Across the wilderness, a winding road stretched into the distance.
The convoy jolted forward unevenly.
Roads in the Great Xia Prefecture were actually fairly well-constructed, but those in the wilderness frequently ran into problems—a broken stretch here, a shattered section there. Some were man-made, while others were caused by demon beasts.
Inside the trucks, the students were growing exhausted from the bumpy ride.
Fatigue was not their primary issue, however. The vehicles had been driving for nearly three hours, and nature was calling. By now, several students were struggling to hold it in.
From truck to truck, the shouts of students pleading to stop could be heard.
They needed to use the restroom.
***
Near the rear of the convoy.
Xia Bing frowned slightly. Stopping a convoy in the wilderness was actually very dangerous.
As long as the convoy kept moving, even if an ambush occurred, they could break away rapidly. Once stopped, running into danger would become troublesome.
However, with hundreds of students, it was impossible to expect every single one to hold it in for five whole hours.
"Halt vehicles! Ten-minute rest stop!"
Xia Bing gave the command for a brief rest.
The chosen stopping point was a stretch of open plains, which effectively prevented enemy ambushes.
***
Su Yu got off the truck as well.
After swaying and bumping around for hours, he was doing relatively well, but others were vomiting uncontrollably, which almost made Su Yu nauseated as well.
Chen Hao cursed under his breath, looked around, and grumbled, "How the hell are we supposed to pee? There are people everywhere!"
This area was flat plains, and the City Guards had formed a perimeter outside, strictly forbidding students from wandering off.
Using the restroom was... hardly convenient.
It was manageable for the boys, but some of the girls' faces had turned purple. Fortunately, Xia Bing barked, "Boys on the left side of the convoy, girls on the right! Handle your business yourselves; if you don't want to, piss in your pants! Once you leave the city, you're on a battlefield. If you can't overcome a little thing like this, you might as well all go home!"
Though reluctant, they had no choice. They dispersed to both flanks, using the trucks as cover.
Su Yu was in no hurry and did not join Chen Hao and the others to relieve himself.
He glanced around. The surroundings were quiet and desolate.
As he surveyed the area, Xia Bing strode over and beckoned to him.
Su Yu hurried over. As soon as he arrived, Xia Bing said, "Don't get back on Truck No. 1 later. Stay in the truck behind it..."
Lowering his voice, Xia Bing added, "Once you're on, change into a City Guard uniform."
Su Yu's eyes flickered, and he nodded.
Without saying anything to Chen Hao and the others beyond a brief mention that he was switching vehicles, Su Yu headed to the City Guard truck behind them.
Aboard the truck, Su Yu changed into a City Guard uniform and blended in among the guards.
Xia Bing followed him over, exhaling softly. "This is for your safety, as well as the safety of the others. If you stay on Truck No. 1, your companions will be in more danger instead."
"I understand." Su Yu nodded, then asked in a low voice, "Commander Xia, Tianshui City should be just up ahead. I looked at the map, and there don't seem to be any good ambush points nearby. The All-Races Sect wouldn't show up here, would they?"
"Hard to say."
Xia Bing shook his head. Su Yu asked again, "Attacks on convoys aren't anything new. They happen almost every year around this time. Can the Great Xia Prefecture only respond passively?"
Xia Bing smiled and shook his head without saying more.
Passive response was not quite accurate. Every year, the Great Xia Prefecture deliberately set out bait to lure the All-Races Sect into attacking.
However, that was classified. Which convoy was bait and which genuinely had no covert protection was something not even they knew.
***
At the very moment the convoy stopped.
Several thousand meters away, a group of people crouched inside a hollow depression.
Watching the distant halted convoy, a middle-aged man whispered to the old man beside him, "Hall Master, Nanyuan's convoy has stopped. Do we strike now?"
"No!"
The Tianshui Hall Master rejected the suggestion. The terrain was too open. Before they could even charge across, the other side would flee; even if they did not flee, his own people would suffer severe casualties.
The City Guards carried crossbows. At this distance, they would be sitting ducks.
"Hall Master, then we won't have another chance further ahead..."
