Family Cultivation: My entire family are Villains-Chapter 81 - 068, The Cunning Affair of Wang Gong (Part 1)

The overall territory of Yongzhou roughly takes the shape of a vertical ellipse, with Shangyuan, Xingye, and Xiayuan arranged from north to south. Tongling County is an administrative district located to the east of Xingnan Prefecture in Xiayuan Road, covering an area of about one hundred and ten square miles and governing three counties: Zhaoyang, Baiye, and Yulin.

Among them, Baiye and Yulin are respectively located to the northeast and southeast of the prefectural city, both at a distance of about fifty miles, while Zhaoyang is situated to the east of the city, at a distance of roughly one hundred miles.

Between the three counties and one prefecture, there are a total of four official roads, with the longest being the one from Zhaoyang to the prefectural city, extending over a hundred miles.

If one rides a fast horse and spurs it on, even riding a common nag worth a hundred taels, capable of covering three hundred miles in a day, the journey from Zhaoyang to the prefectural city would take about four hours, alternating between running and resting.

If the horse is even better, being a good breed that can travel a thousand miles a day, it would be much faster, requiring only a little over an hour, and if one rides one of the nine top-grade horses capable of traveling three thousand miles a day, it would take less than an hour.

......

On the western official road of Zhaoyang, as the setting sun descends, the greenery on both sides gradually darkens, and night begins to fall, cloaking the dense woods beside the road in layers of shadow, adding a sense of depth and serenity.

A troop of more than a hundred people, surrounding five horse-drawn carriages, advances slowly from east to west—it's the Hou clan, who set off from Zhaoyang in the morning.

Hou Yuxiao did not take any special privileges. Despite being the family head and entitled to a carriage, this was his first time traveling the official road to the prefectural city, and the novelty of the journey prompted him to mount a horse and walk along with everyone else.

Who would have thought that after five hours of walking, they would only have covered half the distance.

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It was not their intention to be slow, but having five carriages loaded with goods and the fact that the horses needed occasional rests, they managed to travel less than ten miles an hour.

"This pace is indeed slow, by this rate, I'm afraid we won't get to the prefectural city until tomorrow morning!"

Wang Gong, who walked behind him, said with a smile, "It's the family head's first time venturing far, so feeling it's slow is normal. Mainly it's because we have five carriages. If the family head were riding the Black Cloud Colt alone, he'd have already reached the prefectural city by now!"

At the mention of the Black Cloud Colt, many people behind turned their eyes towards the horse Hou Yuxiao was riding, revealing a touch of envy.

The Black Cloud Colt was acquired by the Hou clan from the county government after the Zhaoyang Disturbance, probably arranged by Ren Feng.

The Black Cloud Colt hails from Xuzhou and can cover a thousand miles in a day; it's indeed a rare fine breed. In Xuzhou, the price is not steep, just over three thousand taels, but in Yongzhou, its price doubles to over seven thousand taels.

"We're still not wealthy enough; when we have more money in the future, I'll provide each of you with a good breed horse so we can be faster."

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes shone with longing.

Though it was pie in the sky, it did reflect Hou Yuxiao's inner thoughts. The novelty of his first long journey had worn off, but he had come to understand the importance of horses.

Having seen and ridden nags, good breed horses, and top-grade horses, he realized that the differences between them were indeed quite significant—not only in speed but comfort and endurance too; no wonder there was such a vast difference in their prices.

This is just like the vehicles from his previous life!

"Family head, traveling at night is prone to attracting evil spirits; it's not suitable to hurry along. Let's make camp here and rest, then we can set off again at dawn," Wang Gong suggested, pulling Hou Yuxiao from his thoughts. Hou Yuxiao glanced at the dense forests on both sides of the official road and nodded his agreement. Wang Gong promptly signaled the people to pull the carriages to one side of the road, and once everything was in order, they lit bonfires, and small groups gathered, taking out their prepared dry food and drinks.

Although it was night, there were still around a hundred people in our group, and the campfires were ablaze. Added to the fact that everyone was a strong and healthy martial artist, naturally, nobody felt fear.

