The Twenty-Sixth Route Encounter

  These mercenaries were quite efficient, and before long, a four-horse carriage appeared in front of the small guild hall in Shisong Town. The carriage looked quite luxurious, and at least six people could fit inside. Tang Yan and Zi Lan didn't have much luggage, as Zi Lan had already asked Tang Yan to store her bundle in his spatial ring earlier. She wouldn't normally let Tang Yan help her with her underwear, but since he promised not to take them out or sniff them, she allowed him to store them away.

  Before departure, Tang Yan paid half of the gold coins to Leng Shan's team leader and said that the other half would be paid when they arrived at the Imperial City of the Purple Dragon Empire. In this way, fifty-five mercenaries escorted Tang Yan and his group out of Shisong Town, but unexpectedly, a horse-drawn carriage followed behind them as they left Shisong Town.

  This kind of thing, Leng Shan's mercenaries had seen it many times before. They knew that some people couldn't afford to pay the mercenary fees, so they followed the group by borrowing from others. As for what happened, the mercenary group wouldn't care about them unless some good people lent a helping hand. The horse-drawn carriage behind was less than 20 meters away from Tang Yan's horse, and the person driving the carriage was an old man in his fifties. They didn't know who was inside, only that this morning, the old man had gone to the guild to ask about them going to the Purple Dragon King City.

  "What's with the horse carriage behind?" Tang Yan asked Leng Shantuan, who was standing outside the carriage.

  "They're freeloaders!" Leng Shan replied with a smile, thinking to himself: "This young man looks like he's around twenty years old, yet he's a great martial artist. No wonder he has so much money, he must be the young master of some wealthy family!"

  "Want to mooch off us for a meal?" Tang Yan asked, somewhat puzzled.

  "You're really stupid, they are a group of mercenaries without money, and it just so happens that they are going in the same direction as you, so they followed along. Got it?" Zilan replied to Tang Yan's question.

  "Oh, I see. Alright, I'll go into seclusion then. Don't bother calling me for meals or anything, I'll wake up on my own." Tang Yan said after discovering they had already left Shi Song Town five miles behind.

  "Alright, go ahead, I'll take a nap too!" Zi Lan said.

  Tang Yan sat cross-legged in the carriage, with the two-ton heavy Snow Blower placed on his thighs, his hands flat on the icy surface of the Snow Blower, and closed his eyes to meditate.

  When Tang Yan appeared in the snowy border, he didn't expect that the white-clothed middle-aged man would appear thirty meters in front of him. The snowflakes danced around, making him look like a proud and powerful master standing alone between heaven and earth. After Tang Yan appeared, his right hand slowly extended from his shoulder to his back, grasping the two-meter-long Snow Sweeper sword handle behind his back. His eyes, like piercing through the sky, stared motionlessly at the snow peak in front of him.

  Tang Yan knew that the other party must be planning to pass on his skills to him, so he stood still in his original position, staring at his hands without moving, afraid of missing a single movement.

  In about half a minute, the middle-aged man in the snow-white clothes suddenly had his garments fluttering without wind, and his feet seemed to be spinning like a whirlpool. The snowflakes around him were swirling around his feet like a small tornado. In an instant, there was a loud "bang" sound, and the small tornado at his feet transformed into a powerful gust of wind that spread out with him as its center. At the same time, a deafening roar rang in Tang Yan's ears.

  "This, this is... My god!" Tang Yan looked towards the sound and found that a snow peak one mile away had been cut in half. However, Tang Yan felt very strange again.

  Because he found that the man in white, with snow on his hair and no sword in hand, hadn't even made a move to draw his sword, how could the snow peak in front of him be split in two? There was only one possibility - he must have cheated in this space.

  The power of one person, destroying the sky and earth Tang Yan had heard from Tian Xiong that as long as he reached the level of Dou Zun or Dou Di, a single finger could crush a mountain peak. As for being able to split a giant mountain in two with one sword, it wasn't impossible, but Tang Yan really didn't see how he did it when he drew out his Snow Piercer.

  As Tang Yan thought about this, the white-clothed figure in front of him sent a message, and the snowy realm also echoed: "This move is called: Lihe Style. Leaving is merging, merging is leaving."

  "Damn it, form is emptiness, emptiness is form, I've heard that before, what's separation is union, union is separation. You clearly haven't even drawn your sword, yet you're spouting nonsense." Tang Yan scolded in response.

  He scolded him like that, not because he didn't believe what the man in white said, but because he wanted the other party to explain it clearly to him. Unfortunately, the other party didn't bother with this guy and only left a sentence: "Separation is union, union is separation!" Let him slowly figure it out.

  Without getting a response from the other party, Tang Yan could only think to himself, looking at the snow on the ground that was cut by the sword, and then looking at the distant snow peak that was split in two. Tang Yan muttered to himself: "Could it be that the guy just drew his sword? But I didn't see him draw his sword at all. Could it be that separation is actually union, and union is actually separation, is that what it means?"

  Tang Yan seemed to have thought of something, and immediately ran over, blowing the snow on his back. Then, like the white-clothed person earlier, he reached for the hilt of his sword behind him. He imitated the movement, gathering the aura on his body onto his middle finger, from his feet to his hand. Unfortunately, there was no wave of air or whirlwind. However, Tang Yan's speed in drawing his sword was much faster than usual, separating and reuniting in an instant.

