The Guard Camp was completely made up of xiu slaves. They had encountered countless hardships, their personalities were resilient and exemplified persistence, and they were very reliable. He would try to fulfill any of Pu Yao’s demands, no matter no difficult, and urge the others to meet the demands.

Over the span of a few months, the Guard Camp had comprehended the benefits from the previous breakthrough and now their overall strength had risen a level. The black armor each person wore was even more exquisite, and their shapes had slowly changed. There were now slight differences on each person’s armor. Some were broad, others were slender and symmetrical, just like how people were very strong and others were nimble and speedy. After the preliminary stages of cultivation, they had started to develop in different directions

This was an unavoidable result of the intermediate stages of cultivation. Any kind of spell or mo skill would diverge this way.

As the one closest to Pu Yao, Shu Long received the most instruction from Pu Yao. No one could rival his strength in Guard Camp. Even though he had not sparred against the experts from Sky Peak Platoon, everyone secretly speculated that while Shu Long’s strength could not match that of Xie Shan and Ma Fan, he shouldn’t be far from Nian Lu and Lei Peng.

Everyone underestimated him.

Mo skills were dangerous. The slightest carelessness and one’s life would end and their soul shattered. However, if one could overcome that, the speed of progression was not anything that the xiuzhe’s ling cultivation or the yao’s spiritual cultivation could rival. Shu Long’s entire life had been full of hardship and suffering. These experiences were like fertilizer to the [Hardship Guard] mo skills. As a result his journey of cultivation was smooth and rapid.

Even though he was stern about urging everyone to cultivate, but his actual personality was warm and disliked conflict. Cultivating the mo skill had recovered his youth, but his personality had not changed. The laid-back attitude unique to middle-aged people showed itself on his body.

The camp that Guard Camp made was a long and narrow crescent that shielded almost all of the camp.

A light suddenly flashed through Shu Long’s eyes. He made a hand motion to the camp guard beside him and then walked towards the outside of the camp. Outside the camp was a dense forest. His ears were very sharp and he heard noise in the woods. There seemed to be many people that were approaching them.

Dozens of camp guards tightly followed behind him.

The camp guards were wary but not nervous. After the battle of Golden Crow City, especially after how dangerous and difficult the battle was, it was possible to see their improvement.

The sound from the woods became increasingly clear. This time, the other camps guards also detected it. Everyone stared at the woods waiting for the appearance of the unwelcome guests.

Whoosh, a person covered in blood came out of the woods.

Shu Long was slightly surprised. However, when he saw the face of this person, his pupils suddenly shrank.

“A Wen!”

When the camp guard beside him saw the person, he couldn’t help but exclaim.

The person covered in blood heard the exclamation. His body shook, and he raised his head in confusion.

“A Wen, Heavens, is it really you?”

“A Wen, you are still alive!”

Everyone was exceptionally excited. They all recognized this youth covered in blood. The eyes of the youth were confused as he looked at this crowd of people dressed in black armor. Even though he did not recognize them, but they gave him a feeling of familiarity.

“We can talk later. Tian Mu, take A Wen to the back. Everyone else, prepare for battle!” Shu Long’s voice was steady and methodical. His handsome face was serene, but a sharp cold light flashed in the deepest part of his eyes.

When the youth heard the name “Tian Mu,” his entire body shook. He raised his head to look at the large male in black armor in front of him. “Tian Mu, Big Brother Tian Mu?”

Tian Mu grinned, but it was slightly murderous. “Little A Wen, Big Brother will help you beat whoever bullies you!”

A familiar voice and tone allowed the youth to truly believe that this unfamiliar large male in front of him was really Big Brother Tian Mu. At the end of his strength, the youth fainted in Tian Mu’s arms.

No one spoke, but threads of black energy came out everyone’s armor and wrapped around their legs, waist, and wrists. Looking at A Wen’s terrible state, there seemed to be a ball of fire burning in everyone’s chests.

Only Shu Long was motionless without any killing essence coming from his body.

Whoosh, whoosh, a crowd of female xiu charged out of the woods. At the same time, a crowd of female xiu appeared in the sky.

When the leader of this group of female xiu saw Shu Long, she had a wary look. When she saw A Wen in Tian Mu’s arms, her gaze became sharp and she said, “Why had Sir taken this xiu slave which has escaped from our sect?”

When he saw this female, Shu Long could not control his killing essence any longer. Multiple threads of black energy suddenly shot out of his body like fire and covered his body.

He recognized this face!

Bai Ru Fen. Of the females that had been in charge of the xiu slaves, this female’s temper had been the worst. Just a little bit of unhappiness and she would vent on the xiu slaves. No less than fifty of Shu Long’s fellows had died at her hands.

“Kill!”

Shu Long’s cold voice disappeared in the air. His figure also disappeared from where he stood.

The female disciples of Hundred Flower Alliance never thought the other side would act without even exchanging words. With their guard down they were instantly at a disadvantage.

Not just Shu Long, but the other camp guards also recognized the female xiu in front of them and their origins. Each of them had blood-filled eyes as their murderous aura grew.

Shu Long suddenly appeared next to Bai Ru Fen like a ghost. His right hand chopped and a black energy sliced towards Bai Ru Fen’s white face like a blade. At the same time, a thread of black energy flew from the tip of his foot and silently wrapped towards the other’s right leg.

