When Ge Zian and Wei Shuxuan opened the sack, what was inside really scared the two of them. There was actually a person inside! Moreover, the person in the sack met their gazes, but it was just a brief eye - contact without any major reaction.
"No wonder they said they wanted water. It turns out there are people in here," Wei Shuxuan stroked her chin and observed the person in the sack carefully. "No, they don't look like people at all now. Look at their ashen faces and empty, lifeless eyes. They don't look like normal people at all. Instead, they look like..." Like heartless robots. Of course, she just thought this in her mind. How could Ge Zian know what a robot was? Wei Shuxuan thought silently.
"Let me take a look..." Ge Zian really paid attention to the appearance and expression of the person in the sack. A word flashed through his mind quickly. "Could they be... death - warriors?"
"Death - warriors? Weren't your barracks attacked by death - warriors before?" Wei Shuxuan looked at Ge Zian in surprise.
"Yes, it should be them. However, I don't know if they are the same group."
"Wei Wei said that he once saw death - warriors in Sima Tianhai's stone chamber. These death - warriors were trained by Sima Tianhai. I think he mostly intended to use them to invade the territory of the Kingdom of Yulong."
"Surely that's the reason. I was so naive to think that the war was finally over when I knew they sent envoys to negotiate with us. I didn't expect it was just the start of another war..." Ge Zian no longer had any hope for making peace with the Kingdom of Qiangfeng. The people of Qiangfeng treated their people like this, and they surely couldn't be forgiven.
"You've known for a long time that power is an insatiable abyss. To gain more power, people will surely stop at nothing."
"Then these death - warriors are the young men who went missing in Kele Town, Lupu Town, and Baolan Town."
"Definitely. What should we do now?" Wei Shuxuan was a bit distressed. How could she and Ge Zian take these death - warriors back to the Kingdom of Yulong? Even if they didn't take them back to Yulong, taking them back to Baolan Town would surely arouse the suspicion of the people in Sanmei Inn, which would be even more troublesome.
"Xuan'er, even if we take these people away, we can't help them."
"You mean..." Wei Shuxuan had heard from Wei Wei about the information on death - warriors. Death - warriors were directly controlled by the person who initially controlled them. Either the controller himself lifted the controlling spell or the controller died. Otherwise, those who became death - warriors would always be like this, heartless and doing nothing. "But you're going to leave them here?"
"Don't be excited. Let's first see how many people there are here."
Ge Zian tried to calm Wei Shuxuan down. Wei Shuxuan had no choice but to obediently check each sack. Just as they were checking the last sack, Ge Zian suddenly looked up, grabbed Wei Shuxuan's arm, and said, "Hurry up, someone's coming!"
Before Wei Shuxuan could react, Ge Zian grabbed her and left the place, returning to the place where they had been ambushing. As the sound of the rolling wheels grew louder, Ge Zian felt uneasy. He pulled Wei Shuxuan and jumped onto a relatively tall tree.
Before long, a carriage came. The carriage stopped here. A man got out of the carriage. Ge Zian recognized this man. Wasn't he the capable assistant beside Sima Tianhai, Deputy General Lan Huaze?
"Wake them up for me!" Lan Huaze said to the guards beside him.
The guards took out a small round box from their bosoms, opened the lid of the round box, and held it under the noses of the fainted guards and the porters for a while. Then the fainted people began to regain consciousness slowly.
"What's wrong with you? Why did you faint here?" Lan Huaze angrily scolded the two guards.
"Please forgive us, Deputy General Lan. When we walked to this section of the road, a puff of white smoke suddenly blew over. After we smelled it, we all fainted..."
Lan Huaze walked to the flatbed cart with the sacks on it. Seeing that the sacks had all been opened by someone, he said, "Someone ambushed here. They should not have gone far. Send a few people to chase them!"
"Yes, Deputy General Lan."
"The rest of you, transport them with me!" Lan Huaze counted the sacks. However, the other death - warriors were not that important. The most important one was the unopened sack. He opened this sack, revealing the pale face of a man.
Ge Zian wondered if he was seeing things. Why did he think the death - warrior that Lan Huaze was looking at looked so similar to General Wei Tu, whom they had been looking for? Just as he wanted to take a closer look, Lan Huaze had already tied up the mouth of the sack.
"Set off."
Watching Lan Huaze leading a group of people walking further and further away, Wei Shuxuan turned her head and whispered to Ge Zian, "Zian, should we continue to follow them?"
Based on Ge Zian's understanding of Lan Huaze, Lan Huaze's martial arts skills were inferior to his but superior to Wei Shuxuan's. Moreover, there were so many guards around him. If they followed too closely, the risk of being discovered would increase. But they still didn't know where they were going. It was better to keep a distance and observe quietly for a while.
"We'll follow, but we have to keep a long distance from them. Otherwise, we'll surely be discovered by that man. Do you understand?" Ge Zian whispered and instructed Wei Shuxuan.
"Understood. Can I follow behind you?"
"Sure. Let's go."
The two followed them for a while. While they were taking a rest, Wei Shuxuan whispered to Ge Zian, "Why don't they take the main road but this small path? This small path seems more rugged."
"There are more people on the main road, so it's easy to be discovered. Moreover, although this is a small path, it's a grain and forage passage after all. The distance is surely much shorter than that of the main road, which can save time."
Soon, the sun gradually set, and the orange - yellow afterglow was reflected in the sky. As it got darker, it was harder to see the road on this small path. Even Lan Huaze didn't dare to take risks. "We'll travel a bit further and then stay in the forest for the night. We'll continue our journey early tomorrow morning."
"Yes!"
Wei Shuxuan and Ge Zian also found a place to rest. Wei Shuxuan hadn't camped in the wild for a long time. "Zian, how long do we have to follow them this time?"
"As long as we figure out their direction. There will be a fork in the road after we travel a bit further. One leads to the western suburb of the Kingdom of Qiangfeng, and the other leads to Baiyang Town in the Kingdom of Yulong."