Chapter Thirty-Two: On the Road

"These business ventures without any real investment truly rake in the wealth..." In the headman's room of Willowwood Stronghold, Li Ju held a sandalwood prayer bead bracelet he had just found in the cabinet.

By his estimate, the valuables he had uncovered from just the surface of this bedroom alone were already worth a thousand taels of silver. To put that in perspective, in Yangyuan County, a hundred taels would suffice to purchase a residence within the inner city.

"Just this bracelet alone must be worth fifty taels. Even if I spent my whole life selling fish in Yangyuan, I’d never earn enough to buy this one piece," Li Ju sighed in awe.

"And these two martial arts manuals." After tossing the bracelet into a large sack, Li Ju picked up two hefty books from the wooden table.

The paper of both volumes was already yellowed and worn, clear evidence of frequent use. Their covers bore the titles "Heavy Mountain Saber Technique" and "Grassling Skill." He had discovered the manuals hidden within a secret compartment in the headman's room—a stroke of luck, really. He had merely knocked casually on the walls, only to hear a hollow echo that revealed the compartment's location. From within, he not only retrieved the two manuals, but also an invaluable gilded Buddha statue.

Li Ju flipped through the manuals with little interest before shaking his head. The sophistication of these techniques was comparable to some of the higher-level skills found in the Flying Sword Chronicles, but they were still far inferior to his own Ghost Bat Art, the secret method of the Demonic Sect, and even less impressive than the Waterflow Saber Technique he’d taken from Du Tianyou.

At least the Waterflow Saber Technique contained methods that could be cultivated to the inner style realm, whereas these two manuals offered only techniques for the external style.

"I’ll keep them as curiosities—perhaps they’ll come in handy someday." Casually, Li Ju tossed the manuals into the large sack.

Having thoroughly ransacked the headman’s bedroom, he proceeded to sweep through the rooms of the other leaders in Willowwood Stronghold. Anything he deemed valuable was thrown into the same sack, and once he’d finished, he slung the bag over his shoulder and made his escape.

"Not counting those two martial arts manuals, everything here should fetch two to three thousand taels of silver."

Li Ju hefted the sack, which was nearly as tall as he was, mentally calculating his spoils. The wealth accumulated by Willowwood Stronghold over the years through pillage far exceeded this mere two or three thousand taels. What he’d gathered was simply what lay out in the open.

As for the true valuables, their hiding places remained unsearched. He hadn’t bothered to look carefully, considering it a waste of time to hunt for treasure in Willowwood Stronghold. After all, for a martial artist of his caliber, money was easily obtained. He had come simply to rid the people of a menace and earn a little spending silver on the side.

Moreover, the group from Yangyuan County could return at any moment. He dared not stay away too long; if his little sister and his father were discovered in his absence, the consequences could be dire.

For now, the most important thing was to find a safe haven for his family. Besides, bandits were never in short supply—wipe out one batch, and another would soon rise. When he was short on funds again, he could always come back for another raid.

Why else do so many famed heroes spend their idle days hunting down bandits and taking work from the younger generation? More often than not, it’s simply that their purses have grown light, and they hope to borrow a little from their bandit friends to tide them over.

"Let’s go." With the sack in hand, Li Ju found two sturdy horses in Willowwood Stronghold and rode toward the forest.

Once he reached the tree hollow where he’d hidden Li Yan and Old Li the Carpenter, he brought them out. One horse carried his father and sister, the other bore the sack of loot from Willowwood Stronghold. Together, they left the woods and headed toward Shimen Commandery.

Rustling... Hidden in the dense foliage, pairs of eyes watched the three figures as they moved into the distance.

"Sir, the target has left," a voice reported from a secret spot in the forest, where a group of black-clad men were gathering.

"Can you determine the target’s destination?" asked their leader.

"Based on the direction of travel, there are three likely destinations: first, straight across the Great Wasteland to Shimen Commandery; second, heading south through the wasteland to Guyuan County; third, skirting Shimen to reach Caizhou Prefecture."

"Guyuan County is already within our sect’s reach, with another Leaf Chief stationed there. If he goes there, he walks into his own doom. But as for Shimen Commandery, there’s that old fellow, and our sect has yet to fully infiltrate the place."

"As for Caizhou, it’s too far from Yangyuan, fraught with danger, and he’s burdened with two dependents. That’s certainly not his destination."

"For now, don’t alert the people within Guyuan County. Keep close watch on his movements. If he heads to Guyuan, coordinate with our forces there to wipe him out. If he aims for Shimen, ambush him in the wasteland!"

"Understood!"

...

A fierce wind swept the dust and sand of the wasteland, lashing harshly against the travelers’ faces.

Li Ju and his companions pressed onward against the blowing sand, making for Shimen Commandery.

"The Great Wasteland is vast. At our pace, it’ll take at least two days to cross," Li Ju said as he led the way, guiding the horse and addressing Li Yan and Old Li the Carpenter. "During this time, aside from being wary of large bandit gangs, there’s little else to fear."

"Be careful, son," Old Li the Carpenter cautioned anxiously. "Back in my day, the merchant caravans I traveled with would always hire plenty of martial escorts, but even those heavily guarded teams couldn’t always fend off the bandits. No matter how renowned the fighters, they fell easily to those marauders."

"Alright, alright," Li Ju replied with a helpless chuckle.

Although Old Li the Carpenter had journeyed with merchant caravans in his youth, he was not a martial artist and didn’t understand the gradations of martial strength. He had no idea that the so-called 'renowned' fighters hired by those caravans were, in truth, nothing but aging veterans who hadn’t even reached the external style.

Nor did he know that his own gentle, harmless-looking son, standing before him now, had become the executioner who wiped out an entire bandit stronghold.