Return of the demon

A short while later Bai Yun heard the people of the caravan cheering loudly once again. The security forces had returned.

Bai Yun stepped off the carriage to see that the security force of the caravan as well as the mercenaries had returned. But from their looks, things hadn't gone too smoothly.

"How was it?" The leader of the caravan asked. "Did you get them all?"

"The leader of the sky bandits was too fast." The security leader replied. "He ran away. We couldn't catch up to him at all."

"And as for the rest of them, we were able to kill most of the bandits, but they ran in all directions." Huang Yao said. "I am sure that we missed a few."

"That's not good." The caravan leader said.

"What's the problem if a few bandits escaped." One of the staff of the caravan asked. "We were able to repel them when they had two core formation cultivators. We can defeat them again if they come back."

"The problem is that the blabbermouth shouted that we have the purple spike fruit." The security leader explained. "The bandits who escaped all know about it. If they were to tell some other bandit forces about it, then those bandits might attack us for the purple spike fruit."

When the security leader explained the problem, all the members of the caravan fell silent. They didn't know what to do.

"The good thing is that the purple spike fruit isn't valuable enough for those bandit groups with soul step leaders to attack us and throw away all semblance of respect with the city lord." Huang Yao said.

"But some of the weaker bandit groups, especially those with mid or late stage core formation cultivators may take the risk and attack us." The security leader said.

"What can we do then?" The caravan leader asked. For a moment everyone was silent. No one knew how to answer his question.

"We can only rush to Terracotta hill." Bai Yun finally said.

For a moment everyone stared at Bai Yun. "What do you mean?" One of them asked.

"Run as fast as we can without raising any suspicions. Run through the night. Run as fast as the demonic beast pulling the carts can. Run while taking as little rest as we can. And keep on running until we reach Terracotta Hill. And hope that the bandits don't catch up to us before we reach Terracotta hill." Bai Yun explained.

"If we are running, why can't we run towards Hescha city. It's closer" One of the travelers asked.

"An if we run towards Hescha city, we don't have that excuse. One of the bandit groups might grow suspicious of our reasons and attack us. It will be a lot more dangerous that way."

"Also, soon everyone, including people at Hescha city will definitely learn that we have the purple spike fruit. If we go to Hescha city, since there are people there that even the city lord is wary of, it could be taken from us. And if the city lord's son dies because the fruit is taken from us, then he would come after us in his rage. Do you think any of us can handle that? Frankly, I would rather face a few bandit groups than a pissed off soul step cultivator with nothing to lose."

When Bai Yun finished everyone fell into thought. They know that Bai Yun was right.

"But we are only travelers in the caravan." One of the travelers complained. "Our safety was guaranteed by the caravan. They need to take us back to Hescha city."

"If we are forced to return to Hescha city because of your insistence, I can guarantee that the city lord will chase you down personally to kill you." Bai Yun replied. Hearing this they had no response, as they knew that Bai Yun was right.

"In that case, we will be leaving soon." The caravan leader said. "If anyone wants to get off they are free to do so." He announced. But no one chose that option. No matter how dangerous the caravan would be, being alone here was far more dangerous.

Quickly the staff of the caravan started to move as the order was given.

At that time Huang Yao quickly came towards Bai Yun. "That was quite something brat. I didn't think that you had it you to kill Ye Chen so easily."

Bai Yun smiled in response. "I noticed him acting strange a long time ago. So I was ready to quickly take action and somehow things just worked out from then on. Not too well though, I did end up breaking my arm."

"If you noticed him acting strangely, then why didn't you say anything." Huang Yao asked.

"If I had, would you have believed me?" Bai Yun replied.

Huang Yao nodded. "Anyway that arrow was awesome, how did you hit it at his eye."

Bai Yun laughed when he heard this. "That was pure luck. I wasn't actually aiming at his eye."

And it was true. Bai Yun was aiming at the leader of the rumbling bandit's heart. But somehow by pure coincidence, the arrow had deviated from the path he intended due to various reasons and hit him in the eye. It came as a shock to everyone, Bai Yun included.

"Anyway, you are still quite good." Huang Yao said. She didn't say anything about the arrow disappearing when the leader of the rumbling pirates slashed at it with a sword. Everyone had their own secrets after all. "Why don't you join our mercenary group." She asked

"Aunty I-" Bai Yun started to reply, when he felt a sharp hit on the top of his head, and found himself face down on the ground.

