Chapter 75: Warehouse

Chapter 75: The Storehouse

"The two donkey carts and all the belongings on them have sunk to the bottom of the water. As for the travel expenses for the road, I must recover them from this water fortress."

Li Huowang watched the meat bubbling and boiling in the pot, his mind calculating the tasks that lay ahead.

No matter what had happened before, since it was already done, it should be let go; one must look forward.

The immediate priority now was to find what he wanted in this place and then lead the others out of here.

"And we must be quick; we cannot dawdle here. If there is anything more terrifying than a fortress full of corpses, it is a fortress full of rotting corpses. Even if the dead do not move, they still have other ways to kill."

Li Huowang opened his mouth wide, tearing off a piece of meat from the tip of his sword, and looked at the others who were devouring their food. "Are you full? Once you're full, get to work."

The others, wearing clothes dried by the fire, gnawed on the meat in their hands as they followed Li Huowang, sword in hand, out of the kitchen.

He did not rummage around the reed fortress like a headless fly, but headed straight for the Yuan family ancestral hall; this wretched place was too vast and chaotic, and he needed a local guide.

"Don't... don't kill me!"

The half-grown boy who had previously been so frightened he wet his pants was pinned against the wall once again by Li Huowang's sword, his gaunt face filled with sheer terror.

Too lazy to waste words with this fellow, Li Huowang asked him, "Where did your leaders hide all the silver they looted?"

"The storehouse! The ancestral grandfather's storehouse! All the looted silver is kept there!" The boy spilled everything he knew as rapidly as soybeans pouring from a bamboo basket.

The blood on Li Huowang, standing right before him, had not yet dried; merely smelling the metallic tang of blood on him made Yuan Dalang feel his trousers growing damp again. He dared not harbor any other wicked thoughts.

The sky had long since grown dark, and the group, holding glowing stones, followed the boy as they wound their way through the reed fortress.

Under the dark blue-green glow, the bloody surroundings resembled a ghostly realm, and the timid boy's body trembled involuntarily.

Suddenly, his body stiffened, and he turned to throw himself over a woman's corpse by the roadside, bursting into uncontrollable sobs.

Li Huowang stepped over, bending down to get a clear look at the remaining half of the woman's face.

The woman did not look much older, her phoenix eyes filled with fear and despair.

"Who was this person to you?" Li Huowang asked coldly.

"She was my wife!" the boy replied, his voice trembling. "I adored her so much! But she's dead! My father and mother are dead too!"

As if struck by the depth of his grief, the boy suddenly began to wail even louder.

Hearing the piercing cries, Li Huowang's expression suddenly turned ferocious, his right hand rising and falling in a swift motion.

"Rip~" "Ahh~!" One of the boy's ears, who had just been sobbing uncontrollably, was instantly sliced off.

"Lead the way! Did I tell you to stop?" A hint of brutality crept into Li Huowang's roar.

Feeling someone gently tugging at his sleeve from behind, an irritated Li Huowang shook it off with a sudden jerk.

"You feel sorry for him? You think he's a devoted lover? Why don't you ask where this wife came from?"

Seeing all eyes turn toward him, the boy said aggrievedly, "My dad kidnapped her, but the other men in the fortress kidnapped their wives too; even my grandmother and my mother were kidnapped."

Bai Lingmiao's mouth hung open, looking in disbelief at the corpses of the women around them.

Seeing the long sword, still dripping with his own blood, raised once more, the boy shuddered all over, hastily scrambling to his feet to continue leading the way.

Seeing that Bai Lingmiao was somewhat frightened, Xiao Man beside her walked over, placing her black-furred hand on her shoulder and pulling her close to her chest, comforting her, "The women in a bandit's den are all like this. Don't think too much about it."

"But why did they go looting with those men? They were kidnapped themselves!"

Bai Lingmiao felt utterly incredulous at this moment; she still remembered that there had been women among the looters back then.

"Actually, humans and dogs are exactly the same; they can all be trained."

Hearing this, Li Huowang turned his head to look at the other medicinal lures behind him, but did not see who had spoken those words.

"Sigh..."

Following the boy through countless twists and turns, they stopped in front of a house locked with a tiger-head lock.

Looking around, the reed huts had given way to wooden structures, indicating that this place must be of some importance within the fortress.

"Clang!" Accompanied by a shower of sparks, the tiger-head lock was cleaved in two.

Kicking the door open, Li Huowang pushed the boy in front of him as a shield and stormed inside.

This was clearly a storehouse; wooden cabinets were lined up in neat rows, all topped with large wooden chests.

When the boy opened one of the chests, the room instantly brightened considerably; it was filled to the brim with handfuls of loose silver.

Chest after chest was opened, and with each one, the others could not help but gasp in astonishment.

Besides the silver, there were even more gold and silver jewelry, seemingly looted from the women.

There were also many valuable goods, such as silk, iron ingots, and books; the entire room was filled with things the river bandits had plundered over the years.

"Good heavens, I've never seen so much money in my life! How many wives could this buy?" Staring at the gleaming white silver before him, Gouwa's voice began to tremble, his eyes brimming with sheer greed.

Li Huowang's attention, however, was not on the gold and silver, but on those few books.

Flipping through them casually, he found they were merely some elementary primers for children's education and a few Buddhist sutras.

"That old man previously used the method of summoning things from the water with virgin boys and girls; it doesn't seem like something he learned from certain books. Could this disgusting method also be passed down by word of mouth?"

Just as Li Huowang continued to search, he spotted a book at the very bottom and froze for a moment.

Holding the book in both hands, Li Huowang stared at the characters on the cover with a furrowed brow, pondering very hard about something.

"What... what characters are these?"

"Senior Brother Li, should we move everything in the chests out now? It seems we can't carry that much," Bai Lingmiao said as she walked over.

Li Huowang held up the sutra in his hand to show the white-haired girl before him.

"Look at the characters on this book. Do you recognize what these characters are?"

A hint of confusion appeared in Bai Lingmiao's eyes. "Senior Brother Li, I don't know how to read."

No sooner had the words left her mouth than a stuttering voice came from behind her, "Hua~~~ Hua~~~ Huayan Sutra!!"

Li Huowang looked up to see the fool standing there staring blankly. "Are you sure what's written here is the Huayan Sutra?"

"Mhm!"

Having received a definite answer, Li Huowang slowly slid his finger over the character for 'Yan', his eyes revealing deep bewilderment.

"Is this the character for 'Yan'? Why can't I even recognize the character for 'Yan' anymore?"