Moon high in the sky, the jade rabbit shone bright.
From afar came the occasional cry of a night owl.
The campfire burned quietly, crackling now and then. Certain that Shen Tang and the two of them were both fast asleep, the rather influential middle-aged man gathered the other guards around the fire. Pooling their wisdom, they discussed which way to go next—
"How else can we go?" One hot-tempered man cut in directly, his fierce brows and eyes hard as he made a killing gesture. "We've already come this far. We might as well go all the way..."
"Exactly. Didn't we all say we'd share blessings and shoulder hardships together? Since this world won't let us live, we might as well claim a mountain as king and become outlaws together..." The man who said this looked somewhat refined, as though he had studied for a few years.
Another guard said, "With these treasures, we won't have to worry about food or drink for the rest of our lives. Why suffer the indignity of serving others as gatehouse dogs?"
Everyone chimed in with their own ideas.
Some hoped to become bandits together, while others wanted to divide the spoils on the spot and take their share home to live as wealthy men.
The intelligence Shen Tang had uncovered was true.
They really were guards of the Lingzhou Lin Family.
However, some information had been deliberately concealed—for instance, the dangers of heading south to seek relatives. They had suffered losses almost as soon as they set out, with more and more men dying in battle, and halfway through, they had already begun to think of turning back. For instance, when they saw the gold, silver, jewels, antiques, and curiosities packed inside the wooden chests—wealth none of them could earn in several