Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Xie Licheng: "Let the people who came in earlier take a look—do any of them see their own children among these kids?"

Villager: "They've claimed them. A few children found their families, but many still haven't, and they're crying and making a fuss, demanding to find their families."

Xie Licheng couldn't help but get a headache at that. He liked kids, but he didn't like ones who cried and threw tantrums.

Holding the child in his arms, he walked over toward the crowd.

Meanwhile, a village woman tried to take the child out of Xie Licheng's arms.

She thought Xie Licheng had been busy all night and must be exhausted by now, so she wanted to hold the boy for him.

But the child was scared of her—not just her, though. He seemed scared of everyone.

Right now, Xie Licheng was the only one he felt safe with.

Seeing that the kid wouldn't let anyone else hold him, Xie Licheng had no choice but to keep carrying him, without a word of complaint.

When he reached the crowd, a woman who seemed a bit unhinged ran over and asked, "Have you seen my son? My son is about this tall, with a round face—real good-looking."

Xie Licheng instinctively glanced down at the kid in his arms and asked, "Is it this one?"

The kid and the woman locked eyes for a moment, and Xie Licheng could tell from their faces that it wasn't her kid.

If it were her own kid, she'd have recognized him from way off.

And a kid hearing his own mother's voice wouldn't be looking so cold and distant like that.

The woman shook her head. "No, he's about the same age, though."

This woman was none other than Cui Niang, Chen Yaosan's childhood sweetheart.

When Xie Licheng brought the kids in, she and Chen Yaosan had already run into the crowd to look. They hadn't found who they were looking for among those kids, which was why she'd suddenly gone hysterical.

Xie Licheng reached out and handed the kid to her, and Cui Niang instinctively took him in her arms.

She was still weak right now, and she really wasn't in any shape to be holding a child.

But because she was used to being a mom—her own son was about this same size—

so when she saw Xie Licheng offering the kid to her, she almost instinctively took him, being extra careful.

Maybe because the little boy's own mother was a bit like Cui Niang, the little boy didn't put up any fight.

He stayed quiet and well-behaved in Cui Niang's arms, his big eyes staring at her, as if trying to find some trace of his own mother in her.

Where was his mom? He wanted to find her too.

Xie Licheng told Cui Niang, "I'll head back out and look around—just in case there are any left outside."

He needed to look for kids, but also for that gold and jewelry the guide had talked about.

And those banknotes in his hand—he wondered if they were even still worth anything.

Chen Yaosan hurried over when he heard that. "Boss, how about I go with you? An extra pair of hands would come in handy."

Xie Licheng shot him a look and turned him down. "There are too many people here. The village head can't handle it alone—I need you here to keep them in line."

With that, Xie Licheng looked around the area, then pointed at the Liu family's young man, and then at another half-grown kid.

"You two come with me. We're going out to look for people together."

Chen Yaosan didn't take it personally that Xie Licheng didn't bring him along. Xie Licheng was just worried that with so many people coming in, things would fall apart in the village without someone capable around.

Before leaving, Xie Licheng added one more instruction to Chen Yaosan.

"Go to the foot of the mountain. I dumped that Master Cao Ba over there—don't let the wild animals get to him too easily."

With so many victims here, they ought to get a chance to let off some steam. There was no reason he should be the only one doing the bullying, with nobody allowed to get back at him.

With that, Xie Licheng left with the two half-grown kids.

He knew both of these boys well—he trusted their character and their integrity.

The one with the surname Liu was Liu Xiaoyuan, and the other was Han Xihe, the kid Xie Licheng had saved outside Lengzhou City back then.

He needed people now, and he couldn't keep picking up random folks from outside—he couldn't use them right away anyway. But he could start training these two from now on. By the time these two were trained up, they'd be grown by then.

The two young men were pretty nervous as they walked out together. Xie Licheng picked up a weapon from the ground for each of them.

He said, "Stay together and be careful. If you run into anyone, yell as loud as you can, and I'll come help you as fast as I can. Things are complicated here—don't trust anyone in this place."

The two nodded, then headed off in one direction.

The place they were in now was a large four-courtyard estate. There were countless courtyards of various sizes, not to mention all the buildings within them.

After splitting from Xie Licheng, the two entered the nearest courtyard and began searching room by room.

Han Xihe asked, "If we spot anything valuable, should we grab it for the boss?"

The title "boss" was something they'd picked up from Chen Yaosan.

They could tell that Xie Licheng was planning to train them.

In times of chaos like this, only real skill kept you safe. Even if they were timid, they wanted to follow Xie Licheng and make something of themselves.

Liu Xiaoyuan blinked. "Let's focus on finding the kids first. After we've searched the whole place, we can worry about looting then."

By that point, they'd know where the good stuff was, and hauling it out would go quickly.

