Song Zining’s terms were generous enough to excite these merchants and make them consider whether or not this was a viable direction for expansion. This business field wasn’t too high-risk and the demand was really high. There would always be buyers as long as they could build a warship at a reasonable price.
The businesses Song Zining had attracted on top of the ones already in Southern Blue formed a more complete supply chain. There were enough workshops and factories to forge intricate airship equipment from raw metals. Even in its infantile stage, the benefits this arrangement would bring was evident—everyone who had worked their way to the manager position understood this.
Southern Blue was able to flourish under Ji Rui’s rule because of its stability and convenience in transportation. But no matter how skilled Ji Rui was, he couldn’t wipe out and recombine all of the mercenary corps in the city. Even if he could do it, he wasn’t about to create a massive entity that could contend with the city guard. If this kind of mercenary corps were to fall into an outsider’s hands, it wasn’t a certainty whether the city lord would still be surnamed Ji.
It wasn’t really important to the merchants what the City Lord’s surname was. All they wanted was a steady stream of money, and that was enough for them.
The contact with the merchants went fairly smoothly, but there wasn’t anything for Qianye to do during the entire process. After two days of idling, he decided to gather a dozen or so mercenaries and form a merchant caravan to Seagaze City.
Seagaze was a major city, so the requirements were fairly high. Qianye was still selecting people when many merchants arrived with requests to join him.
Those willing to join were mostly medium-sized companies with one or two trucks worth of goods to ship. Most others were still observing Dark Flame’s situation and performance. In their eyes, the current mercenary corps was a pieced-together mob, far from the standard of an elite mercenary corps. The only reason some of them were willing to take this risk was because Qianye was overseeing the caravan personally.
In the end, Qianye left Southern Blue with thirty cargo trucks, ten troop-carriers, and some armored vehicles.
The environment in the wilderness was fairly adverse and occasional storms would kick up without warning. This was due to the small size of the continents and the weakness of their protective layers. There would be corresponding disasters inside when the void tempests outside of the continent became too violent.
The roads gradually disappeared soon after leaving the city. These so-called roads were actually produced by the passage of cars and could easily be eroded.
The motorcade didn’t go very fast. The heavy trucks were especially slow amidst the fluctuating landscape and not much faster than a jogging person. It would take three to four days to get from Southern Blue to Seagaze.
After passing an entire day out in the open wilderness, Qianye remained calmly seated in one of the transport vehicles as he cultivated the Glory Chapter. Among his many cultivation arts, only the Song Clan Ancient Scroll was lagging behind, and all he could do was work slowly step by step.
The mercenaries, however, weren’t as relaxed as he was and maintained a constant level of vigil. Those old veterans were clear that the seemingly peaceful wilderness was filled with hidden dangers. Enemies could be lurking in every corner, or even outside of Seagaze.
At noon the next day, a cloud of rolling dust suddenly rose up over the horizon. The veteran scout on the foremost vehicle stopped his car and sounded the alarm. The motorcade descended into a brief moment of chaos, but fortunately, these people had encountered such situations more than once. A well-respected manager instructed the cargo trucks to drive off the road and park themselves in a circular formation, raising their company flags to announce their identity.
The mercenaries, however, were different. The two armored vehicles took point, while ordinary transports retreated to the side. The soldiers inside jumped off and spread into two wings throughout the advantageous terrain.
On the roof of the foremost car, Frost Wolf raised his binoculars and gazed at the distant smoke. It was at this moment that Qianye’s voice echoed beside his ears. “Why so nervous?”
Frost Wolf quivered. Unlike those lesser commanders, he had actually seen Qianye’s might as he slaughtered Stormwind Fury. He passed the binoculars to Qianye, saying, “Those who can act so loud in this region must be the Wolf King’s men.”
Qianye didn’t take the binoculars, however, and simply kept gazing at the distant dust cloud. “It is indeed the Wolf King’s squad.”
“Really?” Frost Wolf’s expression became complicated with worry. “Then we should be careful.”
Frost Wolf’s tone wasn’t that great. They would occasionally suffer robberies even in their own territory. Now that they were in the empty wilderness with numerous merchandise-loaded trucks, they were well-worth robbing even if not the best target.
“Battle stations!!!” Frost Wolf was the tactical commander of this operation, in charge of coordinating troops and setting up defenses. After issuing the order, he gave it some thought and added, “Be smart! Don’t be too obvious. People on the two sides, hide yourself well. Those behind, open up the main road!”
The entire series of orders was in order to prevent provoking the Wolf King’s men. It was hard to say what would happen after they were agitated. Frost Wolf himself was also a rank-twelve champion and his combat strength wasn’t low. Yet, the many years of caution had already ground away his blood-thirsty nature, and he wasn’t willing to engage in a head-on clash with the Wolf King’s men.
