On the tenth day of traveling towards the Cassia province, Hartley finally figured out why the travelers on what should be a busy stretch of road teeming with merchants had thinned to such a degree.
It was a cloudy day but sunlight poured down through the gaps in the white fluffy sheep-like clouds, the wind whipped around, kicking up blusters of dust and dead leaves and sent them swirling across the the road.
The salty and fishy scent of the sea blanketed the area alongside the sounds of the roaring waves of the sea that rumbled in and out at slow intervals.
The group were now a little more than two days away from reaching the Cassia province, about 200 meters ahead Hartley had picked up suspicious movements, with his awareness pushed to the maximum, he sensed the movement of men and wagons being transported off the road towards a stretch of land deep into the muddy forest to the east and out of his range of awareness. Sat opposite Qin Li on the padded seat Hartley's eyes flicked opened with a customary blue flash but a frown remained plastered to his facial features, Qin LI could also sense the suspicious movements ahead and he too broke from his state of cultivation.
"Whats happening?" Qin Li dressed in a red robe asked. Hartley shifted in his seat as he answered, "I think those up ahead are bandits, looks like they have been kidnapping the merchants and leading them into the forest." "No wonder the road has been so empty of late,what should we do?" asked Qin Li in concern. Zhi Ruo who sat next to Hartley in blue dress similar to the one Hartley had bought way back in the Cosmos region,had remained silent thus far, she joined the conversation. "Lets just go with the flow for now." Hartley answered with a nod and then gave out instructions to Ryu Hang and the escorts.
"Halt!" a voice boomed through the afternoon air, drowning out the squawks of the sea-birds. Ryu Hang brought the carriage to a halt fifteen meters away from a group of 20 men, the foremost five wore heavy armor liveried in the style of the Royal family, consisting of a red breast plates engraved with a rose still on its stem with a single leaf on the right side halfway down the stem, silver spikes ran up and over the shoulders of the gardbrace and the rest of the men beside them wore normal robes of mis-matched colors with swords sheathed in tattered leather scabbards attached to their belts, in front of them there were a few thick logs stretched across the width of the road, designed to impede and make the progress of any wheeled vehicle impossible.
"We represent the Royal Yulan family, and are instructed to check for bandits coming or going along this road, we will conduct a proper search of all wagons or carriages and confiscate any hidden contraband that may be onboard." A tall armored man stepped forward and gave out his instructions in a practiced rehearsed manner. Unlike the other four armored men stood at his side, this man wore no helmet, he had a head full of scruffy brown hair and an eye-patch over his left eye. Hartley sat inside the carriage, couldn't help but laugh, bandits robbing people under the guise of searching for bandits.
Behind, the group of bandits waited in disciplined ranks murmuring between themselves softly. Hartley's four escorts maneuvered to the front and grouped shoulder to shoulder in front of the carriage, Yang Yi ran his eyes across the bandits stood behind the blockade of logs, pointing a finger at the eye patch wearing leader he said, "impersonating royal officials is a crime that can be punished by death, did you know that?"
Yang Yi had been given a rundown on the situation by Hartley before they reached the road block, so he knew these men were impostors, he thought the sooner these men knew that they weren't fooling anyone, the sooner they would make a hasty retreat. The helmless leader scoffed at those remarks, "So what?" he said with his chest puffed out and fire in his eyes. "Do you think you can escape?" He continued, tell us the names of the houses you are affiliated to and come with us, a ransom note will be sent and if they pay within two days you will not be harmed."
SHING! swords were being drawn by all on the bandit's side of the blockade, horses whinnied as the four mounted escorts drew their swords in response, they were at a slight disadvantage because they couldn't charge the group of bandits but they were still confident in their ability to tackle the likes of these men. "Yang Yi, take your men and fall back" came swift instruction as the carriage door swung open. Yang Yi and the escorts grabbed the reins of their horses, turned and fell back behind the carriage.
Hartley alighted from the carriage in a black silk robe with his growing hair tied back in a pony tail with a simple string, he stood at the door and elegantly held out a hand and helped Zhi Ruo out the carriage like a prim and proper noble. With Zhi Ruo standing by his side Hartley turned to face the bandits, the leader wearing the eye patch, single eye lit up like a star, these two looked like they would fetch a pretty penny he thought to himself, while he stood there feeling pleased with himself and calculating the asking price he would set for their ransom.
Whoosh! There was a flash that produced a concussive shock and a rumble that shook the earth and reverberated through their very bones. The logs blocking the road was there no longer and came showering down like raindrops of wood chips and splinters around the screaming bandits sprawled on their backside grabbing their heads with ears bleeding.
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The scruffy brown hair man wearing the eye patch had a vain pop up on his forehead that wriggled like a snake as he was gripped around his neck by Hartley's right hand so tight he was now a light shade of blue in the face. Hartley stood eye to eye with the man at the spot he had been by himself a second ago. Hartley had broken the sound barrier and used his typhoon kick at the same time to explode the logs to pieces, the loud rumble caused the eardrums of the bandits to explode like soft tomatoes before he had even reached the leader, disorientated and in pain they were impotent in this battle.
