Wu Guang decided to not reveal himself more than it was necessary and so as the shouting about finding the missing women ended, he silently grabbed his suspect, or to be exactly one of the culprits.
Finding a secluded spot in a small place like the camp to interrogate would be hard, neither he did plan to. After putting the man under full suppression, he used his aura to carefully control his movements and left with him, telling a quick lie to the guards about needing the man as a guide.
Afterward, he simply forcibly extracted everything he needed from the man's memory. With the target being a mortal, and Wu Guang not giving him the reprieve of being unconscious, one could only imagine the pain and anguish the poor bastard felt while every single thought, memory, and experience was examined.
In short, the bastard and three of his similarly rotten companions decided that their new location was the best one to start a business. Namely a brothel. Except that they did not want to pay anything, or even allow the girls to have a say. They simply intended to force them.
Initially, it went well, and as Wu Guang found, they got their hands on a wagon, and now constantly moving, while careful to avoid the Clan's people, offered their services near different camps. With the slight exception that they simply sold unwilling women and girls.
But now they required more women and girls, and Wu Guang shuddered at the thought of what they had done with the previous batch because one of them ran away. Still, they did not manage to kidnap the five women outside, and so tried to do it inside the camp. Which ended in the result he saw, the women fought back, and the... creatures killed them. The deed was done by the one he captured and one of the associates, while the other two guarded the wagon.
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As it took him some time to get the information, and because he decided to give the doubtful honor of capture to the Clansmen, at least to make the people perceive them in a better light, Wu Guang contacted Lang Zheng. After retelling everything, as well as passing the whining and pissing shell of a man that he had interrogated to him, Wu Guang was sure that everything would be solved.
And indeed it was, as the glyph that reached Wu Guang the next, 5th of the war day, informed that the other three were captured, interrogated, and executed in front of the camp. Three young women were also rescued and returned to their camp, the first that the slavers had 'visited'.
A good deed being a good deed, Wu Guang attention was caught by the last phrase of the message glyph
"An incident occurred in the Sect. They did not provide much information, but it seems that it was serious and that they expect the Eagle's to arrive not later than in two days"
The fact that no information was provided about the incident itself, even to the Clans! Was already surprising, as Wu Guang could not think of anything short of a disaster to make them maintain secrets between themselves and practically what constituted the other half of the available island forces. Still, he did not know how the headmaster operated or what he planned, but he was sure this was on his order, so trying to find anything would be unwise. At least for now.
But the really important part of the message was the fact that the invading army would be arriving so quickly. Wu Guang did not hear most of what did the Council discuss, but from what he gathered, they expected the eagles to lose about a week at the Qiu lands, and then slowly proceed towards the sect. Reaching it in between two and three weeks since the invasion day. Even more, Chen Jiahao himself had guessed something like that.
And however one may think that the day in which the Sect would be faced with the need to go on full defensive mode, hunkering behind the formation did not affect Wu Guang, the thinker would be severely mistaken. If the Eagles found out that they could not break the formation, they would also see that the Sect forces would not leave either... Which translated in a possible, or to say logical movement of at least part of their forces towards the cities.
Coastal Hill City was empty, with only the garrison and a few hundreds of people remaining. This may streak out as a division of forces, but actually, it was a well-premeditated move by the City Lord. If the Eagle Kingdom laid siege to the city, then he would pull at least some of the enemies from other places and allow them to act. And if they did not, then he would be free to flank them on a signal. And whatever anyone could think or say about the City Lord, Quan Su had remained with his guards and announced that he would lead them in person. He only allocated a few people of his own family as the leaders of the evacuees now present in the Wildlands, while he stayed behind with the entire bulk of his cultivators and advisors.
'Blue Tree City' Lord Xiao was initially more-or-less of the same mind, but because of the closeness to the Sect, he did abandon the city and joined the allied forces in the past three days ago. Leaving behind only an empty city.
As for the 'Boundary Hill City' Lord Wei, the latter had abandoned it right away. In fact, he evacuated even before the first of his city mortals left. Right now he was holed in the center of the Wildlands, the Assembly of Clans. "At least the coward left the guard commander with orders to follow Lang Zheng's or the Wolf Clan Head, Lang Mu's orders" Were the exact words that Elder Chen said during the council.
