Elderly Martial Saint: Sixty Times the Cultivation Speed ​​at the Start

South Gate of Qingzhou City.

A caravan of forty-seven merchants and thirty-one guards quietly drove out of the city gate as dawn broke on the horizon.

Under Yi Yang's arrangement, the team was arranged in two rows. Xu Min led ten Zhenfu Guards to clear the way, with more than a dozen horse-drawn carts loaded with goods in the middle, and the remaining Zhenfu Guards brought up the rear.

The caravan members were dressed in ordinary coarse cloth shorts. They had more than twenty carts loaded with grain sacks, medicinal herbs, animal hides, and several tightly sealed wooden boxes containing elixirs for cultivation. Some of these seemingly ordinary cultivation elixirs could fetch high prices in the Witch Kingdom.

Yi Yang rode a strange beast with a gleaming coat, walking in the middle of the procession.

Beside him were two figures draped in gray cloaks, one as muscular as a mountain, the other slender and short.

It was Ug and Uymro in disguise.

Uge changed his short, animal-skin coat from the Wu Kingdom into a coarse cloth robe from the Dayu Kingdom, and put on a felt hat. But no matter how he covered up, his dark, deep-set face and muscular body still exuded a wild and untamed air.

Fortunately, there were quite a few mule caravan men in the caravan that traveled the southern Xinjiang route, and many of them had dark skin, so they weren't too conspicuous.

Wu Yanluo put away the silver bell on her ankle, changed into a pair of cloth shoes, braided her hair into two braids and tucked them into her cloak, disguising herself as an ordinary caravan worker.

She rode on horseback, looking around with great interest in the scenery along the roadside.

Yi Yang glanced back at her but didn't say anything.

The convoy set off onto the wide Qingzhou official road, heading southwest towards the Wanyao Mountain Range.

……

Wangyue Tower, private room on the third floor.

Xie Yungui put down his teacup, his expression somewhat strange, and said:

"I heard that the deputy chief inspector named Yi Yang has already left the city?"

"They left early this morning." Luo Kaishan, sitting opposite, mumbled as he gnawed on a chicken leg. "One of my brothers lives near the South Gate and saw it with his own eyes. A caravan, along with his thirty or so garrison guards, left without even saying goodbye."

"So soon?" Ye Chen asked casually, leaning back in his chair with his wine cup in hand. "Didn't the assignment list just come out yesterday? He's already leaving today?"

Although the experts at the Transcendent Realm have already set off, who knows if the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain Range has been completely cleared? What if there are still Transcendent Realm demon beasts left unpunished? Wouldn't that be suicide?

Xie Yungui shook his head and said with some doubt:

"I'm puzzled too. The deployments in the three major cities haven't been fully announced yet. Normally, waiting another ten days or half a month wouldn't be too late."

"Why is he in such a hurry?"

The private room was quiet for a couple of breaths.

Suddenly, a sneer came from the seat by the window.

The person who laughed was named Zhao Nanxing, from a major sect in Lianghu Prefecture. He was at the peak of the True Qi Realm and ranked sixty-second on the Heroes List, four places lower than Yi Yang.

Sitting next to him was a man from Lianghu Mansion named Xu Zheng, who was from the Xuntian Division and ranked sixty-fifth on the list.

Zhao Nanxing put down his wine glass, a mocking expression on his face that said, "I saw through this a long time ago."

"Didn't you guys ever wonder why he left in such a hurry, and why he was leading a caravan?"

Xie Yungui glanced at him, wanting to know what the other party was trying to say:

"Brother Zhao, what insightful opinion do you have?"

Zhao Nanxing tapped the table with his finger, his voice not loud but loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Think back to the trade fair that Chairman Lin held here the day before yesterday."

"When that Inspector General came, he just walked around the table and didn't buy a single thing. He didn't even bother to haggle. Do you think he looked down on those things?"

"Let's look at his background. Suining Prefecture is a small place that doesn't even rank among the thirty-eight prefectures under Qingzhou."

