The day for the operation came five days later. Mei Xilan was called in for a meeting with the commanding officers and Rén Xuě. Wu Jian, Shuchang, Zhou Lihua, Zhou Wen, and Hou Jingshu were also present as her bodyguards. It had become well-known by this point that Mei Xilan didn’t go anywhere without at least one of them by her side. Since this meeting was important, she had decided to bring all of them.
“Where is little one?” asked General Feng Han.
Wu Jian assumed he was referring to Youmei. He shrugged. “She’s sleeping in our room.”
“Ah.”
The man said nothing else and instead focused on Rén Xuě, who commanded everyone’s attention with a cough.
According to a report he had received, there was a shipment of supplies coming in from outside of the Sui Kingdom. While the nation was mostly self-sufficient, that didn’t mean they had no need of items from other countries. There were many things this country’s environment was not suitable for producing. Most of them were ingredients for lower tier pills, which were a necessity for any nation that wanted to build up its core strength.
The Shang Kingdom was one of the largest producers of lower-tier ingredients. That was why the Heavenly Sword Sect had signed an alliance with them.
“The supplies are low-tier and middle-tier ingredients for alchemy pills. If the Undying Sun Sect gets their hands on those, their power will only increase. We have to steal them,” Rén Xuě said. “The report we received states the caravan is being protected by a single elder and a group of disciples. The elder is Wang Shun. He’s at the Human Limit Realm. Can I leave him to you, Sui Mei Xilan?”
The casual manner in which Rén Xuě addressed his kingdom’s princess was a sign of blatant disrespect, but Mei Xilan didn’t respond to his provocation. She merely nodded once.
“Good. In that case, the rest of us will kill the disciples. The alchemy ingredients should be inside several storage rings. Be careful not to destroy them during the battle.”
Storage rings were the standard method used to transport goods for cultivators. Depending on the tier and quality of the ring, a lot of content could be stored inside, and whatever was stored inside didn’t expire because time was frozen inside the storage ring. Wu Jian did not know how it worked. Wu Meiying did, however. She said it was the most basic form of space-time sealing arrays.
Since the mission was starting now, everyone filed out of the room and left the base. Not everyone who had been present would be going on this mission. Only Wang Jian and a handful of troops were coming with them.
As they walked outside, Wu Jian’s shadow writhed before, with mind-numbing swiftness, a small tendril split off and leapt into the shadow of a building. Nobody else noticed, and he didn’t pay any attention as the tendril moved from one shadow to another before disappearing entirely.
The base they had been staying at was far to the south-east. They had to traverse numerous forests, swamps, and other small farming villages.
Had they been alone, Wu Jian and his comrades could have reached Siwang Pass in less than a day by flying, but they were traveling with a group and none of them could fly, which meant it took several days to reach their destination.
Siwang Pass was guarded by members of the Undying Sun Sect. They stood before a massive gate. The formidable structure was grand and imposing, designed to deter and control the flow of traffic through the pass. Its colossal proportions towered several stories high and spanned the width of the pass. It was wide enough to accommodate multiple lanes of traffic. However, it didn’t look like it got all that much traffic to begin with. Only a few merchants from outside the country ever bothered coming here.
The gate was constructed using sturdy materials. It looked like stone at first, but according to Rén Xuě, it was made from a meteorite that fell here even before the formation of the Suit Kingdom. There was a story surrounding how this country was formed. A meteorite fell onto this area long ago. When it struck the ground, the land was upturned, mountains were formed, and a deep crevice was created. Many thousands of years after, the land became the way it is today, and that was when people settled on it.
“We need to kill the guards and continue on,” Rén Xuě ordered. “I want to ambush the caravan before they reach the gate.”
“I’ll take care of them then,” Wu Jian said.
Wang Jian, who had traveled with them, raised an eyebrow. “You? How are you going to deal with them?”
“Watch and find out.”
That was all Wu Jian said before he instantly teleported directly in front of the gate. His appearance was so sudden that the guards didn’t even realize he was there, and before they could spot him, Wu Jian waved his hand and released his chi.
[Space Lock]
Everyone in front of him froze--the two people guarding the gate from the ground, the five people standing in the guard posts, and the ten people inside of the barracks. Not a single person before him was able to move, though they would be completely aware of what was happening around them.
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So this is the power I have now that I’ve reached the Deva Realm.
Wu Jian had not tested his newfound power on people weaker than himself. Doing so would tarnish his name as a cultivator and he felt no need to bully the weak. The only reason he was doing this now was because it was for a mission. Up to now, Wu Jian had only used his powers on opponents at the same level or stronger than himself.
People with a strong cultivation base gained a resistance to techniques that affected them, including his spatial techniques. Locking someone’s body in space required a lot of chi, and the stronger a person’s cultivation was, the more chi he needed to keep them locked in space. A powerful cultivator could also break out if they released their chi.
All the people present were only at the Anima Realm, minus one who was at the Asura Realm… but that was still two realms below him. It was akin to an elephant stepping on an ant.
