Starting with The Eagle Shooting Heroes: I gain a year's worth of skill every day.

"Go and kill the evildoers."

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Mo continued walking without pausing for a moment.

Li Mochou jogged to catch up, and the prosperity of Jiaxing City quickly receded behind her.

The two found a clothing shop and changed out of the Quanzhen Taoist robes that had already caused a great stir in the martial arts world.

Instead, they wore ordinary Jianghu (江湖) attire, one green and one blue, blending into the crowd and becoming inconspicuous.

Instead of taking the noisy official roads, they chose the remote and difficult paths most prone to crime.

The rugged mountain road winds its way through the increasingly dense forests on both sides.

Li Mochou followed behind, looking at her master's tall and straight back, and finally couldn't help but speak.

"Master, are we...seeking evil and killing evil?"

She repeated her master's words, her childish voice revealing a hint of confusion, but mostly an irrepressible excitement.

Shen Mo paused in his steps.

He didn't turn around, but simply responded with a flat "yes".

"Um."

One word, nothing more.

Just then, from around the bend in the mountain path ahead, a heart-wrenching cry and a wild shout shattered the tranquility of the forest.

"Help!"

"Leave the goods! That little wench, take her back to my mountain stronghold to be my wife!"

"Hahaha! Shout all you want! You can scream your lungs out, but do you think some god will come to save you in this desolate wilderness!"

Li Mochou's face turned deathly pale instantly, and she instinctively grabbed Shen Mo's clothes.

Shen Mo's movements did not falter in the slightest; instead, he quickened his pace.

After turning a bend in the mountain valley, the scene before me was horrific and bloody.

A small caravan was surrounded by a dozen or so fierce bandits wielding sharp blades. Seven or eight guards had already fallen to the ground, their blood staining the yellow earth a dark red.

The bandit leader, a one-eyed man with a face full of scars, was grinning maliciously as he reached out his filthy black hand to grab a trembling caravan girl.

"I'm the leader of Black Wind Stronghold! Within a hundred miles, even the government has to give me some face! If you know what's good for you, you'd better come with me!"

Before the words were finished, a green shadow flashed by like a ghost.

The one-eyed man felt a blur before his eyes, and the wrist he reached for the girl was firmly gripped by a hand like an iron clamp.

Shen Mo appeared.

He didn't even glance at the one-eyed man; he simply flicked his finger.

Click!

With a sharp crack, the one-eyed man's wrist snapped in the opposite direction at an odd angle, and the white bone fragments pierced through his flesh!

"ah--!"

Heart-wrenching screams echoed through the mountains and forests.

"Who the hell are you?!"

The surrounding bandits then realized what was happening and roared as they charged forward, brandishing their knives.

Shen Mo released his grip, letting the one-eyed man clutch his severed wrist and wail in agony.

He pointed his fingers like a sword, his figure darting through the crowd, his mind flowing with the essential moves of the Quanzhen Swordplay.

This is one of the many martial arts techniques he brought down from Zhongnan Mountain, but he has yet to master them.

Now is the perfect time to use these people's lives to feed the sword.

He used his fingers as a sword, executing each move with a hint of deliberate imitation, which made him appear somewhat awkward.

However, these clumsy moves, in the eyes of a bandit, became an inescapable death warrant.

puff!

With fingertips as sharp as cones, he pierced the bandit's throat with unparalleled precision.

The bandit's fierce expression froze instantly, and then he fell straight down.

In Shen Mo's mind, the words on the ancient mirror quietly appeared.

Good/Evil Points +10.

Without stopping, he executed another "prodigal son returns" move, lightly tracing the neck of another bandit with his fingertips.

A line of blood burst open, and blood splattered.

Good/Evil Points +20.

In his eyes, these bandits' martial arts skills were no different from those of a three-year-old child.

He was using these sinful lives to nourish his still-developing swordsmanship.

The movements went from clumsy to fluid, each move becoming increasingly graceful and harmonious.

With each finger strike, a bandit fell.

Each time the inscription on the ancient mirror appears, it signifies the end of a sinful life.

Li Mochou and the surviving members of the caravan were completely dumbfounded.

They witnessed a massacre that didn't resemble a fight.

The young man in blue strolled leisurely, tapping lightly with his fingertips.

Wherever they went, men and horses fell over.

There were no shouts, no unnecessary movements, only extreme efficiency and indifference.

"He's a devil...he's a devil!"

The one-eyed bandit leader was so terrified that he scrambled to escape.

Shen Mo's figure appeared behind him like a ghost.

"The government, are they going to give you any face?"

Those cold words were the last sounds the bandit leader heard.

puff!

A finger pierced through the back of the heart.

Good/Evil Points +100.

[I have mastered the basics of the Quanzhen Swordplay.]

As the last bandit fell, the mountain path returned to deathly silence, leaving only the heavy smell of blood.

"Thank you so much, my benefactor! Thank you so much, my benefactor, for saving my life!"

The caravan manager was the first to react. He led the survivors to their knees and kowtow to Shen Mo.

Shen Mo didn't even look at them.

His gaze fell on the small figure beside him.

Li Mochou's face was a little pale, but there was little fear in her large, clear eyes.

It was a strange light, a mixture of longing and fervor, born from being awestruck by absolute power.

