Chapter Twelve: The Traveler

  The wheels rumble, the horses whinny.

  A sky as blue as a wash, without a wisp of cloud. Two large eagles suspended in the void, they seem to be embedded in amber like flies, their bodies motionless. Only occasionally do a few sharp and long eagle cries reveal that they are still living things.

  A few days ago, it had just rained, and the road to Xiaoming City was covered with a thick layer of mud over a foot deep. Although the weather has cleared up in the past two days, the mud has not dried up. The wheels and hooves sank into the semi-soft mud, and every inch forward required great effort.

  The scorching sunlight baked the mud, and a nauseatingly strange smell wafted through the air. Various putrid odors were scorched to a boil, like rotting meat fermenting in a wine jar, thick and pungent, as if they would drill into one's body through the pores, making one feel unbearably uncomfortable.

  A line of two hundred cavalrymen surrounded seven gilded and carved carriages, which were moving slowly and laboriously along the muddy road. Occasionally, a few horses would slip to one side and stumble a few steps, always eliciting angry rebukes and curses from the knights on their backs, and even some irascible knights would lash out at their mounts with two or three strokes of the whip.

  Seven carriages were extremely luxurious, the first six carriages were all four-wheeled large horse-drawn carriages, each pulled by four snow-white fine horses.

  And the last vehicle, the largest and most spacious one, did not have wheels. The entire carriage was suspended in mid-air at a height of three feet off the ground, pulled forward by four robust black rhinoceroses. The four rhinoceroses were all different species, with dark skin dotted with green spots, and the three curved horns on their heads were adorned with silver-white light, extremely majestic and mysterious.

  This levitating vehicle is luxuriously decorated inside and is simply a spacious bedroom on wheels.

  A soft couch, a long case, two bookshelves, four bronze incense burners placed in the corners of the carriage, and thick carpets and various exquisite decorations. Although it is a journey, it can also give people an ultimate luxurious experience.

  Lu Chengfeng sat at the long table with his hair disheveled, forcing open his dull and lifeless eyes to stare blankly at the low-grade treasure, Xiao Chenling Lantern. The lantern was the size of a fist, cast in purple gold, shaped like a toad, with its slightly open mouth spewing out a thin red flame no thicker than a strand of hair, while a small silver pellet the size of a soybean floated slowly melting in the flames.

  This small piece of silver essence, though small in volume, was the result of Lu Chengfeng's expenditure of 300 catties of white silver and his careful refinement. It contained a hint of Western Tai Bai's golden energy. Due to the quality of the white silver and Lu Chengfeng's cultivation level, the refined silver essence contained very weak and thin Tai Bai's golden energy, with an extremely poor grade, but it was still Tai Bai's energy after all.

  The inferior treasure, Xiao Zhong Chen's Ling Lamp, was obtained by Lu Chengfeng after exhausting all his wealth. As long as it is embedded with a fire-attribute spirit stone, it can spew out a wisp of Lesser Yang True Fire. Of course, if one's cultivation is sufficient, they can also activate the lamp to emit true fire using their own true energy, but Lu Chengfeng's cultivation was apparently not at that level yet.

  The power of the flame ignited by the spirit stone is not great, and it is extremely unstable. This piece of white silver essence has been smelted for seven hours, but only nine out of ten have melted, and that last bit of the most important part that contains the Tai Bai Jing Qi's marrow heart can't be thoroughly smelted no matter what.

  With a fierce glare, Lu Chengfeng gritted his teeth and made a series of harsh movements, forming a seal with his hands. With a surge of determination, he bit through his own tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood that shot towards the Spirit Lamp. Suddenly, a loud whooshing sound filled the air as the flames on the lamp erupted in size, growing from thin strands to thick torches. The silver pellets suspended within the flames instantly melted, transforming into a semi-transparent silver liquid bead.

  Lu Chengfeng was overjoyed, he hastily grabbed a triangular stone pillar as thick and long as an infant's arm that had been prepared nearby, his right hand carefully grasped a purple gold tongs, and with a lift, a pull, and a stretch, he manipulated the silver liquid bead.

