Chapter 00099: Mistaking Bandits for Wealth Gods
# Mistaking Bandits for Wealth Gods
Chapter 99
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 99: Mistaking Bandits for Wealth Gods
Nestled among the mountains, the emerald lake lay still like a mirror.
The rain that had drizzled for two days finally ceased, and the village of Xianling was about to awaken from the morning mist.
Madam Zhu rose before dawn, while the man beside her still snored like thunder.
The surroundings were quiet as she carried a wooden bucket to fetch water from the lake.
Today, Xianling Lake was calm, with pink and white wildflowers shyly blooming among the grass by the shore.
A white mist hung between the water and sky, making the scene look like a fairyland.
Madam Zhu stood in a daze for a while until a series of bubbles surfaced nearby.
She then grabbed her bucket and hobbled back home.
If other village women had been there, they would likely have laughed at her for being too weak, as her bucket was only eight-tenths full.
As she passed the Xianling Shrine, she glanced inside and suddenly stopped.
The shrine was the most exquisite building in the village, with white walls and blue tiles, neatly constructed with bricks.
The tiles had been specially transported from outside, and after the rain, they gleamed brightly.
At all times, the shrine housed only two spirit tablets.
But now, she saw that one of them was broken, split into two pieces, with the upper half lying on the altar.
Perhaps it was the mischief of some child.
Madam Zhu didn’t go closer to inspect it and continued on her way with her bucket.
Back home, she quickly lit the stove to boil water, kneaded dough to make pancakes, and then went to the backyard to feed the chickens and pigs.
Soon after, her two children woke up.
The little ones were still young, one two years old and the other four.
Dressing them, putting on their shoes, and washing their faces all fell on her shoulders.
When the children started crying, her in-laws also woke up, rubbing their eyes and calling for her to hurry with breakfast.
She served salted fish, pickled vegetables, pancakes, and porridge to the table, then brought a basin of warm water to the inner room to wake her husband. “It’s dawn. Father said today we need to harvest the last batch of wheat,” she told him.
Her husband grumbled unhappily and took his time, dawdling for over fifteen minutes before finally getting up.
After sending off her husband and father-in-law, Madam Zhu finally caught her breath and sat down by the door.
Her mother-in-law came over and tossed her two pieces of clothing. “Don’t laze around. Mend these,” she said.
As the children played nearby, Madam Zhu was halfway through mending the second piece when the village suddenly erupted in noise.
She paid no attention, but soon after, four or five people barged into her home and dragged her away without explanation.
Her mother-in-law, terrified, chased after them and saw the villagers throw her daughter-in-law in front of the Xianling Shrine.
The village chief, his face grim, pointed at the broken spirit tablet inside and asked, “Was it you who did this?”
“Did what?” Madam Zhu asked, confused. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Was it you who broke it? The tablet was fine last night.”
“It has nothing to do with me,” Madam Zhu protested. “Maybe it was one of the village children.”
“Old Seven,” the chief called out, and a thin man stepped forward. “This morning, I only saw Madam Zhu passing by the shrine.”
Madam Zhu retorted coldly, “You were here too. Maybe it was you who broke it.”
Old Seven slapped her across the face.
The chief said, “When your husband returns, we’ll demand justice.” With that, two villagers locked her inside the shrine.
Her mother-in-law cursed her for causing trouble and soon left.
That evening, the farmers returned from the fields, accompanied by a merchant caravan.
The caravan consisted of about thirty to forty people with ten large carts.
Village children ran up to them, begging for candy, but the merchants shrugged, saying they had none.
The village chief greeted them, and the leader of the caravan handed over several large silver ingots. “We’d like to stay here tonight and set off early tomorrow,” the man said in a booming voice.
The man was tall and burly, his voice rough.
Madam Zhu, peering through the gaps in the shrine’s bricks, thought his silk clothes didn’t suit him at all.
The village chief, initially suspicious, felt reassured upon seeing the silver.
These people were wealthy—what could they possibly want from the village?
The caravan settled in, dispersing to various homes for the night.
With outsiders present, the chief decided it wasn’t the right time to deal with the shrine incident.
After all, family scandals shouldn’t be aired in public.
The caravan leader asked, “I thought the place where the founding emperor raised his army would be more prosperous.”
“Those who leave never return,” the chief sighed. “They’re all ungrateful!”
“This place is good, peaceful. And there are more people here than I expected.” Most villages had at most two hundred people, but Xianling Village had over three hundred, and the area was large.
The leader smiled. “On the way here, I saw the wheat fields had been harvested. You must have worked hard today. Is everyone back?”
“Yes, in a couple of days, we’ll start planting rice,” the chief replied, then paused.
How did these outsiders know they’d worked especially hard today? “How did you…”
The caravan leader suddenly whistled, one long note followed by two short ones.
In the quiet village, the whistle was especially piercing.
The chief sensed something was wrong and shouted, “Help!” But before he could finish, the caravan leader knocked him out.
Soon, screams and cries echoed throughout the village.
The village men grabbed whatever tools they could to resist, but suddenly, two hundred men emerged from the surrounding bushes, surrounding them.
When the bandits threatened to harm the elderly and children, the men dropped their farming tools.
In just fifteen minutes, the chaos ended.
The entire village, men and women, young and old, were herded unarmed to the open area in front of the shrine.
Around them stood two to three hundred bandits, armed and glaring fiercely.
The villagers of Xianling finally realized they had mistaken bandits for wealth gods and welcomed them into their village.
Just as the caravan leader was about to speak, a red-tailed falcon swooped down from the sky and landed on his shoulder, speaking in a human voice: “There are soldiers approaching from the southwest, about three to four hundred of them, fifteen miles away.”
The bandits were startled, but the villagers were overjoyed.
Were the soldiers coming to save them?
One bandit said, “General, it’s the pursuers!”
“If they were pursuers, why would they come from the southwest?” the leader frowned, asking the falcon, “Are you sure they’re soldiers?”
“They’re soldiers, but their uniforms are different from the ones we fought at Woling Pass. They have blue armor on their shoulders,” the falcon added. “Oh, and there are women in their ranks!”
The leader’s expression relaxed, and he even chuckled. “Pursuers wouldn’t bring women along.”
His subordinates were still worried. “They’re heading this way. What should we do?”
The leader sneered, “They have men, and so do we. What’s there to fear? We can’t let them ruin our plans. Send someone to the town to report.”
A trusted aide whispered something in his ear, and the leader nodded. “That’s a good idea.”
Then he ordered the villagers:
“Those without children under eleven, step forward.”
The villagers hesitated, afraid to move.
The leader smiled. “Those who don’t step forward will regret it.”
A large group of villagers stepped forward.
The leader ordered them to walk to the lakeside, then with a swift motion, he beheaded the nearest person.
“Kill them all!”
The villagers screamed, and some fought back.
But with women, children, and the elderly among them, how could they stand against the ferocious bandits? It was a one-sided massacre.
By the time the last cry for help faded, the lake was stained red with blood.
Over a hundred bodies lay scattered, lifeless.
(End of Chapter)