Chapter Forty-Five Blue Jade City

  Scarface's strength realm was not much higher than Qin Yun's, but his swordsmanship was absolutely brilliant. The speed at which he drew his sword was as swift as a whirlwind, leaving Qin Yun almost breathless.

  Unable to see through his opponent's sword style, Qin Yun could only passively defend.

  Fortunately, he had practiced the twelve forms of the Blazing Sword Technique to perfection, and with his strongest defensive move, Iron Wall Flame Cycle, he was able to firmly repel his opponent's thunderous attack from the outside.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The clash of swords, the collision of energies was as dense as rain hitting banana leaves. Under the scar-faced scout's frantic attack, he kept retreating, like a small boat in a storm that could capsize at any moment.

  However, the scar-faced man did not have the slightest joy of gaining the upper hand. He went all out to push his sword momentum to the extreme. If it were an ordinary opponent, under such a swift and dense offensive, they would inevitably reveal a fatal flaw.

  But Qin Yun looked at the defeat, but defended tightly without leaving any gaps, and didn't give him any chance.

  After a dozen or so moves, Scarface felt a wave of powerlessness in his heart.

  Although he was confident that he could take down Qin Yun, it was absolutely not something that could be done in a short time. Once Qin Yun's reinforcements arrived, the one who would be taken down would likely be himself!

  Under the circumstances, Scarface quickly made a decision.

  Lao Liu, I'm sorry!

  He glanced at his companion who was still wailing on the ground and suddenly turned his sword.

  Before Qin Yun could react, the scar-faced scout's willow-leaf sword ruthlessly pierced the throat of another scout!

  He killed his companion and suddenly darted towards the mountain forest in the direction of the right side.

  The scar-faced man retreated too quickly, and Qin Yun didn't even have time to stop him, he could only watch as his opponent calmly escaped.

  Whoosh!

  Just as the scar-faced man was about to enter the woods, a dazzling sword aura suddenly broke through the air and struck down at him in a straight line!

  Scarface rebuked him with a loud shout and instinctively raised his sword to block.

  Clang!

  The sword energy dissipated into nothingness, the scar-faced guard stood stupidly in place, and what was originally a fierce gaze was now filled with bewilderment and shock.

  The willow-leaf sword in his hand broke into two pieces silently, and a thin trail of blood flowed down from his forehead.

  The next moment, the scar-faced candidate's corpse crashed to the ground, shattered by the sword energy, and bright red blood mixed with green internal organs flowed all over the floor, dead beyond death!

  Twenty steps away, Lin Dong suddenly appeared.

  When he saw the guest officer appear, Qin Yun let out a big sigh of relief.

  That sword light that just came, although it wasn't aimed at him, the astonishing momentum that could cleave through heaven and earth, leaving nothing unbroken, still made his breathing stagnate.

  This sword made Qin Yun truly experience the mighty swordsmanship of a strong practitioner in the Great Perfection of Qi Refining Realm!

  "You've done a great job!"

  Lin Dong walked over at a moderate pace, and on his usually stern face, a rare smile appeared: "Search them to see which group of thieves they belong to."

  On the corpse, Qin Yun searched out two black metal plaques.

  The metal plaque is no more than half the size of a palm, and I don't know what material it's made of. It's heavy and has a lot of weight to it. The surface is also carved with intricate patterns.

  He handed these two metal plates over to Lin Dong's hands.

  Lin Dong looked around and his expression gradually became solemn: "It's the scouts of Gu Mountain, I didn't expect their influence to expand here so quickly!"

  Yan Yun has four great bandits, Guo Shanfeng, Hei Laoyao, Tie Kuangge and Bai Niangzi. These four powerful thieves have the strength of Xiantian Realm and hundreds of thousands of subordinates, gathering in the mountains and forests to wreak havoc on one side.

  The territory of Guo Shan Feng is mainly in the southern part of Xiguan Lantian, and it is also a great enemy of the Qin family.

  Although the Qin family cooperated with the Great Yan army to repeatedly besiege and annihilate them, they never truly eliminated this gang of bandits. In recent years, they have instead grown stronger and stronger, repeatedly raiding the Qin family's mines and merchant caravans, causing enormous losses for the Qin family.

  As a steward of Guest Hall, Lin Dong was very aware of the ferocity of Gu Shan Feng.

  "Qin Yun, you go and join up with the merchant group first, pass on my orders to have everyone speed up, we must arrive at Blue Jade City within two days!"

  As soon as his voice fell, Lin Dong's figure flickered and disappeared in an instant.

  ………

  The appearance of the bandits' scouts made the entire caravan suddenly tense, and the drivers urged their pack horses to speed up without regard for their strength, increasing the number of scouts sent out to ten.

  However, Qin Yun's task was replaced by someone else, and the ones who went were all old hands of Keqing Hall, their strength was stronger than that of Waisi Hall, and their experience was more abundant.

  However, the merchant group marched on for two days in the mountains with a sense of unease, until they left the mountainous region and entered the plains of Baoqing Prefecture, where they no longer encountered any trouble.

  The scouts of the Over The Mountain Gang seemed to have vanished into thin air, or those two guys who were separately killed by Qin Yun and Lin Dong might just be accidental encounters.

