Comprehending Myriad Techniques as Woodcutter

Chapter 252: Chapter 197: Thinking of Leaving Without Catching Me?

Xie Yuan followed the bandits back into Fengsha Collection. As they passed the First House of the West Desert, he glanced up from behind a horse and met the gaze of the proprietress at the counter.

The proprietress was clearly taken aback, then she burst out laughing.

"After all that fuss, you only managed to catch this kid? Look at that harmless face. What’s the point of capturing him?"

The bandit leader’s face darkened. He hadn’t wanted to capture the boy either, but in the end, his hand had been forced. It wasn’t something he could easily explain.

’Could I really tell her this kid was practically begging to be caught, with how he kept courting death?’

His mood soured further when he returned to the settlement and saw the bodies of his slain men gathered in a large pile.

Seeing so many of his men dead, a vein throbbed on the leader’s forehead. He grunted in anger.

"Did you kill all these men?"

"Me?"

Xie Yuan scoffed.

"I’m only at the Third Training. How could I kill so many people?"

The leader considered this. It made sense. He asked in a grim voice,

"Which one of your group did the killing? Give me a name."

"And what if I did? Would you dare attack Cloud Mountain?"

Xie Yuan let out a dry laugh.

"Do you even need to ask? It was obviously the strongest one."

The bandit leader instantly thought of Huang Zifeng and nodded to himself. ’His strength was truly exceptional, just what I’d expect from a disciple of the Cloud Mountain Sword Sect.’

But a sliver of doubt remained. Huang Zifeng had spent most of his time fighting him. Where would he have found the time to kill the common bandits on the flanks?

’Could it be he was hiding his true strength, holding back while fighting me? Was his Body Technique really so fast that he could come and go like the wind?’

His expression turned grim. He decided not to dwell on it. Even if he found out, what could he do? Just as that infuriating brat had said, it wasn’t like he could storm Cloud Mountain.

’I really want to rip that mouth of his clean off...’ But it was just a thought. The leader couldn’t actually act on it.

He forced himself to look away from Xie Yuan and turned to consult with his lieutenants.

Xie Yuan pricked up his ears and faintly overheard:

"...back to the camp... report?"

"The Grand Commander... in the city... can’t come right away..."

"Main force... camp..."

After catching a few fragments, he started to piece things together. A glint flashed in his eyes.

’This place is just an outpost guarding a major route. Their real camp is somewhere else!’

’That camp is where the majority of Lu the Third’s men are stationed. Aside from the essential forces needed to hold Oasis City, it seems like he’s deployed almost everyone!’

’Lu the Third himself is garrisoned in Oasis City, waiting for reports from the camp.’

’So these bandits on the outskirts are just here to guard the pass, to stop travelers and merchants from stumbling upon the "camp" and "persuade" them to take a different route. Whatever is happening at the main camp must not be disturbed. That’s where Lu the Third’s true objective lies...’

Xie Yuan’s eyes gleamed. The bandits thought he couldn’t hear them if they lowered their voices, but thanks to his fourth-level Body Nourishing Art, his hearing and sight were exceptionally sharp. No matter how quietly they spoke, he could still make out the general meaning.

’So that’s how it is,’ Xie Yuan thought. ’Lu the Third claimed to be hunting Su Xing, but that was just a feint, a distraction to hide his real goal.’

’What’s hidden in that camp?’

A flicker in Xie Yuan’s eyes revealed his burgeoning interest.

’Whatever it is, if it’s something Lu the Third wants to do, then I obviously can’t let him succeed.’

’In any case, he isn’t at the camp. The strongest guards there will be at the Qi Blood Second or Third Transformation, at most. My Celestial Concealment Skill is incredibly effective and practically undetectable against anyone below the Grandmaster realm. As long as I’m careful, I should be fine.’

’Now, how do I get these bandits to take me there...?’

As Xie Yuan was pondering this, he heard one of the leaders say,

"If we leave this kid here, someone might come to rescue him. Let’s just take him with us."

’Well, that saves me the trouble of putting on a show,’ Xie Yuan thought. ’And I don’t have to risk overacting and making them suspicious.’

As Xie Yuan was thinking this, his vision suddenly went black. He’d been stuffed into a sack and thrown onto the back of a horse.

’A real motley crew.’

