Chapter 600: In the Camp—The Two Wronged Men

Adjutant Piluo did not think of this point; he immediately walked into the tent, stepped past the two brutally murdered soldiers, took out their personal backpacks and bundles, and opened them for inspection in front of everyone outside the tent.

"Just as I thought! There are very few things, and in particular, there isn't a single thing of value." Adjutant Piluo was covered in fine beads of sweat at this moment; he looked up at Yeluba, not expecting that even this detail had been anticipated by the other party.

Piluo was not as kind-faced but black-hearted as Yeluba, so he did not realize that the missing valuables at this moment were not taken by the murderer last night, but were likely taken by people sent by Yeluba just a moment ago.

In order to let the people around see clearly, Adjutant Piluo dumped the contents of the two backpacks and bundles onto the ground for everyone to examine.

The crowd crowded forward and saw that among the items spilled on the ground, there were only a few copper coins of little value, two sets of washed but tattered clothes, and some daily necessities used in life; as for anything slightly valuable, there was not a single piece.

This was not normal; one must know that all the soldiers currently remaining in the Stronghold Camp had basically participated in the action of breaking and looting Changmai Village, and in their personal bundles, there was more or less some valuable loot brought back from Changmai Village.

Although Changmai Village was a remote autonomous village, after decades of hard work by the villagers, every household still had some valuable property.

"There are no valuable things!"

"There isn't even a single Silver Coin!"

"I don't believe Bie'eoke couldn't even take out a single large coin from his hands. Their property was indeed stolen by someone!"

A soldier on Yeluba's side who had become excited immediately shouted loudly: "Stolen? Bullshit! This is robbery after murder! Someone utilized yesterday's standoff situation, snuck in and killed them in the middle of the night, then looted the two's property, and even forged clues in the end to pin the blame on our two innocent companions, Kongda and Bolisi!"

"Damn it! Don't let me find out who did it; if I do, I'll cut off their head with one sword!" Bolisi shouted loudly, and the inarticulate Kongda beside him also nodded heavily with red eyes, gripping his sword hilt tightly.

As for the soldiers who had just supported Adjutant Piluo, they were now awkwardly silent, and even Adjutant Piluo himself was the same; they had not expected that in such a large camp, there would actually be such a person who would wantonly loot property after killing colleagues, and even frame others for the crime, perfectly hiding the crime they had committed.

They had almost let the murderer succeed.

As long as they had truly fought among themselves just now, there would have been casualties everywhere, with everyone hostile toward each other, and presumably, no one would care about the small matter of whether the deceased's property was still there.

"Great Captain! You are so smart! Full of wisdom! You must already know who the culprit is, right?"

Someone asked Yeluba loudly.

Yeluba was just waiting for someone to ask this; he responded calmly with a smug smile on his face: "Of course. You all thought I stayed in the room all day doing nothing and managing nothing, right? Actually, I have always been worrying and taking responsibility for the entire camp and for everyone."

He put on an expression of deep grief: "Actually, before this incident happened, our camp had been experiencing situations where property was lost or stolen."

A soldier immediately shouted loudly: "I know, I know, it was those light-fingered alien Beast! Damn it! Those hateful little things, those hateful fur balls, those little wild beasts with long tails, they love stealing our Human things the most!"

"Those poverty-stricken aliens, they treat even a dropped Iron Nail like a treasure. Not to mention that during the process of crossing the Southern Mountains, we have caught those thieves in the act of stealing more than once."

The soldiers complained one after another, but Yeluba shook his head and waved his hand, denying everyone's conjecture.

"If you all think so, then you have truly fallen into the thief's trap."

His words made everyone confused, but those who were quick-witted had already thought of a possibility.

"Great Captain, what do you mean? The theft in the camp wasn't done by those alien Beast? But by our own people?" Once this was asked, all the soldiers were shocked; they looked at their surrounding companions with suspicion, and everyone subconsciously kept their distance.

Many people had lost things, but sometimes it was a lot, sometimes a little, and most of them just accepted it, becoming even more hostile toward the alien Beast who were also in the camp. Originally, they were very grateful to the alien Beast for leading them through the terrifying Southern Mountains; after all, during the whole process, those alien Beast also lost many of their own kind, which they had all seen with their own eyes.

But as everyone lost things more or less, and the finger was pointed at those alien Beast who were not big but were light-fingered, this gratitude gradually turned into resentment.

Hearing now that someone suspected the things lost in the camp were not stolen by the alien Beast, but by their own people, they could not help but feel ashamed and exceptionally angry.

"Damn it! My wedding ring was hidden well in my backpack, but it suddenly went missing; it must have been stolen by that person!"

