“All of them are located in a hidden valley…” Shang Xia spoke casually as though the news he was revealing was completely useless.

However, the news caused the hearts of Shang Quan, Ji Sheng, and Tang Youqian to shake.

When they heard how casually Shang Xia was describing it, other than Shang Quan who still had a brilliant smile on his face, the two captains felt an urge to beat the brat up. 

That was six carriages they were talking about! Even if they estimated the worth of the goods in each carriage conservatively, they would be worth more than a thousand silver essence each!

As for the Embroidered Cloud Carriages that could carry eight times that of an ordinary carriage, they were worth a considerable amount too!

The convoy that was headed to the Tongyou Peak consisted of nearly forty carriages. A lot of them were destroyed, and a ton of supplies were lost!

When the patrol squads arrived to assist Yuan Zilu and the others, they saved eleven carriages. Even so, the Tongyou Peak was short of supplies! 

At the very least, they would have to ration their goods before the Tongyou Institution sent them another batch.

As such, the six other carriages were extremely important!

Even though the number of supplies contained in them was less than the eleven carriages that were salvaged, it would be able to ease the shortage slightly.

Just recovering the carriages themselves would allow the patrol squads to earn some merits!

The third patrol squad finally arrived when Shang Xia was done explaining.

After Ji Sheng and Tang Youqian revealed everything that happened to the third squad, Shang Xia became the center of attention once again.

Luckily for him, he experienced it with Tang Youqian’s squad. He wasn’t flustered at all.

After Shang Quan discussed their next course of action with the three captains, they decided to split into two teams. Shang Quan would lead members of the three squads to return to the Tongyou Peak with Shang Xia and the outer disciples.

The captains of the three squads, along with Jiang Changyu and Ju Hang, would head to the location where the carriages were hidden.

Initially, only the three captains were supposed to go. However, Jiang Changyu and Ju Hang strongly insisted on following them. They were unwilling to follow the group with Shang Xia and Shang Quan after the humiliation they received.

On the way back to the Tongyou Peak, Shang Xia asked Shang Quan about the outcome of the raid.

“Yuan Zilu stood his ground and fought the enemies to the best of his abilities. If not for him holding down both enemy experts who were at the Martial Intent Realm, the entire convoy would have been destroyed!”

Sighing lightly, Shang Quan continued, “He managed to keep his life in the end, but according to the doctors on the Tongyou Peak, he received several serious internal injuries. Without three to five years to recover, he will never return to his peak state.” 

Shang Xia nodded solemnly. “What about the rest?” 

“The upper division disciples suffered serious injuries too, but they should be able to recover in two months. As for the disciples of the Protection Division… Eight of the fifteen disciples died… The other seven were seriously injured.” 

No matter how prepared Shang Xia was to receive the bad news, he was shocked by the high death rate.

“What in the world happened to the patrol squads? From what I heard, they took extremely long to arrive after the signal was fired. We didn’t run into any of them on the way to the Tongyou Peak either…” Shang Xia muttered. His accusations caused Shang Quan to jump in fright, but after noticing that the members of the patrol squad didn’t hear them, he explained, “Liu Jitang left the Tongyou Peak and brought a batch of experts with him. There were several strong patrol squads with him, and the Tongyou Peak didn’t have enough people. In order to prevent an invasion from another power, we gathered most of our strength back to the Tongyou Peak. We had no choice but to decrease the number of patrol squads.” 

Shang Xia gasped silently. Shang Quan expected Shang Xia’s reaction and signaled for him to remain silent.

With unease in his heart, Shang Xia asked, “How is this possible? Didn’t he arrange for people to take over his post when he left the peak? Isn’t he afraid that the Azure Spiritual World would attack the moment he left? Twenty years of hard work would go down the drain if that happened!” 

Shang Quan sighed, “With our foundations laid down over the past twenty years, we thought that no one would find out when he left.”

“How long did he leave for? Now…” Shang Xia felt the unease in his heart growing.

“He should have left for more than ten days… Relax. The moment we received news of the convoy being attacked, Ji Wenlong rushed over to the Tongyou Peak. Now, we should be relatively safe…” Shang Quan tried to reassure Shang Xia.

