"They must be from a noble clan," one of the passengers inside Yi Chen's wagon said with awe apparent in his voice.

"You're correct, no one else can afford such First-grade horses. Just taking care of one of those can make a mediocre family go bankrupt!" the wagon driver said the next moment with a hint of envy in his eyes.

Hearing their words, Yi Chen's confusion was erased.

'I see…so it belonged to a noble clan,' he noted down this new information before going back to sleep.

The atmosphere turned normal, and all the wagons soon began moving once again.

A few hours later, the wagons stopped. It was time for lunch.

Yi Chen ate the stuff he had bought from the street earlier and interacted with the fellow passengers while at it.

"Don't you think the number of mercenaries we have is a little too small?" Yi Chen asked a middle-aged passenger after a while.

He considered a five-man group quite small for a six-day journey.

"Haha, actually, we don't even need to hire them in the first place.

This path from the Tang City to the Sun City is considered one of the major travel roads in the Kingdom and is routinely patrolled by Guards in carriages every few days.

Therefore, this is the last place the bandits would have in mind to attack passengers."

The man stated, knowing that Yi Chen was new to Tang City.

"Then why did we hire them in the first place? We could have just saved our money," Yi Chen asked with a frown.

"That's because it's mandatory for all wagons travelling long distances from the Tang City to hire them so that they could help in case of uncertainties.

It was seen as a good step initially, but over time, everyone realised that no one dares to attack the wagons on this path, and hence, we started paying for the smallest batch of mercenaries, to save our money."

"That was very informative, thank you," Yi Chen praised once he heard everything.

"Haha, this is nothing, do you know that in Tang City…"

The conversation kept on going until everyone had finished their lunch, and then they all boarded the wagons

Time passed uneventfully, or so they thought, when at around four in the evening all the wagons suddenly came to a halt.

Yi Chen was woken up from his nap and looked towards the driver inquisitively.

The other two passengers beside Yi Chen also had their confused expressions directed towards the driver.

"What happened?" Yi Chen asked, seeing the driver's alert expression.

However, instead of addressing Yi Chen's words, he first stood up and sent a hand signal to the two wagon drivers following behind.

Only then did he sit back to answer their doubts

"Listen carefully…" the driver said in a low voice while gesturing towards the front. His expression was completely serious.

Heeding his words, everyone became quiet, and a few seconds later, sounds started entering their ears.

Yi Chen's brows furrowed a little.

He felt the sounds familiar, but was unable to decipher what they were.

"A battle is going on in the path ahead," the driver said cautiously.

'So, it's the sounds of weapons clashing!' Yi Chen realised and nodded to himself.

Luckily, they had stopped before a wide turn to the right and were hidden by dense forest bushes and trees.

"Are you sur-"

Before one of the passengers could complete his words, a loud, high-pitched screech echoed in the forest.

"Guard Bai! NO!!!"

Hearing the frightened scream of a woman, everyone's hair stood on their ends.

The five mercenaries at the back soon came forward, all ready in their gear.

"We'll go and check the situation. Stay here until then," the mercenary leader instructed with a serious expression.

Everyone nodded except for Yi Chen.

"I'll come along," Yi Chen said while getting out of the wagon.

The mercenary leader was about to say something, but seeing the sword resting on Yi Chen's waist, he swallowed his words and just nodded.

With the number of enemies unknown, the more warriors they had, the better it would be.

The six of them slowly made their way forward on the path.

After walking for a while, they stopped just before a sharp turn.

From the incoming sound, it was clear that the battle was going on here.

Signalling with his hand, the mercenary leader told his subordinates to stop before slowly crouching towards the edge of the bushes.

When his head lightly peeked out from the thick bushes, he saw the whole situation unfolding before his eyes.

Klang!

Kling!

Thud!

The mercenary leader's breath got stuck in his chest when he witnessed the frightening numbers, and his face grew pale.

A few seconds later, he slowly retreated and regrouped with others.

"What's the situation, leader?" one of his men asked the very next moment.

"It's a lost case. It's best we don't get involved…" the leader said with a terrified expression apparent on his face.

"But what about that woman! She must be in danger!" a young mercenary, the same age as Yi Chen, exclaimed in frustration.

"It's not a time to act hero, kid. We'll die if we take action! There are around forty bandits on the other side of that bush! Tell me, are you confident enough to deal with all of them?!" the mercenary leader said angrily.

