Chapter 138: They Are Slapping Us in the Face

On the city walls of Zhou Family Fort, the guards holding guns were each attending to their own duties.

Some gazed far into the vast, boundless wilderness, their eyes filled with vigilance; some looked down at the pedestrians passing to and fro beneath the wall, their gazes sweeping over them casually; others still leaned lazily against the wall, yawning, their faces full of boredom.

Standing guard was a dreadfully dull chore to begin with, and even more so when one had to persist year after year, day after day; this tedium was like a shadow that never left.

"Hasn't Su Chungui been missing for quite a few days?"

It was unclear who had suddenly blurted this out, but it instantly drew everyone's attention.

"That's right, it's been about three or four days, hasn't it?"

"No, I think it's only been two or three days."

"It's hard to say exactly how many days, but he hasn't been back since he took that leave. I heard he went out hunting. It's been such a long time without any news; could he have run into some accident?"

At this moment, someone cast their gaze toward a man in his twenties with a pointed chin on the left and said, "Yao Wen, didn't you go to Su Chungui's house to check? How was it? Any news?"

Yao Wen noticed everyone's eyes were focused on him and couldn't help but sigh, saying slowly, "I went there yesterday. There was only a woman at home, Su Chungui's sister-in-law.

She said that a few days ago, Su Chungui went out hunting with his brother and a few others, and never returned after that."

Once these words were spoken, the surroundings instantly fell silent. Upon hearing this, everyone wore expressions of disbelief.

Following that, a series of sighs rose one after another.

"Sigh, why go hunting when things were fine? Isn't it good enough to just honestly stay here and stand guard?"

"That's right, even though the pay is dead-end, at least it's stable. Look at those people in the Zhai outside; who knows how many have died under the claws of those fierce beasts in the wilderness."

"In the end, it's just being too young and hot-headed."

"Exactly, young and ignorant."

After everyone lamented for a while, the atmosphere fell into silence once again.

To them, a situation like Su Chungui's was not the first, and presumably, it would not be the last.

The corners of Yao Wen's mouth lifted slightly, revealing a subtle arc.

Just at this moment, an exclamation broke the tranquility: "Look! Captain Cheng is back!"

Everyone hurriedly looked in the direction of the sound.

They saw a military jeep speeding toward them from the distance.

A look of joy flashed through Yao Wen's eyes.

In the blink of an eye, the jeep approached and drove straight into a courtyard within the fort. After it stopped steadily, the door opened, and a man wearing a shirt and dress trousers stepped out.

He wore a pair of sunglasses, stood over 1.8 meters tall, and had a spirited crew cut. His physique was burly and robust, and his shirt was stretched tight by his solid muscles, as if it might burst at any moment.

His right hand was even carrying a heavy machine gun with ease, his presence extraordinary.

Seeing this scene, the guards on the city wall all revealed looks of longing and admiration.

"As expected of our Captain. This W8-type heavy machine gun, including the base and ammunition, weighs nearly 100 kilograms in total. We ordinary people would have to mount it on a vehicle to use it, but the Captain can lift it easily with one hand."

"That's for sure, the Captain is a Martial Artist at the late stage of Flesh Refining; he has at least a thousand catties of strength in one hand. As for us ordinary people, he could knock several of us away with a single punch."

"The Captain went to the Haoran Martial Arts Hall in Yongan City for advanced training this time; his strength must have had another breakthrough. Perhaps it won't be long before he reaches the Force Entering realm?"

"He definitely will. I heard that the master of the Hailong Martial Arts Hall didn't reach the level of an In-Jin Martial Artist until he was nearly sixty. Our Captain Cheng is not even thirty; his future achievements will surely surpass that person's."

Just as everyone was discussing this, a man walked over from the other end of the city wall and chatted enthusiastically with Zhang Yun, who had just gotten out of the car.

Zhang Yun also wore a cordial smile on his face, nodding in response from time to time.

After the two chatted for a while, they parted ways.

The man who came later watched Zhang Yun leave with a beaming smile, then lifted his head and glanced toward the city wall.

Seeing this, everyone was so scared that they hurriedly straightened their backs and stared straight ahead without looking sideways.

This person was the Vice Captain, Wang Dezhi, a typical smiling tiger.

Neither his ability nor his character was particularly outstanding, but it was said he was from Yongan City, and even Captain Cheng treated him with courtesy on a daily basis.

They, these ordinary guards, did not dare to provoke this guy.

"I'm going to the restroom," Yao Wen said, then turned and walked down the stairs toward the bottom of the city wall.

However, he did not head to the restroom as he had said; instead, he walked into the courtyard, continued inward, arrived outside an office, and knocked gently on the door.

"Captain, are you in?" He deliberately lowered his voice, seemingly afraid of being overheard by others.

"Come in," a low and heavy voice came from inside the room.

With a "click," Yao Wen, his face piled with smiles, opened the door and walked in, not forgetting to gently close the door behind him.

"What is it?" Zhang Yun didn't even lift his head, asking while wiping the heavy machine gun on the table.

"Captain, one of the brothers in our team hasn't come for duty for several days; I'm afraid something has happened to him." Yao Wen put away his smile, a look of sadness appearing on his face.

Zhang Yun's right hand, holding the rag, suddenly paused, and he turned his head to ask, "What exactly happened?"

"It's a little brother named Su Chungui, only in his early twenties. He asked for half a day off a few days ago. We didn't pay much attention at the time, but it turned out he hasn't shown up for several days in a row."

"I went to his house to ask around and only then learned that he went out hunting that afternoon with his brother and a few others, and never returned." As Yao Wen spoke, his eyes turned red.

After hearing this, Zhang Yun was slightly stunned.

In this end-of-the-world era, people dying was the most common thing.