The old man said impassively, "If there's no chance, we don't strike. It's not like this is some great bargain anyway. If there's an opportunity, we take a bite; if not, we drop it!"
"It'll be hard to answer to Lord Xue E."
"He's just a hall master, and so am I. What is there to answer for? Cooperating with his operation is all well and good, but nobody said we have to throw our lives away."
The old man did not care. Xue E was also a hall master, though with a higher status and at the Lingyun Realm, which was why when the orders came, he had to comply.
He did not get along well with Xue E. Even though he had come, he had no intention of foolishly dying for him.
After observing a bit longer, the old man judged Nanyuan's strength.
Only one in the Tengkong Realm, a few in the Wanshi Realm, and the rest were ordinary City Guards in the Qianjun Realm.
"Let's go. Move ahead and wait near Yuanshui Village!"
"Yuanshui Village?" The middle-aged man was astonished. "Hall Master, that's within Tianshui City's territory, right on the outskirts, less than thirty li from the main city..."
"If we're going to strike, that's the only place!"
The old man said coldly, "It's close to Tianshui City, so Nanyuan's convoy will let its guard down once they reach that area. There are residential clusters near the road and plenty of houses that can mask our movements. As long as we're fast and pull out before Tianshui City's reinforcements arrive, it'll actually be much safer than here.
"Enough chatter. Get over there and set up so we don't fall behind them!"
With that, the old man crouched and retreated. Moments later, the group quickly abandoned the hollow, taking shortcuts to rush toward the outskirts of Tianshui City.
They were strong and extremely swift, sprinting bent-double across the wilderness.
***
The instant they withdrew, Xia Bing glanced in that direction, his brow furrowing slightly.
He felt as though something had just been watching them from over there.
Was it human, a demon beast, or merely a few ordinary wild animals?
"Hurry up and board the trucks! Keep moving! In another two hours, we'll enter Tianshui City!"
Xia Bing barked, and after their brief rest, the convoy set off again.
***
In the truck, Su Yu kept his hand on his saber, maintaining his vigilance.
As the convoy proceeded without incident, Su Yu let out a small breath of relief. Though he had never faced wilderness perils before, seeing even Xia Bing this tense kept him from letting his guard down.
Over a dozen trucks continued onward, jolting and swaying at a slow pace.
Beside Su Yu, a City Guard decurion chuckled. "Don't be so tense. Being too on edge isn't good either. Don't worry, Student Su. Once we reach Tianshui City, the rest of the journey will be much safer."
Su Yu nodded and said softly, "Brother Ma, do the City Guards usually go outside the city to purge wild demon beasts and the All-Races Sect?"
"Sometimes," the decurion smiled. "The All-Races Sect operatives hiding inside the cities are only a minority after all. Most stay outside, using the wilderness as their base. We frequently send patrols to scout, and once an enemy stronghold is found, we purge it immediately."
Su Yu understood, then asked, "Brother Ma, I've actually always wondered: the All-Races Sect has had heads rolling across the Great Xia Prefecture, so why are there still so many people willing to join them?"
"Many reasons." Having experienced war, the decurion sighed. "The All-Races Sect is composed of many kinds of people. First: deserters!"
Su Yu's pupils shrank. He had genuinely never considered that.
"On the All-Heavens Battlefield, bloody battles never cease, and casualties are countless. Not everyone is fearless. Some have their courage shattered and become deserters. If they're lucky enough to survive and come back from the All-Heavens Battlefield, they flee the legions. Desertion earns a beheading, so their only recourse is turning to the All-Races Sect.
"Second: fugitives!
"Some cultivators rob and kill for treasure. Instead of seeking merits on the battlefield, they turn their sights to robbery and murder. When caught, they become fugitives. Or some simply want something for nothing, bent solely on profiting from murder and loot. The All-Races Sect has no rules, so it naturally suits them better than the legions of the Human Realm...
"Third: faith. These are actually the most troublesome cultists. They genuinely worship those gods and devils, believing them omnipotent and immortal. They dream of entering the God Realm or Devil Realm one day, so they treat orders from the all-races as divine revelations.
