Bachelor [EN]: Chapter 737

The girl in the navy blue robe also returned safely with the blood-colored tiger beast. The two seemed a little surprised to see Nam Giza and others surrounding Han Li.

At that moment, a guard stepped forward and explained the whole situation to the two of them, and the scarred giant burst into hearty laughter.

“My eye for talent wasn’t wrong. We’ve only just recruited Brother Han, and he’s already saved Jeon-ah. If something bad had happened, I wouldn’t have been able to face Madam [referring to Madam Bang, the guild leader’s daughter-in-law].”

The girl in the navy blue robe also heard the story, and her gaze towards Han Li became much warmer.

The group that had repelled the Sand Worm Beasts reorganized their ranks and took a half-day break before setting off again. The rest of the journey was relatively smooth, and after three days, they were able to leave the Azure Sand Desert, and an endless great prairie unfolded before their eyes once more.

The transport convoy’s speed doubled, and the giant tortoise moved its legs quickly, almost flying as it sped along.

‘Hmm?’

However, Han Li, who was lying in his cabin, noticed that the noisy sounds from the transport convoy had suddenly stopped as soon as they entered the prairie. Also, the girls in the same cabin were looking out at the green prairie with anxious expressions.

Han Li leaned against the wall of the cabin and looked at the anxious faces of the girls opposite him. He had also looked outside several times, but he couldn’t find anything strange.

However, he didn’t show it or ask about it. He didn’t know much about the Spirit Realm, so he didn’t want to arouse suspicion from others.

However, over the past few days, the girls had been much kinder to him, and especially the girl in the red robe named Jeon-ah, whom he had saved, had been very affectionate, calling him ‘Brother Han,’ ‘Brother Han.’

Han Li wasn’t used to it, but he couldn’t be cold to a young girl, so he had engaged in quite a few conversations with her. He couldn’t ask directly about the Spirit Realm, but he often asked about the Cheondong Merchant Guild.

Through this, he learned that the person they called Madam was actually the person in charge of a dozen or so districts in the Cheondong Merchant Guild and one of the daughters-in-law of the guild’s owner. Everyone called her Madam Bang out of respect.

The owner of the Cheondong Merchant Guild had three sons, and Madam Bang was the wife of the second son.

They had a son and a daughter and were very affectionate with each other, but the husband had died in an accident some twenty years ago, and she had become the district manager of the Cheondong Merchant Guild.

The four girls were maids that Madam Bang had taken care of since they were young, and because the Madam cherished and favored them, they were practically her adopted daughters.

The reason Madam Bang had come all the way to the remote Anwon Castle was not only because there was a high-value transaction there, but also because her young son, who had been discovered to have spiritual roots in his childhood and had entered a major sect in the capital, was waiting for her in Anwon Castle.

Moreover, it seemed that he needed Madam Bang’s help.

Madam Bang wanted to see her son, so she had personally joined the transport convoy, but not long after they had set off, she had formed a separate group and gone ahead to Anwon Castle.

She believed that there would be no problems with the transport convoy because there were many people and cultivators.

Han Li also asked about the background of the owner of the Cheondong Merchant Guild.

He thought that someone who possessed such a large fortune would not be an ordinary person. After hearing the story, Han Li was shocked.

Surprisingly, the owner of the guild was a mortal, a truly ordinary person who had not even learned body refinement, let alone having spiritual roots.

‘How can such a person run the Cheondong Merchant Guild?’

He was full of questions, but the girl in the red robe didn’t seem to know the details. So, Han Li didn’t press further and changed the subject, but his curiosity remained. The more he understood the surrounding situation, the more doubts arose, making him feel uneasy.

The great prairie was even more vast than the Azure Sand Desert, and the transport convoy had been traveling for a whole month and still hadn’t left it.

During that time, the guards and cavalry were all on edge, constantly on alert, and the cultivators who had been staying in their cabins took turns patrolling the surroundings on the carriages at regular intervals.

These people, called the Guro Mountain cultivators, always had tense expressions on their faces.

The convoy traveled for another half month and safely left the great prairie, just before entering a normal hilly area. People seemed to have relaxed now and returned to their cabins, and the sounds of laughter and chatter could be heard again from here and there.

The girls in Han Li’s cabin also let out long sighs as they left the prairie. The girl in the jade-colored robe patted her chest and burst into a clear laugh.

“Now we don’t have to worry about the prairie wolf beasts anymore. It’s not my first time here, but I get so nervous every time I come.”

“It’s not just us, all the men here with great achievements are probably the same. If you encounter a pack of wolf beasts, it’s truly the beginning of a disaster. It’s not a common occurrence, but every year, one place or another suffers such an incident.”

“But isn’t it strange? Anwon Castle isn’t a newly built castle, so why are they buying so much equipment? Most places that buy large quantities of spirit stones are mid-level or higher cities.”

At Ryu-ah’s sigh, the girl in the white robe asked with a puzzled look.

“What’s so strange about that? Maybe a powerful group of demonic beasts has recently moved their habitat near the castle, or maybe the ‘Demonic Beast Uprising,’ which happens once every thousand years, is approaching. It’s when all the demonic beasts in the surrounding area unite and attack.”

Ryu-ah shook her head and answered as if it was nothing special.

“That’s right, that’s probably it.”

Jeon-ah also agreed, raising the corners of her mouth. Han Li pretended to be meditating and circulating his energy, but in fact, he was listening to all of their stories.

‘Demonic Beast Uprising…’

At that moment, the ‘Scorpion Rebellion’ that the scarred giant Jang Gyu had mentioned when he was buried in the Azure Sand Desert came to mind.

