Traveling with the Caravan
Bi Tan had the appearance of an obese and tall middle-aged man, with brown hair, a sharp nose, and a strong body.
He had more than one identity, at first glance he was the baron of Greenland City but he was also a sect elder of the Petal Blossom Sect all this was thanks to a treasure he obtained at Immortal Cave fifteen years ago allowing him to change appearance at will.
It was a special mask, which allowed him to confuse anyone even the cultivators at the Violet Core realm unless they cultivated special techniques or had a special constitution.
It did not only change his face but also his physics, and with this treasure he was able to improve his strength very fast and deceive everyone. With this treasure, the once untalented man stuck at the Sixth Level of Qi Condensation for a long time started to get stronger and breakthrough through the past bottlenecks.
With this mask, he participated in all the meetings of the Alliance against the Ice Hell Sect as a past member he had killed ten years ago.
Right now Bi Tan was sitting with Petal Blossom sect's master Mu Tiang, drinking tea together.
Mu Tiang was an old man with green hair and dark skin slightly hunched back. He was holding a small sword, which looked more like a half-sword than a normal one.
while sipping the cup of tea Mu Tiang looked at Bi Tan "You said that you wanted to tell me something important, vital for our sect's survival."
Bi Tan cast a sideways glance at Mu Tiang, then answered in a relaxed and idle tone. "What do you think about going against the Ice Hell Sect."
Mu Tiang stared at him in disbelief, unsure of what Bi Tan meant. Thinking more, he remembered what had happened forty years ago. "What, you are thinking about fighting the Ice Hell Sect? Have you gone insane, you must be joking."
Bi Tan slowly shook his head, he didn't look angry or happy as if what he was saying was normal and easy as if what he wanted to destroy was a small sect and not the Behemoth Ice Hell Sect.
"...No. I mean it. I plan to destroy them, I want to see the look on their arrogant faces at that time."
Mu Tiang blinked.
"Wait, seriously? Are you still holding a grudge against the Dark City lord for killing your father? You are going to die if you don't forget those thoughts and grudges." Mu Tiang didn't want to see Bi Tan die like his father, he felt useless for failing to protect Bi Tan's father who was his best friend.
Bi Tan tilted his head and looked at Mu Tian with empty eyes.
"...No. It's you and them that are going to die. Do you think I don't know what happened that day, you stood there silently when that bastard killed my father your sworn brother. Even after all those years you never tried to take revenge, instead, you become their faithful dog."
Mu Tian stood up from his seat, but before he did anything. He felt a sudden pressure emanating from the ground, it made his movements slightly sluggish. As for Bi Tan, he stayed on his chair as if he didn't feel anything.
Mu Tian felt shocked, "Who told you this?"
Bi Tan sneered "You thought that you could hide the truth forever, hmph don't think so. Now you will die, but you won't be lonely soon everyone that bastard holds dear will also die, only then will I kill him."
"You have gone mad, and now you want to kill me just because I couldn't protect your father." Shouted Mu Tiang before taking his sword out and attacking Bi Tan.
Mu Tiang's small sword turned into a huge sword emitting dangerous vibes ready to destroy whatever stood in its way. Despite his strength being restricted by the formation set by Bi Tan Mu Tiang's sword destroyed all the furniture only with its pressure nothing more.
As for Bi Tan he stood up calmly and threw a punch toward Mu Tiang's sword.
As an expert at the peak of the tenth level of Qi Condensation, Mu Tiang's attack was so strong that it could obliterate a castle, a strong mortal army of a thousand men would die in one attack.
And that was only a small portion of the strength of someone at the peak of Qi Condensation, which was by no way simple. Someone at that level could live for two hundred years, never getting sick.
But strangely Bi Tan's succeeded in blocking the attack with his bare hands, despite being only at level eight of Condensation. But he didn't remain unharmed, his fist was dyed red, his upper body exposed and bloodied but he didn't seem fazed.
Removing the little blood from his mouth, Bi Tan laughed maniacally
"Haha, you are strong. Yet, you are a coward just a puppet in their hands.
As for Mu Tiang, he was surprised that Bi Tan survived his attack, even though he didn't attack with all his strength, it was enough to injure severely or even kill someone at level Eight of Qi Condensation.
Yet here stood Bi Tan in front of him, with defiant eyes and only slightly injured.
Looking at the ceiling, Mu Tiang jumped suddenly backward. Soon, a wave of dark flames descended from above, obliterating everything in its way.
As for Bi Tan he didn't miss the chance and jumped punching Mu Tiang with all his strength. The punch was so powerful that Mu Tiang knew that he couldn't meet it head-on, so he evaded to the left and used the effect of the punch propelling his body before looking at the woman who had descended from the ceiling.
