Chapter 167: Golden Lion’s Cave
Seated on the ground and leaning against the cave, Hui Yue popped a medicinal pill into his mouth much like the one he gave Wang Ju Long and after only few moments he was standing up once more.
Just as he rose the door to the carriage opened, but the young white-haired man rushed towards them and closed it, “I’m sorry young master this is not a sight you want to see,” He said with a genuinely apologetic voice.
The view really was not one for the young master. Corpses were littered all over the ground some were whole while others weren’t. A few of the bandits were still alive, holding on by sheer willpower while wailing in agony.
The ground was no longer dry and dusty, instead, small streams of blood flowed from the corpses, and the stench was really overwhelming.
“You guys can deal with cleaning up,” He said as he spoke to the guards and pointed at the corpses. “You need to get used to corpses eventually anyway.” He continued before he stretched his body, enjoying the feeling of his strength returning to him.
“Stack the corpses on one side of the road. Leave the people who are still alive amongst the corpses. The other bandits will return for them later.”
Hearing the order the majority of their faces instantly paled while one even puked, his face more green than pale.
Sighing deeply, Hui Yue showed that he was somewhat disappointed. He then went to start stacking the corpses to make space for the carriage to travel through the blood soaked ground, so they could move on to their destination.
He was not the only one who was working to moving the corpses his friends helped out as well, and quickly each of them was covered in blood. The only positive thoughts they had was meeting so many humans like this meant they were likely to be near the exit of the tunnels.
Being able to leave the tunnels meant that they would be able to find somewhere to wash, something which everyone was dreaming about while stacking corpses.
When they finally finished, all of them had to change their clothes and with some bottled water they finally manage to clean themselves a little and remove the red coagulated blood on their skin; however, the stench was impossible to get rid of before they could take a bath.
Leaving behind the bloodbath, they quickly made their way back to the main lit up path as Hui Yue pointed out that they had hunted for long enough. Also after slaughtering the bandits, none of the guards wanted to stay within the black tunnels for much longer. Even though the young master was feeling somewhat cheated by being protected within his carriage the whole time during the attack, and then later was not allowed to exit and see the corpses. But the two servants quickly managed to make him understand that it was not all fun and excitement.
Rejoining the lit up tunnel, one could see that they were close to the next cave because the road was filled with people and guards. At first they all stared at the convoy of mercenaries and guards who appeared from a sidepath, but after few meters no one paid attention to them anymore and they kept moving forward.
Travelling into this new cave, Hui Yue was constantly on alert even more so than when he had been in the tunnels they just left. Within the tunnels he knew that he was capable of defeating his opponent, however, it was completely different here. If Scarface were to show up, Hui Yue was uncertain about what he could do to him. That caused him to be focused and vigilant. For him the more crowded the area was, the more dangerous.
However, right now he did not feel like anything was amiss, nor could he feel the killing intent they had felt for so long previously and soon he became less paranoid. As long as the entire group stayed together, then there should be no problems. Especially not in a place with this many guards.
Calming himself down, Hui Yue nodded his head as if agreeing with himself, and just as he reached the conclusion that they should be fine, he saw that they arrived at another gate.
Just like the gate leading into the Demon Dwelling Cave, this one had Dragon Corpse soldiers posted as they accepted entrance fees, allowing the mercenaries, travelers, and other people into the cave.
Stopping at the gate, the butler left the carriage and paid the entrance fee for the entire party before they entered through open gates and stepping into the third cave.
“This is the Golden Lion’s Cave.” Xu Piao whispered by the side of Hui Yue, introducing the area they were walking into. “This place, unlike most other places, has a royal family leading it. Although they work alongside the Dragon Corps, the corps is the second highest authority here.”
Walking a bit further in, the group was suddenly caught up into a stream of people making their way into the cave. Xu Piao quickly stopped talking and without resisting they allowed for the flood of humans to move them further and further into the cave, until eventually the road was somewhat clear of people. This made it possible for the group to start looking for an inn.
The sun was setting by the time they entered the new cave and after a short while the butler managed to locate an inn where rooms were available and they all followed him inside.
This time all of them had personal rooms with baths attached, something especially the mercenaries enjoyed as they all still reeked of blood, their aura savage. Just walking around the inn everyone would divert their eyes and quiet down looking somewhat frightened at the group.
After taking a bath, the mercenaries all gathered within Hui Yue’s room, an ugly expression on his face.
