Five colorfully dressed women rode out of a bamboo thicket, back onto the dirt road, meeting a large column of traveling people. There were carts pulled by oxen and carriages pulled by horses. Those not as fortunate brought whatever they could carry. There were several thousand commoners and they snaked along the dusty road for miles and miles. Among them were the old and the young and entire families, all making their way slowly westward.An elderly man in a green robe rode up to meet them. His hair and thin beard was pure white, but he looked energetic and alert. He was the mayor of the town from where these refugees came from. They had been on the road for a week of arduous travel but there were among the lucky ones, having cultivators to protect them.
"Heroines!" He cupped his fists and bowed upon meeting them, "Thank heavens you are alright. May I ask, how did it go? I hope you were successful."
"Mayor Zhang, rest a.s.sured. Your people are safe to continue. The goblin raiders have been eliminated." Li Yuechan greeted him.
"Don"t worry old man, a bunch of goblins are not a problem for us!" Su Xue added while twirling her sword.
Mayor Zhang looked closely and saw that they carried the marks of battle. There were bits of blood splattered on their robes and armor. He couldn"t help but bow and thank them. "Heroines, bless you. I cannot thank you enough. If it were not for your efforts, countless lives would have been lost."
Li Yuechan nodded. "Let"s go, there"s still a long way to travel."
"Yes!"
The six of them rode back to the road and joined the convey. Those in the crowd that saw them return cheered for their saviors, buoyed by the excitement of escaping certain death. There were no decent cultivators within Mayor Zhang"s people. If it were not for Li Yuechan"s group, the two hundred or so goblin raiders at the peak of the Mind Focusing Realm would have decimated them.
Despite this attack, Red Bamboo Province as a whole in the last few weeks was faring better than compared to the beginning of the monster invasion. Perhaps it was due to the two famous sects, the Glacier Sect and Divine Blazing Mountain, ramping up their efforts. Or it may simply be due to the first wave of attacks running out of steam. Regardless, the front line stabilized with no large scale monster waves and the commoners were able to flee with less dangers. This was excellent news for everybody except the cultivators competing against each other to climb the compet.i.tion leaderboard. Fewer immediate threats for the time being meant that a lot of missions dealt with helping people retreat west and protecting those convoys. These missions were long, boring, and did not help their cultivation. There were also less points as there were less monsters to slay.
Li Yuechan and her sisters were currently on such a mission. All five of them had stayed in Red Bamboo Province since the start of the monster fighting compet.i.tion. While they had not made much progress on the mission given by Immortal Gentle Lotus, they were doing well in the compet.i.tion with all of them currently in the top one thousand.
Chen Wentian would visit them once every two weeks or so but he mostly let them be. There was no worry about their safety, after all. Before leaving he told them to focus on these convoy missions and try to implement Zhou Ziyun"s recruitment operation in Red Bamboo Province as well.
This was also the reason their convoy was headed towards Crystal Bamboo City instead of directly west. Gong Liyun had set up a series of zones along the entire theater of operations. Escort missions were considered complete if the people were escorted into the safe zones. Most cultivators in the compet.i.tion took the shortest route to a safe zone to maximize their efficiency. Li Yuechan would instead have to take her people all the way to Crystal Bamboo City which was deep within the safe zone.
"Wushuang, do we really have to follow these people?" Xu Lanyi complained, "We could be getting more points instead!"
She was quite unsatisfied with the possibility of falling out of the top one thousand leaderboard. Song Wushuang was also a bit unhappy but she accepted Chen Wentian"s plan while Xu Lanyi obviously was having trouble.
"Lanyi, Master already explained it. We need to help them teleport to Dragon Flower Province. Didn"t you ask this an hour ago?" Song Wushuang was exasperated.
"I"m just saying... plus, this is boring. We could be grabbing more points!" Xu Lanyi then had another thought, "Hey! What do you think about the latest leaderboard? What happened to senior sister Qianyu? She"s fallen from first place. What is master doing!"
"Yeah..." Su Xue said, "Her points haven"t gone up in a week."
At the top of the leaderboard, Wu Qianyu had held onto first place for four straight weeks. It was a source of pride for the girls whenever they met members of other sects. It was a testament to the strength of their sect, and it saved them a lot of trouble. They were quite shocked when she quickly fell out of the top ten within a week of inactivity. It wasn"t just them, everybody else in the compet.i.tion were also wondering what was going on. In that time, Long Yifei had taken the lead, followed by cultivators from other top sects including Peng Xiling from the Tower of Swords.
They tried asking Chen Wentian about what happened with Wu Qianyu but he didn"t disclose much, only that she was in secret training. He also stayed for a few hours with them before rus.h.i.+ng back to Cloudy Mountain Province. It made them wonder about was going on.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d... He obviously shows way more favoritism towards her and the other two senior sisters." Xu Lanyi huffed, "What do they have that we don"t, that lecher."
"Sigh, why do you always speak of master like that? He treats us very well." Song Wushuang said.
Xu Lanyi snorted. "Hmph, don"t talk like I"m that close to him!"
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"You sure? I think you two were pretty close, many times." Song Wushuang replied.
Su Yue couldn"t help but spit out the water she was drinking in laughter. Su Xue giggled as well.
"You guys!" Xu Lanyi yelled, turning red.
They argued and chatted while they rested on their horses. Soon, it was time for patrols again. Since there were only five of them, they could not protect everyone at once. The best strategy was to fan out on patrols to find threats long before they could approach the convoy.
Li Yuechan directed them to their a.s.signed routes. "Three more days of travel to Red Bamboo City. Let"s get them there safe and sound. Head out!"
"Yes!"