Testing the Waters, Then Striking Back

With Huqiu Stone Grotto and the Ba Snake Mountain caravan, three caravans had taken shelter here, totaling some four to five hundred people.

One of them was a large caravan of more than three hundred people, guarded by a Star Plucking Realm expert.

Yet despite so many people gathered together, looking exceedingly hard to provoke, when the dead of night came and everyone who could sleep had fallen asleep while the patrolling guards grew lax, the stone grotto was still attacked.

As Li Qingyun controlled his avatar, "Quan Lei," circulating Desolate Qi deep within the grotto, he suddenly heard shrill screams erupt outside, tearing through the wilderness night.

Immediately afterward, torches danced chaotically, camel-beasts fled in panic, and utter chaos descended both inside and outside the grotto.

Li Qingyun did not move at first. He was not these lousefolk's nanny, bound to protect them at every moment. If it was merely an ordinary attack, Tushan Wenshan and the others could handle it themselves.

But the turmoil outside quickly spread into the depths of his grotto.

"Lord Quan, something terrible has happened! A Void Capturing Realm expert outside is leading several hundred poachers in surrounding Huqiu Stone Grotto!"

"My lord, save us..."

Several Tushan Clan tribesmen ran in, beside themselves with panic.

"In the end, it was still a little lacking. This merfolk body's foundation is simply too weak..."

Li Qingyun sighed. With a tap of his fish-like feet, he leaped from the pool, transformed into a streak of azure light, and shot out of the stone grotto.

The two grottoes where the Ba Snake Mountain caravan had camped were adjacent. In the open ground outside, a line of wooden chevaux-de-frise had been hastily erected. Yet beneath the firelight, great numbers of black-clad bandits were leaping over them with savage grins