Gou Zai Xianwu Wenjing Search for Opportunities

Under the moonlight, the two large ships sailed steadily for several hours, and a thin mist gradually rose on the lake.

The outline of a deserted island could be vaguely seen ahead.

The pavilion chief ordered the assembly, and the warriors emerged from the cabin, preparing their weapons and armor, ready to go.

Wait until you get close.

"Change to smaller boats and land on the island." At the pavilion chief's command, he immediately led the martial artists who had completed their body tempering to land on the island from the east bank.

Because the boat is small, it cannot carry too many people, so they can only go to the island in batches.

When the third group arrived, Li Shi led Lin Yuan and the others onto a small boat. When they reached the shore, they found it was a shallow beach and the boat could not reach the shore.

Li Shi was the first to somersault to the shore, followed by Hu Cai and Zhao Sheng, who waded through the water one after the other.

Lin Yuan used less force, so he didn't flip very far, and the water was a bit deep, but luckily his shoes didn't get wet.

It was still dark, and the island was peaceful, with a misty morning fog rising.

The group gathered on the shore, and the village head and his assistants, who were tasked with catching the thieves, immediately made arrangements before leading the warriors into the valley.

The island is small, surrounded by mountains on three sides, with only a shallow shoal on the east side leading to a small valley. Inside the valley is a bandit camp. There are no sentries or guards in the camp, only two dead men hanging on a flagpole, swaying in the wind.

It was still dark and the weather was bitterly cold; there was no one moving about in the village.

They stormed in without anyone in the village noticing.

The village headman assigned his soldiers to guard all the exits, while sending warriors to surround the largest courtyard in the village.

The door was broken down, and the bandit leader Chen Qi, who was sleeping with two women, was suddenly awakened. The village head, a martial arts master, was the first to act. With a swift stroke of his knife, he brought out Chen Qi's head and walked out, then shouted into the stronghold:

"I am the head of Lishui Pavilion, here to suppress the bandits. The bandit leader, Chen Qi, has been beheaded. Those who surrender will not be killed!"

His voice was so loud it made people's ears ring.

"Bandit leader Chen Qi is to be beheaded; those who surrender will not be killed!" The bandits hurriedly shouted to the surrounding area.

The thieves were startled awake from inside the house. Wearing only their undergarments, they came out to see what was happening. Upon seeing Chen Qi dead, they lost all courage. Some knelt down and begged for mercy, some were at a loss, and others turned and fled.

Li Shi led the constables and warriors to immediately rush forward and kill the bandits who were trying to escape.

Lin Yuan joined the killing frenzy, and everyone brandished their swords at the same time. This imposing aura deterred the bandits wielding axes and sickles, who fled in disarray.

Lin Yuan raised his blade and killed one man on the spot. Just as he finished him off, a bandit dared to swing his axe, but he was too slow. Lin Yuan's blade struck first, killing two men in one swift motion.

He didn't feel much when he killed for the first time; when facing an enemy, there was no time to think.

At this moment, several bandits and warriors, their eyes bloodshot with rage, broke away from the army formation and charged into the crowd, chasing after the fleeing bandits and hacking wildly.

Li Shi quickly followed, while Lin Yuan, Hu Cai, and the other two maintained their formation and caught up with Li Shi.

Like tigers among sheep, the group hacked and slashed, and dozens of ragged bandits fell dead in the village.

Soon the remaining bandits completely lost their will to resist, knelt down and begged for mercy, no longer daring to escape.

Once the bandits had calmed down, the village head immediately ordered the hundreds of surrendered bandits to be bound, and all the men, women, and children in the houses to be bound and loaded onto the boat. As for the dead, their heads were cut off.

The soldiers and their lackeys were responsible for cleaning up the battlefield and moving the food and supplies that the bandits had looted during this period.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much of value in it; the most valuable thing was a few dozen bags of rice.

The bandits and warriors patrolled the area, escorting the thieves onto the ship.

Li Shi led Lin Yuan and the others on a short inspection tour, then found a sheltered spot to fish, where everyone sat down to rest.

Lin Yuan closed his eyes to rest, took a deep breath, and the tension slowly subsided. His stomach gradually became a little uncomfortable. He hadn't felt it at the time because he had exerted too much force, but now it was starting to hurt.

Fortunately, it's bearable, and it should get better after some relief.

Suddenly, he saw a tiny figure reflected in the mirror within his sea of ​​consciousness.

He killed the second person!

The bandit who swung his axe and ambushed him.

I never imagined that killing someone would lead to the possession of a ghost.

Lin Yuan thought back carefully and realized that there was indeed a flash of light in his mind at that time, but he was so tense and focused that he didn't pay much attention to the mirror and had completely overlooked it.

It's unclear whether the bandit was capable of gathering vengeful spirits, or whether it was due to his own killing of the bandit.

If killing someone allows you to absorb the gathered spirits, then why didn't you absorb the spirits from the first person you killed?

