On the main road of the Cold Mountain Pa.s.s, you only need to walk another 60 miles, pa.s.s through two villages, and you will reach there by pa.s.sing through the canyon at the center of the two mountains.

As they approached the public road, they saw that it was still spa.r.s.ely populated. On the contrary, there were even more bandits on the road. Most of them were robbing families who were carrying their daughters to seek refuge.

These people fell into the hands of bandits, and the males were all killed on the spot. The younger females among the females were taken as slaves, while the younger females became the tools of the bandits, and their fates were all incomparably miserable.

Along the way, Xiang Yun felt as if he had returned to Silvermoon Forest. The kind of slaughter that involves fighting wild beasts and having no burdens at all. For these bandits and bandits that are worse than animals, Xiang Yun only hated them for not killing enough to vent his hatred, for not being cruel enough!

He followed the path alone all the way until he arrived at a three-way intersection. There was a new path at the side of the road, a path that converged at the slightly wider yellow road ahead. Xiang Yun did not stop his steps. He had just set foot on the yellow road!

All of a sudden, seven or eight tall men from the north charged down the hill in Xiang Yun's direction, shouting and screaming. They all had terrifying, hateful looks in their eyes, like hungry wolves.

"Stop and ask for money?"

Another robbery by bandits. Xiang Yun had long since gotten used to this. He crouched down and silently picked up a few stones from the ground, waiting for them to rush over and kill them all without sparing anything!

Both sides clashed head on and engaged in a fierce battle. None of the seven or eight robust men survived as they collapsed on the ground, and only a few of them were injured.

"Hey, are you scared silly?"

Suddenly, a woman's ice-cold voice rang out from behind Xiang Yun.

Xiang Yun turned to look and saw a young and beautiful woman dressed in fiery red clothing. Her long hair was tied behind her head and a longsword hung at her waist.

At the same time, a middle-aged man walked over to the side of the woman. His hair was white, but his eyes were bright and strong. Looking at Xiang Yun who had frozen in place, the middle-aged man smiled amiably, "Little brother, there's no need to be afraid.

Xiang Yun only came to his senses when he heard this. It was as if they had thought that the reason they had been standing there without moving was because they had been scared silly by the bandits.

Xiang Yun didn't know whether to laugh or cry in his heart, but he didn't bother to explain. Instead, he opened his mouth and said, "Many thanks to everyone for your rescue. Just now was indeed too sinister. I had lost my composure in a moment of panic."

When the old man heard this, he saw that Xiang Yun did not have any luggage with him, so he asked, "Little brother, are you heading north or south?"

"Oh, I want to head north to the Cold Mountain Pa.s.s to join the army."

"Ling Er, don't be rude!" The middle-aged man glared at the woman, reprimanded her, then turned to look at Xiang Yun.

"I'm Xiao Ding, and this is my daughter, Xiao Ling'Er. I'm the boss of the Rising Sun Trading Company in Qingfeng County. We're heading north to sell some goods in Tiger City, which is outside the Cold Mountain Pa.s.s."

Xiang Yun looked up and saw that behind the man was indeed a group of people, a large group of twenty carriages, each of which was around forty to fifty people in size. They were all young men, all dressed in tight uniforms, sabers and swords at their waists.

Xiao Ding continued, "Since little brother is heading north and there are bandits along the way, you and I will be in danger alone. Why don't you follow us and take care of us on the way?"

"This …" Xiang Yun was immediately somewhat surprised upon hearing this, subconsciously wanting to refuse. After all, the speed at which he was moving forward would definitely not be slow. If he were to travel with the convoy, it would instead delay his travel time.

However, Xiang Yun had not even spoken to the woman named Xiao Ling'er before his long, shapely eyebrows twitched as he objected, "Father, this trip to Tiger City has been fraught with dangers. We can't take care of ourselves, so how can we have the energy to take care of others?"

Xiao Ding knit his brows and said in a deep voice, "Ling Er, outside, we are helping each other out. This little brother is really too dangerous to go north by himself. What harm would there be in us taking him along?"

"Humph!" Xiao Ling'Er gave a cold snort and looked at Xiang Yun, "This person's background is unknown, how can you be sure that he needs our help and doesn't want to harm us. If he is a spy sent by some robbers, wouldn't we be luring a wolf into the house?"

Xiang Yun was not in the mood to accompany such an unreasonable person. He immediately clasped his hands at Xiao Ding and said, "Uncle Xiao thanks me for my good intentions. It's best if I travel alone. I won't bother Uncle Xiao any longer."

After saying this, Xiang Yun turned to leave. However, Xiao Ding hurriedly stopped Xiang Yun once more, insisting that Xiang Yun stay.

Don't blame my daughter for being impolite, she is just like this. This old man apologizes to you on her behalf.

"Shut up, you're not going to listen to father's words. If I tell this little brother to stay, he can stay."

Facing such a warm-hearted Xiao Ding, Xiang Yun felt a little embarra.s.sed to refuse. All he saw along the way was indifference, slaughter, and loot. It was a rare sight for Xiang Yun to see such a warm-hearted person.

"Sigh, forget it. Just treat it as escorting them on their journey." Xiang Yun thought in his heart.

"In that case, I'll be troubling Uncle Xiao." Xiang Yun did not refuse, directly cupping his hands in thanks.

