Aftermath

By then, Zhou Ye was certain that all three thieves had been people from the army. Probably because of the rebellion in the prefectural city, they had chosen to become deserters?

What was interesting was that among the spoils, Zhou Ye had found no food, drinking water, or other necessities for surviving in the mountains and forests.

Perhaps that thief had not lied after all. They really had come in search of food. That was why they had chosen his secluded little courtyard, where they could make little noise, hoping to find something useful.

That left Zhou Ye speechless. How could he be so unlucky? He wanted to keep a low profile, and what others wanted was exactly this kind of low-profile place?

Of course, those three thieves were definitely no ordinary soldiers.

The other two were certainly martial artists who had entered force. And that archer? He had used a ten-stone heavy bow, so his strength had definitely surpassed Zhou Ye's. He had merely died in a more stifling way. Therefore, he too had entered force.

And he was not someone who had only just entered force.

After all, once his panel had refreshed, his basic attributes had become the average for a martial artist who had entered force. They were no longer the attributes of an ordinary person as before. On top of that, he had Strength +4, yet the other man's strength was actually greater than that?

That made him a seasoned martial artist who had entered force, probably already at the middle or later stages.

To give an example, their strength should have been roughly comparable to that alpha wolf's. They had simply joined forces and displayed combat power far beyond the alpha wolf's.

Without question, martial artists who had entered force were not cabbages growing by the roadside.

Take the entire prefectural city, with its population of several million. There were at most a few thousand Ming Jin experts. There seemed to be fewer than a hundred Dark Jin experts. Du Keyuan, the master of the martial arts school, was said to be a great expert in the late Dark Jin stage.

As for Hua Jin experts? There probably were not many, right? At any rate, even Zhou Ye had never heard of one.

And martial artists who had entered force? Even counting the many ordinary people passing themselves off as such, there were probably no more than several tens of thousands in total... right? One in a hundred—that was not someone one could run into casually.

Looking at those military weapons, especially that military steel crossbow, Zhou Ye thought it over and decided to bring them all back to Little Homestead. If they were exposed outside, they would bring endless trouble.

That even included the coat of chainmail. Strictly speaking, it also counted as a type of heavy armor. To save himself trouble, he might as well take it away too.

Next came the money. He found more than two hundred taels of silver, along with several gold ornaments. Ordinary martial artists who had entered force were not that wealthy, so that was already quite a sizable sum.

Interestingly, the three of them had also carried a bulging sack full of copper coins. There were both large and small coins inside. There were seven full strings, plus several hundred loose coins.

Honestly, those copper coins were worth only a little over seven taels of silver. Yet those men had still been unwilling to abandon them? They would rather carry such heavy coins than remember to bring the most important thing—food?

Last was an exquisite leather case. When he opened it, he found more than thirty books inside. One set of five volumes was a cultivation manual called Mirage Realm Free-and-Easy Technique. The rest were things like cultivation insights on the Mirage Realm Free-and-Easy Technique. They could be considered its reference books.

Zhou Ye was instantly overjoyed. Just judging by the name "Mirage Realm Free-and-Easy Technique," this cultivation method had to be especially high-grade, right? This was something money could not buy, even for a thousand gold pieces!

But now was not the time to study a cultivation method.

Zhou Ye got to work. He quickly dug a deep pit in the corner beside the kitchen's outer wall and placed the leather case inside. After burying it beneath nearly two feet of soil, he put in the silver and copper coins. Finally, he filled it with nearly three feet of earth, tamping down and leveling the entire pit.

Afterward, he placed a large stone slab over it. On top of the slab, he set a large water vat filled with water.

This was to guard against anyone coming to investigate. At the very least, until the storm had passed, Zhou Ye would never touch any of those things.

Even if someone came to search his home, they would never imagine those things had been buried in such a place. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if someone dug it up and saw the silver and copper coins, they would surely think they had found a treasure, right? Ordinary people would never imagine that a set of cultivation manuals had been buried even deeper down.

Once he had finished all that, it was time to tidy up and clean the courtyard.

He wiped away all the bloodstains. Anything that could not be wiped clean was scraped off. He threw every piece of clothing he had been wearing into the stove, added plenty of firewood, poured on some oil, then lit it and burned everything away...

By the time the clothes and everything else had turned to ash, Zhou Ye had rinsed himself all over with cold water several times and changed into a clean set of clothes.

He packed all the ashes into a sack, added the scraped-off dirt and wall dust, and prepared to take them away together.

Finally, there was the courtyard ground. He dug out all the wooden stakes, filled in the small trap pits, and leveled the courtyard floor again...

Before he knew it, dawn had arrived. When the first ray of sunlight appeared, peace had long since returned outside.

Chewing on an egg pancake, Zhou Ye hurried through breakfast, put on the usual outfit he wore when heading into the mountains, shouldered a pole laden with things, opened the courtyard gate, locked it, and left.

When he reached the butcher shop, Zhou Ye knocked on the door. "Xiaoyi, are you home?"

"I am." The door swiftly opened, revealing Gao Xiaoyi's head. Behind him stood Old Gao and his wife, both looking uneasy.

"Xiaoyi, is your family all right?"

"We're fine, we're fine. Thank you. Huh, Brother Ye, are you heading into the mountains?"

"With things like last night, I'd better hide out in the mountains for a while! Besides, no matter how chaotic things get, us common folk can't just give up making a living." Zhou Ye gave a bitter smile.

"That's true. I understand."

"Xiaoyi, I just wanted to ask you to keep an eye on my home. There's nothing valuable there. Just watch over it a little."

"Understood. Brother Ye, don't worry!"

"..."

After leaving the Gao family, Zhou Ye knocked on the door of the general store as well.

"Uncle Lü, get me several bundles of rope. I need—"

"Wait, A Ye, you're going into the mountains today?"

"Yes! I'm timid. I really don't dare stay here. Who knows how long this chaos will last?"

"..."

Lastly, there was the small grain shop at the mouth of the alley.

"Shopkeeper Niu, open up! It's A Ye from the end of the alley! I want to buy some provisions for going into the mountains."

"Thank heavens. So it's A Ye. My whole family didn't dare sleep a wink all night." Shopkeeper Niu's entire family held clubs and kitchen knives, looking terrified and on edge.

"Shopkeeper Niu, enough nonsense. I want to buy more."

"You can't buy much. At most, I can give you twenty jin. But you know the price has gone up, right? Ten coins per jin."

"Ten coins it is. Give me thirty jin."

"All right, all right! Since you're an old customer, I'll give you thirty jin."

"..."

In truth, Zhou Ye did not really need these provisions or supplies. He mainly wanted to show his face in public and let the neighbors know that he was heading into the mountains...