At dawn.
More than seventy iron cavalrymen escorted a carriage, their hooves thundering as they galloped straight down a desolate dirt road leading down the mountain.
These seventy-odd knights were all dressed in tight-fitting white clothes, with headscarves, long swords slung across their backs, and iron rings wrapped around their arms.
They all bore some injuries, suggesting they had been through a fierce battle.
At the very front of the procession was a magnificent, tall horse with muscles like chestnuts. Between its long, erect ears, a tuft of white mane flew in the wind. It was incredibly powerful and, as it galloped, its four hooves seemed to leap off the ground.
The knight on horseback was also dressed in white. He had a refined appearance, with a turban tied around his head. From a distance, his figure was quite extraordinary.
Suddenly, the man frowned slightly, waved the black leather reins wrapped around his right hand behind him, and slowed down the speed of his horse.
"Stop!"
He gave a low shout, and the cavalry slowed down abruptly, the carriages also gradually came to a stop.
"Herod... herod... herod..."
With a loud neighing, the horses reared up and stopped, and the caravan also came to a halt.
At this moment, especially the lead steed, its forehooves were incessantly pounding the mud, as if it were roaring in mourning, or as if it had discovered something.
"Enemy ambushes!"
He shouted, and the riders all drew their swords with a clang, holding them in their hands. However, after a long battle, everyone was exhausted, and their palms were soaked with sweat as they held their swords.
Just then, a loud, thunderous laugh rang out from the woods ahead. With the laughter, a large, fat figure swaggered over, carrying a tin staff that gleamed with a shimmering silver light. On his fat face, he wore a strange golden mask.
"Another mask."
Upon seeing that the man was wearing a mask, the scholar in white couldn't help but sigh.
"It is said that there are Twelve Golden Generals Twelve Golden Generals the Eastern Esoteric School. You must be a highly skilled individual among them. Why do you people of the cultivation world make things difficult for a few women and children...?"
"Who do you think it is?"
The fat man laughed heartily, and with a slight shake of his tightly gripped tin staff, the ornament on the staff head vibrated, making a "tinkling" sound.
"So you're from the Yan Clan family of Ju City the Yuan River. Your Yan family is also considered part of the cultivation world, but you've been staying at home all these years, avoiding trouble and cultivating in seclusion. Why did you have to get involved in this disaster..."
With a sudden, violent movement of the staff, a beam of golden light was unleashed, causing the horses to neigh in unison, and the people in the caravan to feel an unbearable burning pain from the dazzling golden light.
" The Xiao Clan has served as officials for three generations, and they are all loyal and righteous. Xiao Si'an is my sworn brother. How could I possibly abandon him!"
The scholar in white drew his sword and swung it, causing the moisture in the air to condense. With a slash of his sword, a grayish-white mist rose up, and a cold wind blew, causing it to solidify into a thick wall of ice, blocking the golden light from the sky.
" The Overturned Water Sword Art from the Great Meaning of the Five Elements Treatise—young man, you're quite skilled!"
The masked fat man simply smiled, and with a gentle lift of his staff, golden light surged violently, compressing the surrounding air and bringing an invisible pressure that pressed in instantly. Everyone in the caravan felt an astonishing oppressive force descend upon them, and their bodies suddenly became unusually heavy.
" The Pure Land Technique of Eastern Esoteric School Buddhism?"
The scholar in white was shocked. With a series of cracking sounds, the ice wall shattered, and thousands of golden rays burst out. His body was also suppressed by the golden light of the Pure Land, making him almost unable to move.
"What a pity."
The masked fat man raised his staff, glanced at the corpses strewn across the ground, and sighed, "Your 'Overturning Water Sword' still lacks refinement. As the saying goes, 'Spilled water cannot be gathered up again.' Unless your Swordsmanship can break through its limitations and be controlled at will, breaking my Pure Land Technique will remain an impossible task..."
The eyes beneath the golden mask coldly swept over the white-robed scholar's corpse, noticing that his entire body was covered in a thin layer of ice, indicating that this person possessed extremely high talent in the Overturned Water Sword Art.
"If I gave you another twenty years..."
The fat man shook his head, then swung his palm, shattering the ice-cold scholar into ice shards. With a swift movement, he floated to the side of the carriage.
The coachman was also dead, blood gushing from his mouth and nose, as he slid off the carriage to the ground. The fat man reached out his thick, fleshy hand, pulled back the curtain, and glanced at the several female corpses inside.
"Another 'bait'! Looks like the one on my end is a decoy too!"
He took out a jade pendant from his sleeve and said in a deep voice, "The Yin position is wrong. Those who escaped were 'bait.' There are still six teams, either openly or secretly, escaping from the six directions of Shen, Wei, Wu, Hai, Zi, and Chou. We must not let any of the Xiao Clan who escaped get away..."
At dawn, as the sun rises, its rays filter through the clouds and fall into the dense forest, bringing a gentle warmth.
