Night fell over the Desolate Bone Shoals.
A mounted party of over a hundred escorted dozens of large wagons, waiting beside a pool deep in the Gobi Desert.
Hu Yanjing sat astride a tall horse, a Horse-Cutting Saber in hand, gazing far to the southwest.
Beside Hu Yanjing was a monk in monastic robes, a string of prayer beads around his neck. With his fleshy head, large ears, thick brows, and fierce eyes, he looked even more like a bandit than Hu Yanjing.
The monk's Dharma name was Xuanye. Originally a disciple of the Sand Sea Thousand Buddha Temple, he had spent only a few years reciting sutras before returning to secular life and entering the arena of fame and fortune. Renaming himself Zhang Xuanye, he became a retainer at Prince Liang's residence and was now one of the Black Banner Gang's two leaders.
Hu Yanjing's background was no less remarkable. His ancestors had been a military family in Liangzhou, much like those of Shi Yanfeng and Jian Yuhua. After Great Yan fell, he had drifted into the martial world and carved out a place for himself with his family's Horse-Cutting Saber. Jiang Zhawu had even tried recruiting him, but with generals among his ancestors, Hu Yanjing's ambitions lay beyond the martial world. He wanted to become a marquis or minister and restore his ancestors' glory, so he had pledged himself to Prince Liang and become the Black Banner Gang's leader in name.
After the two had waited on their tall horses in the Gobi Desert for a long time, a carriage approached from its depths.
Rumble, rumble...
Unlike the simple carts commonly seen in Liangzhou, this carriage was lavish in both workmanship and materials. Two pure-white steeds pulled it, and over a dozen armed men carrying cavalry spears surrounded