Chapter 94: Chapter 90: 7 Pillar Peak (Part 1)

It was late October, and the autumn chill was deepening. Silence reigned over the mountain forest, shrouded in the dark of night.

Deep within Baitou Mountain stood a peak named Seven Pillar Peak. Though not particularly grand, its terrain was steep and exceptionally treacherous.

Zhao Lin and Liang Song were lying prone amidst a pile of rubble before Seven Pillar Peak, looking up at the mountain.

"See that mountain pass? It’s the only way up," Liang Song said, pointing ahead.

For years, he had used his identity as a Hunter as a cover to secretly scout the area. He knew of several bandit lairs, and Seven Pillar Peak was one of them.

Zhao Lin stared intently and saw a natural mountain gorge.

The gorge’s opening was extremely narrow, leading to a small mountain path that snaked upward between sheer cliffs.

’What an easily defended, hard-to-assault position!’

He had originally thought the bandits hadn’t been wiped out after so many years because the Garrison Army was slacking off, but now it seemed that might not have been the case.

With terrain like this, even an army of a hundred thousand would have to file up one by one. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Liang Song nodded slightly. "There’s more. Some of the bandits used to be Hunters, and they’ve laid countless animal snares and traps along the path."

"If you don’t know the situation inside, even the strongest martial artist could easily fall into their hands."

Zhao Lin turned to glance at him. "How do you know all this in such detail?"

Liang Song grinned. "Bandits are still people. It’s impossible for every single one of them to keep their mouth shut."

"Besides, you think they built this stronghold themselves? They’d never do that kind of manual labor. They dragged workers here from outside the mountains years ago and forced them to build it, bit by bit. Who knows how many people died in the process."

"But a few managed to survive. I found an old worker who used to be forced to labor on the mountain, and I learned some of the details from him."

Zhao Lin thought for a moment. "If it’s so hard to attack, what if we use a large force to surround the place?"

"Cut off their food and water. The bandits wouldn’t be able to hold out for long, right?"

Liang Song shook his head. "Useless. A few years ago, the regional government sent troops to do just that. They trapped the bandits on Five Finger Peak, but after half a month of siege, the mountain suddenly went quiet."

"They sent men up to check and found that all the bandits had fled. In the end, they discovered several secret tunnels."

"The bandits have several nests, and each one has secret passages. We can’t just go through them one by one, can we?"

At this, Liang Song turned to him. "So, what’s your plan?"

Zhao Lin pursed his lips. "I want to scout ahead first. It’d be best if we can capture one or two of them alive. If not, we’ll just kill a few bandits and make them bleed."

’They dared to target my family. I have to teach them a lesson.’

Liang Song nodded in agreement, pointing to several large trees beside the pass. "That won’t be easy. They’re sure to have lookouts in those trees."

Zhao Lin looked at the trees, his heart sinking. ’This is going to be tricky.’

To prevent anyone from sneaking up the mountain, the bandits had clear-cut all the trees within a radius of several hundred yards, not even leaving behind tall weeds.

The open ground before the mountain was completely bare. Anyone approaching, even at night, would be incredibly conspicuous and couldn’t possibly escape the lookouts’ notice.

Zhao Lin stroked the new stubble on his chin. "Is there a path on the back of the mountain?"

Liang Song shook his head again. "There’s a sheer cliff on the back."

Zhao Lin was at a loss for words. ’I’m not a gecko. I’d need axes and iron spikes to climb a cliff like that. But that would make noise, and I’d probably be greeted by a large boulder for my trouble.’

The thought of a boulder suddenly gave Zhao Lin an idea. "I’ve got it!"

"What is it?" Liang Song asked hurriedly.

Zhao Lin’s eyes scanned the rubble until they landed on a large, fan-shaped boulder. Its surface was rough and uneven, perfect for gripping.

He crawled over to it and gestured for Liang Song to follow. "Come here."

Liang Song didn’t understand, but he mimicked Zhao Lin’s movements and went behind the boulder.

Zhao Lin straightened up into a half-squat, gripped the sides of the boulder, and with a surge of strength in his arms, lifted the half-ton rock off the ground and began to move it slowly forward.

Understanding dawned on Liang Song. Zhao Lin was planning to use the boulder as cover to approach the pass.

This would never work in the daytime, but it was night, and a lookout would have a hard time noticing a slowly moving boulder.

Still, it required immense arm strength. Only someone like Zhao Lin could pull it off.

Carrying the boulder, Zhao Lin shuffled toward the pass, inch by inch. He paused periodically to avoid detection by the lookouts.

After more than an hour, the two of them had moved to within a hundred yards of the large trees.

Zhao Lin could hear the lookout’s breathing.

It was steady, with occasional pauses, indicating the lookout was drowsy but definitely not asleep.

Zhao Lin peeked out from behind the boulder. His larynx vibrated, emitting an ultrasonic wave that instantly pinpointed the lookout hidden in the forks of the branches.

"He’s in the second big tree."

The mountain was still and silent. Worried about alerting the lookout, Zhao Lin had traced the words onto Liang Song’s palm.

Liang Song immediately wrote back: "There might be more than one. Listen again."

Having followed Zhao Lin for some time, he vaguely sensed that his companion had extraordinary hearing, though he was tactful enough never to ask.

Zhao Lin nodded silently, then picked up the boulder and continued to shuffle forward.

A cloud drifted across the sky, obscuring most of the moonlight.

Zhao Lin seized the opportunity to speed up. Carrying the boulder, he reached a spot about forty yards from the pass, and just as he suspected, he heard faint breathing from within the gorge.

He followed the sound with his eyes and spotted a protruding rock on the gorge’s slope.

The sound was coming from behind that rock.

’Aha, so that’s their setup!’

’Two hidden posts. Even if the first is taken out, the second can still sound the alarm in time. No matter how fast I am, I can’t possibly eliminate them both at once.’

Zhao Lin frowned slightly, wondering if there might even be a third post.

He wrote what he had seen and his suspicions on Liang Song’s hand. Liang Song wasn’t surprised and wrote back, "Alive or dead?" Afterward, he silently took the hunting bow from his back.

Liang Song had not yet reached the Skin Toughening realm. To avoid holding Zhao Lin back, they had gone to the cliffs of North Ridge to retrieve this hunting bow before coming here.

"Let me think," Zhao Lin wrote back.

Zhao Lin hesitated. He knew the locations of two lookouts now. With a surprise attack, he could definitely take them down.

But just killing two grunts fell short of his expectations.

’Since I’m here, I have to make the bandits feel some real pain.’

Just then, the bandit at the second hidden post yawned.

’Drowsy?’

An idea suddenly struck Zhao Lin.

Normally, the night watch would have to change shifts. One person couldn’t possibly stay completely focused from start to finish.

He glanced up at the sky. The moon was high, and it was now the Zi hour—midnight.

"Their replacements might be coming soon for the shift change. We’ll wait. We can catch them all in one net!"

Zhao Lin wrote on Liang Song’s palm.

Liang Song was startled for a moment, then he gave Zhao Lin a thumbs-up.

The two of them waited quietly behind the rock as time trickled by.

Around the fourth watch, at about one in the morning, the faint sound of footsteps could be heard as three shadowy figures made their way down the mountain.