1002 Bandit Encounter

"There is someone up ahead! Everyone, get ready!"

As Bai Ning and Hui Ying traveled through the tunnel for a little over five minutes while being on edge, a loud shout suddenly echoed out from the front of the caravan, as the person leading the way through the tunnel had stopped another group making their way through the tunnel from the other side… And considering the fact that the tunnel was apparently only used by bandits since the end of the war between the Azure Sky Kingdom and the Heavenly Sky Kingdom, it made sense that he called out for everyone to get ready in case it really was a group of bandits.

In a sense, everyone hoped that the group approaching them were bandits, as none of them wanted to attempt to turn around inside the tunnel that was only barely big enough to fit their carriages and demon beasts inside of. If it really was bandits, at least they would be able to destroy their carriages or other things that might block their path after dealing with them.

"Let's get out and see what-"

Clang~ Clang~

Ching-!

"Aaaaah-!"

As Bai Ning was about to make his way out of the carriage to see if the group of people blocking their path were bandits or possibly other members of the Explorer Union who also happened to be using the underground tunnel, the sound of weapons clashing with each other followed by the painful cries of what he and Hui Ying could only assume to be the bandits echoed out towards the front of the caravan.

"Everyone, it was just a small group of bandits in the Foundation Establishment Realm, no need for everyone to come over. After clearing out the tunnel, we will continue forward."

Not even a second after the battle had begun, the same voice that had called out and informed them about the group approaching them, called out once again and informed them that everything had been dealt with.

"Well… That was easy…" Not knowing what else to say after hearing that the supposed bandit group that had blocked their path had been dealt with in a few seconds after their arrival, Bai Ning could only sit back down again and try to look out the window of the carriage to see if he could catch a glance of the bandits that had ended up unfortunate enough to run into their group.

Creak~

Not having to wait for too long, as the carriage soon began moving again before the sad outcome of the bandit group appeared outside the window.

In one word, their condition was pitiful, as they hadn't even been capable of putting up the slightest bit of resistance before the Core Formation Realm disciple sitting at the front of the caravan had singlehandedly dealt with all of them before having moved everything to the side so the caravan could push through the underground tunnel.

At least it looked like some of the older disciples had stepped out of their carriage to bury the dead bodies of the bandits. After all, it would not be that nice to encounter the decomposing bodies of these bandits when they made their way back through the tunnel again in the future…

Although both of them had already experienced a lot after hunting down demonic cultivators, they still decided to sink back inside their carriage after seeing the outcome of the group of bandits.

…

At the same time above ground, Xuan Hao could not help glancing towards the figure rapidly moving in the direction of where the caravan was currently located underground.

"Looks like the elder patrolling this place noticed the fight underground." Shaking his head as he said this, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly as he flew down in front of the Nascent Soul Realm Elder who was about to forcibly blow open a hole into the underground tunnel to find out what was happening below ground.

Whoosh~

"Hm!? G-Grand Elder Xuan!?" Seeing Xuan Hao suddenly appearing in front of him, the elder froze on the spot just before he forced his way inside the underground tunnel.

"Indeed, you don't have to worry about the people below ground, it's just a few of our disciples who ran away for an adventure without informing anyone and a group of younger people from the Explorer Union and as you can see, I'm here to make sure nothing ends up happening to them. Mainly because one of the disciples who happened to run away is one of my disciples…"

"This- I understand, Grand Elder Xuan. But might I ask about the underground tunnel they are using? As far as I know, there shouldn't be any kind of tunnel in this place." Showing a somewhat confused expression at first after hearing who was below ground, the Nascent Soul Realm soon nodded his head before asking about the underground tunnel they were using.

"Ah, the tunnel is-"

Given that the Nascent Soul Realm elder was in charge of guarding the border and the fact that the underground tunnel was indeed something that would allow people to sneak through without being noticed, Xuan Hao understood what the elder wanted to know and quickly explained the origin of the tunnel before giving him the two points of entry into the tunnel.

"Thank you for the information, Grand Elder Xuan." Giving a sincere bow as thanks for informing him about the possible blind spot he didn't know about before now, the elder quickly turned around to leave. Understanding that there was no reason for him to stay around with Xuan Hao around. Especially considering that the people who had been fighting below ground were their disciples.

As for the reason why these disciples had decided to sneak out of the sect together with a group of young people from the Explorer Union? The elder didn't bother to think too much about this, as he felt that nothing would go wrong with Xuan Hao watching over the group.

Even if the group of people from the Explorer Union had malicious intentions, the fate of messing with someone as powerful as Xuan Hao was obvious with how he was even stronger than the Sect Master who had reached the Domain Lord Realm.

…

"Haaa… Finally, back outside again…" As a few hours went by traveling underground without any incidents, Bai Ning could not help taking in a deep breath of fresh air as the sun once again shone down from above.

Even if nothing more than the bandit encounter happened underground, he couldn't get used to having to use his qi for breathing. Especially considering that he wasn't able to recover his qi faster than he consumed it while underground due to the presence of yin qi that he was forced to expel from his body whenever he absorbed any qi from the surrounding environment.

Although he would have been able to hold on in such a situation for days and he could always break the ceiling above and go back to the surface, the feeling of slowly running out of qi that he used to sustain himself was not something he had ever felt before.

Looking at Hui Ying who was sitting beside him, she was in a similar situation, as an elated and happy smile was plastered all over her face after leaving the underground tunnel. Different from him, she had not yet managed to reach the Core Formation Realm and was still in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Meaning that the experience for her was far worse than his own.

However, the people who fared the worst were the group of disciples who were still in the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Even though they had not done anything other than sitting inside their carriages to try and negate the yin qi and breath through their qi, they ended up almost running out of qi after passing through the tunnel and had already jumped out of their carriage to sit down to absorb the qi now devoid of any yin qi to recover.

"Everyone, we will take a break and continue in another two hours." Understanding how exhausted these weaker disciples were and the fact that it would be harder for them to recover inside a moving carriage, the older disciple who had taken the lead of the caravan yelled for everyone to stop.

Whoosh-!

Not a second later, a group of slightly stronger disciples also rushed out of their carriage as they sat down among the weaker disciples to recover. Even though they hadn't reached the same level of exhaustion as the ones in the earlier stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm, they weren't in that good of a state either.

Not to mention, it was a great opportunity for them to recover outside together with the rest of the disciples.

"Guess we should go as well…" Muttering this to himself as he glanced over at Hui Ying, both of them soon left their carriage and joined the rest of the disciples outside.