Chapter 384 - Sword Intent and Secrets (III)
Chapter 384: Sword Intent and Secrets (III)
Translator: GravityTales
In the morning, the Yue Ye Merchant Group slowly left the Southeastern Fort, and headed towards the demon territory. After obtaining the directives from the Warrior Temple, the inspection on the road became a lot more relaxed.
Long Haochen and his comrades were seated in a cart in the middle of the caravan.
Finally returning to the demon territory, their mission started anew. But their frame of mind when facing demons was now totally different. If during their last trip, they could be described as apprehensive or excited, now they were a lot more steady, and gained the self-confidence they didn’t have before.
The Yue Ye Caravan was rich and imposing, and the cart in which Long Haochen’s group resided looked the same as the one Yue Ye rode in, the first time they followed the caravan to the demon territory.
The interior was spacious and warm. It even contained a table and a food storage inside, stocked with great quantities of food.
Opening the window curtains, Long Haochen looked outside. Dawn came, and they exited the Southeastern Fort. Outside, the sky gradually lit up, though the weather wasn’t so good, and it was drizzling.
From the Eternal Melody, Long Haochen retrieved a map made of sheepskin, and spread it on the equally shared table.
This map contained densely packed annotations and descriptions of all the circumstances in every demon province, the various demon clans residing in every province, as well as the locations of the demon gods. In all certainty, the officials from the Temple Alliance wouldn’t have such a detailed map.
This map was naturally obtained from Yue Ye, who gave it under the condition that Long Haochen wouldn’t hand this map to the Alliance.
Long Haochen pointed to a town in Nareiks Province on the map, “This is the capital of Nareiks Province, and the place where the Birdy Demons are stationed. It’s where our first mission will need to be completed. Approximately in the evening, the Yue Ye Caravan will reach the demon camp, if everything goes without a hitch. Tomorrow in the afternoon, the caravan will pass through Naduo City, the capital of the Nareiks Province. Since the incident, when the Yue Ye Caravan was ambushed the last time, the check of the demons in the Yue Ye Merchant Group became a lot more relaxed. We should take this chance to go find and kill five Golden Birdy Demons and complete our first mission in Naduo City, before following the merchant group penetrating further inside the demon territory.”
Wang Yuanyuan asked, “Captain, if we assassinate the Golden Birdy Demons after reaching Naduo City, wouldn’t the merchant group become suspect? According to the map, there should be a demon god watching the city.”
Long Haochen nodded, “It will be bound to look suspect. However, even so, they wouldn’t dare search the merchant group. And even if they search it, would they even find us?” Right at this moment, he couldn’t help but reveal a smile.
Wang Yuanyuan immediately had a flash of realisation and nodded in response. The others also had smiles on their faces. That’s right! Spotting Long Haochen’s group wouldn’t be an easy task.
Why was it that Long Haochen dared accepting sixteen missions, even including a challenging mission demanding to kill the 72nd demon god? The confidence in their strength aside, it was also because they had a survival method other Demon Hunt Squads didn’t have, and that was the Tower of Eternity. When encountering strong enemies, they were easily able to avoid crossing their path.
With a flicker of light, Long Haochen’s look became ice-cold, “Okay, now the first plan is settled. I will ask for the help of the people from the Yue Ye Merchant Group to make a stop at a certain location in the Golden Birdy Demons territory. To complete the assassination as fast as possible, we will have to act separately. Cai’er and I will both take out one Golden Birdy Demon each. Lin Xin, you are forming a team with Han Yu. You will use the Spiritual Stove of Blue Fire Phoenix to kill one Golden Birdy Demon while Han Yu will be providing support for you. And Yuanyuan, Sima Xian, you two will handle one Golden Birdy Demon each, with Chen Ying’er supporting you.”
“Yes.” Everyone accepted boisterously, showing excited expressions.
After staying in seclusion for a year, they felt eager for action, and welcomed the chance to kill demons. And by facing so many of the Golden Birdy Demons in individual battles, they would all be able to test their progress. This was the first time they didn’t have doubts when facing this kind of strong creatures, which proved their confidence.
The process of entering the demon territory went without a hitch. Exactly as Long Haochen said, the Yue Ye Merchant Group was treated a lot better than in the Temple Alliance upon reaching the demon territory. Many of the demons knew already about Yue Ye’s relationship to the crown prince of the Devil Dragons, the sole successor of the Demon God Emperor, so who would dare inspect their caravan? This was to say nothing about the lesson the three demon gods that had assembled an army against the Yue Ye Merchant Group had been taught. As a result, now no matter where the merchant group went, they were unimpeded.
This was also the reason why Long Haochen regarded the Yue Ye Merchant Group so highly. With this protective cover, they would be saved a lot of troubles. More importantly, the Yue Ye Merchant Group would provide them with a lot of information. At first glance, many of the sixteen missions looked very challenging, but with the help of the Yue Ye Merchant Group, their troubles were at least lessened by a third, which at the same time reduced the degree of danger.
