Chapter 1
Black Wind Mountain is located in the southwest of Zhao County of Yan State, stretching for thousands of miles with its undulating terrain. Deep in the mountains lies Black Wind Cliff, on which sits Black Cloud Village, a stronghold inhabited by a group of vicious and ruthless bandits.
Rumor has it that they are all blue-faced and fanged, fierce and evil-looking, eating human flesh and drinking human blood, extremely barbaric and cruel.
Ordinary people and merchants would choose to circle around the Black Wind Forest below Black Wind Cliff when passing through Black Wind Mountain, never daring to take even half a step further in the direction of Black Wind Cliff, for fear of encountering the bandits and losing their lives.
However, on this day, the long-silent Black Wind Forest welcomed a group of uninvited guests.
"drive!"
"Hmph~"
A distinguished young man rode up at breakneck speed, followed by a dozen or so servants. The thunderous sound of the galloping hooves, accompanied by billowing dust, startled a flock of birds into flight.
"Swoosh—"
An arrow whistled through the air, and a servant screamed in pain as he fell from his horse with a cry of "Ah!"
"Thump!"
"Thump!"
"ah!"
Screams mingled with the thud of heavy objects hitting the ground as several more people fell from their horses.
Suddenly, a tripwire appeared in the open space in front of the boy, and he immediately tightened the reins to stop the horse.
"Whoa—"
"Sigh—"
The sudden pain of stopping made the horse neigh and raise its front hooves high. The boy on the horse lost his grip and fell off, rolling several times with the momentum before landing awkwardly on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The rest of the servants were also tripped by the horse's reins and thrown off their horses. "Ouch!" Cries of pain rose and fell as a group of men in black appeared before them.
"Young master, please forgive me."
After the leader in black finished speaking, he waved his hand, and the people behind him immediately surrounded him.
Yuan Qiong clutched her aching chest, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her narrow eyes flashing with a cold, sharp light. She glared fiercely at the group and demanded angrily, "Who are you? How dare you block my way?"
"I was forced to do this under orders, young master, please forgive me." The man in black was very wary of Yuan Qiong and subconsciously explained, "As long as you are willing to come with us, we guarantee that you will not be harmed in the slightest."
As the men in black slowly approached, Yuan Qiong calmly gripped her sleeve, ready to use her hidden weapon to kill them as soon as they stepped forward!
Just then, a clear bird song suddenly rang out.
On a lush forest path, a group of unkempt, poorly clothed men suddenly appeared. They carried all sorts of strange tools—hoes, shovels, and flat, long sticks—and walked over with grins.
"Hehe, another business opportunity has come knocking on my door!"
"Damn it! They're finally open again after all this time!"
"Yay! We're getting meat tonight!!!"
Yuan Qiong immediately thought of the rumors about the Black Wind Cliff bandits. She bit her lower lip in frustration. She should have checked the almanac before going out! Why was she so unlucky!
She had thought of it, and so had the men in black. Their faces, hidden behind their masks, turned extremely grim as they watched the group of men warily.
"Make way, make way, make way! The boss is coming!"
Amidst the commotion of the crowd, a burly man dressed in a gray linen shirt, carrying a spiked club, emerged, surrounded by bandits. His clean and tidy attire stood out from the other bandits; only his imposing, bushy beard revealed that he was in cahoots with this group of robbers!
"Hey!"
Lin Qiang glared fiercely, raised his spiked club, assumed a horse stance, and shouted in a fierce Vajra-like posture, "This tree is mine, this road is mine! If you want to pass, leave your toll!"
As soon as he finished speaking, silence fell over the surroundings.
At that moment, a henchman leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Boss, you've got the wrong name. We didn't plant this tree; it grew on its own. And we didn't make this road; other people trod it out."
Is “........” important?
Shouldn't shouting that phrase be part of a robber's professional ethics?
Lin Qiang awkwardly dropped his fierce stance and moved away from the underling who had just spoken. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't keeping his distance because the underling had corrected Lin Qiang's mistake, but because the underling had bad breath...
"Gentlemen, we are merely passing through and have no intention of offending you. This is a toll for you to have some tea. Please do us a favor and we will be leaving now."
The leader of the men in black, not wanting to cause any further trouble, took out a money pouch from his waist, placed it on the ground, gave his subordinate a wink, and then slowly led Yuan Qiong away.
At this moment, she wisely refrained from resisting. She knew better than to fall into the hands of these men in black or those bandits.
Despite their disheveled appearance, these men were all highly skilled martial artists, judging from their ability to appear silently and suddenly. This was also why the men in black chose to let the matter drop.
"Wait a minute."
Lin Qiang slowly walked over, carrying his spiked club, bent down to pick up the money bag from the ground, opened it, and chuckled.
Wow, that's quite a generous gesture!
He turned back and threw the money bag to his brother.
"Look, these are all top-quality gold leaves!"
"Wow!!!"
"It really is gold!!!"
This was the first time the bandits had ever seen so much gold; their eyes lit up and they were practically drooling.
He stopped looking at his brothers and turned back to continue circling the group of men in black. When he saw the injured Yuan Qiong, his eyes lit up. Oh my god! What a beauty!
"Hey...young man, may I ask your name?"
