Chapter 821: Su Mountain Bandits

Chapter 821: Chapter 821: Su Mountain Bandits

Yang Qi smiled and began his cultivation.

Daoist Wang and the Undying Barbarian King stood guard outside, so naturally there would be no issues.

One night passed.

Yang Qi walked out of the room full of energy, excitement shining on his face.

Body Tempering Stage, Eighth Layer Perfection.

He was already close to the Ninth Layer.

This boosted his combat power by far more than just a little.

Originally he could contend with Ninth Rank Overlords; now, he could directly face Overlord Peak experts.

Even without using the Green Emperor Body, he could still defeat an Overlord Peak.

This feeling was just wonderful.

By now, everyone had already started gathering.

Then they got into the cars and headed toward the Su Mansion.

Three Prefectures Town lies at the border of Su Mansion, Longjiang Prefecture, and Jingnan Prefecture, and actually also adjoins Sea City.

From Three Prefectures Town to the mountain that Gu Baiyuan mentioned, driving only took a few hours.

Only after they went out did they realize Su Mansion hadn’t just sent Gu Baiyuan and a dozen others—there were nearly a hundred Martial Artists waiting outside.

This was a truly grand convoy.

Just like that, they advanced toward their goal.

Everyone chatted and laughed along the way; in the blink of an eye two hours had passed. They had already left Three Prefectures Town and entered Su Mansion’s territory.

According to Gu Baiyuan, the closer they got to the mountain where the Secret Realm was, the more dangerous it would become.

Though it was daytime, the forest here was dense, and there really was a feeling that danger lurked everywhere.

Because this mountain lay within Su Mansion’s domain, it was called "Su Mountain." It was actually quite famous, and its scenery was extremely beautiful.

Strangely, it had never been developed into a tourist spot, for reasons unknown.

Rumor had it that this place, like the mountain near Sea City, was dangerous, and there were monsters on the mountain.

Because people had died here, this area had basically become a wildlife reserve now, and people generally didn’t dare enter lightly.

On the way into the mountain they often ran into poachers and roaming bandits.

But the most dangerous ones definitely weren’t these; after all, this convoy was full of experts, and ordinary poachers were no match for them.

"Everyone take a break, don’t drive while exhausted. We’re about to enter the mountain—sort out all your gear and make sure there are no problems."

Gu Baiyuan called for everyone to rest.

Yang Qi, Daoist Wang, and the Undying Barbarian King sat together, each watching one direction, so that even if there was a sneak attack they could detect it in time.

But not everyone was as vigilant as they were.

On the Sea City side, a group of people laughed as they pointed at the three of them.

"Heh, they don’t seriously think there’s any danger here, do they? Our force is so huge that even if poachers or bandits see us, they’d probably be scared off right away. Would they dare come close?"

Someone laughed.

"Exactly, no need to be that cautious. They’re obviously that strong, yet such cowards!"

Hearing this, the Undying Barbarian King grew displeased and was about to stand up, when Yang Qi pressed him down: "Use the time to rest. I’m afraid we’ll be in for a fierce battle later."

His voice had barely faded.

Suddenly a scream rang out.

"Ah—!"

The scream came from within the dense forest—someone had gone off to relieve himself.

Hearing this, everyone shot forward to check the situation.

Yang Qi ordered Daoist Wang and the Undying Barbarian King to stay put and watch over their belongings, while he himself followed.

Inside the forest were three corpses, all killed by hard crossbows.

One arrow to the throat!

And the most terrifying part was that the enemy had even had time to pull the crossbow arrows from their necks.

Of the three dead, one was from Su Mansion and two were from Sea City.

All three had been killed while relieving themselves.

Their death poses were quite ugly.

"What’s going on?"

Gu Baiyuan arrived at this moment and spoke up.

He looked extremely anxious.

"Someone’s been killed, and with the same weapon—one arrow to the throat. We rushed over as soon as we heard the sound, but the enemy still had time to pull the arrows from their necks and drift away without leaving us even a glimpse of their backs."

Xue Mu said.

"The opponent is strong!"

Yang Qi analyzed, "And it’s definitely not just one person. Judging from where these three victims were standing, there must have been at least three enemies."

He suddenly turned to Gu Baiyuan: "Gu Baiyuan, is there something you’ve been hiding from us?"

Gu Baiyuan’s expression turned a bit awkward. Seeing everyone staring at him, he had no choice but to say, "This might be the work of that group!"

"That group?"

"The Su Mountain Bandits."

Gu Baiyuan sighed.

"Su Mountain Bandits? What Su Mountain Bandits? Why have we never heard of them before?" Xue Mu was stunned. "I’m from Su Mansion too!"

Gu Baiyuan said awkwardly, "Now that things have come to this, I won’t hide it from you anymore. Our Gu Family’s Secret Realm has been targeted by a powerful bandit gang.

They’re the Su Mountain Bandits.

The Su Mountain Bandits are a powerful group; each member’s combat power is extremely strong. They must have discovered we were going to the Secret Realm to harvest herbs and now want to stop us.

The Su Mountain Bandits have already come after us several times, and even tried to abduct members of our Gu Family so they could force us to help them open the Secret Realm’s mechanisms.

They didn’t succeed, but I didn’t expect them to go for broke this time, directly making a move, not caring about offending the various parties of Sea City, Jingnan Prefecture, and Su Mansion."

"So there was actually something like this. Gu Baiyuan, when you first talked about this job, you never mentioned the Su Mountain Bandits. Now we’ve suddenly gained such a powerful enemy.

The danger level of this mission has soared. This mission might as well be canceled."

Xue Mu said coldly.

"Exactly. People need to have some integrity. Two of our Sea City people just got killed without even knowing what was going on. If you had explained the situation in advance, it wouldn’t have come to this."

The people from Sea City were very displeased as well.

Gu Baiyuan panicked: "Everyone, don’t get worked up. At worst, when we get the Nine-section Calamus, you can take sixty percent and our Gu Family will only take forty, all right?"

"No." Xue Mu shook his head. "We’ve got people from Su Mansion, Sea City, Jingnan Prefecture, plus Mister Yang—four parties in total. Sixty percent isn’t enough; we want eighty. Each party gets twenty percent."

"That’s right, eighty percent!"

The Sea City people chimed in.

"This—aren’t you just taking advantage of a crisis?"

Gu Baiyuan’s face darkened.

"We’re taking advantage of a crisis? Isn’t it because you concealed the true situation?"

Xue Mu said.

"Fine, fine. This is indeed our fault. Eighty percent it is. But if your people die, don’t blame us."

Gu Baiyuan gritted his teeth.

"Hahaha, Elder Gu truly is straightforward. In that case, it’s settled. Everyone, stay sharp, patrol in shifts, and watch out for sneak attacks from the Su Mountain Bandits."

Xue Mu laughed loudly.

Gu Baiyuan also issued orders, telling the Gu Family Martial Artists to stay fully alert.

As for the corpses, there were naturally people to deal with them; it wasn’t something Yang Qi needed to bother with.

Yang Qi shot Gu Baiyuan a glance and let out a cold laugh.

He returned to where he had been before.