59. The tea-house is opened once again

When bandits attacked the merchant caravan, they split it into two parts. The first part was heavily protected and guarded, making it difficult for the bandits to breach. Over five thousand bandits had been recruited for the attack and had been given pills to awaken as cultivators, though they remained at the early first stage with no prospects for advancement. Their task was to assault the less defended sections of the caravan, from the middle to the end, preventing assistance from reaching the front.

Each slug-house had at least one cultivator, typically the owner, at the Qi Condensation realm. Half of the bandits were sent to the front to block the leader and high-realm cultivators from sending reinforcements, acting as a shield for the true bandits who targeted the first ten slug houses.

These houses contained the caravan's true wealth—vast amounts of spirit stones, treasures, weapons, and cultivation techniques. The caravan leader, at the early stage of Core Formation, had lived for an exceptionally long time and amassed enormous wealth, carried with the core part of the caravan. Zhan Liang, well-known in the Han province, led one of the largest and strongest merchant caravans, supported by Feng Huayuan from Peng City.

Despite their large numbers, the bandits were not a strong force, but they did have a few Element Finding members. This prevented the caravan leader from wiping them out in one fell swoop, as they didn't know the exact number of enemies or if there were any Core Formation realm members among them.

Their only hope was to reach Peng City, a fortress-like city that protected the mountain road. The city leader, a Mid-stage Core Formation cultivator, would surely protect them, but they had no way to contact him.

The caravan leader decided to abandon the rest of the caravan and, with the ten core slug houses, attempted to breach the city to secure help for the rest of the caravan. Initially, they didn't know the strength of the bandits, so the leader didn't attempt to eradicate them when they first attacked. With years of experience, he knew such a large-scale attack wasn't without significant cause. After encountering enemy Element Finding realm cultivators, they avoided confrontation and focused on fleeing.

Thanks to a secret intervention by a deity, the caravan leader had acquired a special book on array formations. This book allowed him to link all the slugs and create a life barrier, ensuring the slugs and houses wouldn't be destroyed unless all the defenders died. This formation enabled them to withstand nearly two months of constant attacks with minimal losses and even retaliate.

The bandits discovered that inside the leader's house was a creation plant producing low-grade spirit stones, preventing the slug fleet from collapsing and maintaining the protective array. The barrier, under constant attack, consumed a lot of energy, so the slugs were continuously fed with spirit stones, dead bodies not carrying about who went inside their mouths.

Meanwhile, the bandits' ranks were dwindling rapidly, suffering extreme losses without gaining anything valuable. Everything of worth was within the ten slug houses, protected by the barrier. Despite a month of relentless attacks, the bandits couldn't penetrate the barrier even once. They managed to kill more than half of the people inside the barrier, but only the lower realm cultivators due to their poor fighting abilities.

The forces remained evenly matched, and the fight continued until the merchant caravan reached Peng City. None of the high realm cultivators had died, so the battle remained unresolved. The bandits grew increasingly nervous as they realized one of the slug houses had been stationary near the battlefield for over a month. This indicated that the bandits sent to the back of the caravan had likely perished.

*****

Xu Yi was cultivating and gradually advancing to the early third stage, while Mei Lin slept upstairs. Meanwhile, Xu Jie was preparing lunch. Amid her preparations, two bandits arrived at the edge of the crater where the tea-house was located.

"What now? Do you think they'll tell us how to get inside the barrier?" one bandit asked.

"It will work. We're at the third stage of Body Tempering. Only one of them is close to the third stage too. It will be an easy job, much better than being near the real fight," the other bandit replied, watching a crystal ball glowing with a yellow light before putting it back in his storage bag.

They slowly walked to the tea-house and entered the first floor. Unnoticed by those inside, they were surprised by the clean interior, free of any signs of conflict. They quietly sat at the tea-table, waiting for someone to spot them and serve them. When Xu Jie finally noticed them, she was extremely scared, nearly jumping out of the window.

"What do you want here?" she asked, her voice trembling.

Both bandits laughed. "We're here for tea. Isn't this a tea-house?"

Xu Jie rushed back into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and pointed it at the bandits. "Do you not serve tea in your tea-house?" one of the bandits asked as he stood up. Xu Jie didn't respond but brought them the menu.

"If you want something to eat, I can bring you spirit fruits," she offered. The bandits chose tea and spirit fruits, which Xu Jie brought in a few minutes. After serving them, she returned to the kitchen to continue preparing lunch.

After putting water on to heat, Xu Jie approached the bandits to ask about the situation between the bandits and the caravan. She sat a little farther away from them. "My name is Xu Jie. Why did you come here?" The bandits stopped eating.

"We're here to find information about the barrier, but judging by the inactive barrier here, you don't know how it works," one bandit said. Xu Jie was surprised but didn't mention Mei Lin's master. "I've lived in the caravan for more than twenty years, and I've never seen anything like it."

The bandits knew she was a non-cultivator and wouldn't be able to help them. They planned to interrogate the children upstairs when they had the chance. For now, they enjoyed the calm after nearly two months of fighting and slaughter.

"And who are the two upstairs?" one bandit asked.

"They are my children. They also don't know anything about the barrier," Xu Jie replied.

"Hmm? It would be better to ask them personally. Maybe they'll tell someone who is a cultivator," the bandit suggested. Xu Jie was immediately angry and wanted to scream at them, but they didn't pursue the topic further and instead asked about their journey and if they had seen other bandits. Xu Jie recounted their journey and the exciting events along the way.

The bandits questioned Xu Jie about the caravan, trying to extract as much information as possible, but they didn't learn anything new. Xu Jie discovered that they couldn't do anything to the barrier. The bandits didn't want to go back either, as they would have to continue trying to breach the barrier and risk being killed. With their cultivation level, they were only pawns for the higher-ups.

They didn't even know why they were attacking the caravan. There must be something special inside the caravan for the bandit leaders to sacrifice so many troops to get it. If they could find a way to destroy the barrier, the fight would end quickly.

After lunch, the bandits ordered another round of tea and waited for Xu Jie to leave so they could interrogate her children on the second floor. At the right moment, one of them went to the kitchen to talk with Xu Jie about supplies they wanted to buy, ensuring she wouldn't notice as the other bandit quietly headed upstairs.

The bandit who went to the second floor was a middle-aged man in the early third stage of Body Tempering. As he arrived, he drew a short machete for protection, just in case they had any bad ideas and were waiting for him. Upon entering the second floor, he saw a young boy cultivating in the lotus position next to the window and a girl in a beautiful red robe with a white veil over her head, lying on the floor opposite the boy, covered by a blanket.

His decision was swift; he knew extracting information from the meditating Xu Yi would be futile, so he turned his attention to Mei Lin. Squatting down beside her, he gently pulled her veil to the side. Instantly, Mei Lin's stunning face and long, white hair were revealed, previously concealed by the veil. The sight of her beauty ignited a fire within him, and thoughts of claiming her began to flood his mind, a dark and illicit plan quickly taking shape.

He carefully picked Mei Lin up, her body alarmingly light in his arms, and began to carry her to the third floor. As he ascended the stairs, a faint groan escaped her lips, and her eyelids fluttered open. To his horror, her eyes were not like normal humans, but two red glowing eyes, glowing with an otherworldly malevolence.

The sight was so terrifying that even this seasoned warrior, a middle-aged man who had faced countless horrors in his years of battle, felt his blood run cold. His heart pounded in his chest, and for a moment, he nearly lost control, an instinctive scream threatening to escape his lips. The grotesque transformation of Mei Lin's eyes struck a primal fear in him, a fear that neither age nor status could suppress.