"Fourth: fraudsters."
Su Yu blinked. Fraudsters?
The decurion whispered, "Straight-up swindlers. Some guys pull together a crew and claim to revere a certain race, tricking that race into heavily investing in them—resources, cultivation arts, heavenly treasures, you name it."
The decurion gave a helpless, wry chuckle. "They realized that conning smaller races is remarkably easy, so these people became part of the All-Races Sect too. Quite a lot of them, actually. Many minor sects were founded by folks like that. Gather eighty or a hundred people, find the right connections to pledge fealty to some race, and you can scam a vast amount of resources. Far easier than earning them yourself..."
"Are races among the all-races really that stupid?"
Su Yu found it hard to believe, but on second thought, it was not impossible.
The decurion laughed softly. "The other races aren't in the Human Realm. What do they know? By and large, they figure having people willing to preserve their legacy, spread their faith, and provide intelligence here is enough. Some races actually know, but they still need basic intelligence.
"Those people may be swindlers, but they're still humans living in the Human Realm. Providing snippets of information helps the other races understand humanity better."
Sighing, the decurion continued, "People like that might not sound hateful on the surface, but in reality... they deserve to die just as much! Details they think trivial can be critical to the enemy. For instance, years ago, a minor sect provided intelligence saying a relative serving in a certain legion had returned home on leave...
"The enemy race deduced from that intel that the legion was undergoing rest and recuperation, with many soldiers on leave. What was standard rotation became an exploited flaw—they ambushed that legion, inflicting catastrophic casualties!"
Su Yu sighed as well and asked no more.
Time trickled by.
They drew closer and closer to Tianshui City. At this point, the City Guards grew more tense instead. All of them were veterans who knew full well that accidents usually struck at times like this.
Up ahead, Xia Bing had taken to the air several times to scout.
Someone beside him reported, "A few dozen li more and we'll enter Tianshui City's jurisdiction. Up ahead is Yuanshui Village. Past Yuanshui Village, it's just half an hour to Tianshui City!"
This was already considered Tianshui City's territory.
Tianshui City was far stronger than Nanyuan, boasting over five thousand City Guards, numerous Tengkong experts, and even Lingyun experts. Once inside Tianshui, the All-Races Sect would not dare throw their lives away.
Houses began appearing sparsely along both sides of the road.
Some suburban residents were even watching the convoy from crossroads.
Children were running along the roadside.
The convoy slowed down. People lived here, with foot traffic passing by; driving too fast could easily cause accidents.
Many City Guards relaxed.
They had reached populated settlements. Reaching this area generally meant they were truly safe.
The journey had gone smoothly, without any demon beast attacks.
***
Scattered houses lined both sides of the road.
Just ahead of Su Yu's group, inside a modest roadside courtyard, the Tianshui Hall Master took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "A Tengkong expert is present; I will tie him down immediately. Remember, your targets aren't the City Guards, but the students!
"Don't kill them all! Kill a portion, and leave a portion to tie down the City Guards!
"Severely injure some, lightly injure others, and then withdraw! Make the City Guards and Longwu Guards too preoccupied to pursue us, then retreat swiftly!"
The old man gave his orders. Wiping them all out meant fighting to the death.
Leaving some wounded, on the other hand, would pin down the City Guards and Longwu Guards.
The City Guards would have to care for the wounded and stay behind to protect them, while the handful of Longwu Guards would not dare recklessly pursue them alone. The old man had done this more than once; he was well-experienced.
Some brainless fools charged in to slaughter everyone, only for the City Guards and Longwu Guards—relieved of any restraint once all the students were dead—to be driven into a bloodthirsty fury, pursuing them to the bitter end, usually resulting in mutual destruction.
"Killing a portion is enough. Low risk, high contribution points, and afterward we quickly leave Tianshui's territory. Understood?"
"Understood!" Several squad leaders inside the room hurriedly responded.
The Tianshui Hall Master took a deep breath, his willpower radiating outward to envelop the courtyard, preventing any Tengkong expert from sensing them.
