Jiang Yichen is a person who puts a lot of thought into things. In other words, he can dwell on a matter for a long time, but he is still rational. If he cannot figure something out after racking his brains for a while, he will choose to temporarily let it go. Just like the matter of the old man with the peach-blossom face, he held the guiding principle that when the opportunity arrives, he will know what he needs to know, forcing himself to stop thinking about it.
Traveling by day and sleeping by night, Jiang Yichen tried his best to follow the water route during his three-day journey, running through the mountain forest. Although this made his travel speed slightly slower, it allowed him to avoid human habitation and, at the same time, avoid a lot of trouble, which actually sped up his journey.
Ningbi Mountain, compared to the lush mountain ranges found everywhere in Jiangning Commandery, appears quite bare. It is full of stones of all sizes, with only a few scattered large trees dotting the landscape, showing little vitality.
If one were to ask what is unique about Ningbi Mountain, it is that there are some rare mineral sources deep in the mountainside that can be mined to refine ironware, and some waste materials can be used for dyes, which has considerable economic value. However, because the total amount is not large and the difficulty of mining is not small, major powers are unwilling to spend much effort here.
For those minor powers that cannot be brought into the light, even a bean bun is dry rations. No matter how difficult the conditions are, as long as they can see hope, they can overcome it. They would not let go of this opportunity for survival, and thus "Flying Swallow Village" came into being here.
Rooted here for nearly ten years, Flying Swallow Village has expanded rapidly. Nowadays, there are over a hundred people in the village, young and old, which is not a small village in terms of numbers. However, with many monks and little gruel, the livelihood in the village has become difficult due to the increase in the number of people.
Forced by necessity, in recent years, some people in Flying Swallow Village began to engage in highway robbery. However, they are discerning; they only dare to bully the weak and will not provoke those major powers. Since no incidents of killing have occurred, Chrysanthemum Garden, considering the situation in Flying Swallow Village, has turned a blind eye.
The existence of Flying Swallow Village, so special in the current Jianghu, is a kind of helplessness and is not unique.
Ningbi Mountain is not the only way to reach Chrysanthemum Garden, but looking at the route Jiang Yichen chose, this road is the closest. After passing Ningbi Mountain, it is the Thousand Peach Forest, and traveling north from the Thousand Peach Forest leads to Chrysanthemum Garden.
The map clearly marked Ningbi Mountain as the location of Flying Swallow Village. Gossipmonger had simple annotations about the situation of Flying Swallow Village, and Jiang Yichen had even heard Ruolan mention it. Jiang Yichen did not want to provoke them. Seeing that there was no one on the road at the moment, he sped up and galloped on his horse.
The development of the situation often goes contrary to one's wishes. Several corpses could be seen lying across the mountain path ahead.
Perhaps because life on West Mountain Island had been too peaceful and comfortable for over a decade, seeing this scene of death and blood for the first time made Jiang Yichen feel stifled, with a sense of nausea.
Disaster cannot be avoided. Jiang Yichen forced himself to calm his state of mind and drove his horse forward, taking a few more looks at the corpses, hoping to see some information.
These corpses were all wearing the same style of orange clothes, so they should belong to the same party. Flying Swallow Village does not have these conditions, so they should not be people from Flying Swallow Village.
Did Flying Swallow Village not say they would not take lives when robbing? Is there some unexpected event in this situation?
Looking at the manner of death of the corpses, some were chopped to death by sabers, some were stabbed by swords, and some were injured by Darts.
The corpses were all facing the direction from which Jiang Yichen came. They must have been fleeing in a panic toward the west but were caught and killed. If they had fled to the east, they might have been able to escape into the Thousand Peach Forest, perhaps they could have run into people coming out of Chrysanthemum Garden, and perhaps they could have survived.
It seems that there must be some injustice happening ahead.
Emotionally, Jiang Yichen did not want to provoke trouble. For him now, the most important thing was to rush to Chrysanthemum Garden to report. He did not have much time to squander.
Rationally, although he had never entered the Jianghu, the idea of drawing his saber to help when seeing an injustice bound him to intervene. Moreover, it would only take three days to get from here to Chrysanthemum Garden, so even if he went to take a look, nothing would go wrong.
While struggling with his thoughts, he rode his horse slowly forward, and gradually he could hear the sound of swords clashing in the valley ahead.
Jiang Yichen did not avoid it; instead, he urged Little Brown Horse to speed up.
Several carriages fully loaded with Goods were lined up along the mountain path. The carriage in the middle had a cabin, which was clearly for carrying people, but the horses pulling the carriages were all lying on the ground, already at their last gasp. There were also many more corpses on the ground like the ones seen earlier.