This is a vast forest stretching for hundreds of miles, a dense, dark, and untamed woodland. Everywhere in the forest are towering ancient trees, some so thick that it takes two people to encircle them, and various vines and thorns intertwine, with layers upon layers of branches intertwined.
These deep, ancient forests are teeming with all sorts of poisonous insects, ants, and snakes, filled with miasma and toxic gases. Even sunlight cannot penetrate the deepest parts of the forest; it is so still and impenetrable that it is impossible for ordinary people to enter except for highly skilled cultivators. Even if an army of 100,000 were dispatched, it would be impossible to seal off such a mountain.
Just then, two strange whooshing sounds came from the dense forest, and two white phantoms flew through the trees, as fast as a spark. During their journey, they would sometimes change direction and their movements were unpredictable and erratic.
The two figures flew for a while, then one of them suddenly stopped. The person's sleeves billowed like a bird's wings, and using the momentum, it swept across a branch and slid to the ground.
At the same time, with a "hissing" sound, another white phantom circled the tree, suddenly leaped up, walked on the branches, and swiftly landed on the ground.
" Ming Zitu, why did you stop?"
The moment it landed, the white figure asked its companion a question.
The first person to stop was a thin, middle-aged man with a sallow complexion. He was emaciated, looked sickly, but his eyes were bright and piercing.
"Senior Brother Cheng Kongzi, the protective barrier I left at the entrance to the mountain has been tampered with! A powerful expert has caught up with us!"
"It seems the other baits have already been seen through."
The speaker was a thin, vigorous old man with a long beard. He was over sixty years old, with his hair tied in a Daoist bun, his long white beard, and he was wearing a hemp Daoist robe. He was also carrying a sleeping woman on his back.
The old man looked at his junior brother and sighed.
"Our plan went wrong. We originally intended to use a decoy to deceive everyone, and then the two of you would take the ' Black-Canopy Flying Boat ' and leave with the others. Who knew the enemy would also send out experts who destroyed our sect's most precious treasures? Alas, misfortunes never come singly."
"Senior brother, I'm afraid there's a traitor among those who came to assist Imperial Censor Xiao. Otherwise, our plan wouldn't have been so easily exposed."
The sickly-looking man nodded, holding a swaddled baby in his arms, inside which a baby less than a month old was fast asleep.
"For now, senior brother, we should split up," he said, glancing at the baby in his arms.
"The people of Eastern Esoteric School are truly ruthless. As the saying goes, 'misfortune should not extend to wives and children, and sins should not extend to parents...' Alas, no matter what, we must leave some descendants for the Xiao Clan. After all, when our Myriad Forms Sect suffered calamity, we also received great kindness from the Xiao Clan."
"That's exactly right."
The old man nodded, stroking his white beard.
"There's no time to lose. I'll take these two and leave, heading north. Junior brother, you should also find another direction."
Both the sickly-looking man and the white-haired old man with a long beard were dressed in Daoist robes. Within the Great You Realm, apart from the senior cultivators of the Pure Heart Dao, ordinary people would never dress as Daoists, making their attire quite conspicuous.
The two of them were originally disciples of the " Myriad Forms Sect " within the Great You Realm. Later, the Myriad Forms Sect was destroyed by the Evil-Slaying Bureau, and the sect moved to the Great Xiye Kingdom. Back then, when the disciples of the Wannian Sect Evil-Slaying Bureau, the Xiao Clan had saved them. Ming Zitu and his senior brother Cheng Kongzi were very grateful for the Xiao Clan's great kindness, which is why they came to help the Xiao Clan.
Just as the two were about to leave, they heard a sinister voice suddenly rang out.
"Who do we have here? It's just two young Daoist priests from the Myriad Forms Sect. Why don't the people of the Myriad Forms Sect stay in the Great Xiye Kingdom, enjoying their carefree and happy lives? Why do they have to come to the Great You Kingdom and wade into this mess? Are they planning to die?!"
From some unknown corner of the dense forest came a sinister laugh. The sharp sound waves pierced through the skull and brain. A squirrel on a nearby branch exploded with a "poof." Countless venomous snakes and insects in the forest were also killed by this mind-piercing demonic sound, falling from the branches like rain.
"Not good!"
"He's an expert!"
Knowing the danger, the two released a beam of light from their bodies, forming a large, bubble-like crystalline shield. The next second, neither of them dared to linger, one heading north and the other south, speeding away into the distance.
Not long after Ming Zitu and Cheng Kongzi flew away, He Ping, wearing a black cloak, also flew out of the forest.
"Just who is this Xiao Clan? Even the Myriad Forms Sect has come to their aid..."
He Ping glanced in the direction the two had left, took out the jade pendant, and transmitted a message.
"The two Daoist priests from the Myriad Forms Sect have fled with the Xiao Clan family members. Bijialuo, you quickly go after the one in the north, and I'll go after the other two. After you've completed your missions, come and meet me here."
Finally, he added one more sentence.
"Remember, nip it in the bud; don't be soft-hearted."
"Yes."
A relatively young voice responded and then the communication ended.