With the Blade

Giant Axe Opening Heaven.

Trying to split the sky with merely an axe is undoubtedly a fool’s daydream, but precisely because this is unrealistic, it offers endless room for imagination.

If a person could really split the sky with an axe, what would that look like?

Du Chengfeng had never considered this question.

But this time, he saw it with his own eyes.

A huge axe swung down, carrying an unstoppable momentum, with the simple and crude philosophy that big is good, big is strong, but it’s also the most fundamental truth.

If this axe were to keep getting bigger, perhaps it could truly split the sky, who knows.

But it would definitely not hit the agile Du Chengfeng.

"Is this all it’s got..."

Sidestepping the axe blade, Du Chengfeng sighed.

He admitted that there might be some skill to the bandit leader who swung that axe.

But his imagination could only be described as tragic.

"Farewell."

As the broadsword swung down, the three bandit leaders were all reduced to flying ash.

Killing isn’t the point; it’s no different from drinking soup. What Du Chengfeng truly cares about is the weapons of these three people—yes, interrogating them directly is too troublesome and a waste of time. Instead of spending energy outwitting a few bandits, it’s better to understand their history through sharpening their weapons.

Although he hadn’t sharpened weapons for some time, it was only because he hadn’t found any worthy weapons, not because he’d forgotten the craft.

"Let me see..."

After returning to Forget Sorrow Village with the three weapons, Du Chengfeng brought out his long-unseen set of grinding stones.

The first to be sharpened was, of course, the big axe. The heavy axe blade posed no difficulty for Du Chengfeng to grind, and after placing the big axe on the grinding stone, Du Chengfeng gradually felt the events that the big axe had experienced.

Or rather, the experiences of that bandit leader.

Like most martial madmen whose bodies have just absorbed Evil Qi, this bandit leader also encountered Evil Qi after killing three people in a verbal dispute. Of course, such murderers are definitely wanted by the local government, so after hacking down two officials, the bandit leader became an outlaw, taking up the hopeless profession of brigandage.

This is also the path most people take when their bodies first absorb Evil Qi, for under the governance of Southern Chen, they either end up in prison or become outlaws; there are basically no other paths. This is why Du Chengfeng doesn’t usually bother collecting ordinary weapons to grind, as they all record roughly the same stories.

Just like this bandit leader, at first, he was just an ordinary bandit, but with the body enhancement from absorbing Evil Qi and the savage thrill of killing, he soon stood out from the rest of the bandits. After gathering two or three fellow Evil Qi absorbers, he began roving and plundering.

As for why they continued to plunder, it was because they could no longer find anything to steal in one place—everything had been taken, and those who remained had hidden in the local powerful families’ Dock Fortress. With just two or three Evil Qi absorbers and a group of bandits, it was apparently unrealistic to contend with a fortress, so the bandit leader could only lead the team from place to place, taking what they could.

"No wonder they’re so blind."

Seeing this, Du Chengfeng understood why, after so much killing, there were still oblivious bandits causing trouble. Clearly, these people were driven by hunger, robbing whoever they encountered without paying any mind to the team’s background.

However, these aren’t the parts Du Chengfeng wanted to see.

The parts he was interested in were still to come.

As plundering became increasingly difficult and even food became a problem, the bandits began to occasionally attack each other. For bandits, seeing a fellow die is undoubtedly great news. Not only does it create a power vacuum, but the dead bandits’ supplies could easily provide a decent meal.

Especially when their peers couldn’t endure hunger anymore and were preparing to attack the Dock Fortresses, this became an excellent opportunity for other bandits.

As they say, "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind." The bandit leader had once been the oriole, while the mantis, in this case, was a notable thief called "Iron Spear Cutting Water" from Lingzhou. He ranked eighty-seventh in the Hundred Weapons Chart, and his strength with Evil Qi defense could indeed take on a hundred foes alone.

"What’s this Hundred Weapons Chart?"

Reading this, Du Chengfeng scratched his head, wondering what this was about?

It seemed to be something concocted by those bored Jianghu people, likely not too important.

Moreover, the Hundred Weapons Chart had nothing to do with what he was currently seeing.

Even if ranked in the Hundred Weapons Chart and possessing power to take on a hundred alone, "Iron Spear Cutting Water" still had to eat, and it wasn’t just him; the robbers under him also needed food. Therefore, when there was nothing left to steal, this group set their sights on a far-off Dock Fortress in Haozhou.

Although it was a foreign operation, the horse bandits came and went like the wind, and with a master of Evil Qi leading them, it seemed likely that this endeavor would succeed.