46 The road to the Pembroke province (1/2)

A pair of thunder bulls rumbled on under a grey sheet of an overcast sky, the chilly winds howled and swirled in a unpredictable pattern, buffeting the beautifully crafted dark carriage making its way along the clay packed main road north of the Calabar province.

They were now about a week's travel away from the Pembroke province. The surroundings now morphed from flat green grasslands into overgrownbrown trees ten or eleven meters high. The occasional fierce beast could be seen roaming through a twisty maze of trees but didn't venture down to the main road to cause trouble.

The Pembroke province was an under developed place. The roads grew rougher the farther away they went from the Calabar province and the closer they got to the Pembroke province, themore thesigns of ambushes and running battles became evident. The broken trees, dark scorch marks and scattered splotches of bloodstains that decorated the pothole riddled street, told its own story about the brutality of this area.

While gathering information back in the Calabar province, Qin Li had learned from the stable boy that the road to the Pembroke province was considered very dangerous by the locals. The dirt stained stable boy was very puzzled why nobles with no military escorts would dare set foot on the long road to the Pembroke province, they would only prove to be a juicy dinner for the merciless bandits rumored to operate in the area.

After traveling fora while the carriage came to a sudden complete stop.

”Hartley come and have a look at this”

Qin Li's voice entered the cabin of the carriage as Hartley was sat motionlessly beside Zhi Ruo, both in deep concentrating while cultivating.

Hartley's eyes opened and a visible blue glow illuminatedthe entire cabin, this was the brightest it had ever been and wasmade even more vivid by the grey overcast day. Hartley had made great progress in these last days and would soon approach the thin line between sub-realms.

He exited the cabin walked around to the front of the carriage and hopped up to sit beside Qin Li.

”Whats going on?” Hartley questioned.

Qin Li pointed to spot about 20 meters ahead, two dead men were rotting in the middle of the street, arrows sticking out of their mangled flesh like needles in a pin cushion,a black swarm of flies were lazily crawling over the corpses buzzing noisily while others just flew in idle circles around the two gruesome bodies.

”Do you think its a trap?” asked Qin Li.

”I don't know, I can't detect anyone within 300 meters of us.” Hartley responded.

”Move forward carefully and be prepared to defend the carriage on your side, I will take this side”

Hartley said as he concentrated on his surroundings. They moved forward while enduring the almighty stench, the smell of the half rotted bodies hammered into their nostrils threatening to make them empty the entire contents of their stomach.

Qin Li somewhat unskillfully maneuvered the carriage and beasts around the dead bodies inadvertently running a wheel over one of the bodies laying prone on the left in the process.

The flies scattered in all directions with a loud chorus of buzzing. More innards spilled out of the body making the unholy stench multiply at least three folds.

Then the loud sounds of Zhi Ruo vomiting out her guts came from the cabin, after hearing the retching sounds Hartley could no longer hold down the contents of his stomach either, he cocked his head to the side and puked up everything in his stomach with water running out of his eyes.

Qin Li shook the reigns vigorously andcommanded the beast to move forward at a faster pace, in the end he too involuntarily wretched up his lunch before they had completed their escape from the swirling flies and awful smell.

The carriage rumbled and bumped up and down as they made their escape from the range of the stench.

After another hundred meters Qin Li slowed the carriage down to normal speed again and let out an audible sigh..Hartley looked back in the direction of the bodies and said

”I hope you find peace in your nextlife.”

Zhi Ruo poked her head out of the carriage and gulped in the fresh air as if she was suffocating, her face was ghostly-pale, she couldn't even find the words to complain.

Their speed slowed as the journey continued on the bumpy road. After roughly half a day's travel, Hartley picked up the rumble of horse's hoofs coming their direction.

Six silhouettes mounted on horses appeared off in the distant leaving a dust cloud in their wake as they headed in Hartley's direction, as soon as the riders noticed the carriage they eagerly headed over with glee as if they had hit the jackpot.

The riders came to stop spread across the width of the road.

”Stop!” shouted a tall slim suave looking black haired man who took his position at the front.