounding like the rasp of sandpaper.
"If you don't know what's good for you, then die!!" barked the shield-bearer.
The ax-wielding thug raised his weapon high, the sunlight glinting off the edge as his muscles coiled to deliver a lethal blow. Time seemed to decelerate into a crawl as the mother dropped her basket, the herbs spilling across the dirt. She lunged forward, pulling her daughter into a desperate, final embrace, shielding the child with her own spine. Her eyes squeezed shut, bracing for the cold steel that would surely sever her life.
Thunder!
A blinding flash of lightning split the humid morning air, followed by a deafening, bone-shaking boom that silenced the forest.
Feng Luotian arrived in a flash of golden light just as the ax began to fall. Driving a kick with Pinnacle Flash Lightning, he struck the attacker square in the jaw.
The impact sent the man hurtling through the air, his trajectory a violent arc that ended only when his body smashed into an ancient tree over a hundred meters away. The thunderous crack of splintering timber echoed through the clearing like a second bolt of lightning.
The second bandit froze, his mind struggling to process the sheer speed of the intervention. Fear-driven instincts took over; he slammed his iron shield into the dirt and hunkered behind it, bracing for a frontal assault.
But Feng Luotian was already a ghost at his back.
Gong.
Luotian delivered a merciless kick between the bandit's legs—a crushing blow that bypassed all defenses. The heavy shield slipped from the man's paralyzed fingers as he collapsed, his face contorting into a mask of silent, airless agony while he writhed on the forest floor.
Feng Luotian ignored the fallen thug and turned to the mother and daughter. "Are you alright?" he asked. His tone was unnervingly calm, the crackling electricity around his limbs beginning to hum at a lower, more controlled frequency.
"Yes... we're fine," the mother whispered, her voice trembling with a mixture of raw relief and utter confusion as she looked up at the mysterious youth who had descended from the heavens.
Meanwhile, the first bandit stirred amidst the wreckage of the oak tree. Groaning, he spat out a mouthful of blood and shook his head to clear the stars from his vision. As he regained his feet, a primal fury ignited in his eyes, masking the pain of his broken jaw. Grabbing his notched ax, he surged forward with a guttural roar.
"Who are you to interfere with my, Xiong Fan's, business?!" he bellowed, his aura beginning to shift and thicken.
"And why are you so eager to die?" Feng Luotian replied coldly, fixing Xiong Fan with a murderous stare.
///// Six Fangs Heavy Paw Rice Bear
///// [Ruthless Paw]: Drastically increase the user's hand strength on the next attack, capable of shattering defenses.
Hearing someone without any discernible aura dare to threaten him only stoked the fires of Xiong Fan's rage. A dark, earthen brown glow enveloped his massive hands as he activated Ruthless Paw, the energy causing his forearms to swell until the veins looked like coiled serpents beneath his skin.
"Please leave," Feng Luotian instructed the mother and daughter. He didn't spare them a glance; his focus was locked entirely on the towering threat before him, his senses already calculating the trajectory of the bandit's thickened aura.
Reluctantly, the pair retreated toward the tree line, their steps heavy and hesitant. Their worry for the mysterious young man lingered in their tear-filled eyes as they looked back, paralyzed by the sight of the impending slaughter.
Xiong Fan stormed toward Feng Luotian, his two-and-a-half-meter frame casting a long, suffocating shadow. The ground groaned and trembled beneath his weight, and the momentum he generated radiated an oppressive pressure—a blunt-force aura designed to suffocate and crush any cultivator of a similar or lower level.
With a sudden, powerful stomp that shattered the earth, Xiong Fan leaped high into the air. He gripped his ax with both hands, the weapon glowing with that same muddy brown light as he brought it down in a vertical cleave meant to split the world in two.
BOOOOMMMMMM!!
The ground exploded on impact. A crater formed instantly, sending splintered rocks and debris whistling through the air like shrapnel. A thick shroud of dust and pulverized dirt billowed upward, completely obscuring the center of the clearing.
When the dust finally began to settle, Xiong Fan stood in the center of the ruin, his chest heaving with exertion. He scanned the crater with a psycho grin, expecting to see a pulp of red meat and broken bone. But there was no sign of Feng Luotian—only his own injured partner lying unconscious several meters away, miraculously untouched by the blast.
Suddenly, a sharp crackle of static cut through the settling dust.
Golden lightning flashed down from the canopy. Feng Luotian drove his elbow into the crown of Xiong Fan's skull, the speed of his descent amplified by Pinnacle Flash Lightning. Bone cracked, and blood poured from the bandit's nose, ears, and mouth. His knees buckled, dropping his two-and-a-half-meter frame heavily to the dirt.
