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Chapter 178: Horse Thief

“I heard you’re trying to snatch my brother’s court position away,” Rong Yueshan began, sticking her head and chest out as she glanced at Yun Moxiao, more than a full head taller than she was.

“A court position isn’t a possession to be snatched, Miss Rong. May the more talented between us succeed.”

Rong Yueshan forced out a cold smile. “You’d best be careful.”

She trotted away, and the party behind her immediately followed suit. Yi Qianying glanced coldly at Yun Ruoyan all the while, but Yun Ruoyan ignored her.

There were many paths that led to the Kongming mountain range. Yi Qianying and Rong Yueshan chose one of the larger paths, so Yun Ruoyan and the others headed down a smaller side path instead.

The five-man party left at a gallop, arriving at the foot of the Kongming Mountains by midday. Even though they had specially chosen a side path, the party still encountered two other groups of students from all over the Chenyuan continent.

Because all the students were destined to be competitors, the groups didn’t interact with each other. Rather, each went their own way.

As night fell, Yun Ruoyan’s party found themselves in the inner reaches of the mountain range. Based on their speed, they would likely reach the summit at around the same time tomorrow evening.

When Li Mo brought Yun Ruoyan to the summit on his sword, it had taken no more than two hours. Yun Ruoyan sighed, thinking of how good it must feel to have a spiritual sword of her own and lamenting once more that she wasn’t yet eighth-rank.

After having some gruel and a pheasant that Zhuo Yifeng had hunted, they began to rest in preparation for the next day of travelling. Because they had spent the whole day on the road, everyone was exhausted and quickly fell asleep.

An indiscernible amount of time later, Yun Ruoyan was suddenly and rudely awakened by Qiuqiu’s warning. “Mistress, Mistress, get up!”

Yun Ruoyan instantly sat upright. “Qiuqiu, what’s the matter?”

“There’s a particularly strong aura nearby, appearing only from time to time. I’m not sure what’s about to happen, but you should be prepared, Mistress.”

Rather than alert the others, Yun Ruoyan sat quietly as she extended her senses around her. If they were truly facing a particularly strong opponent, then it wouldn’t do for her to be reckless.

Strangely, however, Yun Ruoyan didn’t feel the strong aura that Qiuqiu had mentioned. All she could feel were a few weak auras, likely no more than the equivalent of a fourth-rank blademaster’s.

“Mistress, that aura vanished again. I don’t know why, but it left a few weaker auras behind this time.”

“Has it left?”

“Its aura might be temporarily suppressed or hidden,” Qiuqiu guessed.

At that moment, the four firesteeds suddenly neighed in unease, and Yun Moxiao and Zhuo Yifeng instantly woke up from their slumber.

“Horse thieves!” Yun Moxiao hissed, jumping toward the horses, and Zhuo Yifeng followed suit. The horses’ neighing woke even Lin Qingxue and Lin Qingchen, followed quickly by the sounds of fighting.

“What’s the matter, Sister Ruoyan?” The Lin sisters rubbed their eyes and glanced at Yun Ruoyan.

“There might be a few horse thieves lurking around. I’ll go check out the situation.”

If there were only a few horse thieves, then Yun Moxiao and Zhuo Yifeng would be more than sufficient to handle them. Otherwise, she would have to be more careful—as a result, instead of rushing over, Yun Ruoyan walked over slowly, scrutinizing her surroundings all the while. “Brother, what’s the situation over there?”

“We’ve captured a few horse thieves,” Yun Moxia replied. Both he and Zhuo Yifeng were holding illuminating lanterns made from beast cores, and Yun Ruoyan could see three squatting figures on the ground, subdued by Yun Moxiao and Zhuo Yifeng.

Firesteeds could sell for thousands of gold taels, and they were very valuable. Given that Kongming Academy was opening its doors in a few days, firesteeds were travelling all over the continent toward the Kongming mountain range. As a result, it wasn’t particularly unusual to encounter horse thieves in the night.

“Please, young masters, spare us! All we wanted to do was to steal a few horses and exchange them for money, not to hurt anyone…” one of the men begged.

Judging by their rough attire, they looked like nothing more than ordinary civilians, only at the level of fourth-rank blademasters. Generally, those who were only fourth-rank by the age of thirty were considered to have only average talent among cultivators.

On the Chenyuan continent, most guards or constables had to be fifth-rank or above; fourth-rank blademasters were just a little stronger than ordinary folk, and they would have to work hard at menial labor if they didn’t have any additional talent.

Many of those cultivators who refused to work hard would turn to thievery or robbery, just like these folk. These were the people whom Yun Ruoyan most hated; regular civilians without any cultivation would have suffered a sorry fate at their hands, but they, in turn, would generally be killed off without any mercy when captured by a group of higher-ranking cultivators.

After the first person began begging for his life, the other two thieves followed suit, bringing in their wives, children, parents, and all manner of extended family.

“Scram!” Yun Moxiao yelled out. “I don’t want to see any of you again!”