Even as members of the Guard Team, there was no lack of people who lost their lives to Fierce Beasts while on night duty.

This Su Chungui could be considered to have some guts, not satisfied with a stable and plain life, daring to go out and adventure.

He couldn't help but sigh and said, "Later, go to Accountant Ding and draw five hundred yuan. Just say it was my order, and send it to his family."

"Yes, but, Captain, this matter..." Yao Wen hesitated, appearing somewhat stammering.

"Is there some other hidden story?" Zhang Yun keenly sensed that things did not seem that simple.

"That's right," Yao Wen cautiously looked around.

"It's just the two of us here; if you have something to say, just say it straight," Zhang Yun frowned slightly.

"It's like this, Captain." Yao Wen began to recount, but before he was even halfway through, he was interrupted by Zhang Yun.

"Are you saying that the horse bandits outside the city were completely wiped out, without a single survivor?" Zhang Yun's face was filled with disbelief.

"That is what Su Chungui said," Yao Wen continued, "And, Captain, I truly haven't heard any news of horse bandits appearing outside the city these past few days; many people coming from other places have also confirmed this."

"If it's true, then that is indeed a very good thing," Zhang Yun muttered to himself.

That group of horse bandits outside the city was not the first, but they were the most troublesome.

Zhang Yun had personally led teams out of the city to suppress the previous batches of horse bandits, eliminating many and driving away many more.

Yet, after a mere two or three months of peace, new horse bandits would always emerge, which truly annoyed him to no end.

This particular group of horse bandits was especially cunning, playing guerrilla warfare with him; he even suspected that they had eyes inside the city, specifically watching his every move.

Now that this group of horse bandits has been wiped out, it can be considered evil meeting its just deserts.

"Do you know who did it?"

"According to Su Chungui, it was the people from Lu Family Stockade. Among them was a masked expert archer who seemed to use a bow with a draw weight of two hundred jin, and they wiped out the entire horse bandit team."

"Lu Family Stockade?"

Zhang Yun tried hard to search his memory for this Zhai; he remembered there was indeed a place called Lu Family Stockade nearby, but in his impression, it seemed to be just an unremarkable little Zhai.

A bow with a two hundred jin draw weight—the user's strength should have reached about the Body Tempering Third Layer, right?

"Could there be such a formidable person in Lu Family Stockade?" He found it truly hard to believe.

With his own strength, combined with firearms, he could indeed do it. But for the opponent to have such ability with just a bow and arrow, it was truly not simple.

"That is the information I gathered, and, Captain, those horse bandits had a full twenty or thirty horses, all of which were taken away by the people from Lu Family Stockade," Yao Wen emphasized his tone.

This was the real purpose of his visit.

Su Chungui and his group were truly foolish, or rather, too greedy.

To actually harbor delusions of swallowing so many benefits alone, without even weighing their own worth.

That they didn't return this time meant either they encountered a Fierce Beast on the way and had an accident, or they perished at the hands of Lu Family Stockade.

And he, naturally, had to learn a lesson and tell the Captain about this.

If the Captain stepped in, no matter how strong that expert archer was, could they really be stronger than the Captain?

However, things did not seem to develop as he had expected.

"Is that so? Then I really would like to meet this expert archer," a look of keen interest appeared on Zhang Yun's face.

"Ah?" Yao Wen's mouth opened slightly, and he hurriedly said, "Cap, Captain, Su Chungui's death might not be unrelated to the people from Lu Family Stockade."

"What do you mean by that?" A flash of vigilance instantly crossed Zhang Yun's eyes.

Yao Wen swallowed his saliva and said, "After Su Chungui learned that it was the people from Lu Family Stockade who took the horse bandits' horses, he went home and told his older brother, Su Jie.

The two of them found a few more helpers and drove out of our Zhou Family Fort in the afternoon; they must have gone to cause trouble for Lu Family Stockade, and then, and then they never came back."

"Are you sure?" Zhang Yun narrowed his eyes, staring at Yao Wen with a piercing gaze.

"Sure, absolutely certain!" Yao Wen nodded repeatedly, "I specifically went to his house to ask, and his sister-in-law told me herself."

"So, Su Chungui got into trouble because he coveted that batch of Horned Horse mounts, and the one who killed them is very likely that expert archer from Lu Family Stockade?"

"Exactly!" Yao Wen gave a thumbs up and said with a fawning face, "The Captain is wise and martial; you figured out the whole story in an instant."

"Su Chungui and his group really brought this upon themselves," Zhang Yun snorted coldly.

He had intended to rescind his previous decision to send money to Su Chungui's family, but after a moment of thought, he decided against it.

Su Chungui and the others deserved to die, but their families would likely have an extremely difficult life ahead.

A mere 500 yuan was a drop in the bucket for him, but for a family that had lost its breadwinner, it was undoubtedly a timely help.

For a moment, the room fell into silence.

"Is there anything else?" Zhang Yun looked at Yao Wen opposite him with confusion.

Yao Wen was feeling conflicted inside.

He had specifically waited for Zhang Yun to return, not to help him send a mere five hundred yuan to that woman.

Although that woman had long had an ambiguous relationship with him, giving her money was the same as giving it to himself.

What he wanted was thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan!

Otherwise, he would have told the Vice Captain about this the day before.

"Captain,"

Finally, he gritted his teeth, made up his mind, and said with an unwilling expression, "Can this matter just be let go so easily? Su Chungui did make a mistake, but it wasn't a crime punishable by death.

The people from Lu Family Stockade doing this clearly shows they don't hold our Zhou Family Fort in any regard, Captain!"

After finishing, he even hypocritically wiped away tears and continued, "Su Chungui was a pretty good young man; he hadn't come by these past few days, and everyone was quite concerned about him.

To end up dying so inexplicably—whenever I think about it, I can't stop my tears from falling."