Chapter 43: The Plan Was Successful

Shen Qingxue froze hearing my words, her jaw slackening as she stared between me and the burning wreckage.

Across the clearing, the bandit leader and his men stiffened, their eyes bulging in utter, paralyzed disbelief.

"H-How... how could Senior possibly know that?!" the bandit leader stammered, his rough voice shaking with awe. "Our squad took the greatest care to keep the maneuver silent! Even the imperial escorts guarding the carts had no idea."

"It was a clever tactical diversion," I chuckled, giving the bandit leader an approving nod. "A very smart plan, so credit where credit is due. But in the eyes of someone who truly knows how to observe, your little theater had more holes than a cheap sieve."

I turned back to Qingxue, whose dark eyes were swimming with utter confusion. Seeing her looking so delightfully lost, I decided to walk her through the deduction from the very beginning.

"When we stood on the ridge and first watched the ambush unfold, several things immediately stood out as completely unnatural," I explained, leaning casually against her horse’s saddle. "First, think about the nature of common highway bandits. What do cutthroats care about? They care about the loot. They swarm the carriages, cut the horses loose, and tear open the crates to see how much gold they can carry away. Yet these men didn’t cast a single glance at the wagons. Every swing of their sabers was aimed with suicidal fury toward the caravan guards, deliberately trading wounds to keep the escorts pinned to the center of the road."

Qingxue’s eyebrows knitted as she mentally replayed the battle, the dots beginning to connect.

"Second," I continued, pointing a finger toward the dead guards scattered in the brush. "If you are a merchant transporting millions in rare cargo, your private guards form a tight defensive ring around the wagons to protect the investment. But these guards were positioned thirty paces outward, desperately trying to push the attackers away from the vehicles rather than defending the doors. And third, the most glaring flaw of all, there was a Peak Qi Condensation cultivator hiding silently inside the third carriage, doing absolutely nothing."

I nudged the spearman’s severed head with the toe of my clean boot.

"A cultivator of his realm could have turned thirty Body Strengthening mortals into mincemeat with a single swing of his spear. Why would an arrogant expert sit silently in a smoky wooden box, watching his employer’s wagons burn, unless his sole duty was to act as an executioner in case the secret cargo was discovered? When you assemble all those pieces together, the truth is obvious, this was not a robbery. It was a prison break, and the caravan was an illegal slave transport."

Shen Qingxue let out a sharp, audible gasp. A deep wave of embarrassment and guilt flushed across her porcelain neck as she turned toward the wounded bandits kneeling in the mud.

"I... I attacked the people trying to save innocent lives,’ she whispered, her voice wavering with deep remorse. She stepped forward, clasping her hands together and bowing low toward the men. "I let my eyes blind my judgment. Please forgive my offense."

The bandit leader waved his hands frantically, completely terrified by the apology of an elite swordswoman backed by a terrifying immortal master. "No, no! The young fairy was simply trying to uphold righteousness! It was our clumsy execution that led to the misunderstanding!"

Qingxue straightened up, turning back to me with a furrowed brow. "Husband... if these brave men were merely the distraction, where are the captives? Did they run into the woods?"

"I already told you, these fellows possess brains," I said with a smile, looking toward the bandit leader with an amused glint. "They knew that attacking an armed slaver unit likely escorted by a hidden cultivator was practically a suicide mission. So, they prepared a Plan B in advance sacrificing their own lives as bait on the road, while another hidden team extracted the prisoners from beneath the slavers’ noses. Am I right?"

The bandit leader lowered his head, letting out a bitter, respectful sigh. "Senior’s divine sight is absolute. Our blood brothers could never match an immortal cultivator in open combat. We resolved to die holding the road so our second unit could tunnel through and take our families away."

Shen Qingxue looked around the barren clearing, more confused than ever. "From beneath their noses? But where could they possibly have gone?"

I let out a soft chuckle.

Raising my right hand, I casually flicked my fingers toward the burning wreckage.

WHOOSH!

A fierce, sweeping vortex of wind-attribute qi exploded from my fingertips. The howling gale extinguished the blazing fires in a split second, lifting the four heavy, charred iron carriages into the air like dry autumn leaves and tossing them thirty yards away into the ravine.

With the heavy wagons cleared away, the ground where they had been parked was laid bare for all to see.

Right beneath the axle lines of the vehicles, four massive, square excavation shafts were carved neatly into the solid dirt, a connected subterranean tunnel system extending deep beneath the forest floor.

I pointed toward the dark cavern entrance, smiling down at my dumbstruck disciple.

"There is your answer," I said, tucking my hands back into my sleeves with an easygoing grin. "While these thirty men were drawing all the attention and bleeding under your sword above ground, their companions were busy pulling the floorboards from below, quietly escorting every single captive out through the underground tunnels."

I went towards the holes, Shen Qingxue following me behind. Standing over it, we looked down and saw a big hole dropping a few meters deep. From there, it was likely connected to a tunnel system.

"Hmm. They left it behind like this," I muttered. "Which means they know the slave traders can’t pursue them. They are quite confident."

"They were successful, Master," Shen Qingxue smiled warmly. "They managed to save the slaves. Their plan was a success."

She was really happy to see that the slaves were rescued, otherwise they would have lived a life worse than hers.