The Living King of Hell, Lin An

The gate was locked from the inside. Lin Xuan didn't need to open it; he just had to climb over. The whole process went smoothly.

There was only a latch on the inside of the gate. Once it was removed, the gate could be opened directly.

After Lin An came in, the two of them took up their bows and swords and headed for the bandits' den.

The bandits' huts were all made of thatch. Each door had a latch on the inside, making it difficult to open, and the windows were tightly shut. It would be hard to force their way in and kill the bandits without alerting a large number of them.

If they all woke up, it really would be difficult to handle.

"Ah, I've got a good idea!" Lin An suddenly broke into a mischievous grin.

"What idea do you have?" Lin Xuan asked, puzzled.

Lin An tilted her mouth into a smug little smile and whispered to Lin Xuan, "Why don't we just burn their houses down from the outside? Set them alight from every side, then wait by the door. All their doors face the same way, anyway.

"They'll have no choice but to come out through the doors. That way, we won't even alert them in time to grab their weapons. They'll think the fire was an accident. Whoever comes out, we kill!"

Lin Xuan listened, then sighed. "They say the living can't see the King of Hell. But I'd say the living King of Hell is standing right in front of me."

"You're the King of Hell." Lin An went to take a torch from the sentry and set fire to the thatched huts one by one, starting at the bottom.

Just as they'd expected, the flames grew larger and larger. Since the fire started at the bottom, there was plenty of oxygen and fuel. Even when the flames were a foot high, no one had woken up.

Only when the flames reached a foot and a half did the scorching heat and smoky stench wake some of the bandits. They jolted awake, climbed out of bed, and rushed to the doors. They pulled back the latches and charged outside.

The scene descended into chaos in an instant: children crying, walls collapsing, flames crackling, wind roaring—all at once.

"Fire! Fire!"

"This is bad! The place is burning! It's burning!"

"Quick, quick, put out the fire!"

But waiting for them outside the doors was not safety, but blade after blade.

In no time, five or six bandits had died by the two of their swords. Each had barely stepped outside before being struck down.

A moment later, more than a dozen bandits had been killed. With this strategy, the two of them had encountered almost no resistance worth mentioning.

But aside from the bandits, there were other people in the stronghold. The bandits had abducted several women from the countryside to wash their clothes, cook for them, and bear their children.

Lin Xuan addressed the women sternly. "Put your hands up, above your heads. I won't kill you."

Xiao Chongyang's son was already fourteen. Seeing Lin Xuan and Lin An armed with swords and having killed a heap of bandits, he hid the killing intent in his eyes and pretended to be innocent. Clutching his mother's arm, he said softly and pitifully, "Mother, I'm scared."

In truth, his heart was filled with resentment.

Seeing that the boy completely ignored him, Lin Xuan sneered inwardly. *Disobedient... putting on an act...

This boy can't be allowed to live!

Lin Xuan didn't know who the boy was. Since he wouldn't do as he was told, Lin Xuan feared he might be attacked and decided to kill him with a single strike.

"Please, young hero, spare him! My son is innocent!"

Lin Xuan paid her no heed and plunged his sword straight into the boy's chest.

Words alone meant nothing. He didn't dare gamble on whether the boy had some way to attack him. His own survival came first.

Even if the boy really was innocent, knowing that his family had been wiped out would inevitably breed resentment and thoughts of revenge. Better to prevent trouble before it started.

At that moment, four golden characters appeared on the boy: [Eidetic Memory].

Lin Xuan immediately seized the talent.

"My son!" the woman screamed, glaring viciously at Lin Xuan.

"You—you deserve to die! Give me back my son!"

She tried to grab a sword from the ground, but Lin An had been watching her. Lin An kicked the sword away, then stepped on the woman's hand. The woman cried out in pain.

"Boss, should I kill her?" Lin An turned and asked.

Lin Xuan froze slightly when Lin An called him boss.

"Kill her." He gave a single, terse answer.

Lin An did as he said.

Then she noticed a cloth pouch on the woman. It felt heavy when she picked it up, and contained about forty taels of silver.

There were six women who had been abducted to the stronghold. They held their hands high, with two small children at their feet, crying. But they had seen what had happened to Xiao Chongyang's wife, the bandit chief's woman, and didn't dare disobey Lin Xuan. They could only let the children cry.

Lin Xuan felt helpless about what to do with these innocent victims. How to deal with them was a problem.

They had all been decent women before the bandits abducted them and subjected them to endless suffering and torment. As long as they weren't like the woman just now, who had truly treated the bandits and their little bandit as family, they could be spared.

"Were you all abducted by them? Do you live nearby?" Lin Xuan asked.

"Yes. I'm from Li Family Village nearby. I've been married to my husband for two years. Half a year ago, these villains kidnapped me and made me wash their clothes, cook for them, and sleep with them." As she spoke, the tears glimmering in her eyes grew brighter, until two streams of tears spilled down her cheeks.

"The bandits of Wolf Cave Mountain have all been wiped out. I'll give each of you some travel money. Wait until daybreak, then go home."

The women's lips moved as if they wanted to say something, but no words came. They looked at one another.

Lin Xuan glanced at them. "If no one objects, then that's settled. Hand out the money—one tael of silver each."

One woman stepped forward and tearfully pleaded with Lin Xuan:

"Young hero, I don't want to go back. If I return, the villagers will point at me and call me impure, shameless. My husband's family won't take me in, and my parents will think I've brought shame on the family. However you look at it, I'm doomed."

The other women also bowed their heads and nodded through their tears, their eyes full of despair. They knew the customs of the time: people said that starving to death was a small matter, but losing one's chastity was a great one.

Their husbands' families and birth families would probably rather they were dead.

For them, going home was no salvation—it was another kind of torment.

Lin Xuan frowned. He really hadn't considered that. But from his point of view, these women had done nothing wrong; they had only wanted to survive.

"How about this? Tomorrow morning, walk straight along the main road on North Mountain Road. Ask for the Qin Sheng family. The military households under their command need wives right now.

"Since you have nowhere else to go, marrying into a military household is one option. You won't have to return and face people's judgment, and you'll still be able to live."

What Lin Xuan said was true. The vast majority of military households couldn't afford to marry, and ordinary civilian families weren't willing to marry their daughters to them.

In the early days, the government would still provide money and people to arrange wives for military households. But things were different now. There was no longer any budget for it; the government simply couldn't afford to pay.

So the wives of military men now came from poor families or were daughters of criminals whose relatives' offenses had implicated them.

The women exchanged glances. To them, those two characters meant poverty and hardship.