In Emei, start by obtaining golden attributes.

Chapter 450 A Glimpse of Sky
The next day.

Before dawn, when the sky over Beiwang Mansion was still tinged with a faint bluish-gray, Gu Shaoan and the others had already gathered in the front hall.

Today, Gu Shaoan did not wear his usual gold and white robe, but instead changed into a black outfit that accentuated his slender figure and added a touch of solemnity to his gentle demeanor.

As Gu Shaoan entered the front hall, a delicate, orchid-like fragrance would occasionally emanate from him and then enter the noses of Zhu Houzhao, Master Xuanmie, and the others beside him.

The moment they smelled the fragrance emanating from Gu Shaoan, Master Xuanmie, Master Dushan, Zhu Houzhao, and the others all subconsciously activated their own internal energy.

Only after circulating his internal energy throughout his body and finding no abnormalities did he relax.

Gu Shaoan sneered inwardly at the fluctuations of internal energy emanating from the group, but showed no outward sign of anything unusual.

Gu Shaoan glanced around but couldn't see Wang Yizhao. He then asked, "Where's the other person?"

Knowing what Gu Shaoan was referring to, Zhu Houzhao said, "The First Line of Sky is less than a hundred miles away from the border of the Great Yuan Kingdom, Black Stone Prefecture. There are some sentries along the way from the Great Yuan Kingdom, especially in a strategic location like the First Line of Sky, where there are troops stationed around it. If anything goes wrong, the Great Yuan Kingdom's border garrison will join forces with the troops opposite the First Line of Sky to attack from the inside."

"We need to set up an ambush at Yixiantian not only to bypass the border of the Great Yuan Kingdom, but also to eliminate the hidden agents around Yixiantian. Therefore, General Wang led the Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals and Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends to deal with these sentries and soldiers last night."

Finally, as if he had thought of something, Zhu Houzhao added, "After the Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals died at Wuzheng Manor, Zhu Wushi quickly began to cultivate a new Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals. Therefore, these people are of ordinary strength and are all at the late-stage of the Innate Realm."

The Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals and the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends were all elites painstakingly trained by Zhu Wushi in the Dragon Guard Manor.

But now, Zhu Houzhao uses these people with great ease.

Gu Shaoan knew perfectly well that the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits and the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends had always been Zhu Houzhao's men.

It was merely that Zhu Houzhao cultivated him through Zhu Wushi's hands.

This made Gu Shaoan curious about what Zhu Wushi would think if he knew all this.

After learning of Zhu Houzhao's arrangements, the group said no more and, led by Zhu Houzhao and his companions, left the courtyard and quietly exited through the north gate of Beiwang Mansion.

Once outside the city, the world suddenly opened up before us.

The wind in the north is harsher, like a knife scraping your face. In the distance, rolling hills stretch out, the grass is sparse, and gravel and yellow earth are interspersed.

The group used their lightness skills to move swiftly.

Under Zhu Houzhao's arrangement, the group followed the old trade route, bypassed several heavily guarded checkpoints, and crossed into the Yuan Dynasty through a nearly deserted mountain pass.

After entering the Yuan Dynasty territory, the terrain became even more desolate, the mountains were darker in color, the sky was lower, and the clouds were thinner.

Until noon on the second day, when the group had just bypassed the Black Stone Mansion of the Great Yuan Kingdom and entered a dense forest, both Gu Shaoan and Master Xuanmie smelled a distinct stench of blood.

The group's expressions shifted slightly. After moving forward for another hundred paces, they discovered some corpses in the dense jungle.

Judging from the clothing on the corpses, they all belonged to the Yuan Dynasty.

Furthermore, judging from the wounds on the corpses, all of them were killed with a single blow.

Gu Shaoan glanced at the corpses and noticed that the cuts on several headless bodies were extremely clean.

There were even faint traces of the sword's intent remaining on it.

It was exactly the same aura that Gu Shaoan sensed from Wang Yizhao.

Master Dushan, standing to the side, clasped his hands together and said, "I never expected that there would be dozens of Yuan Dynasty spies hidden in this forest. Fortunately, His Majesty knew about it in advance."

Zhu Houzhao said, "Although the route we have chosen is secluded and will not alert the Yuan Dynasty's garrison in Black Stone Prefecture, it also has the most sentries. We will pass through several more sentry posts along the way."