"I had a valuable silver badge here, something I had worked so hard to loot, and one day it suddenly couldn't be found; it must have been stolen by that person!"

"Great Captain, please say the name of that person! I want to teach them a hard lesson!"

The soldiers shouted loudly one after another. Because it involved their own practical interests, the two murdered men were soon left behind by the people; after all, compared to people who were already dead, their own property situation was more important.

Seeing the scene at this moment, Yeluba secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and specifically glanced at Adjutant Piluo, who was standing to the side in low spirits, and said triumphantly: "From before, things have been going missing in the camp. At first, like everyone else, I suspected it was the alien Beast who led us through the Southern Mountains who stole them. I discussed this with Knight Hartna at the time, and the Knight said they were uncivilized and especially needed metal items, so it was fine if some small metal items were taken by them."

Then his voice grew louder: "But soon things changed, because the things lost in the team were no longer limited to small metal items. Some scattered coins, small valuable items, etc., all went missing. I might not have checked personally what so-and-so in the team lost, but my subordinates would report the situation to me."

Seeing that almost all the soldiers were listening to his words carefully, he became smug, because in this way, he had successfully gathered most of the soldiers under his command again: "I still thought it was those alien Beast who knew that valuable things could be exchanged for the metal items they needed at the Merchant's. Until one of my subordinates lost a wooden sculpture; it was a token of longing prepared by his hometown for those going away. Although it was wood, because it was exquisitely carved, it was something that one could tell at a glance could be sold for a price."

"This is very strange, you know. Because no matter how things were lost in the camp before, they were almost all things that those alien Beast could use. A Dagger, a small piece of mirror fragment, or even a discarded key or something. In short, they were basically metal objects. But this time, it was a wood carving."

He sighed pretentiously: "It was only then that I realized that the light-fingered ones in the camp were not just those alien Beast, but also some soldier in the team, or even some soldiers."

The crowd discussed in low voices; some guessed who had done these things, and some looked at Yeluba with anticipation, hoping that Yeluba already knew who it was, so they might still be able to retrieve their lost property.

"I therefore arranged for people to observe everyone's daily activities in the dark, and finally, there was a discovery. It's just a pity, I really didn't expect that it wouldn't just be stealing things, but that someone would upgrade their actions, have their minds blinded by greed, and resort to framing, using yesterday's conflict among everyone to pin the suspicion of the murderer on my subordinates."

At this time, Yeluba walked up to Kongda and Bolisi, patted Kongda on the shoulder, shook Bolisi's hand, and comforted them: "You have suffered for being wrongly accused by everyone just now!"

The two simple-minded soldiers were moved to tears by Yeluba's comfort; they couldn't even say words of thanks, just nodding repeatedly and clenching their fists to strike their chests.

After the atmosphere was sufficiently built up and the loyalty of his subordinates was raised, Yeluba then slowly gave his answer.

"Before saying who those people are, I will ask everyone a question first."

He looked at the surrounding soldiers and asked: "If you yourself had the intention to steal, what would you need most? This question doesn't need to be answered in such a big way; just talk about our current situation in this camp, what is the thing you need?"

He pointed at a soldier casually: "You, tell me."

This soldier's face turned red, and he answered loudly, ignoring the question: "I won't steal everyone's things! It's fine to let me kill, but stealing is such a shameful thing; if my elders at home knew, they would beat me to death!"

"Hmph." Although he snorted, Yeluba was actually quite satisfied with this soldier's answer, and he pointed at another soldier.

"You, you say something."

This soldier scratched his head with his finger and said in a dilemma: "I need a big bag to hold the stolen things?"

The people around looked at this soldier with the expression of looking at an idiot; this soldier gave a silly laugh, but actually, this person was pretending to be stupid on purpose.

Yeluba was not very satisfied. He happened to see a young soldier with a strange face in the back of the crowd raising his arm high, so he pointed at this soldier: "You answer, yes, that's you."

Jier shouted loudly: "To steal things, of course, is not to be seen or discovered by others; what I need is a way to avoid the eyes of others!"

"Close, but not accurate enough. Piluo, you say something?"

Yeluba suddenly looked at this guy who was against him and asked with a mocking tone.

Adjutant Piluo certainly would not steal the soldiers' things, and he had never thought of accumulating wealth through such despicable means. His family had always relied on Knight Hartna's family for a living, and the family tradition was to obtain wealth, status, power, and respect through battle and force.

But since Yeluba asked, he would answer.

Synthesizing the previous person's answer, he thought for a moment and said: "It should be the ability to enter and leave the vicinity of everyone's tents at will without being suspected by others, right? After all, our camp is only this big, and although everyone's tents seem to be together, they are not actually next to each other. It's fine during the day; one can say they are going to others' places to hang out or chat or something. But at night, going near other people's tents is very suspicious."

