[A.B.P.P.E.] Bk 2 - Chapter 74 - Testing Boundries

Yin Hu and crew stayed with the caravan for the next few days. Never once separating long enough for anyone to give them a greeting without a second finding them immediately. He did not trust them at all.

Zhong Da continued to draw out conversations with Jin Bao and any other person that was willing to speak for more information. It was a blessing and a curse that the fat cultivator was so loquacious and took any opportunity provided to speak himself up. The curse being that it took nearly half an hour on average to get past all of the bullshit and finally into what they were trying to get to. 

Actual usable information.

Yin Hu also had come to learn that there wasn’t a single person in the caravan that was also a member of the Numb Hand’s Pavilion that he liked. 

In fact, he detested them for many reasons that compounded one over the other. 

From the way they walked, to the way they talked, the way they carried themselves, their strange practice and training, and down to the way they looked at his group.Everyone had eyes that glowed with greed. Their Dao searching for anything they could take advantage of.

Yet, that hadn’t even been the worst part. He absolutely abhorred the way they talked about others when they weren’t present, taking after their Caravan Master Jin Bao.

He had to make a concerted effort to not loudly sigh as the fat man went on again bashing the original top Righteous Sects to prop himself and the Numb Hand’s Pavilions status before them. The Sui were degenerate gamblers and would sell their family without hesitation. The Flowered Sect of the Qui were all whores and prostitutes. The Yun were nothing bullheaded idiots that knew nothing but bloodshed and killing. 

It was the last one that had Zhong Da struggling to keep a straight face.

Jin Bao slapped his thigh, a wide sneer on his fat face. “Don’t even mention the fucking Zhong’s. Traitors and cowards. You know, this was once their territory–”

“Really? How long ago was that?” Zhong Da said as he tried to keep playing his role. 

Yin Hu mentally thanked him and made a note to take extra care of his development for taking the hits without breaking. Honestly, it wasn’t even his reaction that showed how much the one armed man was struggling with the conversation. It was Wu Xui’s nervous ticks of suddenly freezing unnaturally and slowly shifting toward her husband that showed his internal strife. 

Something he figured out after traveling with them for so long. 

“Seventy years ago? Sixty eight? Something like that. Bastards let the Demonic filth into our lands. Imagine,” Jin Bao took a massive deep breath. “Imagine a guard dog letting in the wolves to slaughter the sheep? What would you do to such treachery? What punishment is befitting of such crime? Would you stand there quietly and watch as it happened? Huh? What would you do, Cultivator Yin Da?”

“It is not my place to make these decisions, Cultivator Jin Bao.”

Jin Bao laughed. “A smart man. Definitely a smart man! You would have a place beside me if you were so inclined. Better than whatever obscure little hole you come from.”

“I don’t think that is a topic we should ever discuss–”

“Anyways. Where was I?” Jin Bao hadn’t even noticed Zhong Da’s attempt to respond. Caught up in his own narrative. “It was only through the magnanimity and great honor of our Merchant Emperor that we even have a stable area to survive in. He took it upon himself to save the masses and lead the peoples to glory! What if it cost a few extra coins every once in a while? Expensive food is better than no food at all… because you know… they’d be dead otherwise!”

The cultivators around him laughed. 

Yin Hu had noticed they were even the same group since the first day. Those men had been creepy to look at. 

Shan Yue had vanished as well ever since calling them back. Not once making his presence felt. 

Da Ruis never made an appearance either.

Yin Hu considered letting his perception skill go rampant to try to locate him, but decided otherwise. They were in the middle of enemy territory. What if they noticed him and a battle broke out? How many of his Clan could he protect from the army that surrounded them? Da Ruis had suggested that Zhong Da could solo the entire caravan considering the boost he had gotten, yet that was not something he wanted to risk unnecessarily. 

Zhong Da laughed politically. 

No one else from his party even shifted slightly because they knew better. 

At least we got an idea of where we want to go. Yellow HearthStone City to find more rugged population, the poor, and hundreds of thousands of refugees. IronArch City for the noble classes not associated with the Neutral Bloc. Then toward the furthest northern cities called BlackMountain City for a better mix of people from the surrounding areas. That last one should be the best considering it was a location that connected all of the Merchant Emperor’s domains as a free city. Supposedly the biggest too.

“You,” Jin Bao pointed at Yin Hu. “You don’t speak?”

Zhong Da sputtered and choked on his own spit. Stumbling over his words as he tried to interrupt. Wu Xui froze like a deer in headlights, and the girls let their displeasure known immediately with deep frowns and narrowed eyes. 

“Ha! Seems like I struck a nerve for your whole party, Cultivator Yin Da! You better clean this up. Let me test how far it goes.”

“No… Please, there is no need for this to go–”

Jin Bao’s smile turned menacing as he refused to break his stare toward Yin Hu. “I insist! How could I not help a fellow intelligent man!” he leaned forward in his throne seat. “You, old man–”

Jun and Shui stood up with burning eyes ready for war. 

That reaction only made Jin Bao’s smile widen. “You don’t speak? Are you mute and dumb?”

Zhong Da shot up to his feet and caught Shui in mid-air, battle hammer swinging with deadly force that barely missed the fat cultivator. 

Jin Bao shouted. Falling backwards with enough force to tip his chair. The cultivators around him struggled to get him off the ground, before he flexed his Qi and threw everyone off of him. Only then did he push himself up more deftly than anyone that size had any right to. 

He looked back toward Zhong Da and Shui, his smile never faltering. 

Zhong Da gave Wu Xui Shui and her swinging hammer as sweat poured down his face. “Do not speak to me and mine so brazenly, Cultivator Jin Bao. Such disrespect will not be tolerated.”

“I see! So we are done fishing for information and leading me on to continue speaking?” Jin Bao shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands “Don’t worry! Don't worry! I understand your position as a fellow leader of men…” his eyes flashed with menacing intent. Letting his presence fill the entire camp and cover all the wagons even further than they could see with their vision alone. “Don’t hit the dog until you ask permission from the owner and all that. Right?”

Wu Xui nearly fainted.

Zhong Da let his cultivation release without holding back even slightly. 

Jin Bao sputtered as he stumbled backward with wide eyes and a shocked expression. Shan Yue appeared in the distance on top of one of the wagons with caged sheep. A hundred cultivators surrounded them from every single direction. None of them had expected Zhong Da to be so strong considering the way he spoke and reacted to everything Jin Bao said while staying in the camp. 

Yin Hu smiled as he realized how much he could trust Da Ruis’s assessment. 

Not sure what the hell this Jin Bao was thinking. Such pathetic Qi? Da Ruis is absolutely right, no one here could even hope to face Zhong Da. Much less me or Rong, the two strongest members of our party. 

This felt like a perfect situation for his girls.

Real living opponents in vast numbers to practice their abilities on. This type of situation was rare and not likely to ever repeat with this many individuals. He could count at least a hundred and thirteen cultivators with all types of weapons just waiting for the signal from either Shan Yue or Jin Bao to start the fight. 

Yin Hu decided to do nothing as he got up from the seat and folded his arms behind his back. 

“Finally…” Jun whispered to herself. She knew exactly what he meant with his silent actions. “I can finally break the fat pig's face.”

Yin Hu hid his expression. 

Sheesh… I might need to find her sparring partners more frequently to ease up all that tension…