Chapter 9: Those Who Commit Heinous Crimes Live a Life of Prosperity

The piece of rubble had just landed for a second when it was pushed to the side by an immense force.

Han Jing let out a dull grunt as he staggered a few steps backward. His limbs fell helplessly to his side as he trembled uncontrollably.

The rock weighed at least a thousand pounds and had fallen from a towering cliff. It had an immense impact.

Even though Han Jing was rather mighty, he still suffered from severe internal injuries when he took the impact head-on.

But Han Jing just pushed the rock aside and hadn’t managed to catch his breath when a fierce gust of wind assaulted the side of his face.

He lifted his head to observe the situation, only to be met by a blade that glimmered with cold light.

“Liangshan Stronghold!” Han Jing was furious. However, the blade approached him too quickly. The pressure made him feel as though he was facing off against a powerful, ferocious beast.

Furthermore, he had just exerted a significant amount of strength and couldn’t muster any more power.

Thus, Han Jing immediately chose to retreat.

Boom!

The Tiger Head Blade landed and sliced open Han Jing’s robe.

Qin Shujian had a fierce expression. He took a step forward and reversed his Tiger Head Blade. He then continuously swung the sword toward Han Jing.

Han Jing was shocked. He took multiple steps in retreat.

The first stroke — Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain!

Qin Shujian had fierce momentum. His Tiger Head Blade seemed to have turned into a ferocious living tiger, while Han Jing in front of him was the prey he was hunting.

The stroke “Fierce Tiger Descending the Mountain” had six different forms.

Han Jing mustered his strength and lifted his arm. His palm struck outward like a butterfly flying through the flowers to meet Qin Shujian’s offense.

Qin Shujian grabbed onto his blade with both hands. His fierce tigerlike offense did not stop. The gust of wind he produced with every attack seemed to be the angry roars of a tiger. It shook Han Jing’s heart and soul and caused him to slow down his combination of attacks.

The tiger’s roar in the forest shocked every living creature in a hundred-mile radius!

Whoosh!

The blade sliced through the air. A severed palm flew upward, followed by a jet of fresh blood.

Han Jing turned pale under the immense pain.

At this moment, Qin Shujian stepped past Han Jing. Han Jing instinctively turned around to defend himself but was met with the Tiger Head Blade swinging backward. The Tiger Head Blade was instantly thrust into Han Jing’s chest.

The blade was splattered red with fresh blood as it stabbed through Han Jing’s chest.

A ferocious tiger never looked back, but it had to see blood when it did!

Han Jing’s fresh blood coursed up his throat. He could only groan.

Creak!

Han Jing’s corpse collapsed onto the ground as the blade was pulled out.

Qin Shujian visibly heaved a sigh of relief when he killed Han Jing.

During their battle just now, Qin Shujian could sense that the other party’s abilities were not beneath him.

If not for having seized the initiative, he might not have had the chance to kill the other party that easily.

Qin Shujian couldn’t help but feel shocked when he saw the 73-point increase in his Life Value.

Han Jing gave him 73 points of Life Value?

Qin Shujian had not had the time to think too deeply about the matter. He saw his Life Value jump again, from the original 73 to 74.

The change forced him to raise his head and look toward where the Chengyun Merchant House was located.

Having suffered from the assault of the large rocks, most of the men from the Chengyun Merchant House died on impact. There were a large number of goods from the shattered carriages scattered on the ground.

Only a small portion of the guards managed to, fortunately, avoid being hit by the falling rocks.

However, Wang Tiezhu, as a leader of the Liangshan Stronghold, immediately instructed the Mountain Bandits of the Liangshan Stronghold to attack the guards left from the Chengyun Merchant House.

The remaining guards had already been frightened out of their minds.

None of them could retaliate against the Mountain Bandits of the Liangshan Stronghold.

Qin Shujian saw Wang Tiezhu cleave a guard of the merchant team to death.