  But Lin Dong obviously didn't think so, because he recognized the scar-faced guard as the captain of the Guo Shan Feng guard squad from the emblem on his chest plate, and he absolutely wouldn't be here to sightsee.

  After another day's journey on the hilly plain of Lantian County, a majestic city finally appeared in everyone's sight.

  Lantian County is located in a remote and barren area, although its area ranks among the top in the Great Yan Dynasty, but most of it is rugged mountains and Gobi Desert, and fertile plain land accounts for less than one tenth of that of Guiyang County.

  If it weren't for producing precious Lantian jade, this place would be a desolate and barren region.

  Lan Yu City is the county seat of Lan Tian County. This city with a population of one million is also the only prosperous place in Lan Tian County.

  Its prosperity is far from comparable to that of Qianchao City.

  Entering the Blue Jade City from the East Gate, a foul smell of dust and horse dung hits you in the face. The buildings on both sides of the road are mostly old and dilapidated, revealing an atmosphere of decay and collapse.

  There were not many shops and wine houses, nor were there throngs of people coming and going. Many tattered beggars lay on the street corners, while ox carts loaded with firewood slowly rumbled over the uneven streets, making creaking sounds.

  Such a dilapidated scene, as if the glory of the Great Yan Empire had never shone here.

  Newcomers who came here for the first time were amazed - can this also be considered a prefectural capital?

  The caravan turned south into another street, the surroundings were slightly improved, at least they could see patrolling soldiers and relatively clean roads.

  After walking for about half a time, the team stopped in front of a mansion.

  On the dark red gate, the vermilion and cinnabar carvings clearly indicated the owner of this mansion.

  Soon someone came running out from inside, beckoning and arranging for the dusty and weary young masters to rest.

  "This is the Blue Field Branch of our Muyang Taoist sect. You can rest for three days first, and then we will return to Qianchao City after three days." Lin Dong said to them: "Each person will receive a subsidy of 50 taels of silver. The southern city is not bad, there are wine houses and brothels, but don't indulge too much!"

  The young men looked at each other and simultaneously let out a cheer, they had been walking on the road with bated breath for over ten days, and finally could relax.

  "But there are many people from the Wu family in the city, they often look for trouble with us, so you remember that it's absolutely not necessary to provoke them, otherwise the rules of our hall will not forgive you!"

  A basin of cold water was poured over the hot-headed youngsters' heads, and the cheering suddenly stopped.

  Lin Dong's mouth corners rose with a faint, imperceptible smile: "Of course, if the other party takes the initiative to provoke us, you can't weaken the prestige of our Qin family. Just don't cause any loss of life."

  The young and vigorous youngsters were excited again, each one rubbing their fists and palms, eager to try.

  The Wu family has been a long-standing arch-nemesis of the Qin family, and many young masters from various clans consider it an honor to have a showdown with members of the Wu family, but such opportunities are hard to come by in Qianchao City.

  Lanyu City and Qianchao City are vastly different, with much less restraint between the two sides. Conflicts occur quite frequently as they vie for control of local jade mines.

  So Lin Dongci specially warned them.

  But he also wouldn't keep the young ones confined to their rooms, not allowing them to go out and experience wind and rain. How could these newcomers bear the weight of the Qin family's future?

  Lin Dong led the merchant group away quickly, leaving behind all the outer disciples and a batch of supplies.

  They also went to various mines and sent out another batch of guards from the hall, enough to ensure the safety of the merchant team on the road.

  Lan Yu City is in disrepair, but the Qin family's branch hall here is quite well-built.

  Each of the children was assigned to a separate rest room, so most people's first choice was to lie down on the soft and warm bed and sleep comfortably.

  Even Qin Yun was no exception.

  All the way over mountains and ridges, since encountering thieves scouts, his heart has been tight with a string, both physically and mentally extremely exhausted.

  After taking a hot bath and washing away the dust of the journey, Qin Yun fell onto the bed and fell fast asleep.

  When he came to, he found that it had already grown dark outside.

  After sleeping for half a day, Qin Yun felt extremely refreshed when he got out of bed again.

  He stretched his muscles and took out a new set of clothes from his luggage to change into, then left the room with Qingfeng Sword in hand.

  The outer hall of Liushou's house had many young masters, but Qin Yun didn't have a few familiar ones, and there was not even one friend, so when he went to the night market in Lanyu City, he was also alone.

  When I walked out of the Muyang Taoist Temple, the sky had completely darkened. The shops and homes on both sides of the street lit up their lanterns under the eaves, and the orange-yellow light evenly illuminated the gray stone road.

  The Azure Jade City under the cover of night, its charm is completely different from that in daytime, and many of its dirty and dilapidated parts are hidden.

  Nancheng is more prosperous and bustling than Dongcheng, with many shops selling jade jewelry opening up, and the customers in and out are mostly merchants, warriors and women.

  As for jade, Qin Yun didn't understand it at all, but since he had come to Blue Jade City, not bringing back a few pieces of jade jewelry would be a pity.

  Bang!

  Just as Qin Yun was about to enter a store to take a look, a figure suddenly flew out of the storefront in front and fell heavily before him.

  Qin Yun was startled and involuntarily stopped in his tracks.