Published at 25th of March 2023 11:06 am

Chapter 979 Entering The Mount Five Heroes

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Lin Mengya smiled softly, and her eyes were full of love for the child in her belly.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect it either. I don’t have any pregnancy reaction.”

In fact, she was a little nervous about the child.

Baili Wuchen had told Lin Mengya that her current health condition was not very suitable for pregnancy.

However, she had been pregnant, so she would do everything she could to give birth to the child safely in addition to being surprised.

The Shen Nung system had been monitoring the child’s condition all the time. Although the child was only three months old now, it grew very well, and nothing was wrong because of her special constitution.

At least, the child was still quietly growing in her womb.

Therefore, Lin Mengya warned herself to be extremely careful because she was no longer alone to fight.

For the sake of the child in her belly, she had to take it as the first priority to protect herself safely.

Lin Mengya lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked at the mountains not far away.

Their guide was a member of the Branch Hall in Qi Prefecture. He was in his early 30s. He used to be a hunter here, so he knew the best about the conditions in these mountains.

With him on the team, they should be able to safely climb over the mountains and reach the long-agreed secret contact station of the Lieyun Empire within half a month if everything went well.

Of course, Lin Mengya was very cautious about the guide. He was selected by the Deputy Hall Master in Qi Prefecture in person, and Lin Mengya had also secretly asked Shi Bupo to look into his identity.

After investigating him in detail, such as his family background, his connections, etc., Lin Mengya was finally relieved.

Qinghu laughed at Lin Mengya for being like a frightened bird after becoming a mother-to-be. However, Lin Mengya knew better than anyone else that there was nothing wrong with being cautious.

“Hall Master, we will enter the mountains tomorrow. Before that, I have a few words to say, and I hope you can listen to me.”

The guide had a broad and tanned face. He looked like an honest and faithful person.

The guide felt great respect for Lin Mengya, the Hall Master of the headquarters, whom they had only heard of her but never seen her.

“Please feel free to talk.”

The woman’s voice finally was heard from the carriage. However, the guide became nervous.

A few days ago, the members of the Branch Hall in Qi Prefecture were the first group to hear the news of how the Hall Master punished the traitors with her tough method.

In particular, the guide heard from his buddies in their Branch Hall that the two Deputy Hall Masters, who were highly skilled in martial arts and scheming, were like pigs that had been tied up to obediently take the punishment before the Hall Master. After that, he felt a little warier about the mysterious Hall Master.

He was afraid that he would be punished by the Hall Master if he did something wrong.

After calming down, the guide started to speak.

“The local people call this mountain ‘Mount Five Heroes’. There are no heroes in the mountains, but it is occupied by five groups of bandits in the name of ‘enforcing justice on behalf of heaven’. Four groups of mountain bandits abide by the rules and usually don’t disturb civilians. The remaining group occupies the trade route and often robs the passing merchants. So those merchants often travel in a group.”

Qinghu, who was standing by the side, just snorted coldly, looked at the long sword in his hand, and said gloomily.

“It doesn’t matter. If they dare to get in our way, I will kill them all.”

The guide suddenly felt a chill on his neck. He retracted his neck and continued to say.

“However, it’s also because of this that it’s easier for the groups of trade caravans to be targeted. In the contrast, some small groups of vendors were let go because they have fewer people and were not rich enough. The head of these mountain bandits is an extremely cunning and difficult person to deal with. One of his subordinates is my distant cousin. That’s why I know about this. In my opinion, it’s better to divide the team into small groups and separate them. In this way, it may be safer.”

Qinghu looked at the guide, waved his hand to motion for him to leave, and then lifted the curtain of the carriage.

As expected, Lin Mengya frowned slightly.

It seemed that the team of 100 people was somewhat eye-catching.

She was not afraid of being targeted, but it would be troublesome.

“What do you think?”

Lin Mengya looked up and asked Qinghu for his opinion.

“I think what he said makes sense. It’s better to be safe than sorry. In case, we encounter them, it will be safer to have more people. Those mountain bandits are just riffraff, and the 500 of us can probably run amok in the mountains. It’s just that we are not as familiar with the terrain as them. If any conflict occurred, we may suffer losses.”

Lin Mengya nodded. What Qinghu said was exactly what she was thinking.

Lowering her head and thinking for a while, Lin Mengya decided to follow the guide’s advice.

Then the team of 100 people was divided into seven or eight small-sized caravans, and the number of people in each caravan was not fixed.

Lin Mengya’s caravan was arranged at the front. She would set off two hours in advance, and then the hidden members of the team would leave an appointed secret signal in the place where they needed to guide the people behind them.

Every caravan or hidden team that passed by was required to leave their traces so that the later people could check and verify.

In this way, everyone could find out about the situation of the team ahead at any time.

