Chapter 164: Chapter 161: Reputation Spreads
The guards of the caravan quickly cleaned up the battlefield.
The one-eyed, burly man’s Storage Bag, the Black Blade he was clutching, and his other belongings were all collected.
Finally, the caravan manager personally delivered them to Shen Changchuan.
There was no need to worry about embezzlement or anything of the sort.
After all, so many eyes were watching.
After a swift cleanup of the battlefield,
the caravan did not linger.
They set off immediately, picking up the pace to leave the area.
They left behind a field of blood and corpses.
The caravan paid the bodies no mind.
The harsh reality was that if their guards couldn’t fend off the Tribulation Cultivators’ attack, they would be the ones left exposed in the wilderness.
After killing them and stealing their goods, the Tribulation Cultivators wouldn’t be kind enough to bury their bodies.
By the same token,
after slaying the Tribulation Cultivators, the caravan guards certainly weren’t going to waste their kindness by taking care of the final arrangements for those blood-soaked criminals.
They would just let the wild beasts and Demon Beasts of the mountains handle it.
Liu Baoceng continued on the road with the caravan.
Even now,
his mind was still a muddled, chaotic mess.
The shock of walking the line between life and death this time was simply too much for him!
It was as the old folks say, like a part of his soul had been scared right out of his body.
So much so that while helping clean the battlefield and getting the caravan moving again, he felt numb and moved like a machine.
Only the familiar rhythm of the journey, the GRIND-GRIND-GRIND of the carriage wheels on the road, helped him recover a bit.
’So this is the power of a Qi Introduction Late Stage expert!’
Liu Baoceng was filled with emotion. He reached up and clutched the Peace Talisman hanging around his neck, his chaotic thoughts slowly calming as he thought of his family.
At this moment, his heart was filled with gratitude for having survived the ordeal.
’Thank goodness that great personage took action, otherwise I would’ve been a dead man!’
’If I had died,’
’what would my wife, my son, and my daughter have done?’
’Thank goodness the master acted,’
’and saved my life.’
Liu Baoceng’s mind was a turbulent sea of thoughts.
At the same time,
in his mind’s eye,
he could see nothing but the phantom-like figure weaving through the crowd, layer upon layer of Sword Shadows instantly tearing through the air to cut down all the enemies!
That scene,
it was as if it had been carved into his mind, impossible to forget!
How powerful and brilliant it was!
Those enemies, who had seemed nearly unstoppable before him,
were cut down and slaughtered before that master as if he were scything through grass!
Those layers of Body Techniques and Sword Shadows...
It was almost unimaginable.
’That a Cultivator could be this powerful!’
With his head full of jumbled thoughts,
Liu Baoceng guarded the caravan’s flank, and soon they disappeared into the vast sea of mountains and forests.
An unknown amount of time passed.
On the blood-soaked mountainside,
a mountain breeze gently blew,
carrying the stench of blood far into the distance.
After another unknown stretch of time,
SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH!!!
Several figures clad in black Night Clothes with their faces masked by black cloth appeared one after another, arriving to find the bloody scene.
"Hiss! What ruthless methods! He killed them all, didn’t even leave one alive!"
"How tragic. Looks like Old One-Eye picked a fight with someone tough. Wiped out completely..."
"Looking at the positions of these bodies, it seems they were all killed within ten breaths... Hiss! What incredible Sword Magic. The attacker seems to have cultivated some kind of Swordsmanship to the point of Perfection, able to use it with complete mastery!"
"Heh, anyone who dares to run a caravan these days must have some skill. Old One-Eye was a mere Seventh Layer Late Stage Cultivator. To not know when to advance or retreat in a situation like this... he was just courting death!"
"Which faction did that caravan belong to?"
"Seems to be the United Trade Team of a few minor powers, like the Sanhe Chamber of Commerce and the Treasure Tower..."
"Those local, minor merchant guilds? Where did they find an expert?"
"Maybe they hired him as a favor. Didn’t Nangong City take action before?"
"Interesting. Daring to run a caravan in times like these... and so arrogant, too. Are they trying to use Old One-Eye’s corpse to warn us that there will be consequences for attacking them?"
"I’d like to see what they’re made of!"
"What do you say? Want to go together?"
"Sure. They’re just a bunch of small-time merchants, bumpkins who got lucky when times were good. I want to see what gives them this kind of confidence!"
"My purse has been feeling a little light lately. A good time to fatten it up..."
"You guys can go if you want. I’m out. It’s chaotic everywhere these days. I’d rather lay low for a while..."
"Tch, cowardly rat..."
...
The bodies left in the mountains,
caused the caravan’s reputation to spread within a small circle.
Some of the weaker Tribulation Cultivator gangs were deterred by it and decided to lay low for a while.
As for these subsequent events,
Shen Changchuan was unaware of them, nor did he much care.
Slaying the attacking enemies,
hadn’t taken much of his energy.
After receiving the spoils of war from the caravan manager and declining his invitation to a celebration,
Shen Changchuan returned to the cramped, swaying carriage to continue tempering his mind and honing his will.
The days passed one by one.
In the blink of an eye,
seven days went by,
and the caravan successfully arrived at Dawan Village.
The seven-day journey
had not been entirely smooth.
After the first ambush, the caravan was attacked three more times on the road.
Two of those attacks were of a similar intensity to the first one by the one-eyed, burly man’s group.
Both were led by Tribulation Cultivators at the Seventh Layer Late Stage, along with a gang of other Cultivators.
These attacks
were all easily handled by Shen Changchuan.
In fact, the battles ended without a single guard getting injured.
They only left behind fields of corpses.
However, not every attack was so easy.
The final assault
was far more intense than the previous ones!
The leader of the attacking Tribulation Cultivators had already reached the Eighth Layer Middle Stage.
He was accompanied by another at the Eighth Layer Early Stage.
Add to that multiple Seventh Layer Realm Cultivators,
and it was an unprecedented challenge for the caravan!
It could be said that,
if Shen Changchuan hadn’t been on this trip,
the caravan would have, nine times out of ten, been utterly defeated and slaughtered, and all the Immortal Cultivation Resources they were transporting would have been plundered!
Fortunately, there are no "what ifs" in this world.
Using the aerial view provided by Xiaofeng flying in the sky, Shen Changchuan spotted that group of enemies in advance.
And by combining his Concentric Vision Technique with his Perfection Level Spiritual Eye Technique, he discerned the strength of the ambushing enemies.
To minimize casualties among the caravan’s guards,
Shen Changchuan found the caravan manager and informed him.
Then, they discussed and prepared a counter-plan.
So when the battle broke out,
by the time Shen Changchuan had expended some effort to deal with the powerful foes at the Qi Introduction Eighth Layer Middle Stage and Eighth Layer Early Stage,
the caravan members were still holding their own against the enemy, using a small Array formed by the carriages and relying on the Guard Captain and other Seventh Layer Realm experts.
They had not suffered any major casualties.
