Chapter 393: Chapter 393. Protecting the Transport Caravan

The others had expected Xin Wuming’s reaction. Out of everyone, his undying loyalty to Amon was unmatched. The others, on the other hand, had started or already lost hope.

“Anyway, we need to deal with these ambushes,” San Guo said. “Our Thousand Dream Powder and Serene Tranquilize Powder are running out. Our late… I mean, our boss, Amon, gave me a large number of ingredients to allow us to produce the powders for years, but they are running out. We probably only have enough stock for less than a year. We can’t afford to lose more of these powders.”

“Without the powders, it will greatly hurt our finances,” Gao Lan said. “It will be difficult to continue to support our organization.”

“That’s why I have been branching out into many other business avenues these past few years,” San Guo said. “We can’t continue to rely on the powders unless anyone here has access to our boss’ secret ingredients?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“We have been trying to source the Wet Deam Flowers and Fragrant Pacifying Flowers for years. We still can’t figure out where our boss got those ingredients from,” Lu Fei informed.

“Nothing we can do about that,” Gao Lan said. “For now, we will focus on what we can handle. What can we do about these ambushes? Maybe we should delay shipping the powders out of this capital?”

“People in the other cities are willing to pay more for these powders. If we cut down our profit by not supplying, it will weaken our finances. We can’t afford that in our current state. Without enough aer stones to bribe the officials and pay our underlings, we will be an easy target for the Gao Clan.”

When the others couldn’t propose an idea, Xin Wuming announced, “I will oversee the next delivery. I will deal with whoever is coming.”

“I don’t think that’s wise. It’s too dangerous,” San Guo said. “If we lose you and the cargo, we suffer double losses.”

“I’m not that easy to kill,” Xin Wuming stated.

“This matter is too vital. We can’t let overconfidence cloud our judgment,” San Guo said.

“Do you have another idea?” Xin Wuming asked.

San Guo could not reply.

“Qiang Dan and Lu Fei should follow you then,” Gao Lan said.

Xin Wuming shook his head. “Fortune Escort Company is a legitimate business. We can’t afford to be caught associated with underworld organizations.”

“We will wear masks and follow you from the shadow,” Lu Fei said.

“I agree,” San Guo said. “Our purpose is not only to stop these ambushers but also to eliminate them so they can’t cause trouble again. The value of our goods aside, we can’t have people receive news about our transports getting stolen. It will destroy the reputation of our Fortune Escort Company.”

Xin Wuming finally nodded. “All right, but only you two. Also, wear different covers than the usual Demon Gang masks.”

“We know,” Lu Fei and Qiang Dan said.

*

Three days after the meeting, Fortune Escort Company sent another caravan out of the capital. The security details comprised sixteen people. Ten were ex-Royal Academy students, including Xin Wuming, while the other six were hired muscles. Half of the Royal Academy students had the cultivation level of Peak Transformation Stage. Xin Wuming was among this half. The others were all at the Intermediate Transformation Stage.

Normally, it was an extravagance for a courier service to bring such a force. Anyone who witnessed it would assume they were escorting extremely valuable goods.

Wu Lang was among the ex-Royal Academy Students. When they were halfway from their destination, he asked Xin Wuming, “Brother, do you think the ambushers will show up? We bring almost twice our usual number. This might have caused them to back off.”

“If that is the case, we will bring the same number the next time we transport these powders,” Xin Wuming said.

The transport took eight days to reach the destination. The caravan was a small cart. However, the products held inside could fill a large warehouse. The caravan was engraved with words of power that gave it a similar ability to the space rings, but it didn’t require a link with a cultivator. Anyone, even a non-cultivator, could access this caravan.

Xin Wuming could afford space rings for transport. For normal transport service, they mostly used space rings to carry the goods instead of this engraved caravan. However, there were several problems with using space rings for this transport.

The first problem was the limited space inside the space rings. They needed many space rings to accommodate goods worth a large warehouse. This brought them to the second problem, which was that cultivators had a limit to how many space rings they could link with. For a Transformation Stage cultivator like them, they could link with four space rings.

