122 The travel begins

Bai Yun left the transportation office at the beginning of the next day. He quickly headed to the outskirts of the city where they were supposed to be meeting up. Bai Yun arrived just ten minutes before the specified time.

Bai Yun had changed out of his usual clothes. He was wearing coarse clothing, and a large sack, where he kept most of his items. Bai Yun had also kept all of his valuables into his storage rings which he kept hidden on his person. Another thing was that he had also changed his appearance.

When Bai Yun arrived at the meeting spot, he found that there was a long caravan waiting there. Bai Yun saw many people standing there. There were many different kinds of people there. Some of them were sitting on the caravans and looked to be the owners of the caravans. There were also many people standing around near the caravans. Bai Yun figured that these people must be the ones who booked a seat on the caravan like him.

But one thing that confused Bi Yun were the people who seemed to be in charge of protection. Bai Yun clearly saw two separate groups of people who were armed. One group was quite rigid and carried themselves strongly, while the other group was more relaxed and joking around with themselves.

Bai Yun quickly walked upto the caravan. As BAi Yun approached them, one of the people who was sitting on the caravan got up and walked towards him.

"Hello, are you Long Tian who booked in a seat on our caravan." He asked.

Bai Yun had been going under the identity of Long Tian during his journey. This way Bai Yun would be able to hide his movements, and also make the identity of Long Tian more credible.

"Yes." Bai Yun replied.

"Good. WIth you here all the people who booked a seat are here. My name is Ji Qin. I am the person in charge of this caravan. Do you mind if we set off early? This way we can cover more ground today." The man asked.

"Not at all." Bai Yun replied.

The man nodded and walked back to the caravan. He started to shout and pass on some instructions to the rest of the staff of the caravan. Soon the caravans started to come alive, and the various beasts who would be pulling the caravans were tied to the carriages.

"Hello there." Suddenly Bai Yun heard a voice near him. Bai Yun turned around to see a middle aged man standing near him. Bai Yun quickly recognized him as a fellow rider. "I am Ye Chen. Are you joining this caravan too?" The middle aged man asked.

Bai Yun nodded his reply. "Yes. My name is Long Tian nice to meet you."

Ye Chen smiled when he heard this. "Nice to meet you. There are a lot of us here. You should come to meet with the rest of us. We need to stand together after all. If something goes wrong, these caravans will abandon us for their safety."

Bai Yun nodded. He wasn't sure if this would happen though. Based on his research into caravans he knew that some caravans would indeed do so. But such instances were rare. If something was to happen, they would all be in the same boat. So more often than not, the caravans and the travelers would cooperate to fight their enemies.

Bai Yun went around meeting the various people who were traveling with him. Including Bai Yun, there were sixteen people who were traveling with the caravan. Soon the caravan was ready to move. So the people quickly got onto the caravan. At the same time, the guards quickly got on horses, and the caravan started to move.

Bai Yun and Ye Chen were sitting on a carriage in the middle of the caravan. There were two carriages that were free of goods in the caravan, and both of them were rented out to people. One of them was taken by the men, while the other was taken by women and children. Both carriages were over ten meters long and had enough space for the people to sit and even lie down. There were some beds prepared for them, where they could sit and someplace to place their belongings.

Bai Yun quickly found a spot and put his stuff there. The things in his backpack weren't very valuably, but he had to pretend that they were so that he could blend in.

Bai Yun quickly settled down and watched as the lands started to pass by quickly. It was a five day journey to Terracotta hill, and there was not much to do in the meantime. So Bai Yun spent some time studying the various inheritances he had gotten, and also listening to the chatter of the people around him.

Ye Chen, who he had met up with earlier, had quickly become the head of the group of travelers. He was the one who arranged the lodgings of the people and also the one who was most familiar with the travel. Apparently, he often traveled between Terracotta hill and Hescha city, thus being familiar with the route and the procedure, and thus he was pretty much in charge of everything.

Bai Yun sat and watched as the scenery changed rapidly. As he did so, Bia Yun thought of the things that had happened till now. Bai Yun had finally started on his journey. He realized that even though he thought that he hadn't made any relations in Yellow City, he actually missed the people there. Not just his parents and old Hai, but even acquaintances like Zhang Zi and even people like Song Hui.

