The mountain path was steep, the gravel slippery.
Yun Shu and the little fox followed behind while remaining invisible, keeping a distance of about twenty paces from the group of captives ahead. The bandits' curses drifted over on the wind from time to time.
“Hurry up!”
A bandit raised the whip in his hand and lashed it heavily across the back of a thin, weak man, snarling, “Keep dragging your feet and see if I don't whip you to death!”
“Ahhh—”
The whipped man cried out in pain, stumbled, and fell directly to his knees, covered in mud.
“What are you doing?”
Wei Laosan walked over.
He looked down at the thin, weak man on the ground who had been whipped, and then at the bandit who had struck him. There was no longer any of the friendliness he had shown back in Yanping City.
“Did I not tell you not to hit them? We traded grain for these people. Once we reach Black Wind Stronghold, we still need them to farm. If you beat them half to death, I'll skin you alive and hang you in the fields to feed the crows.”
Hearing this, not only did the people of Yanping who had been tricked into coming up the mountain tremble with fear, but even the bandits shuddered. It was clear they knew Wei Laosan wasn't just making idle threats; he was truly capable of skinning a man alive and hanging him in the fields.
“Third Brother, please, let me go back down the mountain,” someone begged, collapsing to their knees in front of Wei Laosan and kowtowing repeatedly.
“Down the mountain? Hahaha!” Wei Laosan laughed loudly. “Now that you've set foot on Cang Mountain, unless you're too old to work, you'll spend the rest of your lives up here!”
Now, these people were lambs to the slaughter. Naturally, he had no need to play the benevolent soul for them.
The thin, weak man who had just been whipped scrambled up from the ground and asked, stammering, “Th-Third Brother... if I really can't work... does that mean I don't have to work?”
In the next instant,
a cold, gleaming blade was pressed against his neck. Wei Laosan's icy voice rang in his ear, “Only dead men don't have to work in Black Wind Stronghold. Do you want to be a dead man?”
“Third Brother... Third Brother, spare me! I... I was wrong!”
The thin, weak man collapsed back onto the ground in terror, shaking like a leaf.
Wei Laosan sneered. “Trying to play smart with me? I see you don't know how to spell the word 'death'.”
The thin, weak man's face was filled with terror. “Third Brother, I really know I was wrong! Please, spare me!”
Wei Laosan grew impatient.
“This guy is too noisy. Cut out his tongue. It's not like he needs a tongue to farm up on the mountain anyway.”
Seeing this, the disguised Qiao Yue, who was in the back, instinctively reached for the dagger hidden in her sleeve pocket. She wanted to cut the hemp rope binding her hands and rush forward to save him.
“Don't act rashly,” Shen Yu whispered, holding back the restive Qiao Yue. He had disguised himself as well. “Once we are exposed, it will be very difficult to find the exact location of Black Wind Stronghold. The terrain of Cang Mountain is highly complex; if we rashly lead troops here for a raid, we'll likely return in defeat, and the loss would outweigh any gain.”
“Furthermore, according to what you said earlier, Black Wind Stronghold hasn't committed highway robbery or raided homes in recent years. They merely trick people into coming up the mountain to farm, then periodically send people down to transport goods to the south, and their grain also comes from the south. Judging by the scale of their porridge distribution in Yanping City, the grain they get from the south must be no small amount.”
“There is bound to be something fishy going on here. We must first infiltrate Black Wind Stronghold and see exactly what they are farming.”
Qiao Yue knew Shen Yu's words made perfect sense.
But seeing Wei Laosan's men pinning down the thin, weak man and forcing his tongue out, she still felt a pang of pity.
“Mr. Shen, must we just stand by and watch Wei Laosan harm these innocent people?”
Shen Yu did not speak. He merely observed their surroundings, noticing signs of wild beasts passing through the tall grass.
He quietly shielded Qiao Yue behind him and called out to Wei Laosan, “Wait.”
“Third Chief Wei, could you hear me out?”
Wei Laosan turned around, staring at him with dark, sinister eyes.
