152. Calmness

This night was filled with stark contrasts: joy for some and sorrow for others. Although Zhang Long and Zhou Hu had not personally been present to witness the previous display of strength, they were exceptionally well-informed. After hearing various vivid accounts, the scene of Qi Fei suppressing several Xiantian experts became increasingly clear in their minds. This only further cemented their belief that Qi Fei must have concealed his true cultivation level.

The night was like water. The caravan had formed a large circle from the outer islands inward, with the main cargo stored safely in the center. At the outermost perimeter, Zhang Long, Zhou Hu, and their men were plotting how to salvage their pride and settle the score. The campfire cast a warm, orange glow across their sinister faces. Zhang Long waved a hand and said, "No need for further discussion. Just do as I said."

The night passed quietly, with Qi Fei continuing to review the Body Refining Outline to restore his internal energy. Before the dawn was fully visible, the caravan resumed its journey. Thanks to the outcome of the duel the previous night, the day's travel was notably much calmer. Yet, who could tell when the undercurrents hidden beneath this peace would erupt?

At least Han Mengde and his faction appeared to have behaved themselves. With no one intentionally provoking trouble, everyone's spirits were evidently high. Consequently, the group managed to cover more than two hundred miles in a single day, causing them to miss their intended lodging station. By dusk, Escort Leader Qi ordered the party to seek out an open clearing and commanded everyone to make camp in the wilderness. This marked the tenth day of their journey; they were now less than two thousand miles away from Cloud Mountain City, leaving only three thousand miles to their final destination: the Northern Prefecture capital.

Having traveled nearly a little less than half the distance, everyone appeared visibly fatigued. Thus, just as dusk fell, many of the hired martial artists had already finished an early dinner and gone to sleep. Only a few individuals in poor health had been arranged to rest early as well.

Zhang Lang happened to be one of them. Whether by design or sheer coincidence, one of the men assigned to keep watch with him was none other than Han Mengde. Furthermore, the other four patrolling guards were all under the direct command of Zhang Long and Zhou Hu. This particular arrangement had once caused Ma Qingshan a great deal of anxiety regarding Zhang Lang's safety. However, having just won a major victory the day before, Zhang Lang shrugged it off, casually offered Ma Qingshan a couple of comforting words, and headed out to perform his duties.

"Brother Qi, do you think Zhang Lang will be all right tonight?" After Zhang Lang left, Ma Qingshan still felt somewhat uneasy. Finding himself unable to fall asleep right away, he simply walked over to Qi Fei's side, sat down cross-legged, and prepared for a long conversation. Facing such behavior, Qi Fei could only offer a bitter smile inwardly while feeling obliged to reply, "There shouldn't be any major trouble. At worst, he might just get beaten up a bit."

Ma Qingshan frowned, pondering for a moment before continuing, "That may be true, but I still have this nagging feeling in my gut—as if something is bound to happen tonight."

Qi Fei chuckled, offering a couple of comforting remarks before adding, "Heh, don't overthink it. Soldiers are met with shields, and water is met with earth. Go to sleep, go to sleep. At most, just stay a bit more alert tonight so that if anything actually happens, you can react as quickly as possible."

Since he put it that way, Ma Qingshan could hardly say anything further. With a sigh, he returned to his own spot and lay down to rest.

"What could possibly happen? There isn't anything peculiar about the surroundings..." Quietly releasing his divine sense to investigate, Qi Fei found no abnormalities whatsoever. Muttering to himself inwardly, he lay down and entered his spatial dimension, resuming his repetitive practice of the drawing-blade technique in the hope of experiencing a sudden epiphany that would propel him into the realm of blade momentum carrying the force of ten thousand catties, as described by Tong He.

He had no idea how long he had been practicing when he suddenly felt a violent shaking of his physical body outside the dimension.

Hurriedly projecting his divine sense back into the physical realm, Qi Fei opened his eyes to see Ma Qingshan shaking him with an expression of intense urgency, babbling incessantly, "Brother Qi, get up quickly! Something is terribly wrong—the convoy is being raided!"

At first, Qi Fei didn't fully process the sentence, but a split second later, his body gave a sudden jolt and he sprang up like a fish leaping from the water. Strangely enough, instead of immediately asking questions, he found himself marveling inwardly: Ma Qingshan's premonition that something would happen had actually come true!

