Chapter 75
Chapter 75
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 75
>Chapter Title: Warehouse
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Both donkey carts and all our belongings sank into the water. We have to scrounge up traveling funds from this water stronghold.”
Li Huowang stared into the pot at the bubbling meat, mentally tallying up what needed to be done next.
Whatever had happened before was in the past. Now they needed to look ahead.
The top priority was to find what they needed in this place and get everyone out.
“And we need to move fast. We can’t linger here. If there’s anything scarier than a village full of corpses, it’s a village full of rotting corpses. Even the dead can kill in other ways if they don’t move.”
Li Huowang opened his mouth wide and tore a chunk of meat off the sword tip, then looked toward the others wolfing down their food. “Full yet? If you’re full, time to work.”
The others, now dressed in clothes dried by the fire, gnawed on their meat as they followed Li Huowang—who held his sword—out of the kitchen.
He didn’t wander the reed village like a headless fly. Instead, he headed straight for the Yuan family ancestral hall. The place was too big and chaotic; he needed a local guide.
“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
The half-grown boy who’d pissed himself in fear earlier was once more pinned in the corner by Li Huowang’s sword, terror etched on his gaunt face.
Li Huowang had no patience for chit-chat. “Where does your boss stash the stolen silver?”
“The warehouse! Ancestor Grandpa’s warehouse! All the stolen silver’s kept there!” The boy spilled everything he knew, like beans from a tipped basket.
The blood on Li Huowang’s body hadn’t even dried yet. Just the metallic stench made Yuan Dalang feel his pants grow damp again. He didn’t dare entertain any other thoughts.
By now, night had fallen. The group held glowing stones as they followed the boy, weaving through the reed village.
Under the dark blue-green glow, the blood-soaked surroundings resembled a ghostly hellscape. The timid boy’s body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Suddenly, his body went rigid. He turned, threw himself onto a woman’s corpse by the roadside, and burst into heartbroken sobs.
Li Huowang approached and leaned down to examine the woman’s remaining half-face.
She didn’t look old. Her almond-shaped eyes were filled with fear and despair.
“Who is she to you?” Li Huowang asked coldly.
“She’s my wife!” The boy’s voice quivered as he replied. “I cherished her so much! But she’s dead! My dad and mom are dead too!”
As if struck by the grief of it all, the boy wailed even louder.
Hearing the piercing cry, Li Huowang’s face twisted viciously. His right hand rose and fell.
“Rip~” “Ah~!” The boy’s ear was sliced clean off in an instant.
“Lead the way!! Did I tell you to stop?” Li Huowang’s roar carried a hint of brutality.
Feeling someone lightly tug at his sleeve from behind, the irritated Li Huowang flung them off.
“You pity him? Think he’s some lovesick romantic? Why don’t you ask where this wife came from?”
Seeing all eyes turn to him, the boy whined pitifully, “My dad stole her, but everyone else in the village stole their wives too. Even my grandma and mom were stolen.”
Bai Lingmiao’s mouth fell open in disbelief as she stared at the women’s corpses around them.
Seeing the bloodied sword lifted again, the boy shuddered violently and scrambled to his feet to keep leading the way.
Seeing Bai Lingmiao shaken, Xiaoman sidled up beside her. With his hand covered in black fur, he steadied her shoulder and pulled her close, murmuring comfortingly, “That’s just how women are in a thieves’ den. Don’t overthink it.”
“But why did they go rob other people along with the men? They were stolen too!”
Bai Lingmiao couldn’t wrap her head around it. She still remembered the women among the raiders back then.
“Truth is, people are just like dogs. They can all be trained.”
Hearing this, Li Huowang turned to look at the other decoys behind him, but he couldn’t tell who had said it.
“Sigh...”
After a series of twists and turns following the boy, they stopped before a building secured with a tiger-head lock.
The surrounding structures here were wooden instead of reed huts, marking this as one of the more important spots in the village.
“Clang!” Sparks flew as the tiger-head lock was cleaved in two.
With a kick, Li Huowang shoved the door open and pressed the boy in front of him as he charged inside.
It was clearly a warehouse. Wooden cabinets stood in neat rows, topped with large wooden crates.
When the boy opened one crate, the room brightened noticeably. It was filled to the brim with handfuls of silver fragments.
One by one, the crates were opened, drawing gasps of astonishment from the others each time.
Besides the silver, there were piles of gold and silver jewelry, clearly looted from women.
There were also other valuables: bolts of silk, iron ingots, books. The entire room was stuffed with the water bandits’ spoils from years of raiding.
“My god, I’ve never seen so much money in my life! How many wives could this buy?” Gouwa’s voice trembled as he gazed at the glittering silver, his eyes brimming with greed.
Li Huowang’s attention, however, was fixed not on the gold and silver, but on those few books.
He flipped through them casually and found only some primers for beginners and a handful of Buddhist scriptures.
“That old man knew how to summon things from the water with boys and girls. It doesn’t seem like something he learned from a book. Is this vile method passed down by word of mouth?”
As Li Huowang kept rummaging, he spotted a book at the very bottom and froze.
He cradled the book in both hands, brows furrowed tightly as he stared at the characters on the cover, racking his brain.
“What characters are these?”
“Senior Brother Li, should we start moving the stuff out of the crates now? We can’t carry it all,” Bai Lingmiao said as she walked over.
Li Huowang held up the scripture for the white-haired girl to see.
“Look at the words on this book. Do you recognize them?”
A trace of confusion flickered in Bai Lingmiao’s eyes. “Senior Brother Li, I can’t read.”
No sooner had she spoken than a stuttering voice came from behind her.
“Hua~~~ Hua~~~ Huayan Sutra!!”
Li Huowang looked up to see the Fool standing there rigidly. “You’re sure that’s what it says?”
“Mm!”
With the confirmation, Li Huowang’s finger slowly traced over the character for “Yan,” deep bewilderment in his eyes.
“Is this the character for ‘Yan’? Why can’t I even recognize that anymore?”