Chapter 17: Group of Cave Foxes
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Lu Qing understood what happened in Pingyao County through Lu Chaohe.
Lu Mingsi was still in Pingyao County, as his injuries had just stabilized. Lu Chaohe was only notified of what happened when he received a message.
Although Lu Qing was furious, he was also a little relieved.
It was a good thing that there was a person like that among the clan’s descendants, even though their abilities were not as strong. How could a clan that was trying to prosper be worried about being down and out if there were several such people in the clan?
“Are there any healing items in the clan’s treasury?”
“There are, but not much.”
“Prepare some of them and send it over to Mingsi. Even though the clan is facing difficulties, we must not treat the people who are willing to shed blood for the clan poorly.”
“Yes.”
“How do you intend to deal with the matter in Pingyao County?”
“I thought about it for a bit. This is an opportunity.”
Lu Chaohe paused for a moment and realized that his father did not reply. Thus, he continued, “Mingsi did well. He had displayed the courage of the clan. The Zhao Clan did not personally take action and instead sent unaffiliated cultivators in their place. If Mingsi had cowardly retreated instead, then the situation of the clan would become even worse. Our authority would have taken a hit if even unaffiliated cultivators could bully us. Our interests and business in Pingyao County would have been affected.”
“Not only was Mingsi not afraid, but he even used his courage to stop the unaffiliated cultivators from escaping. That allowed us to capture all of them. Those unaffiliated cultivators had also confessed the mastermind behind the plan. Now, we have an active position. After all, the Zhao Clan had overstepped. They had sent men to threaten unaffiliated cultivators publicly in the public market. This is something that would endanger the interests of Pingyao County. We could make use of this opportunity to criticize the Zhao Clan and regain much of our interests. We could even use this as an opportunity for our clan to stand and compete within Pingyao County. This is a great improvement to our situation.”
Lu Chaohe lowered his head and awaited his father’s reply after he spoke.
Sometime later, Lu Qing’s voice rang out. “We can do things according to your idea.”
“I’ll head off tomorrow and personally deal with the situation in Pingyao County.”
“There’s no need,” Lu Qing said. “The more the incident is blown up, the more congruent with our interests it would be. However, we should not escalate the conflict by too much. Our clan still needs to rest and recuperate to conserve our strength.”
“Yes.”
At this moment, Lu Qing had calmed himself down from his fury.
If he excluded himself as a “dead person,” the current Lu Clan could not fight against the Zhao Clan head-on.
They had to make the Zhao Clan pay the price. However, as the leader of the clan, he had to keep a clear head.
They were taking advantage of the situation to display the authority of the clan and fight for the clan’s benefits. Thus, they had to escalate the situation in a controlled way. They could not go overboard and make the Zhao Clan anxious.
Lu Qing still knew how to be patient.
“Also...” Lu Qing changed the topic. “There is a group of Cave Foxes beside the merchant route between Pingyao County and Luyi County. Why has no one been there to clear it?”
The foxes had affected the merchant route considerably.
Even though the abilities of the Cave Foxes were not powerful and posed little threat to cultivators, human traders who traversed between the two counties would still be easily harmed by the demon foxes.
Even though Lu Chaohe did not know how his father could have known about the demon foxes, he had no choice but to explain now that his father had asked him about it. “These demon foxes came from out of nowhere five years ago and made this place their home. They had indeed negatively impacted the merchant route. The Zhao Clan had tried to exterminate them on a few occasions. We had also tried to do that, but the demon foxes were too agile. They would escape into their well-connected caves at the slightest of movements. We have killed several demon foxes but have never been able to find their nest and thus cannot kill all of them in one fell swoop. I even led the team a second time, but we returned without any success...”
His expression turned awkward as he spoke. He even looked a little embarrassed. He was a Foundation Building cultivator, yet he could not deal with a nest of low-level demon foxes.
