The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 291 Castle Layout
There were many parts of the fortress worth exploring. Wu Chengyu ignored the children, but they instinctively followed him, all their admiring eyes fixed on the back of Wu Chengyu's neck, which felt slightly warm.

The castle has three floors above ground and one floor below ground. Wu Chengyu first arrived at the central room on the third floor of the castle, which is the residence of the chief.

Upon opening the door, it was immediately apparent that the head of the household was indeed a clean freak. The bedroom contained only a large bed, a desk, a row of bookshelves against the wall behind the desk, and a large wardrobe on the other side of the wall. Other than that, there was nothing else.

Wu Chengyu looked around and quickly noticed that the thickness of the walls did not match what was visible from the outside. The walls inside were noticeably thinner, but with the bookshelves and wardrobes, they were no longer so noticeable.

The wardrobe contained only ordinary clothes, and a careful inspection revealed nothing unusual.

But the bookshelf was clearly out of place. What kind of bookshelf would a bandit leader need? Moreover, the books in the bookshelf were very miscellaneous, including Confucian classics, Buddhist scriptures, Taoist scriptures, and some poems and songs. Wu Chengyu did not think that the leader from Western Xia had such cultural refinement.

All the books were covered in a layer of dust, but it was impossible to tell which book had less dust. Wu Chengyu moved them one by one, but there was no way to activate the mechanism by pulling out any of the books.

He grabbed the bookshelf with both hands and pulled hard. The back of the bookshelf loosened, indicating that it could be moved by brute force. However, Wu Chengyu heard the sound of a mechanism, a series of whirring sounds, like an arrow being drawn. Wu Chengyu sensed a hint of danger.

If it were just crossbow bolts, Wu Chengyu wouldn't be afraid at all. However, those mischievous kids had come in too, and if arrows were to be shot later, there would inevitably be danger.

The children were rummaging through the room, touching and examining everything. Even the most common everyday items were rare treasures to them.

They took all the clothes out of the wardrobe and tried to put them on without caring whether they were the right size, but were quickly stopped by the girl named Xiaolu.

Xiao Lu glanced at Wu Chengyu and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he didn't seem to care. However, she still told the children to put the clothes away and wait for Wu Chengyu's instructions. Clearly, the clothes were now Wu Chengyu's spoils, and whether he wanted them or not, the children had no say in what they were doing with them.

Wu Chengyu didn't turn around, but he knew what Xiaolu was doing. He nodded in agreement. It was rare to find someone who knew their place and how to conduct themselves properly. He didn't care about the clothes, but if they were really a bunch of unruly kids, Wu Chengyu would have little patience to get along with them.

At this moment, the little wolf cub Li Geda suddenly spoke up: "Big brother, when you were carrying this cabinet just now, there seemed to be a sound coming from this desk."

Wu Chengyu immediately turned around and carefully examined the mechanism. He realized that the mechanism should be on the desk. The mechanism was linked, and his forceful movement of the wardrobe had triggered the mechanism on the desk.

Wu Chengyu immediately noticed that after he used brute force, the inkstone on the table seemed to have moved slightly to the left by less than one centimeter. The desk was rarely used and was covered with a layer of dust, but the dust around the inkstone was obviously different.

He placed his hand on the inkstone and moved it to the left, about two inches away. The room rattled continuously, and soon the bookcase moved forward half a foot on its own. Through the gap, he could clearly see the dark shadow behind the bookcase.

Now the bookshelf can be moved to the left. With just a slight effort, Wu Chengyu created a small door just big enough for one person to pass through.

"Don't come in. Take whatever clothes, bedding, and other things you need. You can decide how to divide them. Little Deer, you decide."

As soon as he finished speaking, Wu Chengyu pushed open the small door and went inside.

Behind the door was a small secret room. There was no gold or silver treasure inside, only something that looked like a token and a few letters. Unfortunately, the text on these letters was in the Western Xia script, a script that few people understood in later generations. Wu Chengyu couldn't understand it at all.

The other item was a map, which Wu Chengyu guessed was for the Ziwu Ridge area. He accurately located the fortress on it. This map proved very useful; Wu Chengyu now had a plan in mind, and the map's arrival was perfectly timed.

However, Wu Chengyu did not lose the token and the letter in Xixia script; who knows what use they might be in the future.

After carefully examining the secret room again, he found nothing more. This must be where the head of the gang handled matters related to the Western Xia Yipintang.

When Wu Chengyu walked out of the secret room, the children were still there, and the things that had been divided up for them were still neatly put together, with the clothes folded up in a neat and orderly fashion.

Wu Chengyu ignored them, simply nodded, and then turned to leave. Under Xiao Lu's direction, the children quickly followed Wu Chengyu, each carrying something.

They took everything in the house—clothes, bedding, even the paper and pens—anything they could lift.

There were only three bedrooms on the entire three-story building. The other two should belong to the second and third leaders. The children immediately ransacked them. The two leaders' rooms had a lot of yellow and white items, unlike the first leader's room which was very simple.

Under the little deer's direction, the children collected all the odds and ends, and gathered the gold and silver together in a bundle, which they obediently handed to Wu Chengyu.

Wu Chengyu did not refuse. He first took it in his hand and then placed it on the back of the wolf cub.

Then they went up to the second floor, which was also a bedroom. It was filled with the skilled fighters who had come from Xixia with the leader, the same group that Wu Chengyu had killed after entering the castle.

According to the leader, only those who do not eat human flesh can live inside, while those who do eat human flesh can only live in the outer walled building outside the castle.

The entire second floor remained unsuccessful, so the treasure room Wu Chengyu was looking for should be on the first floor. However, before going upstairs, he observed that apart from the main hall on the first floor of the castle, a council chamber, a storage room, and the entrance to the basement, he found nothing.

However, after Wu Chengyu went up to the second and third floors and returned to the first floor, he quickly realized with his senses that the area of ​​the first floor seemed to be smaller than that of the two floors above.

For an ordinary person unaware of the facts, unless they have a very good understanding of architectural structures and have carefully measured inside and outside the castle, it would be very difficult to discover this.

However, this difference is obvious in the face of Wu Chengyu's three-dimensional model. The missing part is not large, only about five or six square meters in total.

Wu Chengyu arrived at the stairwell between the first and second floors and looked at the opposite wall. There was a mural on the wall, a simple picture of pine trees and cranes, but the crane's eyes were very bright, obviously someone often touched them.

He used the force of the combined fingers to simultaneously tap both eyes, and sure enough, the wall trembled. Then the mural began to slowly move, revealing the doorway.

The space inside is very small, just like the real 3D model, only five or six square meters.

(End of this chapter)