Chapter 112: Ambush, Counter (1)
In the wilderness, on a winding road.
The convoy was slowly moving forward. The roads of Great Xia were actually built well, but the roads in the wilderness would encounter a lot of issues such as random damages here and there. Some were caused by humans and some were caused by demon beasts.
On the trucks, the students were tired of the bumpy ride. Their exhaustion wasn't the biggest issue. It had been three hours. The biggest issue was that many of them needed to use the toilet. On each of the trucks, students could be heard demanding a stop. They needed to free their bladder.
...
At the rear of the convoy.
Xia Bing frowned. It was very dangerous to stop in the middle of the wilderness. If they continued moving, even in the event of an ambush, they could quickly drive away. But the moment they stopped, an ambush would put them in much bigger trouble.
But there were hundreds of students in the convoy. It was unrealistic to tell them to hold their bladder for five hours.
"Stop. We'll take a 10-minute break."
Xia Bing finally decided to order a rest stop. They picked a spot with flat terrain to stop. That way, they could avoid any ambushes.
...
Su Yu got off the truck as well. He had been in the wobbling truck for several hours. He was able to handle it fine, but some of the students were starting to throw up from car sickness. After seeing so many students throw up, even Su Yu himself felt like throwing up.
Meanwhile, Chen Hao looked around gloomily and said, "How am I supposed to piss? There are people everywhere."
They had stopped on a flat terrain. The city guards had formed an encirclement around them, not allowing any student to wander off. In this situation, it was very inconvenient for the students to empty their bladder.
It was still not that bad for the males, but the females were turning pale in desperation. Luckily, Xia Bing ordered, "The males will stick to the left of the vehicles while the females will stick to the right of the vehicles. Deal with your bladder there. If you're unwilling, feel free to piss your pants. Everywhere outside a city is a battlefield. If you can't overcome a little hardship like this, you should just go back home."
Some were still unhappy, but they were left with no choice. They could only split up on both sides of the convoy and relied on the vehicles to give them some privacy. Su Yu's bladder was not full yet so he did not follow Chen Hao away.
Instead, he looked around and looked at the desolate wilderness around them. While studying his surroundings, Xia Bing stopped nearby and beckoned at him.
Su Yu hurriedly walked over. When he was near, Xia Bing said, "Don't get into truck #1 anymore. Get into the truck behind instead...Also, put on a city guard uniform."
Su Yu's eyes flickered in thought as he nodded. He did not tell Chen Hao anything much apart from the fact that he was going to change trucks. He then went to the city guards' truck behind truck #1. In the truck, he changed into a city guard outfit and sat among the city guards.
Xia Bing exhaled lightly and said, "This is for your safety. This will also be better for the others. Things will be much more dangerous for your companions in truck #1 if you're there with them."
"I understand." Su Yu nodded. He softly asked, "Sir Xia, we should be reaching Tianshui City soon, right? I checked the map before. There aren't any suitable ambush locations nearby. The cult won't show up anymore, right?"
"You never know." Xia Bing shook his head.
Su Yu asked, "Every year at this time, these student convoys would be attacked. Is the government not doing anything about it?"
Xia Bing smiled and shook his head without saying anything. They naturally wouldn't take a beating without hitting back. In fact, they would set some bait each year to lure the cult members out. But that was a military secret. Nobody knew for sure which convoy was the bait and which wasn't.
...
At the same time.
A few kilometers away from the convoy, a group of people were hiding in a depression on the ground. They were all looking at the stopped convoy.
A middle-aged man in the group asked the old man beside him, "Hallmaster, the Nanyuan convoy has stopped. Do we attack now?"
"No." The Tianshui hallmaster objected. This place was too open. Their targets could choose to flee or cause heavy casualties to them before they could even reach the convoy.
After all, the city guards were equipped with bows and arrows. Attacking from so far away would basically make them live targets.
"Hallmaster, we won't have a better opportunity moving forward..."
The old man indifferently said, "If we can't find an opportunity, we will simply not attack. It's not like this is a profitable job. If we have the chance, we'll go take a bite. If not, we give up."
"It would be hard to explain ourselves to Sir Xue'e."
"He's a hallmaster. I'm a hallmaster too. Why do I need to explain myself to him? I only need to assist with his mission. We didn't promise to throw our lives away."
The old man was unbothered. Xue'e was also a hallmaster like him. He was only cooperating because Xue'e was a Cloudbreach expert. He never got along well with Xue'e. Thus, although he was cooperating, he definitely wouldn't risk his life for it.
After a short observation, the old man was able to get a good measure of the strength of this convoy. They only had one Skysoar expert and a few Infinite Strength cultivators. The rest of them were ordinary Great Strength city guards.
"Let's go. We'll wait at the Yuanshui Village ahead of them."