“Bring together another group to exterminate the foxes. I’ve already found out where in the forest the demon foxes’ nest is. They have their cubs in the nest. You can search for them by following my instructions.”
“That’s great!” Lu Chaohe said, elated. “As long as we can clear this group of demon foxes away and guarantee the safety of the merchant route toward Luyi, then we can obtain even more advantages in the county... We can even set up our own merchant team and make use of that route.”
“You can deal with the affairs that would come after. For now, gather a group of people to annihilate the Cave Foxes.”
“Yes!”
******
Lu Chaohe acted quickly. He gathered a team of cultivators from the Lu Clan five days later and set off from Yuyan Mountain.
The group did not consist of many people, just eight. There were also no Foundation Building cultivators. The person who led the group was Lu Tingyuan, a ninth-tier Qi Refining cultivator.
He was the son of Lu Qing’s sixth daughter, Lu Jinchao. Lu Qing’s three daughters had not married out of the clan. The person they married entered the clan, and thus, their descendants all adopted the surname “Lu.” They were all members of the Lu Clan.
Lu Tingyuan was already 68. Even though he had reached the ninth tier of the Qi Refining Stage, he did not have a chance of reaching the Foundation Building Stage. If a Qi Refining cultivator wanted to reach the Foundation Building Stage, they had to do so before the age of 60. Otherwise, there was no hope for them.
Cultivation was a path against fate. The Foundation Building Stage was the first hurdle on this path. It represented the enhancement of one’s physical body. This was an extremely dangerous hurdle on the path of cultivation. If a person attempted to break through to the Foundation Building Stage without a Foundation Building Elixir, they would die if they failed. It was apparent how difficult it was. They had to hone their energy, spirit, and soul to their optimum level before they could attempt to advance.
The older a cultivator gets, the weaker their energy and blood would become. Even if they got the protection of the Foundation Building Elixir, they would fail if their physical body was not at its peak.
However, Lu Tingyuan was still a ninth-tier Qi Refining cultivator. While it was troublesome to find the nest of these Cave Foxes, the foxes were not powerful demonic beasts in battle. A team of nine people, with a ninth-tier Qi Refining cultivator leading the team, was more than enough to deal with the foxes.
The group descended Yuyan Mountain but did not walk past Pingyao County. Instead, they chose to head directly toward the merchant route.
Three days later, they rested by the side of the forest for some time and then entered the forest.
They did not stop to search for the tracks of the Cave Foxes. Instead, they sprinted straight for their nest deep within the forest. Along the way, they purposefully destroyed a dozen tunnels that the Cave Foxes had dug.
According to the instructions Lu Chaohe had given them, those tunnels were all connected to the nest of the Cave Foxes. They could prevent the Cave Foxes from transferring their cubs to another location if they destroyed the tunnels.
The Cave Foxes were agile and crafty, but they were, in the end, low-level demonic beasts. In terms of intelligence, they could not compare to a human.
When they realized that these human cultivators were charging directly for their cubs and were intending to transfer their cubs away, it was already too late.
Five mature Cave Foxes and seven cubs were trapped in the cave.
The Cave Foxes who were defending the cubs became far more aggressive than they usually were. The five mature Cave Foxes guarded the cubs behind them and bared their fangs at the human cultivators who had charged into their nest. They let out low roars.
Lu Tingyuan smiled when he saw the Cave Foxes that had become aggressive after seeing that they had no way of escape.
“I’ve finally caught you.”
He raised his hand and summoned his magic equipment. It was a green lithograph.
Activated by his hand gesture, the palm-sized lithograph instantly became the size of a grinding disc and slammed itself toward an adult beast.
The beast wanted to dodge, but a white rope had tied its foot securely in place, rendering the beast immobile.
...
The giant lithograph slammed onto the fox. The Cave Foxes’ pathetic cry suddenly came to a halt. It must have died.
At the same time, the other cultivators of the Lu Clan also summoned the magic equipment and started to attack the five adult Cave Foxes.