The ploy

Chapter 15

In the thick foliage of trees and shrubberies where the sunlight rays are almost unable to reach the ground. A row of horses and carriages slowly waded through a small path covered in twigs and bushes on each side. In one of the carriages, five people are sitting quietly minding each other's business. Cherry Lao was invited to travel with other high-level cultivators but she denied and decided to go with Shin Jiao and the supply group. To prevent getting into more trouble although Cherry Lao's cultivation is high, she covered her face with a veil. Shin Jiao, on the other hand, is still weak and the wound on his back is still recovering. Like a truly normal mortal, his recovery rate is far too slow. And because of their constant travel his wounds have never healed completely, but what befuddled him is that he could not feel any pain in them, it was as if his pain receptors in his brain is off which is a little dangerous. But ever since they joined this group of supposed to be town defenders for the coming beast tide, his wounds are starting to get better.

"Shin, what are your plans when we arrive in town?" Cherry Lao asked in a low voice.

"Well, for me I just wanted to settle down for a while in town, until I could find out what's wrong with me. How about you?" he answered in a low voice.

"I'll… I'll go with you…" she replied but there is a hint of hesitation in her eyes.

Cherry Lao has discovered something in her cultivation. It seems that she is unable to progress so far. It's been days now since they traveled with the caravan group and she seems to be stuck and unable to settle her mind. No matter what she tries to do she could not concentrate on cultivating it's like her heart is uneasy on something. So without a choice, she decided to try and find out what's wrong with her mindset. In reality, she already has a clue, but she is unable to accept it and tries to harshly deny it herself.

"Everyone there is trouble ahead please be prepared." The driver said as the carriage stopped.

Inside the people began to murmur and speculate on what's going on. Seeing that there seem to be sounds of beast growling and shouts of pain, each cultivator suddenly jumped out of the carriage. Not far from where they are, a deadly battle is ensuing. Cultivators and beast alike are in each other's throats while some of them are on the ground either dead or barely living.

All of a sudden the beast noticed the newly arrived enemy, as they are wolf-like beast they have keen senses. So, a part of their group suddenly rushed towards the caravan where Shin Jiao is.

"Those are Wind Wolves! Be careful of their wind blades!" someone shouted from the group of cultivators.

Cherry Lao, also walks out of the carriage and draws her sword preparing to launch an attack with the rest of the group. As the man and beast clashed against each other, anyone can already see which group is at a disadvantage. As Cherry Lao is already a gold core cultivator, she could easily take care of the wolves that are coming against her in just a single swing of her sword. Each time her sword strikes two to three wolves would be decapitated. Seeing the great disadvantage of their pack, a howl suddenly echoed through the air. This made the wind wolves suddenly withdrew back towards a rather larger wolf at around 2 meters in height. Its imposing aura says that it's a level 4 king beast.

If it was Shin Jiao from before, this creature will not pose a threat, but now as he stayed in the carriage he felt a little helpless. If he could have his old BARRETT it would be a cinch for him to kill it. But alas he was not able to see it again and he also forgot to ask Cherry Lao about it. Maybe it was lost in the forest is the only thing he can think of to appease himself. At the back of his mind, he is a little worried, what if someone found the rifle and discover its use. Although the technology is hard to reproduce with the current crafting style of the world it is still a dangerous weapon in the wrong hand.

Cherry Lao calmly look at the Wind Wolf Alpha with its imposing glare. All the cultivators in the area are also feeling tensed and pressured at the aura emitted by both of them. Not far from where Cherry Lao stood, a very handsome young man is looking at her with great admiration and bewilderment in his eyes. It's like he is looking at a goddess, as his eyes sparkle like stars.

"Brother! Are you okay?" a beautiful young girl ran towards the young man with a wide smile on her face.

Then she noticed that her brother is looking dazed she suddenly went near him and waved her hand in front of his eyes. Then, the young man was suddenly pulled back from his bewilderment.

"Oh… Little sister! Why are you here? You should go back to the carriage, it's dangerous here." The young man said to his sister but his eyes were glued back to the figure of Cherry Lao.

The young girl then turned her eyes towards the direction where his brother is looking and found a young woman with a majestic and imposing aura and she was suddenly taken aback. The aura the woman emits is like that of his uncle in the clan, the right-hand man of her father. But she is still very young and already very strong. Then looking at her brother who has his gaze at the young woman in a trance along with other men in the group, extreme jealousy suddenly filled her heart. She could not accept that her elder brother has his eyes at another woman besides her. She only wanted her elder brother to only have her in his loving eyes.

She had committed countless atrocious deeds behind her brother's back whenever she founds someone eyeing her brother. As a spoiled princess in their clan, she would always get what she wanted.

Now that her brother is looking at someone as if he was stricken in love, she felt angered and a killing intent suddenly flashed in her eyes.

"Do you think that since you are powerful I won't touch you? Dream on! I will do all I can to kill you bitch!" she said in her mind as she started to plot something.

"Hey, little sister. You need to get inside now. The fight is going to start!" the handsome young man suddenly dashed towards his sister and quickly carried her inside the carriage then closed it.

The young girl felt happy after being carried by her older brother in his arms.

Cherry Lao and the wind wolf beast king suddenly clashed against each other. As sword and claw strike auras whooshed through the air. Both seem to be on par with each other as none of their strikes made contact yet. Shin Jiao is quietly watching from afar and shook his head. He noticed that although Cherry Lao's martial arts are powerful, according to Gubu and his experience, she has a lot of wasted movements. In which if polished she could have ended the battle already after two to three clashes with the beast. So Shin Jiao decided that if there is a time he would teach her and refine her martial arts and fighting style.

The other wolves and cultivators also began to attack each other following the fight between Cherry Lao and the wind wolf alpha.