Lin Yuan was puzzled for a moment, and could only pay more attention when he was about to kill someone in the future.

He wanted to ask on the spot, but was worried about the aftereffects of looking in the mirror, so he decided to wait and ask later.

At this moment, Li Shi went to the side to urinate and came back: "So, how many did you three kill just now?"

"Five!" Hu Cai stretched out one hand.

"Three," Zhao Sheng said with a smile.

"I have three too," Lin Yuan said calmly.

"Hmm, not bad! To kill for the first time without vomiting, that takes guts!" Li Shi praised approvingly, then asked, "How was the job? Easy, right?"

"Too easy," Lin Yuan sighed, then added with some doubt, "How come these river bandits are so weak?"

"They're all refugees fleeing famine. When they have no food, they rob the surrounding villages. They've eaten their fill, and if they have an axe, that's a weapon. What kind of fighting power do they have?" Li Shi thought for a moment and said, "But those mountain bandits are different. There are desperate martial arts masters among them. Even caravans have to bribe them. Don't provoke them easily."

The three nodded in agreement.

Seeing the guards escorting groups of bandits and women and children, Hu Cai asked curiously, "Are they all being transported to the county to collect their rewards?"

"We don't get any reward money, and we don't get any credit either." Li Shi spat on the ground. "These are all sold to the Jiuling Mountains to mine. We're just doing our job killing thieves, earning a little money for our hard work."

"Mining?" Lin Yuan asked, puzzled.

Zhao Sheng added, "The Marquis's mansion owns several silver mines in the Jiuling Mountains, and every year they buy prisoners to work in the mines. In the past, a living person cost one tael of silver, but now the market is good and the price has risen to two taels. These people can fetch at least three to five hundred taels."

With such cheap labor, the cost of mining is indeed low.

He then calculated the silver that everyone had received: "The village head didn't earn much either."

"Just doing my job for the master," Li Shi said casually.

Lin Yuan immediately understood, and the others stopped asking questions.

"Let's go over there."

The group returned to the village.

"Chief, should we burn down the stockade?" someone asked.

Zhang, the village head, waved his hand and sneered, "No need. Keep it for next year's residents, so they don't have to build houses themselves."

Lin Yuan was taken aback upon hearing this. They really were treating him like a lamb to be harvested!

Harvesting once a year, one crop after another, as long as there are no years of disaster, there will be no shortage of refugees, the island will never be empty, and the silver mines of Jiuling Mountain will never lack cheap labor.

At this point, the two ships couldn't accommodate the cargo, so it had to be transported in batches.

At noon, everyone only ate some flatbread to tide them over, and the delivery wasn't finished until the afternoon.

Lin Yuan followed the others back to the pavilion and received the reward money on the spot, a total of twenty taels of silver.

They killed three bandits and got twenty taels of silver, which was equivalent to an ordinary family's annual income.

If you want to make money quickly, you really have to learn martial arts (burning, killing, and robbing)!

The elder brother, a mere foot soldier, only received one tael of silver. He was overjoyed to receive so much for doing odd jobs and stuffed it into his pocket.

After the group divided the silver among themselves, they happily went out to relax.

Li Shi invited Lin Yuan and others to have a meal at Chunfeng Restaurant, which was then hung in the pavilion.

……

Back at the Hu family home.

"Are you still practicing boxing?" Hu Cai suddenly asked.

"I just finished eating, let me digest a bit before practicing again." Lin Yuan made an excuse, went back to his room, lay down on the bed, and said, "I didn't sleep well last night, I'll take a nap."

After saying that, Lin Yuan closed his eyes and began to look in the mirror.

The little figure in the mirror is still there.

As usual, he asked about his experiences before and after his death.

This man was named Chen Shisan. In his early years, he was a villager from the surrounding area who made a living by farming. In the past two years, due to floods, some of his family members starved to death and others died of illness. This summer, seeing that he could not pay his taxes, he led his brothers to join Chen Qi's bandit stronghold.

Because they were from the same clan, he was quickly given an important position and became a minor leader. Due to his good performance, he was promoted to the seventh-ranking position in the village. He usually led the bandits to plunder villages.

For the past six months, all he's done is loot, eat and drink, and mostly play around with women, most of whom he's robbed.

Then today, during the bandit suppression at Lishui Pavilion, the play ends.

As for memories after death, there are none.

Chen Shisan's decades of life had been utterly useless, so Lin Yuan had given up hope and casually asked one last question: "Immortal Mirror, let me see if this person has any useful information for me?"

Then, the mirror-like clouds rolled and unrolled:

Chen Shisan was engrossed in reading a book, or more precisely, a picture book, filled with paintings and inscriptions.

The paper is rough and the drawings are crooked, clearly indicating that it is a cheap book circulating among the people.

Lin Yuan looked closely in the mirror and immediately burst out laughing, "A erotic painting, awesome!"

No, mirror, how can that be of any use to me?

Don't frame me, I'm an innocent boy!