At the same time that Xuan Hao was looking for Elder Song to ask about how to improve his teaching methods, his two disciples, Qing Yi and Chu Yang arrived inside the territory governed by the River Sect.
The territory of the River Sect was not large and could just be considered a small part of the Northern region of the Heavenly Sky Kingdom that the Flying Sword Sect was the leader of.
This large region was not totally under the control of the Flying Sword Sect, as they would mostly just manage important places, such as spirit mines or forests where rare herbs grew on a regular basis.
Outside of that, the rest of the region ended up being governed and controlled by the smaller factions that resided inside of it. The River Sect was one such faction and so was the Black Rose Sect in the past before becoming a demonic sect…
"The Red Flower Ridge should be located somewhere at the edges of the River Sect's territory and the Blinding Flower Bandit Group should be hiding there… We should first go and deal with them before searching for the Pure Heart Spirit Grass."
Saying this, Chu Yang looked over in the direction of a few barely visible mountains in the distance.
The Red Flower Ridge was on the edge of the River Sect's territory, but he could still see it after just entering their territory from the opposite side… The River Sect was truly small compared to the Flying Sword Sect…
Sects who did not have a Nascent Soul Realm to back them up. No matter how many Core Formation Realm Experts they had, would never be able to grow past a certain point…
The River Sect was a prime example of this, as they had a lot of Experts at the Core Formation Realm. Even some having reached the Peak of the Core Formation Realm like their current sect master… But even to this day, they have never had anyone breakthrough and reach the Nascent Soul Realm!
This in turn had forced them to remain confined to their current territory size-
"But how come the River Sect did not just deal with the Blinding Flower Bandit Group inside of their territory and instead waited for the Flying Sword Sect to send someone over…?"
As Chu Yang was lost in thought looking over in the direction of the Red Flower Ridge, Qing Yi asked from the side with a curious expression on her face, causing Chu Yang to look over.
"Given the strength of the River Sect, there is no way they would just allow some random bandit group with a few people in the Foundation Establishment Realm to harsh a few of the villages under them for no reason…"
Answering her own question, Qing Yi looked over at Chu Yang.
"For what reason would they- Maybe there is someone behind the bandit group…? Someone that the River Sect does not want to offend…"
Understanding what Qing Yi was trying to say, Chu Yan could not help but admire his senior sister's insight.
"Finally using your head, I was a bit worried for you… Given that you were always training all the time without pause back in the sect, I truly do not want my junior brother to turn into a muscle head only thinking about training all day long-"
"What do you mean worried and me turning into a muscle head?! I was just training to become stronger… And you should not be one to talk, always locked up in your own room doing alchemy all the time! Do you even come out of your room without me calling you for a practice match or when you need to eat and visit the Alchemy Hall for more herbs?"
"I-"
Whoosh!
About to say something, Qing Yi was directly interrupted by Chu Yang as he silenced her with his hand.
"There is a group of people hiding just in front of us… And from the looks of things, they are most likely not so friendly…"
"…"
Just about to angrily protest against being silenced off by Chu Yang, Qing Yi found herself unable to argue with him as she ended up just nodding her head silently in agreement.
"Hm?"
Focusing on the location that Chu Yang had been hinting that the group of people were hiding in front of them with his eyes, Qing Yi soon managed to pick up the presence of the people that he had mentioned.
"Come out, we already found you!"
Jumping down from the tiger demon beast that he and Qing Yi had ridden on together on their way towards the territory of the River Sect, Chu Yang called out in the direction of a suspicious boulder placed just beside the road.
Looking at it from the top of the tiger demon beast, Qing Yi could not help but wonder how she had not noticed such an out of place boulder before.
It had to be known that they were currently on a small road with only a peaceful grass plain on either side of them.
Yet at such a place, a giant boulder at least a few meters tall and a dozen meters wide had appeared just beside the road…
"Hmph! Boys, it looks like we were found out!" A rough voice sounded out from behind the boulder as a man in his late forties with several scars on his body came out from behind the suspicious.
This was not the end, as a stream of rough looking men soon came out after him.
"So… What is this supposed to be, a robbery?"
Chu Yang did not change his expression in the slightest as he watched the group that had appeared in front of him.𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢
During the time he escaped from the people that the Black Rose Sect had sent after him, he had encountered many similar situations, be it bandits or wandering cultivators seeing him as an easy target back then.
"Hehe, brat, I like that you catch on pretty quickly… So how about it, hand over your spirit stone and don't forget to leave that pretty lady you have with you behind as well! We brothers will make sure to take good care of her, Right boys!?"
"Yeah, we will make sure to be gentle!"
"Haha!"
Watching the reaction of the bandits in front of them, Qing Yi and Chu Yang quickly understood that they had never encountered anyone from the Flying Sword Sect before. After all, they were both dressed in the robe of the Flying Sword Sect…
"Hm… All of them are in the Qi Condensation Realm, the leader is at the Peak of the Qi Condensation Realm… Did they perhaps attack us because the tiger demon beast is only in the middle stages of the Qi Condensation Realm, and they can't sense our cultivation realm?"
Muttering this to himself as he looked over at the group of bandits, Chu Yang suddenly remembered something he had learnt back in the Black Rose Sect when he took his first steps on the path of cultivation.
Back then, he had learnt that low-tier Mortal Rank Mantras would normally never be practiced because of the huge drawback they often resulted in. One of the draw backs that was the most common among these kinds of mantras, was that it would not allow for a cultivator to sense the qi of someone above their own cultivation realm.
This was something truly terrible, as it was not something reversable and would be permanent, even if the cultivator found another higher tier mantra in the future.
Though not being able to sense the qi of someone above your own cultivation realm was not the worst of the drawbacks that the low-tier mortal mantras brought.
The more dangerous kind could permanently blind the user or cause them to forever lose the feeling in one or more of their body parts…
"They practiced a low-tier Mortal Mantra…"
Coming to this conclusion, Chu Yang shook his head as he looked over at the group of bandits.
"Hey! We don't have all day! And what is with that look brat! Hand over your spirit stones and that pretty lady or we will kill you and just take the lady! Hehe!"
Seeing the look Chu Yang gave him, the leader of the bandits felt a bit weird as he hurried the boy in front of him, while secretly signalling to the other bandits behind him to make sure they don't try to run away.
Seeing the bandits moving to surround them, Chu Yang calmly grabbed his spear strapped onto the side of the tiger demon beast.
"Hah… Guess you wa- Hm?!"
Sighing dramatically as he stood with his spear in hand, prepared to face the bandits, a small hand suddenly landed on his shoulder and stopped him.
"Q-Qing Yi…?"
Chu Yang turned around and could not help but stutter when he saw the scarily cold look on his senior sister's face.
"Let me deal with them…!"
Hearing her, Chu Yang could not help but feel a shiver go down his spine as he quickly nodded his head in agreement before watching Qing Yi gracefully jump down from the tiger demon beast and land in front of him with her sword ready.