One must understand that although Wuyang Road had been constructed to be expansive, it was still not completely flat, as the road originated from Yunzhou and was headed towards the northwestern region. There were still some mountain ranges, lakes and even rivers within it. Although the mountains were insignificant compared to the towering Misty Mountain, in the past it still was a hostile desert. Now, this place where the six knights lived was now a small hill within a mountain cave. Besides the main road in the middle, short mountain ranges flanked its sides. Although these mountain ranges were not tall, they were sufficient enough to hide people. Bandits in the past used to hide in these mountains. However, wasn’t it said that the bandits of Wuyang Road had all been killed already?
The expression on one of the big fellow’s face was grim. As if hoping to detect any irregularity, his sharp gaze scanned the surroundings. However, the two sides of the mountain range were only filled with green shrubbery such as trees and bushes that swayed peacefully. It would be too easy to hide someone here. Even if the fella was a Level Five master of martial arts, it would still be impossible to detect anything irregular.
He only raised his hand gently, signaling to the five men behind him to be wary.
“I’m Qin Muyun from the South Mountains. I’m wondering if there are any friends here…!”
Before he could finish his sentence, he heard sharp sounds of “Xiu. Xiu. Xiu”.
“Military God-killing Crossbow!”
Seeing what was shot towards him, the expression on the man’s face changed drastically. Without a care for formalities, he immediately rolled under the belly of his horse. The cane in his hands was also thrown away and without knowing when, a glistening long knife was held in his hands. Rays of light danced on the knife while the man guarded himself with the knife firmly.
“Clank, Clank, Clank!”
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
…
Following the sounds of bows ripping flesh, three out of six men in the Metal Horse Carriage were sliced apart by the bow. Two others were heavily injured. The bow had penetrated through his hands and feet and now he laid on the ground howling in pain. The only one left with any capacity for battle was only the man. This was because firstly, he had quick reflexes and could hide quickly. Secondly, his cultivation was not low. He was very capable, using the light rays that reflected from the knife to shield himself from multiple attacks. However, luck all had a part to play. Under the might of the Military God-killing Crossbow, he still suffered from some injuries, especially on his left arm. A lump of flesh had been sliced away and the bone was visible.
As for his combat capability, it had become a joke after the attack of the crossbow.
“Sheesh, what kind of person are you to be so audacious?! You know we are from the South Mountains…!”
“The Qin Family of South Mountains!” A clear voice finished the sentence. Subsequently, the trees at the mountain ranges rustled, revealing two to three hundred fully armed soldiers with weapons. The leader of them all was a seventeen to eighteen-year-old youth. He had a cold and stern expression. He condescendingly scanned Qin Muyun for a moment. “I know you are from the Qin Family of South Mountains. Disregard that. Even if you are from the Yan Family in the West Capital, you would still die in this ravage plains!”
“You…!” Qin Muyun’s eyes flashed and wanted to reply. However, the young man offered him no such chance. With a wave of his hand, he raised his bow once more to attack. This time round, Qin Muyun was no longer so lucky. Although he had the saber light to protect him, a few robust bows still penetrated his saber light and eventually through his body. The disbelief and discontentment in his widened eyes gradually faded into a helpless blankness. His body slumped slowly towards the ground.
“Cut off all of their heads and place them at the gate of Qinlingjun City!” The young man ordered.
“Seventh Young Master, these are people from the Qin Family of South Mountains. They are not pirates! To do that…!”
This is the rule at Wuyang Road! This Wuyang Road belongs to the Wuyang Region. Just like what Fourth Cousin said, no matter who comes to the Wuyang Region, they are all looking for death!” the young man asserted coldly. “This is the rule of the Zhou family!”
“Yes, Seventh Young Master!”
The man beside him answered.
If Zhou Bao was by his side, he would surely have laughed. This young fella really knows how to flaunt one’s power. Although this young man belonged to the Zhou family, he was not a brother of Zhou Bao. In fact, he was Zhou Bao’s nephew. In the Zhou family, that wasn’t considered very close. Nevertheless, they were still related by blood, however distantly, so they still called each other brothers.
The Zhou’s produced such a bringer of misfortune as Zhou Bao and reflected the saying: a man’s relations follow the rise and fall of a person. The Zhou’s were currently living in northwestern Yunzhou. That was during the apex of their power. Although their history was not thousands of years long, its power was comparable to those millennium families. Although their foundation seemed a bit weak, it was also like a gigantic beast that displayed its power at all times.
At the northwestern Zhou family, their power was sufficient to rule nine well-known families. It was only because their foundation seemed a bit weak so there were not many people who possessed the grace and class. All of them needed to train. The ten-thousand-mile long Wuyang Road was a good training spot. Zhou Bao was in charge of the disciples from the Zhou family ranging from the Qinlingjun City to five hundred feet away from the small mountain. In Zhou Bao’s past life, the department in charge of the roads always had the most oil. At the same time, it was the department with the strongest resilience. Although this Wuyang Road was not like those in his past life where fees had to be collected, the road’s regular maintenance and care were all on par. Even the guards and oil were of good quality.
