Qingfeng Village [Third Watch]

"Wang Lie, you actually dared to injure the martial artists our family hired!" Wang Ding flew into a rage.

"Wang Ding, I'm your uncle. Is this how your father taught you—so lacking in manners? Do you know what seniority and rank are?" Seeing Ye Xiwen display such divine might, Wang Lie's heart settled completely. He immediately snapped back, "And you're still protecting that piece of trash? Didn't you hear what he said just now? He was insulting the Yi Yuan Sect. Are you saying our Wang family has been developing too well? If you drag our family down, can you bear the responsibility?"

Wang Ding's face turned green, then white. He secretly cursed those martial artists as useless trash, every last one of them—not a single one worth anything. They had actually been beaten so badly by a mere teenage brat.

"Wang Lie, just you wait!" After throwing down those harsh words with an ugly expression, Wang Ding could only leave resentfully.

"That felt amazing! That bastard had never taken me seriously since we were little. I finally got to vent some of this anger!" Wang Lie laughed heartily. After years of pent-up resentment, he had finally released a little of it.

The surrounding martial artists looked at Ye Xiwen differently now. None of them dared underestimate him as they had before.

"When do we leave?" Ye Xiwen asked Wang Lie.

"We leave this afternoon and enter the city tonight!" Wang Lie answered.

Entering the city at night? Were they trying to avoid someone?

Ye Xiwen did not dwell on it. Wang Lie probably did not know much either. Otherwise, given Wang Lie's relationship with him, there was no reason he would not have said so.

Before long, Wang Lie went off to attend to other matters. Ye Xiwen found a place to sit and rested with his eyes closed. Over the course of the morning, more than a dozen martial artists arrived, all at least at the Houtian Sixth Stage and possessing formidable strength.

"Thank you all for accepting this mission!" Near noon, a slightly hunched old man came in from outside. "I am Wang De Ying, steward of the Wang family. I will be in charge of leading this mission!"

"So you are Senior Quick Blade Wang. I have long admired you!" A martial artist stepped forward and cupped his hands.

"So he is Wang De Ying, the Quick Blade who dominated a hundred li around Green Peak Mountain twenty years ago. Who would have thought he would enter the Wang family as a servant?"

"Thank you all for your cooperation. Please make your preparations. We will be setting off shortly!" Wang De Ying said in a deep voice.

Once everyone had arrived, Ye Xiwen followed the Wang family convoy as it escorted the medicinal herbs onto the road. Yet something struck him as strange: not a single member of the Wang family had appeared for this escort mission. There was only the old steward and several Wang family guards. Wang Lie was nowhere to be seen either.

This kept Ye Xiwen from relaxing. The escort mission had been strange from the outset. Escorting a single shipment of herbs paid three thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, which showed just how important the task was. The amount of Spirit Stones was directly proportional to the mission's difficulty. Yet under such circumstances, the Wang family had sent only an old steward to show himself. There was something deeply odd about it.

The martial artists also sensed that something was amiss. Their years of living with their lives on the edge of a blade told them there was something strange here. One after another, they fell silent and stopped joking around.

The convoy moved forward slowly. After traveling for a little over an hour, a disturbance suddenly broke out ahead.

"Chen Long, Chen Hu, both chiefs of Qingfeng Stronghold have come. I truly did not expect this. It is only a cart of ordinary medicinal herbs. It hardly warrants the two chiefs coming in person!" Wang De Ying's voice came from the front.

Qingfeng Stronghold!

A stir ran through the martial artists. Qingfeng Stronghold was quite famous in this region. There were many mountains near Green Peak Mountain, and the local people were fierce and hardy; bandits and mountain thieves were even more numerous. Qingfeng Stronghold was the largest among them. Its two chiefs, Chen Long and Chen Hu, were notorious for their vicious reputations. Rumor had it that the two were brothers with extremely powerful strength, both peak Houtian Eighth Stage experts. Working together, they could even contend against a Houtian Ninth Stage expert.

To these martial artists, the two chiefs of Qingfeng Stronghold were an enormous deterrent.

"Are they really just ordinary medicinal herbs? Wang De Ying, you were once a formidable man and a senior on the road. Don't speak to us in riddles. Do you take us brothers for ignorant fools?" At the front of the convoy, a force of more than a hundred men blocked the road. The two leaders were both broad-backed, bear-waisted, rough-featured men. Their brows and eyes bore a seven- or eight-tenths resemblance to each other. They were precisely the two chiefs of Qingfeng Stronghold, Chen Long and Chen Hu.

"Of course not. But Qingfeng Trading Company and Qingfeng Stronghold have always kept to their own waters and never crossed paths. During every holiday and festival, we have never been stingy with gifts. Why must you insist on making things difficult for us this time?" Wang De Ying said gravely, his voice steady and forceful.

"We do not wish to make things difficult either. As long as you hand over the medicinal herbs behind you, we brothers will turn around and leave!" Chen Long, the elder brother among Qingfeng Stronghold's two chiefs, said.

"Hmph. So the two chiefs intend to tear off all pretenses with our Qingfeng Trading Company? Our Qingfeng Trading Company has always treated others kindly, but we are not made of clay. Do not think you will get off easily either!" Wang De Ying continued.

"Cut the nonsense. Do you think we did not consider that before coming here? As the saying goes, men die for wealth and birds die for food. After we finish this job, do you think we brothers will remain in this area?" Chen Hu said with a booming laugh.

"Enough nonsense. Since you refuse to hand them over, don't blame us brothers for showing no mercy. Men, kill!"

At once, the bandits of Qingfeng Stronghold charged forward with strange cries. The two chiefs of Qingfeng Stronghold also burst into laughter and took the lead, charging in with the Qingfeng Stronghold bandits.

"Everyone, charge with me—kill!" Wang De Ying roared. He stomped the ground and shot into the air. Drawing a long saber, he sent a flash of cold light illuminating the sky, whipping up a fierce gale as it slashed toward Chen Long and Chen Hu.

The two chiefs of Qingfeng Stronghold drew their weapons—Wolf Tooth Clubs—and rushed forward with wild cries to meet him.

Boom! The long saber and Wolf Tooth Clubs collided violently. A terrifying current of air spread from the point of impact, forming a dreadful gale.

"Hahaha! So the Quick Blade who once swept through an entire region decades ago is only this much!" Chen Long laughed loudly as he tied up Wang De Ying.

"Hahaha! This Quick Blade is nothing special either. Old man, you're already old!" Chen Hu echoed with a loud laugh.

Chen Hu was tall and powerfully built. His Wolf Tooth Club swept across, and every Qingfeng Trading Company guard or martial artist struck by it had their bones shattered.

"What do we do? Those two are too strong. If no one stops them, I'm afraid they'll slaughter every last one of us!" A martial artist said, his face deathly pale.

The other martial artists also spoke with lingering fear. They had never expected to encounter the two chiefs of Qingfeng Stronghold here. This escort mission truly was not simple.

Suddenly, a figure shot out and charged toward Chen Hu.

Brothers, can you give it a little more strength? We're only a little over a hundred points away from blowing past the few ahead of us—that's just a dozen or so votes, or thirty member clicks!