Page 42: Unexpected
Days left before the sect's martial and alchemy competition: 169 days
It is the sixth day of the group's stay and the daily routine has just started. The two groups went back to the forest to hunt and locate the bandit's lair. After days of searching, the leader and his members has yet to find clues as to where they are hiding. It was as if this group of bandits are well versed in hiding. On the other hand, the second group was already able to stock the 200 kilograms of meat into the common kitchen. This time, they just set out to collect herbs for some alchemy recipes.
Long Bai returned to his usual job and that is to help the other kids fetch enough water for every household. After such task, the kids would run to the back and receive some basic training from him. An hour later, screams are heard nearby. Having a bad feeling, Long Bai instructed the kids to never show up and instead hide until the commotion is gone.
"Give this message to the leader when he returns. Don't forget to hide until then. Whatever happens, stay."
Upon reaching the place of disturbance, he saw Hong Danyun begging on the ground while the others were unconscious. In front of him were nine wild looking men holding some grade 1 and 2 weapons, mostly plundered from other cultivators. It is no wonder that the five students from the sects were defeated as they only are at the early levels of the mid layer while the bandits have 3 cultivators at the late layers of the visceral tempering stage.
"Please don't kill me, I'm just a lowly cultivator who was sent to help their daily needs. If its information you need I can give you that."
Just as about Long Bai showed up, Hong Danyun blurted out words that is heavily considered as betrayal.
"There! He is an alchemist, I was his helper who was sent here to help this village."
Hong Danyun was trying to save himself while selling out his comrade. For Long Bai, he sees this as no threat, instead it was an opportunity. Since this fickle alchemist exposed his worth, they would definitely not do anything to him and instead take him for his usefulness.
"Hey there, alchemist. Why don't you come here. If you won't, I'll kill everyone here. Hahaha!
Hey you lots! Don't just stand there, bring here the meat we asked!"
As Long Bai neared Hong Danyun's location, some village men already brought the meat preserve worth 200 kilograms.
"Heh? What is this? We asked for 300 kilograms, why did you just bring out 200 kilos? Are you kidding me?"
Some elders started to beg and cleared out that it was 200 kilograms that was asked last time however, instead of receiving a nice reply, they were brutally kicked out of the way. One elder received a fatal injury and gone unconscious while the rest who were kicked were bruised all over their body.
"Since you did not meet the quota given, you need to compensate for something good. Hehehe. Men! Go and find some ladies we can water through the nights. It's been a month since we planted some seeds, my pocket is full and needs some emptying. Don't forget to tie this alchemist. We'll bring him to the hideout and use him to make some pills for us."
As screams from women are heard from the houses, Long Bai did not resist being tied. Although he can take on some fighting with the nine bandits, there are people who would be in danger. On the other hand, if he would follow these bandits, he would sure be able to locate their hideout which the leader failed to do so.
Not more than an hour before the bandits came, they already left the village with some goods they plundered. The actions they made were as if they actually knew about the group's routine which allowed themselves to take on the village. Long Bai tried to get some information and spoke directly to the acting leader of the bandits.
"Mister, did you know about us coming to this village?"
The leader smiled wickedly and answered with a pleasured face.
"Of course. We are not the White Tiger Gang for nothing. The day you reached our territory, you were already under our watch. Since we learned about your movements, we just took advantage of it. It was too easy. Hahaha!
Those companions of yours must be writhing with anger right now. "
The conversation stopped as they put blindfolds on the captives. They must have reached the hideout and put some blindfolds to prevent any leakage of their entrance.
Long Bai tried to feel where they are going and it felt like they were entering an underground lair since the temperature has dropped significantly and the smell of earth is becoming prominent. He also noticed that as they descend, the footsteps were creating echo which suggest that the pathway is going deep. Upon reaching a room, the blindfolds were taken out and what he saw were familiar cave structures. Above were stalactites while the ground was evened and covered with broken stalagmite fragments. They must be in a cave system which is difficult to locate or else the reconnaissance group should have found it already.
In that room, only Bai was left while the women were taken to another chamber. Since he can't hear any screams from them, they must have been drugged to the point of sleeping. Now, before those bandits will do something unacceptable, Bai started to make his move. Since they see him as someone who's at the flesh tempering stage, they wouldn't bother much about him. To them, Bai was not a threat as they can overpower him in one move and it's not worth the effort.