Han Xihe nodded. So one of them went inside to search for people while the other hung back at a distance, watching for anyone trying to sneak up on them from behind.

The first courtyard had no people—only a pitch-black cat. Neither of them was particularly brave, and the sudden sight of the black cat startled them badly.

Luckily, they didn't scream, or Xie Licheng would definitely have laughed at them.

When they reached the neighboring courtyard, they heard a woman's voice before even entering.

Han Xihe rushed over at the sound and saw a woman in her thirties dragging a teenage girl, seemingly trying to stop her from running out.

The girl shouted, "Let me go! Please, just let me go! That Master Cao Ba is gone—everyone here has fled! Why are you still holding on to me?!"

The woman cursed back, "You little wretch, stop your nonsense! A man like Master Eight wouldn't come to harm. When he gets back and finds out I let you escape, he'll use me as a blade test."

"He's really gone—he's dead! Didn't you hear what those people said? That man with the knife killed Master Eight and killed plenty of others too!"

The woman grabbed her tightly and cursed angrily, "Talking nonsense, are you? You slut, you tramp, you little whore! Get back here, get back here, or I'll beat you senseless!"

Han Xihe couldn't stand to watch anymore and rushed toward them.

Just then, the two struggling women noticed someone had entered the courtyard.

Seeing Han Xihe and his companion, the woman immediately snapped, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Liu Xiaoyuan ignored her entirely and brandished the blade in his hand toward the woman.

He said, "Let her go, or I'll kill you!"

Seeing the bloody knife in his hand and remembering the carnage outside the warehouse, the woman quickly let go of the girl and ran off.

Han Xihe watched her run and asked, "Should we go after her and kill her?"

What if she runs off to get help? Wouldn't that put us in danger?

The boss still had people to find—would this hold him up?

Liu Xiaoyuan agreed she should die, but... he really didn't have it in him to kill someone.

Liu Xiaoyuan said quietly, "Forget it. She's... she's just a woman. Let's just take this one to the boss first."

As he spoke, he looked at the girl.

The girl seemed to remember something at his words and quickly said, "There's... there's someone else in here too."

The person locked up with the girl was a young man with unnaturally pale skin.

Not only was his skin pale, his hair was white too, making him look pretty creepy.

Liu Xiaoyuan had never seen anyone like him, and it gave him the creeps.

Liu Xiaoyuan said, "This... this guy—should we bring him along too?"

The girl replied, "Bring him, please. He's a good person, he just looks a little strange. Please, please take him with you."

In the end, worn down by the girl's pleading, Liu Xiaoyuan and Han Xihe brought the strange man along too.

They went back to the courtyard where they'd split up with Xie Licheng, but he wasn't there anymore.

Xie Licheng had gone off to search other courtyards. Liu Xiaoyuan had first thought about having Han Xihe stay and guard the captives while he kept searching the other courtyards for more prisoners.

But then he thought about how dangerous this place was. His parents and sister were all found now.

If something happened to him now, it wouldn't just break his family's hearts—it would cause trouble for the boss too.

After thinking it over, Liu Xiaoyuan decided to hand the two over to the boss first, then continue searching with Han Xihe.

They headed in the direction Xie Licheng had gone, planning to bring the rescued people to him.

Their luck wasn't great—they ran into two men the moment they stepped out.

Both were full-grown men, towering over the two teenage boys.

Han Xihe was a coward, and instinctively yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Boss! People are here, boss!!"

Han Xihe's voice was loud, with that piercing quality only a kid's voice has.

His shouts quickly brought Xie Licheng running, along with several others.

On his way over, Xie Licheng threw two daggers, killing the two men who were also closing in on Liu Xiaoyuan.

They were also Master Cao Ba's men. Master Cao Ba had held his ground in Wencheng and even made the county magistrate afraid of him, which showed he wasn't just capable—he had connections all over town.

A middle-aged man with a scarred face, impressed by Xie Licheng's slick moves, called out from a distance, "Young man, that's some impressive skill. Might I ask what school or sect you're from?"

Xie Licheng: "And who the hell are you?"

The middle-aged man was wary of him, so he had no choice but to introduce himself first.

"We go way back with Master Cao Ba. Heard he's gone missing, so we thought we'd come help out? And... which side is young brother on?"

Xie Licheng let out a derisive snort. "Too bad for you—I'm the one who took Master Cao Ba."

Hearing Xie Licheng's cocky words, a big burly guy behind the middle-aged man started to charge at him, blade in hand.

The middle-aged man quickly held the giant back, asking, a bit confused, "What grudge do you have against Master Eight? Why'd you have to tear this place apart like this?"

Xie Licheng pulled out a short blade and said flatly, "No grudge, no grievance."

"Then why... go this far?"

Wiping out over a decade of Master Eight's work was no different from digging up his ancestors' graves.

