Within a post station fifty li north of Shu Prefecture City.
At midnight, the dark clouds dispersed.
Moonlight poured down, and the lands of Shu Prefecture, washed clean by rain, held a measure of brightness even at night.
Especially for martial artists who practiced the Martial Path, seeing in the dark was no difficult feat.
Shen Huatang, dressed in green with her long hair tied behind her head, sat atop a tree branch hugging the longsword named "Song Yue," overlooking the entire post station.
Though this place was only two li from the Chishui River, with a Garrison Army camp beyond it by the prefectural city, there was no guarantee that those bandits who wore their heads on their belts would not blindly come looking for trouble.
After all, forty carriages stood outside the post station, winding around in three layers within and three layers without, occupying a full two mu of land.
Shen Huatang could not afford to be anything but cautious.
In truth, she was not the only one keeping watch. The Xuanwei Escort Agency, responsible for escorting this batch of medicinal herbs, also had a team of eight scattered around the perimeter.
At that moment, as the watch changed shifts, another group of eight emerged from the tents beyond the convoy.
The leader was a burly man wearing only a sleeveless undershirt and straw sandals. The moment he stepped out, he shouted, "Lao Wu, come back and rest. It's our turn now."
He called three times in succession, yet no response came.
A faint change passed over Shen Huatang's cool features. She flipped down from the tree and strode straight to the carriage camp, saying calmly, "Something's happened. Wake everyone."
The burly man froze, his face abruptly turning ugly. He wheeled around and shouted, "Enemy attack! Enemy