“Keep moving.”
He uttered just three words. His voice was not loud, yet everyone heard him clearly.
The convoy continued forward.
Having passed Cangwu Ridge, they traveled for several more days.
They crossed Niutou Col, Feiyun Ford, and Yixian Gorge.
Every single one was a treacherous bottleneck, an ideal spot for murder and robbery.
Yet the convoy passed through completely unscathed.
The entire journey had gone impossibly smooth.
By the seventh day, one of the Grandmasters could finally hold back no longer.
Spurring his horse up beside the old man surnamed Qi's baggage cart, he lowered his voice and said, “Elder Qi, this isn’t right. I’ve escorted goods for Furnace-Listening Pavilion for twenty years, and I’ve never seen a road this peaceful. The more peaceful it is, the more abnormal it gets.”
“This old man knows.”
The old man surnamed Qi kept his eyes closed, as if dozing.
“Then how can you stay so calm, Elder?”
“It is precisely because I know that we must remain calm.”
Elder Qi opened one eye and cast a glance at the staff Grandmaster.
“In this world, anyone capable of clearing away our troubles is either a friend or an even bigger trouble than those troubles combined. No matter which one it is, they will show themselves sooner or later.”
...
【Host detected successfully preventing the Cangwu Ridge ambush. Experience Points +180】
【Host detected successfully preventing the Niutou Col ambush. Experience Points +150】
【Host detected successfully preventing the Feiyun Ford ambush. Experience Points +160】
【Host detected successfully persuading the Five Poisons Sect elder to retreat. Experience Points +120】
【Host detected successfully defeating three Blood Saber Sect protectors. Experience Points +170】
【...】
A flurry of system notifications exploded in his mind like a dozen strings of firecrackers set off during the New Year.
Chen Zui leaned against the trunk of a crooked jujube tree, clutching half a piece of dry rations. Watching the stream of numbers tick upward in his mind, he could barely suppress the grin spreading across his face.
One hundred eighty, one hundred fifty, two hundred, one hundred seventy...
Every single gain was seven or eight times higher than the measly twenty points he had received when standing up for Su Muyun at the Academy entrance.
He made a rough calculation.
Over the past few days, the total experience points he had pocketed had already surpassed the two-thousand mark.
It not only recouped the deficit from the previous months when Zhizhou Tower had forced him into hiding—with interest—but left him with a handsome surplus.
Worth it. It was completely worth it.
He stuffed the last bite of dry rations into his mouth, his cheeks bulging as he chewed. Reaching down to unhook the sheepskin waterskin at his waist, he gulped down a mouthful of cold water and let out a contented burp.
Even though that bunch from Zhizhou Tower had schemed against him for months, one had to admit their intelligence-gathering skills were truly second to none under heaven.
Which faction was lying in ambush atop which mountain, how many men they brought, what weapons they wielded, what weaknesses their leaders had...
The dossiers laid it all out with absolute clarity.
Over these past few days, he had relied on this information to figure out the backgrounds and patterns of each group in advance.
Beating those who needed beating, talking down those who could be persuaded, bypassing those who could be avoided—his efficiency in clearing the path had been terrifyingly high.
He counted on his fingers: he had knocked down no fewer than twenty experts of the Second Rank and above alone.
As for those below the Third Rank, he couldn't even be bothered to count.
Although he hadn't run into another tough nut in the Wind-Riding Realm like Cao Zhengchun, it made up for it in sheer quantity.
Experience points flooded in like water, far more cost-effective than dueling a single Grandmaster.
His only regret was that he hadn't meddled in any other affairs over the past few days, solely focused on clearing out these thugs eyeing the sword.
Stowing the sheepskin waterskin away, he brushed the ration crumbs from his hands and looked up toward the official road winding ahead into the valley.
The sun had already slanted westward, dyeing the dense pine forests across the flanking cliffs a deep, dusky gold.
The wind at the valley entrance blew fiercely.
