"The stench of corpses… a zombie?"
Hearing Li Yan's words, Wang Daoxuan instantly grew alert.
Zombies were not easy to deal with. Especially in these deep mountains, where they absorbed the essence of the moon and the baleful qi of the shadows, they could become impervious to blades and spears over time. Even decapitation wouldn't stop them from lunging at people unless their malevolent spirit was shattered.
Li Yan shook his head. "No, it's a dead person."
"Stay here. I'll go take a look."
With that, he crouched low and slipped into the underbrush, vanishing from sight.
"Coo-coo!"
Not long after, a bird call echoed from the distance.
It was their prearranged signal.
Two calls meant safety; three meant danger and to stay hidden.
Wang Daoxuan and the others hurriedly followed, guided by Zhao Donkey, and soon found Li Yan.
Li Yan stood beneath an ancient tree, bending down to examine a corpse.
The body was severely decomposed, its blackened muscles melded with mud, shriveled and shrunken, revealing a ghastly white jawbone. Its appearance was utterly horrific.
Sha Lifei glanced at a wooden frame hidden in the tree and said, "It's a bandit's lookout post. Why hasn't anyone collected the body?"
He moved to inspect it closer.
"Don't touch it!"
Li Yan's face was grave as he stopped him, then pointed to the surroundings.
Beside the corpse lay the husks of numerous insects and ants, and even a few dead rats farther off.
"Such potent poison!"
Sha Lifei sucked in a breath. "No wonder wild beasts haven't carried it off."
Li Yan stood, sniffed the air a few times, and said solemnly, "This bandit stronghold was likely wiped out long ago."
"Let's go see what happened."
The others didn't object and crept toward the bandit stronghold under cover of night.
This wasn't meddling in others' affairs.
Yan Laojiu's band of outlaws had survived multiple military raids, so they were no pushovers. Yet now, they had perished here silently.
Uncovering the reason was crucial. If some sinister force was at play, they could prepare before heading to Leopard Gully.
With Zhao Donkey and Li Yan leading, the dark forest posed no obstacle.
Along the way, they encountered more corpses.
Some, like the first, had succumbed to deadly poison.
Others were torn to shreds by wild beasts, indicating they hadn't been poisoned.
Soon, the bandit stronghold came into view.
It was a crude settlement built against a cliff, with rammed earth walls and wooden stakes forming a rough watchtower.
The entire place reeked of a thick, putrid stench of death.
The gate stood wide open, revealing chaos within. Corpses littered the ground, roughly forty or fifty, all clutching knife hilts and collapsed where they fell.
"Shh!"
Sha Lifei suddenly signaled for silence, pointing to a large building on the right side of the stronghold. He whispered, "Listen, what's that sound?"
In the dead of night, moonlight cast a frosty sheen over the stronghold. Though the building's interior was pitch-black, a faint guji guji sound emanated from within.
It was like someone smacking their lips.
Abruptly, the sound stopped.
With a creak, the wooden door slowly opened, and something crawled out. Matted hair obscured its face, and it dragged itself forward with both hands.
It had only half a body!
Under the moonlight, it looked especially eerie.
Sha Lifei's forehead broke into a cold sweat. He leapt behind Wang Daoxuan, stammering, "W-what… what is that thing?"
"Relax. If it were a ghost, you wouldn't see it."
Li Yan shook his head gravely. "It's a person!"
"A person?"
Hearing it was human, Sha Lifei snapped back to himself, furious. He stomped forward, cursing, "What's wrong with you, pretending to be a ghost in the middle of the night to scare people!"
With that, he grabbed the figure's head.
Beneath the tangled hair were eyes reduced to black sockets. The face was gaunt, skin stretched over bone, resembling a ghost more than a man.
Yet Sha Lifei froze.
"Commander Zhao!"
…
The sole survivor in the stronghold was none other than Zhao Cheng.
This head disciple of the Zhao Family Fist, the chief guard of the Lu household, had been blinded and had both legs severed. He lingered in the stronghold like a malevolent spirit.
Wang Daoxuan and Li Yan exchanged stunned glances.
Wasn't Commander Zhao the traitor who colluded with the red-robed concubine, swindled a fortune, and fled?
Why was he here?
…
"Cui Lan and I were forced into it!"
Upon learning the identities of Li Yan and the others, Zhao Cheng was first shocked they had escaped disaster. Then, with a hoarse voice, he recounted the truth in a fury.
"The real traitor was the white-robed concubine!"
"Her name was Yu Lian, but it's surely a fake. Thinking back, her methods were clearly those of the 'Demon Black' from the Swallow Sect!"
