Supreme Emperor of Mist

**Whine...**

**Whine...**

"Good boy, good..." Qin Lan petted the eight Yellowtail Fox Demon Beasts they tamed during the Annual Hunting Festival. Half-year has passed since then.

There's only one girl out of the eight young foxes. Furthermore, as it was fed with Changshen Dew since young, their growth is considered faster than the usual wild foxes found inside the Western Demon Forest.

**Awoo...**

The female fox demon rolled around Qin Lan as it shows its belly part so the master would pet it more.

"Alright. Playtime is over. Do you know what you have to do out there?" Qin Lan smiled. He's communicating with the foxes using a unique language that's considered lost. There are likely less than five people in this province capable of understanding a single word he said to the foxes.

**Awoo - Awoo**

The eight Yellowtail Foxes left the Qin Estate swiftly through a drainage system nearby after they seem to be nodding to Qin Lan's sentence.

With another matter is handled, Qin Lan tidied his clothing from any remaining fox fur as he walked over to the courtyard where a hundred cultivators gathered. Both of his hands rested on his back as he graciously walked there.

...

...

"What's the Qin Young Patriarch is trying to do?" about half of the cultivators present asked the same question. There was a hint of shame written on some of them because of what happened.

"Hey, where's your patriarch?" some of them tried to look for Qin Lan to explain his purpose for making them looked like a bunch of fools earlier.

"Our Young Patriarch will be here when it's time." Lu Yi said.

"..."

"..."

"Young Patriarch!" Lu Qing Yun greeted Qin Lan when he steps into the training square with a hundred frustrated cultivators.

"Bring those impatience cultivators out to one side. I have something for them to do." Qin Lan said. His surprising order made Lu Yi drag six cultivators in their fourth-level Flesh Refining Layer strength out from the crowd.

Five fifth-level Flesh Refining Cultivator stays beside Qin Lan to prevent something from happening.

"Looks like the six of you have some explaining to do." a single sentence from Qin Lan immediately tore the identity they've been keeping secret from everyone else. Sweat as large as a bead rolled down from their temple as they get nervous.

"Young Patriarch must be kidding. If you're offended with how I talk, then please allow this one with the surname Yu to ask for your forgiveness..." one of them chuckled and tried to make peace with Qin Lan.

He cupped his hand together and bowed about 90 degrees towards Qin Lan to show an "earnest" gesture. But then, a bolt was fired from the mechanism on his backbone.

The other five followed and fired a bolt from a few parts of their body. Some of them had it on their wrist, some on their knees. One of them even had a poisonous scorpion inside of his mouth.

But in the end, it was for naught because Qin Lan has been prepared for them long ago. The six of them were immediately captured by the five Middle-Attainment Rank Cultivators before they managed to do anything else.

"What's their identity?" one of the five Middle-Attainment Rank cultivators asked. He had his suspicion about where they came from, but unfortunately, he failed to notice it as clear as Qin Lan did.

"Jiao Family's Night Dragon Assassins." Qin Lan accurately guessed their identity. It sent a shiver down to their spine for the five cultivators. Perhaps not a single one of them noticed how deep have the people from Jiao Family have infiltrated.

"Lu Qing Yun, get six more fourth-level cultivators from our Qin Family. We will depart at once." Qin Lan is finally ready to make his move.

Protected by the shade of the night, a hundred cultivators departed from the northwestern gate quietly as they entered the inner region of Western Demon Forest.

It was full of cheer and praise the next afternoon when fifty tattered cultivators entered the Fu-Rong Town through the same northwestern gate. As there was no evident proof of where had the other fifty cultivators have gone to, two guesses were spreading inside the town.

There was a rumor about the cultivators is currently stationed within the Qin Estate to protect their interest. And there's also a rumor about their corpses was found inside the Western Demon Forest.

But in return, it solved the problem Hu Household faced.

With the full support from the Chu's existing security escort members, the merchandise is successfully delivered on time without breaching the contract. In return for this collaborated effort from two families, the merchandise was sold for 20% above market price.