Although warriors did not cultivate willpower, their willpower naturally grew upon reaching the Tengkong Realm. While inferior to Civilization Masters, it was more than enough to conceal their presence.
*Xue E...*
The old man muttered under his breath. That fellow did not get along with him and told him to strike Nanyuan, yet had not shown up himself.
*Is he trying to use me as bait?*
Unease stirred in the old man's heart, but Xue E was a Lingyun expert; orders had to be obeyed.
Still, he had observed for a long time and saw no sign of an ambush near Nanyuan's convoy.
*Strike once and leave!*
The old man made up his mind. He had to follow Xue E's command, but simply attacking counted as fulfilling the mission, after which he would withdraw rapidly. As a sixth-stage Tengkong, as long as he did not obsess over killing that Longwu Guard Tengkong expert, escaping would be quite simple.
*Xue E, are you trying to have me draw their fire while you reap the profits yourself?*
The old man guessed at Xue E's next move. Soon, he pushed the thought aside. Nanyuan's convoy was nearly here.
***
"Almost at Tianshui."
Passing Yuanshui Village, Decurion Ma beside Su Yu let out a sigh of relief. "Another half an hour and we'll reach Tianshui City. This trip went pretty smoothly..."
Up ahead, only a few houses remained.
Further in the distance, the faint outline of a great city seemed barely visible. Of course, it was blurry—thirty li away, it was just psychological anticipation; one could not actually see the city from here.
Just then, a loud bang erupted from the lead truck.
The next moment, someone shouted, "Tire blowout!"
The crowd tensed at first, then relaxed. Su Yu heard a City Guard shout, "Can it still drive? We can fix it once we reach Tianshui City!"
The convoy gradually ground to a halt.
With the lead vehicle blown out, the trucks behind could not pass.
"Can't drive! We have to change the tire, it won't take long..."
Up ahead, Xia Bing surveyed the surroundings. Beside him, a Longwu Guard also looked around. There were several residences here, and the sound of the blowout seemed to have caught some residents' attention; people stepped out of houses or poked their heads out to look over.
"Decurion..." The Longwu Guard looked around for a moment, then suddenly said, "Something's off."
"Hm?"
Xia Bing was instantly on alert. "What is it?"
He had not noticed anything abnormal yet, and being so close to their destination, though still watchful, he had relaxed considerably.
"Too many men. There are... no children!"
The Longwu Guard's expression shifted slightly. There were men and women here, all dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, but this place was different from before. Around these dozen or so households, not a single child's voice could be heard!
Earlier along the road, children were running around, but here was deathly quiet. Aside from those residents... there did not even seem to be any livestock.
The All-Races Sect had both men and women, but on operations, children were strictly out of the question.
The next moment, Xia Bing realized the truth. He felt a flash of self-reproach for failing to notice.
No time for regret now. Xia Bing bellowed, "Enemy attack! Form ranks!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the watching civilians suddenly erupted!
Boom!
A truck near the road was sliced open by a saber strike, triggering screams of terror!
Just as Xia Bing moved to reinforce them, a shadow materialized beside him, lunging at him with a lethal strike!
Clang!
Saber met iron sword, and the truck Xia Bing stood on shattered completely.
The other Longwu Guards were swiftly tied down by squad leaders who sprang out from the sides. Forced back repeatedly, Xia Bing let out a furious roar and charged into the air against the airborne figure.
An ambush!
Only now did everyone realize what was happening, stunned that the enemy dared attack them within this distance.
***
The instant Xia Bing and the others were ambushed, Su Yu's truck was attacked as well.
A Wanshi expert led several Qianjun fighters in an instant charge. The City Guard decurion roared furiously and leaped off the truck with the others, clashing head-on in bloody combat.
"Protect the vehicles!"
"Students, don't run around! Send a few people to protect Truck No. 3!"
"Seventh squad, protect Truck No. 7!"
The City Guard centurion's bellow rang out. The attackers were not numerous; the critical problem was that once attacked, some students panicked and bolted. Once outside the defensive perimeter, those Kaiyuan Realm students would die in a single stroke.