"Commander of the Patrol Guard of the Heavenly Survey Bureau—it sounds prestigious, but how much money do you think a mere garrison commander of a prefecture can accumulate? He came to Qingzhou without even a decent mount. Don't you find that strange?"

The people present were all prominent figures in their respective prefectures, with substantial wealth, so none of them considered this possibility.

Xu Zheng chimed in from the side, agreeing with a hint of disdain in his tone: "So he's short of money and wants to take advantage of his journey to his new post to escort a merchant caravan and make a quick buck?"

Zhao Nanxing shrugged, with a "what else?" expression. "Escort fees are something that all the independent cultivators in the various prefectures are scrambling to do."

Yi Yang was, after all, a deputy chief inspector; it wouldn't look good for him to be using his official position for personal work. That's why he slipped away before the main force set off, afraid of being caught and losing face.

"I saw the rankings, and his record is indeed impressive. If he could calm down and wait for the main force to move together, he might be able to achieve new merits in the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain. Now, for such a small gain, he's setting off alone..."

"If we encounter some ignorant monsters or highway robbers on the road and lose a man, it's his own face that will be lost."

Upon hearing this, the people in the room exchanged glances.

Ye Chen raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

Xie Yungui held his teacup and thought for a moment. He felt that although the speculation was a bit harsh, it was logically sound.

Big Beard Luo Kaishan swallowed the chicken in his mouth, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and chuckled twice.

"Alright, alright, how they make money is their business."

"We should quickly gather our supplies and set off as soon as possible. We should prepare for the Ten Thousand Demon Mountains as early as possible. Brother Yi can go ahead and scout the way for us; we can ask him for advice later."

Zhao Nanxing snorted and didn't say anything more, but the contemptuous smile on his face disappeared when he left. He just couldn't stand why Yi Yang, a guy in the late stage of the True Qi Realm, was ranked ahead of him on the Heroes List. You have to know that he was a powerful expert in the Perfect True Qi Realm.

He's only one step away from the Profound Realm, so what right does that guy have to rank ahead of him?

……

Dust billowed along the official road.

Riding on his beast-like horse, Yi Yang used the Concealed Breath Formless Technique to suppress his cultivation to the late True Qi Realm, while his divine sense silently spread out to a range of over two hundred feet, taking in the entire team and the surrounding terrain.

He was completely unaware of the gossip behind the scenes, and even if he had, he wouldn't have cared.

Beside him, two figures draped in wide cloaks walked alongside him, their figures and faces completely concealed.

It was Ug and Uymro.

After the procession had traveled a hundred li outside Qingzhou City, the number of pedestrians on the official road gradually decreased.

Yi Yang realized that everything was normal and that there was no tail, so he regained his composure and glanced at Ug beside him out of the corner of his eye.

Ug rode a strong black horse, his felt hat pulled low, and his deep-set eyes constantly observed his surroundings through the shadow of the hat brim.

The alertness of a Transcendent Realm expert far surpasses that of an ordinary person.

Even when he was with his own people, he didn't relax for a second.

"Lord Yi."

Uge turned his head and lowered his voice to speak in the Da Yu Mandarin, "Once we're out of the city, there are some things I need to tell you."

Yi Yang nodded, letting the other person continue.

Uge took out a palm-sized wooden box from his pocket. The box was decorated with snake-pattern carvings unique to the Wu Kingdom, and the workmanship was exquisite.

"This is a small token of our gratitude—"

Before he could finish speaking, a hand reached out and took the wooden box back from his hand.

It's Wuyanluo.

She rode her horse between the two, half her face peeking out from under her cloak, and smiled at Ug.

"Uncle, let me do it."

Ug paused for a moment but did not refuse.

Wu Yanluo took out another box from the storage bag at his waist.

This box was a size smaller than the one in Ug's hand. Its outer shell was covered with a layer of dark red animal hide, and several unintelligible runes of the Witch Kingdom were embroidered with gold thread.

She handed the box to Yi Yang, her large, obsidian-like eyes blinking twice.

The blinking was very deliberate.