Lv Yingbo stood up and replied:
"But at least, it won't be just these few people. The weight of the Zhan Lu Sword is far more important to them than to us. As for why it's just these few people who came?"
"Perhaps the leader is arrogant and takes his time, sending some people ahead; or perhaps they came to probe, so they came over. In any case, they must not be far away, and they probably don't know there's an ambush here."
Sheng Zhehan furrowed his brows tightly, pondering the current situation, and said in a deep voice:
"At this moment, the attention of the martial world in the thirty-six Western Regions is focused on the Great Wilderness Stronghold affair."
"News from there surely hasn't spread yet. If it did, such a huge loss might cause more of a stir in the Jianghu than the affair at the Great Wilderness Stronghold itself... This is the best opportunity."
Lv Yingbo nodded and said:
"That was their plan from the start, a feint to the east while attacking the west."
"They say they're withdrawing, but actually all their attention is on this side. When everyone is drawn away by them, they can come over and easily get their hands on the Zhan Lu Sword."
Sheng Zhehan was silent for a moment, looking at Lv Yingbo, and asked the question that had been swirling in his mind.
"Is there a Grandmaster among them?"
Lv Yingbo firmly denied:
Then, speaking in a slightly softer tone, said:
"The White Tiger Hall indeed has Grandmaster experts, but there are not many, and each is heavily constrained, unable to move lightly."
"Although the Zhan Lu Sword is important, this time, at most, it's at the Fourth Rank, stronger than me, but not to an extent where I can't face them directly." Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs novel fire.net
Sheng Zhehan relaxed slightly, nodded, and said:
"Then, let's prepare some gifts for these people in advance."
"Catching them off guard should yield good results..."
Moments later, Sheng Zhehan looked at the Loulan ruins ahead, which hadn't changed much from before, and slightly relaxed. They used all the materials available to set traps, hidden along the road.
According to the ancestral records, these traps could hold back multiple Seventh Rank, or even Sixth Rank Realm martial artists, though how long they could delay was unrealistic.
But as long as they could delay even a breath's time, it would be enough. By then, the swarm of Wolf Fang Arrows would cause them significant losses.
Meanwhile, Lv Yingbo also left some poison ready to be activated at any time. Once activated, anyone below the Fourth Rank would almost certainly face death. Even a Fourth Rank martial artist, enduring such venom would require using a significant amount of their Qi mechanism, allowing only about seventy percent of their full strength to be exerted.
Just as they finished setting the traps, a few riders suddenly dashed into the trap. Unlike the White Tiger Hall experts who had hidden themselves earlier, these people rode fast horses in, each equipped with a curved saber and strong bow, with a quiver of fine steel arrows hanging from their saddles.
Although their demeanor was exceptionally sharp and fierce, their martial arts were not particularly impressive, only at the Ninth Grade level, with the leader at the peak of the Eighth Rank. Sheng Zhehan and his companions saw their fierceness and assumed they were elite horse bandits previously killed, and attacked together.
Ordinary horse bandits, no matter how fierce, are no match for Jianghu experts. The group didn't waste much time or effort capturing them, without even using the traps, merely shooting arrows to keep them thirty paces away.
Then, a tall man in a leather jacket leaped out, pulling out the arrows one by one. Sheng Zhehan, holding a strong bow, went forward to help drag the corpses to the side of a broken wall. When it was the leader's turn, he crouched down and, with a glance, hesitated slightly.
He then reached his hand to that person's waist and pulled down a dark object, cold to the touch, with a relief sculpture on the front of a wolf running across a vast plain. The back had a special script, not of the thirty-six Western Regions, resembling a ritual dance, with bold strokes.
Sheng Zhehan pondered for a moment but didn't recognize it. Lv Yingbo noticed his strange expression, came forward, and her eyes fell on the token. With just one look, her expression abruptly changed.
Sheng Zhehan looked up and said:
"You recognize the script on this token?"
"Are you saying these people are also from the so-called White Tiger Hall? What exactly are they planning? Although the previous group wasn't as skilled as you, they were still good fighters within Jianghu, but the ones who came now aren't even considered martial artists of Jianghu."
Lv Yingbo didn't answer, and Sheng Zhehan raised an eyebrow, looking at her. Seeing that the woman, whose cultivation had reached the Fourth Rank Realm and was considered a first-class Jianghu expert, suddenly had a solemn expression, his heart sank as he thought of a certain possibility, and his expression also changed several times. The item in his hand suddenly felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
"Could it be, this is..."
Lv Yingbo slowly nodded and said:
"It's a script passed down among the Xiongnu nobility."
"The Wolf King is the totem of the Khan King."
"The script means, Dichi Iron Guard, Scout Seventeen."
"Dichi Iron Guard?! Dichi Khan King?"
Sheng Zhehan's expression changed abruptly. Just then, fine sand on the ground started to tremble lightly. A Bokel Family man had a slight change in expression, quickly dismounted from his black wolf, lay down, and pressed his ear firmly to the ground. After several breaths, his expression drastically changed, stood up, and shouted: