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Chapter 624 The insidious villain
"How far am I from here to the little wooden house?" Zhu Yu asked.

“It’s about a mile away,” Lu Qing replied.

Zhu Yu was truly taken aback.

No wonder she couldn't see any trace of the small wooden building when she looked around earlier. Even the surrounding environment didn't seem to resemble the one from the previous night, leaving her unable to determine her direction.

I initially thought it was because my ability to orient myself in the wild was too weak, but now that I see it, it's not entirely her fault. This area is indeed a completely unfamiliar place that I've never been to before.

"Then...none of us were injured, right?" Zhu Yu asked Lu Qing for confirmation.

"Completely unharmed." Lu Qing nodded, and it was clear that he was also relieved when he said this.

"Then...where is the stuff?" Zhu Yu had already vaguely guessed the answer to this question from Lu Qing's actions of instructing Fu Lu to find firewood while he hugged her to keep her warm and tried to dry her clothes with his body heat.

"They're all gone; they weren't thrown out with us."

"Hmm..." Zhu Yu raised his eyebrows slightly, muttered something thoughtfully, and then said nothing more.

After a while, Fu Lu finally found some relatively dry firewood. They piled the firewood up in the open space and tried to light it with a tinderbox for a long time before they finally managed to get it burning. The flames were barely alive and looked like they would go out at any moment, let alone burn brightly.

The four men stared at the pitiful fire, feeling that hoping it would help dry their clothes was less desirable than waiting for the clouds to clear and the sun to come out...

"You bastards! Since you have the ability to throw us all out, why don't you throw your stuff out too! If I had the pine resin in the bundle, I could even set fire to waterlogged wood so Second Master could warm himself up!" Fu Lu was a little annoyed. While carefully tending to the fire, he couldn't help but mutter curses under his breath, "Using sleeping pills... Bah! What kind of gentleman acts like this? It's downright treacherous! So many despicable methods, and they even steal people's belongings, shameless!"

"If Yan Daoxin hears you say that, you're probably in for a rough time!" Zhu Yu said to Fu Lu with a smile.

Fu Lu was taken aback, remembering that his master's fellow disciple, who was like a brother to him, had always enjoyed researching all sorts of strange poisons and antidotes, including many bizarre sleeping potions. He realized that what he had just said could easily harm innocent people.

He scratched the back of his head, then silently continued poking at the flames.

After quite some time, with the help of the not-so-strong fire, the four of them finally managed to dry their wet clothes to a considerable extent.

Zhu Yu was thrown to the ground face up, so her back was soaked. Lu Qing was in a similar situation.

Fuwen and Fulu were lying face down on the ground, their clothes soaked through, especially Fulu's. Not only were his clothes wet, but his sleeves were also covered in mud and grass, and there were traces of grass juice on them.

Zhu Yu had warmed himself by the fire for a while, then turned around to face the fire, his gaze falling on the talisman, lost in thought.

Fu Lu didn't know why his wife was looking at him like that. At first, he thought Zhu Yu had some instructions. Seeing that she hadn't spoken, he tried to ask her several times, but Lu Qing raised his hand to stop him, signaling him not to make a sound and not to disturb Zhu Yu.

Fu Wen looked at Lu Qing with a puzzled expression, then at Zhu Yu, and wisely remained silent. "I think we should go in again," Zhu Yu said to Lu Qing after a long silence.

"Second Master, you mustn't!" Upon hearing this, Fu Lu, who had been holding back for so long, couldn't hold back any longer. "Fortunately, none of the four of us were hurt this time. Otherwise, we might have fallen into someone else's trap without even realizing it, and there's a good chance we would never have a chance to wake up again!"

"If you and the master allow it, my brother and I will tear that damn wooden building down with our bare hands! After we destroy those scoundrels' lair, let's see where they can hide!"

After he finished speaking, before Lu Qing and Zhu Yu could even express their opinions, Fu Wen shook his head first: "No, this matter is not that simple. Your reckless method simply won't work."

Could it be that you think of me as the kind of person who is careless and sloppy?

“Of course not!” the talisman replied immediately.

Although his older brother was not as physically strong or as capable as him, when it came to intelligence, he was almost twice as good as him.

If his elder brother were careless, then it wouldn't have been possible for the master to entrust him with so many things over the years.

"That settles it then!" Fu Wen looked at his younger brother with a hint of helplessness. "I did thoroughly search that building yesterday, and there was absolutely no sign of anyone hiding there. If I wasn't so certain, how could I have dared to let Master and Second Master go there together?!"

What does this mean?
This means that the thieves there have a very well-hidden hiding place that cannot be found or seen from the surface at all!

Even if we completely dismantle all the visible wooden buildings, what if we still can't find them? What if they become enraged and resort to desperate measures?

Fu Lu sighed with some annoyance and steered the conversation back on track: "Then I also think that Second Master shouldn't risk going any closer to that place!"

On this matter, Rune agreed with Talisman's point of view and nodded in agreement.

"Why go again?" Lu Qing didn't immediately express agreement or disagreement, but instead asked Zhu Yu why he planned to do so.

“Because I felt that the other party didn’t seem to have any ill intentions towards us, and didn’t know our identities. They might be hiding here just to escape something.” Zhu Yu poked at the fire with a small twig. “The night before, I vaguely saw many old talisman papers left on the outside of that small wooden building, as well as those strange symbols, like patterns used to exorcise demons.”

At the time, I didn't guess why these things were there.

However, considering that they threw us out unharmed but confiscated our belongings, I suspect they didn't intend to harm us. They just wanted to scare us and make us think the house was eerie and we shouldn't go near it.

At the same time, because they needed to hide for a long time, the people inside must have been quite short of supplies, which is why they confiscated all the useful things we were carrying.

"If that's the case, then last time we were caught off guard and fell into their trap. What if this time we're prepared?"