The Red Flower Ridge was hard to scale, in the end, Chu Yang had to let the tiger demon beast return back to the Veposs flowers to wait for them after only climbing up a short distance.
The way up the Red Flower Ridge, was only made more difficult with the fact that there was no set path or any other sort of walkway in the first place.
"Do you perhaps have any idea where the bandit group might be hiding...?"
Understanding that they would use a lot of time searching around the Red Flower Ridge without any clues to work off, Chu Yan turned to look back at Huang Yongyu climbing up behind him. Hoping that he would at least have some sort of idea about the general location of the bandit group.
"Ah… I thought you guys would know where they were located, I only know they should be somewhere at the Red Flower Ridge…"
"…"
Both Chu Yang and Qing Yi could not help but feel a bit awkward upon hearing what Huang Yongyu said.
Maybe they should have asked around the villages that had been raided by the bandits over the past few months before rushing over to the Red Flower Ridge without any clue about where they might be hiding…
"Looks like we will just have to search for them…"
Feeling that their first mission suddenly became much more difficult, Qing Yi could not help but sigh to herself in her mind as she said this.
Chu Yang and Huang Yongyu was of the same opinion as all three of them slowly began the process of searching for any clues about the whereabouts of the bandits on the Red Flower Ridge.
Not that it would be easy. After all, the Red Flower Ridge was compromised of several large mountains and searching just one of them would take at least a day or two for the group of three…
…
Crash!
"How come those disciples from the Flying Sword Sect have not found us yet?! They already arrived over a week ago and we even left so many clues about where our base is located when we raided those villages located just beside the Red Flower Ridge! Did they perhaps find out about our plan…?"
Inside a large mountain cave, a young man in his late twenties angrily threw a cup towards the cave wall as he exclaimed loudly, causing the surrounding bandits to shiver in fear.
"It looks like we will have to contact the elders about this and have them change the plan… From the looks of it, we won't be able to go with the original plan and we will have to find a way to quickly get those two disciples to leave… Hah…"
Calming down as he muttered this to himself, the young man soon turned towards the shivering group of bandits that had gathered around him and let out an exhausted sigh.
Things had suddenly gotten more complicated… Why did the two disciples from the Flying Sword Sect not act like they had planned!?
The young man had no idea what to do about it and could only act in response to the weird behaviour of the Flying Sword Sect's disciple and try to adapt to the situation.
"Prepare to move out, we are going to leave for now and find out how to get things back on track again!"
Thinking over his options, the young man decided to leave the mountain cave for now and return to the elders and come up with a new plan.
Staying around could potentially be dangerous if the disciples from the Flying Sword Sect had already sensed that something was wrong about their mission.
"Looks like we won't be able to capture those two…"
Glancing towards the exit of the mountain cave as he watched the bandits pack up and prepare to leave, the young man soon headed deeper into the cave to get his own things before leaving to meet up with his elders and set up a new plan.
…
At the same time, on top of the Red Flower Ridge. Not far away from the place of the bandits and the young man, Qing Yi, Chu Yang and Huang Yongyu were sitting around eating the last of the food that they had brought with them up the Red Flower Ridge.
"Look! I think the bandits are over there!"
Chu Yang was the first to spot a group of people in rugged clothes with slightly tanned bodies and large muscles visible from a few holes in their clothes walking out from a large rocky area with several dozen mountain caves dotted around.
"Indeed… It looks like it's the bandits…"
"Why have they suddenly come out? Are they perhaps preparing to raid another village?"
Qing Yi and Huang Yongyu, who both had their backs to the location that the bandit group appeared, reacted immediately upon hearing what Chu Yang said and turned around to look at the place behind them.
Closely inspecting the group of bandits moving out from the largest of the mountain caves, Chu Yang soon spotted the large number of crates and other precious materials that they were carrying out with them before descending down the Red Flower Ridge.
"From the looks of it, they are not going out to raid, but are moving!"
This conclusion left all three of them slightly panicked as they knew that they would have to act fast before the bandit group disappeared and relocated somewhere different.
At that point, they would have to waste even more time looking after them!
They had already spent close to a week searching through the Red Flower Ridge looking for them! They did not want to spend another week looking for their new hideout!
"Should we just attack them now…? They are unprepared and won't expect to be attacked at this moment. Most of them are not even carrying weapons and are instead carrying crates down the Red Flower Ridge…"
As both Qing Yi and Chu Yang were thinking about what to do about the bandits, Huang Yongyu came forth and suggested.
"Indeed… We should just attack them, like this we won't have to worry about finding them later! What do you say Qing Yi?"
Nodding his head in approval, Chu Yang turned over towards Qing Yi and waited for her opinion.
"Yeah… Better just deal with them faster rather than later, this way they won't be able to cause any more harm to the villages below!"
"Great, then let's finish up eating before attacking them!"
With all three of them approving to attack the bandits, Chu Yang took the lead and ate the last remaining part of his meal before taking out his spear. Ready for battle!