"Yuanshui Village?" The middle-aged man said in shock, "Hallmaster, that's already within Tianshui City's borders. That village is less than 30 kilometers away from the city itself..."
"That's the only place we can make a move." The old man coldly said, "As Tianshui City is near, the convoy will relax when they reach the village. There are also many roadside houses in the village. That will make it easier for us to hide. We only need to be fast enough and withdraw before the reinforcements from Tianshui arrive. Attacking there will be safer than attacking here.
"Cut the crap. Go get ready. We need to finish our preparations before they're there."
They then retreated and started moving toward Tianshui City through a different path. These people were all powerful cultivators, so they were able to run rapidly through the wilderness while keeping their back bent to keep themselves hidden.
...
The instant the cult members retreated, Xia Bing looked in their direction with a frown. He had a feeling that someone or something was looking at him a moment ago. Was it a human or a demon beast? Or maybe it was a regular wild animal?
"Get into the trucks. We'll resume our journey. Tianshui is two hours away."
With Xia Bing's command, the convoy resumed their journey. In the truck, Su Yu had his saber in his hands while paying close attention to his surroundings.
After a while, Su Yu exhaled in relief when he saw that there were no attacks. Although he had never encountered any wilderness attacks before, he wouldn't dare to relax since even Xia Bing was so nervous.
/p>
The trucks continued advancing. The ride was bumpy and the journey was slow.
Beside Su Yu, a squad leader of the city guards smiled and said, "Don't be so tense. It's not good to be too nervous either. Don't worry, Student Su Yu. After reaching Tianshui, our remaining journey will be much safer."
Su Yu nodded and said, "Big Brother Ma, do the city guards normally go out to suppress the demon beasts and cult members in the wilderness?"
"At times." The squad leader said, "Only a small number of cult members would actually hide in the cities. Most of them are outside the cities. The wilderness is basically their homeground. We would frequently send our scouts out to look for them. The moment a stronghold is found, we will set out and exterminate them."
Su Yu nodded in understanding. He asked, "Big Brother Ma, I'm very curious. The cult has lost a lot of their members in Great Xia. Why are there still so many people joining them?"
"There are many reasons." The squad leader was a veteran soldier. He sighed and said, "The Myriad Race Cult is composed of many types of people. Firstly, the deserters."
Su Yu's pupils shrank. He had never considered that possibility.
"Because of the constant battles on the Allheaven Battlefield, casualties are high. Not everyone there is fearless. Some lose their courage and become deserters. And if they're lucky to leave the Allheaven Battlefield alive, they can no longer remain with the army as desertion is punishable by death. They can only join the Myriad Race Cult.
"Secondly, escaped convicts. Some cultivators prefer to kill and rob others of their wealth instead of making a living on the battlefield. When they are discovered by the authorities, they become wanted criminals. There are some who have simply turned to a life of crime for easy money. As criminals, the lawless nature of the Myriad Race Cult proves much more attractive to them than the regular armies.
"Thirdly, the believers. This subset of the cult is actually the hardest to deal with. They truly believe in the divines and devils. They believe that the divines and devils are omnipotent and can live for eternity. They wish to one day enter the Divine Realm or the Devil Realm. For them, each word spoken by the divines or the devils is akin to the word of a god.
"And fourthly, the swindlers."
Su Yu blanked out. Swindlers?
The squad leader softly said, "That's what they are. Some people will gather a group of people and claim to be the believers of a certain race. Then, they will swindle a large amount of resources from that race."
The squad leader had an amused expression as he continued, "They discovered that it is very easy to swindle some of the minor races. Thus, these people started joining the Myriad Race Cult as well. There are actually quite a lot of them around. Many of the minor sects were founded by these people. They only need to gather dozens of people and try to get a connection to a random race before swindling a large amount of resources from that race. This is much easier than working honestly for what they want..."
"Are there actually such stupid races out there?"
Su Yu could not believe it. But then again, anything was possible.
The squad leader smiled, "The foreign races are not in the Human Realm, so what do they know? If these people are willing to spread their faith in the Human Realm and provide them with some information, that will be enough for the foreign races. In fact, a lot of the minor races are aware that they are being swindled, but they still need the information provided by these swindlers.
"Although those people are swindlers, they are still humans living in the Human Realm. The random information they provide could still prove to be useful for the other races."
The squad leader sighed and said, "You might think that these swindlers are not as hateful as the others. But in truth, they deserve death too! Some information that they regard as unimportant could be very important for the foreign races at times. For example, a few years ago, a cult member informed the foreign race about a relative of his that was serving in a certain human army. He told the foreign race that his relative was back home to visit his friends and families.
"But through that information, the foreign race discovered that the entire army was in the middle of reorganization with many of their soldiers absent. The foreign race took the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the army, resulting in disastrous losses."
Su Yu sighed and stopped asking questions.