Dantai Ming led the surviving clan members in a mad dash north, not stopping until the sky began to pale.
They rested in a mountain hollow. Dantai Ming leaned against a large tree, his chest heaving violently, the black robe on his body hacked open in several places.
An elder of the clan walked over to Dantai Ming and handed him a waterskin.
"Young Master, the casualties have been counted. Twenty-three people made it out, and only eleven followed us here. The rest were all left in the city."
Dantai Ming took the waterskin and gulped down a mouthful without speaking.
The elder hesitated, then said in a low voice, "Young Master, should we continue with the matter of sealing off the trade routes?"
"Continue what? Our people are almost all wiped out."
Dantai Ming tossed the waterskin back into the elder's hands, rose, and looked in the direction of Luofeng City.
"The Zhao Family didn't withdraw. They set up an ambush in the city, and the Wuming Sect's people were all taken down. The information we got was false. It was false from the very beginning."
The elder's expression changed. "Young Master means the Zhao Family deliberately released that information to lure us to the north of the city?"
"Not just to lure us to the north of the city. They even calculated the Wuming Sect into it. The Zhao Family knew long ago that the Wuming Sect would go to seize the grain, and also knew we would go to stop them. They waited until both sides finished fighting before coming out to clean up the mess—one stone, two birds."
Dantai Ming gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with hatred.
"That Lin Taichu is not simple. He was the one who laid the trap in the city."
"Young