Chapter 1936: Harvesting Great Rewards

"You shouted too late." Lu Ye lowered his hand and turned to look at the last bandit to arrive.

The gleaming "Six Thousand" character above the man's head made Lu Ye dizzy with excitement.

This must be the leader of the bandit stronghold!

"Good, good, good!" The bandit leader's lungs felt like they would burst with rage. Looking at the severed limbs and scattered flesh on the ground, he found it hard to breathe from the pain. In an instant, over a decade of accumulation was ruined.

He realized he had encountered a formidable opponent. His face turned extremely grim as he slowly drew a long sword from his waist and said chillingly, "For years, no one has dared to cause trouble on Great Wind Mountain. Today, you will surely die!"

With a shake of his long sword, he adopted a stance, then beckoned to Lu Ye with his other hand, "Come, fight!"

Seeing his appearance, Lu Ye immediately became interested. Truth be told, since entering this training scenario, he hadn't encountered any decent opponents. Although the few bandit leaders he had just killed showed signs of cultivation, they died too quickly for him to even discern how many apertures they had opened. This chief leader looked confident, so he likely possessed some strength, which would be perfect for assessing the risks of this scenario.

With that thought, he swayed and sprinted towards his opponent.

Within a few breaths, he was a zhang (about 3.3 meters) away from the leader.

The opponent's long sword suddenly vibrated, spiritual energy surged around him, and his expression became extremely fierce, as if he was about to unleash a killing move.

Lu Ye concentrated, ready for action. Although he didn't think his opponent was a match for him, he never underestimated anyone in combat.

The leader's hand, which had been hidden behind his back, suddenly rose high and then dropped.

Something unknown was thrown from his hand, landing right in front of Lu Ye.

With a bang, a cloud of yellow mist erupted, enveloping Lu Ye and instantly blinding him.

The mist was poisonous!

Lu Ye chuckled in exasperation, because he heard rapidly retreating footsteps.

At that moment, the leader was running for his life. How could he possibly contend with a powerhouse who could instantly dispatch his four sworn brothers? He had known from the start that he was no match for Lu Ye, but the timing of his shout was simply too awkward...

If he had waited a little longer and seen how easily his brothers were dealt with, he definitely wouldn't have made a sound.

Yet, he was incredibly cunning. Despite knowing he was no match, he still put on a show of preparing for a fierce battle. Even with Lu Ye's experience, he hadn't detected any fear in the leader, all to catch Lu Ye off guard.

He intended to use his specially made item to distract the enemy and seize the opportunity to escape. There was a secret room behind the mountain, secured by a three-thousand-jin (about 1500 kg) 'Dragon-Severing Stone'. As long as he could get into the room and drop the stone, he would be safe. Afterwards, he could escape through a pre-prepared secret passage, thus at least saving his life.

What if he's strong? When you're out in the world, you still need to use your brain!

Suddenly, he heard the sound of pursuit from behind. The leader's heart tightened. Amidst his desperate escape, he looked back and saw that the enemy, who should have been trapped, was rapidly catching up. His speed was almost unimaginable; the leader even saw a swirling gust of wind around his feet.

What is this? The leader was dumbfounded.

Lu Ye hadn't used the Wind Walk spirit pattern in a long time. After his Talent Tree transformed, all spirit patterns underwent a meticulous derivation, and Wind Walk was replaced by Divine Wind.

However, with his current spiritual energy reserves, he couldn't activate Divine Wind and could only use Wind Walk.

This reminded him of when he was weaker and had been chased numerous times, only escaping danger thanks to this spirit pattern.

Now, being weak once more, Wind Walk had become a tool for pursuit.

The distance rapidly closed.

The leader finally panicked. He then realized that the approaching enemy was far stronger than he had imagined.

He wanted to beg for mercy, but the opponent's momentum was fierce, and he had mercilessly killed his brothers. Even begging for mercy would likely lead to a bad end, so he could only fight to the death!

With that thought, the leader hardened his heart and stopped fleeing forward. Almost the instant Lu Ye caught up, he turned around, drew his sword, and channeled all his spiritual energy into the long blade.

Then he saw Lu Ye raise a palm and grab towards him, his palm directly facing the sword tip.

This guy... too arrogant! The leader was furious. Even if the opponent was stronger than him, he was still flesh and blood. There was no way he could block this sword strike!

The moment the sword touched the palm, the leader's face changed drastically. In that instant, strange patterns suddenly flashed from the opponent's palm, followed by a visible, triangular spiritual energy barrier that appeared, like a small spiritual shield!

The long sword struck the spiritual shield, failing to harm the opponent in the slightest. Instead, a powerful force emanated from it.

"Ah!" The leader's long sword bent, then flew out of his hand, and he involuntarily staggered back a few steps.

Before he could regain his balance, a fist rapidly expanded before his eyes, and he was instantly sent flying.

