"Follow Uncle Gang into the city and escort the carriage?"

Xu Ning glanced at Guo Ye.

"Yes." Guo Ye explained, "By tomorrow, we will have three months worth of collected medicinal materials. The day after tomorrow, my uncle will set off to transport the medicinal materials to Kangyun County and deliver the goods to the medicinal store over there."

"Every time he delivers goods, my uncle finds a few good fighters to follow him together." Guo Ye continued, "His recruiting conditions are either being in the intermediate realm of an external skill, or being in the mortal realm second stage of an internal skill. You are in the intermediate realm of the Gale Knife Technique, so I thought of bringing you."

"I see…"

Xu Ning finally understood.

According to what Tao Jinglu said before, the combat prowess of external skills had an advantage over internal skills in the early stages.

The elementary realm of external skills was stronger than the mortal realm first stage of internal skills, and the intermediate realm should be similar to the mortal realm second stage. This was why Tao Yungang's recruitment criteria was set this way.

However, this was just a comparison. Generally speaking, those who had trained in an internal skill generally had at least an elementary realm external skill. Only a few were like Xu Ning, who were in the intermediate realm of an external skill but had not yet practiced an internal skill.

"Oh yeah, I haven't told you the pay yet." Guo Ye added, "It takes five days for a roundtrip, and the pay is 50 taels of silver."

"50 taels of silver?"

Xu Ning was quite surprised—this amount was a lot.

Despite the fact that he had made 300 taels from selling the Heal-all Olants, those opportunities only came by chance.

These 50 taels of silver would be earned by his strength and power alone.

"Sounds like a lot?"

Guo Ye smiled. "50 taels sounds like a lot. But in fact, it is not too much. On the way to the county city, we are likely to encounter horse bandits. If we have to fight against them, it will be risky."

"But you can be rest assured that my uncle will also go. He is in the mortal realm third stage in inner enrichment, and in the intermediate realm of the Gale Knife Technique. Even if we encounter a horse bandit, you won't have to worry about your life."

Guo Ye added.

Xu Ning listened, but did not immediately respond. He pondered for a moment and nodded. "I'll go."

Tao Yungang was leading the team escorting the carriage, so their safety was relatively guaranteed, and the reward was also generous.

Furthermore, as a warrior, he must take risks to make money. This was something he would inevitably face in the future.

"Good, I'll tell my uncle when I go back." Guo Ye waved his hand and stood up. "Okay, I'm leaving. Your sister and brother-in-law should be coming back soon."

Guo Ye should call Tao Yunchuan his uncle, since he and Tao Yungang were in the same generation.

But because of his close relationship with Xu Ning, he called them sister and brother-in-law, just like Xu Ning.

"Go back and practice hard."

Xu Ning reminded.

"Okay."

Guo Ye responded.

"Uncle Ye, see you later."

"See you."

…

In the early morning of the next day, Xu Ning got up early and went to Tao Yungang's house.

Xu Ning had already told Tao Yunchuan and Xu Lian about him escorting the goods for Tao Yungang.

After hearing that Tao Yungang, a master of inner enrichment, was personally leading the team, both of them were relieved, and they agreed to let Xu Ning go.

The sun was just beginning to rise, as Xu Ning arrived at Tao Yungang's home with a knife.

Because of their business in medicinal materials, Tao Yungang's family was considered wealthy throughout the Tao Village.

His house was large and looked grandiose in appearance.

The courtyard door was wide open, so Xu Ning strode in the spacious courtyard. He saw that the carts that were being pulled by several donkeys had already been loaded with goods.

He didn't see anyone else.

"Xu Ning, you're here so early?"

Guo Ye walked out of the house.

"Are you going as well?"

Xu Ning asked.

"I'm going."

Guo Ye nodded.

"But you're basically physically disabled in terms of martial arts, why are you going?"

Xu Ning asked rhetorically.

"I'm different from you, I'm going there to talk business." Guo Ye said, "Just make sure I'm safe."

"Xu Ning is here?"

Another person walked out of the house.

The man looked to be in his forties, about the same age as his former instructor Tao Yunmeng.

He had a strong build, bright eyes, and a fierce gaze.

"Uncle Gang."

Xu Ning greeted.

