"There must be a big shot behind them," Linda concluded. Someone from an ordinary background wouldn't be this talented and know cultivation secrets.
Due to the catastrophe that happened a thousand years ago, the Protectors decided to hide some cultivation secrets to prevent the lawless cultivators from rising again unnoticed. These secrets won't prevent them from reaching the peak of cultivation, but it would lower their power considerably.
However, these cultivation secrets were not completely hidden from cultivators, as it would make the continent's overall power too weak. The associates of the Protectors and some big families and sects were allowed to access and pass down these cultivation secrets as long as they didn't use the advantages to harm the people. Furthermore, they would also recruit cultivators with excellent talents and good characters and tell them the cultivation secrets.
Linda sighed. If only she were a few hundred years younger, maybe she would have shamelessly joined them in the adventures. Their group seemed very fun to interact with. Unfortunately, she's way older now. Only old farts are around her now, so boring. That was why she accepted the position of a branch manager in the corner of the continent.
Linda turned around and returned to Bara City.
....
"They were the former city lord's family? His son and wife?" Leyvi and the rest finally knew their enemies' identities from Valenia.
"Yes, they were truly a bunch of evil people. He said he wanted to torture Madam Anda and snatch her Special Fire!" Valenia fanned the flame. She wanted to see Leyvi's reaction.
"Dammit! How dare he? Maybe I should have fought him myself and exploded his balls!" Leyvi was angry and started speaking vulgarly.
"Yes! Yes! Mister Leyvi, please teach me how to fight too! I was there but I'm so frustrated I couldn't do anything to help Valenia." Hana excitedly joined the conversation and expressed her frustration.
"Hahaha! Good job Hana. When we have time, I'll train you personally! Leave your body to me!" Leyvi supported Hana's decision. In a world like this, one should know how to protect and fight for oneself.
Anda chuckled and said, "Husband, why does it sound like you wanted to do some lewd things to Hana?"
"Madam, I don't mind if Mister Leyvi wanted to, but my body was not attractive enough." Hana supported Anda's tease. After living with them for a while, she knew that her madam was open-minded in this regard and she even openly sought more women for Leyvi.
"Don't worry Hana. Your madam is a genius alchemist. Wait until I advance further, if you want melons like Fifi or bottoms like Nikita, it will be possible!" Anda was acting like Leyvi, bragging about things.
"Really?? Thank you madam I love you so much!" Hana got excited hearing Anda's promise and hugged her. Although she was very cheerful, she was quite conscious of her lack of appeal.
Fifi and Nikita blushed when Anda mentioned their assets. Fifi adjusted her breast while Nikita adjusted her ass instinctively.
Anda showed a sly smile. She looked at Hana, Fifi, Nikita, and Sayu one by one, and cast the bait, "If you can serve the family well and be loyal, I might consider letting you girls become Leyvi's concubines."
All four of them have their eyes sparkling and gleaming hearing Anda's announcement. Why wouldn't they be? This might be their best chance to gain status in their life. Furthermore, although Leyvi has a goofy personality, as a man, he is everything a girl like them could ask for.
Bana who was in the other carriage with Tal and Tasya heard Anda and was silently rooting for his daughter's success. He couldn't provide her with a comfortable life so this was the only thing he could do.
Anda smiled satisfiedly at their reaction. Everything went according to her plan. They had just gone through a crisis together, so it was the best time to unite them and increase their sense of belonging to the family.
Valenia stared at them and suddenly felt like she had a lot of competition. She wondered if Leyvi liked toned body type.
"..." Leyvi was speechless at how the conversation had shifted into something like this.
Anda, this evil panda mastermind was always planning something. He wanted to refute Anda's statement but seeing the women's hopeful expression, he changed his mind. They were all good women. Since his panda wife was like this, why not just play along and make them happy?
"Ladies, you heard the big madam. Do your best!" Leyvi smiled charmingly and encouraged them.
The four girls blushed and started daydreaming.
Two days later,
The group encountered a wide river that was at least 3 Kilometers wide. It was a part of the biggest river in the South Region, the Kiki Lala River.
