Chapter 72

Chapter 72: Chen Family Caravan
The next day.

At the Mountain Gate of the Five Elements Dao Sect.

Fang Cheng Lang silently looked at the four people in front of him.

Except for Quan Ye, who was still in confinement reflecting on his mistakes, and Yu Zhao, whose whereabouts were unknown, every Lone Moon Peak disciple was here.

Cui Jue also looked shocked.

He had only agreed to his junior sister. He had not told Lan Zi Yu or Su Ming.

How had they found out?

Maybe she felt the mood had gotten too awkward, so Ye Cong Xin stepped out on her own to break the stalemate. She said: “First Senior Brother, don’t blame Fourth Senior Brother. I was the one who told Second Senior Brother and Third Senior Brother. I think searching for Sixth Senior Sister is something that concerns all of Lone Moon Peak. We should all do it together.”

In truth, Ye Cong Xin just did not want to miss any chance to raise their favorability toward her.

If she did not tell Lan Zi Yu and Su Ming, she would not have much contact with them for a long time.

If something happened along the way that she could not control, and their favorability toward her dropped again, she would not even have a place to cry about it.

So, to be safe, she felt it was still best if everyone went together.

“Zi Yu, Little Ming, you two also want Little Six to come back?” After hearing Ye Cong Xin’s explanation, Fang Cheng Lang asked Lan Zi Yu and Su Ming.

The two of them both hesitated for a moment, then nodded hard.

Fang Cheng Lang thought for a while. Since everyone felt the same way, a few more people did not matter.

He no longer tangled over it and said: “We don’t know how long Little Six has been away from the sect, so we will first go to a few nearby cities and see if we can get any news. If we can’t, we can only ask the people from the Myriad Treasures Pavilion for help.”

No one had any objections, so the group set out toward the nearest cultivation city.

…

Yu Zhao walked out of the Shadow Pavilion, returned to the inn first, and then sat there staring at the new clues in deep thought.

The Shadow Pavilion’s business slogan was that they knew everything. In the past, Yu Zhao had always felt that was a bit exaggerated.

Only now did she understand that the Shadow Pavilion could become the biggest intelligence network in the whole Cultivation World because it really had its own unique methods.

She even suspected the Shadow Pavilion had hidden agents planted inside every cultivation sect. Otherwise, how could they know so many secret things?

Yu Zhao wanted to know the identity of the young woman in the painting, but the only clue in her hand was the two characters carved on the stone tablet in the picture.

She also was not sure whether the scene in the painting had really happened, or if it was something the painter had imagined.

So when she used the two characters “Shui Yun” from the sect’s stone tablet as a clue, she had not held much hope in her heart. She had not expected the Shadow Pavilion to give her such a huge surprise.

Of course, the price the Shadow Pavilion asked for was also high enough. Yu Zhao even felt a bit of pain when she paid.

According to the Shadow Pavilion’s information, there really had been a sect that matched the clues Yu Zhao gave very closely.

The sect was called Water Cloud Palace. Its sect master was a female cultivator at the Mid Golden Core stage, named Shui Qing Yue. She also happened to have a cinnabar mole at the corner of her eye.

But twenty years ago, Water Cloud Palace had, for some unknown reason, been attacked by a Nascent Soul Old Fiend. The disciples of Water Cloud Palace suffered heavy casualties. Shui Qing Yue was badly injured and fled, and her whereabouts became unknown. Water Cloud Palace was destroyed and never rose again.

In other words, even though Yu Zhao had found out the sect and the identity of the young woman in the painting, it did not mean much.

Because no one knew where Shui Qing Yue was now.

Yu Zhao pondered for a moment, then put the clues back into her Storage Bracelet. She still decided to go visit the old site of Water Cloud Palace. Maybe Shui Qing Yue had left some clues there.

Of course, she was not planning to leave right now.

There were less than two months left until the auction gathering in Blackwater City.

Water Cloud Palace happened to lie in the direction opposite Blackwater City. Going there and back, Yu Zhao would definitely miss the auction gathering. So she planned to first get the True Essence Water at the auction, then decide whether to go to Water Cloud Palace or to the Marsh Forest to look for the Heavenly Immortal Herb.

After all, the relationship between her and Shui Qing Yue had not been clarified yet, so she was not that anxious.

She would decide where to go first according to the order of urgency in her heart.

At daybreak, Yu Zhao went to the busiest street where the major merchant guilds were gathered and asked around shop by shop if there were any caravans going to Blackwater City in the Southern Region or to the nearby cities.

Her luck was not bad. There happened to be a caravan preparing to head to Blackwater City.

The caravan’s supervisor had the surname Chen and the given name Tian Dong. He was a very talkative middle-aged man. His cultivation level was the same as Yu Zhao’s, both at Late Foundation Establishment.

Besides him, the caravan had eighteen guards. Most of the guards were also in the late stage of Foundation Establishment, and only a few were at Mid Foundation Establishment.

They were called guards, but in truth they were all Chen Tian Dong’s own clansmen.

This caravan had been set up by the Chen Clan itself.

Yu Zhao paid one mid-grade spirit stone and successfully got a seat in one of the carriages.

This time the Chen family caravan had sent out six carriages. Each carriage could seat four people. In the carriage Yu Zhao took, besides herself there were two male cultivators who had also paid to ride along.

One of them had a bulbous, garlic-like nose and thick lips, and he naturally gave off a comical feeling. The other had protruding ears and triangular eyes, and he looked like someone who was not easy to provoke.

As soon as Yu Zhao got into the carriage and saw the two of them, she had a faint feeling that this ride would probably not be peaceful.

After the two men got in, they did not say a single word, as if they were strangers to each other.

Yu Zhao also did not try to talk to them. She closed her eyes and pretended to nap in the carriage.

The caravan was using a low-level demonic beast called a Blood-Sweat Steed to pull the carriages. These beasts had great endurance and high speed. When they ran, it was like wind was born under their hooves. Sitting in the carriage, Yu Zhao did not feel much bumping at all.

Two days later.

The caravan stopped beside a narrow mountain road.

“We will rest here for an hour before setting out again.”

Chen Tian Dong’s voice came from the front of the carriage.

The Chen Clan guards left only a few people on the carriages. The rest all jumped down and moved around nearby.

Yu Zhao glanced at the two men who were sitting as still as old monks entering meditation, then jumped down from the carriage and walked up to Chen Tian Dong.

“Supervisor Chen, why are we stopping here?”

From Yu Zhao’s past experiences, caravans rarely stopped to rest in places without a water source and with such narrow terrain.

Besides, it had been less than three hours since their last rest. That was a bit too frequent.

Chen Tian Dong’s expression was serious. He said: “Miss Yu, you may not know. Up ahead is the Ten Thousand Fathoms Gorge, which is known as a place of no return. The road there is very narrow, and on both sides are steep mountain gorges. People often lie in ambush there and rob passing caravans. So whenever we go through Ten Thousand Fathoms Gorge, caravans always rest in advance and make preparations to guard against a surprise attack.”

Yu Zhao suddenly understood.

She turned to look back at the carriage she had been riding in.

If the two men riding with her really had bad intentions toward the caravan, now was a perfect chance for them.

Yu Zhao thought for a moment, then took out the Lotus Incense Burner from her bracelet and tied it around her waist.

An hour later.

Yu Zhao returned to the carriage, and the caravan set out again.

The caravan’s speed clearly slowed down a lot.

Yu Zhao lifted the carriage window and looked out. She saw that the road ahead was getting narrower and narrower. The trees on both sides of the road were thinning out, revealing bare and steep mountain cliffs.

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