After arriving at the meeting place which was about two miles west of the military camp, Rocky saw that
the sixth squad's spirit manipulators were all gathered there, with only three of them carrying their own
spirit-manipulated beasts. The remaining spirit manipulators' beasts, including Thor's and Joss's, all
had disappeared last time during the incident in the Maze Forest. It was believed that the missing
beasts could have been eaten alive by the wild spirit-manipulated beasts in the Maze Forest.
However, in Rocky's opinion, those spirit-manipulated beasts were just low grade wild war beasts that
they were not of much value. It wouldn't be a pity if they were lost.
"Captain…" as soon as Thor saw Rocky, he called. He let out a smile and looked as if he were relieved
to see him. They were about to carry out a task. Without Rocky's lead, Thor was unsure how to do it.
Uriah, Rocky's war beast, whose appearance looked fancy and whose personality was awesome,
immediately caught the attention of the remaining spirit manipulators and their eyes brightened.
Except for Thor and Joss, the other spirit manipulators of the sixth squad had not seen Uriah before.
They gathered around the beast and stared at it with curiosity and fascination in their eyes. Uriah was
much bigger than other spirit-manipulated beasts. At the same time, it also looked as dynamic as a
tiger and full of momentum. Nobody would regard it as a low-grade spirit-manipulated beast.
"Captain, is this your spirit-manipulated beast? Wow, it looks so cool!"
"I guess it is a two-star war beast? It is so amazing!"
"What does it usually eat? It's hard to believe that a war beast can grow so big..."
The spirit manipulators immediately surrounded Rocky and Uriah and said one after another. They
threw him so many questions about his beast. Rocky knew that they were flattering him and his war
beast. However, he was not at all amused. He did not like the crowded space nor the endless
questions.
"Stop the idle chatter!" Rocky snarled. He looked around with his cold eyes, and immediately the other
spirit manipulators were intimidated and zipped their lips. He didn't like being flattered as he believed it
was just useless.
"Set out now." Rocky withdrew his eyes and gave the order simply. Obviously, he had already
established authority among his subordinates.
Soon afterwards, the sixth squad set out and escorted three carts of provisions and fodder to the
outpost at the west side of the front line.
The route to the outpost was divided into three parts. The first part was a winding canyon with its
surrounding areas undulating. It was a place where the wild spirit-manipulated beasts seldom showed
up, so this part could be thought as a quite safe place. It was free from the attacks of wild beasts.
However, from time to time, some robbers who were also spirit manipulators would show up there and
rob those who passed by of all their possessions.
Although they were notorious robbers, they definitely knew better than to act rashly and rob the army.
They weren't stupid enough to make them their enemy. If they did that, the robbers knew they would be
hunted down by the army.
After a long walk, the sixth squad entered the canyon area.
Meanwhile, on a rugged hidden mountain road in the canyon, three figures were sneaking behind it.
They spotted Rocky and his squad passing by.
"The soldiers who are escorting the provisions and fodder look a lot weaker than those we have seen
before. They are all spirit manipulators at the second or third grade of the Mortal Stage. It looks like
they are all weaklings. I think the army really looks down upon us, the Three Powers at the Gehenna
Border!" one of the fat beefy men snapped. His face and body were all sagged.
"Yes, you are right! We haven't seen any passersby for a few days. We are out of money now. If we
don't rob them today, we will starve to death," another man who was tall, bald and sporting a long face
went on.
"Stop babbling! They are soldiers from the military camp of the Holy Dragon Empire. If we offended
them, we would land ourselves in serious trouble," said the last man who seemed to be their leader.
The scar on his left forehead made him look a little ferocious, but he covered it on purpose with a
handful of bangs which made him look quite grotesque.
"If we start it, we shall go to any lengths to kill them all. With your strength at the fourth grade of the
Mortal Stage, coupled with our strength at the third grade of the Mortal Stage, it will be so easy for us to
kill them all together," said the bald man.
"That's true. We've been suppressed many times by the army from the Holy Dragon Empire before,
and although we escaped from their suppression every time, it has always been annoying. Finally, this
time, we have a chance to take revenge. Anyway, have our pitfalls been set up?" asked the man with a
scar.
"Yes, they have been well-prepared long time ago," the fat man said proudly.
"Alright then. Let's wait and see. We'll make a killing this time," the man with a scar said wickedly. He
rubbed his hands in anticipation. He was confident that he and his other two companions could kill all
the low-grade soldiers and steal all of their possessions. This was the big break they were waiting for.