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao sighed: "We have been investigating the news from the border for several years. It was originally prepared for when we would take the initiative to deal with the Great Yuan Kingdom, but we never expected that it would be used to ambush and kill the Great Yuan Kingdom's experts."

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but glance at Gu Shaoan.

However, Gu Shaoan showed no reaction to what Zhu Houzhao said.

Seeing this, Zhu Houzhao gave a few instructions, and then the group set off again.

Subsequently, just as Zhu Houzhao had said, almost every twenty miles, the group would find the corpses of some Yuan Dynasty sentries. However, they were all dragged to some slightly hidden locations. If it weren't for the fact that Gu Shaoan and the others had senses far beyond those of ordinary people, they would not have been able to accurately detect these corpses by the smell of blood.

As dawn broke, the group finally saw their destination.

In the distance, a canyon, seemingly cleaved by a giant axe with almost vertical walls, came into view.

After moving forward another ten miles, the group discovered some camps ahead of Yixian Gorge.

The evening sunlight slanted down from the valley, like a straight golden line pressing down on the wooden fences and animal-hide tents of the camp. Although it had a warm tone, it couldn't reveal any vitality.

The camp didn't seem to have many tents; at most, it was only a few hundred people.

The wooden fence was not high, and the gate was just two rough wooden panels joined together. Several military flags, faded by the wind, were stuck outside, their corners torn and fluttering in the wind.

Strangely, there wasn't a single sentry in sight outside the village.

Logically speaking, this place is only a hundred miles away from Black Stone Prefecture and is adjacent to a strategically important military location like "One Line Sky". Even if there are few soldiers, there should be guards on duty, both overt and covert. However, there are hardly any campfires, and only a few crows perched on the wooden fence, tilting their heads to look at people, as if they are waiting for something.

As the group moved a few dozen steps closer, the stench of blood suddenly intensified several times over.

The smell was no longer the scattered "blood foam" in the forest, but a mixture of the fishy sweetness and rusty smell after a close-range slaughter.

At the same time, Gu Shaoan, Zhu Houzhao, Xuan Mie and the others could all sense nearly a hundred different auras still lingering within the camp.

These auras varied in strength and were scattered widely.

Zhu Houzhao paused, raising his hand to signal everyone to slow down.

"Whoosh~"

Just then, a figure suddenly rushed out of the camp at great speed, and in the blink of an eye, he had already arrived at the camp gate.

The newcomer's hair was already white, and his armor was stained with dark brown bloodstains. His sword was not sheathed, but the blade was so clean it was almost blinding. He looked up at Zhu Houzhao and bowed, saying, "This old minister greets Your Majesty."

As Wang Yizhao spoke, figures rushed out of the camp one after another, and then knelt on one knee to pay their respects to Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao's gaze softened slightly. He nodded, raised his hand to help Wang Yizhao up, and asked after Wang Yizhao stood up, "Has everything been resolved?"

Wang Yizhao nodded in response: "Your Majesty, everything has been resolved. No one has spread the news, and the guards on the other side of Yixiantian have not noticed anything unusual."

Having said that, he stepped aside and led the way.

Upon entering the camp, the group discovered a large pit filled with soldiers of the Great Yuan Kingdom.

However, at this moment, Wang Yizhao and the others had only just piled the corpses of the soldiers of the Great Yuan Kingdom into this pit, and had not yet had time to bury them.

Seemingly dissatisfied with the thick stench of blood, Gu Shaoan flicked his right sleeve, a slight gust of wind erupting from his body, before turning and walking away.

The delicate, orchid-like fragrance emanating from her made the surrounding stench of blood less unpleasant.

After confirming that there were no other Yuan Dynasty people in the camp, Zhu Houzhao said, "Let's go up and take a look."

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Houzhao leaped up, lightly touching a slightly protruding landing point on the rock wall with his toes, and soared several feet into the air.

The others followed closely behind, and in just a dozen breaths, they all landed at the top of the canyon.

The wind was even stronger at the top, as if it were coming from all directions at the same time. My clothes were blown to the sides and my hair was pulled back.

