In a scene filled with the darkness of night, where the air was once filled with the sounds of blades slashing and screams of agony, now there was an eerie silence.
Tristan unexpectedly managed to slit the mountain bandit's throat in an instant, causing the cold, lifeless body to fall to the ground, his eyes empty, and his blood mixed with the dirt.
Zhou Yue, Zhou Lan, and the mountain bandit stared at this with wide eyes.
Lan thought, 'Is this? Is this a miracle? That child really managed to kill that human demon?'
Tristan landed gracefully and looked at them with his expressionless face.
"What? What the hell? That boy is also a Martial Artist? Damn it!" the bandit said.
Tristan turned toward him and began to approach.
"Stop right there, you son of a bitch! One more step and this old man dies!" the bandit shouted, pointing his club at Zhou Lan's head.
Yue trembled with fear and looked at Tristan.
"Don't worry about me, children, just go!" Zhou Lan said in a trembling and weak voice due to his debilitated condition.
Tristan briefly glanced at Zhou Lan, then turned his face toward the bandit and said,
"So what?" He shrugged.
"What? Are you not listening to me? I said I'll kill the old man!" The bandit, initially confused, shouted angrily.
"And I care why?"
Tristan spread his essence throughout his body, circulating his energy through his muscles and tendons, concentrating his strength in his legs as he advanced toward the bandit.
Realizing his hostage was useless, the bandit took a fighting stance.
"You crazy bastard!" the bandit said.
A small smile appeared on Tristan's face; his jet-black eyes, usually cold and empty like the night, now glimmered with a certain emotion, a flame of enthusiasm shining in his small eyes.
"Don't worry, you'll be joining your friend in hell soon enough!"
He thought, 'This will be the third time I kill a human, and strangely, I feel no discomfort. Shouldn't killing other humans bring some negative feelings?'
But all that was in his heart was a slight feeling of:
'Fun? Is this fun?'
Quickly, Tristan approached his enemy. The bandit tried to strike his head, but he managed to duck. The bandit then took a step back, adjusting his club to crush Tristan's head from above.
He dodged without much difficulty.
"He has the reach advantage while I'm more agile and faster. I need to get closer!"
But the bandit, fearful of his ability, always kept a safe distance.
"Impossible! How can a child fight against adults like this? You cultivators are freaks of nature, you shouldn't exist, die, you damned bastard!"
Driven by hatred and fury, the bandit gripped his club harder and tried to hit him with everything he had.
Using his enhanced vision, Tristan predicted his enemy's movements, dodging all of his strikes.
"Again? Don't you realize it's useless? Why don't you just surrender already? I hate wasting time. I'll give you a quick death if you do, but if not, I swear you'll suffer."
Yue watched this, impressed. Tristan was incredibly fast, and with his strange black blade, he actually managed to make the bandit retreat.
'Dusk is also a Darkness cultivator? How can he fight alone against that bandit? His core is only red?' Many thoughts passed through Yue's mind, but the main one was how they could resolve their situation.
Yue ran to her fallen and bleeding grandfather.
"Grandfather! Are you okay?" She asked nervously.
"Hmmm," he groaned slightly and struggled to stand.
"Don't… worry about me," Lan replied.
They looked at Tristan's battle against the bandit.
After repeated failures to close the distance with the mountain bandit, Tristan turned his face, his dark vision scanning the battlefield briefly, and saw the moment when Liao fled, leaving Jian alone to face the bandits.
'That's troublesome. They'll kill Jian soon, and facing a group of enemies without my arms is beyond impossible. I need to end this now and get out of here!'
Clicking his tongue, he made another attempt to get closer. The bandit stepped back again, aiming at Tristan's right shoulder, but surprisingly, this time, it seemed he would succeed.
Tristan stood still, raising his two bandaged arms to take the blow.
Pain!
He felt intense pain.
His arms could break.
Well, they probably would have if Darkness cultivation hadn't made his body more flexible. This gave him a considerable resistance to impacts.
His enemy's eyes widened in surprise, and a smile appeared on his face, believing victory was already his.
Enduring the pain from the strike and not wasting any time, Tristan's leg moved like a snake. He took advantage of his enemy's brief moment of joy and the now-close distance between them and charged with everything he had.
The black blade in his leg pierced his enemy's thigh with little difficulty.
"GRAAHH," the bandit let out a loud scream.
Tristan moved his leg upward, slicing up toward the abdomen.
With such a shock of intense pain, the bandit dropped his club and fell to the ground in agony.
"Bastard! You wretched child… I… curse you!" the bandit, trembling in pain, tried to say.
"Curse me all you want."
He smiled and kicked his enemy's throat again to keep him from making too much noise and alerting his friends.
His enemy fell to the ground, his throat cut, casting a piercing glare at him before dying.
Tristan looked over at Jian's battle; things there seemed to be ending quickly.
He thought to himself,
'I can escape now, taking advantage of Jian keeping the bandits occupied. But there's a chance they'll come after me later.'
'Or I can try to reduce their numbers even more. That's the more dangerous option.'
'What should I do?'