The three great clans' caravans formed a vast procession, though each harbored its own agenda.
Dozens of carriages were loaded with valuables and supplies, but even more eye-catching were the clan guards flanking the procession.
Every one of them was an elite of his clan, armed with refined steel weapons and radiating the fierce air of a veteran of countless bloody battles.
Everyone understood perfectly well that this journey, nominally to ransom captives, was more like an armed march with their clans' futures at stake. They could not bring only gold coins and smiling faces.
The Xiao Clan's procession occupied the center. Xiao Zhan stood beside the lead carriage, his face as still as deep water, occasionally sweeping his gaze over the other two clans' forces with an inward snort.
Those two old foxes, Jia Lie Bi and Oba Pa, spoke of weathering this crisis together, yet every guard they had brought was a capable fighter. Clearly, they feared being made sacrificial pawns too.
Meanwhile, inside the Xiao Clan's most luxurious carriage, Hai Bodong rested with his eyes closed, as though the tension outside had nothing to do with him. Yet the faint wisps of cold seeping from him silently proclaimed who truly held command on this journey.
After several hours of travel, a mountain range with a savage silhouette appeared on the horizon. It was the Xiao Clan's Magnetic Crystal Mine. Deathly silence lay over it now, broken only by a few flags bearing black skulls snapping in the mountain wind, exuding an ominous air.
The procession stopped in a clearing outside the mine, and everyone felt the murderous chill bearing down on them.
Soon, a group emerged from the camp inside the mine. Leading them were three burly men with fierce auras, the fluctuations of their Dou Qi