After leaving Qingzhou City, the caravan followed the main road south.
The first few days passed in relative peace.
The road was fairly smooth, and villages and towns could be seen along the way.
Although most seemed somewhat desolate, at least they still maintained a basic sense of order.
But the farther inland the caravan ventured, the more harrowing the sights along the way became.
The road grew rough and difficult to traverse.
Everywhere, refugees could be seen fleeing with their families, dressed in ragged clothes.
Their faces were gaunt, their eyes dull, and they shuffled along the road like the walking dead.
Perhaps the merchant guild's senior staff couldn't bear to turn them away. The caravan never drove the refugees off.
They even handed out food to them whenever the caravan stopped to rest.
The sight left the guards puzzled. Weren't merchants famously out for profit?
Why were they helping these fleeing commoners now?
Unable to make sense of it, the guards stopped wondering and went back to their own duties.
The caravan's decisions were not theirs to fret over, and the several Martial Masters hadn't said a word.
That day, the caravan reached a perilous stretch known as Black Wind Gorge.
Black Wind Gorge was flanked by steep cliffs that towered into the clouds, with only a narrow passage between them, wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side.
The terrain was treacherous. It was the perfect place for bandits to waylay travelers, and every merchant's nightmare.
As the enormous caravan wound its way into the depths of the gorge like a long serpent,
every guard felt their heart leap into their throat.
"Stay alert! Keep your eyes on the cliffs on both sides!"
The caravan's head guard, a seasoned veteran, shouted a warning.
But sure enough, the thing they feared came to pass.
Just as the caravan reached the narrowest point of the gorge, disaster struck.
"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!"
Amid a chorus of piercing whistles, countless poisoned arrows rained down from the cliffs on both sides.
"Enemy attack! Everyone, prepare for battle!"
The head guard's roar echoed through the gorge.
Having been warned, the guards reacted swiftly, channeling their true qi to form rudimentary barriers of defense.
Though the rain of arrows was dense, it still couldn't break through the guards' true-qi shields.
As if a mere rain of ordinary arrows could threaten them, when all hundred-plus guards were at least first-rate fighters, with seven Martial Masters among them.
With such a lineup, how could a mere rain of arrows possibly harm them?
But not long after the arrows stopped, hundreds of masked bandits leaped down from the cliffs on both sides.
They came from every direction, each wielding a blade as they charged madly at the caravan.
"Protect the principals! Protect the cargo! Follow me and fight!"
The head guard drew his saber and roared as he charged forward.
A fierce battle erupted in the gorge.
Although the bandits vastly outnumbered the caravan's guards, their warriors were not especially skilled.
With the seven Martial Masters in the caravan unleashing their strength, the bandits were slaughtered in a one-sided rout.
In moments, the raiders had suffered heavy casualties and were driven back step by step.
Just as the caravan's people thought the battle was all but won, a suffocatingly powerful presence descended from above.
An old man dressed in a black robe slowly descended from the cliffs on either side.
At last, he landed lightly atop the most luxurious carriage in the very center of the caravan.
"A Grandmaster?!"
The moment the head guard felt that terrifying pressure, his expression changed drastically, and boundless despair filled his eyes.
He knew it. It was over.
Once a Grandmaster made a move, even all seven of their Martial Masters together wouldn't withstand a single strike.
Under the Grandmaster's oppressive presence, every guard still fighting felt their courage shatter.
The caravan's steward was even worse. His face went ashen, and he crumpled to the ground.
The black-robed Grandmaster paid no mind to the guards around him, who were no more than ants in his eyes.
His gaze, sharp as a hawk's, fixed on the carriage beneath him as he spoke in a hoarse, icy voice.
"Your Highness, Ninth Princess, come out."
"My master gave the order. He doesn't want you to return to the Capital alive."
His words stunned everyone.
A princess?!
The person inside this carriage was actually a princess of the realm?!
Every guard, including Steward Liu, stared at the carriage in disbelief.
They had never dreamed that the person they were escorting was such a precious royal.
Lin Hanzhou's gaze sharpened slightly as well.
He had long sensed that something about this caravan was out of the ordinary.
