He Laozhi was completely pierced with holes, bloodied all over, but his eyes remained wide open, glaring fiercely, which looked rather intimidating.

One of the little lackeys dared to check his breath, trembling in fear: “He’s… not breathing anymore…”

Though the man was dead, he still clung tightly to the leader of the water bandits, refusing to let go because the leader threatened to dishonor his daughter.

Enraged, the water bandit leader cursed with a string of profanities, forcefully pulled down He Laozhi’s jaw until it broke, finally freeing his own leg, nearly chewed off by the dead man.

In fury, the water bandit leader stomped on He Laozhi’s corpse twice more, then cast a sinister glance at Wu Xiao: “Go to the cave! I’ll make sure to play with his daughter until she dies!”

---

As for the group of water bandits coming and going, heading straight for the cave, Qin Zheng and Lin Zhao were completely unaware of what had happened in between.

But the cave was filled with the elderly, women, and children; if these wolves went past, it would surely become a hell on earth.

Lin Zhao grabbed her whip, ready to go: “I’ll go and kill them all!”

Knowing that the water bandits outnumbered them, Qin Zheng pressed her lips together and said, “Zhao, if we want to save the people in the cave, we can only distract them.”

Lin Zhao’s eyes reddened with urgency: “How do we distract them?”

Qin Zheng pointed to the remaining few men and said, “Let your hair down and put on some of the larger women’s clothes from the village. We’ll run to a conspicuous place, making the water bandits think we’ve escaped from the cave.”

Lin Zhao nodded, and she and her dozen or so men quickly found some dresses from the village and put them on.

The scattered water bandits, chased by dogs, emerged from the woods, seeing only women from a distance.

They immediately shouted, “The women from the village are running that way!”

Upon hearing this, the water bandit leader and his men hurried back and indeed saw a group of women running along the mountain path.

Although most were stout, with Qin Zheng and Lin Zhao’s servants mixed in, it was enough to confuse them.

Wu Xiao, leading the water bandits to attack Liangyan Mountain, primarily aimed to capture Qin Zheng.

Seeing Qin Zheng running elsewhere, he no longer pursued the cave but pointed at them, saying, “Look, they’re all running away! Let’s catch them!”

Wu Xiao and his men chased after them, while the water bandits who had escaped from the dense forest intercepted Qin Zheng and the others by taking a shortcut.

Because the water bandit leader was bitten on the leg by Second-in-command, he couldn’t run fast and could only curse loudly from behind.

Supporting him, the two little lackeys dared not speak up.

Seeing water bandits blocking the path ahead, Wu Xiao deliberately lagged behind, saying to the lackeys, “I’ll support the boss!”

Having been ingratiating himself with the water bandit leader for days, Wu Xiao’s offer didn’t surprise the lackeys, who gladly handed over the water bandit leader to him and rushed ahead to surround the women.

The water bandit leader continued to grumble at Wu Xiao: “Hurry up!”

While Wu Xiao apologized, a dagger slipped from his sleeve into the water bandit leader’s side, and the bright red blood flowed down the blade, staining Wu Xiao’s hand.

The water bandit leader stiffened as Wu Xiao pulled out his knife and struck him several times in the chest, splattering blood all over his face.

Wu Xiao smiled at him and said, “You may look down on me, but I only endured for a moment. Now, it’s time for Panlong Gully to change hands, and that one hundred taels of gold is mine. Nobody can take it away.”

The water bandit leader, upon hearing about the one hundred taels of gold, struggled to tilt his head to the side.

In his dilated pupils, he could only see a blurry profile in the distance.

One of the water bandits, recognizing Qin Zheng’s face, shouted in excitement, “She’s the woman on the wanted poster, worth one hundred taels of gold!”

“So, this… this is your… purpose in attacking Qiyun Stronghold…” The water bandit leader uttered these words intermittently before losing his breath.

Wu Xiao walked over calmly.

---

When Qin Zheng and the others were surrounded by water bandits, they noticed that most of the men among them were dressed in rough clothes.

The water bandits’ faces turned green.

“We’ve been tricked!” one of the water bandits shouted.

But those who recognized Qin Zheng’s face were shocked, and one of them, after struggling with his tongue, finally blurted out, “She’s the woman on the wanted poster, worth one hundred taels of gold!”

All the water bandits turned their attention to Qin Zheng, captivated and unable to hide their delight.

Hearing the mention of one hundred taels of gold and the wanted poster, Qin Zheng recalled what Chu Chengji had told her earlier.