As for Xiao Ling`er, her fierce gaze was completely ignored by Xiang Yun. This girl was ignorant, and Xiang Yun didn't even bother to lower himself to her level.

The carriage was loaded with goods. Aside from Xiao Ding, Xiao Ling'Er, and a few other female servants who were riding in carriages, the rest of the guards were all on foot. Thus, Xiang Yun could only follow the guard in the carriage.

When the guards saw Xiang Yun, they did not have any strange looks in their eyes. They only looked curiously at this young man as a middle-aged man led the horse by the reins and turned to size him up, smiling as he spoke.

"Kid, your luggage was taken away by someone, right? And that huge sword you have right? It's made of aluminum. Well done, I think it can scare off some normal thieves."

Because the northern territories were not peaceful, many people, even if they did not know martial arts, would deliberately carry weapons. The more exaggerated the better. It would be best if they disguised themselves as wandering martial artists, more or less able to intimidate the bandits.

As for Xiang Yun, he currently had nothing of value. He only had a single ma.s.sive greatsword, so everyone subconsciously considered him to be someone of great caliber.

Xiang Yun didn't care about this at all, and instead said with a smile, "This big brother has guessed correctly. I had my luggage stolen while I was on the road, so I ran over to find someone to help me polish this weapon. This greatsword is made of Cloud Stone.

Faced with Xiang Yun's undisguised, frank words, the crowd laughed heartily. At the same time, they felt a better impression of Xiang Yun in their hearts.

Everyone chatted as they walked. Only then did Xiang Yun learn that the Rising Sun Trading Company actually dealt in medicinal herbs, and had been travelling back and forth between the Blue Wind Imperial City and the Tiger City all year round.

They had harvested and bought a large amount of herbs every year. They had transported them to the Tiger City and then sold them to the merchants of the thirteen subordinate countries of the Wind Cloud Country and the barbarian race.

The barbarian race's territory was located in an extremely cold area. It was difficult for plants to grow, so these herbs were quite precious to them. Once fresh herbs were transported to the tiger city, the price would increase several times over.

However, this year was very different from previous years. The Rising Sun Trading Company had already sent out three convoy convoys for the delivery of medicinal herbs since the beginning of spring, yet they encountered accidents along the way. The first two times, they were robbed along with their goods.

Therefore, Xiao Ding, the boss of the Trading Company, brought his daughter, Xiao Ling'Er, and an old Guest Warrior from the Trading Company to personally escort the goods to Tiger City.

"Haha!" Everyone laughed when they heard this.

"Little brother, you don't know about it, but the young miss has always had such a temper since she was young!"

An old guard surnamed Chen said, "That's right. Master originally wanted to teach his Eldest Miss how to play chess and paint, but Eldest Miss only liked to dance with the sword. She hoped to become a powerful Cloud Warrior."

"I didn't expect the young miss to have such amazing talent. She's only twenty-eight years old, and she's already a Seven Cloud Martial pract.i.tioner. Once she breaks through to the Yellow Cloud Realm, our Rising Sun Trading Company will have one more Guest Warrior."

A knife-scarred guard also laughed: "In our team this time, young miss is not only the guest Mister Xu, but also the second strongest expert in the team. Don't think that just because our young miss is so beautiful that you have a bad feeling about her, if you anger our young miss, we won't be able to help you!"

Xiang Yun hurriedly waved his hands, "Aiyah, I don't dare to provoke your Eldest Miss. I can't even touch a tiger's b.u.t.t!"

"Haha!" The group of men immediately burst into laughter.

"Cough, cough!"

Right at this moment, someone in the crowd suddenly coughed and gave a meaningful look, reminding the others that they understood immediately. They immediately became silent, pulling on the reins, lifting up the things, and keeping alert …

In the blink of an eye, everyone went back to their posts and the carriages that were guarding them moved on safely. It was as if no one was talking or laughing just now.

Xiang Yun was the only one who could see the reaction speed of these people, but he could not find anything to do. He could only look awkwardly at the red figure in front of him who had come with ill intentions.

"Hmph!"

Xiao Ling'er glanced at Xiang Yun and continued walking forward. When she pa.s.sed by Xiang Yun, she stopped and whispered into his ear.

"Brat, don't think that you can succeed just because you obtained my dad's trust with a trick. My dad is kind enough to take you in, but if you dare to do something so brazen because of this, I'll take your life!" Xiao Ling'Er shot a sidelong glance at Xiang Yun, her eyes filled with ice-cold killing intent!

"Senior Chen, we don't have any idle people in our caravan. This kid is a useless trash that can't fight. In the future, just let him do whatever it takes to set up a campsite and start a fire to collect firewood."

"Uh, yes, Eldest Miss." Elder Chen lowered his head and did not dare to question.

To the side, Xiang Yun watched as Xiao Ling'Er left, his mouth agape.

F * ck, I've always said that a gentleman can have his revenge ten years later, but a vile character can have his revenge from morning to night. This woman can come at once, but the key is that I don't have any grudges with her, so why is this woman looking down on me?

Firstly, Xiao Ding had been doing business in the Tiger City all year round, so he must have heard a lot about the Forbidden City. He wanted to know more about it. Secondly, this Xiao Ding was very warm-hearted. If he met with any trouble along the way, he could help them settle it.