Hurrying out of the tent alongside Ma Qingshan, they were greeted by the earth-shattering sounds of battle outside.

After assessing the situation for a brief moment, Qi Fei realized that the convoy's forces were at an absolute disadvantage. Worse still, the entire caravan had failed to regroup; under the relentless onslaught of bandits wearing arm-bands to identify themselves, they had been carved up into scattered, formationless groups. In particular, a small squad right before his eyes was caught in the encirclement of dozens of burly bandits, struggling desperately and facing a continuous stream of life-or-death crises.

"Brother Qi, these people are bandits. Judging by the current scale, they must have deployed nearly a thousand men this time," Ma Qingshan explained hurriedly before asking, "With everything in such chaos, individual strength won't make much difference. Moreover, we don't even know which corner Zhang Lang that kid was forced into. Do you think we should go find him, or try to seek out Leader Li and regroup with him?"

"Let's find Leader Li first; he's bound to have a group of people following him." Without a second thought, Qi Fei made his decision and plunged directly into the enemy ranks with flying fists. Given that bandits were everywhere, and adhering to the principle that saving one more person added one more shred of strength, Qi Fei naturally intended to rescue the group currently trapped in mortal peril. Although doing so held no direct benefit for him, he chose this path for Leader Li's sake. The combat power of these bandits was roughly on par with that of the caravan guards, with the majority hovering around the second stage of Xiantian, and only the slightly stronger ones reaching the peak of the second stage. They had only achieved their current upper hand because their numbers were tenfold greater than the caravan's. However, the moment Qi Fei entered the battlefield, the local situation underwent a radical transformation.

Like a tiger among sheep—though Qi Fei had yet to fully display his true Xiantian might—every single punch he threw resulted in at least one bandit dying on the spot. Naturally, this was no time to show mercy, and Qi Fei's punch force had long since surpassed the tier of second-rate martial artists. Consequently, even if nimble bandits managed to block his attacks, the sheer impact accompanying his blows sent them flying through the air, completely robbing them of the ability to stand back up under their own power.

Ma Qingshan joined Qi Fei in the fray as well, but the impact of a second-stage Xiantian martial artist like him was worlds apart from Qi Fei's terrifying efficiency. In fact, if Qi Fei hadn't repeatedly diverted his fists to dispatch one or two attackers attempting to ambush him, whether Ma Qingshan could have held onto his life would have been a coin toss.

Even so, Ma Qingshan relied on sheer willpower to fend off three bandits of his own tier simultaneously. With the two of them disrupting the enemy formation, the pressure on the trapped caravan guards instantly plummeted. Led by a fifty-year-old, ruddy-faced elder, they swiftly organized an effective counterattack. Operating in a pincer movement with Qi Fei and Ma Qingshan, they genuinely managed to loosen the bandits' encirclement. Seizing the moment when the enemy's formation was unstable, they charged forward decisively. Despite suffering a few casualties, they ultimately managed to break through and rendezvous with Qi Fei.

"Brother Qi truly has remarkable martial arts. It seems the title of the top fighter beneath the escort leaders is well-deserved indeed," the lean elder said, catching his breath before giving Qi Fei an approving thumbs-up. He then introduced himself, "This old man is Wang Daoling. Many thanks to little brother for your lifesaving grace. If little brother ever has any instructions in the future, just send word to the west gate of the figure-eight alley in Cloud Mountain City, and this old man will leap through fire and tread upon blades without hesitation!"

"Elder Wang is too polite. But now is not the time for pleasantries. Everyone, charge forward with me and strive to regroup with the main force as quickly as possible!" Qi Fei gave a hasty reply, sent a nearby bandit vomiting blood with a single casual strike, and took the lead, charging straight toward the heaviest sounds of battle. There were only about sixty bandits here, making it obvious that this was not the main force of the raiders.

If they could locate the enemy's main force, they should naturally be able to spot Escort Leader Qi, Leader Li, and the others.

Ma Qingshan and Wang Daoling understood this logic as well. Fortunately, they were martial artists accustomed to licking blood off their blades, so rather than feeling any urge to retreat under such circumstances, they caught their breath for a moment before tightly following in Qi Fei's footsteps and charging ahead. Of course, they also understood the principle of strength in numbers; sticking with the main force was the wisest course of action in this scenario. Otherwise, the moment one was left isolated, saying goodbye to tomorrow's sunrise would be a certainty.