The court would post wanted posters of them along the Jiang River.

Everything suddenly became clear to her.

Lin Zhao, though confused, saw all the gazes fixated on Qin Zheng and stepped forward to block her, saying, “Anyone who dares to look at her again, I’ll gouge your eyes out!”

“Not seen you for a few days, Miss Lin’s temper hasn’t changed a bit,” Wu Xiao said leisurely as he approached.

His hair had been shaved off by Chu Chengji before, and now he could only wrap his head with a scarf.

Seeing him made Lin Zhao feel nauseous. “You scoundrel!”

Ignoring her, Wu Xiao glanced at the water bandits and said, “He Laozhi was ambushed and killed by people from Qiyun Stronghold. From now on, everything will be under my command.”

The water bandits, loyal to their leader, were about to attack Wu Xiao but were no match for him.

Wu Xiao kicked one of them in the chest, causing him to spit blood and die on the spot.

The remaining water bandits were frightened and dared not approach individually.

They aimed their crossbows at Wu Xiao.

Wu Xiao said, “This is Liangyan Mountain. Without me leading you, can you get out of here?”

He pointed at Qin Zheng. “This woman is worth one hundred taels of gold from the government. Anyone who sees her will be rewarded.”

After some intimidation and persuasion, the water bandits quickly lined up. A few who harbored discontent were executed on the spot.

Lin Zhao initially thought to take advantage of their chaos and lead everyone to break through, but the other side outnumbered them and had crossbows.

After a few rounds of arrow rain, there weren’t many of them left standing.

Seeing Lin Zhao wounded by arrows, Qin Zheng felt extremely anxious.

She picked up a knife from the ground and held it against her own neck, shouting, “Stop!”

The water bandits ceased shooting arrows.

Qin Zheng heard them discussing, “Don’t kill her. The wanted poster says we’ll get one hundred taels of gold for capturing her alive!”

“But don’t we still get silver for killing her?”

“You idiot! How much is one hundred taels of gold worth? It’s worth a thousand taels of silver!”

Realizing Qin Zheng’s value, the water bandits quickly unified their stance.

Knowing she was valuable to them, Qin Zheng gained some confidence.

She said coldly, “I’ll go with you, but you must release the people in the stronghold. Otherwise, you’ll only take back a corpse!”

Compared to everyone in the stronghold being killed and her being captured again, Qin Zheng hoped to use her own life as leverage to secure a way out for Lin Zhao and the others.

Wiping the blood from her lips, Lin Zhao said sorrowfully, “Sister Zheng!”

Qin Zheng and Lin Zhao exchanged a glance, conveying everything without words.

Wu Xiao sneered, “Fine. As long as Miss Lin tells us where the stolen silk is, we’ll take it and leave. So many brothers died today; we need some compensation.”

Attacking Qiyun Stronghold and retrieving the stolen silk was the water bandits’ original goal.

Lin Zhao closed her eyes and said, “The silk isn’t in the stronghold. You won’t find it.”

Wu Xiao clicked his tongue and said to Qin Zheng, “Madam Cheng saw it. It’s not that I don’t want to do Mrs. Cheng a favor, but Miss Lin isn’t cooperating.”

Lin Zhao retorted coldly, “I’m telling the truth. Unless you can go to Wujun County and snatch back that ship of silk!”

Wujun County had always been a major silk market. For a moment, Wu Xiao was furious.

He asked, “What about the silver from selling it?”

“We haven’t got it yet.”

Wu Xiao was furious, but before he could say anything, a lackey rushed over and said, “The big ship from Qiyun Stronghold is appearing on the back mountain! It should be the group that went downhill returning!”

After fighting with the water bandits for half a day, everyone was exhausted, and most of the arrows in their quivers had been used.

They couldn’t confront the people from Qiyun Stronghold head-on anymore.

Wu Xiao had originally wanted to go to the cave to kill Lin Yao and let the water bandits take some women away, but now there was definitely no time for that.

He pushed Qin Zheng towards the lackeys behind him. “Quick, tie her up and take her away!”

With reinforcements arriving, how could Lin Zhao let them take Qin Zheng away? She swung her whip to trip up a few of them and drew her machete to go for their throats.

Unexpectedly, an arrow pierced through her shoulder blade, causing her hand to lose strength, and she couldn’t even hold the machete steady.