Feng Luotian wasted no time on mercy. Before the bandit's nerves could even register the pain, Luotian swung his body, locking his knees firmly around Xiong Fan's shattered head. Using the residual kinetic energy from his landing, he spun his torso through three full, violent rotations.
The sound of twisting muscle and snapping vertebrae filled the clearing.
Thump.
The hollow sound of Xiong Fan's severed head hitting the moss was followed immediately by the heavy, leaden collapse of his torso.
Feng Luotian straightened and brushed dirt from his shoulder. Faint sparks still danced across his knuckles. He surveyed the remains, then turned back to the mother and daughter.
Their faces had turned a ghostly, porcelain pale. While gratitude still pulsed in their hearts, it was now overshadowed by a primal, suffocating fear. They stared in awe and terror at the youth who had transformed from a savior into a ruthless executioner in the span of a heartbeat—dispatching a Six Fangs threat with the casual efficiency of one swatting a fly.
Unfazed by their reaction, Luotian extended a calm palm over the cooling remains of Xiong Fan and initiated his soul collection.
///// Soul collected: Energy +5% » Five Fangs (26%)
After absorbing the energy, Luotian walked toward the remaining bandit, his footsteps distinct in the silence.
Terror had consumed the survivor entirely, a cold tide that drowned out the agony of his earlier injury. His body trembled with such violence that his teeth rattled. He pressed his forehead repeatedly against the blood-stained earth in a series of frantic, desperate kowtows, his lips quivering in a silent plea for mercy. The sight of his leader's gruesome demise played on a loop in his mind—Xiong Fan had been the apex of their world, yet he had been dismantled like a child's toy.
The bandit could scarcely understand how a youth could possess such strength.
"Not begging for your life? Or are you too terrified to speak?" Feng Luotian's cold voice sliced through the bandit's frantic silence.
The man was too terrified to answer. His mouth worked, but no words came out.
"Answer some questions for me, and I'll consider sparing your life. That is, if I find you worth it," Feng Luotian added, his tone even but laced with a subtle, razor-edged menace.
The bandit hesitated, his eyes darting nervously as he weighed the slim chance of mercy against the certain death of silence. After a few agonizing moments, he gave a trembling, frantic nod, yielding entirely to Luotian's terms.
"First, who are you people?" Feng Luotian asked, watching the man closely for any sign of a lie.
"W-We are from the Vulture Bandit Troupe," the bandit stammered, the name tasting like ash in his mouth.
"And why are you attacking their village?" Feng Luotian gestured toward the mother and child with a sharp flick of his head.
"The boss wants something in the village," the bandit answered shakily, his voice brittle. "But he didn't tell us what it is. We were just told to clear the paths."
"What's the main purpose of this bandit troupe?"
"K-Kill and plunder," the bandit muttered, his voice barely audible over the rustle of the leaves.
"And how many innocent people have you killed?"
The bandit froze. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly, like a fish gasping for air, as he struggled to find an answer that might satisfy his ruthless interrogator. His mind raced through a list of victims, searching for a way to minimize his own cruelty.
"Never killed anyone?" Feng Luotian pressed, his voice dropping an octave into a dangerous, icy whisper.
"I never k—"
Splatter.
The bandit's lie was cut short as Feng Luotian stomped on his head with brutal, bone-shattering finality. There was no room for mercy for those whose hands were stained with the blood of the defenseless. The man's skull was crushed like a ripe watermelon, and without a heartbeat of hesitation, Luotian reached out to harvest the lingering essence.
///// Soul collected: Energy +1% » Five Fangs (27%)
"It seems there's no peace wherever I go," Feng Luotian muttered, shaking his head as he let out a weary, ancient sigh. He wasn't surprised, merely disappointed in the persistent rot of human nature.
He bent down, retrieving the herb basket from the dirt, and turned toward the mother and child.
The mother bowed deeply, her forehead almost touching the earth to show her profound gratitude, her daughter mirroring the gesture with wide, trembling eyes. "Thank you, benefactor, for saving us," she said, her voice thick with the weight of her relief.
Feng Luotian stepped forward, his hand gently stopping her mid-bow. "There's no need for such formalities," he said softly. "Let me treat your wound first."
Reaching into his spatial ring, he retrieved a handful of healing herbs and a clean set of bandages. Kneeling in the blood-stained grass, he began to carefully tend to the gash on her hand.
He cleaned and bandaged the wound with calm, careful movements, showing the mother a gentleness quite unlike the ruthlessness she had just witnessed.