The White Dragon Gang had 2,130 people, including Long Chongzhen. The Tianmen Gang had 2,050, while Tingyu Tower had 1,920. The City Guards had 5,678 reserve soldiers. And finally, there were almost two thousand members from the Sirius Gang. Apart from Jiang Li's meches. There were around thirteen thousand soldiers.
"Let's not waste any more time. We'll go to Qingshan Valley right now," Jiang Li said.
"Okay." Hong Tianqi nodded. "I'll lead the way. I'm most familiar with the way to Qingshan Valley."
"That's great." Jiang Li nodded.
Yu Shulan and the others also agreed.
Clomp, clomp, clomp… The footsteps sounded. The reserved soldiers led by Hong Tianqi walked in the front, followed by the members of the White Dragon Gang, Tianmen Gang and Tingyu Tower. Those from the Sirius Gang were at the back.
They were walking on foot, since there were less than a thousand horses in the city and many members didn't even know how to ride a horse, so they could only walk.
Qingshan Valley was several villages away from Yongan City. Hu Dong and the others spent almost half a day to get there, so it would take even longer for ten thousand people to walk there.
At midnight they were already half way through. They went past a few villages which were all looted. There were even bones the Monsters left after eating the humans.
On the way Jiang Li and the others didn't encounter any Monsters or Barbarians. However, this wasn't a good thing. It meant that the Monsters and the Barbarians had most likely put all of their soldiers inside Qingshan Valley and that Jiang Li and the others would be facing a great battle.
"Stop!" Hong Tianqi raised his hands and yelled.
"…"
The five thousand reserve soldiers stopped.
"Hide." Hong Tianqi said again.
Rustle, rustle… The five thousand reserved soldiers quickly ran to the sides of the road and looked for places to hide. They were all hiding somewhere for a short period of time.
"What happened?" Long Chongzhen was shocked.
"…"
Hua Tian was also confused. Compared to the reserved soldiers, the members of the three gangs were much weaker and were less disciplined, like a plate of loose sand.
"Instructor Hong." Jiang Li came up.
"Chief Jiang, do you smell the blood?" Hong Tianqi asked.
"Qingshan Valley is right ahead of us." Hong Tianqi pointed at the front.
Under the moonlight Jiang Li looked up and saw a mountain range extending outwards. There were two mountains located side by side ahead of them, forming a unique valley.
"Chief Jiang, look at the ground carefully." Hong Tianqi continued, "There are a lot of footprints and some horseshoe prints on the ground, meaning that an army has just passed by not long before."
"So?" Jiang Li asked.
"Phew…" Hong Tianqi took a deep breath. "So, Chief Jiang, your suspicion is probably true. The army from Pingding City is being ambushed."
"It is true." Jiang Li said.
"Chief Jiang, we must be more careful from now on. We have to lay low and get close to Qingshan Valley silently. If the Monsters and Barbarians discover us, our plan will fail," Hong Tianqi said again.
"Hm." Jiang Li nodded.
"Under this circumstance, it's better to move at night," Hong Tianqi said. "We're not sure about the situation of the Monsters and Barbarians right now. I hope the army from Pingding City can hang on a bit longer. One step at a time."
Ten minutes later, Hong Tianqi told Long Chongzhen, Hua Tian and Yu Shulan about the situation and asked everyone to walk as quietly as they could, so that they could hide their traces as they went further.
Half an hour later, they finally arrived at the entrance of Qingshan Valley.
"The smell of blood is heavy."
"Be careful."
"…"
Long Chongzhen and the others were startled. They had already smelled the blood even before entering Qingshan Valley.
Rustle, rustle…
Suddenly some sounds came.
"Who's that?"
Clang! Everyone pulled out their weapons right away.
"They're my men." Jiang Li immediately came up.
"Chief."
"Greetings, Chief."
Hu Dong, Zhou Tianzhang and the meches walked out of a corner not far away. They hid in the forest earlier.
"It's Hu Dong."
"They're really people of the Sirius Gang."
"Phew…"
Long Chongzhen and the others were relieved.
"Chief, you can't go from this entrance. The Monsters and Barbarians have secured the entrance to avoid the soldiers from running away," Hu Dong said. "If you go in from here, you'll definitely be discovered."
"So, what should we do?" Hua Tian asked.
"Chief Hua, we can go over this entrance and climb up from the other direction. We can attack the Monsters and Barbarians from behind," Hu Dong said.
"Hm." Hong Tianqi mumbled and looked around. He then nodded. "Okay, let go."
"Good!"
"Okay."
Hua Tian and the others nodded.
"Hu Dong, lead the way," Jiang Li said.
"Sure." Hu Dong quickly nodded and walked in the front. Zhou Tianzhang was next to Hu Dong, while Wang Long joined the other meches.
A few minutes later. Jiang Li and the others went around the entrance of the valley and climbed up the mountain on the left of Qingshan Valley along a steeper road.
Ten minutes passed and they almost reached the peak of the mountain next to Qingshan Valley.
"Stop." Hu Dong heard something. He immediately stopped and knelt. He hinted everyone at the back and Hong Tianqi also asked all the reserve soldiers to kneel.
Long Chongzhen and the others also knelt while the rest of the members followed them.
After a while, nine tall, brawny men showed up. It was a patrol team that walked past the road. Because of the dark and the dense forest, they didn't notice Jiang Li and the rest of the people.
"It's the Barbarians," Hua Tian exclaimed.
"We're lucky." Long Chongzhen said, "If we kept walking, we would have been discovered."
"It must be the patrol team of the Barbarians," Hong Tianqi said.
"Wang Yan, deal with them," Jiang Li waved and said with his glittering eyes.
"Yes." Wang Yan nodded and came out of the mech army. Eight Cold Weapon Meches of perfected-stage level one were behind her. They took action immediately.
"Chief Jiang, no!" Long Chongzhen said quietly.
"The Barbarians practice with totems. They're strong and difficult to kill. There's one totem warrior of early-stage level one in the patrol team. If he can't kill them with one attack, the other warriors will be alerted." Hua Tian whispered.
"That's too reckless," Hong Tianqi said seriously.
However, they were too late. Wang Yan had already run outside with eight perfected-stage Cold Weapon Meches right after getting Jiang Li's order.