Su Yueli withdrew her gaze. As long as they didn't come over, there was no need to worry too much.
Perhaps they would let them pass simply because it was a merchant convoy.
The convoy continued forward across the plains outside the city.
After traveling for about fifteen minutes, the surrounding terrain became increasingly open.
Right then, a faint spiritual light flickered in the middle of the road ahead. An arrogant young man suddenly stepped into the center of the path, blocking their way.
“Something's happening! Keep your eyes peeled, everyone!”
The faces of several Fourth and Fifth Realm martial artists walking at the front fell. Instantly growing tense, they drew their waist sabers and gathered around the carriages.
Su Yueli also blended into the crowd and stepped forward quickly. But when her gaze landed on the black robe with blue cloud patterns he wore, her cool eyes suddenly narrowed.
An inner disciple of the Cangyun Sect.
So these guys had set up a net outside the city long ago, keeping a strict watch here.
Manager Lin of the Wantong Merchant House turned pale. Steeling himself, he trotted forward, intending to ask who was blocking the way. But the moment he recognized the robe symbolizing an immortal sect, his legs turned to jelly, and his posture instantly slumped into a deep bow.
“I-Immortal Master!”
Manager Lin hurriedly bowed with cupped hands, his face plastered with a fawning smile as he explained, “This lowly one is a manager of the Wantong Merchant House. Today, I am acting under our master's orders to escort our young master and a batch of secular goods back to Blackwater City.”
Pointing behind him, he continued, “These ten martial artists were hired by this lowly one to handle chores along the way. We would never dare disturb you, Immortal Master. Might I ask what business brings you to stop us?”
The young Cangyun Sect cultivator knit his brows, his expression exceptionally cold.
Completely ignoring Manager Lin's flattery, he merely channeled his spiritual energy with a hint of disdain, casually sweeping his divine sense through the luxurious carriage in the very center.
Inside the carriage, the youth in fine silks was trembling with fear. There wasn't a single ripple of a cultivator's spiritual energy on him; he was indeed a secular mortal.
Next, the cultivator used his spiritual energy to scan the dozen or so carriages behind. Under the black cloth, they were indeed filled with secular medicinal herbs and fabrics, bearing no trace of any immortal spiritual item.
“Alright, Manager Lin, was it? Keep a close eye on your people.” The young man withdrew his gaze and waved them off.
As if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Manager Lin wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and repeatedly bowed in gratitude.
He then turned around and walked back to the convoy, gesturing for everyone to sheathe their weapons and prepare to resume their journey.
Walking alongside the convoy, Su Yueli, whose heart had nearly leaped into her throat, finally felt it settle back into her chest.
She let out a silent sigh of relief.
It seemed the foolproof defensive spiritual formations of the Wanbao Merchant House's VIP rooms were indeed effective. So far, these Cangyun Sect cultivators not only had no idea about the background of the guest in Room Eight.
They couldn't even figure out whether the guest was a cultivator or a secular martial artist, leaving them to foolishly search for the aura of high-level cultivators outside the city using their divine sense.
“I managed to slip through just like that. This saves me some trouble,” Su Yueli calculated inwardly, preparing to continue forward with the convoy.
However, just as Manager Lin returned to the carriages and the entire convoy was about to set the wheels in motion again...
The young Cangyun Sect cultivator behind them suddenly seemed to recall something. His brow furrowed sharply, and with a flicker of his body, he blocked everyone's path once more, shouting coldly:
“Wait! Everyone, halt right there!”
Manager Lin's body stiffened, and he turned around, stammering, “I-Immortal Master, what other instructions do you have?”
The young cultivator's face darkened as his eyes swept back and forth across the entire convoy. “Take out all your personal belongings—including what you're hiding in your robes, the bags on your backs, and any storage bags—and hand them over for inspection!”
Boom!
To Su Yueli, these words were like a sudden clap of thunder on a clear day.
Her heart sank, and she thought, This is bad.
Inside her storage bag at this very moment was the Mountain-Shaking Heaven-Shattering Force she had just won at the auction, as well as that fragment!
If the cultivator before her searched and found them, her identity as the mysterious guest of Room Eight would be exposed on the spot.
There was no other possibility.
Hidden beneath the long sleeves of her blue-and-white dress, Su Yueli's right hand instantly gripped the handle of her fist blades, ready to strike and kill at any moment.
Meanwhile, hearing that their personal belongings were to be searched, several of the burly Fifth Realm martial artists nearby began to grumble in dissatisfaction.
“Immortal Master, we are all law-abiding escort martial artists. We have nothing on us but foot-wraps and dry rations, and barely any savings. Having our personal belongings inspected... is a bit inappropriate, isn't it?”
“Whether it is appropriate or not is for me to decide!”
The young cultivator's expression instantly turned harsh as he let out a cold snort.
Instantly, a powerful pressure belonging to a cultivator crashed down upon the road. The surrounding air felt as if it had suddenly grown a thousand times heavier.
The secular martial artists, who were only at the Fourth and Fifth Realms, turned pale. Oppressed by this spiritual energy pressure, they struggled to breathe, their legs trembling as they nearly fell to their knees.
Before the chasm between immortals and mortals, they had no leverage to reason.
“Don't waste time! Hand them over!” the young man barked.
Seeing this, the surrounding martial artists all showed expressions of frustration and helplessness.
But in the face of a mortal threat from an immortal master, privacy was truly as worthless as foot-wraps.
They could only curse their bad luck, obediently untying the bags from their waists and taking out the coin pouches hidden in their robes, handing them over one by one.
The young cultivator stepped forward, using his spiritual energy to burst open the mortals' bags one by one.
What spilled out were nothing but ordinary silver pieces, dry rations, a few cheap, common manual books of secular fist techniques, and some inexpensive herbs used to stop bleeding.
He swept his divine sense through them roughly, shaking his head with deep disdain in his eyes.
All of it was secular trash.
“Strange... Did that bastard really slip away right under our noses?”
The young cultivator grit his teeth and cursed under his breath, his mood extremely irritated.
Over on the elder's side, they were urgently waiting for the immortal herb to extend his life, as well as the true spirit fragment. Elder Han had given them strict orders to watch all suspicious personnel coming out of the city like hawks, and not to miss a single clue.
As he pondered, his gaze shifted backward through the crowd.
Eventually, his eyes came to rest on the last person who had yet to be inspected.
It was a young woman dressed in a blue-and-white dress, her hair held up by a simple green jade hairpin.
Faced with his terrifying pressure earlier, though this woman's face was also slightly pale, her cool eyes had been fixed on him from beginning to end, never wavering for a second.
The moment their eyes met, Su Yueli—who had remained completely unperturbed in the VIP room even if Mt. Tai were to collapse before her—felt her heart rate quicken inside her chest.
“You, the last one.”
The young Cangyun Sect cultivator raised his finger and pointed coldly at Su Yueli.
“Hand over your bag and whatever you're carrying on you. Don't make me repeat myself. Do you understand?”
Instantly, the gazes of all the surrounding martial artists and Manager Lin fell in unison onto Su Yueli.
Rate on N.U.
