The Other Side of A Cultivation Story

Lin Qiao was convinced that investigating the river further was an unwise choice. She knew that the place should be too important to be marked in the map.

'We could just tell the chief that the river could be checked after exterminating all of the bandits,' she thought.

"Don't worry..," she told her companions who looked hesitant to leave the area with only such thing to report.

"There will be plenty of time to investigate the river soon," she explained. "It's best that we come back alive and report something rather than risking the entire plan."

Only then that the others agreed realizing the logic behind Lin Qiao's words.

"There are no bandits in sight, but they could be hidden elsewhere..," one of her companions remarked.

True enough and unknown to them, there were indeed bandits in the dark actually guarding the place. Although the bandits had not discovered them, should the Mo Clan team approached the river, they could truly meet their doom.

"Let's go."

***************

And so, the three teams from the big Clans left their assigned areas and went back in haste to their camp.

The Shu siblings who went to investigate the other marked locations also went back almost at the same time the other three left.

And after few hours, the teams arrived.

"Chief," an elder called. "They're back."

"That was quick," another elder commented.

"Let them in," Xing Yi ordered.

One by one each of the teams reported everything they saw and told their own calculations regarding the defensive formations of the place—first the Du Clan's team, then the Men Clan's.

The chief and the elders who heard their reports were not surprised by their deductions—they were disciples from the big clans after all.

"So.. the marks in the map turns out to be correct," one elder remarked.

"Indeed..," the chief Xing Yi said, "..luckily, we have a copy in our hands.."

"And we have to thank the Shu family for that.."

It was Elder Long who interrupted. He was also in the meeting as he was waiting what his Mo Clan's disciples had to report.

However, all those elders present were surprised that the assigned marked location turned out to just be a river.

"That was weird," the Mo Clan elder said after hearing his disciples.

"Why would the bandits mark that location?" An elder from the Han Valley smirked.

"Could be a decoy," another one suggested.

Those around the meeting started murmuring with different thoughts about Mo Clan's report.

"Ahem," the chief softly said to to get their attention. "Let's listen to the team's opinion about it."

Everyone went into silence and turned their heads to Mo Clan team members.

"We apologize that we did not further investigate the river, Esteemed Han Valley Chief..," Lin Qiao shyly explained after a soft sigh. "But we felt that there would be enough time to do such thing after the event should it turn out that the bandits are indeed hiding there something.. and we agreed that we should prioritize reporting what we initially saw over risking everything and end up with no one coming back to tell you something.."

"Oh..," the chief said in surprise. "You've got a cautious but a smart one here Elder Long."

"Well of course," the elder proudly replied. "She's my direct disciple after all."

***************

Meanwhile, in the 'The Hunters' Plateau' camp, the team was also busily discussing what Qai and Shu Liang discovered.

"It's actually a cave..," Shu Liang reported. "And it's guarded by two Earth stage sage bandits."

"Well..," Shu Wu remarked, "there must be something important they're keeping inside to be guarded by sages."

"We must be careful though.. we have to assume that there could be more bandits inside..," Xiao Ning said.

The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

"I wonder what's inside..," Qai remarked as he got interested in the report, "..anyway, I found a small encampment in my assigment..," Qai reported.

"An encampment!?"

"Yes..," Qai replied. "It's not heavily guarded though.. and it appears to be some sort of prison huts.."

"Is that so?" Shu Liang asked.

"I'm not certain, there were only few torches lit..," Qai replied, "..but when I activated my 'Hawkeye' I saw a bandit leading two children with their hands tied in one of the huts.."

Jing then recalled to the rest of the team how he first met the father and son, Shu Wei and Qai, with his twin sister Bing and how were they caught with Shen and the other children years back by bandits although he was not certain whether the bandits they were about to face were the same.

"The bandits are most probably taking in children who haven't reached the age of seven," Shu Wu said.

"What I thought back then was that we were meant to be sold as slaves," Jing said. "If not, then maybe we could have been recruited."