It was a striking, confident woman in her early thirties, with short, raven-black hair and icy blue eyes. The woman wore a dark blue robe with silver embroidery that traced intricate patterns along the hem and cuffs.
Seeing the woman, Mu Tiang's expression turned dark. He furiously shouted
"You even allied with the demonic sect."
At Mu Tiang's response, Bi Tan sneered, "So what, working with the demonic sect is better than those arrogant from the Ice Hell Sect! Now, you will die and from then I will take the Plum Blossom Sect to its glory vanquishing the evil sect especially that owl bastard and his disciples."
Mu Tiang was tired of talking with Bi Tan so he activated his secret technique, the Plume Blossom Feather technique which allowed him to transfer his sword into a set of feathers, each strong enough to kill an expert at the ninth level of Qi Condensation and heavily injure someone at the peak of Qi Condensation.
This technique was hard to learn, and to master it required more talent and effort. But Mu Tiang was dedicated and worked hard and finally mastered it, which allowed him to become one of the strongest in the middle-grade sects.
Bi Tan knew that the next attack was powerful and he couldn't resist it with his body alone, so he covered himself with armor all over his body and also used a shield to protect against the attack.
As for the woman instead of defending, she used her spear to attack Mu Tiang, her spear transformed into red roses confronting Mu Tiang's attack.
Due to those attacks, the building started to show signs of crumbling but it was still holding and the formation was still putting pressure on Mu Tiang.
...
The Yan Family ruled the Spirit Dome City, the current head of the family was Yan Ming a young man in his twenties. As for the last one his father, he was killed by the Demonic Sect alongside Yan Ming's mother while traveling outside the city.
Due to this, he vowed to take revenge upon them, but unfortunately, he had a new responsibility, and that was to take care of not only the city but also his brother and sister.
Currently, Yan Ming was sitting at a large table, in front of him sat a man in his forties. The old man looked fatigued his brows furrowing, as for Yan Ming he was eating silently.
Yan Ming's body was fully developed which showed that he was training very hard in martial arts, "Little Ming, I was a good friend of your father. If you need anything feel free to tell me I will try my hardest, if not then I don't have time for a big meal." Said the old man.
Yan Ming didn't get angry in the slightest, he said "I understand uncle, I know that you are thinking of a way to protect sister Meiling, but at the same time you don't want to leave the sect." Yan Ming saw the old man sigh, he then continued "Unfortunately even as the lord of this city, I have no power over your sect. But I've got some news that might be helpful to you."
Hearing the last sentence, the old man whose expression was bleak started to change, he knew that the son of his friend wasn't a liar.
"As you should know the Qihou War's approaching and the sects started to take action, especially the Ice Hell Sect." The young man then continued "I received a letter that one of the Ice Hell Sect's disciples will come to our city and that we should provide him with enough money to raise an army of fully equipped 200 men."
The old man didn't interrupt, he was thinking and analyzing the situation. He was Shi Du, Shi Meiling's father who despite being an elder from the Spirit Dome Sect, was pressured by the attempts of Bai Qing to marry his sole daughter.
Bai Qing didn't only have the backing of the other elders and the sect master of Spirit Dome Sect but also the Plum Blossom Sect which made things worse.
Before Shi Meiling's birth, he was the most talented disciple of the Spirit Dome Sect, the past sect master wanted to make him the next sect master but due to an accident at his daughter's birth, not only was his wife imprisoned but even his cultivation deteriorated a lot and he couldn't advance anymore but despite that, he managed to stay at the level 5 of Qi Condensation.
He then became an elder of the sect and stopped adventuring choosing to take care of his daughter.
If Bai Qing was a normal guy, and Shi Meiling liked him then he might have accepted the marriage since he was talented and had a bright future ahead of him, but the problem was that he only considered his precious daughter as a future member of his collection of women, not a true wife.
"Thank you for the information, I will search for a way out." Said the old man before mounting on a sword and flying.
As for Yan Ming, after hitting a little ringtone by his side, a maid came"Call my sister and brother for Lunch."
…..
It was noon and the RoamRigs caravan was heading to the Imperial City, it was bringing some rare products of the north also some travelers who feared bandits and beasts on the way chose to participate.
Wang Yu who grew tired of traveling alone, stood in front of the caravan.
Seeing someone ahead, three men mounting on strong horses came to him.
The man in the front had a scar on his chin and a strong, big body that looked intimidating. The other two were also strong and didn't fear death.
"Why are you standing in our way?" Shouted the man in the middle who looked to be their leader, despite his bravado, he felt cautious since the boy in front of them was unscathed despite being alone in this forest.
So he either came with a company or was one of the people he couldn't afford to anger "a cultivator", so he decided to be careful when dealing with him.