"Aunty your mother." Huang Yao shouted. "Call me big sis you hear."

'Just once, I would like to meet a normal woman in this life.' Bai Yun thought as he stood up.

"Big sis, I am just traveling without a fixed destination for now. I have no idea where I am going. There is no way I can join your mercenary team." Bai Yun said.

"If you don't know what to do, then follow us." Huang Yao said.

"Sorry but I don't want to." Bai Yun refused her offer once again.

Huang Yao simply snorted in response. "I will definitely get you to join my group", she said before she turned away and left to join the mercenaries. All the mercenaries had been basically unhurt in the fight just now, just some minor injuries. But two of the security team had been badly hurt and had to rest in the carriage for real. Thankfully no one had died.

Soon the caravan set off once again. This time they were faster than before. They ran through the night and quickly went on their way.

The only rest time the demonic beasts that were pulling the carriages got was when the caravan stopped for meals. Soon the demonic beasts were quite tired. But they were of a rare and tough breed, who could hold on at this pace for a few days.

And during the next couple of days whenever the caravan would meet up with bandits, they would tell them that they had some herbs that were needed for the antidote to cure the city lords poison. This made the bandit groups not want to deal with them too much, and quickly let them go after collecting their toll.

And every day, Huang Yao would come to chat with Bai Yun. She would show Bai Yun her family and often talk about them. She would also try to recruit Bai Yun, but he would let her down quickly.

And the caravan continued to move. It was in this way on the second day that Bai Yun finally found that he was unable to suppress his cultivation anymore. The battles that he had been part of had forced his growth and it was now time to break through to foundation establishment.

Bai Yun sat down on the carriage and slowly felt his qi whirlpool. The process of breaking through from qi condensation to foundation establishment was to compress the qi in the qi whirlpool until it became a liquid. The clarity of the liquid would determine the strength of the qi while the quantity would determine how much qi one had. But the moment one reached the foundation establishment, the amount of qi would increase by a large amount, as the medium to hold qi would change.

As the qi liquid was created, the qi whirlpools would start to disappear. If one to three qi spirals had been turned to liquid qi, then one was at the early foundation establishment. If four to six spirals had disappeared, it was mid foundation establishment. If seven to nine spirals had disappeared, then one was in late foundation establishment.

Bai Yun's qi whirlpool started to spin rapidly. As it spun, one of the nine qi spirals in the whirlpool started to move inward. It slowly reached the center of the qi spiral and started to compress.

The long chain of the qi spiral reached the center of the qi whirlpool. As more and more of the qi spiral reached there, it started to press against each other. Soon a single drop of qi liquid appeared at the center of the qi spiral.

As more and more of the qi spiral came inward, more and more of the qi liquid was made. Slowly the entire qi spiral merged into the small ball of qi liquid the size of a finger nail. The water in the qi ball was perfectly clear, and transparent. The qi liquid looked like a perfect little glass ball.

And the moment Bai Yun reached foundation establishment a small wind rose around him. Then the qi in the area around him started to quickly converge upon Bai Yun. Quickly the newly formed qi liquid started to swell up. At the same time, the qi spirals in the qi whirlpool also started to become thicker and stronger. Earlier they were like wisps of smoke, but now they looked like milk. And as the qi passed through his body, it also nourished his body, making it slightly stronger.

The people around him didn't say anything, only staying away to not disturb Bai Yun during this critical time. They all knew this was caused by Bai Yun breaking through to foundation establishment.

Soon the situation around Bai Yun came to an end. Bai Yun's breakthrough to foundation establishment had finished. But Bai Yun did not stop. He could feel that he still had some more momentum left. So he quickly pushed the second qi spiral towards the small qi liquid blob at the center.

And soon the second spiral also merged into the qi liquid. As it did, the size of the qi ball grew bigger and bigger. Soon the qi spiral had completely merged into the qi liquid, and the qi liquid had doubled in size.

Bai Yun was finished with his breakthrough now. Bai Yun slowly studied the checked egg sized qi liquid that floated in the center of his dantian.

He had finally reached foundation establishment. And that too as someone who had merged two qi spirals, and had thus traveled a bit in the foundation establishment.