Chapter 39

"As one would imagine, that Wind Guard sure is experienced enough to have realized how outmatched they are. It was good that you both chose to reveal yourselves before the battle, because they did not realize your companions who have already made their move." the bandit leader told the two Blood Assassins.

It was not shocking that the mysterious expert chose to unleash such a thing, because the blue flame being used in such a way is equivalent to notifying any nearby soldiers in the span of twenty five miles that someone with the authority to call for reinforcements indeed needs just that.

And as luck would have it, a general that He Chao would recognize, was within the same amount of distance. That general was the same one who had sent the two soldiers out to keep an eye on him while remaining further away after receiving his orders from the headquarters. It was not known yet to the public, but seven days prior to Wei Yan and He Chao exiting the forest, a Commandery tens of thousands of miles away was attacked by a demon beast in a human's body.

The two soldiers left soul lamps with General Fan Jing and unexpectedly, he saw that both of the flames were no longer lit. At the same time, he saw the signal for reinforcements so many ideas went through his mind and without delaying, General Fan Jing quickly headed towards where the blue flame exploded.

General Fan Jing specialized in using seals in order to capture and interrogate. Due to this speciality, there was no reason for the army headquarters not to send him personally out just in case a disaster were to occur. Demon beasts were not very keen on breaking out of seals and formations very well unless they had high intelligence. However, if a demon beast with high intelligence took over He Chao in the general's opinion, requesting further reinforcements would simply be a waste of life and the battle would turn into a slaughter very quickly.

Back near the caravan, He Chao was still watching his surroundings and what he witnessed next, nearly caused him to feel very insecure. Out of all the experts who originally rode on the caravan, there were eight of them who withdrew small but high quality knives and struck a nearby expert. Out of the eight experts who were attacked by them, only three were able to either dodge or parry the sneak attacks while the other five died on the spot.

"It seems that they really did plan ahead much better than we did. Luck has it that we still have the edge in this battle and did not even need to request reinforcements like you did." The middle aged man who was the uncle of the so called VIP who was traveling with the caravan from the Song clan told the Wind Guard as a smile appeared on both of their faces.

Such a sight confused even the Blood Assassins who did not understand why the two would be smiling as one of the Intermediate experts on their side were killed so quickly before the real battle began. However, the leader of the merged bandit groups also had a smile on his face as he watched the eight assassins rush over to meet with the other two before putting on their Blood Assassin uniforms.

The panther who was owned by Song Ehuang sat right next to where He Chao was standing guard and then laid down very casually as if it or its owner was in no way in any kind of danger. "Everyone, do not worry I am about to release the seal I was told to use on my body. You will all understand in a moment but I can not stress enough that you should all remain where you are."

Everyone turned towards Song Ehuang's uncle because instead of the Wind Guard sending them the message mentally using his ki, Song Ehuang's uncle was the one to do it this time. Which was strange because only experts of the Master stage and above could pull off such a feat.

Without delaying any longer, a large seal formed above Song Ehuang uncle's body as he simply said one thing. "Release." And just as quickly as the seal appeared, it crumbled apart until it was no longer part of this world. After, the amount of ki within his body skyrocketed to even surpassing the Wind Guard's strength by what seemed to be an entire stage.

"Shit! Everyone quickly retreat we do not stan-" before the bandit leader could finish giving his order, his throat was grabbed by the uncle who then slammed him head first into the ground next to him as he turned to the other ten experts who were close by. Even with the Blood Assassins having a reputation of not fearing death, they were all shaking in place in front of the middle aged man who earlier looked to only be of the Adept stage of cultivation.

"I was never able to walk the path of alchemy even though I was born in an alchemist clan that is considered to be very well respected even though we are located in a fairly weak Commandery. Instead, I trained day and night and was rewarded an elder position, the first in our clan's history who did not specialize in alchemy, but rather, in pure strength."

"Unfortunately for you, unless an elder of your Blood Assassins were present, it would be impossible to even hold me down. Remember this, my name is Song Qiao and I am a Grand Master stage cultivator of both the Ki and Body Refinement paths!" Without wasting any more time, Song Qiao chose to kill all of the assassins except for the Adept stage cultivator who was clearly their leader.

Seeing their leader defeated, the nearby bandits who were becoming impatient and wanted to join the battle instead saw that it was a one sided massacre and withdrew quickly. Even He Chao felt that the merged bandit group would disband due to losing the one leader who could keep things together smoothly. The panther laying down next to where he was standing let out a soft yawn as Song Ehuang exited the carriage from feeling her uncle's energy exploding.