Braised Dragon with Soy Sauce

As night fell, both cavalry units had reached their destinations, and at the same time, martial law and inspections were initiated in the three counties of the prefecture.

All exits of the city were guarded by soldiers, and the city's security guards patrolled the streets in groups to conduct checks. The soldiers of the Sikou Prefecture and the officials of the prefectural government began to register households one by one.

The Falcon Guard, heading to Jian'an City, tied the captured bandits to carriages and swaggered into the city through the city gates before detouring into the county government.

The robbers were imprisoned and subjected to a surprise interrogation.

The city was placed under martial law, and prisoners were paraded through the streets in order to alert the enemy.

Meanwhile, the young Eagle Guards sitting in the carriage would occasionally peek out from inside, confusing the enemies hiding in the shadows and making them unsure whether the people in the carriage were the young Eagle Guards or "remnants of the sinful clan," thus preventing those who had not yet revealed themselves from acting rashly.

That night, the people of Jian'an City, as well as those of Luoxia City and Wangxiang Town, heard the sounds of horses' hooves, fighting, and shouts coming from the streets all night long.

The sounds of fighting didn't subside until the early morning of the next day. When everyone came out to check, they found that the streets had been cleaned up, leaving no trace, except for a faint smell of blood in a few sections.

Early the next morning, the group that had spent the night in Wangxiang Town lined up and headed back to Luoxia City. This time they arrived in Luoxia City without incident, and found nothing unusual along the way.

The convoy from Jian'an City also returned to Luoxia City smoothly.

However, some unexpected things happened to Mo Yuming's convoy as it returned to Luoxia City from the ranch.

Yesterday, Mo Yuming led ten members of the Falcon Guard to the ranch after leaving Luoxia City. After driving for more than an hour, they successfully entered the ranch.

Mo Yuming spent the night at the ranch.

Clearly, Mo Yuming's plan to lure the enemy out of their hole failed. Perhaps the enemy hadn't taken this route into account, or perhaps there were other reasons. Maybe the enemy already knew that the wagon traveling through the pasture was bait to lure them in.

Although nothing unusual happened along the way, both Mo Yuming and Huang Xiaoxiao, who was sitting in the carriage, felt that someone was watching the vehicle but had not taken any action.

Originally, the plan was to bring Park Ya-chu and the others into Luoxia City today, but in the end, Mo Yuming was still worried and decided to try again to see if he could catch this big fish.

Unexpectedly, on the way back to Luoxia City, the robbers who had been lying in wait by the roadside finally lost their patience and jumped out.

Although there were only eight of them, all eight were at the peak of the Earth Rank, far stronger than the bandits lying in ambush on the road to Jian'an City.

However, their luck was still bad, as they encountered the strongest team. Seven of the ten Falcon Guards were at the eighth level of the Earth Rank, and three were at the seventh level of the Earth Rank. They were all top-notch Falcon Guards. In addition, there was Mo Yuming, who was also a top-level Earth Rank expert, and two Heaven Rank grandmothers who followed Xiao Xiao.

This sealed their fate of certain defeat.

From the moment the eight robbers jumped out, a fierce battle immediately broke out between the two sides.

Mo Yuming first picked out a guy who used dual swords and dealt with him.

The two Heavenly Realm Grandmothers immediately suppressed the two strongest individuals. Meanwhile, the ten Falcon Guards quickly chose their opponents, two against one.

Since Xiao Xiao had the lowest cultivation level, he sat in the carriage, holding a miniature crossbow in one hand, ready to fight at any time.

Although the Falcon Guards were inferior to their opponents in cultivation, the two-on-one advantage, coupled with their superior weapons, allowed them to fight to a standstill in the duel.

Although Mo Yuming lacked combat experience and his Xuan Gong cultivation was somewhat unstable, he cultivated all five elements simultaneously. Therefore, when facing opponents of similar strength, he always had the upper hand in battle thanks to his unique Spirit Absorption Technique.

The robbers who faced the two old ladies were in a much worse situation. Although the two grandmothers were both at the early stage of the Heaven Rank, only one level higher than their opponents, the strength displayed by the Heaven Rank was incomparable to that of the peak Earth Rank.

As soon as the two men started fighting, the two grandmothers beat them so badly that they had no chance to fight back.

After a few moves, they were both knocked to the ground, their cultivation completely lost, and they were unable to move.

With the two Heavenly Realm Grandmothers free to handle things, the situation became even more one-sided.

With a palm strike on one side and a punch on the other, Qi Mei and Qing Wei easily overwhelmed the already struggling bandits, sending them sprawling and defeated.

The entire battle ended in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, with all eight bandits being wiped out.

Three died from their severe injuries, while the other five were captured alive after their cultivation was destroyed.

After Mo Yuming and his group returned to Luoxia City with the prisoners, the other two teams also arrived and joined them. During the surprise interrogation of the captured bandits last night, it was learned that they were all warriors dispatched by confidants of the noble families who had followed Wu Ji during her reign.

After Wu Ji was driven away, he went into hiding.

Not long ago, Wu Ji secretly sent a special envoy to contact them, deciding to use the sixteen remaining members of the criminal clan under her control as bargaining chips to strike at Mo Yuming.

The reason they were willing to risk their lives for Wu Ji was firstly because Wu Ji had given them a great deal of wealth.

Secondly, after Mo Yuming implemented the new law, their path of bribing officials to make ill-gotten gains was cut off, their social status plummeted, and their power was reduced to that of ordinary people.

This was even more unacceptable to them. So when Wu Ji secretly sent an envoy to talk to them, they immediately agreed.

When asked about the mysterious envoy, the prisoners had no idea, because they were simply following orders and had never seen the envoy.

Mo Yuming and his group initially thought of Eunuch Pao, but Eunuch Pao and his group had long been wiped out, so they couldn't possibly know what Mo Yuming and his group were doing.

Who was so well aware of their actions? How could they send so many people to ambush them while they were busy arresting and investigating Wu Ji's henchmen and accomplices?

It should be noted that Mo Yuming's dispatch of three carriages was a spur-of-the-moment decision, mainly to attract the attention of the lurking elements. In Mo Yuming's mind, even if there were any remaining members, they should be chasing after them, not having known about their actions in advance and ambushing them.

Mo Yuming felt that things were not that simple.

So they immediately began interrogating the five people who had just been captured, but the five were tight-lipped, and they couldn't get any useful information despite a lot of effort.

Finally, after Qi Mei and Qing Wei, two experts at the Heavenly Rank, joined forces to mentally harass them, they managed to extract some information from them.

The eight of them were members of the Wuhou Shadow Guard who had been lurking in Luoxia City since the day before yesterday. Yesterday, after the special envoy saw that the actions of those aristocratic warriors had failed, he ordered them to intercept and kill the third convoy heading to the ranch.

Their goal was simple: to confirm whether the people in the car were "remnants of a sinful clan."

There is no need to fight to the death.

But they didn't expect to run into a tough opponent; they got no information and were completely wiped out.