The leader saw stars exploding before his eyes. Under that punch, the protective spiritual energy he had hastily activated was like paper, crumbling instantly.

He struggled to his feet, and from behind him, he heard a murmur: "A bit weak..."

With a thud, something struck his head, and the leader collapsed completely onto the ground, blood pooling beneath him.

Lu Ye stood by the leader's corpse, deep in thought.

The bandit leaders had indeed barely stepped onto the path of cultivation, but they only had two or three opened apertures. Only the chief leader was slightly better, with perhaps four or five opened apertures.

But this was still very weak for him.

Not to mention he had opened another aperture on his way here; even with his original four apertures, dealing with someone like the leader would have been effortless. At his current stage, the quality of spiritual energy greatly augmented strength. In other words, with the same spiritual energy reserves, the purer the spiritual energy, the stronger one became.

Although the leader had four apertures, his spiritual energy was impure and mixed, so killing him was naturally like slaughtering a chicken.

However, it was a bit strange: the sixth leader he had killed first seemed to have barely opened one aperture, making him pitiably weak compared to the others.

There were still surviving bandits. From the moment Lu Ye broke through the gate until now, only a dozen breaths of time had passed. In these dozen breaths, several leaders had met tragic ends, and dozens of bandits were killed, but they weren't completely wiped out.

Seeing that their leaders had been killed, the remaining bandits dared not contend with Lu Ye. They scattered like frightened birds and beasts.

Lu Ye picked up the leader's long sword and pursued them, quickly clearing out all the bandits in the stronghold.

There was a small plaza in the stronghold with a few chairs, seemingly where the bandit leaders gathered for discussions.

At this moment, Lu Ye sat on the central chair, checking his Asura Token, feeling pleased.

This bandit suppression campaign had brought him significant gains; his Asura Seal increased by nearly 500,000 points!

Including what he gained from the previous village, the Great Wind Mountain bandits alone had yielded over 600,000 Asura Seal points.

He had never heard of anyone encountering such good fortune while training in the Asura Arena. Even Sun Radiance cultivators probably didn't acquire Asura Seal points this efficiently, right?

Keep in mind, he had only been in this scenario for two days.

Although his experiences before entering were a bit strange, they were nothing compared to the gains.

Suppressing the joy in his heart, Lu Ye looked up, feeling a headache coming on.

At this moment, about twenty scantily clad women stood before him. Most of them were young, the oldest appearing to be around twenty-four or twenty-five, while the youngest were just in their early teens.

Their expressions were a mix of fear and bewilderment. They were all ordinary people; how could they have seen so many dead bodies?

Lu Ye hadn't summoned them; they had gathered on their own after realizing the bandits had been cleared out.

Lu Ye hadn't anticipated such a situation before coming to raid the mountain.

Killing bandits was easy; he could deal with them in a few moves. But these women... how should he handle them?

From their appearance, Lu Ye roughly understood what they had endured. These women had all been abducted by the bandits from various places.

Now, in the entire stronghold, only these women were left alive—no men, no children, and no elderly!

Lu Ye looked at them, and they looked back at him with expectant eyes. Even though they knew the man opposite them was the one who had caused the bloodshed in the stronghold, not a single one of them seemed afraid.

"Benefactor!" From the crowd, a girl who looked around sixteen or seventeen stepped forward. Compared to the other women, she wasn't the most beautiful, but she definitely had the best figure: slender where she should be, full where she should be, especially her chest, which was noticeably ample.

It was hard to imagine her having such assets at her age.

Moreover, her expression was the calmest and most resolute among them.

Lu Ye couldn't help but regard her with new respect. He also noticed that this woman yielded the most Asura Seal points among everyone.

As she spoke, she knelt down and bowed deeply, "Thank you, Benefactor, for saving us sisters from this dire situation. This kindness, this grace, we sisters will engrave in our hearts and never forget."

Behind her, a group immediately knelt down, and thanks rose in a chorus.

"It was merely a small effort!" Lu Ye waved his hand. He had never experienced a group of women kneeling before him like this. "Rise."

The girl straightened her upper body but didn't stand up. Instead, she looked into Lu Ye's eyes and asked, "Could we possibly ask Benefactor for one more favor?"

"What is it?" Lu Ye asked.

The girl said, "Benefactor, could you please take us away from here?"

Lu Ye fell silent. This training scenario was undoubtedly a great opportunity to rapidly gain Asura Seal points, but taking along such a group of weak women would inevitably slow down his progress.

He was also planning to look for more bandits nearby to clear out.

However, leaving them here wouldn't be safe either. The mountains were full of strange beasts, and these people had no means to defend themselves, especially with the stronghold's gate breached.

As he hesitated, in that mysterious place, by the smooth mirror, several figures who had been observing Lu Ye also grew anxious and nervous. Even the old clan elder, who had remained to oversee the area, opened his eyes.

They all knew that Lu Ye's choice could, to some extent, even determine the future of their clan!