125 The bandits arrive

Along with a roar, a large group of bandits came over the hill. Very soon the bandits had surrounded the caravan.

One thing that Bai Yun noticed was that there were a lot more bandits than the caravans fighters. But even the weakest fighter in the caravan was at the foundation establishment stage, while the bandits were mostly much weaker. From the look of things, it looked as if the two sides were evenly matched.

After the bandits surrounded them, some of them stood aside and parted the way, and two men dressed in expensive armor walked out to face the caravan.

"How have you guys been?" One of the men who walked out said.

"What do you bastards want?" The leader of the security forces said.

"You know them." Huang Yao asked.

"I told you that we were attacked on the way here, didn't I. The rumbling bandits. It was these bastards that did that." The security leader said.

"So you haven't forgotten us. How nice." The man said once again with a chuckle.

"Of course not. But I must say, I did not see that you would be able to recover so soon. I am quite sure that we hurt you bastards quite badly." The security leader said.

"Yeah, you did. And that is why we joined up with the sky bandits. Currently, you aren't surrounded not by one bandit group, but by two bandit groups." The man once again said.

This news obviously disoriented the group a bit. Both sky bandits and rumbling bandits had one core formation realm cultivator each. It was true they also had two core formation realm cultivators, but it was going to be a tough battle. No one knew who would end up victorious.

"Why do you want to attack us. I don't think that we have done anything to antagonize you. If we have, I apologize. We are willing to pay for safe passage. I am sure that we can come to an agreement." The security leader said.

"Actually attacking you for the first time was our mistake. It was a mistake in our intelligence." The man once again said.

"What are you talking about." The security leader asked with a frown. But Bai Yun noticed that the caravan owner shuddered when he heard this. Obviously, there was something important going on here.

"At first we only knew that you would be transporting something valuable. We attacked you because we thought that you had it with you. I was quite bummed when you escaped." The man once again said.

"But we were able to find out more recently. I know that the entire business of the caravan this time around is a ruse. And that you actually went to Hescha city to buy something. You bought it and is carrying it back. And that something is a purple spike fruit." The man shouted.

For a moment there was only silence in the field. Bai Yun could see that the owner of the caravan was shaking, and the security leader sighed.

Hung Yao turned to face the security leader. "What is going on here. When you hired us there was nothing about a purple spike fruit. Explain properly or we walk now."

The security leader nodded and explained the events that led up to now.

All of this started about two months ago. At that time the son of the city lord of Terracotta hill was bitten by a poisonous snake when he went out. At first, he didn't show any symptoms and it was ignored. But as time went on, his situation got worse and worse.

Finally, the city lord hired a well known alchemist to look at his son. The alchemist analyzed the young man's condition and noticed that the young man was bitten by a special demonic snake.

The alchemist was able to come up with an antidote for the poison. But by then too much time had passed, and it was no longer possible to easily dispel it. The alchemist came up with a few different recipes for the antidote, but they all required a powerful and rare substance at the center. From then on the city lord of Terracota Hill has been trying to find one of those medicinal substances.

And he finally found one. And the one that he located was the purple spike fruit.

The purple spike fruit was a rare purple colored fruit that had a lot of thorns. It could only be found in the wilderness, and could not be grown artificially. And the conditions for its growth were even more strict. This made it an extremely rare fruit.

And its rarity could only be matched by its potency and uses. It carried a very powerful and pure energy within it. This energy can be used for many purposes. It could be used as an ingredient in many pills. It also could be used in detoxification, or even in cultivation. It was even possible to use it to increase an infant's talent in cultivation.

The rarity and the prowess of the purple spike fruit meant that it was extremely valuable. Not only would anyone want it for its value, but it could also even help in cultivation. So the city lord was afraid that someone might steal it if news of it was spread.

The city lord had a few enemies in Hescha city. He didn't want to go in person in case he would be sabotaged. So he asked the caravan owner, who he had a good relationship with to buy it on his behalf.

The caravan owner took great pains to make sure that the secret was not leaked. Only he and the security leader knew the true nature of the mission. He looked as if he was going on one of his regular trips to Hescha city, but he was actually going for the purple spike fruit. He did everything as usual, including renting out the extra space in the caravan all so as to make people think that this was just a regular journey.