Qin Shujian also paid attention to his Life Value. His Life Value jumped from 74 to 75 immediately after Wang Tiezhu killed the guard.

Gasp!

Qin Shujian secretly gasped when he observed the change.

He had always thought that he could only obtain Life Value if he were the one who killed the NPC.

But now…

The NPCs killed by Wang Tiezhu and the rest of the Mountain Bandits from the Liangshan Stronghold also gave him Life Value.

If that were the case, the situation was completely different.

Qin Shujian did not have the time to think too deeply about the matter when the Mountain Bandits’ blades killed the rest of the merchant team’s guards.

At this moment, his Life Value finally stopped at 83.

Qin Shujian immediately gave an order when he looked at the items strewn on the ground. “Move away all of the valuable items. Harvest the meat of the dead horses and bring it along with us.”

Then, he saw the Mountain Bandits move in an organized manner.

The objects that were scattered on the ground were moved back to Liangshan.

Countless system notifications continuously appeared in Qin Shujian’s mind.

“You received ten silver taels!”

“You received an antique painting!”

“You received five silver taels!”

“You received seven gold taels!”

The large string of notifications refreshed itself regularly.

At the start, Qin Shujian had the mood to read through the notifications. However, he soon disregarded the messages and turned his attention toward Han Jing’s indignant corpse.

Search the corpse!

That was something he had to do after he killed the Boss in any game.

Even though Han Jing was not a prominent Boss, he was at least a mini Boss that was at the same level as the Liangshan Stronghold Chieftain. There must be some loot on him.

*****

In the Liangshan Stronghold, Qin Shujian sat properly within the Zhongyi Hall. He was playing around with a jade token.

“Token of the Chengyun Merchant House: You can join the Chengyun Merchant House if you use the item.”

“Note: You are already part of a faction. You have to exit your original faction before you can use this item.”

Other than the token, Qin Shujian also gained many resources from annihilating the Chengyun Merchant House.

“You received a total of 530 silver taels!”

“You received a total of 50 gold taels!”

“You received a large number of antique paintings!”

“You received 1,236 pounds of horse meat!”

“You killed the Chengyun Merchant House manager and intercepted the goods of the Chengyun Merchant House. The current relationship between the Liangshan Stronghold and the Chengyun Merchant House is that of enemies (Hidden).”

“Note: The Chengyun Merchant House still does not know about Manager Han Jing’s situation. Thus, the incident of the Liangshan Stronghold killing Han Jing has not been exposed. Once the incident is exposed, the relationship between the two factions will change from ‘Hidden’ to ‘Exposed’!”

“When that time comes, the Liangshan Stronghold might be attacked by the Chengyun Merchant House at any time.”

Qin Shujian had only given the last few notifications a cursory glance before he tossed it to the back of his head.

To ensure that he did a clean job, Qin Shujian had not let anyone of the NPCs from the Chengyun Merchant House escape.

He had also personally witnessed the traces of blood and corpses disappear before he left.

If there were no accidents, it would not be an easy task for the Chengyun Merchant House to discover the whereabouts of Han Jing and the rest of the guards.

Even if they knew of their whereabouts, they might not be able to find out who exactly had attacked Han Jing.

Thus, Qin Shujian cared more about what they obtained this time.

Even if he disregarded the antique paintings that had to be sold for money before they could be of any use, 50 gold taels were equivalent to 500 silver taels. Combined with the notifications he received earlier…

He had gained more than 1,000 silver taels just in terms of money alone.

According to the current situation of the Liangshan Stronghold, 1,000 silver taels was enough to last the Liangshan Stronghold a year and a half.

They had not received much money in recent years, but when they did, the money they got was enough to last them a long time.

Qin Shujian couldn’t help but be overcome with emotion. He thought to himself, “It’s no wonder people say that those who commit heinous crimes live a life of prosperity. This adage is true no matter where you go!”