Smells Like a Trick

The fierce battle in the middle of the night continued. The Bei Clan had high morale and better equipment. The bandits only had numbers but that was enough. Although they lost dozens of their members, they started pushing the Bei Clan back towards the convoy where the vulnerable pack animals and luggage were.

Even in this situation, the Liu Clan did not move from the rear. The bandits also did not spread out to use their numbers to the fullest. They only attacked the front and pretended like the rear didn't exist.

This whole thing smelled like a trick. Chen Wentian was an expert at many tricks and he could smell one from far away. These bandits were not acting naturally and they weren't even trying to hide it.

He suspected that maybe it had something to do with the city lord and that immortal hag. They were still relatively close to Drifting Sand City and bandits wouldn't normally be so brazen unless they had good information about a juicy target. It was easy for the Liu Clan and the bandits to work together and try to get rid of the Bei Clan.

Or maybe this was that old granny trying to test him.

He scoffed and disappeared from his spot. Since Bei Yingluo was still out of commission, there was no need to drag this farce out any longer. He melted into the darkness and charged into the midst of the battle.

"Ahh!"

"What happened?"

"Help!"

The frontline became chaotic as several bandits suddenly fell.

Chen Wentian didn't directly reveal his true power but aimed to cause small, debilitating injuries. These unfortunate bandits suddenly found the tendons in their arms or legs severed. In other instances, they directly received a sneaky stab in the back. After suffering such sudden setbacks, they quickly fell prey to the Bei Clan's spears. And when the next group of bandits stepped up to fight, they received similar treatment and were also quickly felled.

"Who's there?"

"Careful!"

"Ahh, someone's behind us!"

Bei Yujing waved her spear in the air after she defeated another foe, "Bei Clan, stand strong! Elder Mo is supporting us! So, listen up, kill them all!"

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

The newly joined male members of the clan were especially ferocious as they counterattacked. The bandits fell like ripe wheat before a scythe. Their losses were hard to believe.

Feng Xuqi, the first husband of second aunt Bei Hao, wasn't too tall but he was wide and built like a brick wall. His weapon of choice was a mace and he swung it to great effect. Since the bandits were like wounded beasts, they were too slow to avoid being smashed into meat paste.

Liu Enshang, her second husband, was slender and scholarly. He wielded a classic sword like many cultivators and he was quite adept at it. He provided quick and accurate attacks that worked well with Feng Xuqi's brawn.

Red Saber Sun Di, fourth aunt Bei Jixiang's man, was a fierce warrior. His saber beheaded bandits left and right. Even those at the same cultivation level as him could not last for long. He left behind a trail of blood that rivaled that of first aunt Bei Yujing.

But the most eye-catching of them all was a newcomer to the Bei Clan. He was tall and strong, with a strikingly handsome face. He was by no means young and his handsomeness came from his ruggedness and manliness that came from years of experience and hardship. He fought with his bare hands. His punches and kicks could break steel and it was rumored that he could even fight like this against fearsome spiritual beasts.

His name was Meng Yi, the Tiger.

Chen Wentian had heard of this person before. He was quite famous around the north-eastern region of the Eastern Sanmu Subcontinent. He was a cultivator at the peak of the Spirit Initiate Realm, a great talent that ended up as a loose cultivator for one reason or another. If only he could have studied at an immortal sect, he might have been considered on the same level as the top rankers of the Immortal Sect Competition.

Bei Rongyin, Bei Yingluo's mother, had good taste in men. Chen Wentian would not have liked it if his disciple's mother had picked up a random beggar off the street. At least, this Meng Yi met the most basic qualifications.

The battle didn't last too long after Chen Wentian started interfering. The bandits lost close to a hundred souls in a short period and were too frightened to continue. They all fled into the desert, leaving behind their dead and wounded to soak the desert with their blood.

"Hahaha, yes!"

"We won!"

The Bei Clan gathered and celebrated wildly. They had suffered no casualties, only some minor wounds. It was an overwhelming victory. Even if this was a group of the top disciples from an immortal sect, they could not have produced such a result. This was all because of one person who returned to his inconspicuous spot among the crowd.

The convoy took a little while to take stock of the situation and soon continued the journey like nothing had happened. The Bei Clan was still at the front while the Liu Clan was at the rear. They would switch positions the next day.

As the night got colder, everyone increased the pace to cover more distance. Everyone was jogging on foot except for the disciples of the Sapphire Mystic Empire who remained comfortable and unbothered inside their carriages.

However, these mysterious women would occasionally come outside. One or two of them would run alongside the convoy or head out a small distance away. All the while, they held a small instrument in their hands and waved it about in the air as if they were trying to catch mosquitos. Their actions were strange but nobody dared to ask.

Chen Wentian secretly tailed these women with his shadow anchors. What he overhead was enlightening to say the least.

The ruler of the Sapphire Mystic Empire was named Immortal Thousand Heavens Xuanyuan Xinran. Her name was domineering and her title was even more so. But the fact was that she could back it up with power. Not only was she a Spirit King, she also cultivated the rare Dao of space.

This was the reason that the Sapphire Mystic Empire dared to take on the grand project to connect the two regions through the Great Hui Desert. They did not need help from the Immortal Association at all and could craft teleportation arrays themselves through Xuanyuan Xinran's power.

The things those disciples were waving about were spiritual instruments that measured fluctuations in spatial energy in the environment. They probably didn't know the details and were only doing as they were told. But they knew enough to attract Chen Wentian's interest.

He never knew such a place existed to the south of the Eastern Sanmu Subcontinent. He really wanted to meet this Immortal Thousand Heavens. It was not every day that he could find a cultivator of the Dao of space. He had searched throughout the Martial Brilliance Continent and he still wasn't able to find one. They were all secretive and stingy.

Of course, his primary goal was to find a way to steal that Dao of space. He already had a method of creating spiritual crystals with void energy through his void bee. What he needed was a mature and reliable Dao that could utilize the raw resources he had.

He could earn a lot of money from selling void crystals but the profit was nowhere near what was possible. Those that could manufacture spatial treasures such as spatial bags and teleportation arrays kept the secret to themselves tightly and charged an arm and leg in manufacturing costs. If he could obtain those secrets, he would be able to afford whatever cultivation resources his disciples desired. He could even suppress those horny bastards of the Martial Brilliance Continent that still lusted after his Long Yifei.

His eyes flashed with excitement. It was decided, Chen Mo would have to head south at the earliest opportunity!

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