Chapter 75: Storage Room

Both donkey carts and all our belongings sank into the water. I have to recover the travel money from this water village.

Li Huowang watched the meat bubbling in the pot, his mind calculating his next moves. No matter what had happened before, now that it was done, he had to let it go and look forward. The immediate priority was to find what they needed in this place, then lead the others away. "And we need to be quick. We can't linger here. If there's anything more terrifying than a village full of corpses, it's a village full of rotting corpses. Even if the dead don't move, they still have other ways to kill." Li Huowang tore a piece of meat from the tip of his sword with a wide mouth and looked at the others, who were wolfing down their food. "Are you full? Get to work when you're done."

The others, dressed in clothes dried by the fire, gnawed on the meat in their hands as they followed Li Huowang, who carried his sword, out of the kitchen. Instead of searching aimlessly like a headless fly through the reed village, he walked directly towards the Yuan family ancestral hall. This dilapidated place was too large and too chaotic; he needed a local guide.

"No... don't kill me!" The half-grown youth, who had wet his pants earlier from fright, was once again cornered by Li Huowang's sword, his gaunt face filled with terror. Li Huowang wasted no words with him and asked, "Where did your leader hide all the silver they plundered?" "The storeroom! Great-grandfather's storeroom! All the stolen silver was kept there!" The youth quickly spilled everything he knew, like beans pouring from a bamboo basket. Li Huowang's blood hadn't even dried on him, and just smelling the blood, Yuan Dalang felt his pants slightly damp. He didn't dare entertain any other thoughts.

The sky had long since darkened. The group, holding glowing stones, followed the youth through the reed village. Under the dark blue-green glow, the bloody surroundings resembled a ghostly realm, and the timid youth's body trembled uncontrollably. Suddenly, his body stiffened. He turned and threw himself onto a woman's corpse by the roadside, weeping uncontrollably. Li Huowang approached and leaned down, clearly seeing the remaining half of the woman's face. The woman didn't seem old; her phoenix eyes were filled with fear and despair. "Who is this person to you?" Li Huowang asked coldly. "She's my wife!" the youth replied, his voice trembling. "I cherished her so much! But she's dead! My father and mother are dead too!" As if recalling his sorrow, the youth immediately cried louder.

Hearing the shrill cries, Li Huowang's expression suddenly turned fierce. He raised his right hand and brought it down. "Splat~" "Ah!" In an instant, one of the youth's ears was severed. "Lead the way!! Did I tell you to stop?" Li Huowang's roar carried a hint of tyranny. Feeling someone gently tugging at his sleeve from behind, a frustrated Li Huowang violently shook them off. "You pity him? You think he's a devoted lover? Why don't you ask where this wife came from?" Seeing all eyes on him, the youth said aggrievedly, "My father kidnapped her, but the wives of everyone else in the village were kidnapped too. Even my grandmother and mother were kidnapped." Bai Lingmiao's mouth hung open as she looked incredulously at the corpses of the women around them. Seeing the long sword, still stained with his blood, raised again, the youth immediately shivered and scrambled to his feet to continue leading the way. Seeing that Bai Lingmiao was somewhat startled, Xiaoman, standing nearby, went to her side. With her black-furred hand, she held Bai Lingmiao's shoulder, pulling her closer and comforting her, saying, "Women in bandit lairs are all like this. Don't think too much about it." "But why did they go with those men to capture people? They were captured themselves!" Bai Lingmiao found it hard to believe. She remembered that there had been women among the original raiders. "Actually, people are just like dogs; they can all be trained." Hearing this, Li Huowang turned to look at the other 'medicine ingredients' behind him but couldn't see who had spoken. "Sigh..."

Following the youth through a series of twists and turns, they stopped in front of a house secured with a tiger-head lock. Seeing that the surrounding structures were no longer reed huts but wooden houses, this place was clearly a more important area within the village. "Clang!" With sparks flying, the tiger-head lock was split in half. Kicking the door open, Li Huowang pushed the youth in front of him and stormed inside. This was clearly a storeroom, with rows of large wooden chests neatly aligned on wooden shelves. When the youth opened one box, the room instantly became much brighter. This box was filled with handfuls of broken silver. Box after box was opened, and with each one, the others couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. Besides the silver, there was even more gold and silver jewelry, seemingly plundered from women. There were also many other valuable goods, such as silk, iron ingots, and books. The entire room was filled with items the water bandits had plundered over the years. "Oh my heavens, I've never seen so much money in my life! How many wives could this buy?" Looking at the shimmering silver before him, Gouwa's voice began to tremble, and his eyes were full of greed. Li Huowang's attention, however, wasn't on the gold and silver but on a few books. He casually flipped through them, finding only some elementary primers for education and a few Buddhist scriptures. "The old man's method of using young boys and girls to summon things from the water doesn't seem like something learned from books. Could this disgusting method also be passed down orally?" As Li Huowang continued to search, he saw a book at the very bottom and froze. Li Huowang held the book in both hands, his brows furrowed as he stared at the characters on the cover, clearly deep in thought. "What... what characters are these?" "Senior Brother Li, should we move everything out of the boxes now? It looks like we can't carry that much." Bai Lingmiao said, walking over. Li Huowang showed the scripture in his hand to the white-haired girl in front of him. "Look at the characters on this book. Do you recognize them?" A hint of confusion appeared in Bai Lingmiao's eyes. "Senior Brother Li, I can't read." The moment she finished speaking, a stuttering voice came from behind her. "H-H-Huayan Sutra!!" Li Huowang looked up and saw the Fool standing there, staring blankly. "Are you sure this says 'Huayan Sutra'?" "Yes!" Having received a definitive answer, Li Huowang slowly slid his finger over the character 'yan', a deep confusion in his eyes. "Is this 'yan'? Why can't I even recognize the character 'yan' anymore?"