Sword of Light's Movement

While Mingyue and other company were moving around the Stone Gaze Forest in leisure, Xiao Jing was doing her thing.

From Mingyue's request, she had to find the trace of the group of the bastard, the same group of bastard that sprinkled the Beast Gathering Powder toward Zheng Zhanglie, Zheng Yi, and Peng Zheng.

Using Shadow Step, she was able to move around the Stone Gaze Forest, ten times faster that Mingyue's group speed.

And at the same time where Mingyue's group found the third and fourth corpse, Xiao Jing also found something interesting.

In front of her was no longer a bunch of Stone Trees, but rather a deep cliff with a small number of stone trees protruded from the wall around the cliff. Even though it was a little similar to a hole, the width was too wide to be called a hole – the diameter was around twenty or more metres.

Even though the cliff was deep enough, there was a faint trace of human's scent nearby, and some of it was focused from below.

It was a still fresh trail.

". . . Almost caught up with them. Should I kill them?" Xiao Jing made her report toward Mingyue while licking her paw in leisure.

"Follow them first. Find out their aim and the mastermind. This incident makes me interested. Hehehe." Mingyue had an evil smirk, thinking of the abnormality of the corpse. If those corpses acted as a decoy, its condition was a little weird. No matter how stupid the beast was, it was weird for them if they didn't clean their food, only enjoying the innards.

One might be coincidence, twice might be a little weird, thrice sure was a conspiracy.

Mingyue didn't know whether the scarcity of mercenaries, beasts, or even Fierce Beasts was related to this incident or not.

But from her guts feeling, yes.

Hence, it was impossible for Mingyue to leave such an interesting event.

". . . Can I not jump down?" Xiao Jing stared at the deep cliff. From her vision, everything under the cliff was clear scenery for her, but it didn't mean that she wanted to go down there.

"Where are those group of bastards?"

"Down there."

"Go down."

Xiao Jing, ". . ."

After taking note of the stone trees at the side wall, Xiao Jung started to jump down – from one Stone Tree toward another one, until she arrived at the ground. As Xiao Jing went down, the illumination grew dimmer and eventually, one couldn't see something more than one metre in front of one's vision. Well, the only exception was Xiao Jing with her cat's eye.

The environment was cold and a little damp, as if warmth from sunlight was unable to pierce through this place. The surroundings were all stones and rock, with a small number of Stone Trees on the wall. But, there was no any Stone Trees protruded from the ground.

After looking left and right, Xiao Jing found three caves which were big enough for an adult to go inside. And there was also a trouble. From the three caves, there are two caves with the trace of human's scent, while the last one perhaps a joker.

She could disregard the last cave, while the other two had the possibility of fifty-fifty.

"Little Yue, choose one."

After some time, Mingyue just shrugged and replied, "Choose anything that you want. Just take care of yourself, okay?"

". . . Fine."

And with that, Xiao Jing went to the left cave.

The interior of the cave was nothing interesting. In fact, there was nothing at all except the stone wall. And at the wall, there was some trace of human touch, as if some people were widening the cave on purpose. But the work was sloppy that it felt like that it was a hurried work. And no matter what the purpose was, there was a faint smell of blood lingered around Xiao Jing.

Swish. . . swish. . .

With an agile movement technique, Xiao Jing increased her speed while anticipating the danger from the surroundings. Even though it was similar to a cave, the interior was more similar to an alley – a long alley.

But as the time passed by, the alley widened as the ground and the wall had some traces of blood, fresh blood. She didn't know whether it was the group of bastard's blood or some beast's, so she just continued forward.

There was a faint sound, and as Xiao Jing moved forward, the sound grew louder and clearer. Along with that, the scent of blood was thicker and clearer.

[Bingo.]

Xiao Jing praised her own precise intuition, but it was only for a split of the second. As the voice was louder, in front of Xiao Jing was the end of the snake-shaped cave and some illumination.

She slowed her speed, but she didn't stop. She jumped around and found some hidden place while observing the surroundings.

If the place before was like a primitive place, then this place was similar to civilization. The flat stone wall along with some unique carvings and statues. There were also some random scribbling on the wall, making this place became mysterious as Xiao Jing observed more.

The flooring was flattened and solid, even though there were a few traces of the destroyed floor. This place was three times of the Mercenary Guild's size, with a destroyed wide stone door at the end of the hall, exactly the opposite of Xiao Jing's position.

Sure, this place was part of some civilization.

From some corner, some bluish crystal glass protruded from the ground. No, there were some protruded from the wall and ceiling too.

"Oh?" Mingyue's voice resounded in Xiao Jing's mind. "A little similar with that underground ruins when we met with that Demonic Beast. Even though this place is a little crappier. No, I pull back my word. This place is crappier even though there is no trace of miasma."

Even though there were a few similarities, there was one thing that sure was different. In this place, there was no trace of Spatial Interference, only a bunch of brittle wall and flooring.

