Chapter 287: Response

Although Yan Liqiang thought that he could steel his heart, he soon realized that it was still impossible when he saw ruins around him and the bloody corpses scattered around the lady.

He reckoned if the completely defenseless lady was left here, she would probably end up worse than a rabbit thrown into a wolf’s den. In a disorderly place like this, the twisted side of humanity would rear ugly its head. The corpses on the ground explained it all.

Yan Liqiang cast a glance at Wang Hui and the other people from the escort agency. Although they were men who could kill without any remorse, empathy and sympathy were in their eyes the moment they saw the lady called Yu Qing. One could imagine what the lady would face had they not heard her pleas for help or if they had come one step too late.

“Brother Liqiang, there are so many of us and we are on an escort mission anyway. This lady is not heavier than a box. I think there’s no harm in bringing another person along…” Wang Hui was the first to speak up. The tone of his voice then softened as a pained expression flashed across his face. “She is almost the same age as my daughter back home…” he mumbled to himself and sighed.

“We’ve already killed their people. If we leave this little lady here, I’m afraid that their other companions will come back for revenge after we leave…”

“Chief always said that those who roam the corners of the world should be mindful of loyalty. We should help those in distress to the best of our ability as good deeds for our next life!”

“Right, right, right, that’s it!”

Everyone started talking all at once.

Gu Zexuan and Zhao Huipeng remained silent. But the way they looked at Yan Liqiang was enough to convey their thoughts.

Everyone had taken notice of Yan Liqiang’s performance in the battle just now. Nearly half of the bodies on the ground were Yan Liqiang’s work. Although no one said anything, they were all astonished by his cultivation in archery and decisiveness during the rescue. Everyone began to see Yan Liqiang in a new light. Their gazes were filled with reverence as the group quietly started viewing him as a leading figure from this very moment.

“Can you ride a steed?” Yan Liqiang asked the lady named Yu Qing.

“Yes!” The lady clenched her teeth before she replied.

“Great, follow us then!”

Everyone felt as though they were relieved from a burden at Yan Liqiang’s approval.

The lady stood up and nodded to Yan Liqiang.

“Let’s go…” Yan Liqiang turned around and walked off.

“Liqiang, look at the stuff on the ground…” Wang Hui signaled to him with his eyes, then glanced at the bodies of the thugs on the ground.

Valuables spilled out from the clothes of quite a few corpses lying on the ground. There were gold, silver, and various jewelry. The group, including Wang Hui and Gu Zexuan, looked at the corpses on the ground strangely.

“These people deserved to die a million deaths. The valuables on them are now ownerless and shall be declared our spoils of war. Search the bodies and take all the valuables! We will go back and split them amongst ourselves!” Yan Liqiang announced without hesitation. Upon hearing this, smiles appeared on everyone’s faces.

They all proceeded to search the corpses. It took them only a short while to find all the valuables that these thugs had picked up earlier and pack them into big bundles.

While everyone was searching the thugs’ bodies, Yan Liqiang noticed that Yu Qing had wiped her tears away and silently put on the clothes that were draped on her. She walked over to the thug who held her hostage earlier and crouched next to him. Forcefully prying open the fingers of his hands that were balled into tight fists before he died, she took the thug’s dagger and its scabbard, sheathed the weapon, and carried it on her.

The lady seemed to be gentle, yet there was a type of strength in her gentleness that distinguished her from an ordinary girl.

“This is an ointment for cuts. You can apply it on the wound on your neck so that it won’t leave a scar!” Yan Liqiang went over to the lady, took out a bottle of ointment produced by the Divine Sword Sect, and handed it over to her.

“Thank you…” The lady lifted her gaze and stared deeply at Yan Liqiang before she accepted the ointment. She hesitated for a moment before asking, “May… May I know your name?”

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“I am Yan Liqiang!”

The lady nodded.

……

After clearing the battlefield, everyone returned to their original positions and picked up the sacks of husked rice they left at the roadside again before they continued to make their way back to the depot.

They had just experienced a battle and everyone was unscathed. Not only that, they had also gained two big sacks of considerably valuable spoils of war and rescued a lady in the process. The group returned to the depot in a completely different mood than when they entered Jinling City.

The lady by the name of Yu Qing followed everyone quietly.

As for those dead thugs, no one would care about them even if they were rotting among the ruins at a time like this.

……

By the time they returned to the depot, the other group had also returned.

The party was split into three groups earlier. One went to Jinling City to make sense of the situation with Yan Liqiang. The other group searched around the banks of the Qinhuai River for the rest of the people that they had lost contact with. The few who couldn’t move around conveniently due to injuries stayed back in the depot to look after their belongings.

Compared to Yan Liqiang’s group that had returned from a rewarding journey, the group that set out to find their other missing companions returned with only a corpse in tow and a footman who was still alive with a broken leg.

The corpse was dripping wet and half of the bones in the body seemed to have been shattered. His chest area was swollen and a broken log was lodged under his left ribs. The corpse was none other than Chen Hu. The search party had fished him out from the Qinhuai River…

There were another seven or eight footmen and escorts who made it back to the depot after Yan Liqiang and the rest left. Even though they all were sporting some injuries, they were lucky enough have survived the calamity from last night.

The final headcount of those who made it back alive to the depot was only forty-six people, including Yu Qing whom they had rescued earlier…

According to those who came back alive, most of the people from the escort agency made plans to eat out at a restaurant in the city yesterday and even reserved the entire restaurant. Some got drunk so they left early, thinking to stroll around the city to get some fresh air. Little did they expect a fireball to hurl down from the sky and strike a few hundred meters away from the restaurant they dined in. One thunderous blast and the restaurant was completely razed to the ground. They were knocked away from the impact, and by the time they woke up, it was already noon the next day…

Recounting the incident from last night, the few men who made it back couldn’t restrain their tears.

Chen Hu’s corpse was buried in an empty land near the depot. They dug a pit in the ground, wrapped his body with a few straw mats they found, buried him, and made a simple grave. As for those who had ‘gone missing’, everyone could only assume that most of them had perished without a trace.

……

The dead wouldn’t come back to life again, but the living would have to stay strong and move on.

By evening, a big bonfire and a small bonfire were lit in the courtyard where the Four Seas Escort Agency’s party was staying at the depot.

A big pot was placed over the big bonfire. The sacks of husked rice that Yan Liqiang and the rest found in Jinling City were emptied into it, then stir fried with some salt. The stir-fried husked rice would then be carried by everyone so that they could eat some right away whenever they were hungry. Food that wouldn’t perish easily and were easy to carry around could be life-saving during critical situations. This was a natural disaster survival tip that Yan Liqiang had learned from the older generations in his previous life.

Perhaps some people in the escort party still doubted Yan Liqiang’s judgment during the daytime. But now, everyone firmly believed in Yan Liqiang’s words without a doubt.

Yan Liqiang huddled around the smaller bonfire with Wang Hui and the remaining escorts, discussing their future plans.

“I believe everyone is aware of the current situation. Let us sit together to discuss what we should do next and determine our best course of action…”

Surrounded by the heavy atmosphere, Yan Liqiang looked around and was the first to speak up…