Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

Chapter 319 Salt and Pepper Meat

Afterwards, everyone abandoned the carriage and left it by the post road. Shi Potian and Xiu Niang, after disguising themselves, changed their original route again, turning back halfway and heading towards Runze City. Since the Snow Wolf Hall had not yet found Liu Nianlin and Xiao Bohong, Shi Potian decided to entrust all the treasures to them for safekeeping and continue their journey separately, with Shi Potian and the others following behind.

If all goes well, Liu Nianlin will take the treasure directly back to the Valley of Heartbreak. Meanwhile, Shi Potian and his group will continue to maneuver around Qin and Liang Kingdoms, leading the Blood Wolf Hall members on various missions. This way, if they are intercepted by the Blood Wolf Hall, Shi Potian and his group can provide timely backup and fight alongside Liu Nianlin and her group against the Blood Wolf Hall.

Two hours passed quickly, and according to their pace, the embroiderers should have reached the nearest small town to Qingling City. This would allow them to enter Qingling City by evening. However, the Blood Fiends, who had been lying in ambush outside the town, did not see anyone suspicious.

At this moment, after watching all the fighting scenes of Shi Potian and others, Wen Yanluo and the others were using a special method to track Xuan Wuqi. After the three of them had traveled nearly a hundred miles, they quietly appeared on a hillside and discovered a carriage moving slowly through the forest. The carriage moved and stopped frequently, seemingly not in a hurry to travel.

"Elder Yan, Xuanwu Qi's aura came from that carriage. According to Shadow Assassins, the carriage belonged to those two disguised women. It seems they have already reunited. Why aren't they in a hurry to travel? Why did they bring the carriage into this mountain forest? Are they waiting for someone?"

The man in black, who was walking at the front and holding a compass-like magical artifact, spoke.

"From the last image in the Sky-Gazing Mirror, we can see that the old man of the Wood element did not leave with the other three, but seemed to have gone somewhere else. It is very likely that the old man of the Wood element had other business to attend to elsewhere, and these people are probably waiting for him to come and join them."

"Things aren't that simple. Logically, all six of them shouldn't be in this carriage, and the carriage shouldn't be here either. Something's amiss! First, send a talisman to call a few nearby Xuan Sha to come and provide backup. Then, the two of you, one on the left and one on the right, try to approach the carriage and check the situation inside. Try not to alert the people inside. Only make your move after everyone has arrived!"

Wen Yanluo and his two companions were three or four miles away from the woods at the foot of the mountain. Even Wen Yanluo's soul power could not detect that far. If they rushed up without knowing the situation, they would definitely suffer. Even if he himself was fearless because of his high cultivation, his two subordinates would definitely be hit. There were at least six people on the other side, and one of them was a master of the fourth level of the Heaven Rank.

The Blood Wolf Gang members have always been the type to gang up on the weak; they wouldn't do something so risky.

After his subordinates received the message that four Xuan Sha from the vicinity had arrived to provide support, Wen Yanluo signaled his two subordinates to take action.

Accompanying Wen Yanluo were two assassins at the peak of the third level of the Heavenly Rank, whose strength was extremely formidable. After receiving their orders, the two disappeared in two directions like afterimages, floating lightly down the mountain.

"Why can't I sense the presence of anyone else in the carriage?"

The man in black, who had already stealthily moved to within a hundred feet of the carriage, carefully probed with his divine sense and found that, apart from Xuanwu Qi's very obvious aura, he could not detect the aura of anyone else.

"Could this be a setup by them? None of their people are in the car!"

The man in black immediately sent a message to Wen Yanluo, who was standing some distance away.

"Be careful, it might be a trap! Don't go any closer. Check the area for anything suspicious first. Once everyone else has arrived, then go check the carriage."

Wen Yanluo hesitated. Before reinforcements arrived, they had little chance of winning if they engaged in battle, especially if the enemy was prepared.

Wen Yanluo was not in a hurry to fight his opponent; what he wanted was to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Therefore, before each operation, he would try to probe the opponent's strength as much as possible, and then send someone stronger than the opponent to snipe them. During this period, Wen Yanluo had successfully organized and killed several groups of people. However, he failed only in the attempt to kill Shi Potian and his group. From the beginning of probing Gan Ran and his companion, he had launched four assassination attempts against them, but all of them failed, and he also lost seven Xuan-level Blood Fiends and two Di-level Blood Fiends.

This loss is enormous for Wen Yanluo. Cultivating a Heavenly Rank Blood Fiend requires a lot of resources from the hall and takes a long time.

Once the four Xuan-level Blood Fiends had arrived, the six Blood Fiends surrounded the carriage from six directions, gradually approaching it.