Is this what Master meant by killing evil people?

So, killing can be this simple, this straightforward.

……

We found a secluded mountain stream.

He sat cross-legged in silence, his mind sinking into his thoughts.

On the ancient mirror, the points of good and evil have accumulated to a considerable number.

Without the slightest hesitation.

"Dedicate all your efforts to the Quanzhen Swordplay."

hum!

The ancient mirror trembled slightly, and the four simple characters on its surface flashed wildly before finally settling.

The Complete Swordplay (Perfect).

A complex yet refined understanding of swordsmanship instantly flooded into Shen Mo's mind.

Techniques, variations, essentials, profound meanings... everything was instantly integrated and transformed into his body's instincts.

He opened his eyes and calmly spoke to Li Mochou, who was sitting upright in front of him.

"From this day forward, I will teach you martial arts."

Li Mochou's eyes brightened.

Shen Mo began by teaching the most basic introductory mental techniques and martial arts of the Quanzhen School, explaining each word in great detail.

Finally, he looked into Li Mochou's bright eyes, his voice calm yet containing an undeniable power.

"Look closely, what you just saw was evil."

"And martial arts are what give you the right to judge 'evil'."

These words were imprinted on Li Mochou's heart more deeply than any preaching.

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

Over the course of the past month, Shen Mo's internal energy silently broke through the sixty-year mark, increasing automatically every day. His aura became increasingly profound and restrained to the extreme, making him appear no different from an ordinary person.

He, along with Li Mochou, pacified three bandit strongholds similar to "Black Wind Stronghold" along the way.

They were all colluding with bandits, exploiting and oppressing the local people.

He killed with a clear conscience.

……

Meanwhile, in the back hall of a local government office.

A local official in his official robes was facing a portly, well-dressed gentryman, his face covered in cold sweat.

"Master Qian, things... have completely escalated! All your 'properties' outside the city—Black Wind Stronghold, Tiger Ridge... have been wiped out! Not a single survivor was left!"

The local gentry known as Master Qian was actually the real backer of these bandit strongholds. Upon hearing this, his hand holding the teacup trembled violently, spilling tea.

"Not a single one left? Who did it? A feud between gangsters?"

"It's a young江湖人 (jianghu ren, a person from the martial arts world), with a young girl!" The official's voice trembled. "According to several spies who managed to escape, his martial arts skills are eerily high; he kills people like chickens!"

Mr. Qian slammed his teacup down on the table, his fat face filled with resentment.

"A江湖人 (Jianghu people)? How dare they cut off my livelihood! Lord Zhang, are your soldiers just sitting around doing nothing? Send troops to wipe them out!"

"Suppress? How can we suppress him!" The official was jumping up and down in a panic. "This man comes and goes without a trace, and his martial arts are superb. Sending troops to surround and suppress him is just suicide! If the commotion gets out, and our collusion with the bandits is exposed to the higher-ups, we'll both lose our heads!"

Old Master Qian narrowed his small eyes and paced back and forth in the room, his malice growing stronger.

A moment later, he stopped, a wicked plan forming in his mind.

"If we can't do it openly, then we'll borrow the imperial court's sword!"

He leaned close to the official's ear and whispered, "Immediately write a letter in blood, saying that a distant relative of mine, a nephew who worked for the 'Six Doors' in Lin'an, was brutally murdered by a sorcerer while visiting his hometown! His entire family was slaughtered, leaving no trace!"

"Include the dead from those mountain strongholds as well, claiming they were innocent villagers slaughtered! Exaggerate the incident, make it sound horrific! Say this sorcerer is indiscriminately killing innocent people, intending to unleash a bloodbath in the martial world and challenge the imperial laws!"

The official's eyes lit up instantly, then he hesitated: "But... what if that person is cornered and resorts to desperate measures..."

"Fool!" Master Qian sneered. "It's precisely because they're desperate that they're so effective! The Six Doors, which deals with matters of the martial world, hates nothing more than these so-called martial arts heroes acting lawlessly! My nephew may have been just a minor officer, but he died in office. For the sake of its reputation, the Six Doors must send experts to investigate! Once they arrive, are we afraid they won't find out who that killer is? Then it'll be a battle between the Six Doors and that man! We'll sit back and watch!"

"Brilliant! Mr. Qian is truly brilliant!"

A secret letter, written in blood and written with poignant language, was delivered by express courier over 800 li (approximately 400 kilometers) through special channels, bypassing layers of government offices, and was sent to Lin'an Prefecture, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, at top speed.

The headquarters of the Six Doors.

A middle-aged detective, dressed in a qilin robe, with a gold badge at his waist and eyes as sharp as a hawk, finished reading the secret letter in his hand, his face so gloomy it could drip water.

"What a magnificent sight!"

He slammed the blood-written letter onto the table and gave a stern order to the door.

"Pass down the order! 'Swift Detective' Han Tong, immediately lead twelve top-ranking constables to Jiaxing Prefecture!"

"A warrant for the arrest of a young Taoist priest, approximately twenty years old, and his accompanying young girl, is to be posted nationwide!"

"Tell Han Tong that this case must be thoroughly investigated and the truth revealed!"

"I want to see him alive or dead!"