Zhuo Yifeng released the grip that he’d had on one of the men, and they scampered away in fright.

None of the firesteeds seemed to be hurt in the tussle, and Yun Ruoyan’s party went back to rest. However, Yun Ruoyan still felt a sense of foreboding as she returned to sleep.

The next day, her foreboding turned out not to be unfounded: all their firesteeds had died. As the party knelt down to check on the steeds, they found that all four steeds had been bleeding from their gums, their eyes bulging and turning green. It seemed as though they had all been stricken by some unusual, esoteric poison.

“Damn those bastards!” Zhuo Yifeng couldn’t help cursing. “It must have been those three horse thieves from before.”

None of them had expected that the three men would be trying to poison their horses, rather than steal them.

“Are those horse thieves crazy? Stealing the horses alive would be worth something, but what’s the point of poisoning them to death?”

Yun Ruoyan thought for a moment. “Perhaps that’s their intention.”

“Sister Ruoyan, you mean…”

“This poison doesn’t seem like something an ordinary horse thief would possess. If I’m not wrong, someone likely paid them to poison our steeds, so we won’t be able to reach Kongming Academy in time.”

Yun Ruoyan folded her arms across her chest, thinking back to what had happened last night. “Kongming Academy’s next trial is slated for noon, two days from now. If we miss that deadline, our admission tokens will be forfeit. Someone doesn’t want us getting into Kongming Academy.”

They had planned for encountering all sorts of tribulations during the trial itself, but not before it.

“This is all my fault—I shouldn’t have been tricked by those scoundrels!” Yun Moxiao groaned.

“Brother, this isn’t your fault. By the time we found those three men, the steeds would already have been poisoned. Even if we had killed them, we wouldn’t have been able to avoid the current situation.”

Everyone present—save perhaps Lin Qingxue—tended to be more prudent and cautious than most, but this was a scenario that no one had considered.

“Now what?” Lin Qingxue frowned. Without steeds, even if they rushed to the Kongming Summit on foot without resting, they were unlikely to make it there by noon the second day.

Yun Moxiao was able to bring one person to the summit on his sword. In the end, if they had no other choice, he could guarantee Yun Ruoyan’s timely arrival, but Yun Ruoyan refused to do so until it was apparent that they had no other choice.

In the end, they decided to proceed on foot and see if their situation would improve. As they walked, they encountered a party that had been further behind. As soon as they saw the dispirited youths, the other party began to crow in schadenfreude: allegedly, they were the third party they’d seen who had had their horses poisoned to death.

Yun Ruoyan had initially thought that her party was being targeted, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Based on the situation, it was more likely that some devious student had concocted this plan to reduce the number of competitors ahead.

Such a large undertaking wasn’t something a regular student could come up with; likely, the larger powers on the continent were already trying to wrest control.

Yun Ruoyan glanced toward the party in front of hers, at the eight people wearing clothing characteristic of the Chen kingdom. The Chen kingdom was located in the plains right by the sea, and these students had likely never seen such mountainous, forested scenery. As they trotted, they were admiring the sights.

Because they had plenty of time to reach their destination, and because they had encountered so many forlorn parties on their way, they were quite relaxed. Each of the party of eight was on their own steed; if they would share four of them with Yun Ruoyan’s party, then their problems would be resolved. However, they clearly didn’t intend on doing anything of the sort. Who didn’t mind having fewer opponents?

As an idea popped into Yun Ruoyan’s mind, she peered at her brother and noticed that he too was looking at her. The two siblings nodded to each other in tacit agreement, following not too far behind that other party and quickly arousing their suspicions.

“Brother, do you think that group of people behind us will steal our steeds?” a rather wild-looking youth trotted forward to ask his leader.

That party’s leader was a relatively handsome youth, seemingly between Yun Ruoyan and Yun Moxiao in age.

“If they’re desperate, they really might do it,” that leader murmured. “And their cultivation looks to be above ours, so we’d better rush ahead and get some distance away from them.”

The group of eight whipped their horses, spurring them forward. By the time an hour had passed, Yun Ruoyan’s party had been left far, far behind among the twisted, mountainous roads.

The eight-man team then gradually slowed down again, setting up camp at nightfall and retreating to rest. After eating their fill, they discussed the wonderful life ahead of them as students of Kongming Academy, before humming the Chen kingdom’s national anthem to sleep.

As time passed, their fire dimmed, and all sorts of loud snores came from the haphazardly organized campsite. Yun Ruoyan, Yun Moxiao, and Zhuo Yifeng had hidden their aura and were silently hiding by one of the bushes nearby.

Yun Ruoyan sighed. “Honestly, sleeping so soundly without leaving even a single person on guard? They know they’re disadvantaged in terms of cultivation, so aren’t they just courting death?!”

Yun Ruoyan naturally wouldn’t stoop to an act as dishonorable as killing them and stealing their horses. Their plan was to lie in wait for the three horse thieves to approach, then catch the thieves before they could poison this group’s horses.