After smoothly passing the demon checkpoint, in the morning of the following day, the merchant group was already deep in the Nareiks Province, and exactly as Long Haochen estimated, they reached the capital of the Nareiks Province, Naduo City by mid-day. The merchant group temporarily rested here for an hour, before continuing their journey.
To a group of freelance merchants like the Yue Ye Merchant Group, the process of trading wouldn’t lead them to stop at inns, as it would add up a lot to the expenses while reducing their efficiency. Thus, they carried tents in their carriages, making it so that they could rest wherever they stopped. Thus, after entering Naduo City, the pressing need was to replenish their supply of water and food, while providing Naduo City with goods for trading. This process took just one hour. Naduo City in itself was filled with some people from the Yue Ye Merchant Group, who made their preparations and were waiting for them long ago, to optimize their efficiency.
Very quickly, the Yue Ye Merchant Group started their actions in Naduo City, roughly taking half an hour of time. While the merchant group handled their matters, they discreetly handed a ball of paper to Long Haochen’s group residing in their carriage.
Long Haochen opened the ball of paper, finding a simple map of Naduo City, with five red dots marked on it.
Long Haochen unfolded the map and had the whole group memorize it.and everyone quietly got off, heading in different directions.
The manager was the person in charge of the Yue Ye Merchant Group on this trip, and one of Yue Ye’s confidants. Before coming here, Long Haochen asked him to investigate the whereabouts of the Golden Birdy Demons, which he arranged to be prepared in advance. Thus, they immediately got the specific positions of the five Golden Birdy Demons right after entering the demon territory.
This manager Yue Ye chose was originally a human spy placed in the Yue Ye Merchant Group, thus, they didn’t fear encountering problems. Of course, he only knew vaguely about the identities of Long Haochen’s group as Demon Hunters, but he didn’t know clearly which Demon Hunt Squad they were.
Long Haochen’s seven were clad almost identical: every one of them wore a cloak covering their whole body and a hat, concealing their appearance.
These disguises were not rarely seen in the demon territory. On the contrary, they were quite common, because the demon environment would get afflicted by sandstorms a lot more often than the Temple Alliance.
High class demons often chose to clad themselves in those long cloaks. In the meantime, everyone in Long Haochen’s group used the imitation of the Moon Demons’ eyes to turn their own eyes purple.
While preparing their course of actions, Long Haochen’s preparations were ingenious. Cai’er and he would cover opposite directions, while the other three targets were in the center. This way, in case some trouble arose, they would immediately be able to come to their comrades’ rescue. With the existence of the Soul Linking Chains, if one would sustain powerful attacks, they would naturally sense it.
Long Haochen advanced at great speed. This was the first scattered operation of their group, so he was still secretly worried. Completing their own task before providing support to the others was the must-do for Cai’er and him.
Following the map, Long Haochen headed eastwards.
Although Naduo City was the capital of the Nareiks Province, it was not very large, and on the streets, the large majority of the passerbies were demons. Of course, ordinary low rank demons like Dual Blade Demons weren’t permitted to enter the city. When seeing the clothes of Long Haochen’s group and their human-shaped appearances, they kept far away from them, and fundamentally didn’t dare approach.
The reason was simple: only high grade demons would be human shaped, and able to dress the way Long Haochen did. And furthermore, demons’ senses would be most usually sharper than humans’. Although they couldn’t guess Long Haochen’s attributes, they faintly sensed that he was dangerous from him, making them subconsciously unwilling to get close to him.
Very quickly, Long Haochen found his own target.
The place was a simple and crude restaurant, with the signboard outside already crooked. Although demons occupied most areas of Shengmo Dalu, humans left a very deep influence on them, especially regarding human food, of which demons were very fond. The higher the rank of a demon, the more he would indulge in the pleasure of human beverages and food.
Thus, human treatment changed completely compared to the time demons first came to Shengmo Dalu at the beginning of the dark era six thousand years ago. Even the humans from the Temple Alliance who they were able to capture would be treated well, but of course, this was on the premise that these humans would pledge their allegiance. If a cook was seized, some demon nobles would actually appear personally to try to win him over.
Nareiks Province was close to the border, but was extremely impoverished. Otherwise, last time, the three demon gods wouldn’t have dared go against the rules by dispatching an army to ambush the Yue Ye Merchant Group. In this place, even a small restaurant would be a place only powerful demons would be qualified to enter.
For instance, even in front of such a worn out restaurant, four stark black traces were left on the signboard. This signified that only demons of the fourth step or above would be qualified to enter, and that was a symbol of the classes.
Long Haochen slowly walked into the restaurant. Sweeping his eyes over the small room, he found his target in a glance.
A Golden Birdy Demon was seated there, eating and drinking in the best seat of the restaurant. He had four dishes and a pitcher of wine in front of him. From this alone, one could see his high status and wealth.
Because it was in the afternoon, the interior of the dining room was quite full, mostly with demons at the fourth and fifth step. The only one at the sixth step was this Golden Birdy Demon. And his golden skin made him quite conspicuous.