Ch. 31
Chapter 31: Splitting into Two Teams to Enter the Forbidden Marsh
“Don’t move. There’s a bug on you.”
Without changing his expression, Chen Guan lightly patted her on the back.
Luo Li took two steps back and reached up to feel around her neck for quite a while, yet found nothing at all.
If she had not already known that this fellow had no sense for romance, she might have thought he was trying to take advantage of her.
She shot Chen Guan a glare, then leaned over to look at the pelt he had been pointing at.
“Isn’t this just a weasel hide? What’s there to make such a fuss about?”
After saying that, she could not be bothered with him any longer and turned to walk back toward her carriage.
Once she had gone farther away, Chen Guan casually raised his hand.
On the tip of his finger hovered a crystal-clear drop of blood, glimmering like a ruby, giving off that sour, rotten-peach stench.
He did not waste any time. Flicking his finger, he sent the drop of blood straight into one of the sacks, where it was instantly absorbed by the pelts inside.
After doing that, Chen Guan swept a glance over the other wagon of pelts. The goods in both wagons were roughly the same—every sort of demon and monster hide jumbled together, with almost no two alike.
What did it mean for an Escort Master to be transporting demon and monster pelts?
It was no different from slaughtering the sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, and cousins of every demon and fiend along the road, skinning them afterward, and then swaggering right up to their family’s front gate to show off the hides.
Chen Guan had taken escort jobs involving pelts before, but those had always been single-species loads, at most a few dozen demon bear hides.
Demon bears were solitary demonic fiends, surly by nature and comparatively easy to hunt. If you transported their hides along the road, at worst you offended that one species.
But these two wagons...
were moving beacons of hatred.
It was like shouting to every demon and fiend along the way, “Come look! Your aunts and grandmothers all died by my hand!”
If they did not come chop you up, who else would they go after?
Withdrawing his gaze, Chen Guan simply stood by the wagons, stroking his chin as he watched Luo Tong and the others pack up.
His gaze swept across their faces one by one, then settled on Li Fei again for a moment.
Once they had finished most of their preparations, he gathered everyone together once more and began announcing the formation for the next stage.
“I’ve thought it over carefully. We split into two teams. One team follows me and escorts Luo Li along the ancient road into the Ten Directions Marsh, using the territories of the greater demons at the edge to shake off the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes.”
“The other team takes these two wagons of pelts to Heifeng Ridge, then circles a thousand li out of the way to Wangbei City. We’ll meet there, and from there continue on together to Great Zhou.”
“This...” Luo Tong looked utterly baffled and hurriedly said, “Escort Master Chen, the greatest taboo for an escort is for the cargo and the escort to become separated, let alone for the employer to be separated from the convoy. If... if something were to happen to the employer, that responsibility is not something you alone could bear!”
Luo Li, standing nearby, was also full of confusion at this arrangement.
“Brother Chen, isn’t strength in numbers the whole point? How can only part of us push into the Ten Directions Marsh?”
Li Fei, Liu Shuo, and the others all stared at Chen Guan with widened eyes. The rest were equally puzzled by the arrangement.
Had they not just said that they would all work together to force their way through the Ten Directions Marsh?
How had the plan changed again in less than half a ke?
By now, they had all realized that the thoughts in this fellow’s head shifted from one moment to the next. No one could guess what he was really planning.
Chen Guan took in all of their reactions, but said nothing.
In the end, it was Luo Tong who spoke again in a deep voice.
“Escort Master Chen, if you insist on splitting us into two teams for no reason, then you ought at least to have an explanation that makes sense.”
In the escort trade, if a mission failed, then the people responsible had to bear the corresponding consequences.
The first was damage to one’s personal reputation. After all, no one wanted to hire a scoundrel who abandoned the employer and fled for his own life.
The second was that the Escort Guild Council would assess the escort master’s rank according to the severity of the fault. In serious cases, one could even be stripped outright of one’s status as an Escort Master.
“That’s right!”
Liu Shuo also stepped forward, his face full of displeasure.