  A very fine silver thread is pulled out of a dewdrop, the bright silver thread floats in the air like an illusion.

  Lu Chengfeng didn't dare to slack off, and hastily pulled the silver thread into the pattern already carved on the stone pillar. He busied himself with the pincers, constantly pulling, tugging, lifting, and dotting, as the three simple golden knife-shaped symbols and the twelve symbol tails connected to them on the stone pillar gradually filled up with a silver glow.

  Due to proficiency issues, the silver thread broke three times during the inlay process, leaving minor flaws on the carved symbols and symbol tail arrays. However, everything went relatively smoothly, and the symbol array on the stone pillar was completed without becoming a waste array.

  Three green bean-sized earth-attribute spirit stones were inlaid with silver thread at the core of the golden knife-shaped talisman. Lu Chengfeng dropped his tongs, grasped the stone pillar with both hands, and muttered a few incantations, slowly injecting his true energy into the stone pillar, triggering the magical power contained within the talisman.

  The stone pillar, originally imbued with powerful earth attribute energy after being carved from the low-grade "Hook Sinking Stone" of the earth attribute, was easily crafted into an array stake for setting up the "Tai Bai Jin Dao Array" after engraving a golden attribute talisman and activating the talisman array with an earth attribute spirit stone.

  Tai Bai Jin Dao Zhen is a geng jin attribute formation. It uses earth attribute stone pillars as the foundation, using the wu xing sheng ke principle of earth giving birth to metal, to trigger the tai bai jin jing qi in the silver marrow, transforming it into golden knives to attack enemies. This is an entry-level formation used by low-ranking cultivators to protect their cave and themselves.

  After riding the wind to the peak of Tianyuan, the cultivation can be refined into a Taibai Golden Sword Array. It's already not easy to gather all the original materials needed to refine the Taibai Golden Sword Array.

  "Heh heh" laughed Lu Chengfeng, taking out two identical array sticks from the lowest-grade storage pouch by his side. Looking at the three array sticks in his hand that shone with a faint silver light, he fell heavily onto the soft couch.

  "Hey, hey, this is Xiangyang City. This city, which is attacked by the barbarians every two or three years, basically has to get rid of a batch of officials every three to five years. By sending me, this eyesore, here, they're also implying that I should just die on my own?"

  Lu Chengfeng laughed self-deprecatingly a few times, tightly grasping the three array stakes, and suddenly a hint of madness flashed in his eyes.

  "But I refuse to give up! I, Lu Chengfeng, will not die here! Sooner or later, I will return to the Lu family in Yuyang with my head held high and make you all recognize me, Lu Chengfeng!"

  With a tightening of his fists, Lu Chengfeng was like an injured fierce tiger, letting out a low and furious roar.

  The carriage's soundproofing performance was excellent, and the knights outside did not hear any movement inside the carriage.

  He picked up three array stakes, Lu Chengfeng hastily closed the small Lingdeng, carefully tucked it away. He slightly lifted the car window curtain, coldly gazed at the two hundred escorting knights, and Lu Chengfeng sneered and shook his head.

  These two hundred guards, each one born tall and handsome, the armor and weapons on their bodies are all rare and exquisite instruments. However, this group of trash, all of them are just for show. Two hundred guards, not a single person's internal strength has broken through the ten-year boundary, and Lu Chengfeng, who is at the peak of his later years, is confident that he can defeat fifty of them at once. If he deploys the Taibai Golden Blade Array, he can annihilate this group of waste in the blink of an eye.

  This is the family's guardian for themselves, and they have to rely on them to open up a world in this poor and evil place of Xiaomeng City?

  A surge of evil air rose in his heart, Lu Chengfeng suddenly lifted the curtain and spat a mouthful of thick phlegm onto the face of a knight by the window. With an evil tone, he bellowed: "Get out of my way, get out, get out! You blind thing, you're blocking my light, are you looking for death?"