When they reached within twenty or thirty feet of the carriage, they found it remained perfectly normal. Aside from the two horses pulling the carriage, which were somewhat agitated by the six men's powerful killing intent, there was no other disturbance. Logically, at this distance, even if the opponents were only at the Earth Rank cultivation level, they should have already reacted. However, the carriage remained perfectly calm, showing no abnormalities.

This situation made the six Blood Fiends surrounding the carriage somewhat uneasy. They could sense through their divine senses that there was no one else inside the carriage except for Xuanwu Qi. Could it be that they were all lying in ambush nearby, waiting to ambush them? Had they deliberately placed the carriage there to lure them into a counterattack?

The calmer the scene, the more suspicious the carriage seemed. Perhaps a deadly trap was set up around it, waiting to be triggered.

Various hypotheses kept popping into the minds of the six Xuan Sha.

"Go check inside the carriage and see what's going on! The rest of you, be careful of your surroundings."

Wen Yanluo also walked over with a frown.

The man in black who received the order carefully walked to the front of the carriage, gathered his strongest protective spiritual energy, and then thrust his sword into the carriage from a distance of more than ten feet. A dark red sword light 'poof'ed a large hole in the carriage.

But after the sword flash, there was still no movement inside the carriage. Seeing this, the man in black cautiously approached the carriage, then used his sword to lift the curtain and found that the carriage was empty except for Xuan Wuqi, who was tied up.

"The carriage only contains the unconscious Xuanwu Qi!"

"We've fallen for their trap! Damn it! They left the carriage behind just to mislead us; they've already changed course and gone in stealth!"

Wen Yanluo immediately realized that Shi Potian and his group had no intention of fighting them at all; they were merely using the carriage to confuse them, disrupt their plans, and escape their encirclement.

"How could they possibly know we had an ambush set up ahead? Even Xuanwu Qi, who was captured, didn't know about my plan!"

Wen Yanluo roared in a frenzy!

"Perhaps one of them was skilled in divination and foresaw danger ahead, so they changed course!"

"Impossible! The witch clan, who were proficient in this art, have been wiped out. There is no more divination technique on the Tianxuan Continent!"

"It's not impossible that some of them might have a natural precognitive ability!"

"Stop speculating. Wake Xuanwu Qi up first and ask him about his condition. You few go back and wait for orders. Send more Shadow Assassins to check the nearby towns. I don't believe they can escape my grasp!"

The man in black standing beside the carriage jumped onto it and lifted Xuan Wuqi. Just as he was about to untangle the vines and wake him, the mechanism beneath Xuan Wuqi was triggered, and crossbow bolts hidden inside the carriage shot towards the man in black. In the confined space, the bolts arrived in an instant, giving the man in black no time to react. Several small demon-repelling arrows pierced both him and Xuan Wuqi's bodies simultaneously.

'boom! ’

In the deafening explosion, the two, along with their carriage and horses, were blasted to pieces by the exploding Demon-Slaying Arrows. Even the Xuan Sha who were standing nearby were severely injured. Of the seven Blood Sha, all except Wen Yanluo were blown away; two were seriously injured, one was slightly injured, and the two uninjured were covered in dust and grime, their bodies splattered with bits of flesh and blood. Even the formidable Wen Yanluo was not spared. Although most of the filth was blocked by his protective spiritual energy, some blood still stained his clothes.

"Bastards! I'll tear you to pieces!"

Wen Yanluo was furious!

Meanwhile, Shi Potian and the others had already entered Runze City.

"There's a small town about 30 miles ahead. We can rest there tonight and set off early tomorrow so we can reach Runze City by noon."

Gan Ran was a rogue cultivator from the Qin Kingdom. He had been living in Tianxin City since childhood, so he was very familiar with all the cities and towns in the Qin Kingdom.

"Alright, let's rest for the night and deal with the Blood Wolf Gang again tomorrow!"

Everyone followed Gan Ran towards the town. After a day of running and fighting, even these Heavenly Realm experts were exhausted. Having finally shaken off the enemy's pursuit, they naturally wanted to rest well for the night and recover their strength.

Meanwhile, on the streets of Runze City, a hundred miles away, two women walking together were also looking for a hotel to stay in. They sat down in a fairly clean hotel.

"Waiter, bring us two bowls of vegetarian noodles first, and also prepare a superior room for us to stay here tonight!"

After the two sat down, the slightly plump woman called out.

"Third Aunt, don't look so gloomy. It's been decades, and we've made it through, haven't we? Children and grandchildren have their own lives to live. Since there's no news of them, it proves they're still alive. There's plenty of time. Now that we're out, we'll have time to look for them. Look at me, I'm in the same boat as you, my daughter and granddaughter are also missing. What can I do? But that's just how it is. Let's try to be more positive. Worrying won't help. Let's see what everyone's plans are after we meet back here!"