It whipped his robes with snapping cracks and set the pine needles across the mountains wailing mournfully.
According to the records in Zhizhou Tower's dossiers, among the factions targeting Furnace-Listening Pavilion's “Sheiru” sword, the strongest and most patient group was the Azure Dragon Sect entrenched in the Mount Danyue area.
In the martial world, this sect counted as first-rate.
Its Sect Master, Duan Tianhong, had entered the Wind-Riding Realm ten years ago.
With nearly a thousand disciples under his command, he had run rampant across the Yuzhou area for many years.
Zhizhou Tower's dossier stated plainly that this time, Duan Tianhong had personally led four Mountain-Viewing Realm elders and thirty-two elite disciples out of the mountain, preparing to launch a pincer attack as Furnace-Listening Pavilion's convoy passed, killing them to seize the sword.
The dossier even featured a special line of small print:
Duan Tianhong, Wind-Riding Realm early stage. Suffers from an old right knee injury that flares up on overcast and rainy days, slowing his movements by thirty percent.
Weaknesses: Overly eager for quick success, easily angered, poor at handling prolonged fights.
When Chen Zui read that line of small print back then, the smirk on his face hadn't faded once.
The wind at the valley entrance blew even harder.
Dusk pressed down from the mountain ridges, painting the entire official road a dim, bluish-gray.
Furnace-Listening Pavilion's convoy was still resting at a post station thirty li away; at their traveling pace, they wouldn't reach this valley until tomorrow's Chen hour at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the people of the Azure Dragon Sect should already be lying in wait within the dense woods on both sides of the valley.
Carrying his spear over his shoulder, Chen Zui strolled leisurely along the official road into the valley.
His pace was not fast, his boot soles rustling softly against the gravel, echoing far across the empty valley.
Deep in the valley, within an airtight pine forest, thirty-two pairs of eyes were fixed intently on the official road.
Crouching behind a half-man-tall boulder, Duan Tianhong's otherwise regular features were clouded with gloom and malice.
He was fifty-seven this year, his hair already mostly gray, and a pair of triangular eyes glinted in the twilight like a hawk's.
His right hand rested on the hilt of the nine-ring broadsword at his waist.
“Sect Master, it's not Furnace-Listening Pavilion's convoy,” a Mountain-Viewing Realm elder beside him whispered. “It's just a kid carrying a spear, all alone.”
“This old man can see that.” Duan Tianhong's voice squeezed out through his teeth. “This place is miles from nowhere, with not a single hunter within fifty li. How could some spear-toting brat suddenly pop up?”
“Could he be help hired by Furnace-Listening Pavilion?”
“Furnace-Listening Pavilion only ever uses their own people for escorts. They never hire outside help.” Another elder shook his head. “Besides, this kid looks barely in his twenties. How capable could he be? Most likely an unaffiliated wanderer who took a wrong turn.”
“Took a wrong turn?” Duan Tianhong sneered. “This road leads straight to Jinyang City. Heading toward Jinyang City at a time like this, do you really think he's someone who just lost his way?”
The elders exchanged glances, none of them answering.
Staring at the figure drawing closer and closer along the official road, Duan Tianhong narrowed his triangular eyes into slits.
The intel on Furnace-Listening Pavilion's “Sheiru” sword had cost him three hundred taels of gold from Zhizhou Tower.
For this venture, he had brought the majority of the Azure Dragon Sect's elites, squatting in this desolate wilderness for five full days.
Seeing that Furnace-Listening Pavilion's convoy would arrive tomorrow, how could he not be on high alert when an uninvited guest suddenly appeared?
“Old Three.” Duan Tianhong beckoned toward a lean man behind him. “Take two men down and deal with that kid. Make it clean and swift, leave no trace.”
The lean man nodded and signaled to two disciples behind him.
The three slipped down from the pine forest without making a sound, their figures moving through the twilight as swift as three wisps of gray smoke.
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