Chapter 132: A Great Harvest in the Basement

The basement was nearly 100 square meters in area, and inside were rows upon rows of shelves, packed with a dazzling array of daily necessities, from toothpaste, toothbrushes, and toilet paper to body wash and other toiletries—everything one could possibly need.

There was plenty of food, too: canned pork, canned beef, canned fish, and various other types of canned goods, along with many cases of alcohol, including baijiu, beer, and wine—everything was there.

"These Li Family brothers really know how to enjoy themselves."

Lu Yu couldn't help but feel a bit envious. Before he transmigrated, he had always had a dream: to dig a basement and store all kinds of supplies in it, so that if he ever encountered some sort of doomsday catastrophe, he would be prepared.

He hadn't expected the Li Family brothers to have actually realized his dream.

He continued walking deeper into the basement and saw that it was filled with snake-skin bags, stacked from the floor all the way to the ceiling, each one bulging.

"Could it be?"

Lu Yu's heart stirred. He walked up quickly and opened one of the bags; sure enough, it was filled with white, glistening rice.

He opened several more bags in succession and found they were all the same rice.

If the bags behind these were also filled with rice, there had to be tens of thousands of jin, perhaps even more.

Lu Yu couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled. He didn't know why they had hoarded so much rice but hadn't traded it for money; was it purely for storage, just in case of an emergency?

"Something's not right."

Lu Yu frowned. He thought to himself that the three men of the Li Family certainly wouldn't just eat this ordinary rice.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up. He turned and walked back to a shelf, opened one of the bags, and sure enough, it was filled with Blood Rice.

Lu Yu grabbed a handful of Blood Rice and sniffed it, confirming it was indeed the Blood Rice that cost ten yuan per jin. There were several thousand jin, which added up to tens of thousands of yuan.

Lu Yu took a deep breath, thinking that, seen in this light, the wealth possessed by the band of horse thieves he had killed earlier was simply insignificant compared to that of the Li Family brothers.

"I can keep the other things for now and decide whether to distribute some later. But as for this ordinary rice, I should just distribute it all to everyone."

Lu Yu pondered. On one hand, this was a way to win people over; on the other hand, these ordinary people had suffered too much in Li Family Fort and were truly pitiful.

Lu Yu walked to the basement entrance, turned off the lights, closed the door, and cast his gaze toward the second floor.

Li Qiang and Li Laosan both lived on the first floor, so it went without saying who lived on the second floor.

He couldn't help but be curious: what kind of good things would be hidden in that person's bedroom on the second floor?

Lu Yu walked up the stairs to the second floor.

Stepping onto the second floor, the first thing that caught his eye was a spacious and well-lit living room.

The floor was covered with a soft carpet, and on a tan wooden cabinet against the wall, an LCD monitor sat quietly, with a game console placed next to it, as if telling of the owner's leisure time.

Opposite it, a full set of leather sofas looked luxurious, appearing soft and comfortable, making one want to sit down and experience them.

Walking further south, a floor-to-ceiling window came into view, and outside the window was a balcony with a table, chairs, and a teapot; it was not hard to imagine that this might have been a good place for the owner to relax, drink tea, and enjoy the view on ordinary days.

"Hmph, to be so greedy for pleasure in this doomsday, indulging in idle pastimes," Lu Yu couldn't help but snort coldly, looking at all this with disdain.

He walked straight to the bedroom, pushed the door open, and began to rummage through the cabinets. It didn't take long before he had a pleasant surprise.

He found two full bottles of Blood Qi Pill, each containing ten pills, and another bottle with a smaller quantity, containing only three.

The scent emitted by these pills was identical to the bottle he had found downstairs earlier, and Lu Yu guessed they were very likely Mid-grade Blood Qi Pill.

Lu Yu calculated in his mind: at a price of five thousand yuan per Mid-grade Blood Qi Pill, these twenty-three pills were worth over one hundred and ten thousand yuan.

In other words, these few small bottles alone were worth more than twenty of his own Zhai's Horned Horse mounts; this was truly no small fortune.

Lu Yu carefully tucked the pills into his pocket and then turned his gaze to the three Martial Arts Manual on the table.

The first was 【Chasing Wind Spear Technique】. Judging from the introduction, this was a spear technique manual; its style was Agile and varied, focusing on Flexible application, which was significantly different in style from the Baji Great Spear Art that Lu Yu was familiar with.

The second was 【Eight Trigrams Palm】, which was a palm technique manual.

Lu Yu remembered that Wang Shu seemed to know this palm technique as well, but finding it here could be considered an unexpected joy.

The third was 【Thunderclap Blade Technique】, which belonged to the blade technique manuals.

From the introduction, this blade technique was exceptionally fierce, and when executed, it was as swift as a thunderbolt. It was said that after practicing to a certain level, when the blade edge sliced through the air, it could produce a roar like thunder, which sounded impressively powerful.

Lu Yu collected all three manuals and then looked at a long blade hanging on the wall nearby.

He reached out and took the long blade down; his first impression was that it was heavy, and after weighing it, he found the blade was at least thirty or forty jin.