This was Guo Ye's uncle, Tao Yungang.

Because of Xu Ning's relationship with Guo Ye, they had met before.

"Kid, you're already in the intermediate realm of the Gale Knife Technique, but how come you never mentioned it before."

Tao Yungang stepped forward and patted Xu Ning's shoulder. "You are much stronger than Guo Ye."

"Uncle, you…"

Guo Ye pursed his mouth. He looked a little angry.

"Wait a moment, the others will be here soon."

Tao Yungang said.

Just like Tao Yungang said, after a while, five more people arrived one after another.

They all look older than Xu Ning, with the younger ones being at least in their twenties, while the older ones were about the same age as Tao Yungang.

They were either carrying knives or spears—they were probably all from the Tao Village.

After seeing that everyone was there, Tao Yun walked in front of them.

"Everyone is here, we are ready to go."

Tao Yungang looked at them and said, "Before we set off, I will give out the payment for this trip."

After that, Tao Yungang took out six 50-tael silver notes and placed them in the hands of Xu Ning and the other five people.

Xu Ning was a little surprised.

Job payments were generally settled after the job. Prior payment was a rare occurrence.

Guo Ye seemed to notice Xu Ning's confusion, so he explained, "It's rare for people to travel to the city. My uncle pays in advance so that everyone can buy something they like in the city."

Xu Ning nodded silently.

The rest of the people who received the money thanked Tao Yungang. Everyone seemed to be accustomed to this gesture; it was obviously not their first time escorting the carriage.

"Okay, ready to go."

Tao Yungang said, "There are four carriages and eight of us in total. Yunquan and I will guard the head carriage, Xu Ning and Guo Ye will be in the second carriage, while the rest sort it out yourselves."

Guo Ye was basically defenseless, and Xu Ning had no experience in escorting carriages, so they were placed right behind Tao Yungang's carriage.

Soon after, the people got into the donkey carriages that were filled with goods and left the Tao Village, heading towards the direction of Kangyun County city.

"This is such a desolate place…"

There were barely any people outside of the Tao Village.

The world was rather chaotic, so except for some powerful martial arts masters, everyone lived in groups.

Guo Ye and Xu Ning sat together, chatting to one another.

At the speed of the donkey carriage, it would take close to one day to get from Tao Village to Kangyun County—the distance was quite far.

Soon, two hours passed by, and the sun was blazing in the sky.

Even though it was autumn, the sun was still deadly.

On the desolate mountain roads, they all just ate bread and drank some water—this was their lunch.

"Hurry up and eat." Tao Yungang took a bite of the flatbread. "Horse bandits are likely to appear on the mountain road up ahead."

"Horse bandits?"

Xu Ning and the others became alert.

Everyone tensed up and looked at the hillsides on both sides of the road.

The slopes were steep and the mountains were high. There were a lot of trees nearby. If someone suddenly came down from the mountains, they could be in a minacious situation.

"Beware of the rubble."

Tao Yungang reminded.

While they were advancing forward, rubble would slip down from the mountain.

Luckily, the volume of the rubble was small, so they could easily avoid it.

Although he was an inner enrichment master, Tao Yungang was still a little worried.

This section of the road was the easiest place to be robbed.

But this time everyone seemed to have good luck. They took half an hour to cross the mountains, and there were no obstacles in the way.

"I was nervous the entire time just now, at least we're safe now."

After passing the dangerous section, Guo Ye breathed a sigh of relief.

Xu Ning didn't reply. He just turned around and looked at the mountain disappearing behind him.

The scorching sun, the blowing autumn winds, the trees swaying side to side, everything was desolate.

However, just after Xu Ning and his party passed through the valley, more than a dozen people dressed as horse bandits appeared from one side of the mountain.

Their leader was a bald man.

He was wearing a short sleeveless shirt. His arms were packed with muscles, and his face was full of scars. He was obviously a dangerous character.

Besides the bald man, a man with a broken arm and a crooked nose stared coldly at the place where Xu Ning and his party had disappeared, his eyes full of murderous intent.

"The leader was Tao Yungang?"

The bald man asked the man with the broken arm.

"It's him. The thievish-looking kid behind him is his nephew, named Guo Ye."

The man with the broken arm's voice was a little hoarse, his tone filled with hatred.