"This is the river. We only need to travel along this river and we should be able to reach the Holy Cat City without getting lost. However, we will be passing through a long canyon first." Layla explained.
Although she was Leyvi's 3rd wife now, she was still the Manager of the Leyan Family therefore it fell under her responsibility to plan the travel route to the location of the Alchemy Conference.
"Will it be dangerous?" Valenia asked. She was itching to fight some demonic beasts.
"It is somewhat dangerous. Some high-level demonic beasts are living in the canyon. However, it should be fine as long we don't intrude on their territories. Furthermore, we have Sister Lilian here. High-level demonic beasts are more intelligent so they always avoid picking fights with Core Formation realm experts." Layla answered in detail.
"Right, as long as we didn't disturb a high-level demonic beast like a certain someone, they would just stay in their territories minding their own business," Anda said in a teasing tone while side-eying Leyvi.
Leyvi could only smile wryly at Anda's taunt. He was wrong after all.
Since it was a rare occasion, they spent their time playing in the river for a while. The aquatic demonic beasts nearby didn't dare to come near them because of Lilian's presence. Valenia hunted some demonic fish and let Tasya and the maids grill them as deliciously as possible.
Afterward, they continued traveling along the Kiki Lala River. 5 days later, they reached the canyon. They were huge and tall rocks as far as they could see and little greenery could be seen, only along the river.
"This is the Sword Grave Canyon." Layla introduced.
"Why does the name sound ominous? Is there really a sword grave here?" Leyvi asked.
"Hehe. There's no sword grave here. It was named like that because later we can see a lot of big sword-shaped rocks." Layla chuckled.
"Che, I thought there's going to be some special place we could visit. Disappointing." Leyvi clicked his tongue. He was expecting some special inheritance place or something. Turned out it was just rocks.
"Although it was just some big rocks, people said that if we were lucky, we could learn some kind of Secret Martial Skill by observing the sword-shaped big rocks. Since we are here, let's take a look." Anda said.
Anda thought that it was not a problem to try their luck, they had time to spare. Her husband was lucky enough to find a Supreme Treasure like the Treasure Bead, why can't he find more? When they came to Bara Volcano, she got a sentient Special Fire, she attributed this to her husband's luck, not her's. It was like fate was playing tricks on her husband, letting treasure be near him, but not letting him get it.
The other reason why people believed the legend about the sword-shaped big swords to be true was because the rocks were truly indestructible. There have been a lot of cultivators who tried to destroy it to uncover the secret but it was futile. It had been there even longer than the catastrophe that happened a thousand years ago.
Although nobody now came to uncover the secret anymore, people would still drop by and try their luck if they were nearby.
"Ohhhhh...That's pretty nice. Maybe Valenia our genius Swordswoman could get some Secret Martial Skill from that place." Leyvi intentionally praised Valenia to invoke her reaction.
"Hehe..Genius Swordswomen" As Leyvi expected, Valenia was extremely flattered by his praise. Her smile was so wide that her cheek lifted high.
As the group chatted, Mr. Bison pulled the carriages and stepped into the Sword Grave Canyon.
They immediately felt the change in the atmosphere. They could hear the wind louder and any loud noise would echo.
Suddenly the carriages stopped.
SNORT! SNORt! SNOrt! SNort! Snort!
Mr. Bison's snort echoed through the canyon.
This was what everyone but Leyvi heard.
"Boss, a Demonic Bighorn Sheep is blocking the way, it won't let us pass. Please get rid of it." Mr. Bison requested.
BAAAA! BAAAa! BAAaa! BAaaa! Baaaa!
Another echo sounded to everyone's ears. It came from the Demonic Bighorn Sheep.
"It wanted to fight you! Go accept its challenge! Even a sheep looked down on you. Aren't you ashamed?" Leyvi said to Mr. Bison.
GRUNT! GRUNt! GRUnt! GRunt! Grunt!
"Dammit, you sheep! Let's fight then!" Mr. Bison was irritated when he heard the sheep's challenge.