"Chen'er, Xin'er, what is this? Another scout?" Xue Qing frowned, stood up, and walked slowly toward the three of them.
"Uncle Xue, this is a rough map of the distribution of people and villages on our island, as well as some strategic locations. We found it on this scout." Jiang Yichen quickly dragged the grey-clothed man, who had been roused from his stupor, before Xue Qing, while handing over a scroll and saying respectfully.
Xue Qing’s expression was solemn. He took the scroll and unfolded it. His face gradually turned ashen, and his hands trembled slightly from anger.
"Two scouts have been caught in just a few days. If they belonged to the same power, that would be one thing, but if they are from two different factions, can West Mountain Island still be a safe place to stay?" Thinking this in his heart, Xue Qing did not voice these worries in front of the children, but he could not help but emit a chilling cold qi.
"Uncle Xue!" Zhang Yuxin and Jiang Yichen had never seen Xue Qing reveal such a grim and bleak aura. They retreated involuntarily, and Xin'er was even frightened into crying out.
Awakened by the trembling cry, Xue Qing realized his loss of composure and immediately showed a relaxed and gentle smile to the two children. "Apologies, Uncle was a bit angered."
Xue Qing took an exquisite gourd xun from his sleeve and used his Internal Energy to blow the sound of the xun into the distance.
Before long, a middle-aged man dressed as a fisherman and another dressed as a farmer arrived before Xue Qing’s residence. They dragged the grey-clothed man into the hut, while the two youths could only wait outside.
There was no loud sound in the room. After only the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the door opened.
As expected, it was the most worrying outcome. This grey-clothed man belonged to the Red Robe Cult, while the one caught a few days ago was a scout from the Twelve Heavenly Fiend Gates. Two hostile powers had already found West Mountain Island.
After Xue Qing and the others used some Methods, the grey-clothed man revealed that they had another Den in the Guiyan Forest. Fortunately, this scout had only snuck onto the island a few days ago and had only been busy scouting and mapping, not yet having had the chance to find that Den and meet up with his organization.
"Xin'er, go to the vicinity of the Ferry Crossing, find Uncle Ren, and have him bring some people over. Yi Heng, Yunfeng, Chen'er, you three follow me into the forest first to investigate the situation." Xue Qing quickly made the arrangements.
"Yes." Liu Yi Heng, Jiang Yunfeng, and Jiang Yichen immediately accepted the order and left. Zhang Yuxin wanted to go on the adventure with everyone, but she did not dare to disobey Xue Qing's instructions and left dejectedly.
As the search deepened, the four people separated.
Jiang Yichen came alone to the entrance of a long-abandoned Mine Cave. He vaguely remembered coming here when he was a child. At that time, the cave was occupied by a black bear as its lair. Coupled with the fact that the cave was located in a relatively remote corner of the Guiyan Forest, few people would go to investigate it. The Mine Cave should be quite large and was very likely the hiding place for the Red Robe Cult scouts.
According to the agreement made when he separated from the three, Jiang Yichen cut a long tree branch, stood it not far from the cave entrance, and drew an arrow on the ground pointing to the entrance of the Mine Cave before walking toward it.
Pacing into the Mine Cave, since he did not know how many Opponents there were, nor did he know the depth of their martial arts, Jiang Yichen did not dare to be careless and cautiously ventured deep into the cave.
The Mine Cave sloped downwards. After descending a few steps, there was a turn. After rounding the bend, the light from outside the cave could no longer reach in. At first, Jiang Yichen walked almost in the dark. Fortunately, after descending a bit further, he could see a faint, flickering light, which should have come from a torch in the depths.
Jiang Yichen walked against the wall, where human figures were vaguely visible.
He did not rush to take action, but instead crouched down to investigate.
He vaguely heard faint snoring and could not help but twitch the corner of his mouth, thinking: To think they would let such a lazy worm stand guard, I am truly speechless.
The light indeed originated from a torch hanging on the cave wall not far above the Minion's head. Creeping silently toward the sleeping Minion on guard, Jiang Yichen did not strike yet. Instead, he poked his head further in and, after seeing that the distance to the next Guard was three or four zhang, he breathed a sigh of relief. This way, he could silently harvest them one by one.
To be safe, Jiang Yichen first used Acupoint Pressure on the sleepyhead beside him before knocking him out with the Sword Hilt.
Afterwards, he used the Heavenly Zen Sword to perform long-distance Acupoint Pressure on the guards further away, then knocked them out one by one.
Following the same old procedure, he knocked down five more Minions on lookout one after another as he went down. Finally, he arrived at the downward slope leading to the flat ground at the bottom of the Mine Cave. This slope was about one zhang wide, and although there were fire basins on both sides of the road, there was no one standing guard.
Still walking against the wall, he could already hear somewhat noisy sounds from below. As expected, there were about seven or eight people drinking and making merry.
Leaning out from the slope to look down, he could see two bonfires below. Five people were surrounding a small bonfire, and three were surrounding a Great Fire.
