26 Bai Qing (1/2)

Bai Yun watched as a group of men came out of the crack and stood in front of the weeds. There were seven of them. The one in the lead was a young man who seemed to be only twelve or thirteen. He was wearing a golden robe and stood there with his head held high. It was obvious from the first look that he was their leader. On his back he carried a saber. Even though it was sheathed, it could easily be seen that it was of a high quality from its hilt alone. In fact every object on his body was of a high caliber. Bai Yun realized that this must be Bai Qing. This look of affluence and arrogance was typical of a prince. Even though it was said that anyone could be a prince of the clan, without sufficient background it was impossible to achieve.

He was followed by a young man who seemed to be fawning all over him. Bai Yun figured that this must be Bai Hao. There was five other people beside the two.

Bai Yun used his perception to quietly prod them for their cultivation bases. The answer that he got only increased his worry. Other than Bai Qing and Bai Hao, there was one other person in the seventh stage of qi condensation. The rest of them were in the sixth stage of qi condensation. This was a formidable line up. By himself, it would be difficult to get away from them.

Bai Qing was inspecting the situation in front of him with a frown. He looked at the unexpected scenery in front of him.

”Bai Hao, why didn't you mention anything about the lava spiders. Or any other beasts. From the looks of things it has been a while since the cave has been found.” One of the people following Bai Qing reprimanded Bai Hao.

”I don't know what happened. When I came here last there were no beats.” Bai Hao explained in a panicked voice, afraid that Bai Qing will look down on him.

”There is no need to panic. It is just as I expected.”Bai Qing reassured him which calmed Bai Hao down. ”Demonic beasts have much higher sensitivity to such things compared to us. It would be a surprise if not even one demonic beast had found the fruit. Why do you think we left an hour before midnight, when it took less than ten minutes to reach here from where we were searching. The reason we came late was to make the people spying on us less wary and make them think we don't know where the supreme weed fruit is. For that it it would have been better to leave as late as possible. But we left early in order to kill the demonic beasts that have gathered and be in a position to grab the fruit as soon as it matured. Bai Hao you have done your job. From now on you can join our team. But be warned, the rules here are extremely strict. I will not ask you to do the impossible, but if you don not try your best, I will definitely kick you out.” Bai Qing said.

Bai Yun was impressed by Bai Qing. He explained everything to a follower and also reassured, and mildly threatened at the same time, Bai Hao. He was like a natural born leader. Bai Yun was sure that he could never be like that.

Bai Qing turned to the lava spiders with a frown. Currently the two groups were simply staring at each other. Bai Qing knew just how bad a battle with the lava spiders would be. As for the lava spiders, they also knew just how strong the group in front of them was and did not rashly launch an attack.

Bai Qing frowned at them and said, ”I never expected that the beasts here would be lava spiders. This makes things quite troublesome. We should not start a fight immediately.”

”We should have send someone to take a look at this place earlier.” The unknown seventh stage qi condensation practitioner said.

”How. You know just how many people were spying on us. If we had send Bai Hao here, at least one group would definitely find out and follow him here. Even now we had to be extremely careful and had to spend the entire night in order to trick them in to get here quickly without anyone finding out. Other than the large number of scattered hopefuls, there were three large groups following us. If any of them had found out about the location of the fruit, then we would have had to share it with them. And we cant fight because if we did that it would damaged the prince's reputation. It was simply not worth it.” One of the group said.

”Not to mention that there is also Bai Shan. No one knows what he has been up to in the last few days. He may be an idiot but his brother is not. Most likely he send someone over in order to manage Bai Shan. We have to be wary of him too.” A scholarly looking one among the sixth stage qi cultivators replied.

”What about the other two people who discovered this palace along with Bai Hao. Could Bai Song have found them and used them to find this location.” The seventh stage qi condensation practitioner asked coldly.

”I don't think so. Bai Hao was quite smart and spread the rumor that he found the place by himself. Even we only came to know of them after meeting up with Bai Hao. There is no way for anyone to know about them. Also they were spotted about an hour from here a while ago.” the scholarly boy replied.

”Are they trying to get their hands in the supreme weed fruit. How dare they!”

”Most likely not.” Bai Qing replied. ”It is likely that they saw the lava spiders and is staying around because of them. The maybe hoping that they could get the fruit after the lava spiders and us kill each other. Or maybe offer help at the critical point to get some resources. Either way I am sure that they are nearby.”

” Hmm if they were to interfere then-” the seventh stage qi condensation practitioner said.

”You have my permission to kill them then. Now let us focus on the problem in front of us.” Bai Qing cut him off.