Where Did All These Houses Come From?

Zhou Wanwan led a group of people back to the mountain stronghold. The people of Zhao Family Village, seeing Zhou Wanwan's mount, all exclaimed in surprise:

"Holy crap, what on earth is this thing?"

I've never seen anything like this before. Could it be a horse-drawn carriage?

Zhao Xin shook his head and said:

"A carriage needs horses, are you all stupid?"

Do you see those horses? Those are the real horse-drawn carriages.

The children from Zhao Family Village swallowed hard, looking at Zhou Wanwan's mount and saying, "It's incredibly cool! Zhou Wanwan, can I touch it? What exactly is this thing?"

They were given a severe beating by Zhao Muyuan: "How dare you call Zhou Wanwan that? From now on, you all call her 'Master'!"

The group quickly returned to Lion Camel Ridge, where they saw Zhou Qingyan, Zhou Qinghe, Zhou Qingchen, and Gu Sinian standing at the entrance waiting for them.

Zhou Qingyan saw Zhou Wanwan and said, "You're finally back! We were so worried about you. What happened to you...?"

Zhou Qinghe was dumbfounded when she saw the group of people behind her. "Wait, Wanwan, how many people did you bring back?"

Zhou Wanwan coughed and said, "90,000!"

Zhou Qingchen was shocked. "What? How much? More than ninety thousand, hahaha! Have you considered whether our mountain stronghold can hold it all?"

Zhou Wanwan sighed and said:

"It's a bit too big to fit, huh? No problem, I plan to expand our makeshift operation."

"If we build our mountain stronghold to be impregnable, these people can also defend against foreign enemies. Isn't that a win-win situation?"

Zhou Qingchen said helplessly:

"Wanwan, you also need to consider whether we have enough food to feed so many people, right?"

Didn't you say there was going to be a drought soon? How many years of drought are we talking about?

Zhou Wanwan said helplessly:

"These people all came from Ningguta. If I don't take care of them, their fate will be even worse."

This is all we can do for now.

Zhou Qingyan sighed softly and said:

"Wanwan, you... are too kind. This kind of personality is not good."

"If you're this kind during a year of famine, you'll suffer."

Zhou Wanwan chuckled and said:

"It's not really a matter of kindness; these people are actually beneficial to our mountain stronghold."

Look at all these former officials; most of the officials in the entire court are here.

These are all former soldiers, brave and skilled in battle. With them, our mountain stronghold will be even more formidable.

And these too, these are specifically for growing medicinal herbs. Just think, they can grow medicinal herbs even in a place like Ningguta.

If they came to our mountain stronghold, what would become of us?

Oh... these are embroiderers from Ningguta, they are very skillful.

I've seen it; their embroidery skills are even better than those of the embroiderers in our mountain village.

Just kidding, Ningguta, what kind of place is that?

Those who survived were no ordinary people.

Ningguta is an extremely pragmatic place; anything that is useless will inevitably be discarded.

Therefore, those who manage to emerge alive from Ningguta are all outstanding individuals from various industries.

Zhou Qingyan sighed and said, "Sister, I know you understand, so let's do it this way!"

Zhou Wanwan selected 50,000 people to live in Lion Camel Ridge.

Fortunately, Lion Camel Ridge is much larger than Black Wind Mountain Stronghold, and the surrounding mountains are all within the Lion Camel Ridge area.

Therefore, as long as we take over the surrounding mountains, we can gradually expand the area.

Zhao Muyuan frowned and said:

"However, it's winter now, so finding a place to stay is a huge problem."

Where will all these people stay? It's freezing cold, and there aren't many houses in the village to begin with."

Just as Zhou Wanwan was about to speak, she heard the Old Scholar Tree say, "Wanwan, we've moved all the usable houses back from Valley of Evildoers."

Zhou Wanwan coughed and said, "Huh? This... this isn't quite right, is it?"

The Old Scholar Tree sighed and said:

"You know, the brothers are used to robbing people these days, and they just get itchy fingers."

Back then, with so many brothers around, seeing these houses, we thought they were actually pretty good!

Zhou Wanwan nodded helplessly; the houses in Valley of Evildoers were indeed quite nice.

Don't be fooled by those truly wicked people who commit heinous acts; they can still be quite generous with their own food, clothing, and daily necessities.

Zhou Wanwan looked at it and said, "Thank you for your hard work. You can arrange it as you see fit!"

Before long, the Old Scholar Tree led them to move all the houses in.

Moreover, the arrangements were very well done. There were more than 300 rooms in total. Zhou Wanwan planned to put 150 rooms here and take the rest to Black Wind Mountain Stronghold.

That way, the houses here are barely enough to live in.

Once everyone had left, all the houses were properly stored away.

Zhao Muyuan rubbed his eyes and said, "Old man, am I seeing things?"

Shen Jingzhi also said in disbelief:

Where did these houses come from?

We didn't seem to see these houses when we came in, did we?

Zhao Muyuan nodded and said, "I feel like I didn't see it; it's like a dream."

Zhou Wanwan smiled faintly and said, "This house looks pretty good, and it's fully equipped. You can make do with it!"

The trees didn't care about anything else; under the cover of darkness, they scattered sleeping potions into each house.

Then they took everyone out of the house and brought everything else back.

So Zhou Wanwan could walk into any room and find that it was fully equipped with everything she needed.

Then the Old Scholar Tree, along with the other trees, took out all the valuables.

They left behind some blankets, clothes, bedding, and other personal items.

The Old Scholar Tree chuckled and said:

"These people from Valley of Evildoers are quite wealthy. This time, they found over five hundred taels of gold, over five thousand taels of silver, and a pile of jewelry."

Oh! Right, there are also a dozen or so silver notes. I wonder if they're even useful.

Zhou Wanwan handed the silver notes directly to Feng Yunting, Feng Yunting quickly nodded and said:

"Of course they're useful. These banknotes are all valid. You can have someone exchange them for you when you have time."

"This is fifty thousand taels of silver, not bad, not bad."

Zhou Wanwan looked at them and said, "We've been out for many days now, we need to hurry home, otherwise our families will worry."

Zhou Qingchen looked at her and said:

"Oh! Even our little sister has her moments of fear!"

When we get back, if our parents scold us, you have to speak up for us.

Zhou Fusheng and Liu Su'e were reluctant to scold Zhou Wanwan, but that didn't mean they were reluctant to scold her.

Zhou Wanwan nodded. "I know! I'll definitely speak up for you."

Fortunately, the Old Scholar Tree was very fast, and they soon arrived at Black Wind Stronghold. But the scene before them left them dumbfounded.

In the blink of an eye, the entire Black Wind Stronghold was engulfed in flames, with thick smoke billowing upwards and the air filled with the smell of burning wood.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Wanwan felt a tightness in her chest from anger.

The Old Scholar Tree trembled with anger. "What on earth happened here?"