Through the coarse weave of the sack, Xie Yuan’s enhanced vision allowed him to faintly see outside. Their effort was completely wasted.

Of course, the bandits had likely never been in a sack themselves—or if they had, they certainly didn’t possess Xie Yuan’s abilities. For them, tossing a sack over someone’s head was just a formality.

The horses set off. The journey was long this time, lasting a full day and night.

Draped sideways over the horse’s rump, Xie Yuan was jostled until his chest ached. If not for his extraordinary constitution, he would have been sick long ago. He closed his eyes and rested for a long while before finally sensing the horses climbing a large sand dune. Then he heard the bandits whispering.

"We’re finally here..."

He silently turned his head, widened his eyes, and channeled his internal energy. Peering through the gaps in the sack’s fabric, he held his breath.

Spectacular!

That was the first word that came to his mind.

From atop the dune, he saw a massive, circular depression spread out below. It was easily several miles across, like a miniature basin or a colossal meteorite crater.

In the center of the depression lay scattered ruins: collapsed buildings and solitary, broken pillars, all bearing the marks of countless years of erosion from wind and sand. They looked truly ancient, structures from some long-forgotten era.

These were the ruins of an ancient city.

And in the heart of the ruins stood a single, relatively well-preserved structure. Its stone walls and pillars were imposing, towering over the surrounding rubble. He could vaguely imagine its former splendor. It looked like a temple.

Xie Yuan’s gaze swept across the giant crater. Then, his eyes darted around, and he spotted traces of the bandits everywhere, both within the city ruins and surrounding them.

Some bandits were living directly in the ruined buildings, while others had pitched tents.

Tents were scattered everywhere, from the top of the dunes at the crater’s edge down to the flat ground below, extending all the way into the city itself.

At the top of the dunes, tents were pitched at regular intervals. The area was heavily guarded, with sentries posted every few steps. Not even a bird could have slipped past them unnoticed.

’Such a massive deployment... what for?’

Xie Yuan wondered.

The company of horsemen continued down, passing through the first defensive perimeter on the dunes and entering the plain below. They stopped at a tent on the outskirts of the encampment.

Xie Yuan was then unceremoniously dumped on the ground, dragged into the tent, and the sack was pulled from his head.

The leader warned him fiercely,

"Behave yourself. We’ll deal with you later."

Playing his part as the defiant captive, Xie Yuan gave a cold snort. He watched the leader give some instructions to the guard at the entrance before departing.

He sat on the ground, and though bound by several loops of thick rope, his posture was relaxed as he pondered inwardly.

’From what I saw on the dune, this is only the second defensive perimeter. There’s a third at the entrance to the city ruins, and a fourth at the temple gate. Does that mean the Qi Blood First Transformation cultivators are stationed out here, while the Second and Third Transformation experts are further in?’

This was both good news and bad news for him.

The good news was that he was relatively safe for now, with the ruins still some distance away.

The bad news was that he had been planning to sneak inside and investigate, and now the risks seemed much greater. The inner sanctum was apparently filled with bandits of the Qi and Blood Metamorphosis Realm. It seemed that Lu the Third had gathered ninety percent of his top experts here.

’Either way, I need to get out of this tent first.’

With a tremor, a faint golden light flashed around Xie Yuan’s body, and the ropes binding him shattered and fell away.

He rose steadily to his feet, stretching his arms and loosening his muscles. Then, with a crafty look, he shouted toward the tent flap.

"Hey! Someone! I’m thirsty!"

The guard outside had no intention of responding, but when the racket continued, he impatiently threw open the tent flap and stormed in.

"Thirsty? I’ll give you somethin’ to drink, you little... huh?!"

Standing before him, perfectly fine, was Xie Yuan. He had his hands clasped behind his back and a slight smile on his face. The severed ropes lay scattered on the ground around him.

"!"

Before the guard could react, his vision blurred and then went black. He crumpled to the ground.

Xie Yuan stared down at him, an ethereal light glowing in his eyes, like a black-and-white lotus spinning within his pupils.

A moment later, his eyes returned to normal. He let out a sinister chuckle and swiftly stripped the guard of his clothes.

A moment later, "the guard" walked out of the tent, looking perfectly normal. He glanced left and right, tightened his belt, and swaggered off toward a neighboring tent.

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