Qianye, on the other hand, had a different opinion. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back and said, “Prepare for battle!”
This order startled all of the mercenaries, and Frost Wolf himself was also astonished. “Commander, what for?”
“Of course, it’s to rob their motorcade,” Qianye calmly replied.
“R-Robbery!?” Frost Wolf thought he had misheard. Who would dare to rob the Wolf King’s motorcade in the Wolf King’s territory? Everyone felt that it would be quite lucky if they weren’t robbed instead.
Qianye paid Frost Wolf no attention as he issued new orders. “Seal the road and prepare for battle. Try slacking off if you dare!”
Qianye didn’t need to announce what the outcome of not fighting was—the rule in the mercenary world was that deserters would be hunted down and killed. This rule would be modified slightly in Qianye’s hands. Whoever didn’t do battle would die in his hands.
Frost Wolf smiled wryly as he turned back and said, “Drive up and seal the road. You two, bring your men to the sides and set up an ambush, attack when the enemy is near. The rest, follow me to form a blockade on the road.”
The mercenaries started moving only when he had issued the orders. Qianye shot Frost Wolf a glance, causing him to tremble all over.
The soldiers Qianye had brought out this time were veterans of many battles. A simple defensive line was soon formed—the men hid behind covers, grasping their weapons tightly as they looked ahead anxiously. Some of them even felt their foreheads and palms sweating. That was only natural since the Wolf King’s notoriety was well-established, and this move of theirs was a slap on the divine champion’s face.
After setting up the defensive line, Frost Wolf finally could hold back no longer. He reminded indirectly, “Sire, robbing them is easy, but what about afterward? The Wolf King might not take this lying down.”
Unexpectedly, Qianye replied with a smile, “Why else do you think I organized this motorcade?”
Frost Wolf felt his heart skip a beat. Only then did he realize that Qianye wasn’t here to establish a trade route but to provoke the Wolf King.
The rolling dust in the distance rose into the sky as an armored transport rushed out of the ashen sand, followed by a column of armed trucks. Several kilometers behind these vehicles was a caravan of slowly-advancing cargo trucks. These cars were only protected by two armored trucks and no more than ten soldiers in total.
This was a fairly normal occurrence. Although this part of the wilderness was dangerous, the greatest threat here was the Wolf King’s men. Who would dare stroke the proverbial tiger’s whiskers after seeing the Wolf King’s insignia on the trucks?
Hence, the armored vehicles moved at a faster pace, checking to see if there were any good opportunities along the way. They were quite familiar with the procedure since they had done this more than once before.
The foremost of the Wolf King’s armored vehicles spied the blockade and defensive line ahead. The tall werewolf on the car almost couldn’t believe his eyes—someone actually dared to intercept the Wolf King’s caravan here!?
He was also a fierce character. He immediately snatched a gun from the person beside him and took aim at the intercepting motorcade, waiting for the enemy to come within range.
Qianye said at this moment, “Open fire.”
Frost Wolf blurted out. “What?”
“I said, fire,” Qianye repeated. Then, without waiting for a reply, he removed a long sniper rifle from his back and took aim at the incoming werewolf.
“But Sire, the other party might not intend to fight…”
Frost Wolf hadn’t even finished speaking when a pair of luminous wings unfurled behind Qianye and the sniper rifle in his hands spat out a long stream of origin flames. A thunderous timbre echoed through the plains!
Amidst the rumble, the tall werewolf’s head burst into a mist of blood and the headless body fell backward.
Both sides started firing instinctively after the first shot was fired. Explosions, flames, and gunshots broke out on the battlefield—the only problem was that the two sides were nowhere near firing range.
The werewolves had always been proud and fierce. Roaring, they revved their engines to the max as one armored vehicle after the other charged forward. The two sides were only a thousand or so meters away now, and casualties started to rack up under the back and forth volleys.
Qianye stood as calm as a mountain, his wings unfurled and a faint golden glow could be seen on his sniper rifle. With the rumble of his gun, yet another armored vehicle burst into a ball of flames. The werewolf knight upon it was torn into two and killed on the spot.
Qianye moved the muzzle swiftly and fired the third round, bringing down a first-rank werewolf viscount at the center of the charging formation.
Qianye put away his gun after firing three shots and stood with his hands behind his back—it would seem that he had no more intention of fighting.
Frost Wolf felt a chill run down his spine. Qianye had fired three shots with relative ease to destroy three ranked-werewolf experts. Just how powerful was this sniper rifle to have killed even the first-rank viscount captain in one shot?
Under present circumstances, only a third-rank viscount remained. Frost Wolf sighed secretly, knowing that Qianye had left this target for him. Having no other choice, he whipped out his sword and shield to charge forward against the hail of bullets.