The valley at the foot of Black Eagle Mountain was submerged in a deathly stillness. Only the whistling of the mountain winds through the crevices and a nauseatingly thick stench of blood remained. The silvery moonlight shone down, clearly illuminating a brutal battlefield. The corpses of Iron Eagle and dozens of his subordinates lay strewn about, their blood already beginning to congeal on the cold earth.
The surviving bandit minions, having witnessed the terrifying might of Uncle Sword and the death of their Stronghold Master, had their wills completely shattered. They threw away their weapons, prostrating themselves on the ground, trembling and kowtowing for their lives. Not a shred of the ferocity belonging to one of the Jianghu's greatest factions remained.
Uncle Sword did not utter a word. He merely sheathed his wooden sword quietly at his waist. Ly Tin stepped forward, the icy gaze of a general sweeping across the remnants of the enemy forces.
"Tie them all up!" he commanded. "Tomorrow morning, I will have men from Duke Dingguo's Estate escort them back to face justice. The crimes of the Black Eagle Stronghold must be exposed to the light of day."
Right at that moment, three figures slowly descended from the secret mountain trail. Leading them was Tran Kien, a matte black saber slung across his back. Following behind were Lam Vy and Trinh Cong. They had witnessed the entirety of the final besiegement and slaughter.
Seeing the bloody spectacle in the valley, Lam Vy, despite her best efforts to stay strong, paled slightly. This was the first time the young girl had truly witnessed such a large-scale massacre. The cultivation world, a world of ruthless contention, was not as beautiful as the tales she had heard. It was cruel, and steeped in blood.
Trinh Cong let out a long sigh. Black Eagle Stronghold, a power that had run rampant in this region for decades, had been erased in a single night. The might of Duke Dingguo's Estate, and more importantly, the scheming mind of the young man beside him, were truly too terrifying.
Tran Kien, however, remained incredibly calm. He stepped over the corpses without the slightest fluctuation in his gaze. Walking straight to the headless corpse of Iron Eagle, he bent down and picked up an object. It was the pair of high-grade profound iron eagle claws, the very weapons that had forged the Stronghold Master's reputation.
"Why are you taking that?" Ly Tin asked in surprise.
"Although this item is tainted with evil Qi, its core is made of high-grade profound iron," Tran Kien replied, his voice placid. "To discard it would be a waste of Heaven's gifts. If we take it back and smelt it down, it can be forged into farming tools to aid the suffering commoners."
A remarkably simple answer, yet it left Ly Tin and Uncle Sword utterly stunned. This youth, having just laid out a ruthless stratagem that annihilated an entire faction, still had the mind to consider such mundane matters. Orthodoxy and heresy, good and evil—within him, there seemed to be an incredibly distinct boundary. Slaying the wicked was for the sake of protecting the good.
"Let us head up the mountain and have a look," Tran Kien said. "In a wolf's den, there are usually quite a few good things."
The five of them ignored the remnants of the bandits and followed the single path up to the peak of Black Eagle Mountain. The stronghold was now reduced to ashes. The granary was still smoldering, thick black smoke billowing endlessly. Fortunately, the armory and the main compound in the center were built of stone and had not been heavily affected.
They entered the Hall of Loyalty, where traces of an extravagant lifestyle still lingered. And in the back, they found a hidden chamber—the true treasury of the Black Eagle Stronghold.
Inside, gold, silver, and precious jewels were piled as high as a mountain. There were also over a hundred magical artifacts and weapons, but the vast majority were only of low-grade or mid-grade quality, nothing worthy of attention.
"A mere band of bandits; it seems they only possess these mundane riches," Ly Tin said, somewhat disappointed.
But Tran Kien wasn't looking at any of that. His gaze was drawn to an ironwood box placed solemnly on a stone pedestal in the center of the hidden chamber. The box wasn't locked, but it was sealed with a yellow talisman.
Uncle Sword stepped forward and glanced at the talisman. "Just a simple 'Spirit-Sealing Talisman'." He lightly waved his hand, and the talisman automatically peeled off and turned to ash.
Tran Kien carefully opened the box. Inside was neither gold nor silver, nor were there any secret cultivation manuals. There was only a scroll and a stack of letters.