First was to confirm the total number of bandits inside the cave system. Using his
[Bandit leader Meng
Age: 35
Cultivation level: visceral tempering layer (late- 8th)
Core grade: ordinary ]
[Bandit right hand Fa
Age: 33
Cultivation level: visceral tempering layer (late- 7th)
Core grade: ordinary ]
[Bandit left hand Tong
Age: 38
Cultivation level: visceral tempering layer (late- 7th)
Core grade: ordinary ]
Since the cave tunnels were a bit dark and are only being illuminated by moon stones, it is a good stage for assassinations. Long Bai took out his new grade 3 weapon, the Silver Rapier and immediately hid in the dark waiting for the opportunity for anyone who goes out alone. First targets were the left and the right hand bandits. As Bai waited outside patiently for one of them to go out, some captured women started to scream. At that moment, the three who were in a single room decided to have one of them check it out.
"Left, its your turn to tell those grunts to do their job properly. Go!"
Leader Meng gave out the order while Left Tong had no choice but to follow while looking at Right Fa laughing. When Left Tong was already out of the chamber and is ten meters away from it, Long Bai bagan to move.
With a quick stabbing motion, the two stabs from the sharp and pointed rapier pierced the neck and the head of the bandit in no time. Using his speed, he was able to deliver two consecutive stabs into different places which allowed him to kill the person silently and fast. The Left hand guy was not able to make a single loud sound to alert the rest as his vocal chord was pierced. Although there was a gargling sound coming from his untimely death, the howling of the wind inside the cave masked his unproductive efforts.
Immediately, Long Bai carried the body to a hidden crevice and went back to his previous position. Inside the leader's chamber, he listened to the conversation.
"Leader Meng, it is really good that we separated from the main force or else we would stay as grunts forever. This cave gave us a safe place to hide from Big Boss and at the same time, we get to enjoy the treats of life. I don't really want to go back to the Barbarian's den and stay as workers."
"Mmm. Right, if we did not try our luck in this place, we might still be working as grunts. If we can establish our White Tiger gang and present it to the big boss, we might have a good position in the den. Its just that our cultivation is not enough. If only we can reach the bone tempering layer, we can match the big boss and the other gang leaders. Right now, the Big Boss is at the middle layer of the Bone tempering while the leaders of the east and west gang are at the early layers of the bone tempering. If we can sell this millennium milk, that's has accumulared over hundred of years, we can
Just when Long Bai heard of the word millennium milk, the system gave him an update.
[System notice: A 200 ml worth of millennium milk was detected nearby. Millennium milk is a pure earth element essence that has accumulated over the years. One mL of this can only be accumulated for ten years. The Millennium milk's rich earth essence has the effect of cleansing the body aside from providing vast amount of essence supply.]
Upon reading the information, Long Bai began to shake with excitement. Such treasure to be delivered to him is a heaven's blessing. It is no wonder that they can't absorb it since it is made of elemental essence, the type of essence which ordinary people can't absorb. Although that's the case, it is uses as an alchemy ingredient to increase the purity of the pill so ot would cost a lot if it would be offered to an alchemist.
Just while they were waiting for Left Tong to come back, they heard another scream.
"Tsk. Right Fa, it looks like Left Tong might have failed to control himself and planted some seeds. Go and stop him. We decided to plow the garden later after dinner and yet he's trying to get ahead of us."
After the right hand man came out, similar as how Long Bai killed the left hand man, it was a silent kill. Now that the leader was alone, Long Bai did not waste any time as he went to deliver him to death's door. One by one, Long Bai hunted the other members in the dark until no one was left. The female captives were returned to their sleep as Bai had still some business at the deepest chamber. While waiting for the reinforcement, he took his chance on absorbing the Millennium milk.
[System alert: Your body has began the cleansing. You'll become immobile for the duration 9 minutes, 28 seconds.]
[System notice: Your earth elemental sphere has begun its absorption. Due to the rich essence, your cultivation has reached the 9th layer of visceral tempering]
[System alert: Your body has began the cleansing. You'll become immobile for the duration 6 minutes, 28 seconds.]
[System notice: Due to the rich essence, your cultivation has broken through the 1st layer of bone tempering.]
[System alert: Your body has began the cleansing. You'll become immobile for the duration 3 minutes, 28 seconds.]
[System notice: Due to the rich essence, your cultivation has reached the 2nd layer of bone tempering.]
System alert: Your body has began the cleansing. You'll become immobile for the duration 0 minutes, 28 seconds.]
[System notice: Your body has reached a perfect cleansed state. Gate channels have become apparent. Remaining essence is utilized to open the first gate channel.]
[STATUS
Cultivation: Bone tempering stage (early- 2rd layer)
Core grade: Unique (multi-elemental)
Gate Channel opened: 1/8
-Gate of strength
*The user can use additional essence to increase the strength of any attack skill. Ratio conversion is 1:1.
Skills
Movement skills:...]