Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

The night gently descended its curtain,

A carriage bearing the flag of the Sihai Business Association and more than twenty mounted escorts left the city gates.

Some soldiers clad in black armor exchanged glances; one of them shed his armor and stealthily made his way elsewhere.

"Has Dragon Three left the city?"

Within a splendid hall, Ding Feng frowned, "What is he doing going out so late?"

A servant replied, "Our brothers inside report that the wound on his left arm has worsened, and he's returning to Yuejing to seek a famed physician with ties to the Sihai Business Association for treatment."

"Or perhaps he's too ashamed to stay in Dongling City after causing such great losses to the Sihai Business Association,"

he speculated.

"Humph! He harbors ill intentions!"

Ding Feng looked towards 'Ground-stamping Tiger' Lu Hou, "In my opinion, it would be better to seize an opportunity to kill him, once and for all."

"Fierce Tiger Village won't make a move."

Lu Hou's eyelids lifted slightly, "As one who's long been settled in Dongling, you're unaware of the extent of the Sihai Business Association's power. They hold influence throughout the nation; it's just that they momentarily can't spare more personnel. They're also wary of the Zhendong Marquis's vacillating stance."

"It's unnecessary; there's no need to push them into a corner."

Ding Feng let out a cold snort and said no more.

Even with his opportunistic clinging, he couldn't persuade Fierce Tiger Village to believe that a half-crippled man was plotting something detrimental to them.

...

Under the gloomy light, familiar pastoral scenery unfolded.

"To think that Shopkeeper Long could actually make it,"

Jiang Ding, embracing his sword, sat in a corner and expressed his surprise.

"The Sihai Trading Company may be resigned to their fate, but I, a half-crippled man, am not yet resigned," Dragon Three said in a deep voice. "Young Master, if you have any backup plans, now is the time to reveal them."

Up to now, he still didn't believe that the young man before him was going alone to kill his way into Fierce Tiger Village, suspecting that there were others behind him pulling strings.

Jiang Ding shook his head, closed his eyes to conserve his energy, and remained silent.

Dragon Three also did not speak any further.

He was not going to fight anyone; if it meant certain death, he would not go, nor would he allow his underlings to go.

The carriage traveled for six to seven hours, and even though the ride was extremely bumpy, Jiang Ding maintained his cultivation state, his inner energy cycling back and forth, simultaneously nurturing and tempering the eighty fine collateral channels within the twelve primary channels.

Having reached completion of the cultivation realm of the "Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique," he could cultivate whether he was walking, standing, sitting, or lying down.

"Young Master, we've arrived,"

Dragon Three said in a hushed tone after a long period of silence.

Jiang Ding opened his eyes, and a faint white light flitted across his brows.

Peering into the darkness, the sky was pitch black, with the rustling sounds of insects near his ears, occasionally complemented by the howls of wolves and the clatter of wild beasts, signifying they had completely left human habitation behind.

After six to seven hours of relentless travel, everyone, including Dragon Three, showed weariness in their eyes. They had long dismounted and walked their horses.

"Young Master, the stronghold of Fierce Tiger Village lies within this territory, and I am fully confident,"

Dragon Three spoke solemnly, "but I am unsure if it is within ten li or several dozen li. I will wait here for the Young Master for seven days. If I do not receive a signal fire within that time, I will set off for Yuejing."

"Alright."

Jiang Ding nodded, lightly tapped his toes on the ground, and leaped several yards away, steadying himself atop a large tree. After a few more leaps, he swiftly vanished into the thicket.

Dragon Three said nothing more and sought out high ground to set up camp, silently gnawing on cold dried meat.

"Third Master, are we really going to wait for him for seven days?"

One of the attendants could not help but ask.

"We will wait,"

Dragon Three looked around at his fellow attendants and said, "The trading company's influence is weak in Dongling City, and I do not know if any of you brothers have been bought off. Just one thing,"

"Any person—remember, any person!"

He raised the gleaming long knife in his hand, his eyes blood-red and mad, "Don't leave my sight, and that goes for eating, drinking, and all your other needs. Otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

"Rest assured, Third Master!"

The group of shop assistants shrank back.

...

The dark mountains stood tall and vast.

Jiang Ding sat cross-legged in the shade of a hundred-meter-tall big tree, his green robe somehow had changed into a leafy camouflage pattern, perfectly blending with the tree shade.

Four drones hovered in the sky, one remained directly above to monitor the area, while the other three flew in different directions.

Scenes flitted across the invisible eyepiece, most of them pitch-black images, with the wild forest dominating the colors of the night.

Occasionally, a flicker of light,

That was moonlight reflected off a pond or a massive gathering of fireflies creating twinkling spots, and sporadically, a pair of glowing green eyes, belonging to wolves in the jungle.

Searching bit by bit,

Searching bit by bit.

Patient as ever, Jiang Ding maintained an even breathing rhythm, conserving his energy as much as possible.

After more than thirty minutes,

"Found... it!"

A speck of orange-red light was extremely conspicuous in the night.

The speck grew closer and multiplied, and as the drone flew overhead, a fortress perched on the edge of the cliff came into view.

Cliffs surrounded the fortress on three sides, with only one path for the village guards to enter and exit, blocked by a tall wall made of wood and stone.

Torches burned continually on the wall, and the guards carried various weapons including knives, spears, swords, and halberds, several armed with strong bows and crossbows purchased from who knows where, the discipline fairly strict, maintaining basic vigilance even in the wee hours of the morning.

"Not simple, just this single fortress, with two to three hundred guards, even an army of ten thousand wouldn't dream of taking it down!" Jiang Ding muttered to himself, continuing to survey the layout of the fortress.

He noticed that the barracks within the fortress were orderly arranged, with moats, ponds, latrines, storehouses, and other facilities placed with great care, in straight lines and with a peculiar style.

"It's somewhat like..."

Jiang Ding pondered for a moment in his mind, and an answer emerged.

"An army!"

"Exactly, these arrangements, the strict training of the guards, all have a strong flavor of an ancient cold weapons military camp. Does the Fierce Tiger Village have a leader with a military background?"

Jiang Ding speculated.

At the fortress gate,

A caravan of horses appeared from a narrow trail up the mountain, tossing struggling bundles off their backs, shouting a few words towards the fortress wall.

The guards hurriedly opened the gate, skillfully took over and untied the bags.

"Mother!"

"Sir, my father is wealthy, please spare me!"

The sacks revealed a number of children.

Boys and girls, mostly around ten years old, some as young as seven or eight, dressed disparately, some filthy, some in simple peasant clothes, and some plump and clearly from wealthy families.

The varied origins were shocking.

"Those beggar children... they've been brought here." Jiang Ding's expression grew complex.

After he discovered the Wild Wolf Gang kidnapping beggar children on Lanban Street, he had intervened, and Long Shi and the others hadn't repeated the offense, whether they paid their way out of it or for some other reason.

But he knew that was just self-deception. If not on Lanban Street, then plenty of other places were rife with it.

He could only console himself with the thought of "when you're poor, you only take care of yourself."

"I'm not wrong, I truly am weak, how dare I try to save the world?"

Jiang Ding leaped down from the treetop, occasionally stepping on branches, using his toes to push off and leap quietly, advancing toward the remote fortress cliff: "However, since I've come across this, I might as well be a little presumptuous."