Wang Yu who was evaluating the caravan, suddenly looked in the direction of the man before saying "Well, I've grown sick of traveling alone so I would like to come with you."
Seeing the hesitant and wary look of the men, Wang Yu threw a golden coin saying "I will stop at the Spirit Dome City."
Even though the leader wanted to reject the offer he was afraid that Wang Yu might be dangerous, as for the other two men, they were suspicious of why their leader who used to be a little unreasonable was behaving quietly in front of the boy. So in the end the man accepted the payment and said "You are welcome, we don't have enough places but you can go to cart number 5."
After that one of the two men behind the leader went to guide Wang Yu, and he showed him around, leading toward cart 5.
"Keep an eye on him but make sure he doesn't notice it." Said the leader to his subordinate.
Wang Yu didn't hear them since he was tens of meters away but he felt their gazes on his back. Nonetheless, he didn't care
Within the cart was, a woman in her thirties with an above-average look by her side was her daughter who was five years old.
Also, two old men who were having a debate about politics, but the one who drew Wang Yu's attention was a youth who was in his sixteen unlike Wang Yu, he was tall and handsome his sharp eyes were looking at a sword in his hand while cleaning it.
His whole attention had been on the sword not paying attention to the dispute between the two men.
His eyes only left his sword when Wang Yu entered the cargo with the guard, fixating slightly on Wang Yu.
Looking at the boy who was of the same age as him, Wang Yu evaluated him to be someone at the Silver Tier which was very rare considering his age and that he's not a cultivator.
Wang Yu was an exception due to the Everlasting Turtle Technique and the training environment inside the Darkness Forest, generally, people of their age even if trained young would be at the Bronze Tier at most unless they were cultivators.
"Great we have a new company, let's ask them what they think of the decision of the second prince's decision of marrying a woman from a merchant family of the Holy Kingdom." Said one of the old men who wore a green robe and had an Oak stick by hand when he saw Wang Yu and the guard enter, facing this situation Wang Yu was surprised but the guard only snorted and left after saying "This is the cart you will stay on until we reach Spirit Dome City."
"Come youngster sit by my side," said the old man in a green robe before making a place for Wang Yu to sit by his side.
Wang Yu didn't want to reject the offer so he sat by the side of the old man who looked happy before patting Wang Yu's back and saying "I'm Mu Shing an old man who wants the good for our beautiful empire, and last month I heard that the Second prince wanted to marry a woman from our opponents don't think I'm discriminating it's just now is not the time for this."
The other old man who wore a yellow robe and was slightly younger than Mu Shing, became angry and said "Listen, young man, this old man is really discriminating, I'm Hu Yang and I'm from the Evergreen Kingdom and my only enjoyment is to travel the world, see new people, places, taste new food and play new games from my experience there is no difference between us humans we are all the same so why those wars and disputes.
When I heard that the prince wanted to marry a woman from another kingdom I started to feel hope for the world where humans' origin is not important, only their hearts and actions.
Mu Shing yelled, "Enough old man Hu, you may not know but in three years or more the Mortal War will start, and like always the empire is going to face the collaboration of the two other kingdoms, from then everything will change even love will sway in front of bloodline, will the bride continue to love the husband when her parents, relatives die, unless they plan to betray their kingdom."
"Let's ask the young man, I'm tired of speaking to you." Said Mu Shing, "Young man what do you think of the prince's decision."
As for Wang Yu, he found himself in a strange situation while all the eyes inside the cart were looking at him.
"I don't know, maybe this marriage won't have any major impact as you think. If it was harmful for the empire then the Emperor would have refused it. Besides, does the prince have any military power?" Said Wang Yu who knew that he was very ignorant about the situation of the world due to his experience but he wanted to answer nonetheless.
Mu Shing then said "Yes I feel that the lack of action from the emperor means that it won't be a problem. As for your question of whether the Crown Prince has any military power, forgive me but it's a strange question, the second prince has the right to lead all the generals, and he has the right to execute them so besides the Emperor and the Grand Marshal he has the highest authority."
Hearing this Wang Yu found it funny how they didn't mention the Chancellor who was an elder of the Ice Hell Sect which should accord him the highest authority of everyone but it seemed that the sect preferred to be hidden from the mortal world and chose to let the royal family take highlight in front of the mortal world.
The two old men didn't stop and continued talking, they talked about the Grand Marshal's granddaughter who refused the third prince's proposals, they also talked about the First Princess who was also a talented general, and the dispute between Duke Yaomi and Duke Tan.
Wang Yu enjoyed things at first but as time passed he started to understand why the young man preferred to sit alone, the two old men talked about everything that may come to mind, and they talked in a loud voice.
During this, the lady and her daughter were watching silently while the daughter was smiling not understanding the problem. As for the young man, he just sat there showing an annoyed look while caressing his sword.