Five Martial Masters were guarding the same carriage. Anyone could tell that someone important was inside.
He simply hadn't expected that person to be a princess of the realm.
As everyone stood stunned, a small, pale hand slowly lifted the curtain of the carriage.
A young woman of about sixteen or seventeen, dressed in a plain gown, stepped down from the carriage.
She was none other than Li Yue Chan, the Ninth Princess of the Great Gan Dynasty.
Her face was somewhat pale, but there wasn't a trace of fear in her clear eyes.
Instead, she displayed the composure and dignity unique to royalty, far beyond what one would expect of someone her age.
Facing the black-robed Grandmaster, she spoke calmly.
"You're one of my Eldest Brother's men, aren't you? Tell him he's achieved what he wanted."
"I'll go with you quietly, but please spare the innocent people traveling with me. They have nothing to do with this."
"Hahahaha..."
The black-robed Grandmaster let out a shrill laugh.
"Your Highness, you're still far too naïve. My master gave the order: not a single person who has seen you here today can be left alive!"
"You will all die here."
Before his words had even faded, murderous intent blazed in his eyes. He raised a hand and circulated the true qi within his body.
He seemed ready to crush everyone traveling with the caravan into dust with a single palm strike!
At this critical moment, Lin Hanzhou, who had been mixed in among the crowd, moved.
The black-robed Grandmaster paused and abruptly turned to look in a certain direction.
The young man in black whom he had ignored all along had somehow appeared right in front of him.
Lin Hanzhou didn't draw his sword, nor did he use any martial technique.
He simply threw an unremarkable punch at the black-robed Grandmaster.
The punch carried his vast spiritual power, as though it had frozen the space around them.
The black-robed Grandmaster's pupils contracted. From that punch, he sensed a threat unlike anything he had ever faced.
He tried to pull back his hand and retreat, only to find himself firmly locked in place by an invisible force.
He could only gather all his true qi into his palm and brace himself as he met the blow.
Fist and palm collided soundlessly in midair.
There was no earth-shaking boom, nor any violent shockwave.
Only a crisp crack, like glass shattering.
To the utter horror of everyone watching, the black-robed Grandmaster's palm was pierced in an instant, and his entire arm dissolved into a cloud of blood mist.
"Pfft—!"
The black-robed Grandmaster was struck as if by lightning, blood pouring from his mouth like it was free.
He flew backward and slammed into a distant cliff face.
The impact dented even the hard rock, leaving a huge human-shaped hollow.
At that moment, his face was full of disbelief.
Clearly, he couldn't understand how his opponent could be so powerful.
Such terrifying strength was likely on par with that of an Apex Grandmaster, or even a Great Grandmaster.
But Lin Hanzhou gave him no chance to catch his breath.
He strolled toward the grievously wounded Grandmaster, one unhurried step at a time.
"Y-You... who are you?! Do you mean to make an enemy of the First Prince?"
Lin Hanzhou struggled to speak, staring at him in terror as if he were a monster.
"Oh? Does your First Prince mean to make an enemy of me?"
Lin Hanzhou's lips curled into a mocking smile.
Under the Grandmaster's horrified, despairing gaze, he slowly raised a finger and pointed it lightly at him.
"Pop."
A soft sound.
That Grandmaster, whose reputation in the martial world had been enough to found a sect and inspire awe in countless martial artists,
stiffened abruptly, the light in his eyes fading fast.
His consciousness and his sea of qi were both shattered completely by that single finger.
In that instant, the Grandmaster who had just been strutting about like a force of nature was dead.
The whole gorge fell silent as the grave.
The remaining bandits, who had been swaggering just moments ago, were scared out of their wits. One by one, they fled in panic without looking back.
Every surviving member of the caravan stared at Lin Hanzhou with the reverence one might show a god.
A Grandmaster had really been taken down in two casual moves?
They never could have imagined the affair would end this way.
Li Yue Chan, the Ninth Princess of Great Gan, stood rooted to the spot as well.
Even she, a woman of broad experience, was utterly stunned.
In her clear, beautiful eyes was reflected Lin Hanzhou's towering figure.
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