Chapter 41: Chapter 38 Inside the Forbidden Zone_1
After his fourth limit-breaking breakthrough, Lu Yan had greatly grown in confidence. Even when facing master martial artists like Liu Xingren, he felt no fear and could even defeat them in battle.
Lu Yan once again sneaked to the outskirts of the forbidden land.
He hid himself in a large tree, observing quietly.
This forbidden land was vast. Even though the two feudal lords had sent their martial forces to guard it, just how many soldiers could they send?
Take the Liu Family, for instance, they had only three hundred soldiers on the surface.
Even if there were hidden forces, it would definitely not exceed four hundred.
As they also needed to protect their own Blood Land Vein, being able to send two hundred soldiers to guard this place was already pushing their limits.
With such a vast area, it was impossible to cover every corner. So sneaking in was not actually that difficult.
It’s just that ordinary martial artists either did not dare to, or they simply saw no need to do so.
After observing for several hours, Lu Yan noticed the pattern of the military patrols and, like a cheetah, he darted out, using the foliage and rocks as cover, and successfully entered the forbidden land.
At the same time, he connected with his Dao Book, which flickered, indicating a vague direction. Lu Yan followed the direction indicated by the Dao Book.
"The direction indicated by the Dao Book appears to lead towards those collapsed mountains."
Lu Yan pondered.
"Someone!"
Lu Yan quickly darted behind several huge stones for cover.
Two soldiers were walking not far from there.
After all, while there were soldiers stationed on the periphery of the forbidden land, there were also patrols from time to time within it.
"Why do the two feudal lords attach so much importance to this place? What exactly is here?"
Lu Yan’s curiosity deepened.
However, he still suppressed his curiosity.
Curiosity could sometimes be deadly. He had come here primarily to search for Dao Food, not because of his curiosity.
After a while, Lu Yan moved forward again.
In the next half hour, Lu Yan successively avoided three parties of people, gradually approaching the depths of the forbidden land.
"There, so many tents."
Lu Yan looked ahead, somewhat speechless.
The Dao Book reacted most intensely to that direction.
But there, as far as the eye could see, there were at least a hundred large tents, with figures shuttling in and out of them from time to time.
The number of people far exceeded Lu Yan’s expectations.
"The two feudal lords couldn’t possibly have so many soldiers."
Lu Yan shook his head.
Even the weakest among the soldiers would have achieved at least one limit-breaking breakthrough.
Further, maintaining a soldier required a large number of resources, including horses, armor, and weapons.
The Liu Family and the Wu Family, being only of the martial marquis rank, could not afford to maintain too many soldiers.
Regardless, it was clear that he could not proceed in that direction. There were too many people and the risk of being discovered was too high.
Lu Yan had to change direction and looked to the left.
The Dao Book also responded to that direction, albeit not as strongly.
Without hesitation, Lu Yan headed to the left.
Shortly after, the terrain became more open.
There were several soldiers guarding here too, but Lu Yan successfully sneaked past them with ease.
What came into view were some ancient buildings.
There were collapsed columns, wrecked houses, and massive statues...
Lu Yan even saw a gigantic altar, which towered several tens of meters high. It must have been used for worship in ancient times.
The direction indicated by the Dao Book was this altar.
Lu Yan quietly approached and found that one side of the altar had collapsed into a pile of rubble, and the Dao Book’s response came from within this pile of rubble.
After carefully surveying, Lu Yan determined the exact location and began to silently search.
He was very gentle in his movement, fearing to alarm the soldiers who were not far away.
Thankfully, his search was progressing smoothly. After a while, he successfully found a square piece of copper that was very similar to what he had purchased from Li Helin.
Lu Yan happily put it away.
"The Dao Book still has a reaction."
Lu Yan looked towards a mountain peak in the deeper part of the land.
Under this peak, there was a cave, the interior of which was pitch black, making it hard to discern anything.
The target was inside that cave.
Lu Yan approached the mountain peak, checked that there were no people inside, and confidently sneaked in.
The cave was quite wide, and it too contained many ancient buildings, though most of them had been weathered over the long years.
On the walls, there were several murals, but they were so blurred that they were unrecognizable.
When Lu Yan arrived at the center of the cave, he noticed an unpleasant stench.
