Marching Forward

Looking at the scattered bandits Seven Baleful Intents and the others had been escorting back over the past few days, Xiao Ming decided to bring every last one of them under his command.

But at that moment, Xiao Ming recalled the group of children he had found deep within the mountains.

No matter how indifferent Xiao Ming appeared on the surface, deep down, he was still the kind-hearted working man he had once been.

Therefore, before fully consolidating the bandits before him, Xiao Ming still had to get past this hurdle in his own heart.

With that thought, Xiao Ming told Seven Baleful Intents everything on his mind.

After receiving Xiao Ming's orders, Seven Baleful Intents immediately began making preparations.

Before long, Seven Baleful Intents learned from the bandits exactly which group had been secretly doing these things that had enraged Xiao Ming so greatly.

After identifying those people one by one from the crowd, Xiao Ming quietly singled them out without showing anything on his face.

Following an overnight interrogation, Xiao Ming learned that the mastermind behind it all was actually one of Wu Tan City's three major powers—the Jia Lie Clan!

Xiao Ming had never thought highly of the Jia Lie Clan to begin with. Once he learned that they had orchestrated this, his opinion of them plummeted even further.

Since the Jia Lie Clan would sooner or later stand against him, he might as well strike first.

With that in mind, Xiao Ming knew that knowing oneself and one's enemy meant never being defeated in a hundred battles.

He immediately summoned Seven Baleful Intents and instructed him to send several brothers from the stockade to secretly infiltrate the Jia Lie Clan.

Though the Black Demon Stockade was powerful now, it had not been established around Wu Tan City for many years, making it difficult to infiltrate the major powers in and around the city.

Of course, given the Black Demon Stockade's current overall strength, as long as they did not engage a force like the Jia Lie Clan in a prolonged frontal war, they had nothing to fear.

At present, the strongest member of the Jia Lie Clan was merely its clan leader, Jia Lie Bi, who was at the Da Dou Shi realm.

One had to know that, aside from Xiao Ming, the Black Demon Stockade also had Seven Baleful Intents and many other Da Dou Shi experts.

If such a force descended upon Wu Tan City, it would undoubtedly stir up a tremendous uproar.

After this incident, Xiao Ming decided that once he had dealt with the people before him, he would lead the entire Black Demon Stockade straight to the Jia Lie Clan's doorstep.

Since he had already made up his mind, Xiao Ming did not wish to delay for even a moment and headed to the main hall.

After being disciplined by the brothers of the Black Demon Stockade, everyone except those who had worked for the Jia Lie Clan joined the Black Demon Stockade under a mixture of threats and inducements.

The Black Demon Stockade now numbered more than eight hundred people in total.

At that very moment, the spies previously sent to the Jia Lie Clan returned.

Xiao Ming had now obtained all information regarding the Jia Lie Clan's deployment.

Once everything was ready, Xiao Ming left behind a number of permanent guards and led the entire Black Demon Stockade in a mighty march toward Wu Tan City at the foot of the mountain.

The guards atop Wu Tan City's walls had been dozing off when they suddenly noticed clouds of dust rising from the distant wilderness.

At the sight, the guards instantly snapped awake.

They immediately rang the warning bell beside them.

In an instant, piercing bell chimes echoed across the skies above Wu Tan City.

Upon hearing the bell, the three great clans of Wu Tan City reacted at once.

They promptly dispatched the powerful members of their clans to the city walls.

When they saw the scale of the dust clouds in the distance, even the experts of the three great clans could not help frowning.

To their knowledge, they had never heard of such a massive force existing anywhere near Wu Tan City.

And judging by their formation, the visitors clearly had ill intentions.

"Where are the city guards? Get over here this instant!"

Hearing Ao Bapa's voice, the commander of the guard troops who had been assigned to defend this place nervously squeezed through the crowded people on the wall and approached the three clan leaders.

"This subordinate is here."

When the guard commander arrived, Ao Bapa seemed to have found an outlet for his pent-up emotions. His entire presence instantly turned icy.

Ignoring everyone's reactions, he raised a foot and viciously kicked the city guard commander, who had been keeping his head lowered, heavily to the ground.

"I'm asking you, what is going on?"

The commander who had been kicked down was furious but dared not speak out.

Struggling to his feet, he endured the pain in his chest and continued to keep his head lowered as he trembled. "This... this subordinate does not know what is happening either."

Upon receiving that answer, Ao Bapa immediately raised his arm again, about to strike the commander before him. At last, Xiao Zhan could no longer stand by and firmly seized Ao Bapa's arm in midair.

Faced with this sudden development, everyone present scarcely dared to breathe.

After all, the three great clans of Wu Tan City had always maintained an extremely delicate relationship.

In recent years, the Xiao Clan's momentum had grown rapidly. As a result, the Jia Lie Clan and the Ao Ba Clan had quietly shown signs of joining forces against the Xiao Clan.

However, Wu Tan City's tripartite balance had lasted for many years, and none of the three great clans wished to be the first to shatter the deadlock.

After all, everyone knew that on the Battle Qi Continent, there were no eternal friends—only eternal interests.

As the leaders of the three great clans, all of them were already seasoned schemers.

Naturally, they understood such a simple truth perfectly well.

Yet under these circumstances, Xiao Zhan, the Xiao Clan's leader, had actually stepped in to stop Ao Bapa before all the important figures of Wu Tan City.

This immediately gave everyone endless room for speculation.

Looking at Xiao Zhan before him, Ao Bapa's expression instantly darkened.

But at that moment, the rumbling from afar grew even more intense.

As they sensed this change, everyone's attention atop the city walls was drawn back once more.