Return Of The Demon - 123 Arrival of bandits

Bai Yun sat back in his spot and started to contemplate. But after a while, Bai Yun decided against leaving. First of all, it wasn’t his style. With his strength and experience, Bai Yun could definitely survive. And he had come out in order to experience many things. And this seemed like such an interesting event. How often do you get a chance to run across a caravan hiding something? Also if things got truly messy, Bai Yun had a teleportation talisman. Even if it would be a bit embarring to use it so soon, his life was more important.

So there was no reason to run away.

Bai Yun then sat down and leaned against the carriage. Slowly a smile crept up into his face. Bai Yun was getting excited about the possibility of a fight. He suddenly realized his soul might have been influenced a bit by both the devil emperor, as well as the bloodline of his current family. In his past life, Bai Yun thought nothing of a fight. He even often shied away from it. But now the prospect of a fight excited him a little.

As Bai Yun contemplated, his cultivation base started to slowly rotate. He could feel the distance to foundation establishment shortening. Bai Yun had a feeling that if he wanted to, he could break through to foundation establishment at any time. Somehow the decision to fight was loosening his restrictions. But Bai Yun held himself back. His instincts were telling him that the time wasn’t right.

Soon the rest of the caravan finished up and got back onto the carriages and they started to move. This time Bai Yun sat back and slowly started to cultivate. Bai Yun was cultivating infinitude heavenly thought. Bai Yun had already reached the four circle stage. So he could split his soul into four pieces. One of his soul tendrils was listening to the conversations around him, hoping to get more information. Another one was watching the area around him in case of something. The last two were cultivating.

Until now Bai Yun had no reason to cultivate in the soul path. At first, he had already reached the peak of the first realm of the qi step. Then he couldn’t break through due to the clan tournament. After that, he easily broke through to the four circle stage, and now he finally has to start cultivating.

The three systems of cultivating all had different restrictions on external resources and talent. The body cultivating system was completely dependent on external resources. The qi system required both talent and external resources. And as for the soul system, talent was the driving factor.

And for Bai Yun, talent was not a problem. In his past life, Bai Yun’s talent in all three paths was impossible to match. But ever since his reincarnation, only his talent in the soul path remained. So he had no problem in cultivating in the soul path.

As they saw that Bai Yun was cultivating, the rest of the group left Bai Yun alone. Many of them were regular travellers and were familiar with one another. So they all started to talk with each other, while some others were cultivating. So Bai Yun didn’t raise any eyebrows and he was left in peace.

The caravan had traveled four another two hours when Bai Yun noticed a small commotion ahead. Bai Yun stopped his cultivation and looked outside the carriage.

Bai Yun saw that the caravan had been surrounded by a large group of people. They were all armed and some were on various demonic beasts. Bai Yun saw that the cultivation of the leader seemed to be very high, at the soul step. He wasn’t hiding his cultivation at all, and was in fact pressing down on the caravan. This was a problem, as the strongest person in the caravan was only at the core formation realm.

By now the chatter in the carriage had stopped. Everyone was silent and watching things happening carefully. But Bai Yun noticed that while most of them were very tense, some of the frequent travelers seem to be quite calm.

It was obvious to everyone that they were surrounded by a bandit gang. If the bandits tried to kill them and took what they wanted, then this would be over for them in an instant.

As Bai Yun watched, the leader of the caravan went out of the carriage he was in and walked over to the man who was exerting the pressure on them and respectfully handed him a package. The man counted the package and then waved his hand. The group of bandits then turned around and headed back into the hills. For a moment the leader of the caravan stood there and watched them leave, before returning to the caravan. Then the caravan slowly started to move.

Bai Yun watched all this for a while before he turned to Ye Chen. “Uncle Ye Chen,” he asked, “why didn’t those bandits attack us. They obviously had the strength to do so. I have heard that many caravans would pay a fee to the bandits to let them pass. But why would the bandits do so? Isn’t it easier for them to snatch?”

Ye Chen smiled when he heard this. “Little Tian, do you think that Hescha city is a weak city.”

Bai Yun frowned when he heard this. “Of course not.” He replied. “I have heard that the city lord of Hescha city is in the dao step. And that he has an elite squad of soul step cultivators. That is definitely a rather strong city.”

“And that is why the bandits don’t dare to go overboard.” Ye Chen continued. “If the city lord of Hescha city wanted, he could easily crush these bandits. But they are like weeds, even if they are crushed, more would just spring up in their place. So it is too much of an effort for basically no return.”

“But that doesn’t mean that they can let these bandits run free too. If the bandits had free reign then they would attack all the caravan that pass through this road. If that happened, that would negatively impact the economy of Hescha city. And the city lord could never allow that.”

