Chapter 251: Action Failed

Eagle Nest Ridge is located in a deep mountain connecting the northeast of the Wei Kingdom and the Zheng Kingdom to the east. This place belongs to a vacuum of power between the two countries and is adjacent to the Cloud Mist Mountains, where the environment is relatively harsh, and there has always been no one around.

Precisely because of this, Eagle Nest Ridge is somewhat similar to White Dragon Mountain. Many rogue cultivators who have nowhere to go and those bandits who rob and steal, in order to avoid the wanted notices of the cultivators of the two countries, all gathered here because they were birds of a feather.

Decades ago, a rogue cultivator named Cheng Yilong offended a Foundation Establishment immortal family in the Zheng Kingdom and fled to Eagle Nest Ridge.

When this person was in the Zheng Kingdom, he was originally just a small Qi Refining rogue cultivator who was unknown. I didn't expect that after he fled to Eagle Nest Ridge, his luck actually started to turn. I don't know where he got the opportunity, but he actually successfully reached Foundation Establishment.

After Cheng Yilong reached Foundation Establishment, he soon took all the vicious people around Eagle Nest Ridge under his command and did not refuse anyone who came to seek refuge with him, which also made the strength of Eagle Nest Ridge gradually grow and become a not-so-small scourge in the northeast of the Wei Kingdom.

These bandit cultivators often mixed into the Jiangling Prefecture of the Wei Kingdom to do some killing and looting. Not only Qinghe Marketplace, but also several marketplaces nearby, such as Jinshan Marketplace in Pingyang County and Jiangling Marketplace in Jiangling County, were also deeply harmed.

The few bandit cultivators of Eagle Nest Ridge that Song Qingming encountered near Lingyuan Mountain back then harmed many cultivators near Qinghe Marketplace.

At first, these people only colluded with some greedy people in Qinghe Marketplace to take action against those rogue cultivators who had no background. Regarding this, Lu Yuanfeng and the major Foundation Establishment families like the Huang family did not pay much attention to this matter.

Later, these people became more and more daring and actually killed a cultivator under the Huang family. This immediately angered the major Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County. Under the leadership of the Huang family, Qinghe Marketplace thoroughly investigated and finally found the few scourges who colluded with Eagle Nest Ridge. It is just a pity that the group of robbers at Eagle Nest Ridge saw that the situation was not good and ran away in advance, letting them not catch a single one. Since then, Qinghe County has finally been quiet for a period of time.

A few years later, the people of Eagle Nest Ridge killed several cultivators of Jinshan Marketplace in Pingyang County again. The major families in Pingyang County united and sent many cultivators to crusade under the leadership of the Cao family.

As a result, because Eagle Nest Ridge was well-informed, not long after the Pingyang County cultivators set off, Cheng Yilong knew about this matter early. Seeing that the other party was powerful, Cheng Yilong decisively abandoned the spiritual mountain and led his subordinates to hide in the Cloud Mist Mountains, letting the Pingyang County cultivators make a wasted trip.

After the Pingyang County cultivators left, these people returned to Eagle Nest Ridge under the leadership of Cheng Yilong and continued to harm one side.

This time, Lu Yuanfeng arranged it this way, traveling light and bringing as few cultivators as possible, just to avoid the eyes and ears of Eagle Nest Ridge on the road and catch them off guard when they were unprepared. According to his idea, as long as things went smoothly, it was very likely that this scourge could be wiped out.

After agreeing here, the major families began to go back and prepare urgently.

The number of late-stage Qi Refining cultivators in the Song family is not very large now. Including Shi Chun, who joined the Song family not long ago, there are only eight people in total.

Qingming could only summon all the late-stage Qi Refining cultivators in the clan except for Sixth Uncle Song Changfeng and Second Sister Song Qingwan, and after recruiting a few people from the subordinate Qi Refining families, he barely gathered ten people.

Three days later, on a small spiritual vein in the north of Qinghe Marketplace, Lu Yuanfeng led the dozens of people gathered here and headed north directly under the cover of night.

This time, apart from the five Foundation Establishment cultivators who attended the meeting that day, there were also more than fifty late-stage Qi Refining cultivators from various families.

It is just a pity that the two late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators with the highest cultivation in Qinghe County, Huang Shengxin and Gao Jinhu, could not come this time.

Huang Shengxin happened to have something to leave Qinghe County for the Carefree Sect more than half a month ago, and he still didn't know when he would return.

Gao Jinhu of the Gao family had been in seclusion since he went to the Taiyue Lake Secret Realm last time. He had been contrary to his usual behavior for these years and had not come out to show his face. In recent years, the one who has been in charge of the Gao family outside has been Gao Yubai.

According to the speculation of the Huang family, the reason why Gao Jinhu is in seclusion should be to heal his injuries. It looks like he was not lightly injured and has not fully recovered yet.

Now most of the Foundation Establishment cultivators in Qinghe County have left. To ensure the safety of Qinghe Marketplace, Lu Yuanfeng specially summoned his eldest disciple Yuan Wencai, who had already reached Foundation Establishment, back to station in Qinghe Marketplace for him for a period of time.

This time, the major Foundation Establishment families in Qinghe County were of one mind and rushed toward Eagle Nest Ridge, which is located in the northeast of Qinghe County.

Everyone traveled light and acted cautiously along the way. After more than ten days of urgent rushing, they finally arrived near Eagle Nest Ridge within the scheduled time.

Just when everyone was rubbing their hands and preparing to do a big job, Lu Xingde, who was responsible for rushing to scout in advance, brought back a piece of news that shocked them very much: Eagle Nest Ridge was silent, as if it had been empty for a long time.

Upon learning this news, Lu Yuanfeng's face turned pale, and he hurriedly led everyone to kill directly toward Eagle Nest Ridge.

Sure enough, just as Lu Xingde guessed, Eagle Nest Ridge at this time was already a mess. Cheng Yilong, this cunning fox, seemed to have left here early a few days ago.

Facing this situation, everyone in Qinghe County changed their faces one after another. This time they had acted so cautiously, but they didn't expect that the news was still leaked, causing everyone to make a wasted trip.

The few Foundation Establishment cultivators who led the team looked at each other, and it seemed that each had their own suspected targets in their hearts, but everyone had no actual evidence and could not speak it out directly.

"It's not necessarily that our own people leaked the secret. It's also possible that the people of Eagle Nest Ridge bumped into us somewhere and guessed our purpose for this trip." Lu Yuanfeng, who was responsible for organizing everyone to come here this time, saw that the atmosphere at the scene was a bit awkward and hurriedly came out to smile and smooth things over.

The few people at the scene, with Lu Yuanfeng being the oldest and having the highest cultivation, added to the fact that he was a cultivator from the Carefree Sect, since he spoke, everyone definitely had to give him this bit of face, and they all nodded and agreed with his statement.

Seeing that Eagle Nest Ridge was prepared, the failure of this action had already become a foregone conclusion. Although everyone was very unwilling in their hearts, they could only accept this fact.

Unable to find those robbers of Eagle Nest Ridge, the crowd, who had nowhere to vent their anger, could only make a big fuss on this spiritual mountain and then left here.

After the people of Qinghe County left, a figure wrapped in black clothes suddenly emerged from a low mountain next to Eagle Nest Ridge.

This black-clothed man carefully looked around, and seeing that there were no figures nearby, he left this place sneakily.

Half an hour later, the black-clothed man arrived at a cave a hundred miles away from Eagle Nest Ridge. More than a hundred bandit cultivators of Eagle Nest Ridge had all gathered here.