However, what made Zhou Bao happy was that his family did not lack people who craved riches and at the same time did not lack people who wanted to do real work. An example was Zhou Bao. Zhou Bao was one of the most outstanding people. He was decisive, strong-handed and had the temper of Jiang Xiao. One must understand that Zhou Bao was bringing his knowledge of his previous life into this current life. He truly had no sentimental feelings of attachment to the Zhou’s. Plus, he was lazy to meet with some of the relatives he met along the way after he achieved success. All these matters were pushed to the Seneschal Jiang Xiao to oversee.
Jiang Xiao, as an outsider, naturally did not dare to ill-treat the Zhou’s. Any arrangement that could be as proper as possible was done as properly as it could be. In truth, in the northwestern region, there were many other supervisors in the Wuyang Region besides the Zhou’s that were surrounded by many clansmen. These clansmen formed many small families that together with Zhou Bao, coalesced together to form a profit organization.
Of course, all these were just mundane matters. Zhou Bao usually did not care for such things. Anyway, as long as he had this aura of deterrence, then there would not be any person who was silly enough to involve him. In fact, it was only after he cultivated in the Wuyang Road and expressed this to his people that the Wuyang Road belonged to the Zhou’s. It was the land of the Zhou’s. Whoever dared to land a foot on this land all had to die.
Zhou Hai listened completely to Zhou Bao’s orders. That was why he was so ruthless and merciless.
“Seventh Young Master, look, this was what I found from their bodies!”
At this time, a soldier ran to Zhou Hai and passed him a brocade pouch.
Zhou Hai did not think much of it at first. He casually opened the brocade pouch and was shocked to find a letter within. He could not help but feel excited. Without much consideration, he opened the letter and began reading its contents. Just two lines in, his expression had visibly changed. Thereafter, he skimmed through the whole letter. By the time he reached the end, his expression had grown solemn. He furiously crushed the paper into a ball and hastily stashed it into his clothes.
“Chen IV, I must return to Wuyang Region immediately. You guys stay here and watch closely. No, go and order the brothers to disperse to different stations. Wait for my news. Inform them that if any mishaps were to happen to me, then immediately tell them that it definitely has to do with the Qin Family of South Mountains!”
“Seventh Young Master, you…!”
“Do as I say. And prepare the horses, quick!”
“Yes!”
Chen IV who stood beside him did not dare to fool around. He immediately ordered his subordinates to prepare the best horse for Zhou Hai. Seeing Zhou Hai gallop off into the distance, he gathered his subordinates and explained everything to them as Zhou Hai ordered. A group of ancient couriers immediately left without caring to deal with the corpses.
After two hours, a ray of blue light from the southern direction was shot and landed near one of the stations.
At this time, there was a crowd on the road already. That ray of blue light landed on one of the small hills. Now the blue light had revealed itself to be a middle-aged man. This middle-aged man had a gloomy expression. Seeing the crowd on the road, he gathered himself. He no longer used Gang Qi but exerted the average effort of walking on the road. He dispersed the crowd and upon looking within, he got a shock.
“Damn it!” Seeing the ripped chests of the soldiers, the eyes of the blue-robed man flashed coldly. With a turn of his body, he dispersed the crowd. In the process, he grabbed a passerby by his shoulders when others were not watching. He used his magic to bring the both of them away from the roadside and into the forest between two hills. The crowd could not even tell how they left.
“Please spare me, your highness! Please spare me!”
The man was randomly pulled out of the road and so thought that he had met a pirate. He begged earnestly for his life.
“Shut up. I will ask you some questions and you will answer. If you dare tell me any lies, I will kill you!”
The murderous intent that permeated those words immediately sealed the lips of the man. He could only look fearfully at the blue-robed man.
“What happened on the road? Who killed those men?!”
“It was… it was… it was the ancient couriers of Wuyang Regions. These knights were running people down on Wuyang Region and even injured the ancient courier on Wuyang Road. That was why they were killed!”
“The ancient courier of Wuyang Region?!” The eyes of the blue-robed man flashed. “Can they kill people as they wish?!”
No… no… no, it was because they harmed people on the Wuyang Road or committed something criminal. That was why the ancient courier acted!”
“Then where is the ancient courier now?!”
“I don’t know!”
“You don’t know?!”
“Yes, I really don’t know!” The man was almost about to cry. “Every post on Wuyang Road has two ancient couriers. There are also special armed ancient couriers called… called… urban management that specially looks into these kinds of disputes. For the average person, they will deliver the heads of the people back to the city they originated after killing them. But this time round it’s a bit strange that they did not treat it as per tradition. That was why there was a crowd!” The main cried.
“Urban management?!” The blue-robed man pondered over these two words and revealed a look of incomprehension for a moment. In the next moment, his fierce demeanor returned. “Then who controls the urban management?!”
“That I don’t know!” The man shook his head.
Rage filled the man’s eyes and with a punch, smattered the man’s head into pieces.
Then, he gazed out at the winding Wuyang Road. He felt a little indecision in his heart but eventually, he gritted his teeth and with the blue wind, flew towards the sky and headed in the direction of the Wuyang Road.
After an hour, he saw Zhou Hai galloping on his horse. A grin spread across his face. He landed from the sky and grabbed the galloping Zhou Hai’s head and lifted him up.
Without allowing Zhou Hai to speak at all, he continued to fly and started to rummage through Zhou Hai’s clothes. In the end, he managed to feel the shape of the secret letter. He let out a smile. With a crush of his fist, he smashed Zhou Hai’s head which transformed into blue light. He then continued to fly towards the northwestern region.