“So the two forces came to a mutual agreement. Hescha city would not attack the bandits, and the bandits would not harm the caravans. They would only take some money as payment. Only sometimes will they attack to show their prestige if the caravans don’t listen. And they would also maintain the peace around here. If a bandit group in the route starts acing up and attacks indiscriminately, then the other bandit groups would come together to kill them. That’s because if a bandit group starts to massacre, then Hescha city will have to move. And wehn they move, they will definitely kill all the bandits, not just the troublemakers.”

“Thus this system works for everyone. The bandits keep the peace and take a small toll, and Hescha city leaves them alone. This has been going on for a long time. For example, the bandit group we just encountered, is called the golden lion bandit group. They are one of the two strongest bandit groups on the road from Hescha city to Terracotta hill, and they have been around for over three centuries. That means that Hescha city hasn’t had to make a move for at least that long!” Ye Chen finally said.

There was a long silence after Ye Chen finished his explanation. But after a while, everyone relaxed. Many first time travelers were rather wary of the bandits. But now they had relaxed after Ye Chen’s explanations. It seemed the journey would be more relaxed than they expected.

But Bai Yun was thinking about something else. He was thinking of the fake injuries on the security forces. He wasn’t as sure as the rest that this journey would be very peaceful. But he wasn’t too worried either.

The caravan continued to move along quickly. They did not have to stop anymore. Soon time passed and the sun set. When the sun set, the caravan stopped. It was far more dangerous to travel in the night than the day. Not only was there the chance of monsters attacking, some hot blooded bandits can also attack in the night.

So the caravan moved into a small clearing on the side of the road. Such clearing were made for the purpose of caravans. There was already a caravan waiting there. But the clearing was large enough for both caravans to stay there for the night with plenty of space in between.

The other caravan was coming from Terracotta hill, and was on the way to Hescha city. So the leader of the caravan went to talk to them to exchange information and know more about the path ahead.

At the same time, the caravan quickly set up camp. The travelers would be sleeping on the carriages, but the staff had to set up tents for themselves to sleep in. The security forces, both the caravan’s security, as well as mercenaries also had to set up camp.

As dinner proceeded Bai Yun sat in a corner and slowly ate his rations. Ye Chen gathered most of the others together and was having fun.

Bai Yun sat there and watched the caravan. The staff of the caravan was happily eating. The security of the caravan was standing around watching things around them.

But Bai Yun was a little surprised by the behavior of the mercenaries. Most of them were drinking and having fun. At some point, they had joined the travelers and were singing and dancing. They had even pulled in some of the staff into their proclivities. Bai Yun sat far from them in the shadows watching them be merry.

Suddenly Bai Yun felt someone approaching him. He looked up to see a sharply dressed midlle aged woman holding a big gourd of alcohol approach him. From his observations in the day, he knew that this person was the leader of the mercenaries, a person at the core formation stage.

“What are you doing all the way over here?” She asked as she came near Bai Yun.

“Eating.” Bai Yun replied.

“I can see that. I am asking why you are sitting in the shadows?” She asked.

“I like shadows.” Bai Yun replied. And it was true to a certain extent. Ever since getting the Assassin God’s legacy, his attraction towards the shadows has increased by a lot.

“You are a kid. You shouldn’t be sitting here being all gloomy. I mean how old are you?” The lady asked.

“Fourteen.” Bai Yun replied. He was traveling as Long Tian, and fourteen was the age he had registered as.

“See that’s young.” The lady said. “You are the youngest person here. You should be having fun and playing around instead of being so gloomy. Start acting your age, you brat. Leave the moping around to us old fellows. Your job is to have fun.”

Bai Yun looked at the bottle on the lady’s arm, before looking at her and asking. “In that case why are you drinking. Isn’t your job to protect the caravan? How can you do that when you are drunk?”

“What do you mean drunk?” The lady replied angrily. “This bottle is nowhere near my capacity. Besides, we are professional mercenaries. We may drink, but none of us will get drunk. And the ones who are going to be on watch tonight are not drinking.”

Bai Yun looked around and nodded. Some of the mercenaries were indeed not drinking. The lady stared at him for a moment and then sat down next to him. “What’s your name?” She asked.

“Long Tian.” Bai Yun replied.

“Little Tian do you want to see my family.” The lady asked. Without waiting for Bai Yun to answer, she pulled out a small photograph. It was a photo of the middle aged woman along with a man holding a baby girl in her arms. “This right here is my husband. And this here my sweetie. She is two years old. Isn’t she precious? She is the reason I do this.” The lady stared to go on about her family.

From then on the lady went on about her family without giving Bai Yun a chance to interject. He learned quite a lot about her daughter and her habits and favorite color and so on. After a while, Bai Yun said that he was tired and finally escaped. The lady seemed to be a bit sad that Bai Yun left so quickly.

Bai Yun quickly climbed into his mattress in the carriage and quickly fell asleep. After the eventful first day of the journey, he was already tired.