In the center of the cave, there was a deep pit. When he looked into it, Lu Yan almost vomited.
The pit was full of corpses, packed tightly together, numbering in the hundreds.
Some had already turned into skeletons, some were undergoing decomposition with maggots crawling over them, and flies buzzing around.
No wonder no one was here.
Looking at the corpses, they were all young.
"So many people died, and they were all youngsters, right..."
Lu Yan suddenly remembered the day when he first joined Kaoshan Village, the Liu Family said they were recruiting a bunch of young people to join the army and learn martial arts.
However, after Lu Yan joined the Red-clad Guard, he inquired about it and no one knew where these young people had gone.
Only the family members of these people received a monthly salary, which was why no one made a fuss.
At that time, Lu Yan thought these people were hidden somewhere, training in secret.
Many feudal lords have hidden capabilities, secretly training a group of experts.
From the looks of it now, most likely they were all in this forbidden area, and many of them had died.
Suddenly, Lu Yan heard footsteps.
He quickly hid behind a statue.
"Hurry, throw the bodies out and leave, it stinks."
"Why is it always us doing this kind of work?"
"Alas, who can do it if we don’t? With our low cultivation level and just one breakthrough, who else would dare? Stop complaining, throw them out and let’s go."
Two martial soldiers, each shouldering a corpse, threw them into a deep pit and then fled as if flying.
After the two martial soldiers left, Lu Yan appeared at the edge of the deep pit.
Just as expected, the deep pit had two more corpses.
One of them was missing half of its head, while the other had a bloody and blurred half body, something must have struck it with tremendous force.
Lu Yan sighed, in this world, lives are as insignificant as grass, treated like cattle.
Without strength, you can only be at the mercy of others.
The world is like this, all he can do is to try to increase his strength so that he and his family can live better lives, and for the rest, he is powerless.
After a while, Lu Yan pulled himself together and began looking for Dao Food.
Soon, he found a yellowish stone on a shattered statue. It looked ordinary and a normal person might consider it a regular stone.
If Lu Yan hadn’t had the Dao Book, he wouldn’t have noticed anything unusual.
After keeping the stone, he continued to communicate with the Dao Book, but there was no further reaction.
"I’ve gotten two pieces of Dao Food this time, not bad, time to leave," Lu Yan thought to himself.
In the depths of the forbidden area, there were many people and experts gathered on the other side of the collapsed mountains, perhaps even a Martial Marquis overseeing things. He didn’t dare to go there yet.
He had to wait until he improved his cultivation level and at least have the ability to escape from the Martial Marquis before he could investigate.
Lu Yan quietly moved out, avoiding two groups of martial soldiers.
Coo Coo...
Suddenly, sounds of birds chirping echoed around.
Upon hearing this sound, Lu Yan’s face changed.
That was the whistle sound the Liu Family used to signal each other.
Had he been discovered?
That couldn’t be.
He hadn’t alerted anyone.
Sensing something was wrong, Lu Yan quickly climbed a large tree to hide himself.
Not long after he climbed the tree, several figures took off sprinting out of the depths of the forbidden area, with a large number of figures chasing behind them.
And around them, group after group of martial soldiers flocked toward them.
"We are from the Situ Family of Guangji City, don’t kill us."
"Are you trying to start a war between the feudal lords?"
The runners were shouting.
"Kill!"
The only response was a cold voice.
Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh!
A flood of arrows shot out, covering the three fleeing figures.
Two of them were not powerful enough and were shot into honeycombs.
Although the other person was also hit, he survived due to his cultivation level at the fourth breakthrough.
But as soon as a Fifth Breakthrough master from the Liu Family arrived, a flash of the blade, and the man’s head was sent flying into the air.
"Found out the secret and still want to leave."
The Fifth Breakthrough master of the Liu Family said coldly, his eyes as piercing as lightning.
"Step up the patrol, any intruder found, show no mercy."
The Fifth Breakthrough master continued to give orders.
"Yes Sir!"
The martial soldiers followed orders, and some carried away the three corpses. Soon, the area quieted down again.
Lu Yan waited for a while until he was sure no one was around before he climbed down the tree and left.
As expected, the patrol had tightened significantly, but Lu Yan managed to leave the forbidden area without any danger and return to Changfeng City.
