Volume 1, Chapter 97 – Firecloud Escort Agency

After that incident, Wu Lingkong never said anything like that again. Whenever they ran into a beast horde, everyone relied on their own skills.

Demonic beasts were appearing rather frequently—on some days they could run into three or four waves of herds, each several hundred strong.

Most of those beasts were ceded by Shi Lan and Wu Lingkong to the Demon-Suppressing Army soldiers and turned into military merit.

……

After several days of travel, the demonic beasts around them gradually grew scarce. Sometimes they wouldn’t encounter a single horde in an entire day, and their journey went far more smoothly.

“The chances of running into demonic beasts from here on out should be pretty low.” Wu Lingkong glanced at the map, her expression much more relaxed.

It was fortunate they had this map, and that Wu Lingkong still had some hazy memory of roaming this region for a while. Only then had they been able to avoid the areas where large beast hordes appeared and make it into this much calmer zone.

Shi Lan also let out a small breath of relief.

That heavy snowfall from before had lasted a long time and covered a wide area. Now the mountains and fields were a sheet of white, the snow buried up to a person’s shins.

The flood-dragon horses’ speed was greatly hindered, slowed by quite a bit.

The number of demonic beasts had dropped sharply as well, perhaps also related to that snowstorm.

After another two days of trudging through the snow, Shi Lan and the others arrived at a city marked “Bedrock City” on the map.

Bedrock City was not large; all in all, it wasn’t even half the size of Twin Moon City back then. According to the figures noted on the map, its population was only a bit over a hundred thousand.

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An eighth-grade power sat in Bedrock City, an escort agency called the Firecloud Escort Agency. It was fairly famous in these parts and could speak on equal terms with the surrounding forces in all directions.

The chief of the Firecloud Escort Agency was called You Hong, a martial artist at the ninth stage of the Innate Realm, with considerable prestige.

Bedrock City’s walls were not high, not even five zhang, about the same height as the walls around Shi Lan’s own home. Even an ordinary martial artist in the Body Tempering Realm could scale it in two steps.

At the city gate stood two martial artists in leather armor, long sabers at their waists as they stood guard, chatting idly with relaxed expressions.

When they saw Shi Lan and the others approaching, the two immediately straightened up, their faces going serious. They stood ramrod straight and, without drawing attention to it, rested their hands on their saber hilts.

Seeing the armor on the group, their expressions grew even more solemn. After a brief hesitation, the hands on their saber hilts slowly relaxed.

One of them stepped forward, clasped his fists, and said politely, “Where are you all coming from? And what brings you to Bedrock City?”

“Just passing through. We’d like to rest here for a bit. Please let us through.” Shi Lan replied.

The two looked at each other and moved aside to clear the way.

“You keep watch here. I’ll go report to the chief.”

Once Shi Lan and the others had entered the city, the taller, thin man among the two guards leaned close to his companion and spoke in a low voice. Then he stretched his legs and sprinted into the city, heading straight for the Firecloud Escort Agency.

Bedrock City was only so big; before long, the tall, thin man had already rushed into the escort agency.

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After explaining the situation to a steward, he was brought directly before the chief escort, You Hong.

You Hong looked to be in his thirties, but was actually nearing fifty. He wore a beard, and his face was slightly dark.

“They’re all wearing armor? And most of them are women?”

You Hong was a bit surprised after hearing the man’s description.

“That’s right, Chief. And all of them are martial artists with no ordinary strength. I couldn’t read the cultivation of a single one of them,” the tall man said with cupped fists.

“You’re sure they’re not from any of the local forces?” You Hong asked after pondering for a while.

The tall, thin man shook his head. “Impossible. Any power in these parts that has that many experts on the martial path, I’ve either seen or at least heard of. There isn’t a single one that matches them.”

You Hong nodded slightly and waved his hand. “You may go.”

After the tall man left, You Hong summoned a middle-aged man who was a little on the short side.

“Keep an eye on these strangers who just entered the city. If they make any suspicious moves, report to me immediately.”

“Yes, Chief.” The middle-aged man bowed, turned, and left the room. As he walked, he moved without a sound, his steps leaving no trace in the snow, not so much as a single mark.

……

Shi Lan and the others made a circuit around Bedrock City, only to discover, somewhat helplessly—

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There wasn’t even an inn here. The only place to stay was a restaurant with just two or three rooms upstairs, nowhere near enough for all of them.

Fortunately, there was still a general store in the city that sold simple tents.

Under the shopkeeper’s broad grin, Wu Lingkong simply bought out all the tents. The total cost was only a few dozen taels of silver.

They found a slightly more spacious patch of open ground, pitched a simple camp, and settled in.

Shi Lan had Wang Ning and the others unload the spirit crystals and move them directly into the tent in the very center of the camp, where she watched over them personally, so Wang Ning and the rest wouldn’t have to split their attention and could actually rest in peace.

Wu Lingkong had only recently learned that these unremarkable cloth bundles actually held a sizable fortune in spirit crystals.

When she first heard this, Wu Lingkong was only a bit envious of Shi Lan’s good luck in stumbling across a spirit crystal vein; she didn’t have any other thoughts.

After all, aside from a small portion, those spirit crystals all belonged to Wang Ning and the others.

Shi Lan and Wu Lingkong shared a tent. Once night fell, the two didn’t chat much and each went about their cultivation.

Before starting, Shi Lan took out some spirit crystals and laid down a simple spirit-gathering formation. Then she took out a section of Crimson Cloud Lotus root, sliced off a piece, and swallowed it to increase her cultivation.

Watching Shi Lan’s movements, Wu Lingkong couldn’t help feeling a bit envious. Her own talent already counted as outstanding, but compared to Shi Lan, it felt like there was a gulf between heaven and earth.

When she cultivated, the spiritual energy gathered by the spirit-gathering formation alone was already enough for her to refine. If she also swallowed Crimson Cloud Lotus root, the spiritual energy would come faster than she could convert it, and might even harm her instead.

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Shi Lan kept her eyes closed, fully focused on circulating her cultivation art.

It hadn’t been long since her last breakthrough, and now Shi Lan was already faintly touching the bottleneck of the seventh stage of the Innate Realm. Even she felt her progress was a bit excessively fast.

……

A shadow slipped into the camp like a ghost. It seemed to meld into the night, only occasionally revealing part of its form.

If not for the snow on the ground reflecting the moonlight and making visibility so good, even that tiny flaw might not have been visible.

After circling the camp once, the shadow crept toward the central tent.

Feeling how much denser the spiritual energy in the air was there, the shadow paused slightly, then became even more cautious, forcing even his heartbeat to slow, his breath long since held.

The shadow pressed himself flat to the ground like a snake, gliding along the snow. In no time he had reached a corner of the tent.

This kind of simple tent was far from airtight, practically open on all sides, with gaps everywhere.

Peering in through one such gap and seeing the scene inside, the shadow’s heart jolted. His taut nerves slackened, and the breath he’d been holding slipped out on reflex.

With how sharp Shi Lan’s senses were now, she exited her cultivation state in an instant. She raised her hand and blasted out a fist aura over four feet long, smashing it viciously toward the outside of the tent!