Chapter 277: Chapter 120: A Torrent of Steel! Thousands of Troops and Horses!_1
“We still lack some Star Patterned Gold. After the next trade is completed, we’ll have enough to craft a Pill Furnace and acquire the 300-year-old Blood Jade Spirit Ginseng needed to begin making Monster Martial Pills!”
Su Changkong silently mused. In his possession were already several taels of Star Patterned Gold. All he lacked was the Blood Jade Spirit Ginseng, for which he had already commissioned some large medicinal shops in Dafeng State City to purchase on his behalf. As soon as it appeared, he would buy it with a hefty sum of money.
With these thoughts, several days passed, and Su Changkong made his way to the Ghost Market to sell the accumulated Qi-Blood Pills.
A few days later, Su Changkong headed towards the trading location agreed upon with the man in the bronze mask and others.
“Yellow Leaf Mountain… We’ve arrived.”
The agreed-upon location this time was Yellow Leaf Mountain, which was likewise a desolate mountain rarely visited by people.
Looking around, trees with withered yellow leaves swayed in the breeze, scattering in a dance that held a desolate beauty.
Su Changkong arrived in the afternoon. Soon, as evening approached, shadows of six men appeared on the distant mountain path, led by none other than the man in the bronze mask.
Like always, they arrived on time for the meeting.
Having traded four or five times in the past half year, both parties skipped the pleasantries upon seeing each other.
The man in the bronze mask gave a look towards the man in the sheep mask, who immediately stepped forward, saying, “Brother Ape Demon, there are five taels of Star Patterned Gold this time.”
In the hands of the sheep mask man was a wooden box. Upon opening it, small and large pieces of Star Patterned Gold were revealed!
Su Changkong said nothing. Although previous deals had been free of deception or short-changing, he still examined each piece of Star Patterned Gold for authenticity and weighed them for their mass.
Once confirmed, Su Changkong nodded and withdrew money from his bosom, “Altogether, that’s 600,000 taels in silver notes. Please count them.”
“We trust Brother Ape Demon’s character,” said the man in the bronze mask with a smile. Despite his words, they still meticulously checked the silver notes.
“With the previous 15 taels, we now have 20 taels of Star Patterned Gold—enough to forge the Star Patterned Gold Pill Furnace!”
With the deal complete, Su Changkong couldn’t help feeling a bit of joy.
To refine the Monster Martial Pill, the special properties of the Star Patterned Gold were needed to mitigate the evil essence of the Demon Monster Crystal Core, ensuring that taking the Pill Medicine wouldn’t affect the user, leading to drastic changes in temperament.
Twenty taels of Star Patterned Gold would be enough to craft a standard Alchemy Furnace!
Just as the man in the bronze mask was preparing to say something, a sudden shock ran through everyone’s bodies, eyes wide with astonishment.
“Did you call someone else here?” the men, including the one in the bronze mask, asked angrily as they glared at Su Changkong.
Su Changkong frowned. He could hear the distant sound of galloping, coming from all directions and drowned in the wind—very faint, but numerous. It was the sound of a great many knights, charging towards this very place!
“Could it be that you were the ones who called for others?” Su Changkong asked, his voice laced with an icy edge. He hadn’t told anyone about their trade. Could it be that the man in the bronze mask and his companions had refrained from acting before, only to plan an ambush during their final transaction?
“It’s… It’s the Dafeng Iron Riders!”
At that moment, one man wearing a dog mask cried out in alarm, sounding somewhat desperate.
“The Dafeng Iron Riders… There are so many of them?”
Su Changkong swiftly climbed to the top of a tree, and from his vantage point, he saw knights in black armor riding tall horses and charging towards them from the distance.
They were coming from all directions, easily numbering over five thousand, densely packed and cutting off any escape from Yellow Leaf Mountain.
The knights were well-trained, and their steeds were no ordinary horses; each one was clearly larger than a normal horse, capable of covering great distances in a single day and perfect for battle!
Thousands of cavalrymen charged in formation, organized into groups of ten and formations of a hundred, with disciplined precision.
The Dafeng Iron Riders were Dafeng State’s most elite troops, maintaining only 400,000 in number, the central force for suppressing rebels within Dafeng State and defending against foreign threats.
Su Changkong suspected it must be the man in the bronze mask and his companions who had summoned them, yet the seeming panic radiating from them, even beneath their masks, suggested otherwise.
“Dammit! What went wrong? Why have the Dafeng Iron Riders come? And why so many?”
The man in the bronze mask seemed utterly lost, as did the rest, thrown into chaos.
The thousands of surrounding cavalry tightened their circle around Yellow Leaf Mountain.
Amidst the riders, someone spoke up, their voice amplified by True Qi, echoing through the sky above Yellow Leaf Mountain, “Zhao Chengji! As a Chiliarch of the Dafeng Iron Riders stationed at the Yan Yie Mine, you turned to thievery—stealing the mined Star Patterned Gold for personal gain and betraying your role. Surrender quietly! You may be shown leniency; otherwise, not only you but also your families will suffer the consequences!”
The voice was deep and authoritative, stained with an unrestrained power, shaking the man in the bronze mask and his companions to their cores, their eyes full of despair.
“Is that… Chief of Ten Thousand Pei Chen? He personally arrived?”
“We’re finished… totally finished… How did they find out?”
The man in the horse mask and the others were in utter turmoil, like ants on a hot pan.
And as Su Changkong listened to the exchange, he began to understand the situation.
The man in the bronze mask was someone of no ordinary standing; he was actually a Chiliarch of the Dafeng Iron Riders, and the Star Patterned Gold he obtained was actually from the Yan Yie Mine, known for producing a certain quantity of Star Patterned Gold.