Chapter 317 - Sword Qi Covers the Skies

To the north of the Ruen Dynasty and south of the Northern Qiang lies a vast expanse of desert that forms a natural barrier between the two nations. People from both nations who live within the area refer to it by the same name: the Great Wasteland.

A calamity had recently descended upon the Great Wasteland, if the rumors spreading among the sand bandits are to be believed. It’s said that a man and a woman have been traveling northeast through the desert, seemingly intent on crossing it.

The sand bandits normally welcome such attempts; travelers crossing their desert are like lambs walking into the jaws of wolves. The bandits would inevitably rob them and kill the man outright. Women are rare resources in the desert and would naturally be taken back to the bandits’ camp to provide entertainment for all.

Most of the sand bandits in the Great Wasteland were from Northern Qiang, but there were also a smaller number of Oirat among them. People from the Ruen Dynasty almost never joined the sand bandits. The Reun border was relatively far from the desert, and those accustomed to the central plains' climate rarely had the endurance to survive in the harsh conditions of the desert.

The sand bandits set up camps throughout the Great Wasteland, primarily preying on trade caravans traveling between the two nations. Of course, the bandits weren’t entirely foolish. They understood the importance of taking only enough to satisfy themselves without going overboard. Thus, they rarely wiped out entire caravans, opting instead to demand a toll that the merchants grudgingly paid.

Over time, the caravans understood how the sand bandits operated so they prepared silver and gold in advance. As soon as the bandits appeared, they would hand over the "tolls" without resistance. This mutual understanding eventually became the norm.

However, this courtesy was extended only to trade caravans. If the bandits encountered lone travelers or small groups, they wouldn’t hesitate to rob and kill them for a quick and dirty profit.

They would never let off a particular pair.

The pair was first spotted by a small group of twenty bandits from a major encampment in the desert. They had been out looking for trade caravans traveling between the Ruen Dynasty and Northern Qiang. Since the war between the two nations began, caravans trading between the two nations had become less and less frequent. With so many bandits competing over fewer resources, many bandit camps were on the brink of starvation.

Coming across this man and woman was an unexpected bonus for the bandits. While they wouldn’t yield nearly as much as a trade caravan, even the tiniest scraps were still something. In this case, the woman added an extra incentive they would never pass up.

The bandits in the camp started suspecting something had gone wrong when a squad of sand bandits went missing. That squad had left their camp early in the morning, but had yet to return that night. The next morning, the bandit camp sent out a group to search along the usual trade routes, and they finally found something strange about twenty li from the camp.

They had found a field of corpses.

All twenty-three bandits, along with their horses, had been slaughtered without exception. Severed limbs, decapitated heads, and disemboweled bodies lay scattered across the ground, there wasn’t a single intact corpse to be found. The stench of blood carried far across the desert winds, attracting wild scavengers from all around.

The camp leader’s face darkened immediately upon learning the news. He assumed that some caravan with a large escort company was crossing the Great Wasteland. This slaughter showed a blatant disregard for the established rules and was a direct insult to his camp.

Losing over twenty men was no small matter; news was bound to reach the other Great Wasteland bandit camps eventually. The furious leader decided to take the initiative and sent word to the other major camps.

"Someone has broken the rules and disrespected me. I need the leaders of the other camps to send men to help me track down this unruly caravan. I’ll personally teach them a lesson. Also, considering this caravan could kill more than twenty of my men, they must have quite a large escort. If they can afford that many guards, they must be transporting an obscene amount of wealth. Once the job is done, we’ll split the spoils evenly."

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

The other major camps readily agreed, not entirely out of respect for his authority but because the potential spoils were too tempting to pass up.

Thus began a massive search for the caravan throughout the Great Wasteland. Every bandit wanted to be the first to find it, hoping to claim the lion’s share of the loot.

The caravan was never found. Instead, the bandits started dying in droves. To improve efficiency, the camps divided their men into small squads of four or five. Each squad was instructed not to engage directly if they found the caravan but to return and report so the main force could move in. Despite the precautions, bandits kept disappearing in the desert.

The leaders of the major camps were baffled by their losses. Were their men disobeying orders and attacking on their own? Or were they being discovered and killed before they could retreat?

The reason was simple, but it was one the bandit leaders could not fathom. Their bandits were looking for a caravan but found Baili Gucheng and Yang Lu instead. The greedy bandits were invariably tempted by what they thought were easy pickings, never imagining they were picking a fight with two unstoppable forces. By the time the bandits realized the terrifying strength of their adversaries, it was far too late to escape.

Just as the camp leaders were about to lose their minds over the mystery, the answer came knocking at their door.

Baili Gucheng and Yang Lu arrived at the gates of a bandit camp. Coincidentally, the first group of more than twenty bandits had been part of this camp too.

They hadn’t explicitly gone looking for the camp; it was simply on his way. Besides, due to his deep-seated hatred for the Northern Qiang, killing a few of them while traveling was something he was all too happy to do anyway. And, more importantly, he and Yang Lu were running low on supplies. These bandit camps along the way made for perfect resupply stations.

When a sentry reported that a man and a woman had arrived outside the gates, the bandit leader was initially overjoyed, glad that prey had delivered itself to his doorstep. However, his delight lasted only a few breaths. Before he could even open the gates to greet them, a torrent of sword qi, more devastating than the fiercest sandstorm of the desert obliterated the camp he had once been so proud of. With a sinking feeling, the camp leader belatedly realized what had happened to his bandits.

Baili Gucheng emerged from the camp's shattered entrance with the supplies he had taken. The half-destroyed mud wall could no longer be called a gate.

Yang Lu sat waiting on her horse outside, her face veiled in light gauze.

Yang Lu tightened her veil against the sand and glanced at the scene inside the camp. The stench of blood was almost overwhelming.

"Is it all taken care of?" she asked.

Baili Gucheng nodded, packed the supplies into a bundle, and mounted his horse. "Let’s go."

The two rode off, leaving behind nearly a hundred corpses and a camp that looked as if it had been ravaged by an apocalyptic sandstorm.

A major camp had been silently erased from existence, and this news couldn’t be hidden from the other bandits either. Theories abounded; some said those unlucky bandits had angered spirits or immortals, others claimed it was the mysterious caravan striking back, and those who had visited the site reported that the corpses had been hacked apart by swords, so it was clearly the work of the Grand Succession Sword Sect. Everyone had their own opinion, each believing they were right.

Then, three days later, another major camp was destroyed.

This time, a few lucky bandits had escaped and spread the news. The culprits were a man and a woman.

To be specific, the man was the only one who acted from start to finish... To be even more specific, the man didn’t even need to act. The man merely stood there, and a storm of sword qi swept across the area, annihilating everything in its path.

"What did the man look like?" a bandit urgently inquired.

The surviving bandit swallowed nervously and said, "He had flowing, gray hair..."