Then, as the girls chattered and moved on to another topic, he focused on recovering his meridians by using the Vajra Art [a cultivation technique]. The speed at which his meridians recovered was beyond imagination, thanks to the combination of the art and the Undying Body divine power of the Wood Element.

His body had almost returned to normal, and it seemed that he would be fully recovered after about half a month of rest.

He had already mastered the fourth level of the Vajra Art, and he was also familiar with the cultivators’ relay techniques, so even a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator would not be able to defeat him. Of course, he would have to fight a Core Formation cultivator directly to know the result!

The transport convoy, having left the prairie, traveled for two more days and arrived at its destination for this journey.

Looking through the window, he could see that the stone castle was over thirty yards high, and every hundred yards or so, there were small turrets about a dozen yards high, making it magnificent. Moreover, it stretched endlessly to the side, making it difficult to estimate how wide it was. Han Li was speechless as he looked at the castle. How could this be called a small castle?

Even the things that were called large in the Mortal Realm would look small compared to this.

Han Li could also see soldiers in iron armor walking on the high walls, and incredibly large crossbows installed on the turrets, with metal bolts hanging from them. The metal bolts were three or four yards long and shone with a white light, making them look like low-grade magical artifacts. If they were indeed magical artifacts, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be half-dead if hit by one.

While he was observing with narrowed eyes, the transport convoy arrived at the castle gate. However, there was no one there, and the black gate was firmly closed.

The soldiers gathered above the gate looked down at the convoy with vigilance. In response, Jang Gyu moved the giant wolf forward and threw something up to the gate.

It was a golden spirit badge. Then, the area above the gate became noisy for a moment, and a middle-aged man in silver armor received the badge and examined it before giving an order.

“Open the gate and check! These are people from the Cheondong Merchant Guild.”

As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, one of the soldiers went down the wall and opened the gate.

Shortly after, the steel gate slowly opened, and dozens of fully armed soldiers ran out in two lines.

Then, the middle-aged man in silver armor walked out last and approached Jang Gyu, who was riding the giant wolf, and suspiciously scanned him before asking.

“Are you the leader in charge of the Cheondong Merchant Guild’s transport?”

“I am Jang Gyu! You must have heard the order from your castle lord. The goods behind us are all the items that our guild has promised to sell to your castle.”

“I have received the order. However, because it is such an important time, we will have to invite some cultivator masters to inspect the convoy before we can unload the goods.”

“Are you worried that demonic beasts might have mixed in? You can inspect as much as you like.”

Jang Gyu didn’t find the other party’s request strange and immediately agreed.

“Very well. Teacher Lee! Master Hwang! Please inspect the convoy.”

The middle-aged man nodded with satisfaction and turned his head to shout towards the inside of the gate.

“The castle lord has ordered me to assist Commander Jo, so of course, I must do so.”

A calm man’s voice was heard from inside the gate, and a scholar in a white robe and a monk in a blue robe walked out.

The one who answered was the scholar in the white robe. Commander Jo bowed to them and repeatedly expressed his gratitude with a smiling face.

The scholar and the monk each took out a mirror and a copper bowl, and after chanting incantations and forming hand seals, they flew the magical artifacts in their hands into the air.

Then, the two magical artifacts spun around, and blue energy came out of the mirror and yellow energy came out of the copper bowl, scanning the tortoise carriages and the giant wolf respectively. The two cultivators carefully inspected the convoy, not missing a single person.

The energies quickly passed over the thirty or so tortoise carriages and 200 people, but there were no problems.

“You may enter. Madam Bang has already rented the entire Yeo-un Inn on the west side of the castle, so you can unload your goods and meet her there.”

Commander Jo’s expression became much more relaxed, and he no longer stopped them and let them pass. The scarred giant clasped his hands and led the group into the castle.

Once inside, the area inside the stone castle far exceeded Han Li’s expectations. Even at a rough glance, there was an endless array of buildings of all kinds. The size and materials of the buildings varied, but they were well-organized, lined up neatly with wide bluestone roads in between.

The huge castle was full of pedestrians, and when Han Li looked closely, he saw that most of the people walking around the streets were carrying weapons such as swords.

Looking at this, Ryu-ah in the cabin sighed and muttered.

“It seems that we are really facing a demonic beast uprising. Otherwise, there’s no way that this remote place would be so crowded. The people of Anwon Castle must be very worried.”

Han Li, who heard those words, seemed to understand what was going on.

There were too many people, making it difficult to pass, but Commander Jo sent a few soldiers to clear the way so that they could pass. However, the tortoise carriages could not move quickly, and it was almost half an hour before they crossed a dozen or so streets and entered a relatively deserted road.

They soon arrived in front of a large pailou [a traditional Chinese archway] with pillars and a high roof, but no doors.

Behind the pailou, there was a heavily guarded warehouse-like building, and guards with various weapons were guarding the area.

After that, things were simple.

The people of the Cheondong Merchant Guild checked the cargo one by one and handed it over to the warehouse officials, and Jang Gyu, having finished his work, was greatly relieved and headed to the west side of the castle, as Commander Jo had told him.

Han Li, who had now fully recovered, accompanied them for about half the way before telling Jang Gyu that he would look around the castle and join them at the Yeo-un Inn later.

Jang Gyu frowned and thought for a moment before agreeing.

“Brother Han has not yet met Madam, so he is not yet officially a member of our guild. Therefore, I will not stop you, but the security in Anwon Castle is very bad right now. It’s a small, remote castle, so there’s nothing to see. It would be better to finish your business quickly and return to the inn early.”