In any case, Wu Guang knew that the latter city would be bare when the Eagles arrived, and he hoped that the formation would activate as predicted. Because if not, there will be far more problems and dangers for him and his group than simply meeting the entire Eagle Army head-on.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
It's not that he distrusted Lady Xian or the words of Chen Jiahao, no, he simply preferred to see everything for himself, which regretfully he did not in this case. "Still, if the formation here was of the same quality as the one in the Sect, there should be no problems" He thought.
"Leaving everything aside, the fact that they are moving so fast means that they have some plan... And some secret advantage. After all, how could they only spend a pair of days to break the Qiu's? And the 'Flowing Leaves Sect'? I wonder if that serious incident had something to do with it. And far more importantly, what does it spells for us..." Wu Guang muttered while running down different options of what would happen during the next days. And as he observed the growing amount of heavy, brownish clouds gathering above the 'Demonic Plateau', he did not allow himself to forget that the Death rain was about to start. And that the Black Eagles were very, very interested in it...
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It took less than three hours for the effect to show. Seemingly the Eagle Kindom did not believe in lulling the enemy into fake safety by inactivity, no, it followed the exact opposite of that philosophy.
First, Xiao Feng reported that a fight had begun near the supply depots. Neither he nor Wi managed to observe who was the instigator, but there was one for sure. Someone had agitated a few hundreds of mortals claiming that there were only a day or two worth of supplies left. And as no one was permitted to see the real amount, except for the few cultivators like Xiao Feng who were responsible for it... Thankfully there were no cultivators in the mob, and so Xiao Feng even posing as a Body realm along with the other nineteen real Body realm cultivators was enough to disperse the mob. No real damage had been done, but that was just the start.
Not more than a quarter of an hour later, Kuang Jing reported a fight between low-level cultivators from the Assembly and the ones from the villages. It was stopped almost immediately, but it still strain the already strained relations between the Assembly Clansmen and the refugees.
Ren Ah had caught the person who paid for the attempt of burning the camp he and his partner were guarding, but it resulted that he was only one of several people paid by yet another one to organize such actions. In the end, and with Wu Guang's bitter allowance, both Elites were forced to reveal their identities and cultivations and scour a few camps, catching anyone at least half-involved.
The most probable ringleader was captured, and it turned out to be an Underhill group criminal and one at the peak of the Spirit realm. Which arose the question, how did he manage to enter the Wildlands?
A few less severe issues cropped at the main camps, but both Duqi and Lang Juan counted with the assistance of their clansmen, and so solved them immediately. Still, they had to use force, something that did not help build trust between the refugees and the clansmen.
Wu Guang also received a joint report from a few of Lang Zheng's men, who had seen, heard, or even captured people who were instigating others. They cited reasons so stupid that no one sane should have believed, like that there was no war and all this was a way to allow them to be sold as slaves to the clansmen. Worse, they had found a few willing ears already.
During late noon, Wei had also encountered one of these so-called prophets of truth. He did manage to neutralize him pretty quickly, but before the sun had set, someone else had whipped a far more aggressive mob to storm the supplies. Their intent was something like checking the amount and dividing it equally to everyone, seemingly having heard that some caps were getting far more than others. And different from the first one, this time at least the front men consisted of cultivators. They were mostly Body realm village bumpkins that never had fought another cultivator in their lives, but as some of them carried torches, and threatened to burn down everything if they were not allowed inside, the situation got very dangerous.
In the end, Wu Guang was forced to allow Xiao Feng to reveal his identity, and with the help of his father as well a few guards from the Blue Tree City begin what could be only referred to as a shouting match. Thankfully most of the people were reasonable enough, but the fact that at least some that weren't reasonable existed meant that a well-placed incident or two could start a true revolt.
A few smaller incidents occurred during the night, but they were solved quickly by both Wu Guang's team and guard teams drafted from the Blue Tree City. Lang Mu who as the most powerful, and the only Sage realm cultivator of the Clans was considered the military commander in the end was forced to declare a curfew. Wu Guang agreed with the reasons behind it, but even so, that would make the situation even more volatile.
At the end, when the first rays of the sun illuminated the Wildlands, the overall count for incidents since Wu Guang's arrival reached almost a hundred. The people either killed, injured, captured, or executed while solving them numbered many more. And more than half of both courtesy of a single, 5th day.
"Everyone spent the day and entire night in full alert and will need to rest for a bit... I just hope we are allowed to do so" Wu Guang muttered as the 6th day began.