"My heart aches terribly when I think about how my Jin'er and Yin'er were kicked out of the house by my heartless uncle the year after our accident. Jin'er was only ten years old and Yin'er was not even nine when they were kicked out of the house and wandered around!"

As Hu Sanniang thought about it, she couldn't help but choke up.

“I’m the same way. My granddaughter was only six years old when the accident happened. She had a very good foundation, and I originally planned to raise her as my successor. But in the same year that I had the accident, the clan elders stripped me of my status as a Holy Maiden, and my daughter was expelled from the Holy Maiden Palace along with me. The following year, we were forced to move out of Peach Blossom Palace. Several months later, we had no choice but to leave Peach Blossom Village and have been wandering ever since. We haven’t heard from her since…”

Huang Rongrong had initially tried to persuade Hu Sanniang with kind words, but as she spoke, she couldn't help but wipe away her own tears.

“There are too many people here, and it’s not good if they hear us talking. Let’s finish our noodles and then go to the room to chat. Come and try my newly made salt and pepper minced meat, which is made with fresh unicorn lamb and Peach Blossom Village’s specialty Seven Star Pepper. It’s not something that most people can get.”

Huang Rongrong took out a ceramic jar from her storage bag, took out two large spoonfuls of diced braised meat from the jar and placed them on Hu San Niang's plain noodles, and then also put a spoonful on her own noodles.

Diced, dark red meat, was scattered on the vegetarian noodles. The steam from the hot broth released a unique aroma that instantly awakened the taste buds, causing saliva to flow freely and stimulating the appetite. Before even starting to eat, one had already swallowed several mouthfuls of saliva.

Once the aroma was released, it spread everywhere. Other guests in the inn who were also having dinner couldn't help but put down their bowls and chopsticks and look up at the fragrance.

"Where is this fragrance coming from? It smells so good!"

"Waiter, what dish is this? When did your restaurant start having new dishes?"

"Excuse me, this...this aroma isn't coming from our restaurant's dishes. It's...it's from the pickles that those two customers brought themselves..."

The waiter looked around and finally discovered that the aroma was coming from the diced braised meat on the two bowls of vegetarian noodles. The vegetarian noodles originally had no toppings, but now that they had meat on them, it was clear the customers had brought it themselves. This kind of thing often happened in inns, usually to diners who weren't used to the local cuisine or travelers on a tight budget.

"Madam, where did you buy these pickles? How do they taste? Could we have some to try?"

A middle-aged man with a fat head and big ears, wearing a long robe, walked over, swallowing hard, and said somewhat embarrassedly.

"I made this braised meat myself; you can't buy it anywhere else. It's not that I don't want to share with you, but I only made this one jar myself. Besides, there are so many people in this shop. If I give it to you, it wouldn't be right not to share it with others!" Huang Rongrong looked up and glanced around. Everyone around her was swallowing hard, and those staring at her seemed a little embarrassed.

"How about I pay for it, and you sell me this jar of braised meat? Name your price!" The man was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

"I won't sell it. I need to eat it myself. I don't like the food outside, so I made this braised meat for later use. If I sell it to you, I won't have any left. Besides, the salt and pepper on this braised meat is the Seven Star Pepper, which is unique to Peach Blossom Village. It's not sold outside. This place is thousands of miles away from Peach Blossom Village. Even if I wanted to make it again, I wouldn't be able to get it in ten days or half a month."

"So it's braised pork from Peach Blossom Village! No wonder it smells so good! Since you're from Peach Blossom Village, why don't you eat at the Fuyuan Hotel in the city? I heard the hotel's owner is from Peach Blossom Village, and the dishes there are all in the Peach Blossom Village style! The food there should suit your taste!"

Another diner chimed in.

"I'm not exactly a member of Peach Blossom Village, and I don't have the money to go to those fancy hotels!" Huang Rongrong said, trying to explain herself.

"The dishes at Fuyuan Hotel are indeed delicious. I've eaten there before, but none of them have such fragrant braised meat!" the fat man said.

"Madam, how about we do some business? You name your price, I'll give you a deposit, and you'll make some braised meat for me, how about that?" At this moment, an old man dressed as a merchant walked over.

"This business might be difficult to do, because I make braised meat only for my own enjoyment, and I don't intend to make money from it. Moreover, I am used to traveling around and it is difficult for me to stay in one place for long, so your suggestion cannot be implemented!"

"Why don't you sell me your recipe for braised meat? I'll pay a high price!"