Seeing Gu Hui act this way, whether sincerely or falsely, everyone hurriedly exchanged pleasantries, saying that the Five Mountains were as close as one family and there was no need for this.
After the memorial ceremony ended, the people of the Five Mountains departed one after another.
Meanwhile, the headquarters of the other four mountains had received the news as well.
The Qinghai Water Bandits had vanished without a sound overnight.
Only after spies from the various sects, who had been keeping watch, saw several large ships leave the lake and then watched a group of people load dozens of chests onto more than ten carriages did they enter the lake to investigate.
But once they reached the island, all they could see was ruins. Nearly a thousand corpses lay scattered about, every one of them killed with a single blow.
It was clear how formidable the killer's martial arts had been. Those water bandits had barely possessed any ability to resist.
More than ten days later, several hundred thousand taels of silver, along with some gold, silver, and jewelry, finally arrived at Mount Hua. Aside from rewarding Lin Ke and the other nine with five thousand taels of silver each, the rest was added to the treasury to fund Mount Hua's development.
For Lin Ke and the others, apart from the three women, little still appealed to them besides wealth and martial arts.
Gu Hui understood this deeply, so he had always been exceedingly generous with them, all so these fellows would remain utterly loyal to him.
He had even passed the Sunflower Manual he obtained from Dongfang Bai on to all ten of them.
If any of those fellows still harbored disloyal thoughts after that, he would deal with them without mercy or guilt.
With Gu Hui holding