The murals were useless for Mingyue since she was not interested in those kinds of thing. The air around this place was also a little foul, as if this place was sealed for a long time. The place was dark, as there was only three source of illumination.

Xiao Jing strode carefully, closer to the source of illumination. As she went closer, the scene of a group of people was fighting a bunch of beasts could be seen.

No, it was like some were fighting the beasts, while the others were enjoying the show from behind. There was no any intention to help, not even an ounce of care in their gaze.

Xiao Jing was annoyed and wanted to slice their head. But when she remembered Mingyue's request, she shrunk her body into the nearby shadow.

…

Secret Chamber of the Stone Gaze Forest.

His cold gaze swept around the battlefield. Even though they had been using a lot of meat tanks, their performance was very unsatisfactory. The result was barely passable, the fight was too long, and there was no durable meat tank. Mostly, they would be useless after a fight, as expected of a cheap product from the slave market.

Another slave in front of him fell, while some beast pounced on that certain poor one. But no slaves had the leisure to help that slave since they themselves were too occupied.

He himself? It was considered a fruitless labour, why would he bother himself?

One cheap slave was a cheap thing, an expendable thing. It was cheap, but a little useless.

Even though he wanted for something better, it was not easy to procure a good slave in the Black Iron city's slave market. Most of the good one was hoarded by the Lin Family along with the Red Rage Bear Mercenary. And the leftovers were all crap.

But he was left with no other choice.

As he was occupied with the condition of the battlefield, someone from his side came forward.

"Deputy leader. We can't stay in this place for too long. Why don't you use more slaves in order to finish these things as soon as possible? It's not like that these slaves are all important for us." This man had an impatient and irritated tone in his voice. It was undisguised even though this man was talking to the deputy leader.

Yes, he was the deputy leader of the Sword of Light, Song Ronghua. As the appointed leader for this mission, he was free to do anything while in this mission, as long as the mission was completed.

But sadly, half of the team was not his own men, but rather his rival, deputy leader San Wuji's men. The clash between two sides couldn't be avoided in this place. Even though San Wuji himself was not in this place, San Wuji's men would always chime in on every decision he made, as if his choice was questionable.

It was annoying.

But for the sake of success, he, Song Ronghua held it in.

In the Sword of Light, the greatest crime was unable to clear the mission, which would result in the death of everyone without exception. Thus, it was not weird for San Wuji's people wouldn't try everything that they could do in order to make this mission failed. At most, they would annoy Song Ronghua.

It was forbidden to fail in any mission, no matter how trivial it was.

He had calculated everything, and all was perfect.

Giving a side-glance with a cold tone, Song Ronghua snorted, "If you cannot be patient, then it is fine. You won't be able to achieve great things if you are this hasty. Does San Wuji never teach you anything? Including manner? No wonder you are so useless. If you want the progress a little faster, you can make your move. I will not forbid you at all."

Seeing that the man beside him only clenched his fists, Song Ronghua snorted again, "This is only the first trial, and there are another three trials. I don't care whether you care about the mission or not, but I do. But I have no qualm about making you have the same fate as them, lowly slave. So, it is better for you to shut your crap or dived forward."

It was not the first time he was being questioned in this mission, and the answer he had given was always the same.

Focusing his gaze toward the battlefield, the number of beasts was already reduced, while the casualty on his side was zero. Of course, the slave's number didn't need to be counted.

Raising his right hand, Song Ronghua made an order, "Men! Clean them up!"

Fourteen people moved forward while brandishing their weapon.

Clank! Clank! Clank! …

Song Ronghua stayed motionless and firmly, as he observed the overall battlefield.

The fighting full of blood earlier became a joke as Song Ronghua made his command. All the people he brought were all at least Low Grade Battle Warrior, and it was what he needed to suppress the bunch of beasts. And in no time, the beasts were all killed, without any survivor.

By commanding a group of Battle Warrior, he would be able to have an easier time, not to mention that their opponents were only a beast. There was no challenge for them.

But, Song Ronghua had a different plan. He wanted to retain most of his people's combat strength and stamina while using various slave to probe any trap in front of their way. Even though he would need more time, he would be able to ensure the success of the mission, while minimalizing the loss on his side.

"Tsk. Only five. No, only four slaves left."

Even though his plan went well, the number of expendable slaves was not enough. There were only three healthy slaves, one slave's breathing was rough, while the last one was crippled in a leg. Not counting the last one, four slaves were not enough, and he didn't have time to turn back.

Without any spare time to waste, he had to ensure the mission became successful.

"You!" Song Ronghua stared at the slave with the rough breathing and said, "Walk in front of us. Now."

Without any choice, the slave just followed Song Ronghua's order.

As a group of people moved forward, no one realized that a pair of bright eyes appeared not far from their earlier position, eyeing their every movement to the finest details.

…