"Boy, you're sure you should help them out and risk your life?! Seriously, you barely know them and they're demons!"

"I'm not reckless. If there is no chance of winning, I have ways to leave. In fact, this sand will prove very helpful for that in case of emergency. Besides, who tells you that I can't win? However, I'm not just helping them out of the kindness in my heart. Getting closer to this tribe will help me in the long run. Furthermore, weakening City Lord Sihe is always a good thing, so is weakening the Nalupu Kingdom."

"If you want my opinion, you should just take what you need and leave. With your mind cultivation, you could probably engrave a few seals in those demons to force them to obey you. Gifting them to City Lord Gui will also do nicely. It will weaken City Lord Sihe and will even strengthen your cooperation with that woman."

"Except that I don't wish to enslave anyone. I've agreed to associate myself with Boss Gui because it will bear a lot of benefits but that doesn't meant that I agree with her actions. Instead of trying to instill more doubt in me, stay silent. If you want to be helpful, try to think of good array formations to increased their defenses. Lately, your knowledge of array formations has become too superficial."

"My injury is serious. Even now, I haven't fully recovered from that old bastard's mind. But remember, if you die, I die too. So don't be reckless. You have no allegiance to those demons. I understand that having a good impression could be useful, but it's not worth your life!"

"I know. Trust me, I know."

Looking around the settlement, Cao Yun wasn't looking at demons, he was looking at sad and frightened cultivators. There wasn't any kid, but there were still families. He could tell that some had lost their closed ones in the recent raid while others were afraid to suffer the same fate in the coming attack.

For a few days, Cao Yun and Sha Lang Hu put together some plan. Sha Lang Hu wasn't a great expert of battle formations, but with Cao Yun's meager knowledge of the art combined with his understanding of array formations, they improved their ranks. The entire settlement was also mobilized to set up array formations and prepare traps. Many were sent in the desert to hide in the sand. If Cao Yun himself had failed to notice the vanguard, no one else would be able to do so. Besides no Accomplished Demon was supposed to participate in the raid.

Despite that intel, Cao Yun was still working on the assumption that the attack would be led by an early Accomplished Demon. They didn't have the time to prepare correctly, but they could increased their chances. The more Cao Yun thought about the upcoming battle, the more he realized that this settlement was just too weak. Even if they had Chieftain Sha Chain Ren, he couldn't really fight on the front line. And they couldn't get reinforcements from other settlements.

After most of the planning was done, Cao Yun didn't stay to take part in the preparations. Instead, he decided to scout ahead. After all, they had no clear idea where the forces of City Lord Sihe were. Neither did they know their number and their formation. Thus, Cao Yun decided to tale care of that. He went alone with Hongyu as he was confident in his stealth.

Sha Lang Hu and Xixue tried to convince him not to go alone, but he refused. His chances were way higher alone. Besides, he didn't want to show his actual cultivation to them in case he had to use it. And to be honest, he also wanted to make sure that the information he had received was correct. As much as he didn't want to see this tribe slaughtered, he had no intention of giving his own life if there was no chance of winning. If worse came to worst, he could still try to evacuate some of the tribesmen to regroup with other tribes and mount a counter offensive against them.

Apart from Xixue and a little bit Meiyue, he knew no one in the tribe. Even in the few days he had spent along with them, he had not been able to grow too close to them. In fact, he had expressly avoided to grow too close to them knowing that no matter what would happen, some if not many of them would perish.

On top of Hongyu, the young human circulated his 'Ashen Feather Seal' to its limit while also using his spiritual senses to probe the sand all around him. This time he could not afford to be surprised at all. Hongyu rose high in the sky. With both her and Cao Yun's senses, they could see extremely far. Besides, she was much faster than any battalion sent in an unfamiliar desert.

No matter how confident he was, Cao Yun was also very careful. After more than thirty hours, they finally detected the signs of cultivators walking in the desert. This was a group of around forty cultivators. Leading them were two young men and an old woman. All three of them had clearly suffered quite a lot. One of the men was missing an arm and the injury was roughly treated. It was most likely that it had happened during the fights. After all, they had no reason to use that kind of method while they had seals that could inflict untold torments. Moreover, damaging young slaves was not a very good idea and their master wanted a lot of slaves.

Looking at their faces from afar, it was clear that they had been psychologically destroyed. Although he couldn't tell whether they had received the Slavery Brand or not, their wills were obviously broken. The battalion was using them as hound dogs to find the settlements of the Sand Wolves Tribe. The two young men were barely fifteen and their eyes were empty. No matter what kind of technique they had used, they were helping them without any passion.

Thankfully, Cao Yun could tell that the battalion had very little discipline. Their clothes were disparate and so were their cultivation levels. Most of the battalion was made of late Blood Children. However, there was also a uniform group of soldiers who looked professional. Those soldiers were middle Golden Blood Children at the very least but only eight of them were in this group. Contrary to the others, they were extremely disciplined. Taking them head-on would be a terrible mistake.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Boy, I don't think that this is their main force..."

"Indeed. They're probably some kind of advanced or search party. I'm not too sure about the ways of City Lord Sihe, but their main forces should be at least four or five times their size."

"... Maybe... It seems like he really wants to enslave a lot of those Sand Wolves people. Even if you can help them get out of this crisis, they'll fall into another, maybe even worse than this one."

"The tribes need to unite their strengths if they want to survive and stay free."

"Survive for what? Prolonging their torments?"

Day after day, Cao Yun was growing weary of this new Dian Mo. Since his injury, he had clearly become much more negative. For quite some time, the young human had grow closer to the Palace Spirit. But recently, he was more annoying than anything else. And he had also become less useful when it came to array formations.

