Chapter 120: Zhou Yes Story- Part I (1/2)

Zhou Ye took a deep breath before thinking for a bit. A few minutes later he started speaking.

”It started when my group of five went to hunt in the forest a month ago. We had heard that someone had found snow veiled hares and some high tier beasts in the forest nearby. We didn't want to really hunt spirit beasts at that time, so these beasts were a good opportunity to get some money before the winter got really intense.

We were returning during the evening after a successful hunt, and suddenly one of my companions collapsed. We went to check and discovered that he had stopped breathing. We were very surprised and became alert, but it was useless as we had already lost when we went to check up on our companion.

Him collapsing was a distraction and at that moment some black-robed people ambushed us. I was able to escape into the depths of the forest, but my companions were not so fortunate. I tried to return to the town a few times, but the black-robed men were able to find me every time.

At first, I thought they were just warriors that were at the high tier of the Body tempering realm, but then I realized how wrong I was. They actually had cultivators in their midst.

I couldn't understand why they were even attacking us. Originally I had thought of them as bandits, but there was no chance a bandit in this region could be a cultivator. Any cultivator could easily get employed and won't have to resort to banditry, at least here.

Then I realized that the problem seemed to be a lot more deeper than I thought. The black-robed men blocked me at every point and didn't let me escape. Eventually, I was captured and was knocked unconscious.

They took me to a hidden cave, and I didn't know its location as I was unconscious when I was taken there. I was shackled and chained in a prison there. But when I opened my eyes for the first time there, I discovered that I was not alone.

There were many more people imprisoned there along with me. I even found some of my companions there. They were heavily injured and were chained the same as me. But the most shocking thing for me was that there were actually mercenaries there as well.”

~Gasp~

A collective gasp was heard in the tent as everyone except Lin Mu, and Teng Xiaolian was shocked. Teng Xiaolian had already seen last night's incident so was expecting there to be something strange and Lin Mu had already known of this. Though the information about there being a hidden prison in a cave was very interesting to him.

'Seems like I'll need to speak to the Hei Corps soon.' Lin Mu thought.

Zhou Ye had taken a little break and was drinking water to moisten his parched throat. Evidently, him speaking this much was already taking its toll on him.

”Are you fine? Do you want to rest more?” Hao Xiao asked gently.

Zhou Ye shook his head in denial.

”No, I'm fine. I… I want to finish this first.” Zhou Ye replied.

”So, what happened next?” Hong Luo asked.

Zhou Ye took another deep breath before continuing.

”I stayed there for over two weeks and observed all that happened there. It was surprisingly calm, except for the mercenaries' attempts to escape. The black-robed men actually did not torture us or hurt us, unless it was necessary. They even provided us with proper food and water. Going so far as to actually treat any injury that bled.

While I was there I also saw that they took away a few people every day and brought more in. Nearly all of them were mercenaries and were all cultivators. There were some body tempering realm mercenaries too, but they were far and few in between.

Eventually, I and a few other prisoners got talking and planned out some things. We tried to look for avenues of escape and concluded that the best opportunity would be when they actually released us from the prison to take us to wherever they did.

One of the people that I met then was Dongfeng Zhao. He was a mercenary from the Ashen cloak mercenary company and was the leader of one of their elite teams. He told me that he and his team were ambushed as well when they were hunting for spirit beasts in the northern forest.

Dongfeng Zhao then told me that nearly all of the mercenaries that were there were elite mercenaries and had been commissioned to hunt the spirit beasts by the mayor of the Wu Lim City. They had actually felt suspicious at the start when their communication with the other teams was slowed down, but when they were attacked and brought there, they finally understood.

Someone was taking this opportunity to target all the mercenary companies. Dongfeng Zhao guessed that it was probably someone wanting to eliminate competition and reduce the influence of other companies. But after a few days, he rescinded his words and realized that this was more than that.

The strengths of the black-robed men were way more than necessary. More than ninety percent of their people were cultivators and there was plenty of peak stage Qi refining realm cultivators as well. There was no chance that an entourage so strong would even need to compete with the mercenary companies when they can just set up their own faction with that strength.”