Squish! Hartley crushed a bug underfoot as he made his way through the forest accompanied by four other core disciples, they were making their way on foot towards a bandit camp about 20 miles north-west in a thick forest.

The undergrowth had made it a harder trip than it had to be, but Lou Tai had decided to approach off the beaten path, which turned out to be a good decision as they had taken out several bandit scouts patrolling in the vicinity. The bandit prisoner had given a detailed description of the position and defense of the camp, he was then granted a quick merciful death by Lou Tai in return to the complaints of the sadistic Lou Ang who wanted to carry on.

According to the information, the camp was located in a valley between two hills, which would be easily passed if one was unaware of its existence.

It was almost dawn and the dark skies had turned a shade lighter, it would not be long before first light. Lou Tai a fire elemental 3rd layer xiantian made the others stop and gather when they were in sight of the bandit camp.

The hideout was nestled between two gently rolling hills filled with vegetation and stretched towards what seems like a valley down below.

On the flat between the hills was a sizable structure built from wood, it was a sturdy building enough to house many people, behind the sturdy looking building in the front, was another building much smaller and suspiciously this building had no one guarding it and no bandit activity within a hundred meters around it, standing there in isolation, it almost resembled a holy shrine.

The entrance to the hills from both sides were guarded, stationed there were teams of men wearing dark robes blending in the night. The guards to the south were the most attentive they seem to be always on alert while making their rounds.

The others were undisciplined men lounging around joking casually just doing the job for the sake of it.

There were several bruised and battered merchants tied to a thick wooden beam located in a place at the far right of the camp with an abundance of hay and horses tied to wooden poles looking like an improvised open air stable.

The weary merchants had looks of hopelessness and despair as fright and regret were plastered across their faces.

Lou Tai whispered as he gave his final instructions

"I will approach from the south with Qin Li who will protect the merchants and attack from that direction while you three approach from the north where they are more lax, eradicate them all. The majority of these bandits are houtian realm, I can sense a couple xiantians but we should be able to handle it, take care and watch your back, lets head out."

After Lou Tai and Qin Li left, Lou Ang immediately thought he had just been promoted to leader of the second group, he started to issue orders when he was cut off by Hartley who said "I'll see you down there," without even looking at the sadistic bastard, he flashed away from the two towards the guards at the northern entrance.

With a disapproving snort Lou Ang watched Hartley's back disappear then walked towards the entrance of the valley with Lou Rylai, who had a neutral expression......

Hartley slashed out with his silver sword with a wide sweeping horizontal arc from wide-right to wide-left.

Geysers of blood burst into the sky as the heads of a quarter dozen guards dawdling lazily on the northern entrance flew down into the valley, it was about a fifty meter drop to the flat land down below.....

Three decapitated heads hit the ground and bounced up a couple inches, staining the ground with spots of blood, before rolling away in a random pattern.

A shadow on the ground quickly enlarged as Hartley dropped from the sky and hit the ground like a mortar round........... Boom!..... sand and dust flew upwards, chips of rocks went flying away in every direction.

When the swirling dust settled and visibility cleared, Hartley was crouched with his empty left hand flat on the floor, his right hand extended straight to the side with a long silver blade reflecting the thin slivers of blue light in the approaching dawn.

The youth lifted his head to look straight ahead with shining blue eyes. It was a heroic pose which frightened the bandits as they rang out the alarm in panic.

Blue streaks of lights flashed as Hartley ran into the crowd of unorganized bandits using his star feet movement technique pushing it to the limit, this was an opportunity to try and push this technique to max level, blue sparks exploded from under Hartley's feet when it hit the ground, imprinting deep footprints, scattering dust and dirt in his wake.

A red short sword appeared in his left hand as he proceeded to chop these mostly houtian realm bandits like vegetables, blood splashed in all directions and limbs went flying in the screaming chaos.

The bandits who thought they were smart decided to jump ship ran towards the slope leading out of the valley where they were greeted by the sinister face of Lou Ang.

With a brown glow covering his body from neck to toes, both of his fist extended to twice the normal size with a layer earth essence, the vicious man punched people to bits with a sadistic glee as they exploded into blood mist.

Lou Rylai was in a staggered position a hundred meters to his left cleaning up the stragglers with a pair of daggers. Swish! every time she slashed out her dagger a bandit head would fly away. The soil in the valley had its fill, fertilized with blood as the bandits bawled with grim faces of desperation.....

Then pandemonium struck.! A piece of the large wooden structure in the middle of the valley exploded with a bang! producing a flash of orange and yellow flames. The shock-wave swept the horror stricken bandits off their feet. In desperation they tried to surrender and were met by the sharp edges of cold blades.

Two xiantians in the smaller isolated structure had nonchalant looks on their faces, the bandits outside were expendable and they had already served their purpose, in fact the death squad outside were doing them a favor by taking those bandits off the wage bill.

A 3rd layer xiantian with earth element, who had a head full of white hair, a full white beard and a handle bar mustache, had a twisted cigar leaned at one side of his lips, wisps of bluish white smoke rose upwards from it as he stepped into a little room at the back.

He opened a trap door on the floor and made his way down a small set of steps underground into a cavern like space. At the far end of the cavern like space, sat a middle aged man in black robes, he was cross legged in cultivation.

In front of him there was a T shaped cross with a flimsy looking merchant tied to it, he was hollering in pain as wisps of black smoke-like tentacles were dragging his soul from his body, half of his soul was exposed to the naked eye while in the clutches of the black tentacles. If one looked closely they would notice that the merchant's body was not making a single sound it was his exposed soul screaming in terror

The middle aged man opened his eyes with an annoyed look showing black pupils and black sclera, without looking back he said "hold them off, I need more time"