  The knight was so frightened that he jumped down from his horse, grabbed the reins and pulled the horse to run away.

  Although they are the eyesore of the Lu family in Yu Yang, Lu Chengfeng still has the power to kill these knights, and even their families, relatives, and nine tribes' lives and deaths are in his hands. In the face of Lu Chengfeng's anger, who among these knights dares to make a sound?

  Xie's anger was vented, Lu Chengfeng gritted his teeth and walked out of the carriage, standing beside the coachman, staring blankly at the two eagles hovering motionless in the air above.

  After a long silence, Lu Chengfeng calmly asked: "Xiao Hei, how much farther is Xiaomeng City?"

  The charioteer was a dark-skinned, nearly one-zhang-tall sturdy man. Upon hearing Lu Chengfeng's question, the dark big man with a hideous face full of scars revealed a warm smile and replied respectfully: "Young master, there are still two hundred li, then it will be Xiaomeng City."

  Smiling and patting the sturdy, powerful shoulders of Xiao Hei, which were as broad as a rock, Lu Chengfeng laughed and said: "Add some strength, today we must hurry to Xiaomeng City."

  In front of a horse carriage, a short and shriveled old man with a completely black body trembled out of the carriage, holding a bowl of milk and jumping down to Lu Chengfeng's chariot. With great respect, he raised the milk bowl and said: "Young master, you've been up all night again, have a bowl of nourishing medicine!"

  Lu Chengfeng cast a disgusted glance at the golden bowl, shook his head and took it over, drinking the milk in one gulp.

  A strong medicinal smell rushed up to his throat, and Lu Chengfeng almost threw it up. He endured this discomfort, quietly feeling the milk enter his abdomen, and that slow-rising heat.

  Although it was his most hated medicine, he had to admit that without this medicine, Lu Chengfeng wouldn't have the energy to continuously complete three arrays in a row.

  Selected lactating women are forced to take large quantities of various elixirs, and then use secret methods to force the most refined parts of the elixir into their breasts, which are then excreted along with breast milk. This is what is called "human medicine". This method of supplementation is popular among aristocratic families, who claim it can effectively remove harmful components from the elixirs that harm the human body.

  Lu Chengfeng disliked this kind of medicine, but he had no choice but to take it, otherwise he wouldn't be able to complete his tasks and didn't have the energy to hang out in Xiaomeng City.

  He handed the large bowl over to the old man, Lu Chengfeng let out a light sigh and simply shook his head.

  He muttered to himself in a low voice: "After all, I am also a piece of flesh from your belly, why do you have to treat me like this? Your sin, why must it be added to my body? Those bastards, how can I also be a brother born of the same mother as you, why do you have to persecute me so bitterly?"

  The words had barely fallen when two large eagles in the sky suddenly let out a sharp eagle cry.

  A loud clang suddenly came from a small cluster of trees by the roadside.

  A loud "hum" sound was heard, and 150 strong crossbows shot out from the woods like a swarm of mad hornets.

  Lu Chengfeng's two hundred guards had long been stunned, and more than seventy people were hit by the strong crossbow, screaming and falling off their horses.

  Fifty people wearing tight black clothes, with their heads and faces covered in black cloth, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed, holding long knives, rushed out like a gust of wind.

  The black-clad leader pointed at Lu Chengfeng and shouted loudly: "Go, chop off his left hand!"

  "Chop off his left hand." As soon as the five words entered his ears, Lu Chengfeng's white face was instantly shrouded in a layer of sinister killing intent.

  "You really want to force me to this point?"

  The mournful cries continued to rise, Lu Chengfeng's guards collapsed at the touch, and in another two or three seconds, more than thirty people were beheaded under the horse.

  The other guards let out a cry of surprise and instinctively turned their horses around, scattering in all directions.

  Lu Chengfeng's hands were clenched into fists, with bulging veins on the back of his hands, and his body was shaking violently.

  The man in black had already rushed up to him.

  Comrades, work hard to smash the votes!