Calming down slightly, Shang Xia could tell that there was something his uncle wasn’t telling him. “Did the news of Liu Jitang’s departure get leaked?” 

“Liu Jitang’s absence wouldn’t matter if Ji Wenlong arrived at the Tongyou Peak. However, our enemies managed to learn of Liu Jitang’s departure before Ji Wenlong came!” Shang Quan sighed.

There had to be a traitor in their ranks! 

Even without Shang Quan stating it explicitly, Shang Xia knew what he meant. However, there was something still bothering him. He couldn’t help but ask, “Why didn’t the Azure Spiritual World take the chance to siege the Tongyou Peak when they learned that Liu Jitang had left?” 

“I don’t know too much about the details. You can ask around when you arrive at the Tongyou Peak, but…” 

“But what?” Shang Xia quipped.

Shang Quan thought about it for a moment and continued, “According to my guesses, the Azure Spiritual World couldn’t verify the news of Liu Jitang’s departure. They didn’t know if he had actually left the Tongyou Peak. They were afraid that we released the news in order to draw them into a trap and decided to probe us by raiding our convoy. In the end, they lost their best chance.” 

Shang Xia nodded slowly. After all, the appearance of the Wind Swallow Race deep in the territory of the Tongyou Peak was probably the Azure Spiritual World verifying their guess. 

Too bad for them, the Tongyou Peak reacted in time.

The moment they felt that something was off, they quickly notified Ji Wenlong to head over to the battlefield between the two worlds, stabilizing the situation.

Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief. “Since that’s the case, the situation on the Tongyou Peak should be a lot better than before. It’s no wonder there are so many more patrol squads out in the wild.” 

Shang Quan’s voice echoed in his mind, “That might not be the case. Uncle Ke said that Ji Wenlong had been confronting the members of the Four Spiritual Peak recently. All the experts on the Tongyou Peak who had reached the Martial Intent Realm are on edge right now. Everyone is ready to react in case anything happens.” 

Shang Xia looked at Shang Quan with a face full of shock. He didn’t believe his ears. 

To that, Shang Quan could only reveal a bitter smile.

Shang Xia muttered softly in disbelief, “Liu Jitang might have transferred some of the elites of the Tongyou Peak, but Ji Wenlong is one of the strongest deputy patriarchs. His strength is second only to Patriarch Kou. Shouldn’t the Four Spiritual Peak be wary of him?” 

“If not for him, the Four Spiritual Peak would have already launched their attack on us. None of us knows what is actually going on. However, I can see that Uncle Ke has been extremely weary over the past few days. There are things he can’t tell us, and we are in no position to question him about it.” Shang Quan whispered.

Shang Xia thought back to the conversation he overheard from the members of the Wind Swallow Race back at the hidden valley. “Uncle Quan, did you hear anything about Patriarch Kou and our ancestor recently?” 

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Shang Quan looked at him. “Nope… What’s wrong?” 

Shang Xia shook his head and frowned. “It’s nothing… Let’s hope that I’m wrong. The moment we return to the Tongyou Peak, I have to look for Grandpa Wu.” 

“Alright. I’ll make the arrangements the moment we get back.” 

After a long period of traveling, they finally caught sight of the towering peak that was their destination! They finally caught sight of the Tongyou Peak!

It was no wonder Yuan Zilu told Shang Xia to head towards the highest mountain after ordering him to leave. Looking at the majestic sight before him, Shang Xia sucked in a cold breath.

There was no need to mention the other outer disciples who had come to the Tongyou Peak for the first time. They were awed by the sight.

Before they could even arrive at the Tongyou Peak, the news of the outer disciples’ rescue had already reached the ears of the higher ups. 

As such, there were many people waiting to welcome them when they arrived. There were even several familiar faces.

“Hey, Huang Zihua, I heard that your entire division turned into captives of the Azure Spiritual World!” A joking voice reverberated through the air.

“Your ass!” Huang Zihua sneered in response, and he waved his sleeve to reveal three heads. As they fell to the ground, those standing around gasped in shock.

“Do you see this? We worked together to kill three cultivators of the Azure Spiritual World! We’re here to claim our rewards!”