The profit was split evenly to help the Chu Household to solve their financial problem. With hardly any disturbance remain inside the Fu-Rong Town, the two families now capable of providing complete support to the Qin.

But still, that took them three days to accomplish all this.

...

...

"Big brother, old two, are we still going to fight them?" the one called old six asked.

"We've already taken the payment. Of course, we have to do it." the eldest said.

"Then... I'll get our fellow brothers to get ready." old two left the outpost to led his men over to one of their attacking points on this highway to Fuyun City.

"Old six, go and get your people ready."

"Alright!"

...

**Whine...**

"Hey, the foxes are here again." one of the bandits complained to his fellow bandit standing guard nearby.

"Just ignore them. It's not like the demon beasts are going to attack us anyway. We have close to two hundred people here. What are you afraid of?" his fellow bandit member clicked his tongue in reply.

**Whine...**

"Aargh! This is so annoying. I can't even get a proper nap! Are the people from the Qin Family seriously going to use this route to Fuyun City? What if they canceled the plan because they're afraid of us?" another bandit inside a hidden tent complained.

Opening the curtain covering that tent, he tossed a rock out into the bushes to scare the demon beasts away from disturbing him.

**Whine...**

**Whoosh!**

A flying hairpin came simultaneously with the beast's whining as it robs the bandit's life. Very quickly, two individuals dressed in black clothing appeared side by side to support the bandit's head from slamming onto the ground loudly.

This covert operation continued.

About two-fifth of the bandits were removed in secret using the Yellowtail Fox Demon Beast as deterrence. Since the groups of Hushan Bandits is just a group of vagabonds without proper discipline, it was easy to remove a few of them at a time without alarming the others.

"The Young Patriarch's tactic is ruthless indeed." one of the cultivators sneaking around said. Not even once in his wildest imagination that the demon beast can be used on a mission like this.

"Perhaps this is what holds us from breaking past the barrier between the fourth and the fifth level..." another cultivator replied. Following closely behind one of the eight Yellowtail Fox Demon groomed by the Qin Family, they approached another target.

"Uurgh - Pfff!" another target was eliminated. The tent this bandit is hiding inside was kept inside a Qiankun Pouch as they throw his corpse into a ditch nearby.

But very soon, a team leader from the Hushan Bandits quickly noticed that something is amiss. Taking out a whistle from his waistbelt, he blew the instrument to summon the others to his position.

When only seven out of ten of his team members show their faces around him, he panicked. One team leader's worry spread to another as the eight pairs of bandit-killers left the area under the curtain of the night.

"How many people are missing?" their leading bandit leader, old two, asked.

"Second Leader, thirty people are gone. There are only a hundred and seventy of us here." one of the bandits answered the question.

"Anyone noticed where they had gone to? It's thirty people, not thirty rodents. It's impossible to leave too far from this highway without alarming everyone else." he said.

"Check around us and look for some clue. Rearrange the teams and prepare for unexpected changes. Have two people over to the outpost and..."

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" someone screamed.

More and more torches quickly illuminate their surroundings following after the scream.

...

...

"Young Patriarch, we're ready to depart now." one of the fifth-level cultivators reported to Qin Lan as they gathered secretly on the entrance of the highway to Fuyun City.

"Good job. Just standby and wait for the signal." Qin Lan nodded. But not a single person noticed how he tightens the strap around his hand.

The situation around them remained quiet to the point that even the sound of a singing cicada is louder than them. But that silence only lasted for half an incense stick of time. The roaring sound of a Yellowtail Fox Demon Beast soon came into their ears.

"That's our signal. Depart and slaughter everyone without the sash of Qin Family on them!" Qin Lan's thunderous order came to them as he took the lead and charges forward.

They covered close two miles distance in a hurry.

The moment they caught the sight of their opponents, all kinds of weapon is let loose. Spiritual Energy runs amok as multiple martial arts was used.

And that's how the massacre started.