If all sixteen used four space rings each, they might have enough space to carry three-quarters of the goods inside the caravan. However, that would mean Xin Wuming put great trust in everyone here. This was where the third problem was. Out of the fifteen accompanying him, he only trusted three people enough to let them wear space rings with the goods they were transporting.

This was why they went with using the engraved caravan.

Things went wrong on the fifth day. They were traveling past a small valley when six rowdy-looking people stood in their path.

“Howdy, travelers,” One of the rowdy people, who seemed to be the leader, greeted. “This is a private land. You will need to pay a toll to pass.”

“A toll? How absurd. This is a public road!” Wu Lang exclaimed.

“No, no. Believe me. This valley truly is privately owned. You are trespassing.”

“We don’t trespass shit! Move aside or face the consequences!”

“Face the consequences? Very aptly put,” the rowdy leader put two fingers into his mouth and whistled.

Out of the two hills forming the valley, many more rowdy people appeared. Their number was probably close to a hundred.

“Shit!” Wu Lang cursed. He whispered to Xin Wuming, “Why are there so many people? The report never mentioned the ambushers have so many people…”

“They probably gather more people after seeing our number…,” Xin Wuming whispered back. “Or these people are not the ambushers.”

Xin Wuming turned to another man beside him. He asked, “Qu Lou, can you detect their cultivation levels?”

“I need time to scan them all, but from what I sense from the people on the hill, most varied from Intermediate Strength Stage to Intermediate Transformation Stage.”

“What is their proportion? Do they have more Strength Stage or Transformation Stage?” Xin Wuming asked. If the enemy had more strength stage, they should still be able to cope despite the enemy’s superior number. But if the enemy had more Transformation Stage, they would be in trouble.

“They had more… Oh, shit!” Qu Lou blurted.

“What is it?” Xin Wuming asked.

“The six that block our way… Three are Peak Transformation Stage while the other three is Beginning Mystic Stage,” Qu Lou answered.

Xin Wuming greeted his teeth. With three Beginning Mystic Stage cultivators, there was no way for them to win, even if Qiang Dan and Lu Fei joined their fray.

“Hey! What are you whispering about? Are you going to pay or not?!” The rowdy leader asked.

Xin Wuming made a polite palm-fist gesture with his hands and said, “We do not want trouble. We will take another road.”

“Uh-uh! Can’t have you leave without paying. You already trespassed when you entered this valley.”

Xin Wuming frowned. It was clear now that they could not avoid conflict. Nevertheless, he tried negotiating, “How much do you require us to pay for passage?”

The rowdy leader showed all his fingers. “Ten million aer stones,” he uttered.

“Fuck you! Just say it out loud that you want to rob us!” Wu Lang cursed.

“Okay, I admit. We are bandits, and we want to rob you. Any of you who doesn’t want to die, please fuck off. I’m giving you the chance to live.”

This caused half the people around Xin Wuming to look at each other with uncertainty.

“Don’t listen to his lies. They will pick us off the second we separate ourselves!” Xin Wuming exclaimed. “Ready yourselves for battle!”

“Hahaha! It makes no difference to us. Everyone, attack…!” The bandit leader ordered.

The bandits on top of the two hills started running down the hill toward the caravan. A few ran while using bows to fire arrows. Xin Wuming used his art, Iron Finger, to produce metal swords. He faced one side of the hill. His two hands, wielding the swords, slashed all the incoming arrows with graceful moves. Wu Lang guarded the opposite side. He conjured a barbed whip using his arcane art. The barbed whip lashed in all directions, breaking the arrows.

“Haha, good! You are making this interesting,” the bandit leader laughed. He didn’t advance. Instead, he made a signal. His five companions rushed ahead.

Two of the five were at the Beginning Mystic Stage. These two let the others engage Xin Wuming people first. After that, they sneaked behind their target and landed fatal hits.

Xin Wuming lost two people so early after the battle started.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep