This trip of Liu Chengfeng's spent a total of fifty-five thousand Intermediate Spirit Stones, which included him and Xiao An, a total of eight people. Amongst them, there was a Core Forming Period leader and his five Building Foundation Period subordinates. The six of them belonged to a small mercenary group.
The leader of the Core Forming Period was called Zhou Shi. He had been escorting the caravan to and from Scarlet Flame Battlefield all year round, but because of the small number of mercenaries and his cultivation level being only Core Forming Period, he did not attract the attention of the large caravan.
Along the way, Liu Chengfeng would sit outside of the carriage and be in charge of driving, while Zhou Shi's subordinates would guard outside of the carriage and the spirit materials.
From the Ji Yang City s to the Scarlet Flame Battlefield s required half a month of travel, and the closest city to the Scarlet Flame Battlefield s were the Clear Water Town s. This town was managed by the humans in name, but in fact, there were not only humans in the town, there were also other races.
After all, Zhou Shi had been to the Scarlet Flame Battlefield many times, so he was very familiar with the route and terrain. Know how to take the short cut and avoid dangerous places. Half a month had passed and Liu Chengfeng's group actually did not encounter a single robbery, which was a little surprising to him. However, he couldn't help but admire this silent mercenary captain.
After half a month of interaction, Liu Chengfeng had gotten more familiar with the mercenaries, and the topic of conversation gradually began to shift. Other than Zhou Shi, the rest of the mercenaries were all respectful to Liu Chengfeng. On one hand, it was because Liu Chengfeng was their boss, and on the other hand, they liked Liu Chengfeng's personality.
From the mercenaries, Liu Chengfeng found out that Zhou Shi was originally the son of the Sect Master of a small sect in one of the hundred thousand mountains in the south. At that time, he had just gone out to escape a calamity. Later on, he didn't join any other sects. Instead, he turned into a mercenary group traveling through 100,000 mountains in an attempt to find the person he hated the most back then.
Since the Scarlet Flame Battlefield was close to a hundred thousand mountains, Zhou Shi was very familiar with that place. However, Zhou Shi focused all his energy on finding his enemy, so after a few years, his cultivation and the mercenary group remained the same. Of course, there had been deaths before.
"Stop!" Zhou Shi raised his right hand and indicated for the convoy to stop. Liu Chengfeng pulled open the curtain of the carriage and peeked his head out to see what was happening.
It turned out to be a valley, which was split open by someone using a knife and an axe. The road was cut through the middle of the valley. Seeing this, Liu Chengfeng could not help but sigh at the workmanship of nature, the valley was simply a natural foothold
Thirty meters away from them was a group of people blocking the entrance to the valley. These people were dressed like commoners, but their faces were filled with hostility. Large shining knives sparkled in the sunlight. Liu Chengfeng could tell that these were a group of mountain bandit s who wanted to pay a passage fee just by looking at them.
Zhou Shi turned his head and said to one of his subordinates, "Mo Quan, you guys stay here and don't move." Saying that, he grabbed the horse with his legs and ran towards the mountain bandit.
Liu Chengfeng got out of the car and stood in front of the door. Zhou Shi went over to talk with the leading mountain bandit, then rode his horse back.
"Let's go!" Zhou Shi shouted.
Just like that, the caravan left safely under the gazes of a large number of mountain bandit. After walking a distance, Liu Chengfeng asked a mercenary riding a horse about to the side about the reason. The reason why Liu Chengfeng asked them was because they did not reveal any expression of fear or shock when they met mountain bandit. Liu Chengfeng guessed that they definitely had some sort of agreement with mountain bandit, or perhaps they were already friends.
It seemed a bit ridiculous, but in some places there was no common sense. Something that seemed impossible happened.
Sure enough, Liu Chengfeng found out from the mercenary that the leader of the mountain bandit was Zhou Shi's good friend, a disciple of another sect in the Hundred Thousand Mountains. That sect was exterminated by an unknown power just like Zhou Shi. Zhou Shi and mountain bandit's boss was a good friend, so of course mountain bandit would not make things difficult for him. Here, Liu Chengfeng was rejoicing slightly. Fortunately, they had found Zhou Shi's mercenary group, otherwise, this battle would have been unavoidable.
Although the purpose of Liu Chengfeng's trip this time was to train himself, there were many things happening before he reached his destination. Furthermore, there were a lot of people in the mountain bandit;
As the group left the valley, they saw an open plain. From above, they could vaguely make out the outline of a city at the end of the plain. That was the Clear Water Town at the edge of the Scarlet Flame Battlefield.
They entered the city in the evening, and under Zhou Shi's instructions, they stayed in a four-sided courtyard. The spirit materials were placed in the center of the courtyard, watched by the mercenaries in turns.
After dinner, Liu Chengfeng went back to his own room to meditate and cultivate. He counted the items in the storage bag. He only had nine thousand spirit stones on him. This amount of spirit stones was simply not enough for Scarlet Flame Battlefield. He pondered on how he could earn more spirit stones. After all, with spirit stones, it could save him a lot of trouble.
At this time, Liu Chengfeng remembered that the storage bag s had found another stalk of Spirit Medicine from the marketplace, but the things that happened later on had forgotten about this stalk of Spirit Medicine. Liu Chengfeng took out the spiritual medicine in his hand and examined it carefully. This level 2 elixir that he had spent two hundred spirit stones to buy was called the Fierce Sun Vine. However, to be able to be bought by Song Zihao at such a high price was definitely not an ordinary second grade spirit medicine. It was just that Liu Chengfeng did not understand spirit medicine, so he could not see what was so special about it.
At that time when he was with Jiang Cai, he knew that the best way to use the spirit medicine was to refine it into a pill. Since there was something special about the spirit medicine, the mysterious blood in his body would definitely benefit from it.
It was good to refine this medicine into a pill, but where could the pill refiner find it? Liu Chengfeng shook his head and kept the spirit medicine.
"Let's wait and see if Scarlet Flame Battlefield can find an alchemist to help me refine the pills." Liu Chengfeng muttered. Actually, finding a pill refiner was one thing, but finding one was another. Firstly, it would be difficult for an apothecary to find it, and secondly, if he found the spirit stones on him, he would be able to pay for it.
After all, Liu Chengfeng did not understand this spirit medicine, so the last point was what he was most worried about. In a situation where there was no guarantee of safety, Liu Chengfeng would definitely not easily reveal this object to others.
Clear Water Town was very lively at night, it was crowded with many caravans and mercenaries. At the same time, there were a lot more brothels than other places. Every night the town smelled of violence, desire, and semen.
Cultivators sought higher cultivation realms the most, so their desire for physical body parts was minimal. However, for those rogue cultivators who spent their lives on the line between life and death, physical pleasure was the best way to release the violent inner Qi.
Although Liu Chengfeng's courtyard was located on the side of the town, the mercenaries could still hear the sounds of food and drinks. If you listened carefully, you could hear the breathing of women and the breathing of men mixed in with it.
Tonight's night sky was very clean. There weren't many stars. The wind was strong and hot. Because it was near the Scarlet Flame Battlefield, the hot air whirl of the lava sea met the cold air whirl of the northwest and formed a convection, causing the wind to blow. The distribution of heat in the magma was much wider than the cold air blowing from the northwest. So even though it was winter, it felt like summer.
Time passed by very quickly. Unknowingly, it was already 4 in the morning. This point was the time when the human body was in deep sleep, and it was also the time when attention was the least focused.
In the courtyard, Mo Quan sat on the carriage that was filled with spirit materials and looked around cautiously. His hand was on the hilt of the blade on his waist, ready to pull it out at any time. The horses snorted and the trees outside the house rustled in the wind.
The wind was getting stronger and louder. It was pitch black, and he couldn't even see his fingers in front of him. Mo Quan had the Building Foundation Period's cultivation so he could use his spirit sense to sense his surroundings. He could sense the danger if he was unable to see anything.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle "
Human eyes could only make out black shadows in the darkness. The trees around him swayed in the wind like the claws of a demon or a soul-stirring sail. In short, a cold feeling spread throughout Mo Quan's body as if he had been electrocuted.
His hand on the hilt of the knife moved slowly, and the silver blade was half drawn from the sheath. He seemed to have a special feeling for danger. It was a feeling that could not be sensed with Spiritual Sense, but was very clear at the same time.
Swish!
A black needle silently flew out from behind him, and the silver light only heard a "ding" as the edge of the blade splashed with sparks. Mo Quan shouted as he focused his eyes.
"Who is it!"
His body was almost at the same time as his voice, and with a "sou" sound, he flew towards the direction of the black needle.
The yard was immediately lit up, Zhou Shi and Liu Chengfeng immediately rushed to the center of the courtyard, looking at the direction that Mo Quan had left, they frowned. Just then, the other mercenaries also came out, but they were only slightly slower than Liu Chengfeng and Zhou Shi. Zhou Shi curiously looked at Liu Chengfeng. He did not expect Liu Chengfeng's reaction to be so quick.
"Protect the Boss Chen well! I'll be right back! " Zhou Shi said to his subordinates behind him. Then, he started to fly in the direction that Mo Quan left in with both feet.
Liu Chengfeng stood in the center of the courtyard without saying a word. However, he was not worried. With Jiang Cai giving him the cloud shuttle, his safety was guaranteed.
No one felt sleepy at all when this happened. The mercenaries stood guard beside the spirit materials to prevent the enemy from launching another sneak attack. Liu Chengfeng returned to his room and continued meditating.
It was early in the morning and the sky was slightly bright when Zhou Shi and Mo Quan returned. Liu Chengfeng asked Zhou Shi about the results and was told that the man escaped. Liu Chengfeng made a deduction in his heart. For this person to be able to escape from the hands of the Core Forming Period, this person's cultivation must be the same as Zhou Shi, or perhaps even higher, for the sake of not revealing his identity, he did not clash with Zhou Shi. Regarding these two inferences, Liu Chengfeng was more inclined to the former. This small caravan of his wasn't worth the attention of the large bandit groups. It was very likely that the small bandit group had committed the crime. Mo Quan's strength had scared them off, so they decided to escape to avoid any injuries.
As the sun rose, everyone washed up and then bought breakfast from a mercenary in the town. After eating breakfast, the group set out for Scarlet Flame Battlefield's final destination — — Yandu.