After a second of shock, Qingge internally rejoiced. The attackers were undoubtedly her group, and it seemed like they had found another entry point. So the operation had actually been a success, at least in a way.

Meanwhile, the people around her began to panic, wildly discussing with each other, some already jumping from their seat. Before the room could further descend into chaos, the giant slammed his hand onto his throne, recentering attention on him.

“Silence you cowards!”

Then, addressing the newcomer, he asked:

“Who exactly is attacking us?”

“A massive group of warriors, at least a hundred. I think they are from the Li Family.”

“Heavens be damned, those fuckers…”

He got up from his seat, rising to his full height. Towering over the room like that, his face contorted with anger, he became even more imposing.

“What are you waiting for, get your asses of the ground and ready up! We’ll rip them apart!”

The crowd followed his direction, hurriedly dispersing to find their armaments. Meanwhile, the giant turned to the old woman.

“You get the girl back to her cell and make sure she stays there until we’re done here.”

She only nodded before approaching Qingge.

“Okay then, follow me my dear. Granny’s gonna get you to safety. Oh yeah, and drink this. We wouldn’t want you getting any dangerous ideas.”

She reached into her robes, pulled out a small vial and held it out to Qingge, who took and downed it with a look of disdain. The color- and tasteless liquid immediately started reacting with her Qi, but this time she was wise to the trick.

The last time she cleansed this poison, it had set her cultivation back by at least a couple of weeks and she had no desire to repeat that. Instead, she immediately emptied her body of Qi and prevented any more from flowing in. Like this, the poison was totally harmless, and it wasn’t like she could use her Qi to do anything relevant anyways.

Having dealt with that issue, she followed the old woman back to the tunnels.

…

Yang threw himself forward, slamming into the ragtag line of defenders like an avalanche, relying on pure strength and weight to drive them backwards. Several of them stumbled backwards and were quickly knocked out with a series of kicks and punches that none of them could even try to defend against. The gaps they left behind were quickly filled by Yang’s allies, who then swung around and hit the remainder of the line from behind.

This was the first attempt at an organized defense they had met since their first charge several minutes ago. It seemed that while well-organized by some measures, their enemies hadn’t been at all prepared for a large-scale attack.

Not that it likely would have mattered much. While there were many body cultivators in their midst, they were simply not in the position to offer up much of a resistance to a well-trained group of soul cultivators.

Organizing themselves around Yang and cooperating in a tight formation, they were breezing through without much trouble and all the Li Family’s army had to do was follow them, clean up stragglers and properly secure the rear.

As the last parts of the line collapsed, the remaining bandits trying surrendering, Yang strode further inside the room their had mounted the defense in. Notably, there was an open trapdoor that led to a rough spiraling staircase of stone.

They had swiped through most of the warehouse right now and found little of note or value. Some crates of low-grade cultivation resources and silver, but nothing on the scale they had been expecting.

It logically followed that there was either another base they were missing, or there was more to this one they hadn’t seen yet. Considering that the bandits had chosen this room to retreat to for their final stand and that this staircase reached beyond the limits of his qi-sense, the latter was probably the case.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Yang stepped onto the staircase. It had been hewn right into the stone and while he wasn’t too knowledgeable on mining operations, it looked to him like this had been done quite recently.

He turned around to check up with the others. Once he had made sure everything was alright and no serious injuries had been sustained on their side, he raised his voice to address the group.

“This staircase goes down quite deep, I’m pretty sure there’s something down there. My team will go down there and check it out right now. The rest stays up here and gives this place a thorough search to make sure we didn’t miss anything. Once you’re done with that and have all the prisoners properly secured, you can send down reinforcements in case we’re not back yet.”

With that, he returned to the staircase and, followed by his companions, began his descend into the dark.

…

“Okay girl, now get in here again. You should get used to it; this might be your home for quite a while.”

Qingge didn’t intend for that to be the case at all. The entire place was in chaos, all the bandits rushing around to get their weapons or to meet join the defense. And unfortunately for the old lady who was currently opening the door to the prison cell, that included the guards in this tract.

She had been sure to keep her eyes open while she pretended to drag herself along and not only this room but also the adjacent tunnels were completely devoid of life safe for the two of them. And that meant she didn’t have to play this game anymore.

“What the…”

Qingge’s knee slammed into the old lady’s stomach. For a split second, she felt compelled to hold back, not to go too hard on her brittle frame, but she reminded herself of the fact that this little old granny was able to easily hoist her over her shoulder and carry her all the way from her pavilion down here without taking breaks.

She seamlessly transitioned into an uppercut. The old woman who had still been reeling from her first attack staggered backwards. She was quick to recover however and already reached into her robes.

“You little shi…”

Before she could finish her insult or pull out whatever she was looking for, a high kick to the temple sent her flying to the floor. She didn’t get back up.

Qingge looked down at her. She didn’t feel guilty for the surprise attack, the old woman had been the first to employ that tactic. She picked her up and carried her into the cell before closing the door behind her and locking with key which had been thrown to the ground during their short battle. That ought to keep her of her tail for a while.

Then, she went back into the tunnel she came from, doing her best to look or listen to any activity so she didn’t run into anyone.

Time to look for an exit.

…

Yang slid down towards the unknown at high speed. When it had become clear just how long this staircase was, he had opted to use his earth qi to melt it into a smooth slope instead. Not only was this faster, it also prevented any of his enemies to leave this way.

Finally, easily sixty meters underground, the slope ended and shot out into a long tunnel. He didn’t have long to wonder just where he had ended up because less than twenty meters away a large group of bandits had gathered, ready for battle.

Well, Yang wouldn’t want to disappoint them, would he? This place, an old mine or whatever else it was might have been a great hideout, difficult to find and easy to defend. But it was also one of the worst places imaginable to fight a cultivator who was using the Dao of Earth.

Not only was he literally surrounded by his element from all directions, but natural earth qi was abundant down here, almost as much as in the caves of the Lunar Peaks Sect. As a Dao Attunement cultivator, Yang’s stores of qi were rather limited, so he had originally fought while conserving as much of it as possible. But down here, he could go all out without having to worry about running out.

He intended to do just that. Sword drawn and held at his side, he slowly walked towards the group of enemies, his pose tauntingly open. They didn’t need any more persuasion to attack.

When the first assailant came charging at him with a spear, Yang sidestepped into the wall, disappearing from view for a short moment before emerging behind him and beheading him with a clean slash.

Before the man had fully collapsed, Yang was already standing before the second opponent. He ducked a swipe while mentally pulling at the ceiling above them, a large rock coming loose and knocking him out before he could try anything else.

After stepping over his body, Yang stomped the ground, causing it to shake enough to stagger the entire group. Three of them went down in quick succession. Only one of them had it in him to still charge him after that.

Whether commendable bravery or breathtaking stupidity had brought him to this action didn’t matter, it was a bad idea either way. Yang cleaved his sword straight in half before grabbing him by the shoulder and throwing him at the ceiling where the stone temporarily liquified, letting him glide in before immediately rehardening and encasing him, only the face sticking out.

After that display, the dozen bandits who were still standing decided that flight was their best option. They didn’t get very far as the latter collapsed the entire ceiling a few meters down the hall. One of them was unlucky enough to make it there just in time to be instantly crushed to death, the others staggered to a halt and could only turn around and stare at Yang with the terrified expression of an animal caught in a trap.

Just as the other cultivators started arriving from the staircase-turned-slide and stepped into the tunnel, Yang raised his voice.

“Throw your weapons away and surrender, or come and fight. We’ll be done here quickly either way.”