Hearing the number of bandits, all mercenaries' expressions turned grim. With their measly number of five, they stood no chance against them.

They had neither dealt nor seen such a large group of bandits in one place throughout their lives as mercenaries.

"Let's go back to the Tang City and return later with the city's officials. In that way, at least the victims could be given proper burials," the mercenary leader said with a sigh and started walking back towards the wagons.

His companions too followed after him.

"Hey, let's go," the young mercenary member gestured towards Yi Chen, who was just standing there, lost in his thoughts.

Hearing the young man, Yi Chen smiled briefly and said, "You go, I want to observe it more closely."

Yi Chen's words were clearly heard by other members as well, and the mercenary leader's foot stopped.

Turning around, he hesitantly asked Yi Chen, "You don't plan on attacking them all by yourself are you?"

He had seen quite a few young, overconfident warriors like him in this life, but he had never seen someone who would willingly step forward to fight more than forty bandits.

However, he still decided to ask Yi Chen this question just for the sake of confirmation.

"Maybe I will. I'll have to observe the situation first," Yi Chen answered with neither a yes nor a no.

"Are you crazy? It's best to leave now that they are distracted. If we are late, then we'll all die here," the mercenary leader voiced out in a low and hurried tone while attempting to convince Yi Chen

"I understand, so don't wait for me. You can leave along with the others." Yi Chen said confidently, turned around and walked forward to peek through the bushes in an attempt to observe the situation on the other side.

'This bastard…' the mercenary leader wanted to outright abuse Yi Chen and smack some sense into him, but not wanting to alert the bandits, he gestured his men to keep following after him.

'Let him die alone if he wants to! We're leaving!' he snorted angrily and returned to the wagons.

As for Yi Chen, his head was slightly out of the bushes, and he was observing the whole scene before him.

To his surprise, it was the golden black carriage which had just passed them this morning that was being ambushed by these bandits.

He patiently observed the status panel of everyone present and couldn't help but raise his brows in surprise.

Not only were the bandits extremely strong with their strength stat averaging around 16, but their leader was also a cultivator and was in the Fourth Level of [Meridian Refinement Stage]

He was currently being kept in check by one of three guards who was also in the Fourth Level.

The other two guards were both in the Sixth Level [Elementary Transformation Stage] and were doing their best to keep the horde of bandits in check.

However, the situation looked dismal for the guards. The two dealing with the bandit horde were reaching a point of exhaustion right now.

As for the other guard, his left shoulder was stabbed, making his whole left arm turn immobile.

"Help! Please, someone, help us!!" the woman whom the three guards were protecting with their lives cried for help.

Pain, grief and helplessness were apparent on her face as she looked at her guards being cut and bruised all over in an attempt to protect her.

"That Young Miss of yours screams really well. After killing you, I'll enjoy listening to her screaming all night, Keke," the bandit leader snickered with a lecherous expression on his face.

"Don't talk about Miss Zhou with that dirty mouth of yours!" Guard Bai fumed at his words and slashed his sword, which was infused with his Qi.

"What will you do if I don't? Kill me? Hahaha!" the bandit leader laughed and defended the strike without much effort.

Although both of them were at the same cultivation level, one had only recently entered it, while the other had been stuck in it for years.

Add to this fact that they had been engaged in this battle for many hours, and it became apparent who had the upper hand at this moment.

The next moment, with his sword covered in dense Qi, the bandit leader swung his sword at Guard Bai's thighs.

Luckily, Guard Bai managed to block it just at the right moment...or so it seemed.

CRACK!

His sword gave out at that very crucial moment, and the bandit's sword slashed through his thighs, breaking his femur along the way.

Arghh!

Guard Bai roared in pain and fell on his knees. He was unable to move his legs anymore.

"Haha, finally!" the bandit leader laughed heartily, seeing this situation, and raised his sword to the top of his head. It was time to put an end to this long battle.

"NO!"

Miss Zhou's complexion paled when she saw this scene.

The very next moment, a strong jet of water left her palm and hit the bandit leader's hand.

"This bitch!" the bandit leader cursed while dropping the sword in his hand.

"Guard Bai now!" Miss Zhou, who was currently on her knees and had exhausted all her Qi, shouted. She hoped that he would use this opportunity to make a decisive attack.

Hearing her words, Guard Bai immediately tried to grab the fallen sword of the bandit, only to be kicked right in the face. The next moment, his figure was sent flying a few meters back and slammed just a few feet away from Miss Zhou.

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