He lightly lifted Yuan Qiong's chin, and as soon as her pointed jaw touched his rough fingers, she dodged away, her lowered eyelashes trembling, revealing her apprehensive feelings.
The man in black immediately stopped him: "Hero, we have already given you the money, please let us leave."
"Alright! You can leave now!" Lin Qiang grinned, revealing a row of white teeth through his thick beard. "However, this young man has to stay."
"this........"
"What? You don't want to?"
Lin Qiang swung his spiked club, and a tree as thick as a bowl by the roadside snapped in two with a "crack!"
Yuan Qiong finally looked at the burly man properly for the first time. Lin Qiang chuckled, his expression lewd and perverted, and she immediately turned her head away in disgust.
"Hero, is the money too little?" The man in black softened his tone and softened his tone: "I have some other items here, I hope you won't find them too much."
He then handed over all the jade pendants and ornaments he had on him. Lin Qiang accepted them all without any hesitation, smiling broadly.
These are amazing items! They're all top-of-the-line antiques even by today's standards!
"Haha, since you've gone to such lengths, I won't make things difficult for you." He stuffed the things into his coarse cloth shirt, turned around and said to the brothers who were watching behind him, "Arrest them all, don't let a single one go!"
The man in black was taken aback at first, then angrily raised his knife and slashed at him.
Shameless! This robber is utterly shameless!
Lin Qiang raised his hand to block with his spiked club, and the other bandits charged forward with howls.
"You all better watch out! Don't you dare hurt that fair-skinned kid!"
After blocking the attack, Lin Qiang calmly strode away from the battle, stood aside with his arms crossed, and watched the two groups of people fight, while also taking a look at the girl dressed in men's clothing in the crowd.
It was like a godsend; just when I was worried about finding an excuse to get rid of that hot potato, Yuan Liu Niang, I encountered such a beautiful young girl on the road. Perfect, I should snatch her back and make her my wife, so she won't be looked at with suspicion by the second-in-command of Black Cloud Stronghold anymore.
If the people in the mountain village realized he wasn't Black Beard, they would definitely think he was a monster and roast him like a skewer.
Thinking about his current situation gave Lin Qiang a headache. He subconsciously reached into his pocket for a cigarette, only to find it empty.
Damn it, what kind of situation is this! There aren't even cigarettes in this godforsaken era!
He casually plucked a blade of grass and tossed it into his mouth, sighed, and turned his gaze to his gang of underlings. Outnumbered, the overwhelming advantage quickly sealed the outcome of the fight.
"Big brother, it's all done!" The bandits roughly tied up the man in black. The fourth brother carried the pale-faced Yuan Qiong forward and winked, "We didn't touch a hair on this fair-skinned girl. Big brother, check the goods."
Yuan Qiong's simple disguise was no match for these experienced bandits, who immediately recognized her true gender.
Lin Qiang took the straw out of his mouth as if he were holding a cigarette, grinned, and ignoring Yuan Qiong's resistance, forcefully pinched her small, palm-sized face. He looked her up and down, then nodded with satisfaction: "Indeed top-quality! Not bad, not bad, take her back to be your sister-in-law! Hahahaha..."
The sixth brother, standing nearby, turned grim upon hearing this: "Brother, what about the sixth daughter of the Yuan family?"
"What's wrong with a real man marrying a few wives?" The fourth brother chuckled and pushed Yuan Qiong into Lin Qiang's arms. "Brother, don't be shy. This girl is no less beautiful than that sixth sister-in-law Yuan!"
Yuan Qiong was horrified by their conversation. The nausea of being touched by a strange man for the first time overwhelmed her. Her face turned almost transparently white, and she swayed unsteadily.
"Aww!!! Sister-in-law!" The fourth brother shouted first, ignoring the sixth brother's ugly expression.
"Sister-in-law!"
"Sister-in-law!"
"Sister-in-law!"
The others also started to jeer.
"Ha ha ha ha......"
Lin Qiang laughed wildly, tossed the spiked club to his underling, and with a swing of his arm, bent down and hoisted the man onto his shoulder.
"ah!"
The sudden feeling of weightlessness made Yuan Qiong scream and start to struggle violently, but the large hand pressing on her waist was as solid as iron and did not loosen its grip at all.
"Time to go back to the mountain..."
The burly man carried Yuan Qiong on his shoulder, laughed wildly a few times, and led a group of his underlings smugly toward the mountain stronghold. Yuan Qiong was both frightened and angry, and coupled with the injuries she had just sustained from falling off her horse, she soon succumbed to the jolting and passed out.
Halfway there, Lin Qiang noticed that the girl on his shoulder had stopped talking. He stopped, his smile fading, and frowned.
The fourth brother immediately asked, "What's wrong, brother?"
"You all go to the village and hand these guys over to Second Uncle. I'll take this girl to Granny Tian's place on the back hill."
"Hehe... I understand, I understand."
The fourth brother grinned slyly and quickly waved to the main group behind him: "Hurry up!"
The servants and men in black, bound tightly, watched helplessly as the fierce-looking, bearded man carried Yuan Qiong away from them, and a chill ran down their spines.
It's over. They actually let the eldest daughter of the Yuan family be kidnapped by bandits. They're doomed.
Author's Note: Sorry for the late post, bow~ I suggest you don't follow it in the early stages, wait until it's more complete before reading.
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