Some miles away from the place where the armed group had been standing, eight young men, two of them almost children, dressed in simple green clothes were moving at the side of a big covered cart pulled by two horses. On the cart, a grey-haired old man, dressed in plain gray clothes, sat at it's front, driving. A young man in his early twenties mounted on a black horse, dressed in what seemed a blue uniform was unhurriedly accompanying the cart.

This mounted young man was the only person armed among the people around the cart, carrying a short spear in his right hand. His eyes were clear, and his face could be considered handsome, if not for some old burn scars that fully covered his right cheek and part of the neck.

At this moment, the cover on the cart front slightly wavered and the face of a boy not older than eleven years emerged, with a curious expression he looked around, turned to the front, and asked

"Elder Chen, is this the boundary pass road? Are we close to the sect?"

"Yes, Young Master Shu, this is the pass road. Shortly we will arrive into Boundary Hill City from where the territory of the Three Hills Sect starts, and after passing through the city, we will arrive at the sect headquarters two days later." Responded the old man called Elder Chen with a warm tone.

"Is this Boundary Hill City big? Is it bigger than Boar's Clan town?"

"Hahaha" laughed Elder Chen, "Yes it is, and although it's not the biggest city under the skies, it has the highest walls on this island, so high that you can't see the top when standing at the bottom."

When the boy opened his mouth to ask something else, a muscular hand appeared from inside the cart and pulled him in, then in place of the boy's face a middle-aged man appeared and said with a good-natured tone, but with a light groan mixed into the speech, as if he was injured

"Elder Chen, better don't let that little rascal son of mine bombard you with questions, or it will never end."

"No worries Master Shu, having a lot of questions is the mark of a good student after all" The elder replied while smiling, and then asked with noticeable worry in his voice "Are you feeling better master? Do you need us to stop or slow down?"

"No, we need to arrive at the city before night, we can't depend only on Young Hong to protect us from beasts now that I'm injured." responded the man

Hearing his name, the young man mounted on the black horse, turned his head to face the cart and said in an unhurried tone

"Mister Shu, the sect asked me to escort you, and I intend to do that. If some beasts attack during our travel, I will take care of them. You should just concentrate on healing."

"Thank you." Said the man surnamed Shu with a small nod of appreciation. Then his head disappeared and the cover was closed again, it seems that he intended to follow the words of the young man.

Some minutes later, the man riding in the front stopped and raised his hand to stop the cart and the people following him. He then looked to the front, where a group of four people was sitting on some rocks near the road, and loudly asked, "Friends, who are you?"

"Responding to the Internal Disciple of the Three Hills Sect, I am scout team captain Zong Jun from the Boundary City Guard, and these three men are my subordinates. We were assigned to guard the boundary pass road as a suspected killer may try to escape into the wildlands. This is the most narrow place and he would pass here, so it was decided for us to wait here until we are relieved before nightfall by a full team." The man stood up, saluted, and explained.

He then bowed and asked, "May I know Master's name?"

"Hong Yong." replied the mounted man, and then asked "Is the killer a cultivator? I am escorting some mortals, and they are not fighters."

"So you are escorting some mortals, huh..." Said the man with a strange expression and slightly inclined his head, only to suddenly shout, "Now!"

Before the mounted Hong Yong could react, the eight servants and the cart were surrounded by twenty armed people. As for the three men that were sitting near the man who had talked, they quickly disappeared into the bushes and rocks. All while the one that was called Zong Jun took the huge double ax from his back, and with a mocking expression on his face took a step forward.

"Who are you?! Why are you impersonating Boundary City Guards?" Hong Yong loudly asked.

"As if I would speak with a corpse." spatted Zong Jun, and then roared "Kill them all!"

The twenty or so people took their weapons out and quickly killed the eight unarmed people near the cart, and some of them were already running to it, but one of them dropped his weapon while shouting and covered his face with his hands, dripping from between the fingers, blood could be seen.

"Old man, you want to die so badly!" The other people quickly surrounded the grey-haired elder that just injured the nearest person to the cart by using a simple stick that he had in his hand and proceeded to jump to the ground. Just by looking at him you could sense the air of an experienced fighter, even the simple stick appeared menacing, like a weapon of war.

The mounted man had a panicked expression on his face, but fleeing was not an option with the so-called captain standing in front, so after some hesitation, he decided to confront him. But right as he finished thinking of it, he seemed to sense something and jumped forward, six arrows flew from different directions, two went for the horse and deeply penetrated the head, while four of them hit the air where Hong Yong was sitting.

In the jump, while quickly flying forward, spear aimed to pierce the head of the so-called captain, "Piercing Mountain Peak!" Hong Yong loudly proclaimed and a brownish light concentrated around the speartip. And covered in that glow, it felt like it was not the tip of a spear, but the tip of a mountain!

"Hahaha, so a newly promoted internal disciple only is so so." Laughed Zong Jun, and with a small sidestep, moved out of the way of the spear, completely ignoring the mountain force that was pressing along the spear tip. Then before Hong Yong could react, in a movement that was not discernible to his eyes, the double ax effortlessly chopped the spear a bit below the tip.

When Hong Yong landed, he only had a plain stick in his hand, and in the next moment, he saw the ax hacking down into his body. Just before the ax landed, he only could scream in shock "Advanced Soul Expert!" And then he was chopped in two, so effortlessly as if he was made of pure air, only the two halves of his body falling on the ground and the blood that splashed could confirm the fact of the kill.

Zong Jun looked at the ax that was stained in blood and said in a mocking manner "I wonder who sent this idiot, one that stands still while chopped, to a mission outside the sect territory."

Smiling he turned around, expecting to see the orders completed, and everyone dead, after all, the information said that there were only two cultivators in the group, the seventh level spirit stage from the Sect and the fifth level spirit stage Shu Tao who was injured before entering the pass.

But at this moment his smile faded away, as what he saw was different from what he expected. From the twenty people in the spirit stage that encircled the cart, half were lying on the blood splashed ground, each of them, at first glance, heavily injured or dead. The other, living, half was trying to surround an old man, who was moving around like the wind and used a simple stick like his weapon.

Every time he hit someone with that stick, blood would flow, skin and muscles were ruptured, bones would crack or even become visible, and the leather armor was ripped apart as if cut with a blunt sword. From the ones standing around him, only two were uninjured, and they were the best men he had for this mission, both of them were ninth-level spirit stages! It meant that based on the information they had received, they could alone complete the mission, but they were clearly on a standstill with the unknown old man. When he looked at the cart that the old man was protecting without letting anyone come near, Zong Jun noticed that the cover opposite from the fighting was open, and there was no one inside.