Ji Fengyao blinked her big eyes twice, her pupils darting around, and said casually, "Maybe their scouts were bored and just stumbled along the way. I saw quite a few of them at the foot of the mountain before."

(Scout: Don't extras deserve self-respect?)

The scarred man looked puzzled: "Really?"

They disguised themselves and went into hiding to conceal their whereabouts;

How can you still be in the mood to eat sunflower seeds along the way?

“Really, I think I saw it too. I was wondering about it at the time.” When Xique saw that her young lady was being questioned, she quickly stepped forward to testify.

Jiao Da didn't see anything wrong with a few melon seed shells and said to Chen Xiaoyi, "Young Master Chen, let's go back and check those corpses; in case someone is pretending to be dead and runs away while we're away. Also, we need to bury our own brothers' corpses."

"Okay," Chen Xiaoyi replied, not taking the mere few sunflower seed shells to heart either.

This time, nearly half of the men brought by Chen Xiaoyi and Jiao Da were lost, roughly the same number as the corpses of the Shadow Moon Guards on the ground.

Although Chen Xiaoyi and Jiao Da were heartbroken, seeing the brocade cloth bearing the emblem of the Ninth Prince's Mansion found on the Shadow Moon Guards proved that these were all people from the Ninth Prince's Mansion, even though they hadn't found the Ninth Prince's body.

This proved that their direction was correct and that the power of the Nine Kings had been weakened, which brought them some relief.

"However, after this incident, the Ninth Prince will probably be more cautious, and it won't be so easy to find them next time," Jiao Da said worriedly.

"Hey, finding the Ninth Prince is a piece of cake, not that difficult," Ji Fengming waved his hand dismissively.

A bunch of idiots!

My brother-in-law just stood right in front of you and did nothing wrong!

"Um?"

Chen Xiaoyi, Jiao Da, and the others all looked at Ji Fengming with suspicion.

Ji Fengyao was afraid that her brother would be too smug and give himself away, so she quickly stepped forward to smooth things over, saying, "What my brother means is that the Ninth Prince might be keeping a low profile this time, but next time he might do the opposite and be high-profile; there are only a few roads to the northwest, and with so many of us, it shouldn't be hard to find them."

“That’s right, let’s hurry up and get on the road, so they don’t get too far ahead and someone else gets there first.” When Chen Xiaoyi said “someone else,” he was specifically referring to his older brother, Chen Shiyu.

He didn't want to compete with Chen Shiyu for the position of family head;

He was self-aware and believed he didn't have that talent;

He was just resentful. From childhood to adulthood, nothing had ever surpassed his older brother. If he could kill the Ninth Prince first this time, he would have enough bragging rights for the rest of his life. Let's see who dares to call him a good-for-nothing behind his back.

Jiao Da left a few people here to bury his deceased brothers, and then continued on his way with Chen Xiaoyi, Ji Chenhai, Ji Fengyao and their group.

On the other side.

Shang Beiyu was still flying on his sword, but this time he slowed down considerably. That day, he discovered a ghostly figure in the mountains, freely chasing and frightening small animals. A thought struck him:

The presence of the ghost mask indicates that the Ninth Prince and the little female bandit are nearby.

So Shang Beiyu sheathed his flying sword, cast an illusion spell on his face, and disguised himself as a wandering swordsman, traveling alone on the road.

They encountered quite a few people along the way, several of whom were people Shang Beiyu had met before, who were chasing after the Ninth Prince;

One of the groups was led by Chen Xiaoyi, including Jiao Da and Ji Chenhai.

As they passed each other, they glanced at each other.

One is a lone swordsman from the unfamiliar martial world;

One is a well-known good-for-nothing in Kyoto;

No one cared much about paying attention to the other; they only exchanged a brief glance before passing each other by.