He opened the scroll first. On it was a painting of a middle-aged man dressed in a brocade robe. His features were handsome, but his gaze was incomparably sinister and venomous. Beneath the portrait, a small line of text was written: "Marquis Vinh An."
"It's a portrait of him," Trinh Cong gritted his teeth.
Tran Kien picked up the stack of letters. He skimmed through a few. His expression grew increasingly solemn.
"What is it, Young Hero Tran?" Ly Tin asked.
"This is troublesome," Tran Kien said, handing a letter for everyone to see. "This is a letter sent by Marquis Vinh An to Iron Eagle. Its contents don't merely order him to hunt us down; there is a much grander scheme at play."
"What scheme?"
"He ordered Iron Eagle that after capturing Lam Vy, she shouldn't be brought to the capital. Instead, she is to be taken to a place called the 'Myriad Snake Cavern' near the Indigo Capital, and handed over to someone from the... Black Dragon Stronghold."
"The Black Dragon Stronghold again!" Lam Vy gasped in horror.
"Marquis Vinh An wants to 'borrow a knife to kill a person'," Tran Kien analyzed, his gaze sharp and cold. "He wants to use the hands of the Black Dragon Stronghold to eliminate Lam Vy. That way, even if Duke Dingguo's Estate investigates, they will have no direct evidence to accuse him. At the same time, he promised to share a portion of 'Lac Viet's secret' regarding Lam Vy with the Black Dragon Stronghold. An incredibly venomous stratagem—not only does it achieve his goal, but it also pushes the conflict between Duke Dingguo's Estate and the Black Dragon Stronghold to its absolute peak."
"That beast!" Trinh Cong trembled with rage.
"It seems," Uncle Sword said, his voice cold as ice, "on our path to the Indigo Capital, we have more than one enemy."
"Not only that," Tran Kien said, pulling out another letter, the very last one. "In this letter, Marquis Vinh An mentions one more thing. He states that the reason he knew the whereabouts of Elder Trinh and his granddaughter is because, within Duke Dingguo's Estate... there is a mole."
This sentence was like a bolt of lightning from a clear blue sky, exploding in the minds of everyone present.
Ly Tin and Trinh Cong stared at each other in stunned silence, their eyes brimming with disbelief and fury. Duke Dingguo's Estate, renowned for its absolute loyalty and iron discipline—how could it harbor an enemy spy?
Tran Kien folded the letters and tucked them into his robe. He looked out at the flames still burning outside, a glint of absolute resolve shining in his eyes.
"We will deal with the matter of the mole later," he said. "The most pressing matter now is that we must reach the Indigo Capital as quickly as possible. Since Marquis Vinh An is resorting to any means necessary, Black Eagle Stronghold is surely not his only hunting dog. There will be other traps waiting for us."
He looked at the group. "The plan has changed. We can no longer afford to travel at a leisurely pace."
He turned to Uncle Sword. "Uncle Sword, I must trouble you to take Lam Vy and Elder Trinh and go on ahead at maximum speed. General Ly and I will follow behind, clean up all traces here, and then catch up."
This was an incredibly logical arrangement. Uncle Sword, possessing the highest combat prowess, could best protect Lam Vy. Meanwhile, Tran Kien, with his meticulousness and scheming mind, was the most suitable person to handle the aftermath.
Uncle Sword looked deeply into Tran Kien's eyes, then nodded. "Very well. We will do as you say. We shall meet again in the Indigo Capital."
With that said, without a moment's hesitation, he grabbed Trinh Cong with one hand and wrapped his other arm around Lam Vy. His figure blurred into a phantom, shooting down the mountain and vanishing into the night.
Only Tran Kien and Ly Tin were left standing amidst the ashes of the Black Eagle Stronghold.
"Then, Young Hero Tran," Ly Tin asked, his voice now entirely submissive. "Where should we begin?"
Tran Kien looked at the burning flames, then down toward the captive remnants at the foot of the mountain.
"We begin with... Soul Searching," he said, a cold light glinting in his eyes. "I want to know exactly what other secrets this Black Eagle Stronghold is hiding."