Su Yu did not join this battle. Seeing that this spot could hold out, he said nothing, leaped off the truck, and sprinted toward Truck No. 1.
Chen Hao was still over there!
Dressed in City Guard uniform, he was not a primary target for the All-Races Sect. Along the way, a Qianjun fighter saw Su Yu running toward him and tried to intercept, but his vision suddenly blurred—darkness fell!
This was the illusion Su Yu had recently devised: darkness!
Before the man could react to the sudden pitch blackness, Su Yu slashed his saber. With a squelch, the man's body was cleaved in two!
Su Yu had already swallowed a drop of blood essence!
At a time like this, how could he dare hold back?
Paired with his divine character, his seventh-stage Qianjun explosive power, and the Profound-rank Thunder Yuan Saber martial art, killing these Qianjun cultists was child's play.
Having slain a Qianjun fighter in a single stroke, Su Yu did not linger and sprinted toward Truck No. 1.
The convoy vehicles were not far apart.
The City Guards and Longwu Guards were fending off the powerful foes. The cultists attacking the students were not very strong—nearly all the Wanshi fighters were tied up by City Guards and Longwu Guards, while Qianjun fighters were more than enough to butcher students.
Soon, Su Yu spotted Truck No. 1.
At this moment, Chen Hao and the others were holding weapons. Some were terrified, some frightened, but almost nobody screamed.
They were, after all, elite students, far more composed than the rest.
On the perimeter, the City Guards were still holding the line without falling into a disadvantage, allowing the students to maintain a semblance of calm.
Before Su Yu even arrived, he heard Chen Hao yell, "What's there to be afraid of? If they dare come, we dare kill them! It's not like I haven't killed these All-Races bastards before!"
Seeing they were relatively safe, Su Yu breathed a sigh of relief. He did not take off the City Guard uniform. A City Guard killing a few cultists was understandable; if a student killed several cultists right now, he would immediately become a prime target.
Even an idiot would know he was a prodigy!
Although the uniform was less convenient than student status, Su Yu felt disguising himself as a City Guard was safer right now.
Seeing Chen Hao and the others were fine, Su Yu did not approach. He spun around and sprinted toward the skirmishes on the outer perimeter.
Ahead of him, several City Guards were locked in combat with cultists.
Without a word, Su Yu unleashed his illusion again.
The clashing cultists all felt their vision go black.
In the heat of battle, suddenly plunging into total darkness threw them into instant panic. In their confusion, several were counterkilled by the City Guards in the blink of an eye.
The remaining few instantly fell into a disadvantage, on the verge of being wiped out.
Cold sweat beaded on Su Yu's forehead. Illusions drained willpower heavily.
He was now near Truck No. 3, where students were screaming continuously because cultists had breached the line.
Su Yu glanced over: only two City Guards were guarding the truck, while five cultists had broken through.
Wasting no time, Su Yu wheeled around and charged. A cultist quickly turned to attack him, but met the same fate—his vision blacked out, and in his panic he swung wildly. Dodging the wild slashes, Su Yu stepped sideways and struck. With a squelch, the cultist's head flew off.
"Kill him!"
The others were startled, and two more cultists lunged at Su Yu.
Su Yu took a deep breath, quickly swallowed another drop of blood essence, and lightning suddenly flickered along his saber as the willpower of the "Thunder" character infused it!
*Thunderous Movement!*
Su Yu shouted in his heart. This was his first true execution of the second strike of the Thunder Yuan Saber.
The saber's speed reached the absolute extreme!
Boom! A rumble of thunder echoed.
Both cultists had also experienced blacked-out vision. Terrified by the thunderclap, they dodged toward opposite sides.
One managed to escape, but the other was sliced in half by Su Yu's saber.
Su Yu staggered, nearly falling over.
Taking advantage of the other man tumbling to the ground, Su Yu hurled his saber forward. With a sickening thud, it pinned the man to the earth.
In an instant, three cultists lay dead!
It all happened too fast. Seeing their comrade fight so valiantly, the other two City Guards bellowed in fury, driving the remaining two cultists back repeatedly.
The area around the entire convoy turned into an Asura's field in the blink of an eye.