Lin Mengya arranged Xu Shan and Shi Bupo to hold the fort in the last team.

With the two of them there, even if the last team did encounter the mountain bandits, they could at least seek help in time.

What was more, the remaining 400 people would also be scattered in the mountains to protect these disguised caravans.

Sanjue Hall’s teams rested for a day and a night. Finally, they set foot in the territory of Mount Five Heroes in the early morning of the next day.

It was March now, and the mountains were in the nice season of everything recovery.

Along the way, they saw the flowers in full bloom, and their moods eased a lot.

For three days in a row, they didn’t encounter anything unusual, except for occasionally bumping into some trade caravans coming and going and the local people who entered the mountains to collect firewood.

Nevertheless, Qinghu still gave the order to be on high alert and not to relax, lest others would take advantage of it.

After traveling for a long time, even though Lin Mengya spent most of her time recuperating in the carriage, she felt hard to stand it.

Finally, they arrived at an open space. Qinghu immediately gave the order to stop to take a break.

There were more than 20 people in their group. In addition to Lin Mengya, two women pretended to be her maids.

Baisu had been hiding somewhere. She was in charge of communication among the teams.

Although Lin Mengya was pregnant, Baisu did not worry about her because Qinghu was with her.

“Be careful.”

Qinghu supported Lin Mengya carefully as if he were serving the Queen Mother.

“I’m fine. Don’t let others see anything unusual about me.”

Lin Mengya only dared to roll her eyes in her mind at Qinghu’s over-protection.

Anyway, Qinghu probably wouldn’t listen to her. Besides, she knew that Qinghu did this for her own good. However, sometimes Lin Mengya did not know whether she should laugh or cry when she saw Qinghu acting like a hen.

She was pregnant but not paralyzed. However, it was obvious that her protest did not work.

When Lin Mengya got out of the carriage, some people around had already started the fire to make lunch.

Lin Mengya sat next to Qinghu, but her eyes inadvertently were caught by a certain place in the mountain.

“These guys have been following us for two days, right?”

Her voice was so low that only she and Qinghu could hear it. A sneer quickly flashed across Qinghu’s thin lips.

“Yeah, they’re quite persistent. Do you want me to get rid of them now?”

Soon after they entered the mountains, Qinghu was keenly aware that there were secret sentries around, who did not belong to any team of the Sanjue Hall.

But Qinghu only told Lin Mengya about it, and he did not alarm anyone else.

“Let’s wait and see. We don’t know what they’re up to yet. If they’re here to gather information only and we act rashly, we’ll alert them.”

It was better to avoid unnecessary trouble. It was in their territory, and Ling Mengya and others were just passers-by. It was best for them to get along well with each other. If there was a real dispute with the locals, they would probably suffer losses.

Under Qinghu’s anti-monitoring, any sign of disturbance from the secret sentries could not escape Lin Mengya’s eyes.

After another five days of peace, their team finally arrived at the deepest part of the mountains.

As long as they walked across the hillside in front, they could reach the other half of the mountain road.

The guide, who had been doing his job in silence these days, had been feeling a little uneasy since the morning.

He glanced at the carriage behind him. After spending a few days together with Lin Mengya, he had seen everything clearly.

The Hall Master did not often chat and laugh with them. Every day, she spent most of her time resting in the carriage. However, she had a clear distinction between reward and punishment, and she was an easygoing person.

After thinking it over and over again, those who had been punished indeed violated the rules of the Hall, and the Hall Master punished them according to the rules.

Moreover, when they first joined the Sanjue Hall, the Hall Master had asked them to recite all the hall rules before officially becoming a member of it.

In other words, those people were courting death themselves. It had nothing to do with the Hall Master.

Finally, the guide stood up and walked to the carriage where Lin Mengya was.

“Hall Master and Deputy Hall Master, Fort Naratha is right ahead. If you trust me, can you give me a few taels of silver and let me go have a check first?”

The guide lowered his head. Qinghu could not see his expression clearly, but he could see the guide’s slightly stiff crossed hands.

The head of the mountain bandits’ name was well-known, so he probably was a savage.

However, the guide actually took the initiative to explore the way, which was commendable.

Qinghu took out a 10-tael silver ingot from the carriage and put it in the guide’s hand without another word. The guide was a little surprised. He looked up and stared at the Deputy Hall Master in front of him in astonishment.

“Thanks for your hard work. Be careful.”

The short words were heard from the carriage, and the Hall Master was sticking her head out and looking at the guide with a mild expression.

All of a sudden, the guide, who lived in the mountains and had never done anything big, felt like he had taken a certain mission. The feeling of being trusted so much made him feel a sense of responsibility.

He was not good at expressing himself. He just tightly held the silver ingot in his hand and nodded hard.

Then he turned around and walked forward. Even though his footsteps were a little unsteady, he moved forward without hesitation.

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