Then after a flurry of attacks, Cherry Lao suddenly saw an opening and quickly stabbed her sword hitting the wind wolf alpha's neck from the front, then she pushed it through and pierced its heart which caused it to convulse and slumped to the ground dead.

Sensing that the alpha is now gone, the other wind wolves immediately retreated towards the forest with great haste, as if their tails are on fire.

"Yeah! We've won!" every won shouted with glee, then their eyes drew towards the beautiful image of the young woman standing beside the dead carcass of a level 4 giant wolf king.

Then she stretched her hand and gather the carcass in her spatial ring which made everyone gasped in amazement. As spatial rings are not a common accessory in this world, only those chosen few have them. This means that Cherry Lao has a great background or from a strong sect. So everyone is now looking at her with awe and respect.

The handsome young man suddenly ran towards her and cupped his hand with an excited look in his eyes and a wide smile on his face. He is trying to show his most dashing side as he took a glance at Cherry Lao.

"Senior sister, this junior really admires your strong fighting power and skills. I never would have thought that a young and beautiful woman can be this strong." He said with a hint of admiration in his voice.

Cherry Lao just nods her head in reply, then when she was about to turn around and walk back to the carriages, the young man quickly rushed and blocks her way.

"Senior sister, this junior's name is Jing Lei. I am from the Lei family of the town of Dis. It would be my pleasure to invite you for dinner." The handsome young man said after he introduced himself.

The young man had a dashing and sincere smile on his face as he looks at Cherry Lao with expectant eyes. He knows that with his family background, almost everyone knows their prestige in the town. And upon seeing the conflicted look on her face he felt that he would be able to invite her to dinner.

"Why not? He's inviting us for a free meal, will you not accept?" Shin Jiao's voice suddenly is heard from behind Jing Lei.

"Shin, are you okay?" Cherry Lao suddenly said with a hint of worry upon seeing Shin Jiao walking toward them.

Jing Lei had a slight frown on his face but then smiled as he turns around. There he saw a young man in course clothing made of beast skin walking towards them. He then saw the girl he likes to move close to him and the look on their eyes shows that the relationship between the two is not simple.

"And who might this… you are?" Jing Lei asked but changed his tone in the middle as he noticed that Shin Jiao has no aura of a cultivator. Then a glint of craftiness enters his eyes but disappear almost immediately.

"Brother Jing, we accept your dinner offer. I am Shin Jiao and she is Cherry Lao." Shin Jiao cupped his hand as he introduced himself and Cherry Lao.

She didn't have any objections as to what Shin Jiao has said. It would be good at least once that they could eat something other than grilled meat and dried rations.

All of a sudden a young girl ran towards them and hugged Jing Lei and smiled coquettishly towards him. Then she looks at Shin Jiao and Cherry Lao with a knitted brow, but when she noticed that Shin Jiao is not a cultivator a smirk appear in her mouth.

"Brother why are you talking to a lowly mortal?" she asked Jing Lei with an innocent eye.

"Sister Lyn, don't be like that... Don't disrespect our guest… I'm sorry for my sister's rudeness. This is my sister Lyn Lei." Jing Lei reprimand Lyn Lei.

"Sorry brother." Lyn Lei said with teary eyes.

"Hais, don't be like that. Okay? We'll have a nice dinner today... I hope that you guys would enjoy the meal, come with us in our tent." said Jing Lei as he turns towards Shin Jiao and Cherry Lao to invite them. He then held Lyn Lei in his hand and they walked towards their caravan.

"Yes, I will make sure that both of you will have an enjoyable last supper." Said Lyn Lei to herself with a murderous glint in her eyes.

The supply team where Shin Jiao and Cherry Lao belongs also camped out near the Lei's caravan group. They just watched with envy as Shin Jiao a mere mortal was also invited to the camp of the Lei's. Everyone in the supply team is aware of Jing Lei's identity. He is the young master of the Lei family and the first heir of their clan. So with that identity, they are showing respectful gazes towards the big luxurious tent surrounded by guards.

On a long wooden table lays a lot of different variety of food from exotic fruits to rare Beast meat which is prepared by an expert chief for cultivator's consumption. It is known that cultivators don't just eat anything as there are a lot of impurities in normal food. Although they can digest and absorb the food it would always take a lot of time to filter the impurities and expel them. So most cultivators chose tasteless rations as it is already purified or fasting pills. But Shin Jiao is different as he had found a way to remove the impurities when he cooks his food, that's why Cherry Lao was also able to eat them with gusto. By using his control in elements, just like crafting he can remove the impurities while preparing the meat.

On the long table sat four people, Shin Jiao just sits leisurely admiring the mouthwatering food in front of him. While Cherry Lao has a cold expression, and since they are going to have dinner she already removed the veil covering her face. This, in turn, made Jing Lei unable to remove his eyes on her face, as he had never seen a girl as beautiful as her in his lifetime. This also made his sister Lyn Lei so furious that her face is seething red in anger, as she throws daggers in her gazes towards Cherry Lao.

Looking at the food in front of them Cherry Lao suddenly feel a bad premonition. What if the food is poisoned? She would be fine, as gold core cultivators have the ability to automatically expel common poison out from their body, but Shin Jiao would be in danger. So she looked at Shin Jiao and whispered.

"Hey, are you okay with eating this food? What if they put poison in it. Remember that your condition right now is that of a common mortal, will you be able to handle it?"

"Pfft! Ha! Don't worry, a mere poison? I have trained my body for years to resist any poison. So, it's fine." whispered Shin Jiao back with a smug look in his face.

"Braggart, whatever. If anything happens to you I don't care. Humph." Cherry Lao murmured as she rolls her eyes.

And so the feast begins.