With Qi Fei acting as the vanguard, wherever they passed, horses were overturned and men were sent flying. Ma Qingshan was doing fine following behind, but Wang Daoling—who had previously experienced the terror of almost being devoured by bandits—felt a profound sense of astonishment. Although charging behind Qi Fei meant driving straight into the thickest crowds, the pressure he faced was actually far lighter than when he had been trapped moments ago. In fact, inadvertently, he—a second-stage Xiantian martial artist—had already slain over a dozen bandits.

Naturally, this was the deliberate result of Qi Fei's actions.

With Qi Fei spearheading the advance, he not only bore the brunt of all frontal pressure but also frequently divided his attention to protect the left and right flanks. Because of this, both Ma Qingshan on the left and Wang Daoling on the right felt significantly less burdened. Moreover, whenever bandits attempted to ambush the two of them, Qi Fei's eyes were sharp and his hands fast; he would throw a punch, lash out with a palm strike, or—if there was no time for either—hurl a stone like a hidden weapon. While this didn't always kill the enemy outright, it unfailingly left the ambushers wounded. Consequently, more than half of the bandits slain by Ma Qingshan and Wang Daoling were essentially half-crippled targets pre-processed by Qi Fei.

However, this did not mean they could coast through without any further losses all the way to the main force.

After about half an incense stick's worth of fierce fighting, the bandit commanders finally took notice of this anomaly. Thus, after advancing another twenty paces and notching nearly thirty kills, several formidable figures whose auras clearly belonged to the first stage of Xiantian suddenly appeared among the attacking bandits. Under these conditions, Qi Fei could naturally afford to relax if he revealed his true Xiantian strength; however, until he figured out the bigger picture, he had no desire to expose himself prematurely.

After all, these bandits had struck with uncanny craftiness. Throughout the entire journey, Qi Fei's divine sense had constantly shrouded the surrounding area, yet he had never once detected anyone resembling a scout near the caravan. Keep in mind that they had covered a third more distance than usual today; unless scouts had been tailing them the entire time, how could these bandits have known their resting place with such precision and struck right when everyone was exhausted? It felt as though something was fundamentally amiss here.

Harboring this layer of apprehension, Qi Fei continued to conceal a portion of his strength, displaying only an output roughly equivalent to the third stage of Xiantian to deal with the endlessly surging waves of bandits. After all, it was enough for him to protect the majority of the current squad. If he actually brought all twenty men through unscathed to Leader Li's side, anyone would inevitably grow suspicious and wonder just what miraculous method he had relied upon to pull off such a feat.

Because Qi Fei was holding back in this manner, the pressure on the other members of the squad spiked abruptly.

"Bang!"

As Qi Fei swept his gaze toward the source of the sound, he immediately noticed that the rear-guard martial artist of their squad had taken a slash to the right shoulder from a first-stage initial-tier martial artist wielding a mountain-splitting saber. Although the wound wasn't fatal, it instantly crippled the man's combat effectiveness.

Within the span of a few breaths, failing to maintain his footing, the man was swiftly hacked to death by a swarm of bandits following closely behind like wasps. It wasn't that Qi Fei didn't want to save him, but two first-stage initial-tier martial artists were currently assaulting him from the front. Without revealing his true power, while he could hold his ground against the frontal assault, he simply didn't have the luxury of time to watch his back. Furthermore, Ma Qingshan and Wang Daoling were simultaneously fending off attacks from two first-stage Xiantian assailants themselves. Qi Fei was already straining to cover three fronts and was on the verge of having to unleash his full might, let alone look after the rear guard several paces away.

Fortunately, the rear-guard casualty was not a core member of the squad, and another martial artist of the same tier quickly stepped up to fill the gap after his death. Thus, although Qi Fei's group was down by one person, they managed to maintain their structural integrity.

Yet, due to the addition of these several first-tier experts on the enemy side, Qi Fei and his companions' advance slowed to a crawl. As time dragged on and losses mounted in the rear, their original twenty-man squad rapidly shrank down to barely a dozen.

Observing this grim situation, Wang Daoling hurriedly unleashed a flurry of killer moves to temporarily force back the enemies directly in front of him. Turning to Qi Fei, he shouted, "Brother Qi, we can't keep going like this! We're going to get whittled down piece by piece. How about this: let Brothers Zhang Lang and Ma Qingshan clear the path ahead while you and I hold the rear, and we carve our way out!"