Li Yan's eyes narrowed in thought.
Among the Eight Dark Sects, Bee, Sparrow, Swallow, and Finch were all deceivers.
"Bee" referred to organized fraud rings, "Sparrow" to lone swindlers, "Swallow" to those who used feminine allure to scam, and "Finch" to professional criminal gangs.
Bee, Sparrow, and Swallow mostly targeted wealth, but Finch was unscrupulous, with sophisticated methods, swindling money and taking lives.
As for the Swallow Sect's "Demon Black," it referred to young women.
They employed two main tactics:
First, they used four- or five-year-old children, pretending to be lost and crying. When kind-hearted people took them home, a woman would pose as the child's mother, inquiring about the child. After retrieving the child with profuse thanks, she'd return the next day with gifts, secretly noting valuables and entry points. That night, thieves would strike.
Second, they used comely women who posed as victims fleeing abusive in-laws or husbands, appearing pitiable to win the sympathy of wealthy households. After staying a few days as a servant and learning the layout, they'd collaborate with outsiders to rob the place.
An elder from the Willow Sect, aware of these tactics but reluctant to expose them directly, had spun legends of fox spirits and ghosts donning painted skins to infiltrate homes and wreak havoc.
The so-called painted skin was a beautiful facade masking a malevolent heart.
Of course, there was an even more ruthless method: a woman would marry into a wealthy family, then invite a horde of Swallow Sect sisters to indulge in debauchery. Within months, the rich man would perish, and they'd seize the estate outright.
Sha Lifei, curious, asked, "Demon Blacks usually only take wealth. Why would they collude with bandits?"
Zhao Cheng said bitterly, "Cui Lan and I had an affair. She said she'd drug the master so we could escape at night. We were so grateful to her then."
"When the bandits stormed the house, they killed everyone and demanded to know the whereabouts of an ancient painting from Master Lu. Terrified, he led them to the treasury, but the painting had already been stolen by Yu Lian and was long gone."
"We were later coerced into reporting to the authorities and swindling money, forced by the bandits who poisoned us and kept watch. The goal was to lure Yu Lian out!"
"When that failed, Yan Laojiu brought us up the mountain, cut off my legs, and skinned Cui Lan alive. He's a beast!"
He broke into anguished sobs.
Seeing this once-proud man reduced to a wretched, ghostlike state, the group felt a pang of sorrow.
Li Yan steadied himself and looked around. "What happened here?"
Zhao Cheng murmured, "I don't know."
"They blinded me and tormented me daily. I was already worse than dead."
"That night, the bandit camp erupted in chaos. Someone screamed 'Crested Snake,' and within half an hour, everyone was dead."
"I heard a man approach and ask what happened. I told him everything. He said I betrayed my master and deserved this fate, that I should taste it myself, then left."
"I survived by eating rats that fed on the dead. I clung to life just to ensure someone could reveal the truth about Gushui Village!"
"The culprits included several bandit groups from Guanzhong and mounted raiders from Qilu. I overheard they were acting under orders from a 'Master Luo' in the capital!"
With a bitter laugh, he said, "Master, your disciple has let you down!"
Thud!
With his final words, he mustered all his strength, smashed his head against a rock, and died as his skull split open.
The group shook their heads slightly but didn't intervene.
Living as a wraith, he likely lost all will to go on once his purpose was fulfilled.
"Crested Snake?"
Sha Lifei spoke up. "Could it be the one we encountered on the way?"
Zhao Donkey, clearly shaken by the bizarre tragedy, shook his head. "Crested Snakes usually hide in ancient tombs. My father said some treasure hunters in the Xunyao lineage, inheriting the dark arts of Fangxian Dao, can control them."
Sha Lifei shuddered and cursed, "Damn, this is creepy. What kind of painting could cause all this? It must be worth a fortune!"
"No matter how valuable, it's a source of calamity."
Wang Daoxuan shook his head. "Let's go. This happened long ago, and whoever did it is likely gone. We shouldn't linger."
Li Yan nodded, then performed a Yang gesture, enduring the stench to take a deep breath. He pointed to the main hall of the stronghold.
"Uncle Sha, there's something good under the tree to the right of the hall!"
Knowing Li Yan's knack, Sha Lifei's eyes lit up. He grabbed his iron pick and rushed over.
Clang!
After digging furiously, a metallic sound rang out.
Buried in the soil was a small chest, barely half a foot long.
Sha Lifei was initially disappointed, but when he broke the iron lock and opened it, his eyes widened, and he muttered, "We're rich…"
The chest was filled with neatly stacked gold bars!
*(End of Chapter)*