Chapter 180: The Girl Enters the Mountain Stronghold

Entering the mountain stronghold.

An acrid stench immediately assaulted her senses, nauseating and overwhelming.

It was a mixture of sour rot from cheap, inferior liquor, the pungent smell of sweat from long unwashed bodies, and some indescribable odor, like the putrid fermentation of piled-up garbage.

Wherever she looked, the inside of the stronghold was a chaotic mess.

Several bandits left behind to guard the place were gambling and drinking, startled by her sudden appearance, just reaching for their weapons to shout out.

“Pfft!”

Without even giving them the chance to let out a full sound, “Da Hei” moved.

That rust-stained, blood-dried massive knight’s sword swung out with a dull rush cutting through the air, as effortless as slicing through melons and vegetables.

The gleam of the blade passed by, accompanied by the crisp snap of breaking bones.

The few gate-guarding bandits didn’t even manage a complete scream.

Su Nian’s amber eyes swiftly scanned the filthy, chaotic stronghold, her brows involuntarily knitting tighter.

Soon, her gaze was drawn to a crude prison in the corner, enclosed by thick wooden bars, rough and simplistic.

On the prison floor lay moldy straw, within which a few shadowy figures curled up.

Women.

Their clothes were tattered, hair dry and tangled, faces and bodies smudged with dirt.

Seeing this scene, a chilling frost flickered deep within Su Nian’s clear amber eyes.

She stepped forward, her pale fingers lightly slicing through the air.

Invisible magic power surged.

“Crack!”

The wooden bars, which had seemed fairly sturdy, snapped apart on cue, falling to the ground like rotted timber.

The imprisoned women shrank back violently, staring at her with terror, casting fearful glances at the terrifying knight “Da Hei” standing like a statue beside her, shrinking there, frozen in place.

Su Nian’s gaze did not linger on them for long.

What mattered most right now was to confirm certain things.

She turned and began a thorough search inside the stronghold, her movements crisp and decisive.

Soon, inside a room that was clearly the leader’s—relatively “cleaner” than the rest—she made a discovery.

Several letters, their handwriting messy and hurried, lay scattered on the floor.

On a weapons rack against the wall rested a standard-issue longsword.

The style of the sword, and the not overly complex crest on its hilt and guard, were immediately recognizable to Su Nian.

It was the standard longsword of the Red Maple Kingdom Knight Order.

A closer look at the fine details on the edge of the crest revealed it was exactly the same as those worn by knights she had seen in Bai Shui Town before.

Belonging to the Gale Knights under the Morsen Family, commanded by Leon Morsen!

Just as she suspected.

Her theory was confirmed, everything connected.

At that moment, from the prison, one woman who looked a little older and braver noticed how Su Nian had sliced through the sturdy wooden bars with a wave of her hand.

Recalling how the ordinarily ferocious bandits outside had suddenly fallen silent, she seemed to clutch at this last straw of hope and summoned all her courage.

She struggled to crawl over, her voice trembling violently with both excitement and fear.

“Th-this… this noble mage… Mamm….”

Su Nian paused her search through the letters, turning her head, her gaze calm as it rested on the woman lying on the ground.

The woman seemed to see a flicker of hope in Su Nian’s steady eyes; her despair instantly transformed into a torrent of desperate accusations.

Ignoring everything else, she bowed repeatedly to Su Nian, her forehead striking the filthy floor with heavy thuds.

Tears mixed with dirt carved streaks down her haggard face.

“Master!”

Her sobs were heart-wrenching and piercing, filled with endless grievance and the pain of betrayal.

“Please! Please save us! Save us poor souls!”

“We were tricked here by those damned knights!”

The woman’s voice choked and broken, yet each word stabbed sharply into the heart.

“They came to us, saying the town was polluted by the Plague, that there was a safe camp in the mountains prepared by noble lords, a place to avoid the Plague!”

“They patted their chests and swore they would protect us! Escorted us all the way there!”

“We believed them! We all believed them!”

“And what happened? They brought us to this hellhole!”

“Then they… they just left us here with these bandits, worse than beasts!”

“The knights in their shining armor ran off faster than rabbits! Leaving us here to suffer!”

Her accusations dripped with blood and tears; every syllable was filled with the despair and agony of being betrayed by those trusted.

Her words, combined with the knight’s longsword Su Nian had just found, and the vague letters hinting at orders and transactions, instantly pieced together a complete, ugly picture in her mind.

The Morsen Family crest was clearly visible on the sword’s hilt.

Leon Morsen.

The Gale Knights.

The Necromancer.

Bandits.

The Plague.

All of it was connected by a filthy thread, forming a nauseating chain of greed and innocent bloodshed.

These bandits were not some random marauders drifting in by chance.

They were the Morsen Family’s, the Gale Knights’ vicious dogs bred in the shadows!

They were the dirty tools used to oppress commoners, create chaos, cover up crimes, and line their own pockets!!

Su Nian bent down, gently gathering the scattered letters and carefully storing them in her storage space.

She picked up the knightly longsword representing the kingdom’s order once more.

The evidence was enough.

She slowly turned around.

Her cold gaze, sharp as the finest blade, swept across the bandits tied up and thrown on the ground like trash by the terrifying knight “Da Hei.”

Including those few who had just been casually cut down by “Da Hei,” still barely alive, lowly groaning.

Her eyes no longer held any hesitation, only the icy, merciless killing intent of eternal frost.

There was no point in leaving these scum alive.

Their testimonies held no weight against the mighty Morsen Family, and they might even recant at any moment, becoming tools for false accusations.

Besides, who could she hand this so-called “evidence” to?

The kingdom’s law?

Or the exalted king far away in the capital?

The Morsen Family, stationed at Mossenburg, controlled nearly half the kingdom’s military forces.

Just a few vague letters and a standard knight’s sword were hardly enough to shake this colossal power.

Never mind the entire Morsen Family.

Even the knight order carrying out their commands might not truly be accused.

The rules governing this world were becoming clearer and clearer to her.

Brutal.

Harsh.

The nobility’s authority was always built upon the knight orders and armies they commanded, on the bloodstained edges of blades.

They held the power to define the rules.

They themselves were part of the rules.

Judgment?

Who could judge them?

Collecting this evidence.

Perhaps it was only to soothe the restless conscience within.

To give those brutally wronged innocents a faint, hollow explanation.

Nothing more.

Su Nian slowly turned.

Her gaze calmly swept over the writhing, wailing bandits on the ground.

“Da Hei.”

Her voice rang out, terrifyingly calm, without a flicker of emotion.

The terrifying knight shifted slightly; the eerie blue soul flames in his hollow eye sockets flickered once.

“Dispose of them… all of them.”

Su Nian paused briefly, each word enunciated clearly, carrying an unshakable resolution.

Though these letters and sword could not send the Morsen Family to the gallows, they were reason enough for those before her…

To die!