There were still more than ten people in orange uniforms who had survived; some were still fighting to the death, while others were already kneeling and begging for mercy.
Ten rough men in unrefined clothing, some with sweat towels tied around their heads and slightly higher Martial Force, were still at an advantage against the orange-clad party despite being outnumbered.
Two others were moving freely in the fight; one was a Swordsman, and the other was using Twin Blades. They looked like they were helping the orange-clad party.
The last unique one was a wealthy-looking man standing by the middle carriage, dressed in magnificent and luxurious clothes, but at this moment, he was looking at everything around him in a bewildered state.
Looking at the scene, Jiang Yichen felt that something was wrong, but he could not say what was strange.
The people in orange uniforms must be the wealthy man's people. Those fighting and those who died should be employees and servants, while those kneeling on the ground begging for mercy were the House Servants in fine clothes.
The ten rough men were, as expected, from Flying Swallow Village. However, this time they were not just robbing for wealth, but killing people and seizing Goods.
Have they been forced to such a point? If Chrysanthemum Garden knew about this, they would definitely intervene, right?
And what about that Swordsman and the other Swordsman? Who are they?
Jiang Yichen analyzed the situation on the battlefield and arrived swiftly.
In this short time, two more people on the orange-clad side had died. Jiang Yichen was too far away to help and blamed himself, thinking that if it weren't for his hesitation, he might have been able to save those two lives.
Seeing an orange-clad middle-aged man unable to withstand the front and back siege of the rough men, already injured, having lost his Weapon, and falling into danger, Jiang Yichen unsheathed his Flying Sword and deflected the siege of the two rough men.
The offensive of the two was interrupted. Seeing a stranger arrive, they were not too angry and immediately stopped their hands.
"This Young Hero, do not meddle in other people's affairs. If you leave now, our Flying Swallow Village will not make things difficult for you." One of the shorter ones spoke up. He had seen many young people from Chrysanthemum Garden, and the one in front of him was clearly a greenhorn who did not know any better, easy to bully. He was not afraid to reveal the identity of Flying Swallow Village, but now that the main business was important, it was better to drive him away quickly.
"So it really is people from Flying Swallow Village. Didn't you say you only rob for wealth and do not harm people? You have already taken more than ten lives!" Jiang Yichen was a bit angry.
"Yo ho! Kid, you are meddling too much. I gave you a chance and you didn't leave. Now, I don't mind adding your life to the count!" The shorter one attacked, swinging his saber, and the other followed closely behind to kill.
Jiang Yichen met them head-on, one against two.
The Swordsman and the other Swordsman also saw the situation here. During the battle, they exchanged a look and slowly approached Jiang Yichen's side.
The two bandits from Flying Swallow Village in front of him had plenty of Strength. Although their chopping was blocked by Jiang Yichen, it still made his tiger's mouth ache, but their martial arts techniques were not as good as Yu Tao's.
Thus, after only a few rounds, Jiang Yichen had already gained the upper hand. He quickly parried and stabbed, every move aiming for a Vital Point, leaving the two too tired to parry. Soon, they revealed a Flaw. Jiang Yichen slashed their arms, removed their Weapons, and with two kicks, sent them flying, leaving them without the strength to fight again.
"Young Hero, what great martial arts! With the addition of Young Hero, with the strength of two people, we will definitely be able to drive these Ruffians back to the stronghold." The Swordsman, who seemed to have also knocked down one person, came to Jiang Yichen's side.
"May I ask who you two are?" Jiang Yichen asked, while simultaneously using a Meteor Style to charge at another Flying Swallow Village bandit.
"We are from the Green Forest in the Mount Yandang area. Passing through this place, like Young Hero, we saw that these Ruffians from Flying Swallow Village were not only robbing for wealth but also taking lives, so we could not help but draw our sabers to help," the Swordsman replied.
Mount Yandang is also within Jiangning Commandery. After crossing Ningbi Mountain and traveling another ten li, one reaches Mount Yandang. Passing through there, one can also reach Chrysanthemum Garden.
The Green Forest of Mount Yandang came here to intervene in someone else's business?
However, it must be said that after Jiang Yichen joined, the bandits of Flying Swallow Village quickly fell into a disadvantage. After three more were cleared from the battlefield, the remaining four saw that the situation was not good and signaled the six who had no combat power to flee in a panic.
Seeing that the Flying Swallow Village bandits had taken more than ten living lives, Jiang Yichen still could not bring himself to kill them. Seeing that they had killed people without paying with their lives, and even letting them leave, Jiang Yichen did not know if he was right or wrong.
✦✦✦