But they were attacked during the journey to Hescha CIty. Fearing that the secret may be out, the security leader decided to hide some of the men, and also exaggerate the injuries of the guards. He also bought the mercenaries as insurance. He didn't tell them the truth, only that they might be attacked once again.

When the security captain explained everything, everyone went silent. Obviously, he didn't explain anything about the exaggerated injuries, that was only Bai Yun's inference.

And somehow these bandits learned of the purple spike fruit. And they had come running. The purple spike was one of the few objects that could definitely increase their cultivation. There was no way they would easily let it go.

"Would you let us go if we give you everything we have including the purple spike fruit?" The security captain asked. Obviously, while the purple spike fruit was important, their own lives were more important.

"Of course not. What do you think will happen if you tell the city lord that we stole the fruit. We cant handle the anger of that old man. And there is no way we will believe that you will keep silent. The best secret keepers are the dead. So you will have to die for us." The other man, the leader of the sky bandits, suddenly said.

"That's how it is. So we will have all of you die for us." The leader of the rumbling bandits said.

"It seems as if our sides have been chosen for us." Huang Yao said. "Damn, I don't even have the chance to betray you all."

"If I am to die, at least I will die next to a beauty." The security leader said with a chuckle.

"Don't try to flirt with me old guy. I'm a married woman." Huang Yao replied.

"Attack." The two bandit leaders shouted.

In an instant, the fight began. The bandits raced across to meet the caravan and the fighting began. The four core formation realm cultivators collided and started to fight against each other. There was a large area around them where no one was fighting.

At the same time, the rest of them also started to fight. The bandits overwhelmed the security forces five to one. There were only fifteen people from the security of the caravan, and six mercenaries fending off nearly a hundred people. But the people of the side of the caravan all had much higher cultivation on average, so they could handle many people at once.

The fight between the core formation was exciting, but it was going slowly. All four of them were at the initial stage of core formation, thus their strengths were about the same. So it would be a while before that fight could end.

But the fight between the bandits and the security was different. Even though the security was strong, there were far too many bandits. A few of them had gotten past the security forces and slipped behind the caravans defenses.

But just as the bandits were about to attack the caravan, one of the carriages suddenly burst open, and a bunch of security guards ran out. The guards suppressed the bandits quickly, and turned around to reinforce the others who were fighting outside. In an instant, the situation turned around, and the bandits seemed to be in a worse state.

"How is this possible." The leader of the rumbling bandits screamed. "You people were quite injured. How can you all be healed so quickly."

"Do you think that we wouldn't expect something like this." The security leader said. "It was expensive, but we already recovered from injuries before we left Hescha city. There was no way I would take any risk on such an important mission."

"Well it doesn't matter." The leader of the rumbling pirates screamed. "We knew you might pull something like this, so we were prepared. You may not notice it, but we poisoned you a long ago. It must be taking effect right now. Don't you feel weaker right now?"

When the leader of the rumbling pirates said this the face of both the security leader and Huang Yao became strange. Then the security leader swung his sword and blew the leader of rumbling pirates away. The leader of rumbling pirates flew back over two hundred meters, before he stabilized himself. He then stared at the group in shock. Seeing this the leader of the sky pirates also retreated.

"How is this possible?" The leader of rumbling pirates screamed. "We definitely poisoned you. How can you still move along so easily."

"If you bought the poison from someone, then you should ask for the money back." Huang Yao said. "The poison that you guys put did take effect. But it only lasted for a few minutes. The effects of the poison disappeared long ago. I have already verified that the poison is ineffective anymore. If you had come ten minutes ago, we would have been in trouble, but you were simply too late."

Hearing this the bandits were stunned. For a moment the fighting came to an end. Then they collectively cursed.

"Trash." Leader of the sky bandits cursed. "I knew I should not have acted under your suggestion. Not only were they not poisoned, we even gave them time to get into formation. Collaborating with trash like you is a mistake."

When he heard this the leader of the rumbling pirates looked embarrassed. His plan had failed spectacularly. But a moment later he smiled again.

"Really." He said. "I think that its not the case." Saying so he pointed to the caravan. Feeling something wrong, the security group turned around to look at the caravan.

There Ye Chen was standing with his sword at the caravan owner's neck.