As Mei Lin walked through the snow-covered terrain, she searched for other dead bodies. A fortunate aspect was that the craters were not covered with snow due to various spells that had disintegrated and heated the ground, causing the snow to dissolve upon contact.
After walking for nearly two hours, she arrived at the edge of a giant crater. This was one of the places where the caravan had lingered for a long time before managing to break through the siege and continue forward. The crater was at least two kilometers in diameter, and the area was still hot, even after more than a month of cooling down. Mei Lin didn't hesitate and started scouting the crater for anything valuable.
After a long search, Mei Lin didn't find anything. The ground was scorched by elemental attacks, and everyone who had died there had already been robbed or eaten by the slugs. Undeterred, she moved to the next crater. The journey to the next crater was short, as they weren't too far apart. However, after scouting another crater and finding it similarly cleaned out, she continued to the next.
Eventually, she came to the biggest crater she had encountered so far.
The crater was much wider than any she had encountered before. This was the last crater, marking the end of the battle. As Mei Lin arrived at its edge, she discovered that the crater was more than five kilometers in diameter. Various natural defenses had been constructed from the ground, serving as protection from attacks along with tunnels and other structures.
The bandits had been very well-prepared for the attack, but none of them had anticipated such a ridiculously strong protective barrier that completely decimated their plans. Realizing they couldn't breach the barrier, they decided to stall for time until it weakened, planning to invade afterward. This led to the construction of extensive defenses, which, though useless against the caravan leader, were quite effective against lower-realm cultivators and significantly delayed the attackers.
Mei Lin scouted different defense posts, looking for blood flowers or dead cultivators of higher stages. She found a few blood pools created by piles of bodies in the outposts, but upon inspection, she discovered that the blood inside was a mix of non-cultivators and first-stage BT bandits, rendering it useless for her needs.
She wandered around the crater for a few hours until dusk. Just before nightfall, Mei Lin found a smaller blood pool, more of a puddle, which consisted of the blood of first-stage BT cultivators. The puddle was located within one of the defenses, providing her with better protection against the wind.
Mei Lin began constructing a shelter over the blood puddle, using the ground and other debris to create a tent-like structure for added protection against the wind and snow. After a few hours, she finished the shelter and started a fire. Feeling somewhat safe in this crater, Mei Lin took off her clothes, put on her damaged ones, and then sat in the blood puddle, entering a cultivation state. She began absorbing the blood through her pores and refining it into natural energy.
This was the first time Mei Lin had attempted such a method, and absorbing the blood proved to be very challenging. Despite the difficulties, she persevered throughout the night. The process of reaching the second stage of BT required a large amount of natural energy, and this method was far more efficient than just drinking the blood.
Mei Lin absorbed almost all the blood from the pool, but it didn't yield much progress. After finishing her cultivation state, she found the fire had already gone out and it was snowing outside the tent. Mei Lin restarted the fire and tried to get some sleep. By noon, she woke up feeling sore and beaten up. Despite sleeping on the mat, the ground was still uncomfortable, especially after adapting to the bed and comfort of the teahouse. Her already battered body was in very bad shape.
After picking up everything, Mei Lin prepared for the next leg of her journey to another crater in search of blood flowers. As she stood on the edge of the crater, she took one last look and saw smoke rising from one of the outposts within the crater.
'Hmm. Strange, did someone come here while I was cultivating?' With that thought, Mei Lin stopped her steps and decided not to leave. Curiosity overpowered her fear of bandits, and she went to investigate. Before entering the shelter, Mei Lin sensed that only non-cultivators were inside. After a long observation and not detecting the distinct smell of the cultivator's blood, she decided not to draw her crystal knife and went inside.
As Mei Lin entered, she saw five children in bandit clothes huddled around the fire, cooking a meal. They were between ten and fifteen years old. They didn't notice Mei Lin until she stepped inside. When they saw her, they pulled out machetes and prepared to defend themselves.
"What do you want here?" demanded one of the kids, while the rest were terrified of Mei Lin, who looked like a blood demon once again. Her robe was covered in blood, and after absorbing blood all night, she smelled of it too. With her bamboo hat and red-stained veil, Mei Lin appeared like a bloodthirsty murderer. The combination of her beautiful red robe with the now nearly completely red veil made her look like a divine being. Her long white hair, covering her back and parts of her shoulders, added the aura of an ancient cultivator.
The children weren't truly part of the bandits and hadn't killed anyone, as they were not cultivators. They had been recruited by the bandits because their entire village had joined the bandits in their plan to attack the merchant caravan, under the promise that they would be left alone after the raid. The kids were simply collateral damage.
Unlike the terrified children, Mei Lin was calm. She didn't respond to their question and instead sat near the fire. "Did you find any red flowers around here?" she asked. The children were taken aback to hear that her voice was still as youthful as theirs.
The children were even more scared now. One of them, sitting across the fire, looked at Mei Lin and asked, "What will you give us if we tell you?"
Mei Lin started laughing. "What will I give you? What do you want?"
A few of them immediately fell for it and began discussing among themselves what they wanted. After a long discussion, they decided to tell Mei Lin their desires. The oldest one, who was also sitting by the fire, began to speak.
"We want to go to Peng City and live there. We want a lot of money. We want spirit stones because if we pay with ordinary money to get in, we will not be treated well."
All of them were scared of what Mei Lin would say. They didn't want to fight. They had never fought before, and they knew they would have no chance against a cultivator. Mei Lin looked at them. "I can give you spirit stones, but you are not cultivators, so you can't just walk around with them. Tell me if you find any red flowers, and then we can go to the city together. I will pay for your entry and give you spirit stones as long as you help me inside the city."
After a bit of chatting among themselves, they found an answer.
"Well, we can help you find these flowers, and after we enter the city, we will work for you until you give us enough spirit stones."
"As you wish," said Mei Lin. She pulled out two spirit fruits and gave them to the children. After suddenly creating a table out of nowhere and placing it on the ground, Mei Lin pulled out a pan and, after placing it on the fire, started making tea for everyone. Mei Lin also discovered a letter under a cup and began to read it.
*****
The caravan leader ordered everyone to move back into the caravan, so we would move as fast as possible into the city and then come back with the reinforcement from Peng city.
I and my father need to go now, so we will take my mother with us and come back in two or three days. Father also prepared some spirit fruits for you and left them on the table downstairs.
You were cultivation, so we did not try to end your cultivation state and went ahead.
Father secured everything around the tea-house and placed some kind of protective array on the doors, so no one less strong then the array formation would be able to enter inside.
You can wait here for us, everything inside is prepared for you, so you will not be forced to leave until we come back. We prepared the supplies for more than ten days.
If you decide to leave the tea-house, I hope, we will need inside the Peng city.
Xu Yi
*****
Mei Lin was happy after reading it and tossed the letter into the fire. Not long after, they introduced themselves to each other, and Mei Lin discovered that the youngest of them were siblings, Wong Luo and Lan Xia. Both of them were ten years old and orphans. Xia was the most beautiful among them and also the smartest. Luo was not as smart, but since he listened to Xia, he appeared smart as well.
The other three were fifteen years old. They were childhood friends: Yao Jun, Mo Huang, and the leader of the group, Wu Jun. Yao Jun and Mo Huang were not very sharp, but they were good at fighting. Wu Jun was a combination of Lan Xia's intelligence and Yao Jun's fighting skills. Thanks to Wu Jun's leadership, they had managed to avoid fighting up until now.