The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 1023: Eliminating Bandits

Not far from the village, a group of more than thirty giant wolves with grey fur and black tails were moving fast as they approached it. On the back of each wolf was a cultivator seated on a saddle strapped to the wolf’s back.

Their movement was truly fast despite the dense trees surrounding them. Thanks to the wolves’ agility, they did not crash into the trees or into each other even once, despite being very close to one another.

The one leading them was a man at peak duke stage. He had a burly body, with an axe strapped to his back. A burn like scar covered his right cheek, making it look as if it had melted, which made him look intimidating.

Behind him, closest to his wolf, were two other duke stage cultivators. One of them was a skinny man, while the other wore robes.

"Come on, boys. We will party tonight. We will have a great feast!" the leader shouted.

"Ahahaha!" the others laughed as they continued moving at high speed.

"Boss, are there really many energy stones in that poor village? The last time we were there, we already took many things from them, which made them almost have nothing left," the skinny man asked.

The leader smiled. "This information came from the town. How could it be false? They said the village head has peak-level energy stones. They also said he is accompanied by someone unknown, but I don’t think that would be a problem."

The skinny man smiled. "I see. Then I cannot wait for tonight. Ah, I want to visit the brothel, and maybe I can finally ask Miss Yulin to accompany me."

The leader burst out laughing. "Ahahaha, you could, you could. I will spare some of the spirit stones for you if we get many."

"Thank you, boss," the skinny man replied.

They kept moving toward the village, soon reaching the edge of the forest where they would finally enter the village area.

However, before they could pass the forest boundary, they saw a lone man standing in their path. The man had long red hair and a youthful face.

They did not stop, as the leader was still laughing. They thought that this man was a villager.

"Die! Die! Die!" he shouted as his wolf charged straight toward the lone man. With the wolf’s speed, it would be instant death for anyone who crashed into it. Moreover, the black-tailed wolf he rode was a duke-stage spiritual beast. It was powerful, and its body was truly hard.

But before the leader could crash his wolf into the lone figure, he saw the man raise his hand and suddenly sweep it toward him.

Before he or the others could pass the figure and understand what had happened, the leader suddenly felt his body fly off the wolf, and he felt lightness from his knees down.

"Eh?"

He felt confused about what had just happened, but then he finally saw it with his own eyes. His body was thrown from his wolf, and he saw that his wolf had been split horizontally. Blood and inner organs were thrown forward as they moved at high speed. Then he also saw his own legs from the knees down, thrown to different places.

Because the wolf’s body was split from its mouth to its butt, the leader’s legs were also cut from the knees down where the cut passed through his legs.

But the leader was not the only one who experienced this, as he also saw his other men suffer the same fate. Their wolves were split horizontally from mouth to butt, and their legs were also severed.

As they moved at high speed, all of them were thrown with great momentum. Many crashed into the ground and into the trees. The huge bodies of the wolves also crashed into some of the bandits who were thrown toward the trees or the ground, crushing their bodies and killing them.

"Arghhh!!!"

"Uwaaghhh! Help!"

"Arhhh!"

Sounds of pain could be heard from all the bandits as they no longer had lower legs to stand on. Blood flowed from their severed limbs, and many clutched them in agony.

The leader also felt pain from his severed legs, but he gritted his teeth and looked at his surroundings. He saw that all of his men were also experiencing the same thing as him, without exception. All the wolves were dead, which made his heart tremble.

All of them were split horizontally, and the ridiculous thing was that the trees surrounding them were fine. Not a single tree was cut.

What did that mean?

That meant the lone figure could cut many targets without harming the environment itself. Just how could that man do that? Just how masterful was his control over his technique, that he could slash many targets in an area full of trees without cutting a single tree?

He also saw that the man had only swept his hand, and that was it. He did not sense anything, and just like that, all of them were slashed.

The leader already felt sweat rolling down his face, not only from the pain he felt, but from the situation he was in. He knew that whoever the lone figure was, he would be dead if he tried to fight him.

He tried to reach the escaping talisman from the pouch on his pants, but suddenly a twig pierced his hand. The twig embedded his hand into the ground as he shouted in pain.

"Arghhh!"

Blood flowed from his hand, and as he tried to look at it, a voice came from beside him.

"Uh uh, you cannot escape yet. I have some questions for you."

The leader’s heart shook, and the others near him felt the same. They looked at the lone figure, who was suddenly standing right beside the leader.

As they finally saw the man up close, they saw how handsome he was. However, at this moment, they did not admire him, but were terrified instead. They knew that after the strike just now, they had no hope of facing him. Someone who could kill many black-tailed wolves in a single strike without much difficulty was not someone they could confront.

Aldrian, who had already been waiting for their arrival, had also been observing and listening to their conversation through his domain sense. So he did not hesitate to slash them once he could see them.

"So I heard that all of you are bandits with unknown origins. May I know where you came from? Oh, before you intend to stay silent or lie—"

Aldrian then made another sweeping motion with his hand, and a split second later, one of the bandits near him, the robed duke stage cultivator, was split from his head to his anus. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

The others who saw this felt terrified and looked at Aldrian again with trembling eyes.

"I can sense your lies, and if you are determined to keep silent, I don’t mind. However, if any of you answer my questions, I will let all of you live. If no one answers, then all of you will die. Look at how generous I am to you," Aldrian said with a smile.

"Now let me repeat my question, who are you? Where did you come from?"

"We were prisoners from Alkemon Prison, and we were freed by someone from Abrum Town, but we never knew their identity," the leader quickly answered.

Aldrian did not know where Alkemon Prison was, but at least he had obtained some information.

"You said that you were freed from the prison by someone from Abrum Town. Does this also have a connection to you becoming bandits in this area? And I heard that you received information from the town regarding the village head. Do you bandits have connections inside the town? Do you have informants or connections with the officials?" Aldrian asked.

"Yes, yes. The ones who freed us asked us to become bandits in this area. They were the ones who provided us with many things, including these wolves. We could become bandits freely without any trouble because of them," the leader quickly answered.

"Sometimes, we received information or orders from an unknown source inside the town, but after some time, we suspected that it came from the authorities of the town itself. We just did what we were ordered to do."

Aldrian nodded in understanding. Comparing this with the complaints from the villagers, he could finally piece together most of the puzzle, and he already had a suspect he needed to meet later regarding this matter.

"Thank you for the information. Like I said, I will let you live," Aldrian said as he turned and walked away.

The remaining bandits, seeing this, felt relief. But then they saw Aldrian turn his head toward them and show a smile.

"I will let you live for five seconds," he said, which made their eyes widen.

"YOU—"

Crack!

The leader wanted to curse, but before he could, his body was suddenly crushed by heavy gravity.

All of the bandits’ bodies looked as if they had been stomped on by a giant, flattened down to their inner organs. Blood splattered everywhere, staining the forest with the color and smell of blood.

After that, Aldrian created a spatial crack and teleported all the bodies, whether bandits or wolves, into it before closing it. The only thing that remained was the bloodstains, which the villagers could clean later.

Aldrian then disappeared from the place that had just become a scene of carnage.