Lu Yu slowly drew the long blade, and the blade body was as bright as a mirror. A chill hit his face, and cold light flickered and flowed on the edge, giving one the feeling that it could easily cut through metal and jade.

"The sharpness of this blade feels even more formidable than an arrowhead made of First-tier Original Alloy. Could it be forged from Second-tier Original Alloy?"

Lu Yu pondered to himself. If that were true, wouldn't this blade be able to easily slice open the body of an Advanced Fierce Beast?

In that case, the value of this blade was simply immeasurable; I'm afraid all the things found earlier combined could not compare to it.

"I'll take it to Wang Shu to look at when I get back; he should be able to see the secrets of this blade," Lu Yu said as he sheathed the blade.

With this blade, it would be even more convenient for him to defend himself in the future.

Although in the battles he had experienced so far, no opponent had been able to get close to him, the battle with Li Meng today made Lu Yu realize that the opponents he would encounter in the future might possess all kinds of unimaginable means.

Having one more preparation meant one more chance to turn the tables at a critical moment.

Besides these, there was some paper money in the room—not a large amount, maybe a few thousand yuan—a handgun, dozens of bullets, and some other miscellaneous items.

Lu Yu collected all these things one by one and checked them carefully again to ensure no valuable items were missed before leaving the bedroom.

Out of caution, he went to check other rooms, but unfortunately, there were no further gains.

"Let's stop searching here. I'll call Liu Shu and the others over in a bit to distribute the rice in the basement to everyone."

Lu Yu said as he walked out of the villa, looking back at it.

One had to admit that in this doomsday, this villa was like a paradise, a place of refuge that countless people dreamed of.

However, even in such a luxurious place, as long as an Advanced Fierce Beast came by, it would be enough to turn all of this into nothing in an instant.

It seems he still had to keep working hard to become stronger.

Not long after, a long line formed in front of the villa.

The people in the line were all gaunt and thin, holding bags in their hands, their eyes full of anticipation. When they received the white, glistening rice, many were moved to tears.

"Thank you, thank you so much," an old woman said, and she actually knelt down toward Lu Yu.

This action seemed to trigger a chain reaction; everyone else in the line followed suit and knelt down, their mouths filled with various words of gratitude.

In the past, they knelt out of fear from the bottom of their hearts, fearing the tyranny of Li Meng and his ilk.

But this time, they knelt out of sincere gratitude, grateful to the young man before them for rescuing them from their suffering.

Seeing this, Lu Yu hurriedly stepped forward to help the old woman up, saying with a hint of embarrassment, "Ma'am, please don't do this; in truth, these things were yours to begin with."

This sentence instantly resonated strongly with everyone.

"That bunch from Li Family Fort is truly black-hearted, treating us like slaves. We work for them from dawn till dusk every day, yet we can't even fill our stomachs; if we are a little slow, we get scolded and beaten."

"Who's to say otherwise! Back then, when we heard Li Family Fort was recruiting, we brought our whole families here. But now, years later, out of the dozen or so people in my family, I'm the only one left."

"Sigh, it's the same for everyone. To be honest, I felt like I couldn't hold on much longer. I never expected to meet a benefactor like you today, who not only saved us from the clutches of the Li Family Three Brothers but also distributed so much grain to us."

At this moment, someone in the crowd suddenly said, "Benefactor, please stay. We will all listen to you and work for you, as long as we can have a bite to eat and not go hungry." As soon as these words were spoken, they were met with unanimous support from the crowd.

Indeed, in their hearts, Li Meng had always been an invincible existence; in the past, they had only dared to curse Li Meng in their minds.

Yet the young man before them had actually wiped out Li Meng and his gang of villains all by himself.

If this young man could stay here, they would never have to worry about being attacked by a Fierce Beast again.

For a time, everyone pleaded in unison for Lu Yu to stay.

Lu Yu looked at their sincere eyes, smiled slightly, and nodded in agreement.

In his view, having traveled all this way, this Zhao Fort was indeed much better than his own Zhai in every respect.

Just the perimeter wall alone was over four meters high, and its thickness was two or three times that of his own Zhai's wall; furthermore, there was a large area here that could be used for farming.

As the saying goes, "A golden nest or a silver nest is not as good as one's own dog kennel," but the premise of this saying is that the world is at peace.

Just like those super-large cities guarded by top-tier Awakened, if there were an opportunity, who wouldn't want to go in and live there?

Hearing that Lu Yu agreed to stay, everyone was incredibly excited.

Seeing that it was nearing noon, Lu Yu selected a few people from the crowd who looked honest and reliable and put them in charge of distributing the grain.

Seeing that they had gained Lu Yu's appreciation, these few people were so excited their faces turned red.

Lu Yu smiled, offered them a few words of encouragement, and after giving the crowd some instructions, he took the people from Lu Family Stockade, loaded some supplies onto the large truck, and drove away.

The people of Li Family Fort watched the large truck gradually move away until it finally disappeared from their sight, only then returning to the fortress with reluctance and closing the gates.