  This principle is simple, pull out and put back in, put back in and pull out again, making people feel that he is not pulling out his sword, nor can they feel that he has attacked before, this is the parting-and-joining style.

  Dian Xue Xun Men style, Tang Yan can reach a moment to strike out thousands of styles, now he only needs to strike out one style, barely one strike, but the speed is extremely fast. At the same time as striking out that one strike, he also has to put the sword back into the scabbard, this way he can achieve separation and unity.

  No problem, there is plenty of time in this space, Tang Yan can slowly and repeatedly practice the action of drawing his sword and putting it back. Although he couldn't cut a mountain peak in half with one sword, he could use his internal energy to split a stone in half from a hundred paces away. However, making no sound or trace was a bit more difficult.

  "Damn it, why isn't my aura transparent!" Tang Yan concentrated the aura inside his body on top of Baisu, and a crescent-shaped slash landed on the surface of a giant boulder 100 meters away.

  One day, two days, three days, four days, five days... After practicing for ten days, Tang Yan only felt that he was familiar with the movement of drawing his sword and sheathing it, and it was very smooth and perfect. He also felt that his dantian had a bit more qi, which seemed to be the result of his ten days of hard practice.

  After ten days of hard practice, equivalent to twenty hours outside, when Tang Yan woke up, he took a look around for the first time. The sky was already evening on the second day, in this desolate wilderness, they could only find a place to rest and eat beside the official road.

  Rather than saying they were eating, it would be better to say that they were all eating the dry rations they carried on their bodies. Between cities and towns, it took at least two or three days of travel time. What mercenaries usually ate while traveling was dry rations or game they hunted in the wild, and only when they arrived at a city or town would they eat a good meal at an inn, and then replenish their supplies again - this was the usual way of life for mercenaries.

  Tang Yan had a spatial ring, so he and Zilan didn't eat the ordinary dry rations like these mercenaries. The dry rations they ate were also bought from the tavern, including pastries and some dried meat. After eating these things, Tang Yan took out several red sweet potatoes from his spatial ring. The red sweet potatoes were purchased by Tang Yan in Shisong when he bought over ten kilograms and threw them inside. Anyway, his spatial ring was thirty cubic meters in size, the shelf life of the red sweet potatoes was very long, and they were also coarse grains, healthy food.

  Gather some dry firewood and hay, Tang Yan and Zi Lan started their first roasted potato in the foreign land on horseback. The mercenaries took turns keeping watch at night, while the others rested on the ground. Less than 15 meters away from Tang Yan, another horse carriage also stopped to rest, but no one got off except for a middle-aged old man who walked towards Tang Yan with a smile and said: "Sir, can you sell me two potatoes? I'll give you two gold coins!"

  Two gold coins? Come to think of it, Tang Yan also spent two gold coins in Shisong Town and bought several dozen kilograms of red potatoes from the farmer uncle.

  "This is for you, don't need money, take it!" Tang Yan said, tossing him a few slightly charred potatoes from the ground.

  "Thank you!" said the Chinese teacher to Tang Yan, although these few were roasted a bit charred, but inside there are still two-thirds that can be eaten.

  "Grandmaster's mood is good, don't be polite!" Tang Yan said to Zilan, looking at his little junior sister's stunning beauty.

  "Pffft!" Zilan saw Tang Yan's old self selling a smile.

  "Wife, what are you smiling at?" Tang Yan asked, seeing Zilan smile.

  "When did I become your wife? What nonsense are you talking about?" Zilan's face turned red upon hearing Tang Yan's words, fortunately the darkening sky obscured her blush.

  "These are your father's words. As long as I meet his requirements, he will arrange for you to marry me. Now I have met the requirements!" Tang Yan said.

  "I'm done with you, I'm going to eat!" Zilan turned her head away, holding the roasted red sweet potato in her hand.

  On the other side, a middle-aged man was holding a pile of charred red sweet potatoes and sending them into the horse-drawn carriage. He himself sat beside it eating dry rations. It made others feel that the person inside was either ill or not to be seen in public light, otherwise why would they always hide inside without coming out, even eating was done inside.

  However, Tang Yan didn't care about other people's business. He knew that injuring the Second Elder of the Tianying Sect would not be forgiven, although they wouldn't attack him in a short period of time, but he couldn't guarantee what would happen later. With the internal injury of that old man, Tang Yan determined that it would take at least five or six days for him to recover, so he had to practice hard during this period and increase his strength.

  Unfortunately, the old man is still in a coma, otherwise Tang Yan would have borrowed his strength and killed the opponent with one sword, which would have been the end of it, and there would be no need to worry about being pursued by others.

  After finishing his meal, Tang Yan crawled back into the carriage and sat down, continuing to practice that one move: when separated is combined, when combined is separated sword energy. It's not just sword energy, a giant peak was split in two, while the person wielding the sword didn't take half a step back.

  On the mountain of Jianzong, one of the ten sects of the Purple Dragon Empire.

  "Our lord, our people have tracked their movements. It's likely that the map is in their possession," said an intelligence officer from the Sword Sect.

  "Alright, let the seniors in the hall handle this matter. I'd rather not show my face. Remember, we can't let them know that we're from the Sword Sect!" said Jianzong.

  "Master, don't worry, when we acted before, we also did it secretly, it's just that we didn't expect the young lady from the Xuan Yuan family to be outside, which led to this oversight." he said.

  "This time I won't blame you, but you must bring things back!" Jianzong said to him in a commanding tone.