“I thought,” He started, his face turning uglier by the minute, “I didn’t think we would have needed to worry about Scarface for now.”
“Scarface is definitely on this mission because of Zhou Long. So he knows that we are going to the capital. Why would he wait for us in a place like this? He is definitely going to be waiting for us at the capital and he will spending all his time preparing for our arrival.”
Hearing his words, the others nodded slowly. It definitely made much more sense compared to always being uncertain about which way the group would be travelling.
The faces of the others also turned quite ugly, but after some time Xie Lan steeled herself as she slammed her fist into the table.
“It is fine!” She assured them, “When we reach the capital we will be far stronger than we are now. And if we know he is waiting for us, no one can say we cannot prepare to meet him!”
Seeing that Xie Lan was the one who pulled them back from their depression was something which Hui Yue did not expect. A small smile was evident on his face as he nodded in agreement. What she said did indeed make sense.
“Tell us about this place,” Hui Yue asked as he looked towards Xu Piao.
“This is the Golden Lion’s Cave and it is about the same size as the Demon Dwelling Cave. These two caves are both ranked as middle ranked caves meaning that the majority of the cultivators here rely on the middle dantian.”
“Unlike the other caves, this cave is under the control of the Golden Lion Royal Family, a family who is working together with the Dragon Corps, yet the Dragon Corps can not do anything in this cave if they do not have the permission of the royal family.”
“It makes one wonder why exactly the Dragon Corps allows for a royal family to be ranked higher than them.” Xu Piao continued his voice lowered somewhat, “The Dragon Corps would easily be able to remove the royal family if they wished, but they leave them be allowing them to pay only a miniscule tax every year.”
“But the people living here still pay quite a bit of their produce in taxes to the crown. It is something the Dragon Corps should view as a revolt.”
“There is a possibility that they have some sort of deal which the rest of the world does not know anything about,” Hui Yue guessed, his brows furrowing as he wondered what exactly would be worth such treatment.
“It is also possible that they traded something that the Dragon Corps really wanted for the sake of this cave,” Deng Wu said while wondering if there was anything at all which the Dragon Corps wanted badly enough to give up a cave for.
“A Law,” Hui Yue answered his voice low, his eyes as cold as new fallen snow. A frown appearing on his face. “They could have traded a Primal Law.”
Hearing what Hui Yue said, Deng Wu, Wang Ju Long, and Sha Yun’s demeanors changed completely, their faces turned serious and their hands clenched tightly as they remembered how Cave’s End tried to trade Sun for the sake of not paying taxes.
Thinking back upon the way in which they treated Sun, it was obvious that these Primal Laws were incredibly important to the Dragon Corps, but whatever they wanted them for was a question which they were unable to answer right now.
“Xu Piao,” Hui Yue called out. “Has there ever been any mission from the Dragon Corps looking for specific humans?”
Xu Piao was quiet for some time while he thought about the missions he seen from the Dragon Corps, frowning slightly he finally seemed to remember something.
“Well they had once made a mission saying that they need people with strange eyes, however, that was around seven years ago. It is not something which people would remember by now.” As Xu Piao said that, he furrowed his brows as he wondered about something.
“Actually, it makes no sense really,” He continued, “the prize paid for the humans with strange eyes was as much as three thousand beast cores, but it said nothing about whom these people were, nor was there a time limit on the mission, even now it is available.”
Hearing that Hui Yue’s bright eyes turned dark as he thought about the lives of his friends back at the forest in Cave’s End. The thought of other laws being used for something he knew nothing about made him feel slightly nervous.
“When we reach the capital we might be able to get an answer to this,” Sha Yun said with a low voice and Hui Yue nodded his head. He was definitely going to do his very best to find out what was going on.
Seated in silence the group was thinking about their time in the forest, and Deng Wu’s eyes especially turned dark as he looked out the window. He was after all the one who had bonded the most with the five childish laws.
Looking at Deng Wu, Hui Yue sighed for a bit before he decided to change the subject.
“Ju Long,” He called out and the woman looked at him. Hui Yue’s heart started racing slightly faster as their eyes met and he awkwardly cleared his throat before continuing, “What happened with you and your staff in the fight? It seems like it is much stronger than what we had expected.”
Hearing Hui Yue say that, Wang Ju Long picked up one of her storage stones and with a thought the red staff appeared in her hand. Standing up straight, she channeled some of her spiritual energy into the staff and moments later the red weasel appeared once again.