"We travel fast and we travel hard," declared Baijian, standing shoulder to shoulder with Shen, the only blood brothers not path brothers in the group. "We'll put as many miles between us and this wretched place as possible. The storm will cover our tracks. We'll find horses along the way, and if necessary, roust a village or two."
"You think the Lord's warriors can't track two dozen n through a bit of rain?" Wuyi's voice rang out.
The group turned to look at him, and Jin shot him a wide-eyed glance, gesturing as if to silence him. Undeterred, Wuyi pointed toward the sprawl of roofs near the river, where the citizens of Yuzhao had built their hos beyond the safety of the city walls, so eager were they to be near their Lord. Wuyi raised his voice, drawing the attention of the motley crew of prisoners.
"In pairs or alone, from the lower part you could enter the city and one could easily find a warm inn, perhaps so grilled at, and even a cup of rice wine," he suggested. "I've heard there are many good inns in the city. We could be warming ourselves by a brazier before the rain even erases our footprints."
He elaborated, "The Lord's guards would be riding their fine steeds back and forth, getting drenched, searching for the tracks that a group of twenty would undoubtedly leave. anwhile, we'd be comfortably hidden in the shadow of the fortress, waiting for the skies to clear. Do you think there's anyone left behind who could identify us?
Would the citizens of Yuzhao City even notice a few more souls among their multitude?"
Wuyi saw the flicker of agreent in all of the prisoners eyes; the allure of a warm inn seed to resonate with them. However, Baijian, a burly giant, pushed through the crowd, knocking Dierke, one of the other prisoners, to the ground. "And how exactly do we pay for this grilled at and shelter?"
Shen, his brother, questioned, skeptical. "Start plundering right under the fortress's nose?"
Dierke picked himself up, his eyes narrowing at Wuyi. "Yeah, how do we pay, Young Master of the Fortress?"
In response, Wuyi moved his left hand, and a few gold Liangs appeared. He clinked them together.
A sharp-faced man from the prisoners, seeing gold in the kid's hand, lunged for the gold. Wuyi deftly moved his right hand, his fingers joined together like an arrow, and skewered the man's outstretched hand. He pushed the hand further until his palm passed through the man's palm like a knife. Baijian seized the man by the robe's collar and flung him down the slope.
Baijian then towered over Wuyi, hoisting him up by his robe. "You're not afraid of , are you, young master?"
Baijian's odor was almost unbearable.
Wuyi contemplated stabbing him with his hand too but decided not to. "The question is, are you afraid of ?" Wuyi retorted.
The mont Wuyi spoke, he released his Qi. Wuyi, a Qi Adept, his hands turned red and touched Baijian's hands, which went limp. Wuyi was not using devouring right now only using the Statue of Valor for strength.
The limp hand let Baijian release Wuyi, letting him back to the ground smoothly. All the prisoners were alert now; everyone imdiately understood what Xuebi had understood: Wuyi was not the little naive young master among these wolves; if they were wolves, he was a demon.
"We'll stay a day in the city," Wuyi announced. "The drinks and food are on . Anyone causing trouble before we leave will be killed. You all owe , so now you're indebted to . Either you can pay an equal amount for your freedom and leave, or you can stay and beco my subordinates. Or if you think you can escape then you are welco to try."
Wuyi locked eyes with Baijian. "Don't threaten again. If it weren't for Boluo, you'd still be rotting in that dungeon. I owed a debt to Boluo, so I saved you. You can leave without paying, or you can choose to be my subordinates."
Before anyone could reply, over a dozen figures materialized around them, among the new arrivals were Wuyi's towering bodyguard, Zhen, and his two adept warriors, Yun Ming and the scar-faced iying.
Baijian and Shen looked deeply at Wuyi, finally understanding why he had seed so unconcerned.
Boluo was their elder brother. They had thought their elder brother had given up on them, yet he had asked this young master to save them?
They were full of questions and it took them a while to snap out of their stupor. Wasn't their brother serving the Luyao clan? Who was this young master, and what kind of noble clan was Boluo serving? What kind of debt had Boluo placed this young master in?
Wuyi had traveled all the way to Yuzhao to rescue these two brutes. He was surprised at how smoothly things had gone; he had expected so difficulty since the Huo clan was a subordinate clan of the Imperial family. However, the guards they faced were very weak.
He had allowed his guards to set an ambush here in case any of the Huo clan warriors chased them, but no such problems arose; everything was taken care of smoothly.
After the arrival of Wuyi's warriors, the prisoners realized very well the situation they were in. They were strong-minded brutes and criminals, but that didn't an they were idiots. This young master was offering them freedom, food, and shelter in return for serving him. This was a better deal than suffering in a dungeon. This didn't an all of them had accepted it.
But they did not have any other choice.
Every prisoner was now being very careful and quiet. With the arrival of strong warriors around Wuyi, they knew they were one misstep away from certain death. Each of the warriors that had arrived looked at the prisoners as if a greedy fox eyes rabbits, eager for a chance to showcase their strength in front of their Young Master.
Among them, the one who stood out the most was the mountain tribe warrior, six feet tall. He appeared nonchalant, but they could sense he was itching to find a reason to end their journey to freedom right then and there. This warrior, at least a Qi initiate level 5, was capable of taking on half of them in battle by himself, yet he wasn't even the strongest in the group.
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