Chapter 49

Ding Qi returned to Qixia Town this time, but he did not go back by carriage as usual.

Since he had learned the three techniques, whenever Ding Qi activated the Wind Control Technique, his speed of travel was extraordinary, making it unnecessary to bother with such matters.

While traveling, he could also practice various methods of using the Wind Control Technique, thereby honing his skills in using it.

On these few trips to Liangcheng and back, Ding Qi always traveled this way.

It could be said that he achieved two goals at once.

On the road, Ding Qi would occasionally activate the Wind Control Technique, performing all the techniques he could think of. Some of these techniques were quite to his liking, while others fell short of his original expectations and were not very practical.

Even when he failed, Ding Qi was not disappointed. Sometimes he would even stop on the road to think about whether there was room for improvement.

Although he stopped frequently along the way, his speed of travel was still very fast, and he quickly covered nearly half the distance.

With the support of the Innate Skill, Ding Qi lightly stepped on the tips of the grass, crossing several mountain ridges as if walking on flat ground. This situation far exceeded the realm of what was known as lightness in the martial world.

If the people in the martial world saw Ding Qi's ghostly figure, which seemed to teleport, they would probably be so astonished that their jaws would drop, thinking they had seen a ghost.

At this moment, Ding Qi lightly touched the tips of the trees, performed several flips in the air, and then steadily stood on a large rock protruding from the mountain peak. Looking at the vast view before him, Ding Qi was about to take a slight breath and leap forward again when he suddenly stopped.

Ding Qi's ears twitched, and he then focused his gaze in one direction.

"There are actually people nearby?" Ding Qi thought, quite puzzled.

The superhuman hearing bestowed by the Innate Skill allowed Ding Qi to detect a large group of people arguing in the distance. Although the source of the sound was quite far away, it was in the direction he was heading.

This situation made Ding Qi feel quite strange.

Since he was using the Wind Control Technique to travel, he was very cautious. He knew very well how shocking the Wind Control Technique could be once activated, and he did not want anyone to see it. Therefore, he chose to travel through remote and desolate mountain forests.

For others, these desolate mountain forests were extremely difficult to navigate, but for Ding Qi, who was using the Wind Control Technique, they were no different from ordinary roads.

On these few trips to Liangcheng, he had always traveled through the mountains and forests and had never seen anyone.

He was now deep in the mountains, and logically, there should not be anyone, let alone a group.

Ding Qi focused his gaze in the direction of the sound, hesitated for a moment, and, driven by curiosity, finally headed towards it.

Since he had to pass through there anyway, he was also quite curious to know what had happened that would bring a group of people to the depths of the forest.

Ding Qi soon approached the group and observed them from a distance through the gaps in the trees.

In a relatively open valley in the distance, a group of people were facing off. The argument Ding Qi had heard earlier was coming from this group.

"Today is really coincidental, to encounter people from the Qingyun Sect and the Tianquan Sect for the second time."

Ding Qi looked at the group of people facing off with a strange expression, feeling quite moved.

He had already identified the identities of the people facing off. The two sides were clearly the two major rivals in Jingzhou, the Qingyun Sect and the Tianquan Sect.

The people from the Qingyun Sect were now protecting a convoy, surrounding the goods inside. The people from the Tianquan Sect had formed a loose encirclement, surrounding the convoy and the Qingyun Sect people.

The two sides looked ready to engage in a fierce battle at any moment.

Ding Qi, observing the current situation, could roughly guess what had happened. It seemed that the Qingyun Sect people were escorting the convoy when they were ambushed by the Tianquan Sect and surrounded.

In the end, this led to the current standoff.

...

"Why, Elder Ke, are you still unwilling to leave the carriage behind?"

As Ding Qi was observing the group, the leader of the Tianquan Sect spoke to the leader of the Qingyun Sect in a calm and unhurried manner.

The person called Elder Ke by the leader of the Tianquan Sect was a dignified old man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes. Although he was quite old, his sharp features still hinted at his handsome appearance and past glory.

In response to the words of the lean and withered middle-aged man leading the Tianquan Sect, the old man with bright eyes only guarded the carriage behind him more cautiously, remaining silent. It seemed that similar conversations had already taken place many times before Ding Qi arrived, and there was no need to respond.

The Qingyun Sect had no intention of leaving the carriage they were guarding.

Seeing that the other side was not responding, the lean and withered middle-aged man smiled without any concern and then said, "As long as your side leaves the carriage behind, I can let all of you leave safely, and I will not go back on my word. Elder Ke, what do you think of this?"

Hearing the new conditions offered by the lean and withered middle-aged man, the old man with bright eyes frowned.

Finally, Elder Ke chuckled dryly and said, "Deputy Sect Leader Xing actually came to intercept us personally, which is quite an honor. I am well aware of Deputy Sect Leader Xing's profound skills. The Withered Wood Skill you possess is a rare and profound technique, and we are indeed no match. However, why do we need to say so much useless talk? If you want the Qingyun Sect members to abandon the goods on the carriage and leave, you might as well give up that idea. With the people Deputy Sect Leader Xing has brought, it will not be easy to take us down. If it really comes to a fight, I will naturally see it through to the end. I also want to see how it will end."

The old man with sharp eyebrows finally laughed coldly and said decisively.

Although Elder Ke was extremely wary of the Withered Wood Skill, he did not show any signs of panic and even seemed somewhat confident.

"That person is actually the deputy sect leader of the Qingyun Sect." Hearing the old man's address to the leader, Ding Qi looked at the lean and withered middle-aged man, feeling somewhat surprised.

"However, in the face of the encirclement, Elder Ke seems so confident, as if he is not too worried. Could it be that...?"

Ding Qi thought of the other group of people from the Qingyun Sect and the Tianquan Sect he had encountered earlier and suddenly had an idea.

"Could this be part of the Qingyun Sect's strategy to lure the tiger away from the mountain?" Ding Qi thought.

Recalling the silver-bell girl he had seen earlier, Ding Qi suddenly had an idea.