The Eternity Continent has many specialties, and madmen and madwomen are just one of them; more common are actually bandit gangs that don't know their place.
These creatures frequently appear all over the continent, whether on shaded paths, in abandoned mines, or in long-forgotten underground tombs—they are everywhere.
The Crow Claw Bandit Gang is one of them.
It's just that now they've encountered a 'small' problem.
Lucas, the deputy leader of the bandit gang, was terrified. In front of him were four tall figures in black robes, and around him lay his fallen companions.
Clearly, these four black-robed figures were after him.
'That damn idiot Ralph, I shouldn't have listened to his advice back then.'
Recalling what happened a minute ago, Lucas's heart turned to ash.
A minute ago, having just intercepted a batch of goods, they were happily returning to their stronghold. There should have been no accidents on the way, until they saw a small camp.
"Since we're already here, why don't we just rob some stuff?" Ralph, the 'genius' in the bandit gang, suggested on the spot.
"Agreed." "I second that." "Me too!"
The bandits all agreed, and seeing this, Lucas found it difficult to stop them.
Due to the dim light, they couldn't clearly see the situation at the camp, only that it was a small camp.
Since it was a small camp, there probably weren't many people, likely passing travelers, and killing them would be no big deal.
Out of caution, Lucas didn't directly lead his men to charge out, but instead ordered his subordinates to fire a round of arrows from a distance.
After a volley of arrows, the impatient bandits let out howls and charged towards the only light source in the dim forest.
And then... they encountered four tall, terrifying monsters.
Cold air escaped with each breath, the surrounding temperature was low enough to freeze, and those pairs of strikingly blue eyes in the darkness... Lucas swore that in all his years as a bandit, he had never seen anything like this.
And the most terrifying of all was the tallest of these four monsters.
Because he had a pale skull tied to his right shoulder, a skull whose origin every Northerner could name.
The Wendigo, the nightmare passed down by word of mouth among Northerners.
To be able to make a Wendigo his trophy, what kind of master must the newcomer be?
Lucas didn't know; he only knew that they had run into a tough opponent this time.
The four tall, black-robed monsters were completely unharmed by the arrows. In a few steps, they covered a distance that would take a normal person a dozen steps, smashing axe blades and hammerheads onto the bandits.
Though it looked more like the bandits were actively offering their lives.
The battle lasted less than half a minute. A dozen bandits were slaughtered, some losing their heads, others having their brains bashed out.
Only Lucas remained on the field.
"P-please, can you spare me?" He made a shameful sound.
No one answered; only the howling of the cold wind echoed around him.
Mo Di's expression wasn't very good, thinking of his pot of fish and mushroom soup that had been contaminated by arrows.
He had spent two hours fishing for that soup, and after failing to catch anything, he didn't hesitate to go into the water himself to catch them.
He had finally managed to cook it, and just as he was about to savor it, these thoughtless things ruined his good deed.
"What a bunch of damned bandits. I think you're asking to be slaughtered."
Gan, Wen, and Cui, the three Abominations, were also not very happy. They were perfectly fine, listening to their master tell an enlightening story called "Mo Di Elbows the Black Sky Buddha Mother," only to be interrupted by a volley of arrows.
Whether they understood the story or not wasn't important; having a story to listen to was very important to them.
Now that the story was gone, they could only let the thoughtless things that disturbed their enjoyment meet with an 'accident'.
The three Abominations swarmed forward, ignoring Lucas's wails, and each tore off a part of his body.
In less than half a second, the wailing ended. The three Abominations each held a part of Lucas's body, kneeling before Mo Di.
A mist of blood surged, and all the corpses on the scene vanished.
【Crow Claw Bandit Gang Deputy Leader - Lucas Cody】
【Theft Mastery】
【...】
Glancing at the bloodstained book, Mo Di took only two or three seconds to fully absorb the information from the newly acquired page.
"Most of these are useless entries. Instead, this 【Theft Mastery】 is somewhat useful. By the way, isn't he a bandit who robs and plunders? How does he have a theft skill?"
He kept the useful pages and melted all the useless ones into the Page of De Wei An, continuing to push it to a higher level.
'After my teacher's death, I continue to help her put her remaining warmth to good use and benefit the public. I, Mo Di, am indeed a person of great love.'
The page becoming stronger equals him becoming stronger, and him becoming stronger means he can kill more damned people, thereby saving more innocent people.
After rounding up, his becoming stronger equals saving people.
Bearing the heavy responsibility of spreading love and peace, Mo Di's path to becoming stronger could not stop for a moment.
"The Crow Claw Bandit Gang deserved to die. Let's go wipe them out."
Mo Di was expressionless. He knew deeply that he was targeting this preposterous bandit gang for the sake of becoming stronger and saving more people.
Definitely not for a mere pot of fish and mushroom soup.
A flash of magical light, and a red line appeared in his eyes, one end stretching into the unknown distance.
【Tracking Spell】 had revealed to him where the Crow Claw Bandit Gang's lair was located.