Up in the air, the Tengkong battle was grueling for Xia Bing. Covered in wounds, large droplets of blood rained down from the sky.
No one could spare attention for the Tengkong battle up there. Having recovered slightly, Su Yu continued deploying his illusion. This time, he did not attack personally. Instead, he stayed back, constantly disrupting the cultists ahead.
Killing people with his own hands felt satisfying, but the yuanqi consumption was too high, leaving his body depleted. Acting as support yielded far better results.
The enemy had not been numerous to begin with. Under Su Yu's interference, over twenty cultists were slain in short order.
In midair, the Tianshui Hall Master sensed that something was wrong.
The gap should not be this large!
How could they suddenly suffer so many casualties?
The cultists were only supposed to tie them down, not fight to the death. Why had dozens suddenly been killed?
*Wait, something's wrong...*
When he saw yet another cultist swiftly hacked down by a City Guard, he spotted the issue and roared, "Retreat! There's a Civilization Master!"
A Civilization Master had appeared!
This was willpower disruption or some other trick—it certainly was not normal combat. The man who had just been hacked down showed a sudden look of sheer panic right beforehand; that was unnatural!
An additional Civilization Master meant another Tengkong combatant; even he himself was in danger now!
"Retreat!"
With a furious roar, the cultists began retreating in droves.
Right at that moment, a golden streak shot through the air from afar. With a squelch, the Tengkong-stage Tianshui Hall Master's head was pierced clean through!
In the next instant, streak after streak of golden light shot forth!
On the ground, dozens of All-Races Sect cultists were annihilated in the blink of an eye.
An instant later, an old man landed on the ground, glanced around, and frowned slightly. "My apologies. I went ahead to scout the road just now, assuming they would strike in the open wilderness. This was my oversight."
The old man spoke calmly. Clearly, he was the hidden expert protecting the Nanyuan convoy.
However, he had not been here just now, having gone elsewhere to scout, and had subconsciously overlooked Yuanshui Village.
Dropping from the sky, drenched in blood, Xia Bing looked at the old man and asked in a low voice, "Just you?"
Only one person—it was a wonder they had not been overrun!
The old man nodded. "Just me. Originally there were two of us, but the other heard there was some commotion near Tianshui and went ahead to wait for us in Tianshui City..."
"Dereliction of duty!"
Xia Bing grunted, ignoring the old man further. Even if the elder had slain a sixth-stage Tengkong in an instant, he could not care less.
Xia Bing looked around and let out a small breath of relief.
Fortunately, losses were light.
Seven or eight dead. A few unlucky students had panicked and bolted, getting killed, while the others only suffered light injuries. A few City Guards had died.
Xia Bing did not feel the slightest pity for those who had run around.
They had been told not to run, yet insisted on running anyway. The City Guards on the perimeter were laying down their lives to protect them; not only did these fools run blindly, but they also disrupted the defensive formation. If they died, so be it.
Next, Xia Bing glanced out of the corner of his eye toward Su Yu, his gaze odd.
Others might not have recognized Su Yu, but he naturally did.
When that fellow yelled that a Civilization Master had appeared, he was not talking about the old man, but Su Yu!
This kid... his willpower was so weak, yet he had produced such an immense effect!
How had he done it?
He knew that last time, Su Yu had assisted the Wind Arrest Hall in killing a Wanshi expert, but that occasion was different from this one. Back then, the target had been surrounded; this time, there was no encirclement.
Not only was Xia Bing looking at Su Yu, but the elder also turned to look at him.
The elder had not witnessed what happened earlier, but he could clearly see Su Yu's exhausted state, with his willpower depleted, and even sensed the faint resonance of a divine character.
*A City Guard?*
Puzzlement surfaced on the elder's face. Did the City Guards have someone who had condensed a divine character?
No, he quickly recognized him—Su Yu!
Nanyuan's top-high genius this year!
*He can already use a divine character, and...*
The elder looked at the dead cultists again, then turned his gaze toward Su Yu with an odd expression. This kid had used a divine character at least seven or eight times. That was impossible!
Chapter 68