"Unless..."

Piluo hesitated, finding it difficult to say the following words.

But Yeluba continued his words and added: "Unless he or they have an identity that allows them to approach the soldiers' tents at will without being suspected, right?"

He asked the surrounding Soldiers in a loud voice: "Then please tell me, everyone, in our Yingdi, who exactly can freely access everyone's tents without being suspected?"

The Soldiers offered various opinions; some said the Soldiers responsible for cooking, some said the Soldiers responsible for night watch, and others said the Soldiers responsible for opening and closing the gates. Subsequently, some still cast suspicion on those Refining Qi Soldiers who patrolled the Yingdi: "Could it be the people patrolling on the walls? Don't they walk a lap around the Yingdi after they finish patrolling?"

Gradually, everyone focused their suspicious gazes on the people responsible for patrolling.

Yeluba no longer kept them in suspense at this moment and said loudly: "That's right! All along, through my investigation, I have discovered that the people stealing things in the Yingdi are certain people in the patrol squads! Will the people responsible for patrolling please step forward voluntarily!"

After he shouted this, the patrol squad Soldiers watching in the crowd felt extremely embarrassed. They had always taken pride in the most Refining Qi skills and abilities in the squad, but at this very moment, they were actually being called the culprits of theft, murder, and framing by the Captain, and the culprits were actually people from their own squad.

It was truly unbelievable to them.

But the surrounding Soldiers pushed and drove them, squeezing these patrol squad members, who were usually respected and held in high regard by others, out of the crowd.

The patrol squad Soldiers all had very ugly expressions, but two of them were particularly agitated, their bodies trembling slightly, whether from anger or fear.

Some sharp-eyed Soldiers noticed the difference in these two, and their expressions turned fierce.

At this time, before Yeluba could say anything more, the two Soldiers in the patrol squad immediately knelt on the ground, kowtowing to the surrounding Soldiers while shouting loudly: "Sorry, sorry, sorry! Everyone, it was our two heads that were muddled; we wanted to take advantage of the cover of the Beast stealing things to take some of everyone's property and occupy it."

They hurriedly argued: "But we really didn't kill anyone yesterday. Please believe us two. We dare to steal things, but killing people, especially our own people, we really don't dare!"

Yeluba immediately said fiercely: "It's already come to this, who would still dare to believe any of your words! Go! Where are the tents of these two? Won't we know once everyone goes over to search? Everyone go, strip them of their weapons and Armor! You wearing the same Armor as us simply makes me feel ashamed!"

Kongda suddenly drew his sword and rushed up at this moment. Seeing this, Yeluba pretended to stop him, but actually secretly gave the tall Soldier Kongda a push. This Soldier Kongda had decent skills; he drew his sword and slashed horizontally, accurately hacking down from the neck between the Helmet and the Armor. The first Soldier kneeling on the ground did not expect this at all, and his head was instantly separated.

The one behind was terrified, but this person was a Refining Qi Soldier with even stronger skills; he rolled on the ground and actually managed to block Kongda's second sword while rolling. Immediately, he and Kongda began to fight.

The surrounding people swarmed up, and the scene instantly descended into chaos.

Yeluba found it inconvenient to step forward, so he gave a look to the Soldier who had just taken the property. This Soldier naturally knew what to do, so while shouting, "Stop fighting, don't move!" he drew his Dagger and, taking advantage of the chaos, gave the thieving patrol Soldier a vicious strike from behind.

This Soldier deliberately avoided the areas protected by their Soldier Armor, passing over the short Skirt Armor from behind and stabbing directly into the buttocks.

This was a fatal wound, or at least a severe one, but immediately after, Kongda took the opportunity while the opponent was crying out in pain to pierce through from the mouth with one sword, killing the thieving patrol Soldier.

The surrounding people were unable to stop it in time, or rather, everyone didn't really try to stop it; they were just putting on a show. In fact, many people who appeared to step forward to stop it were actually wishing that Kongda would kill the thieving patrol Soldier!

"What are you all doing! What are you all doing! No matter what, they are our own people. Killing them just like that, what about the people they killed last night?" While saying these words, Yeluba actually didn't care at all, and with a wave of his hand, he said: "Since they are already dead, don't worry about their corpses. Kongda, tie Kongda up for me. No matter what, you suddenly moving to kill someone is wrong! Understand!"

After Kongda killed the two people, he seemed satisfied. He nodded and obediently let others tie him up. Subsequently, the crowd swarmed toward the tents of the two thieving patrol Soldiers, most of them impatient, hoping to find their lost property in the two's tents.

Even though many people's so-called 'own property' had been looted from Changmai Village after killing people there.

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