"If a man hears the Tao in the morning, he may die in the evening without regret," he murmured. "Although it's already late, it's still a good time to send them on their way."
The three Abominations suddenly looked up. Though not highly intelligent, they understood his meaning at this moment.
They decided to follow their master's teachings and send the dirty, vulgar Crow Claw Bandit Gang to reunite with their families.
Having followed Mo Di for a long time, they too gradually became benevolent.
Having packed up the camp, one person and three Abominations, under the cover of night, silently walked towards the bandit lair.
With each step, they could cover several meters, and this was not even their limit.
Not to mention Mo Di, just Gan, Wen, and Cui, the three Abominations, had all undergone the transformation of the Cold Blood True Gang, possessing the Martial Dao realm of the First Innate Stage.
Otherwise, Mo Di wouldn't have kept them by his side.
Their speed grew faster and faster, dense forest trees left behind them.
With each breath, a thick mist of ice formed around them, completely concealing their last traces.
In less than half an hour, they reached their destination.
This was a bandit stronghold built on a gentle slope, surrounded by sharpened wooden walls, with several watchtowers standing around it.
On top of each watchtower, a sentry stood guard, but they were clearly not very focused. Some were even slightly tipsy from drinking and didn't notice the one person and three Abominations hidden in the ice mist.
In the ice mist, Mo Di looked at the nearby bandit stronghold and whispered, "Go do what you want to do."
As his voice fell, the Frostblood Abominations beside him vanished.
The ice mist seeped into the bandit stronghold, covering it little by little.
"What happened? Why is it foggy?"
"I don't know. What are the lookouts doing? Why didn't they warn us about such an abnormal situation?"
Two patrolling bandits exchanged glances, and a chill crept up their spines.
Such a strange phenomenon was unlikely to be naturally formed; it could only be artificial.
They immediately pulled out their horns, wanting to alert the others inside the stronghold.
But the arrivals in the cold wind did not give them this chance.
A tall dark figure rushed out of the ice mist, its two arms outstretched, reaching the necks of the two in a blink of an eye.
Claws slashed. The two had just brought their horns to their mouths and hadn't yet blown them when their vision went black.
The horns fell to the ground, followed by the headless bodies of the two.
The dark figure that caused all this didn't even look, submerging back into the ice mist.
The slaughter was far from over.
On the watchtowers, the dozing, drinking sentries finally reacted, hastily blowing their horns, awakening the entire bandit lair.
..."A dying struggle."
Mo Di looked up, and at the same time, he raised his hand.
Several ice arrows flashed past, and the sound of the horns abruptly ceased.
The heads of all the sentries on those watchtowers were shattered by the ice arrows.
Having killed the sentries, he strolled leisurely to the wall of the bandit stronghold and stomped heavily.
From beneath his feet, ice crystals surged from the ground, spreading all the way to the wall.
Several thick ice pillars rose from the ground, easily pushing down and tearing apart the wooden wall.
The collapse of the wall attracted the attention of the bandit leader, Mitchell.
"What's that noise? What happened to the west wall?"
He hurriedly walked out of the warm room, bumping squarely into the ice mist, and immediately shivered.
"What's with this fog?" he asked his confidant, but received no answer.
"Where's Lucas? They went out and haven't returned yet?"
The answer was still negative.
"Could it be that they betrayed us, leading to the exposure of our stronghold's location, attracting an attack from our enemies?"
"Not likely," a bandit replied. He stared at the ice mist, recalling a story he had heard as a child.
His face pale, he hesitated for a moment, then speculated, "This kind of ice mist is very likely caused by a Wendigo."
"A Wendigo?" Mitchell showed a puzzled expression. He was not a native Northerner; he came from the central part of the continent and hadn't heard much about the legend of the Wendigo.
Naturally, he had little reverence for this extraordinary creature.
"Yes, a Wendigo, a legendary man-eating evil spirit. When it appears, ice mist and cold wind will also appear...!"
The bandit's voice suddenly became sharp. He tremblingly pointed at a black silhouette in the ice mist, unable to utter a complete sentence for a long time.
"It, it... the Wendigo is here!"
Mitchell subconsciously raised his crossbow and shot a bolt at the dark figure.
The crossbow bolt disappeared into the ice mist. Although he didn't know if it hit, he still suppressed his growing fear and blurted out arrogantly:
"Hmph, what Wendigo? Watch me shoot it back."
He reloaded the crossbow, but before he could aim at the target, the dark figure, which should have been some distance away, suddenly erupted, appearing before him in the blink of an eye.
The moment he saw the true face of the dark figure, he was so startled that his hand trembled, and he instinctively pulled the trigger.
The crossbow bolt shot out. Before he could react, his vision instantly went black. When he regained his senses, he witnessed an unbelievable scene.
The tall figure extended his left hand, steadily catching the fired crossbow bolt, appearing completely at ease.
"Your turn is over," Mo Di sneered from beneath his helmet. "Now it's my turn."