Theodor entered another carriage he had prepared exclusively for himself. He was going to be the representative from the Scorching Trade Group, accompanying and overseeing the whole operation.
Because of some safety measures, no more than three of the mercenary and hunters he had hired, were from the same group. Other than that, there was a thorough background check to reduce even more the possibility they would rob him on the way.
His individual strength was not the highest among them all, but he was a solid Qi user as well. And the last measure to avoid being robbed, was that his spatial ring was protected by a very powerful formation and only those at the Mana Perception Realm or stronger, would be able to undo that protective formation. But he didn't hire Mana users to battle for him; only that servant and the young Lady he was accompanying had the chance of being Mana Realm cultivators.
However, he knew the possibility of them robbing him was very low. Everything had a risk and he had taken that risk to accomplish his wishes. After they arrive at the destination, that risk would become non-existent.
After he entered his carriage, Theodor gave a signal to proceed.. The guards that were previously talking with the female guide, had taken the role as carriage drivers as they were instructed, driving Theodor's and the other three carriages away. They would be staying less than a week inside the Desolate Scorching Wasteland, so the animals pulling the carriages, were not camels but horses.
Seth's carriage followed closely behind them, smoothly conducted by his specter. Lan Xue noticed him injecting a little bit more of Mana from time to time on that clone, maintaining the skill active and able to do whatever commands he imputed.
The thirty hired individuals, followed behind them by feet. The speed the whole caravan was moving, was rather normal and safe. Actually, when moving inside the Desolate Scorching Wastelands, due to the climate conditions and appearance of mindless famine beasts, it wasn't possible to move at high speeds.
After ten minutes moving through the city streets, they were finally able to arrive at a heavily guarded place. That area was the area that connected the city to the Desolate Scorching Wastelands, so it had to be carefully protected.
However, none of the guards were bothered to inspect the merchandise that huge group of people was protecting, since the Scorching Trade Group was a well-known and famous group inside the city.
After smoothly crossing the gate, they were greeted with a barren and dry land, where the rocky ground was full of cracks and destroyed by the effects of erosion. This part of the terrain was relatively safer and the people in charge of protecting the merchandise, started to organize themselves in three groups of ten people.
One of them moved in front of Theodor's carriage, while the other two groups were positioned left and right, near the fourth carriage. The carriages were moving in a single line and Seth's Carriage was the last one. Following that formation, they would have time to intercept anything that came to attack them.
There had also assigned a leader for each of those groups of ten individuals, based on experience. It was easier to command ten than commanding thirty people.
Like that, their adventure kept going on for almost six hours. The sun was scalding hot, making sure to tire them out and consume a lot of their energies, but since all of them were professional cultivators and very good at the hunting and camping activity, they had come prepared.
At that time, inside Seth's carriage, there was an awkward silence. After Seth revealed his dark attribute skill for Lan Xue, she had chosen to remain silent to ponder about some things. Seth felt it was relatively smothering to initiate a conversation at that moment, so he decided to abuse of his Soul Sense for a bit.
He noticed that even after six whole hours had passed, the people inside the three caravans of supplies, had not woken up yet. They were probably drugged with high dosages of medicine, what made it hard for them to wake up.
Suddenly, his Soul Sense identified the energy signature of many different beasts approaching them from below.
Everyone knew, that inside the Desolate Scorching Wasteland, beasts rarely attacked alone. All of them worked in groups and always taking advantage of the terrain at the same time. That case scenario, was what was about to happen soon.
Five minutes later, the experient group of people in charge of defending the supplies, started to hear some minor noises and a very weak tremor on the ground surface beneath their feet.
Some of them already knew what was coming, since they had experienced this situation before.
"Stay alert! We are about to be attacked!"
"Draw your weapons out and enter the formation!"
"Get ready everyone!"
The assigned leader of each group, instructed everyone according to the way their group had previously combined.
Suddenly, the barren ground started to part and a big black figure swiftly crawled from a whole underneath. Its body was full of black scales that were very solid and tough, making it harder to be destroyed and it had a long and sharp tail, that the beast used to not only pierce the enemies to death, but to poison them to death as well.
It was a Black Scaled Scorpion.
Shortly after the first one popped out of the ground, another one suddenly appeared beside the first one. Like that, one after another, sixty-seven of such creatures appeared from both sides.
They were all ranging from a meter and twenty centimeters tall, to two meters tall, creating a very terrifying scene in front of everybody. All of them had very long and curved tail hooks, that seemed to be ready to put someone to death on the spot.
That group of beasts were particularly trying to drown their enemies with numbers, since their overall strength was actually lower than their enemy's strength. Many of those Black Scaled Scorpios, were at the Qi Gathering peak-stage Realm, while others were at the Profound Qi initial-stage or middle-stage Realm.
The thirty hired mercenaries were all Profound Qi middle-stage to peak-stage Realm cultivators and felt almost no pressure coming from the weaker ones. However, they were still at a numerical disadvantage and they could die if they didn't pay close attention to their surroundings.
Those scorpions were very hungry. They were unlucky to not find anything to hunt down on the last few days, so now that they found it, some of them impatiently started to move forward, ready to strike.
As the beasts started to approach the caravan, the ability users were already casting their elemental skills. Impressively, no one tried to use fire attribute skills, since every single creature that lived here, was pretty much resistant to fire. They could still be burned, but the temperature needed to kill them with flames, was at least ten times higher than normal beasts.
Wind blades and ice lances destroyed the scorpions that had advanced at the front line, killing them in no time. It was not a coincidence they had died fast, since they were the weaker ones. The stronger Black Scaled Scorpions were standing at the back, waiting for the right opportunity.
Inside this deadly environment, beasts had to adapt and use every single mean necessary to stay alive, even if it means sacrificing the weaker ones.
Just as the initial clash ended and the bodies of eight Black Scaled Scorpions dropped lifeless on the ground, the ones waiting for an opportunity started to charge forward. They moved very quickly, not giving any chance for anyone to properly celebrate the deaths of the first eight beasts.
But at that moment, the melee combatants were ready to intercept them. The recently formed group was accustomed on fighting in these lands, since it was pretty much a requirement for people that wanted to hunt inside the Desolate Scorching Wastelands. That's why they were working very well together.
A huge black scorpion thrusted his tail in the direction of a mercenary, but the man evaded and swinged his sword to cut that tail apart. Right at that moment, a female half-demon archer shot three arrows imbued with Profound Qi, hitting right at the eye sockets of that unlucky scorpion, killing it instantly.
At the other side, a similar scene was happening. One by one, those Black Scaled Scorpions were falling down in a quick succession.
Seth and Lan Xue kept silently observing everything from inside their carriage. Those hunters were being paid to do that job and they seemed pretty much capable people.
Lan Xue finally decided to break the unnatural ice between them.
"Why did you choose this route?"
Seth was observing things through his Soul Sense, so he had his eyes closed. After hearing her question, he decided to stop observing the boring scene outside and talk with the beauty in front of him.
"Well... I wouldn't bother to come for this boring task, if there wasn't something interesting in the end. I'm pretty sure you've scanned the supplies they are transporting, but thought it were normal items, right?"
Lan Xue narrowed her eyebrows and asked: "Hm? Is there anything wrong?"
"Just a single thing. Your energy scan wasn't able to identify it, but inside those carriages, there are many normal people that hadn't stepped at the cultivation road. But it was to be expected, since they do not release any aura signature."
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