"Where are the merchants and their goods?" asked Hartley in a slow emphasized cadence that portrayed that he would not ask a second time. The man immediately spilled the beans like an open can falling off a table. Hartley didn't mind slaughtering these scum but was mindful that Zhi Ruo would be opposed to him slaughtering a bunch of people in the houtian realm who were no threat to him. After making sure he had memorized the information of the location of the hostages he said "Scram! and if I see or hear of any of you nimcompoops up to this in future, your endings will be painful....very painful." The men scrambled away in panic, some, like the ones wearing armor found it hard to get back on their feet so they scurried away on all fours like animals put to pasture.
Hartley had inquired about the merchants taken as hostages, not because he was so righteous that he wanted to right the wrongs of this world but because this was a great opportunity to replenish his wealth, he couldn't say something as shameless as this out loud, so he pretended to care. He still had tens of thousands of gold coins but he wasn't sure how much money it would take to get up and running in the capital, the further north he had gone the more expensive things became.
He relayed his plans to go and rescue the merchants and Qin Li volunteered to make the trip with him immediately. Zhi Ruo volunteered as well and as Hartley was about to say something in objection, she gave him a look that said, try if dare, Hartley immediately abandoned the idea of asking her to stay and instructed the escorts to accompany Ryu Hang and the carriage further up the road and camp at night fall.
After moving 3 kilometers west into the forest the trio climbed over a steep ridge and from this vantage point, they could see down into a shallow valley where there was a field of tents, to their right they valley narrowed to make a manageable entrance to the site, in the middle the valley was at its broadest and this was where the tents were located and to the left they valley met a v shaped cliff that ran up above the valley casting its shadow over half of it.
There was roaming patrols but these were unorganized and left enough gaps that an army could stealthily pass through and be upon the camp before anyone was the wiser. Hartley pushed out his awareness and surveyed the camp and found there was no formidable opponents within, a couple 2nd layer xiantians would be the only resistance in this camp.
Directing Qin Li towards the 2nd layer xiantian and Zhi Ruo towards the hostages, Hartley made his way to the biggest tent situated 200 meters away from the cluster of tents. Inside the tent a thin black hair middle age man was having a whale of a time with two beauties, of course these beauties were hostages awaiting the payment of their ransom. After finishing with the first one, he left the dejected woman lying on the floor, tears streaming down her face as he moved towards the second quivering woman.
Suddenly, he lost control of his body and flew forward for few meters where something grabbed at his arm and he was yanked forward violently pass the pale-skinned beauty quivering with a tear stained face on the floor and through the wall of the tent made from some type of beast fur. His face collided with a fist and was destroyed like a horse stepping in its own shit. Hartley had used gravity attract to bring the man forward within range and then simply punch through the tent and dragged him outside. The middle age man didn't have the time to scream before his face turned into mush.
The frightened women screamed as they backed away from the hole in the tent seeing blood splutter in the air and the limp body of their captor outside the tent. Hartley popped his head into the hole with a friendly smile trying to calm down the women and said "Its ok, you're safe now, I'm here to rescue you."
The women then released loud sobs especially the one who had been violated minutes before, she held her head down in shame and cried. Hartley retrieved one of his personal robes from his space ring and threw it to the naked woman. Then took and checked the dead man's space ring, a smile sprung on his face, the best job in this world would be a bandit hunter Hartley thought to himself, the man's ring had more than a hundred thousand gold coins and a lot of other precious materials. This ring also had more space than his own, but he wouldn't be so brazen as to wear a bandit leader's ring around so he placed the ring in his pocket. That was a really lucrative ten minutes of work he thought as he took the women and escorted them back to Qin Li and Zhi Ruo.
Hartley didn't care too much about the logistics of the hostages, Hartley reunited them with their wagons and pointed the way back to the road, of course some merchants came over and thrusted rewards of value upon him which he didn't even consider refusing. After giving their thanks and telling Hartley that there were apart of House Hongzu in the capital,the women rescued by Hartley hitched a ride with one of the merchants and left the valley. Hartley regrouped with Ryu Hang and the others quickly as they had only reached five kilometers away from the spot of the ambush.
The ocean and it sounds gradually faded as they traveled inland, on the twelfth day of their journey the Cassia province grew larger in their sights. The Cassia province was large indeed, some three or four times the size of the Hagley province. Hartley had never seen anywhere so large; too wide to be framed by the eyes without swinging one's head to pan back and forth, its walls meandered out for what seems like miles coming to stop where the sea met a cliff. When they reached the main gate, though, it was no wider than the gate to the Wawrika Province. Hartley was about to enter and thought hopefully his stay here would be a lot smoother than the last province. This was the penultimate province on their journey, there was only one province left between them and the capital after this one.