Seconds later, Wu Jian held out his hand and once more activated a technique.
[Spatial Folding]
17 hearts suddenly appeared before him, not beating since they were frozen in time. He squeezed his hand into a fist as though clenching something tight. The hearts were instantly compressed. They vanished as he reduced them to nothing.
Seconds later, Wu Jian released the technique, and the 17 people who had been guarding the gate collapsed like marionettes without strings attached. It had been so quick they hadn’t even felt the pain of their passing.
He turned around to look at the stunned people hiding behind him and gestured for them to hurry up. Mei Xilan was the first one to come over.
“This is my first time seeing you use your powers so flagrantly…” she eyed the corpses. “The Dao of Space is dangerous indeed.”
“You… what sort of power was that?!” The look on Rén Xuě’s face when he asked this question was something Wu Jian would never forget. His face was pale and drawn, but there was a greedy glint in his eyes. He was afraid of the power Wu Jian wielded, but he clearly wanted that power for himself.
“It doesn’t matter if I tell you what kind of power it is, since you won’t be able to use it.”
Wang Jian glared at him. “You don’t know that. It sounds like that’s just an excuse not to tell us. Are you afraid of becoming obsolete because we might learn how to wield that power ourselves?”
Wu Jian shook his head. “You’re an idiot if that’s what you think. The Dao of Space is not something just anyone can learn. It requires a special cultivation method to learn. And even if you did have the cultivation method, you’d need the aptitude to use it.”
Wang Jian and Rén Xuě did not look pleased to hear that. Rén Xuě clearly was not willing to give up.
“But you obviously have the cultivation method for it. Teach me.”
“No. Go fuck yourself.”
“What was that?!”
“How dare you?!”
“Who do you think you are?!”
Immediately after rejecting Rén Xuě’s demand, Wang Jian and a few of the other soldiers began heckling and insulting Wu Jian. He turned his masked face toward them. The moment he did, his chi spilled out like a raging torrent. Black and blue energy erupted from his body and caused the ground to crack. Several tears appeared in space, though they quickly sealed shut, and all the while a massive blue tiger with blazing white eyes appeared behind him and roared.
Wang Jian, his soldiers, and even Rén Xuě were forced to their knees, faces pale, sweat streaming down their shivering bodies. Wu Jian almost scoffed in disgust. These people were not soldiers. They had no discipline and their greed outweighed their common sense. He almost wondered how these people had survived, but he understood that just because they were greedy, it didn’t mean they were stupid. But they were not cultivators in the truest sense. He felt this more than ever now.
“That’s enough, Jian Wu,” Mei Xilan said.
“As you wish.”
Since he was pretending to be her bodyguard, Wu Jian stopped emitting his chi and killing intent, allowing the people shivering on the ground to breathe again. He glared at them one more time before turning away.
Mei Xilan frowned at Rén Xuě and his men. “I understand that you want more power. That is a natural desire. However, you should also follow the Cultivator’s Code. You do not ask a cultivator for their cultivation method. That is beyond rude. It is insulting. Do not do it again.”
The Cultivators Code was a series of guidelines that had been created to prevent cultivators from acting like animals. It had been done to instill a sense of order within the cultivation world. Of course, as was the case with any set of guidelines, not everyone followed them. Even the most honorable of cultivators could become animals consumed by greed if the right stimulus was placed in front of them.
Rén Xuě and the others did not say anything. They looked reluctant to give up, but one look at Wu Jian made them keep their mouths shut.
Shuchang nudged him. “Look at how much of a bigshot you’ve become, bullying the weak.”
Wu Jian clicked his tongue. “I’m not bullying anyone. I just won’t allow someone so weak to make demands of me without suffering the consequences.”
“Relax. Relax. I’m just messing with you.” Shuchang raised his hands in surrender. His expression became serious. “I do agree though. Those people are messed up for demanding you hand over your cultivation method. It’s like they never bothered to learn the Cultivator’s Code.”
“If what we believe is true, then I doubt they have even heard of the Cultivator’s Code,” Hou Jingshu said as she walked up to them.
Wu Jian nodded. There was a very good chance they had never learned the Cultivator’s Code if what they suspected was actually true. In either event, the situation had been resolved for now.
They continued on through the mountain pass consisting of a relatively narrow pathway that wound its way through the rugged terrain of the mountains. Steep cliffs flanked the pass on either side, characterized by rocky outcrops that rose sharply from the valley floor. These sheer rock faces provided natural barriers that protected the pass from wind and sun. According to the history of the Sui Kingdom, this pass was created thousands of years after the meteorite hit, formed from water slowly eroding away the mountainside.
As they traveled toward where they would hopefully find the caravan, Wu Jian wondered if Youmei had any luck finding the base with the kidnapped women. This was the first time he had given her such an important task. He was worried she might get distracted.
Oh, well. It’s too late to do anything now, and she’s the only one with the stealth skills needed to get the job done…
All he could do was pray that she accomplished the task he set before her.