Yang Ye wasn’t a First Heaven Realm expert, that was something that was beyond all doubt. The reason he’d suddenly become strong was that Baldy Qiang had walked over to him, and he’d secretly slapped on a high-grade Strength Talisman on himself during this time. Under the boost from the high-grade Strength Talisman and his golden Profound Energy, his strength had instantly risen by countless times.

Moreover, Baldy Qiang and the others had underestimated him, and it allowed him to launch a surprise attack successfully. Otherwise, with his normal strength, it ought to be possible to defeat Baldy Qiang, yet it was absolutely impossible to instantly annihilate Baldy Qiang!

Yang Ye casually swung his sword before gazing at Xiu Yuan who had a ghastly pale countenance and was trembling slightly. Right when he intended to deal with this piece of trash, Xiu Yuan suddenly said, “Yang, Yang Ye. You can’t kill me. My Big Brother is a First Heaven Realm expert. If… if you kill me, then he’ll definitely not let you go.”

Idiot! You’re still trying to threaten me at a time like this? Yang Ye cursed in his heart. With a swift charge, his sword left behind a string of afterimages as it arrived before Xiu Yuan.

Xiu Yuan was astounded in his heart, and he raised the sword in his hand to block instinctively.

Clang!

The Xiu Yuan’s sword broke into two before Yang Ye’s sword pierced through his chest.

After he put his sword away, Yang ye turned around and looked towards Snake Forest before he said in an indifferent tone, “Could it be that you intend to play the part of the oriole?” [1]

When they heard Yang Ye, Man’zi and the others were shocked in their hearts. There are more people in the surroundings?

The three of them suppressed the shock in their hearts and walked over to Yang Ye’s side while their faces were covered in vigilant expression.

“What a formidable Divine Sense!” After a short moment of deathly silence, along with this voice, three figures suddenly leaped out from within Snake Forest. These three figures were extremely swift, and they closed a distance of over 100m in a few breaths of time to arrive 9m before Yang Ye.

It was two men and one woman. The men were handsome while the woman was beautiful, and all of them were around 17 or 18 years of age. All of them wore white and plain fitting robes, and a tiny silver colored crescent was embroidered on their left chest.

Even though they were young, Yang Ye’s expression was extremely solemn. Because even though they hadn’t attained the First Heaven Realm, their strengths were definitely much stronger than Baldy Qiang whom he’d just killed a few moments ago. The reason he made such an inference was that their speeds were truly too swift, and it was utterly not something ordinary mercenaries could possess.

“The Brightmoon Sect!” When she saw the silver crescent on their chests, Qing Hong exclaimed with surprise. Obviously, she was warning Yang Ye.

When he heard Qing Hong, Yang Ye swiftly recalled everything he knew about the Brightmoon Sect. Besides a colossus like the Grand Qin Empire, there were six more extraordinary powers in the southern territory. These six extraordinary powers were separated into one school, two palaces, and three sects. The single school amongst them was the strongest amongst the six extraordinary powers, the Origin School. The two palaces were respectively Snow Palace and Flower Palace. As for the three sects, it was the Ghost Sect, Brightmoon Sect, and Sword Sect.

Of course, these were merely the powers that existed on the surface. The southern territory was extremely huge, and there were countless hidden clans and small sects. However, Yang Ye didn’t know anything about those hidden powers.

When they heard Qing Hong, a man that looked slightly older amongst the three disciples from Brightmoon Sect took a step forward, and he nodded to Yang Ye’s group before he said, “I’m Brightmoon Sect’s outer court disciple, Ming Hao. These two by my side are my Junior Brother Ming Xiu and Junior Sister Ming Yue. Earlier, we’d just left Snake Forest when we noticed you in battle with others, and for the sake of avoiding any suspicion, the three of us didn’t show ourselves. However, I never expected that your Divine Sense would be so formidable, and you actually noticed the three of us.”

When they saw these disciples from a sect act so courteously, Man’zi and the others were slightly not used to it. After all, all these disciples from sects were filled with arrogance when they met mercenaries in the past, and they looked at mercenaries as if those mercenaries were insignificant ants. Of course, the three of them knew that these disciples from Brightmoon Sect were so courteous because of Yang Ye.

The strong were respected in the southern territory. Earlier, Ming Hao and the others were extremely shocked when they watched Yang Ye fight from the shadows. It wasn’t that they hadn’t seen such a swift sword in the past, yet a swift sword that carried such formidable strength was rare. Especially because Yang Ye had even noticed them, and this caused them to feel even more shocked.

When he saw them acting so courteously, Yang Ye didn’t give them the cold shoulder. He nodded lightly and said, “I’m Yang Ye, an independent cultivator, and these few people by my side are my companions.”

When they heard Yang Ye, Ming Hao and the others were slightly surprised. They’d originally thought that Yang Ye was a disciple of the Sword Sect, but they’d never expected that Yang Ye was actually an independent cultivator. However, this wasn’t important to them, and all that mattered was Yang Ye’s strength.

“I wonder if Brother Yang is interested in training yourself with us?” Ming Hao smiled as he invited. No matter if Yang Ye was an independent cultivator or a disciple of a sect, possessing such strength at such an age was sufficient for them to treat him as an equal.

Yang Ye hesitated for a moment, and then he shook his head lightly before he said, “I’m sorry, I still have some matters to attend to.”

Yang Ye had left the sect to place himself in life and death battles, and he possessed huge secrets. So, he truly wasn’t willing to allow others to know about it.

Ming Hao wasn’t infuriated by Yang Ye’s refusal because he didn’t carry much hope in the first place. He immediately said with a smile, “Since it’s like that, then we’ll train with Brother Yang if we have a chance in the future. We’ll be taking our leave first!”

