The sudden news that the Sky Wolfers were about to march south startled even Chen Mu.
"Master, what exactly is going on?"
Dispensing with formalities, he hurried over to the sand table.
Qin Tieya and Yuan Hong drew closer as well, and Qin Tieya said:
"Junior Brother, you don't know the half of it. After you entered Mangdang Mountain that day, Junior Brother Yuan and I pursued those vile monks of the Esoteric Sect and stumbled upon a secret..."
As Qin Tieya recounted the events, astonishment filled Chen Mu.
After he had entered the mountain alone, Qin Tieya had headed north and found the last village to be massacred.
The village lay close to Swallow Return Pass and had originally been a farming settlement for military households.
But scouts led by the vile monks of the Esoteric Sect had burned and slaughtered their way through it, leaving the bodies of women and children and the frozen bones of the elderly scattered everywhere.
Qin Tieya and Yuan Hong had spent three days tracking them before finally cornering those barbarian brigands on a shallow, grassy bank near the Youyun Ancient Road.
Their leader had been a white-robed monk with uncanny pupils who could unleash the Eight-Armed Asura Manifestation.
The moment Chen Mu heard this, he knew it was none other than the monk Xuanzhen, whom he had fought before.
Working together, Qin Tieya and Yuan Hong had barely managed to drive the vile monk back, suffering severe injuries in the process, and killed every one of his followers.
After extracting crucial military intelligence on the timing of the Sky Wolfers' southern invasion through interrogation, they had spent nearly two more days traveling back with it.
They had arrived at the barracks less than half a day before Chen Mu.
The urgent report