Chapter 180: Chapter 69: The Plan Begins, But Something’s Not Right

A three-way crossroads lay at the border between southern Wudao Prefecture and northern Shang’an Prefecture. For thirty li in any direction, there wasn’t a single household—only a lone teahouse at the intersection offered a place for travelers to rest.

The teahouse did decent business, and every day, it was bustling with people both inside and out.

「Noon.」

The early spring sun struggled to pierce the clouds and pour its warmth onto the land, but the thick cloud cover kept its rays weak. A shifting sea breeze caused the temperature to rise and fall unpredictably.

Outside the teahouse, six horsemen suddenly appeared on the yellow dirt road leading down from Wudao Prefecture...

The steeds were magnificent, their coats gleaming. The riders were equally impressive, each man radiating vigor. They were dressed in sturdy cotton garments with armored plates on their wrists. Their hair was bound tightly with cloth strips, their faces were clean-shaven, and they wore straw sandals for ease of movement.

The rhythmic clatter of hooves brought the lively chatter inside to an abrupt halt. The teahouse owner walked out with a warm welcome, his mind on business, yet wary that these men might stir up trouble.

However, the leader of the six-man party merely glanced up at a black flag flying from a twenty-foot pole. On it was a single white word: Tea.

After that, they paid the teahouse no further mind.

As the six riders sped past on their fine mounts, someone in the teahouse immediately remarked, "Those are Escorts from the Daoist Scripture Hall. Fancy running into them here."

"What’s so surprising? One of the masters from Qianmu Temple must have bought something valuable again."

"I wonder what kind of treasure it is."

"Why don’t you go ask?"

"Don’t even joke about that. If you dared to get close, you’d be dead before you even reached them."

As the customers in the teahouse chatted idly, two middle-aged men dressed like farmers tossed some coins on their table for the tea, then darted down a side path in pursuit of the six riders.

Once out of sight of the teahouse patrons, their dark complexions began to turn a visible, furious red. Thinner, even brighter red lines started to snake across their exposed skin.

Moments later, their walk broke into a run, which then became a series of bounds. Within a few breaths, they had leaped onto the wide dirt road. By then, their bodies were completely shrouded in a red aura.

The six riders who had passed the teahouse were now approaching again from a distance. But faster than the riders were two spinning steel sabers. With a sharp whistle, they sliced through the air and cleaved the two men blocking the road in two.

BOOM!

The moment the sabers bisected them, the two men exploded. Flames erupted as a wave of intense heat spread in all directions. The fresh spring grass and leaves alongside the road instantly withered and burst into flames from the sudden heat.

"It’s the ’Firebombs’ from the First Sect!"

The six riders yanked their reins. Their leader produced a Magical Artifact, activating it before him. It formed a blue screen of light, shielding them from the intense heat.

The words had barely left his mouth when two more crimson figures leaped out from the other side. The two riders behind him immediately formed a Spell with their hands. The steel sabers at their waists unsheathed in a flash, severing their opponents’ Qi Seas, but the explosions still followed.

In the next instant, all six men abandoned their horses in perfect sync, dodging to the side to evade the blast of heat. They then formed a defensive-offensive formation. The man in the center slapped a storage pouch at his waist and took out a Bronze Lamp. As he lit its wick, he fired two signal flares into the sky.

But the flares never exploded. A streak of gray light shot out and devoured them. Within the light was the disembodied head of a woman with disheveled hair, looking like some kind of puppet. Its eyes were spinning with incredible speed. When the six men below instinctively looked up and met that gaze, the world began to spin around them.

SWOOSH...

Dozens of arrows rained down from the sky, each one whistling with the force of Spiritual Qi. The volley was about to engulf the six men, who remained completely oblivious. At the critical moment, the light from the Bronze Lamp in the central rider’s hand formed a Protective Shield, deflecting all the incoming arrows.

As the clang of metal on metal echoed, the six men snapped out of the dizzying illusion. The sight of the deflected arrows scattered around them sent a cold sweat down their backs.

"Hmph!"

A dissatisfied grunt came from the sky. A moment later, a figure shot out from within the disheveled puppet head. It was the upper torso of a woman, with no lower body.

The instant she appeared, the puppet head circled her once, then opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of black smoke. The smoke transformed into a dark torrent that surged toward the six men below, blackening half the sky in the blink of an eye.

But just as the black torrent was about to reach the men, it rapidly receded. The half-bodied woman had pulled back just in time. The spot she had just occupied was now a forest of innumerable rock spikes. Each spike was covered in runes of the Earth Vein, which pulsed with an ocher glow.

Behind the six-man formation stood a short, stout Little Daoist in a blue Daoist Robe. A thick beard covered most of his face. His hands were forming a Spell as he issued an Imperial Decree at the woman in the sky: "Suppress!"

But he had barely issued the Imperial Decree, the Magic not yet fully formed, when he retracted it. The Spell in his hands shifted rapidly, and he tunneled into the earth, disappearing from sight. The instant he vanished, a fireball exploded where he had just stood. This fire was different—it instantly melted an area dozens of yards wide into a pool of magma.

The six Escorts could only struggle to survive, relying on the Bronze Lamp. Outside the Protective Shield it generated, a sea of fire raged. To block that last attack, the six had exhausted nearly all their Spiritual Qi to power the lamp.

Just then, a pillar of fire soared into the eastern sky, its searing heat melting everything in its path. It was about to consume the teahouse at the crossroads when a long, distant sigh echoed. "Alas..." A spectral writing brush, dozens of yards long, materialized above the teahouse. It formed a Protective Shield, safeguarding the building and everyone inside.

"Harming the innocent... doesn’t that violate the tenets of your First Sect?" A middle-aged, scholarly-looking Cultivator emerged from a stream of light in the clouds, positioning himself above the spectral brush.

’This is the power of a Star God!’

A woman in a pale red Daoist Robe emerged from the flames on the other side. She cupped her fist in salute to the scholar. "So, it is Mister Yunshan. It seems this was a trap after all."

"Correct," Yunshan admitted with a nod. His gaze swept the sky behind her, where two more figures had appeared. One had bizarrely red skin, the other a full head of white hair.

"I just didn’t expect it to be you," Yunshan said with a frown.

"I didn’t expect it to be you, either," the woman said, her eyes fixed on the space beside Yunshan. Two streaks of light flashed, revealing Wang Ping and Dan Chen. She continued, "My intelligence indicated that two Stewards from the First Sect would be here. They were supposed to be trading for an Outer Realm Demon that can create Fire Spirit Demon Soldiers."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ping and Dan Chen exchanged a look, each seeing the confusion in the other’s eyes.

"Haha!"

The crimson-skinned man beside the woman burst out laughing. "It seems you’ve been played as well. How about we call it a day?"