“If this mission fails, the Escort Guild Council won’t care what reasons you give. Once punishment comes down, that’s not something one person can bear alone!”
Chen Guan cast Liu Shuo a look, then finally explained,
“The environment in the Ten Directions Marsh is too harsh. There is no official road inside it. These two wagonloads of pelts simply cannot go in. Even if we force them in on our backs, with so many people making such a commotion, there’s no way we avoid attracting the attention of the greater demons.”
“With fewer people, we’ll be much more flexible. And we’re not going in there to fight the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes to the bitter end. We’re only shaking them off.”
“Since I dare arrange things this way, then I have some confidence in bringing Luo Li safely through the Ten Directions Marsh. This is the best road we have, and the only one left.”
The moment she heard that, Luo Li nodded at once.
“What Brother Chen says is not without reason.”
“The Ten Directions Marsh is, after all, a forbidden zone to humankind. If we take so many horses and wagons in there, there is no way to conceal our movements.”
“The whinny of a single horse might be enough to attract the notice of one of the great demons inside.”
“And all we need to do is shake off the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes. The key is speed and decisiveness!”
“Good!” After thinking it over briefly, Luo Tong nodded in agreement.
This time, he had learned his lesson well. He no longer dared hesitate, nor did he dare to rely on age and seniority. He had already resolved to follow Chen Guan’s arrangements completely.
Besides, Chen Guan’s strength was plain for all to see. He was very likely a top expert at the Great Perfection of the Profound Passage Realm!
In Pingyang Commandery, that kind of figure was rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
If there was anyone who could resolve this crisis, it could only be Chen Guan, and so they had no choice but to trust him.
Chen Guan swept his gaze over the group. Of the seventeen remaining men, some, like Luo Tong, had already accepted his arrangements.
Others were still hesitating.
Only this little girl was staring at him without blinking, those dark bright eyes fixed on him as though flowers had bloomed on his face.
He curled his lip, withdrew his gaze, and spoke directly.
“This is the best and safest method I can think of for now.”
“In a moment, I’ll take one team and guard Miss Luo, drawing the pursuing Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes toward the Ten Directions Marsh.”
“The remaining team will haul the pelts along the Heifeng Ridge route and circle a thousand li out of the way to Wangbei City.”
“So now you can choose for yourselves—Heifeng Ridge, or the Ten Directions Marsh.”
“But I’ll make one thing clear in advance. The road through the Ten Directions Marsh is a path where nine die for every one who lives. Whatever danger you run into there, I will not intervene. I suggest all of you think very carefully before answering.”
“I only need five men.”
The moment they heard that, the expressions on everyone’s faces turned rather ugly.
The meaning was obvious. He was telling them to have enough self-awareness not to come along merely to drag him down.
Most of all, the two wounded men with severed arms, Zhao Yu and Wang Chong, darkened considerably. Still, neither of them said anything in protest.
Chen Guan’s words were unpleasant, but this was in fact the best way of protecting them.
If they took the Heifeng Ridge route, then they would, for the most part, be free of the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes’ pursuit. At that point, all they would really need to do was make for the rendezvous.
Luo Tong still felt that Chen Guan’s actions were somewhat strange.
But it was also obvious that Chen Guan’s experience on this road surpassed his own, and so he remained silent and looked toward the others.
Though he was the temporary chief escort of this convoy, he did not have the right to make a choice of life and death for anyone else.
After all, Luo Li carried the tracking mark of the Grudge-Bearing Demon Apes on her body. She was a moving target, a walking magnet for enemy fire.
Anyone following her would not only face the ceaseless pursuit of the demon apes, but would also have to be constantly on guard against the unknown and terrifying greater demons inside the Ten Directions Marsh.
Even entering the Ten Directions Marsh under ordinary circumstances was a matter of nine deaths for one life.
Let alone under the threat of both dangers at once...
When no one spoke up, Luo Tong was the first to step forward and say in a deep voice,
“Escort Master Chen, I’ll go with you.”