Hou Yuxiao gazed into the darkness of the dense forest, his curiosity far outweighing any sense of fear.

When he had come to this world, he had heard about many strange and secretive things beyond the official roads.

They ranged from mountain spirits and seductive foxes transforming into beautiful women to entice travelers into intimate relations before eating their hearts when they least expected, to lost souls and ghosts lurking in the forests, literally scaring people to death. More formidable were high-level demons, against whom even warriors in the Grandmaster Realm could not stand, ultimately meeting their demise.

Such stories were not only recorded in the annals of Zhaoyang County; many books mentioned them, and most of them were based on real people and real events.

This was the reason he had not left Zhaoyang City for two years; encountering the ordinary specters and evil spirits was one thing, but if he was unlucky enough to come across a true high-tier demon without the strength of the Gang Qi Realm, there wouldn't even be a chance to flee.

Now, of course, things were different. A person's courage grows with their strength. Once a martial artist reaches the Gathering Evil Phase, the Gang Sha Qi inside their body can cause harm to demons. That's why he dared to look at those dense forests with such curiosity.

Watching Wang Gong skillfully tending the campfire next to him, Hou Yuxiao's mind and spirit stirred slightly as he asked, "Mr. Wang, in your early years at the Fuwei Escort Agency in Wanyang County, you traveled extensively as a courier. You must have seen and known much. Head Escort Wang, during all those years on the road, have you ever encountered any evil spirits or ghosts?"

When Hou Yuxiao asked this, the others immediately turned their heads, their curiosity piqued. Interest in ghosts and evil spirits was not only something Hou Yuxiao cared about; these people were also intrigued.

Seeing everyone turn their heads, Wang Gong didn't want to throw cold water on their curiosity. After a moment of contemplation, he began to speak, "Since the Family Head is interested, I will share a story. More than ten years ago, while I was still with the Fuwei Escort Agency, I encountered an incident!"

All became interested immediately, crowding around, eagerly awaiting Wang Gong's tale.

"All escort agencies in the world distinguish between open and secret escort tasks. An open escort task is where the agency knows what they are transporting, while in a secret escort task, it's the opposite.

For open tasks, the fee is usually calculated first based on the distance, and then by the value of the goods being escorted; the escort agency takes a ten percent cut. Generally, these goods may not yield much profit, but the source is legitimate and the risk is lower, so agencies prefer open escort tasks.

Secret escort tasks, on the other hand, are the opposite; the client will not tell you what the goods are, only the destination, and sometimes even the destination is quite vague.

The nature of these goods is unpredictable. Some could be treasures worth a city's ransom, others could be items of great personal significance, and still others may already be targeted by some formidable entities. Once you take on such tasks, they can be quite troublesome!"

Wang Gong explained this to the crowd, who quickly understood that secret escort tasks were akin to handling hot potatoes, certainly offering high profit.

But they didn't interrupt, choosing instead to continue listening to Wang Gong.

"If I remember correctly, it was 15 years ago when the Fuwei Escort Agency accepted a secret escort task. It was a small box the size of a palm, to be transported from Wanyang County to Longxiang County to the east; the total journey was about three hundred miles.

At that time, I was just a courier and had no idea how much the client had paid the agency, but I knew the agency took the task very seriously. They assigned Chief Escort Lin Zhenbei to personally oversee its transportation, and I was unfortunately selected to join the task as well.

We were a group of more than fifty people. Apart from Chief Escort Lin Zhenbei, a high-level master in the Gangqi First Realm Consolidating Gangqi Phase, there were ten warriors of the Tenth Level of Body Opening, and the remainder were all above the level of five levels of body refinement."

At this point, Wang Gong paused, and next to him, Hou Yuxiao keenly noticed fear appear on his face, indicating his experiences during that escort task still haunted him.

"We set off from Wanyang County towards Longxiang County, and nothing happened on the way until one evening during the Xu hour. We were about thirty miles from Baiming County, resting on the official road, just like we are now. From the Xu hour to the Hour of Hai, everything was normal and uneventful.

But once the Hour of Hai ended, around the quarter of Zishi, something unexpected happened..."