Chapter 40: Infiltration

Although the bandits had cleared a hundred meters of open ground around their lair, with Mo Lin and the Bear Demon’s Profound-level cultivation, slipping past them was rather simple.

Before long, the two of them arrived beneath the watchtower, one on the left and one on the right.

“Hahahaha, come, come, let’s drink another cup!”

“Congratulations to the Chief for winning the beauty’s hand, truly, congratulations, congratulations!”

“Hahaha, tonight no one leaves until drunk!”

Inside the bandit den, the deafening sounds of drinking and dice games never ceased.

Up on the watchtower, the bandits chosen to keep watch were extremely dejected.

“Hey, did you hear? The Chief’s new bride this time, that figure of hers—slender and fine.”

One bandit with a scarred face, listening to the cheers from within, could no longer suppress his curiosity and gossiped:

“This is already the Chief’s third one, isn’t it?”

Another bandit with a headscarf, clearly tempted by the noise of the wedding celebration, added with a twitch of impatience:

“Yes. If I remember correctly, the first two lasted ten days and half a month in the Chief’s hands, respectively.”

“You think this newly snatched one can last how long with the Chief?”

Scarface replied:

“Bah, she won’t last a month. With the Chief’s taste, who could endure it!”

The man in the headscarf nodded deeply in agreement:

“Yeah. It’s a pity the Second-in-Command doesn’t favor us. Otherwise, we’d have been allowed in for the wedding feast. Instead, here we are, stuck guarding the gate.”

Scarface looked equally crestfallen:

“True. Anyone who catches the Second-in-Command’s eye never ends well. The fact that we’re alive and only on watch duty is already luck.”

The headscarf man gritted his teeth in unwillingness:

“My family’s great revenge has not yet been avenged. I cannot stay here forever as some nameless nobody. Sooner or later, I’ll become the Chief of Black Wind Stronghold.”

Scarface looked at him and encouraged:

“Brother, don’t worry. No matter what, we rebelled together back then. I’ll always support you.”

“After all, didn’t the Chief say it himself? No matter how successful a man is, there’s always another man standing behind him to support him.”

The headscarf man slapped Scarface’s head with a grin:

“Get lost! I’ve no such interest!”

Scarface clutched his head, looking at him in disbelief, hand trembling as he raised a finger.

The headscarf man frowned in confusion:

“Brother, what’s wrong? I just patted your head, that’s all. No need to—”

Before he could finish, he noticed something emerging from Scarface’s chest.

Looking down, he saw a thick, long python tail piercing straight through his brother’s chest.

Under the torchlight, he could even see his brother’s blood spraying madly along the python tail.

“Hissss~”

A rasping breath came from behind him.

Turning with great difficulty, he found himself staring into vertical golden pupils, each almost the size of his own head, glaring coldly at him.

It was the eye of an enormous python.

But this watchtower stood nearly ten meters tall.

How had it climbed up without a sound?

Mo Lin, however, had no intention of explaining anything to the dead.

“Ah… ah…”

Before the headscarf man could cry out, the python tail—already skewering his brother—lightly thrust again, effortlessly piercing his chest as well.

Scarface and the headscarf man were neatly strung together on the same tail.

Mo Lin, who so easily erased the two sentries, watched coldly as the headscarf man’s eyes shifted from disbelief, to despair, to lifeless dullness.

From their conversation, Mo Lin understood that the headscarf man probably had a past unknown to others, perhaps a mission he had to fulfill.

But what of it?

Everyone in this world had their past, their unique experiences.

Mo Lin had no time to waste pity on some nameless nobody.

“From their words, the Chief of Black Wind Stronghold is holding a wedding banquet tonight?”

“Then it seems I truly came at the right time. Tonight, the entire den’s vigilance should be at its lowest.”

“As long as I seize the opportunity and stay careful, I should be able to slaughter every last one of them tonight.”

Mo Lin’s golden eyes flickered in thought:

“But before that, perhaps I should first check the Chief’s lair. Maybe I’ll find the Earth Vein Yin Marrow I seek.”

“With the chaos of the wedding feast, even if I make a little noise, no one should notice.”

With the Soul-Respecting Banner, Mo Lin collected their souls and decisively slithered deeper into the stronghold.

After all, in any bandit den, the Chief’s quarters would surely be at the very center.

When the time came, he could capture some lone bandit and force out the exact location.

By now, Mo Lin no longer cared where that Bear Demon, who was supposed to rendezvous with him after clearing the sentries, had gone.

That brute was shrewd.

Even without Mo Lin, he would live well enough.

If he stayed too close, Mo Lin would only have to guard against being tricked or stabbed in the back.

Mo Lin had never truly let down his guard against the Bear Demon.

Otherwise, the Bear Demon would have long discovered the several Hair Jiangshi Mo Lin kept hidden as trump cards.

They were reserved precisely to guard against betrayal or some unexpected trap from the brute.

After all, Mo Lin had never really believed the Bear Demon’s claim: “There are no Profound-levels in the stronghold.”

……

Moonlight glazed the thorny fences.

On another watchtower, two sentries only managed half a muffled cry before their throats were crushed.

A massive bear clung to the tower several meters high, tossing their corpses down.

The bodies landed with a crash in the brush, revealing a gap in the palisade of stag-horn wood.

With surprising agility, the bear sprawled on top of the watchtower, watching as Mo Lin, who had also finished his sentries, slipped deeper into the stronghold.

As a fellow Profound Demon, if it paid attention, Mo Lin could hide from common bandits but not from its eyes.

“Heh heh, I wanted to watch a good show, but who’d have thought this den is busy with some ridiculous bride-snatching farce. Boring.”

“Looks like I’ll have to rewrite the script myself.”

The Bear Demon crossed one leg over the other, lounging atop the watchtower, silently counting the time.

About a stick of incense later, it rose:

“Mm, the time’s about right. The play should be reaching its climax. Let me add some fire to it.”

It chuckled darkly:

“Mo Lin, oh Mo Lin, don’t say I never told you the truth.”

“After all, I did promise you—there are indeed no Profound-level humans in this den.”

“But… there is a Profound Demon.”

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