As soon as he finished speaking, their figures flashed and vanished into the distance.

Yang Ye was truly a bit surprised by their attitudes. As far as he was concerned, disciples of sects ought to be arrogant, domineering, and haughty people. However, those three people from Brightmoon Sect didn’t show any signs of this at all, and they didn’t even show the slightest bit of arrogance. This felt slightly unexpected to him.

Actually, it was still because Yang Ye was too inexperienced. There were numerous arrogant and domineering disciples from sects, yet they were mostly brainless. Those that were able to become disciples of sects mostly possessed good natural talents and disposition. Moreover, most of them were extremely intelligent, and they deeply understood that instead of adding another enemy to the list, it was better to have another friend instead.

“Brother Yang, what should we do with them?” Meanwhile, Man’zi glanced at the corpses in the surroundings and asked.

Yang Ye glanced at them as well before he said with a smile, “We definitely have to gather their belongings first!”

Man’zi and the others instantly started laughing when they heard this.

After some brief searching, Yang Ye obtained a few valuable things. They were respectively a small-scale spatial ring, a mid-grade Yellow Rank saber, two low-grade Yellow Rank daggers, and over 10,000 gold coins. However, Yang Ye didn’t attach much importance to these things. It couldn’t be helped, the requirements of he who was already a Grade One Talisman Master had become higher because of this accomplishment.

As he looked at the spatial ring in his hand, Yang Ye was slightly disappointed. Because compared to the spatial ring he possessed, it was too much more inferior, but it was better than nothing.

After he wore the spatial ring, Yang Ye glanced at the three Yellow Rank weapons within it before glancing at Man’zi and the others. He hesitated for a moment before his wrist flipped, and the three weapons appeared in his hand. He passed the weapons in his hand to Man’zi and the others before he said, “These weapons are useless to me, so all of you can have them!”

Man’zi was first stunned, and then he hurriedly shook his hand and said, “Brother Yang has saved our lives on more than one occasion, and those three people were killed by you. We didn’t contribute at all, so how could we take that from you?”

Qing Hong said from the side as well, “Keep those things. Even though we’re really tempted, we have our own principles, and if we took those things from you, then we would look down on ourselves.”

Yang Ye smiled and said, “I’m not giving them to all of you for free. I heard all of you say last night that besides hunting and killing Darkbeasts, mercenaries are for hire as well, right?”

He was most worried about his younger sister and mother now. Even though Elder Qian had warned the Liu Clan, Elder Qian couldn’t be at Southpeace City all the time after all. If the Liu Clan played tricks in order to deal with his younger sister and mother, then they would definitely be in danger. So, he intended to hire these three people before him to protect his younger sister and mother in Southpeace City, and he’d had this thought since last night.

Man’zi nodded and said, “Besides hunting and killing Darkbeasts, we also accept some work related to being bodyguards or helping others to transport goods. Brother Yang, you mean you intend to hire us?”

Yang Ye glanced at Xiu Yuan’s corpse on the ground and said, “Xiu Yuan was killed by me. However, if all of you return to Green Hornet City, then his older brother would definitely not let all of you go. If you’re willing, then I want all of you to protect my younger sister and mother at Southpeace City. As for the time period, we’ll make it half a year. What do you think?”

The three of them were moved when they heard this. Just as Yang Ye had said, once Xiu Yuan died, they would definitely be in danger if they returned to Green Hornet City. Even though the laws were strict in Grand Qin Empire and Xiu Yuan’s older brother probably wouldn’t dare to make a move against them while they were within Green Horney City, what about outside the city? Moreover, they were unable to continue hunting and killing Darkbeasts now because there were only three of them after all.

When they thought up to here, Man’zi glanced at Qing Hong and Xiao Hei, and when he saw them nod, he immediately said, “Brother Yang, we’re willing to accept your request!”

When he heard them agree, Yang Ye passed the three weapons in his hand to them, and then he withdrew 10,000 gold coins and passed it to them as well. When he noticed Man’zi intended to refuse the gold coins, he said immediately, “Not all of these gold coins are for the three of you. 5,000 gold coins are your compensation, and I need you to pass the other 5,000 to my younger sister and mother.”

When he heard this, Man’zi hesitated for a moment before he nodded. Three Yellow Rank weapons were already worth no less than 40 or 50 thousand gold coins. Coupled with these 5,000 gold coins and their own savings, it was more than enough for them to gain a foothold in Southpeace City.

Yang Ye continued once Man’zi took the gold coins. “After all of you head to Southpeace City, let Big Sister Qing Hong contact my younger sister and mother. Man’zi and Xiao Hei, both of you shouldn’t show yourselves, and it’s sufficient if the two of you hide in the shadows. If danger that the three of you are unable to resolve appears, then write a letter to me in the Sword Sect, and I’ll rush over as quickly as I can!”

Man’zi said with a smile, “Don’t worry Brother Yang, we’ve done a great deal of work related to protection. If danger that we’re unable to resist really appears, we still have some methods to deal with it. In short, so long as it isn’t a First Heaven Realm expert, we’ll definitely be able to guarantee the safety of Brother Yang’s family!”

“Good!” Yang Ye nodded, and then he glanced at Qing Hong who stood by his side.

When they saw Yang Ye glance at Qing Hong, Man’zi and Xiao Hei acted extremely sensibly and left first, whereas, Qing Hong originally intended to follow them as well, but she was stopped by Yang Ye.

1. Part of the saying where a mantis stalked a cicada yet was unaware of the oriole behind it. This saying refers to how one covets the gains ahead of one without being aware of the danger that lurks behind.