Plus, they would finally be able to eat a decent meal.
Meanwhile, Rocky led the sixth squad all the way through the canyon. Knowing that no wild spirit-
manipulated beasts were haunting in the canyon, the whole squad acted careless and sloppy.
A few moments later, two spirit manipulators at the front of the squad stopped. They felt something
move beneath them. Under the sand they were stepping on, a row of sharp wood thorns like quick rain
was dashing towards them.
The sixth squad's spirit manipulators panicked at the sight of the sudden wood thorns. They never
thought that they would be attacked. Because they were acting negligently, they were caught off guard.
As such, they were at a little disadvantage.
Rocky, who was at the end of the squad, immediately ordered, "All get down." His voice was calm yet
there was a tone of urgency. Then, he squatted half way down and paid careful attention to the
situation around.
The other spirit manipulators heard Rocky's order. They stopped panicking and got down one after
another.
The next second, there was a whistling sound piercing through the air. It was produced by the row of
sharp wooden thorns which soon flew over the heads of the sixth squad dangerously, making them all
startled with cold sweat. If Rocky hadn't immediately ordered them to get down, the thorns would have
pierced their skins.
As soon as the sharp wooden thorns stopped flying towards them, Rocky got up and said, "All of you,
get up now. It looks like we're being tracked and targeted."
"But who would dare to target us?" Thor and the other spirit manipulators got up and asked in surprise.
"People who dare to commit crimes at the sight of money, of course," Rocky said indifferently as he
narrowed his eyes. It would be easy for him to guess that someone must have been attracted by the
provisions and fodder they were escorting now.
"Could it be the robbers? But why are they doing this? Deputy Commander Chen told us that those
robbers wouldn't dare to trouble us." Joss was puzzled.
"Isn't it obvious? Do you think the robbers will think highly of the strength of our squad?" Rocky told
them the truth. There was no point in lying to them.
"What should we do then?" As soon as the other spirit manipulators heard what Rocky said, they
immediately became nervous, knowing that Rocky was quite right. If the robbers managed to
overwhelm them, not only would they take their possessions, they could end up badly hurt. Worse, they
could end up dead. It seemed that the sixth squad was so weak that even the robbers, who had never
dared to touch the army's provisions and fodder, now had the nerve to rob them.
"The robbers set a trap to stop and attack us. If I am right, they should have fewer people than us.
That's why they have a trap set up. They want to use it to reduce our numbers. I speculate that the
road ahead us must be riddled with pitfalls, and we all must be very cautious," Rocky immediately
predicted.
"Captain, we're all counting on you," the sixth squad's spirit manipulators chorused and steered their
attention on Rocky. At that moment, they all regarded Rocky as their only spiritual pillar. Last time when
Rocky rescued them from the spirit-manipulated beast at the Earthly Stage, he had made them believe
in his ability.
Rocky glanced around the spirit manipulators of the sixth squad. The corners of his mouth curled up a
little upon examining them. It seemed that they didn't know that he had taken advantage of them last
time. Therefore, they didn't hate him and still regarded him as their savior.
"Thor, you and Joss are responsible to lead the way. You should pay attention to the land under your
feet and around, and don't touch anything. The rest of you try to hide behind the carts," Rocky ordered
at once.
Soon, the sixth squad settled on a formation to march on, while Rocky was still at the end of the squad
to protect them all.
Sure enough, the sixth squad soon walked into a second trap. In the trap, they saw all sorts of arrows
dashing towards them from all directions, like the quick falling rain in a storm. It was impossible to
defend themselves effectively. However, thanks to Rocky's pre-arrangement, the provisions and fodder
on the carts became the good shield against the arrows for all the spirit manipulators. Then, they tried
their own way to protect themselves from any possible harm.
Finally, when the arrow rain came to an end, the sixth squad were all unharmed, except for two with
minor injuries. 'What a narrow escape of death!' they thought wildly.
Then, under the calm command of Rocky, they got through another three traps safely. After that, they
were in a ten-meter-long passage which was so narrow that it would only allow the pass of a single
cart.
During the same moment, three figures were hidden on the cliff above the narrow passage.
"Well, I hate to admit but the weak squad is actually not that bad. Surprisingly, they were capable of
avoiding the first five traps. There are not that many traps left on the way, but none of them have been
killed so far," said the bald man.
"Don't worry! They must have passed the traps due to their good luck. Next time, they definitely will not
be so lucky again," said the man with a scar, his mouth flashing a sinister smile.
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