Beneath our feet lies a rock surface worn white by wind and sand, with fine pebbles rolling in the wind, making a soft rustling sound, as if whispering secrets for this desolate place.

Several people stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down from above.

The canyon below looked as if it had been cleaved in two by a god, with its two walls standing starkly apart, casting a deep, dark shadow.

The passage at the bottom of the valley is incredibly narrow; at its narrowest point, it can only accommodate four people at most.

Looking down from the mountaintop, every turn, every stone pillar, and every side crevice in the gorge is clearly visible. It is easy to see where people can hide, where ambushes can be set, where retreat routes can be blocked, and where people can be forced into a line to be attacked.

"As expected of the place where our Great Wei army suffered repeated losses, this narrow pass is indeed an excellent natural stronghold."

Master Xuanmie clasped his hands together and said in a low voice, "Natural barriers are not good places. However, today we used natural barriers to stop the fighting, which can be considered a meritorious deed."

Afterwards, the group moved forward along the mountain peak, eventually reaching the other end of the narrow passage. From there, they could vaguely see the distant, sprawling camps.

These were clearly troops stationed by the Yuan Dynasty.

"This narrow passage is only twenty or thirty miles away from the camp of the Great Yuan Kingdom. If we launch a raid here, we must be quick. If we drag it out, the Great Yuan Kingdom's troops will notice something is wrong and immediately send a signal to the troops of Black Stone Prefecture behind us."

"If we hadn't dealt with the warriors of the Great Yuan Kingdom, such as Ba Shiba and Si Hanfei, by then, and with the troops attacking from both sides, the situation would have been unfavorable for us."

Neither Zhu Houzhao nor Xuanmie paid much attention to this.

Martial artists at the Celestial Realm possess extraordinary strength and cannot be dealt with simply by overwhelming numbers.

What they really needed to worry about were still the experts from the Great Yuan Kingdom, such as Ba Shiba and Si Hanfei.

After surveying the environment of this narrow pass, Zhu Houzhao asked, "Although it takes Si Hanfei and the others three more days to reach the narrow pass, any intelligence can only be used as a reference. In the next few days, we still need someone to keep watch on this narrow pass every day. Once we discover any trace of Si Hanfei and the others, we must immediately notify the others to prepare."

There were five martial artists at the Celestial Realm present, but they were on duty in shifts, so it wasn't a big problem.

After a brief discussion, the group decided on the order of their shifts.

When Wang Yizhao went to guard the other side of Yixiantian, Zhu Houzhao arranged for Gu Shaoan and the others to stay in other tents.

The next few people all had only one thing to do.

Conserve your energy and build up your strength.

Prepare for the upcoming battle.

Inside the tent, Gu Shaoan sat at the table, circulating his internal energy, and some brownish-red medicine was churning within the energy.

Gu Shaoan took out various medicinal powders from his system inventory and then fused them into the Qi in his hand.

A short while later, as the medicinal liquid contained within the Qi Yuan became clear and transparent, resembling a gently flowing stream, Gu Shaoan took out some more medicinal powder and added it to the medicinal liquid.

In an instant, the once clear water began to surge wildly like boiling water.

Then, in just ten breaths, it all turned into wisps of smoke.

After enveloping the wisps of smoke in his internal energy and sealing them into his system inventory, Gu Shaoan then withdrew his internal energy.

For some unknown reason, a chilling glint flashed across Gu Shaoan's eyes.

23.

At noon, the sunlight is strongest through the narrow passage between two cliffs.

The sun hangs high in the sky, shining on the sheer cliffs on both sides of the canyon. The rocks are bleached white by the sun, like the cold gleam of iron after years of polishing. But the light cannot penetrate into the valley; it can only wander along the ridges of the cliffs.

Gusts of wind seemed to "squeeze" out from the crevices of the canyon, rushing along the valley path. When they encountered a bend, they suddenly rose higher, emitting a sharp whistling sound, like a long knife scraping against armor. The wind carried fine sand and gravel, making a soft "rustling" sound as it brushed against the rock walls, but disappearing without a trace when it hit the ground.

The camp built near the narrow entrance to the canyon also felt solemn due to the cold winds constantly blowing from the valley.

"Someone's here."

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out in the sky above the camp.

　The next chapter is still a bit short, I'll post it around 11:30!
　
(End of this chapter)