The time passed by quickly. Many people were sitting here and cultivating. Even though cultivation was not their main path, there was nothing wrong with becoming stronger. It would allow them to have a better chance of self protection. But some like Bai Yun was sitting around doing nothing. Bai Yun was at a bottleneck in his cultivation. More importantly, his heart was not at peace due to his departure. Thus he decided to calm down by watching the scenery passing by.

At the same time, some of them were also sitting and chatting. Bia Yun saw Ye Chen chatting with many people. Seeing that Bai Yun was sitting by himself, he tried to pull Bai Yun into the conversation, but Bai Yun politely declined. For now, he wanted to be alone.

The time passed by quickly as Bai Yun was sitting in contemplation. Soon it was time for lunch. The caravan stopped by the side of the road to have lunch. They didn't set up camp, but only stopped by to eat.

Bai Yun quickly ate the provisions that were provided by the caravan. The cost of food was included in the price of the seat. It was also possible to bring your own food, but considering that it would increase the luggage you would have to carry, most people chose to eat the caravans food. Even the people who were cultivating stopped to join in the meal.

Ye Chen had already taken charge of the lunch. He quickly distributed the food and made sure everyone was happy. Thanks to him taking charge, nothing serious happened. Bai Yun took his food and moved to a corner and ate in silence.

As he ate, Bai Yun once again noticed the extra security. After he ate, he walked up to Ye Chen.

"Uncle Ye Chen, can I ask you something." Bai Yun asked.

"Yeah Sure." He replied.

"What's up with all the extra security? doesn't it seem a bit too much for a caravan of this size." Bai Yun asked.

Ye Chen laughed. "You noticed it too huh." He said. "Actually I was surprised too. I have been traveling this road for a few years, but it's the first time I saw two security forces on the same caravan. So I asked the caravan owner about it. Turns out it is a sad story. When the caravan was on the way here from Terracotta Hill, they were attacked by a group of bandits. The security managed to repel the bandits, but a good number of them were injured. It is said that some of them are in a carriage in the back. So the caravan hired some extra security. And luckily, the mercenary team they hired were also going to Terracotta hill, so they were able to hire them for cheap."

Bai Yun nodded. He then headed back to the carriage. Just as he was about to get in, a glint appeared in his eyes.

Ever since he had awakened the god and devil eyes, Bai Yun had kept his eyes partially sealed. This was not about activating god and devil eyes, but just his eyes in the normal unactivated way. There were two reasons for this. One was that he had gained a magical glint in his eyes ever since he got the new eyes. This would cause those who looked at his eyes to subconsciously have good feelings towards him. This wasn't very powerful, but it was strong enough to be noticed. So Bai sealed this in order to blend in.

Another reason was that Bai Yun was now getting far too much information from his eyes. Analyzing all this information was difficult and Bai Yun did not want to get a headache by seeing too much.

Thus he usually kept his eyes under a partial seal. It wasn't a true seal, but more like putting a thin piece of cloth over your eyes.

And just for a moment, Bai Yun lifted this seal on his eyes. In an instant, Bai Yun looked all around the caravan, taking in all the security.

And what he saw confused him a bit. Through the gap in the armor of the security of the caravan, he saw some of them wearing bandages. There was also another carriage in the back, and through a gap in its door, Bai Yun saw many people lying down.

But there were also many other things that contradicted what he saw..

Even though the security was wearing bandages, there was no twitch in most of their movements. Bai Yun could only see the hindrance brought about by their armor on them. The bandages were not restricting their movements at all.

Another thing was that till now Bai Yun did not smell any medicine from the carriage containing the people who were lying down. Bai Yun was an exceptionally skilled alchemist. And the alchemy legacy had made his sense even more sensitive. It was impossible for him to miss something like injured people.

But did see a few people of the security forces, who were indeed injured. He did see a few of them adjusting their armor and also wincing when they move. From this Bai Yun figured that they were probably attacked, but their injuries were nowhere near as bad as they pretended. Also, most of them were uninjured. So they were definitely putting on a show.

For a moment Bai Yun was confused. Then he was irritated.

It seems as if he had once again gotten caught up in something irritating.