“What, do you want your tongue cut out too?” he asked in a chilling, ghostly tone.
Shen Yu pretended to be frightened, shrinking his shoulders.
“Third Chief Wei, this lowly one merely noticed signs of wild beasts nearby. If you cut out his tongue, the scent of blood might draw the beasts of the mountain...”
The more he spoke, the more panicked he seemed. “This lowly one would rather go up the mountain to farm with you than end up in the belly of a beast!”
“You've got a quick brain on you.”
Wei Laosan sized Shen Yu up. “Why do you look so unfamiliar? You don't seem like someone from Yanping City.”
A lackey nearby leaned in. “Third Chief, I sort of remember this guy. He seems to be a refugee from the south. I tricked him into coming up the mountain with just a single wowotou.”
Wei Laosan slapped the lackey across the face. “You absolute fool! Who told you to bring unfamiliar faces up the mountain?”
“Th-Third Chief...” The lackey clutched his burning cheek and wailed, “The Chief told us to bring back thirty people this time. We were still short of two, so in my haste, I tricked this scholar and his sister into coming up...”
Slap!
Wei Laosan gave the lackey another slap. Only then did he look at Shen Yu, walking toward him with his blade raised. “The Second Chief said that the treasures on our mountain must not be discovered by outsiders.”
“These two cannot be kept alive!”
Just as he raised his blade, several tiger roars suddenly echoed through the mountain forest, vibrating with deafening intensity.
The lackey caught a glimpse of a pair of tiger eyes glinting in the tall grass. He collapsed onto his rear, crying out in terror.
“Third Chief, this is bad! A tiger!”
Wei Laosan snarled, “What are you standing around for? Tie them up quickly and let's get out of here!”
Watching the crowd flee in panic, Yun Shu put away the Dream-Entering Bell in her hand, and the tigers vanished along with it.
Shen Yu stumbled up the mountain, blending in with the chaotic crowd. Suddenly, he glanced back.
The clearing at the foot of the mountain was completely empty.
Perhaps it was just his imagination.
The north had only recently been stabilized, and the Divine Lady was most likely in Zhenbei Prefecture, educating the masses. Why would she appear in Yanping City?
The little fox remarked, “With Shen Yu's keen perception, he's a born general. It's a pity he has no talent for martial arts.”
“No one is perfect. You win some, you lose some,” Yun Shu said, unhurriedly following Wei Laosan and his group.
The little fox's eyes darted around as it flattered her, “I think you're absolutely perfect, Host!”
Yun Shu glanced sideways at it.
“You just want to eat braised pork knuckles, don't you?”
The little fox chuckled sheepishly.
The mountain path wound on, and after about an hour of walking, the gates of Black Wind Stronghold finally emerged from the dense forest.
Two rows of wooden posts stood tall in front of the gates, from which over a dozen human heads hung in the wind. Their hair was tangled, their faces ashen and gray, and some had their eye sockets pecked clean by crows, with flies buzzing incessantly around them.
“D-Dead... there are dead people...” The people of Yanping who had been tricked into coming up the mountain turned pale as they stared at the row of heads.
Qiao Yue's feet seemed nailed to the spot.
She stared at the second head from the left.
The outline was thin, with an old scar on the cheekbone. It was from when she had climbed a tree as a child and fallen; her brother had reached out to catch her, and they had tumbled to the ground together, a stone scratching her brother's face.
She had received a beating that day.
Their mother had said that her brother studied day and night just to take the imperial examinations in the capital. Now that his face was scarred because of her, the examiners would surely look down on him, and he might never pass in his lifetime.
She had felt guilty about this for a very long time.
Fortunately, the Divine Lady had come to Yecheng.
After that, Yecheng changed.
Becoming an official no longer depended on one's background, gender, or appearance, but solely on talent. Both she and her brother had been given the chance to display their abilities, yet her brother was now dead.
From now on, there would be no one left to care if she ate well or slept soundly, and no one left to protect her...
Rate on N.U.