"I already told you I had a plan for this continent. Those tribes could be useful in the long run. And I promised Xixue I would help her anyway. If I really think there is no hope, I'll just escape with her and her cousin. I could even take away a few tribesmen as well. In fact, we could use the attack on the Sand Wolves Tribe to unite the other tribes against City Lord Sihe. But the best outcome would be if I can at least reduce the number of casualties. There is no doubt that many will die and I know it. I won't fight a hopeless battle. So don't worry about your own survival! But for now, leave me alone as I need to think."

While remaining hidden high in the air on Hongyu's back, Cao Yun observed carefully the cultivators. His main concern was obviously the eight trained soldiers. The other ones could easily be destroyed by a united force. In fact, they would probably disband in case of real danger. Those were not disciplined soldiers. Most likely they were mercenaries of some kind. Since they were there for money, they would value their lives more than their mission.

If he were to face the eight soldiers himself, Cao Yun wasn't absolutely sure he could even kill them. But if they escaped, they would know his real cultivation and this would be a problem. However, if they didn't see his face, it would not be an issue.. Many plans emerged in his mind as he was observing them. Thankfully, they were not being too fast and the three Sand Wolves tribesmen were in no hurry to bring them to the settlement.

Even though Cao Yun didn't know what they were using to force those three, he thought he could use them. Since there was no Accomplished Demon in that group, they would have a hard time sensing his spiritual senses. Thus, he decided to expand them toward the three tribesmen. Because he was trying to stay very far away from the group, it was a bit difficult to spread it all the way down. Thanks to his training, he was able to do so without too much problem.

Looking around their bodies, he found a lot of injuries. The battle they had been in had truly been violent and they seemed to have fought till the bitter end. Unfortunately, they had no chance against the army they had faced. However, there was no form of seal in their flesh or blood. Cao Yun also looked carefully at their bones and everything was in order. Then, he decided to examine their seas of consciousness. And that was when he found the issue. There were strange marks in them. But they were not the Slavery Brand he had seen before. It was an even more complex form of seal.

Examining them closer, Cao Yun felt some ominous sensation out of those marks. Given his distance, Cao Yun could only get a vague understanding of what was going on in their seas of consciousness. To get a real view of them, he would need to send a larger amount of his own Turbid Demons in. The three tribesmen were too weak to put up any resistance. But even if they had, they were not on Cao Yun's level at all. What really made him think though was the fact that those seals did seem much more complex than the Slavery Brand.

The Slavery Brand was a kind of seal imagined by City Lord Sihe so it could easily be used on others. Thus, this brand could even be planted by a Golden Blood Child thanks to the equivalent of an array formation plate. It wasn't out of the question that the same process could be used for other seals. But even through this technique, not everyone could activate correctly a complicated seal. Besides, it was much more difficult to put it on some array formation plate. So Cao Yun was wondering whether there was an Accomplished Demon among the army.

In that vanguard, this wasn't the case. But there could be one in the larger force. And in that case, Cao Yun would be in a real pinch. Taking on an Accomplished Demon was on the same level as taking on a Spirit Warrior. It wasn't something he wanted to do without being prepared for it. However, it wasn't completely impossible. After all, he had already killed a Spirit Warrior, but with several weeks of preparation beforehand. Dian Mo's words echoed in his mind. And he was wondering if it was worth it.

Anyway, for the time being, he was looking for info. So he kept on examining the seals in those three tribesmen. For that, he would need to get closer though. He was already mobilizing his 'Ashen Feather Seal' to its limit so he couldn't really improve that. After lowering Hongyu's altitude, Cao Yun was still unable to perceive their seas of consciousness well enough. And he wasn't sure he wanted to try getting even lower than that. If he was discovered, the situation would become worse. He didn't want anyone to warn the main force of the attack.

After thinking about it some more, Cao Yun circled the group a few times using his full spiritual senses to make sure that there was no other party following them. Thankfully, there was no one. They were not careful enough apparently. So he decided to go ahead with his idea. Retrieving his spear from his spatial ring, Cao Yun used a combination of 'Azure Dragon's Seven Piercing Stars' and 'Three Storms' to summon the winds. He had actually never done that in such a manner. But it wasn't too difficult. The two martial arts were related to the Wind element.

Before long, a small tornado rose above Cao Yun. Using even his Qi Manifestation, there was a large dragon rising higher and higher in the sky. Because he was farther than the group, he was well hidden so he unleashed as much strength as he could without endangering Hongyu in the process.

Suddenly, the Azure dragon dove down. It completely disappeared in the sand in a large dust of Fire Qi. Even Cao Yun could feel the aggressive nature of the Fire Qi as he was manipulating the Qi Manifestation of the Azure Dragon. His Rune of Fire, Drop of Wrath and Spear Aura were all working to strengthen his technique. Swimming in the very sand, the Azure dragon reached the vanguard party. All around them, there was now a small whirlwind.

It didn't take long for this whirlwind to expand. More and more sand was sent all over the place. While the three tribesmen were in a weakened state, they were used to the harshness of the desert. On the other hand, the vanguard party wasn't. This completely stopped their group. Moreover, they were not familiar with the movements of the wind in the Desolate Dune Desert so they didn't realize such a change was strange for this place.

The eight disciplined soldiers circulated their Golden Blood and spread their Wei Qi to protect themselves while the rest of the mercenaries were pinned down by the sudden sandstorm they were in. No one was able to pay attention to their surroundings too much. This was a great opportunity for Cao Yun.