Among the eight people, seven were bare-chested Minions. Only one big man was not only much taller and stronger than the others, but he was also wearing a red vest and hugging a large jar of wine, lying among a pile of wine jars, looking a bit drunk and silly.
Behind this drunk big man, two bare-chested Minions stood holding large Cattail fans to fan him, while the remaining five people surrounded the small bonfire twenty or thirty steps away from the drunk big man, pouring wine for each other.
What is this situation? To think there is such a good opportunity for me to take action?
Jiang Yichen was suspicious that his first scouting mission had gone so smoothly. The guards in the Red Robe Cult's hidden Den were so incompetent and their defenses so lax that he could not help but feel it was a trap, and he pondered whether to proceed.
After thinking it over, he observed that this group of people was truly drinking a bit too much. After simulating the process of taking action in his heart several times and gaining full confidence, he decided to strike.
Lightly approaching the bottom, he used the Meteor Style, injected his Internal Energy into the Sword Body, and raised his sword to fly toward the red-clothed drunkard like a meteor.
Capture the leader first to capture the followers. The other seven people were not the focus. Although two were not drinking, if he could subdue the leader in the first instant, he would be able to control the situation.
The first to notice the blue figure whistling over were the two guards beside the red-clothed drunkard. But the two of them did not know how to react to this sudden emergency. Should they drop their Cattail fans and go pick up the large hammers on the side to smash him? Or should they risk their lives to block in front of their Boss? However, in the moment of their hesitation, the blue figure was almost before their eyes. In the end, the two could only scream in a panic, "Ah!", and then had no further action.
Unlike the two Trash guards beside him, the red-clothed drunkard, despite being dead drunk, felt his two calves twitch imperceptibly the moment the danger approached and the blue figure became increasingly clear in his pupils. His massive body, which had been lying on the ground, flew backwards at high speed.
Jiang Yichen was also caught off guard, but the moment he landed, he still swiftly used Acupoint Pressure to freeze the two stunned guards, adjusted his pace with short steps, and then attacked the red-clothed drunkard in front.
By this time, the five guards in the rear had each picked up their Weapons and were charging toward their Boss and the blue-clothed youth in a scattered manner.
Jiang Yichen shot another Heavenly Zen Sword at the red-clothed drunkard. The drunkard had already roused his Spirit, but he still received this long-range Acupoint Pressure. However, he only paused for an instant before breaking through the Acupoint, starting to raise his strength, pulling out the Golden Snake Dagger hanging at his waist, and facing the youth in front of him directly.
Just from this instant, Jiang Yichen knew he had encountered a tough Opponent this time. He did not dare to neglect the situation and immediately followed up with a Meteor Style, flying out with the sword tip aimed directly at the red-clothed drunkard's chest, wanting to win quickly and capture the Opponent.
He saw the thick arm moving the golden snake-like Dagger like a Dragon and Snake Movement to deflect the incoming Sword Edge. With his outstanding Martial Force, he was ultimately affected by the alcohol in his brain, which influenced his judgment. How could such a close-range Meteor Style, with its Momentum like a rainbow, be easily deflected? Seeing the sword tip about to pierce his chest, he sobered up instantly, his eyes wide, but he could not believe that he was about to die here because of a moment of carelessness.
However, at the moment the sword tip was about to pierce his chest, the Sword Edge flickered and pierced into the red-clothed big man's armpit, only scratching his skin and flesh.
At the last moment, Jiang Yichen’s heart stirred. Thinking that the purpose of this trip was to subdue the Opponent and hand him over to Uncle Xue for disposal, he found it hard to harbor Killing intent. The moment the Meteor Style's Sharp Edge arrived, he insisted on withdrawing his strength to let the Sword Edge deviate, thus missing the Good opportunity to win.
In an instant, hell; in an instant, heaven. The red-clothed big man's reaction was extremely swift. Thirty years of blood and wind in the Jianghu allowed him to reverse the situation in an instant. He retreated two steps, and his left hand took out soul-bewitching powder from his pocket and threw it at the youth in front of him.
With one blink, Jiang Yichen fell into a hallucinatory world. In his pupils, he could only see a blurry, sturdy figure swaying wantonly in front of him.
"Hmph, tender youngster, go to hell!" The red-clothed big man cursed with saliva flying everywhere, his eyes bulging as if they were about to burst, wanting to eat this youngster who had almost cost him his life.
His massive body approached with a speed that did not match his size, swift as thunder. He waved the Golden Snake Dagger and wiped it toward the youth's neck, about to suck and taste that fresh, tender blood!
"Dam...n it!" Jiang Yichen, filled with unwillingness and annoyance, swayed and fell forward...
Heaven and hell are not loanwords; they come from the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng of the Tang Dynasty Zen sect.
"All grass and trees, evil people and good people, evil laws and good laws, heaven and hell, are all in the air."
✦✦✦