The Treasure Hoarders

A breeze carried over a fresh green leaf. Noelle gently caught it between her fingers, then let it go.

In response to Li Qiuzhi's question, she touched the silver-gray tips of her hair beside her face and said:

"The Treasure Hoarders are all bad people. If they get their hands on an Artifact, they'll definitely use it for something bad, so we should stop them!"

Noelle had a point. After all, the Treasure Hoarders were a loosely organized band of thieves whose members were drifters blinded by greed.

As long as they caught a whiff of treasure, they would try their luck in domains or ruins, whether they had the strength for it or not.

So when adventurers explored domains and ruins, the obstacles they faced might include not only monsters, but Treasure Hoarders as well.

"All right, since everyone agrees, let's go teach them a lesson at the Temple of the Thousand Winds!"

Ver smiled. Although she had shared the valuable information she had originally intended to sell to the Knights of Favonius, she was not upset about it. She considered it repayment for the two of them saving her life.

Ver led the way, with Noelle close behind. As the archer, Li Qiuzhi brought up the rear, keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings.

The three followed a grassy ridge up to higher ground, where the entire Temple of the Thousand Winds came into view below them.

Stone pillars of unknown purpose towered over the site, and broad tiers of steps extended downward. The center of the Temple of the Thousand Winds was circular, and on closer inspection, it resembled an arena.

Beneath the arena-like structure was a passage leading inside. Two Treasure Hoarders stood guard outside, while the others were probably within.

They were clearly quite vigilant, too.

Theoretically, adventurers had combed through the ruins of the Temple of the Thousand Winds time and again. Anything valuable should have been taken away already. Had the Treasure Hoarders discovered a new, unexplored area?

None of the three knew the details. After locating the Treasure Hoarders, they decided to sneak closer and find a way to take down the two members guarding the passage first.

Since they could not afford to attract the Treasure Hoarders' attention, getting there took some effort.

With their strength, Li Qiuzhi and the others could easily have beaten up the two Treasure Hoarders head-on, but they were afraid of alerting those inside the passage and scaring them off.

So the task of taking down both Treasure Hoarders without a sound fell to Noelle.

Even with a sneak attack, Li Qiuzhi himself could not finish them off quickly without making any noise.

As they drew closer and took cover behind a huge rock, Li Qiuzhi and the others could clearly hear the two Treasure Hoarders talking.

"Vige, why do you think the boss and the others have been in there so long? They haven't run into danger, have they?"

Oren, who wore a black cowboy hat decorated with a feather and held a repeating crossbow, sounded a little worried.

"Relax. Boss Jonik took a whole pile of potions in with him. Even if he runs into a Ruin Guard, he can take it apart!"

Compared to the indecisive Oren, Vige was much more confident.

Vige also carried a repeating crossbow. He raised his right hand, clad in a worn glove, and said with a grin:

"Once the boss and the others get what they came for, we'll throw a feast tonight to celebrate. Heh, haven't we been ridiculously lucky lately?

"A month ago, we dug up an adventurer's journal at Falcon Coast that recorded the whereabouts of an Artifact, and we even managed to find all the materials it listed for the seal.

"Especially that Golden Bass. We couldn't buy one anywhere, yet in the end, one actually turned up right in front of us. What a miracle!"

Oren nodded in agreement:

"It really was a surprise to find a net with a Golden Bass in it at Cider Lake. No idea which unlucky bastard set it, but we got to reap the rewards for nothing.

"And we only needed the fish's head to break the seal. We even sold the rest for a hundred and fifty thousand Mora. It's a shame... we couldn't taste that delicacy ourselves!"

"Oh, come on. Wasn't getting such a big share of the Mora good enough for you? Whether it's Golden Bass or some other delicacy, you eat it in the morning and it comes out at night. Something that just passes through your gut is nowhere near as worthwhile to us as Mora in our hands."

Vige scoffed at Oren's lament.

Wasn't that round Mora the very reason they, the Treasure Hoarders, risked their lives in the wilderness like desperate outlaws? Only Mora was all-powerful. With it, they could do anything!

Listening from a short distance away, Li Qiuzhi felt his anger surge. So these were the Treasure Hoarders who had taken his fishing net back then. They had even made a tidy sum selling his fish!

Unbelievable. I'd already decided to leave you alone for now, but here you are, delivering yourselves right to me.

At that thought, he was about to tell Noelle to act when the ground suddenly began to tremble faintly.

"What's going on?"

Vige and Oren looked around in alarm but found nothing unusual.

With his hand pressed against the rock, Li Qiuzhi could feel a continuous, faint vibration passing through it. The unexpected development brought a thought to his mind:

Could it be a minor earthquake?

"No, it's not an earthquake. Look over by the passage!" Ver shook her head and looked toward the passage the Treasure Hoarders were guarding.

"Run! Hurry! It's a Ruin Guard!"

Several people ran out of the passage, shouting to those outside as they fled. A huge humanoid machine pursued them. Its body was a dark, rust-like color, and a conspicuous light shone from its head, like an eye.

Its upper body was spinning wildly, swinging its two mechanical arms and turning everything around it into a grinder. Meanwhile, the mechanical legs of its lower body walked normally, just like a human's, each step shaking the ground.

Once Vige realized that the vibrations were coming from a Ruin Guard, he actually grew less nervous. He even called into the passage with a grin:

"Boss, it's just one Ruin Guard, isn't it? A few bolts in its eye and it'll be out of action. Oren! Let's aim for its eye together!"

Oren peered into the somewhat dim passage, where the glow of the Ruin Guard's "eye" was dazzlingly bright.

Just as he and Vige raised their hand crossbows and pulled the triggers to fire, he suddenly noticed that there seemed to be more of those shining "eyes." Am I seeing things?

Oren rubbed his eyes and looked again. This time, his eyes filled with bewilderment and fear, and both hands holding his crossbow began to shake.

"Hey, this can't be real..."

Beads of sweat seeped from beneath Vige's orange-yellow hair at his temples, and he could not help taking two steps back.

"You idiots! Stop aiming! There are five Ruin Guards! Run!"

Jonik ran out of the passage with three of his men. Seeing the pair still rooted to the spot, he smacked each of them to snap them out of it.

Oren straightened the black cowboy hat his boss had knocked askew. Only then did he belatedly join Vige in fleeing after Jonik and the others.

Hiding off to the side, Li Qiuzhi was also trembling with fear. The ground shook harder and harder. If they did not run now, the Ruin Guards would grind this place to pieces, too.

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