Chapter 47: Stronghold

With a soft whistle, I reached to my waist and drew my green flying sword from its scabbard.

HUM-

I channeled a generous stream of my Late-Stage Golden Core qi into the blade. Under the stunned, wide-eyed gazes of the thirty bandits, the slender jade steel hummed with blinding green radiance, rapidly expanding outward until it stretched thirty paces long and ten paces wide, floating steadily a foot above the forest floor like a massive, flying jade raft.

"All of you, get on," I commanded casually. "Tie Shan, bring your men aboard."

Before Qingxue could even ask, I flicked my sleeves, sending out two gentle cushions of golden spiritual force that scooped both our massive Tier 2 Iron-Hoof Blood Stallions off their hooves, dropping the two snorting warhorses neatly onto the widened deck of the sword. The surviving bandits scrambled aboard in sheer, trembling awe, clinging to the smooth edges as if riding a floating palace.

I caught Qingxue’s slender hand, stepping onto the sword’s hilt with her at my side.

"Point the direction, Tie Shan," I said.

"N-Northwest, past the Twin Fang Gorges!" the leader stammered, pointing frantically toward the jagged limestone peaks.

"Hold onto your hats."

With a thought, the flying sword tilted upward and detonated into the twilight sky.

BOOM!

A deafening sonic boom tore through the valley canopy as we broke the sound barrier, shooting across the mountain tops at blistering speed. I raised a thin, semi-translucent dome of golden qi over the sword, keeping the hurricane-force winds from blowing the bandits into paste while letting them peer out at the breathtaking wilderness below.

The rugged terrain of the Iron Valley Principality passed beneath us like a blurred scroll of ancient landscape art. Rolling pine forests, roaring river gorges, and jagged granite precipices were swallowed behind our exhaust in seconds.

As we crossed an elevated rocky ridge, a violent screech shattered the air.

SCREECH!

From the crags of a neighboring cliff, a massive Iron-Beak Blood Falcon, a Tier 2 Magical Beast with razor-sharp steel feathers and a twenty-foot wingspan-dove straight toward our flying platform, its talons gleaming like hooked scythes as it eyed the bandits as an easy meal.

"Monster attack!" one of the bandits shrieked, ducking low.

I didn’t even turn my head.

With a lazy flick of my left index finger, a needle-thin ray of green sword-qi shot from my fingernail like a laser beam.

Puff.

The beam cleanly pierced the falcon’s skull between its eyes. The massive beast froze mid-dive, went limp, and plummeted silently into the bottomless ravine below, dead before the echo of its screech even faded.

I shook out my sleeve, casually glancing down at my palm with a slight facepalm.

Right... I still had my Golden Core aura completely suppressed.

To these wild beasts, an unshielded flying sword without an active, terrifying predator aura looked just like an oversized piece of wood drifting through their territory. If I wanted to avoid swatting flies every two miles, I really needed to stop playing the stealthy mortal.

Before the bandits could recover from their shock, Tie Shan leaned over the energy barrier, pointing excitedly toward a dead-end ravine enclosed by sheer, vertical cliffs.

"There! Senior, that’s the Wolf Fang Gorge! The hidden entrance lies behind the dry waterfall!"

I guided the sword down, descending smoothly into the shadowy depths of the misty canyon.

To an ordinary mortal scout, the gorge ended in a solid, unscalable limestone wall draped in withered brown vines. But the moment my divine sense swept across the rock face, the faint, shimmering ripples of a low-grade mortal concealment formation were laid completely bare to my eyes.

It was a crude illusion array, woven with basic spirit-chalk and low-tier concealing talismans-neat enough to fool mortal soldiers, but as transparent as glass to a Golden Core master.

I didn’t bother breaking their toys. I brought the sword to a halt on the gravel bank, letting the blade shrink and slide back into its scabbard as everyone dismounted safely.

Tie Shan hurried to the base of the rock wall, pulling a heavy brass whistle from his collar and blowing three short, rhythmic bursts, followed by a long, low trill.

Rumble.

The solid stone wall wavered like water. A section of the rock slid back, revealing a cavernous tunnel illuminated by burning pine torches.

We followed Tie Shan through the passage, emerging into a breathtaking subterranean basin.

The interior of the mountain was hollowed out into a sprawling, hidden cavern nearly a mile wide. Stalactites hung from the vaulted ceiling, and hundreds of rough wooden cabins, stone hearths, and canvas tents were clustered along an underground stream.

It was essentially an entire hidden settlement, housing well over two thousand people, scrawny children playing with carved wooden tops, elderly women washing clothes by the water, and wounded militia members sharpening rusted spears.

Yet, the pervasive stench of poverty, famine, and sickness hung heavily in the air.

Before we could take ten steps along the gravel path, the crisp clang of drawn steel echoed from the shadows.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A dozen armed rebel fighters leaped out from behind the timber watchposts, brandishing notched iron sabers and hunting bows, instantly surrounding our group in a tight, hostile circle.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" a scarred youth barked, his bowstring drawn taut, an iron-tipped arrow aimed straight at my chest. "Tie Shan! Who are these strangers in fine silk you brought to the inner sanctum?"

"Lower your weapons! Lower them this instant, you brainless brutes!" Tie Shan roared frantically, stepping in front of our horses and waving his hands wildly. "These are exalted guests who saved our squad from the imperial slavers! If not for Senior Lu, not a single one of us would have returned alive."

The rebel sentries hesitated, but the suspicious, fearful hostility in their eyes didn’t waver in the slightest. In a world full of imperial spies and mercenary bounties, an outsider dressed in pristine scholar robes accompanied by a peerless, veiled swordswoman was cause for immense paranoia.

"Stand down."

A clear, resonant woman’s voice cut through the cavern like a ringing chime.

The crowd of tense sentries immediately lowered their blades, hastily stepping aside to clear a path.