———

Bai Ru Fen paled. The other’s first attack was a killing move that did not show any mercy. Panicking, several balls of snowy-white plum blossom sword energies came from the flying sword in her hand and shielded her.

However, the others were approaching too fast and collided heavily with the sword energies. Bai Ru Fen was overjoyed, but when she saw the plum blossom sword energies passing through the other’s body, her face turned snowy-white.

Not good, it was an afterimage!

Her foot was suddenly in great pain. She didn’t even have the time to call out in pain when her neck suddenly hurt. She suddenly felt the world in her vision spin. Then she saw a headless body continuously sprouting fresh blood.

———

The wails echoed. When had the female xiu from the Hundred Flower Alliance ever experienced such a bloody and murderous scene? In the midst of their terror, they lost their lives.

In the blink of an eye, corpses covered the ground!

The faces of the Hundred Flower Alliance xiuzhe were all pale. Many people uncontrollably screamed and frantically fled.

Shu Long raised his head to look at the sky. He picked up a rock from the ground, his body pulling back like a bow, and threw the rock hard.

Hummmmmmmmmmmm!

A soul-shaking howl suddenly sounded. The piece of rock penetrated a female xiu through the heart and blood sprayed through the air.

This female xiu had forgotten to activate her ling armor as she had been too afraid.

Shu Long’s throw frightened the other people into fleeing even faster.

Shu Long stopped his fellows that were preparing to give chase. The [Hardship Guard] mo skill was powerful, but it had a flaw in that it was not good at flight. This weakness would only disappear when they reached a much more profound stage in their cultivation.

Returning to the camp, the first thing Shu Long did was to report this incident to Zuo Mo. He knew that this incident was very significant. This time, they had severely offended Hundred Flower Alliance, and likely caused the start of a battle against Hundred Flower Alliance.

After Zuo Mo heard Shu Long’s report, he did not give blame, but said, “Was there anyone left alive?”

Shu Long stilled. “There is one.”

“Go immediately to find where Hundred Flower Alliance is located.” Zuo Mo’s expression was stern. “We will attack first, we cannot give them the time to recover. Otherwise, we will be in danger.”

Shu Long was shocked. He had originally assumed that Boss would blame them, but he hadn’t expected that Boss didn’t assign any of the blame on them, and even decided to attack first. He pressed his lips together and immediately turned around.

Gongsun Cha shook his head. “This is great trouble.”

The local powers of Bright Water City had been wary of so many of xiuzhe appearing. Now that they had a conflict with Hundred Flower Alliance, the situation was extremely disadvantageous to them.

“Nothing to worry about, if we don’t give them the time to react and finish the fight fast, we can safely leave before everyone else reacts.” Zuo Mo wasn’t concerned.

“You don’t blame them?” Gongsun Cha asked curiously. Shixiong’s decisiveness was unexpected to him.

“I don’t blame them.” Zuo Mo shook his head, and said in a matter-of-fact voice, “Shu Long and the others are our people. They have a deep and bloody grievance against Hundred Flower Alliance. Who do we help? Of course we help Shu Long. Also, the people wrong in this incident isn’t Shu Long and the others. If it was me, I would definitely have charged all the way to Hundred Flower Alliance. However, hee hee, it isn’t too late now!”

The camp started to quickly move. No one panicked. Even the xiuzhe from the forging division had calm faces. When they had set down camp, everyone had known that this would only be a temporary camp. The majority of their possessions were still on the slave transporting boats, and hadn’t been moved to the camp which now saved them labor.

In two hours, everyone had boarded the slave transporting boats.

The five slave transporting boats slowly rose in the sky and flew into the southeastern part of Bright Water City.

Such a big action naturally could not be concealed from the eyes of the local powers, and Zuo Mo didn’t plan on concealing it from them. His thought was very simple. With the fastest speed possible, finish the battle! Their grievances with Hundred Flower Alliance could not be resolved. A local power like Hundred Flower Alliance that was well rooted in this place could gather a terrifying amount of support if they had enough time.

To the other powers, they were the outsider.

Zuo Mo displayed the decisiveness of a leader. He did not hesitate and decided to attack Hundred Flower Alliance first.

———

Su Yue listened to the report with a dark face. She could have never thought this mysterious power was so savage. They had attacked without giving an opportunity to speak as though they had held a deep hatred.

She would never have guessed that the entire Guard Camp were xiu slaves they had transported to Little Mountain Jie.

Now that the two sides had reached such a step, there was no room to negotiate.

She was wary of this mysterious troop but she wasn’t afraid. As one of the largest powers in Sky Water Jie, how could Hundred Flower Alliance stand being humiliated so?

“How many of the elders are in the sect?” she turned and asked one of her disciples.

“Elder Wang, Elder Mei, and Elder Xiao are all present,” the disciple instantly replied.

Su Yue’s heart was reassured. “Invite them for a discussion. You shall personally go to ask.”

Translator Ramblings: The foreshadowing had been strong in the last few chapters so the events of this chapter should not be too much of a surprise.

Zuo Mo has only had a few chapters of peace. But even if Shu Long hadn’t ignited this battle, there is still tension because the locals of Sky Water Jie don’t like the mass influx of refugees, and especially not Zuo Mo’s faction who seem powerful and might upend the pecking order.

There’s also more pictures on the novelupdates post. Ars made another version of Pu Yao and two for Chun Yu Cheng.