One lackey tried to kill Lin Zhao, but Wu Xiao slapped him away. “Idiot! The tough guys from Qiyun Stronghold are back. It’s better to use her as a hostage!”

Qin Zheng and Lin Zhao were immediately bound hand and foot, hoisted onto the shoulders of two burly water bandits, and taken towards the dam cave.

Today, when the stronghold was attacked, the guards at the dam cave had all gone to the back mountain to besiege the water bandits.

Wu Xiao knew how to operate the basket. He instructed a few water bandits to handle the ropes, and he led the way down.

On the two boats parked by the riverbank, all the water bandits on board were dead. Obviously, when the people from Qiyun Stronghold returned and found the dam cave empty, they killed the water bandits on the boat before going to the back mountain.

Wu Xiao recalled the day he fought Chu Chengji and couldn’t even see how the opponent drew his sword.

He felt a chill in his heart.

Even though most of the water bandits hadn’t boarded the boat yet, he urged them to set sail.

Some of the water bandits on the boat hesitated, but Wu Xiao was adept at understanding people’s minds. He immediately pointed at Qin Zheng and said, “This woman is worth one hundred taels of gold. If we have one less person to share, we’ll get an extra share.”

A few water bandits quickly began to operate the boat.

The water bandits who hadn’t come down from the dam cave were surrounded by the people from Qiyun Stronghold who rushed back.

After they fought and delayed for a while, the big boat was able to turn around the mountain bend and enter the main river.

Qin Zheng understood why Wu Xiao wanted to sail away so quickly.

He purely wanted to leave those water bandits on the mountain to delay the people from Qiyun Stronghold.

This guy really spared no means.

One moment, he fought side by side with someone, and the next moment, he could throw them out to shield himself from arrows.

Qin Zheng was tied to the mast on the deck, trying hard to lift her head to look towards the dam cave in the distance, but she couldn’t see anything.

Little did she know, at the mouth of the dam cave, Chu Chengji stood there in black clothes, also watching the big boat sailing away on the river.

A man who always hid his sharpness behind a gentle facade now seemed like a long-dormant, bloodthirsty sword eager for action on an ancient battlefield.

“Why capture her?” He didn’t even glance at the water bandit trembling beside him as he asked calmly, as if he didn’t care about the person he was questioning.

The water bandit didn’t know which “her” he was referring to.

Although the man in front of him showed no signs of anger, he felt his breath stifling, and he trembled all over, spilling everything he knew:

“Wu Xiao said that capturing the Miss of Qiyun Stronghold as a hostage, and another beautiful woman, whom the government is offering one hundred taels of gold as a reward for capturing. Wu Xiao… wants to send her to the government to exchange for money.”

“Is one hundred taels of gold worth risking your lives to capture her?” His voice remained calm, showing no emotional fluctuations.

Long fingers pressed against the water bandit’s skull, exerting force, and there seemed to be the sound of bones breaking, subtle yet chilling.

The water bandit collapsed on the ground, bleeding from all seven orifices.

Wang Biao walked over, seeing the water bandit’s state, he couldn’t help but feel goosebumps all over his body.

When Chu Chengji looked over, he quickly bowed and said, “Strategist, Madam’s righteousness today, if it weren’t for Madam, I’m afraid the people in the stronghold would have been slaughtered by the water bandits by now.”

Chu Chengji remained silent.

He had already heard about what Qin Zheng did to protect the stronghold when the wounded magpie woke up and told him.

At this moment, he didn’t want to hear these flattering words.

When his fingertips pressed against the water bandit’s scalp just now, all he felt was sticky sweat.

He took out a handkerchief from his pocket, intending to wipe his hand, but touched a hairpin instead.

It was the hairpin he bought this morning at the market, using his jade hairpin as a deposit.

The court already knew they were in Qingzhou, and he no longer needed to hide.

Giving away that jade hairpin could confuse people’s perceptions.

Her long hair matched the hairpin perfectly, and he had bought it back.

Yet, she was taken away by someone else.

Chu Chengji suddenly smiled.

Perhaps the mountain breeze blowing at the dam cave was too cool.

Wang Biao felt a chill down his spine when he saw Chu Chengji’s smile.

He stuttered, “St… strategist, shall we discuss how to rescue Madam and Miss Lin?”

Chu Chengji’s calm eyes looked strangely eerie at this moment.

He said calmly, “Prepare the boat. I’ll go pick up my wife.”

Storming into the enemy’s lair to rescue someone sounded like a stroll through the park when he said it.