Xie Licheng: "Since you're old friends, you must know what kind of business he runs. If you'd willingly hang out with a piece of shit like him, you're no better."

No point in wasting words on him. He'd just kill them all and rid the world of these scumbags.

Seeing the murderous look in Xie Licheng's eyes, the middle-aged man remembered the bodies in that earlier courtyard—most of them killed with a single blow.

This guy was probably even more dangerous than he'd thought.

He hadn't expected things to be this bad when he came, so he hadn't brought many guys.

Now that he saw how bad it was, he figured risking his life for an old acquaintance wasn't worth it.

With that in mind, the middle-aged man decided to leave with his men.

He said, "Young man, don't get angry. I'll take my men and go. I won't meddle in Master Eight's business anymore."

Xie Licheng wasn't having it. "Since you're already here, you might as well leave something behind as payment for your lives."

Hearing Xie Licheng get more and more unreasonable, a few of the middle-aged man's brothers got pissed.

But before they could say anything, the middle-aged man started pulling stuff out of his pockets.

He pulled out a jade pendant, a dagger, a pouch, and even threw down the bead bracelet from his wrist.

Xie Licheng smirked, then looked at the others around him.

The other men, after getting a glare from the middle-aged man, quickly followed suit and started emptying their pockets.

Once he confirmed they'd handed over everything valuable, Xie Licheng finally let them go with a look of disgust.

After they left, Xie Licheng didn't bother picking up the stuff they'd dropped.

He strode towards Liu Xiaoyuan and the others, asking, "Are you guys okay?"

Liu Xiaoyuan quickly shook his head, "Boss, we didn't even get to throw a punch."

They had witnessed everything just now. They now felt that their boss was incredibly formidable. Those people hadn't even dared to make a move against him, scared stiff just by looking at him.

Han Xihe pointed to the two people beside him and said to Xie Licheng, "Boss, should we send them in?"

Xie Licheng nodded, and rather than sending them off in the yard, he led them into a nearby room.

The girl and that young man were both scared of being in closed-in spaces.

When they went in, their faces were pale and they looked pretty pitiful.

Han Xihe said, "Don't be afraid. We're not like those bad people; we won't do anything to you. My boss has a husband, and they're crazy about each other. He won't hurt you."

Once inside the room, with Liu Xiaoyuan keeping watch outside, Xie Licheng sent them into his pocket world.

When they got into the pocket world, both of them were stunned for a second. They instinctively huddled together like two scared little birds.

The village was already full of people, and the sky was slowly getting brighter, revealing the true beauty of the mountain village.

The mountains were wrapped in a light mist.

It looked like an ink painting unfolding, beautiful and a little mysterious from a distance.

The white-haired young man, who hadn't said a word until now, whispered to the girl beside him, "Where is this place?"

Weren't they just in that room like a second ago?

Before the girl could answer, a chubby, smiling face popped up in front of them.

Xiao Zhuang said, "This is Taohua Village. You were brought in by Uncle Benefactor, right? Come on, come on, let's go register with the village head, and then you can stay in the village."

The girl asked, "What registration? We were just in that house, and then all of a sudden, we're in this village."

Xiao Zhuang: "Oh, that? That's my Uncle Benefactor's magic. Honestly, I don't get how he does it either. But that doesn't matter; you just gotta know he's not a bad guy."

If he were a bad guy, he wouldn't go through all that trouble to save people.

The girl: "But..."

Before she could finish, Xiao Zhuang looked at the pale young man with curiosity.

"Hey little bro, why's your hair all white at such a young age?"

The oldest person in the village was the village head, and even at his age, his hair wasn't as white as this young man's.

The young man's face fell at that, and he instinctively tried to wrap himself up in his clothes. But his clothes were too thin to cover him.

Xiao Zhuang was about to say more when Xiao Ruan came over with a frown.

She shooed Xiao Zhuang off and quickly smiled at the young man, saying, "Don't be scared. He doesn't mean any harm; he's just an idiot. Idiots say stupid stuff, so don't take him seriously."

The young man's eyes got a little red, and he shook his head carefully.

He wasn't mad at him; he just thought he looked weird and was worried he might scare people.

Xiao Ruan continued with a smile, "Alright, you both look exhausted and seem to have some minor injuries. How about this: follow me to register first, then find a place to rest. We can deal with everything else later."

Xiao Ruan was warm, generous, and a smooth talker even though she was young.

She posed no threat, so the two newcomers grew to trust her.

They followed her to register with the village head.

The so-called registration simply meant telling the village head their names, ages, genders, and where they were originally from.

It was said that this way, if they ever encountered their families, the Benefactor—the man who brought them in—might be able to help them find their loved ones.

To make it easier to locate their families, the information they provided had to be truthful.