Chapter 94: A Great Harvest

Lu Yu sighed softly, walked over, and crouched down. He first flipped open the left pocket, and a wallet the size of a palm tumbled out onto the grass.

Lu Yu's breathing suddenly quickened. He hurriedly picked up the wallet; the first sensation was that it was heavy.

Opening it, he saw a thick stack of banknotes inside, mostly hundred-yuan bills, interspersed with some fifty-yuan and ten-yuan notes, and even a few thousand-yuan bills!

"One thousand, two thousand, three thousand..." He quickly counted them and finally confirmed there was actually over thirteen thousand yuan!

What kind of concept was this? The Five Hundred Catty Draw Weight Bow he had been wanting to buy for a long time could now be easily acquired.

There was also the long-coveted Alloy Spearhead, and even the meter-long Alloy Battle Blade—none of these were a problem at all! Even if he exchanged all this money for Blood Rice at ten yuan per catty, he could buy over thirteen hundred catties!

"It seems that killing and looting is a fast way to make money," Lu Yu couldn't help but remark. Perhaps this was just what this group of horse bandits had left over after eating, drinking, and having fun.

Besides money, there was a photo in the wallet. The photo showed a happy family of three: a man and a woman with a daughter. The little girl was about five or six years old, her face brimming with innocent smiles.

Looking closely, the man in the photo was exactly the corpse on the ground, only he still had hair in the picture.

Lu Yu guessed that this guy probably went down the path of a horse bandit after experiencing some kind of misfortune.

Thinking this, he took the photo out of the wallet, gently tucked it into the man's hand, then shoved the wallet into his own pocket and walked to the other side of the corpse.

Flipping open the other pocket, out fell a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, and a notebook, with a ballpoint pen clipped to the cover.

Lu Yu picked up the lighter and cigarettes. He didn't smoke himself—after all, smoking was bad for health—but taking this pack of cigarettes to trade for twenty or thirty catties of ordinary rice would be no problem.

Next, he curiously flipped through the notebook and found that most of it was filled with dense writing, with a date written at the top of every page.

"This guy actually kept a diary every day?" A strange expression appeared on Lu Yu's face, thinking to himself, who keeps a diary if they're a normal person?

However, this diary might contain information he didn't know, such as what other Zhai were nearby or what factions existed.

After all, the other party were horse bandits and rode horses. With the speed of a Horned Horse Beast, even going to Yongan City a hundred miles away would only take two or three hours. The reason it wasn't one hour was because the limit speed of a Horned Horse Beast was one hundred kilometers per hour, and it couldn't maintain that for long.

He stuffed the diary into his pocket too. Time was tight right now, so he would read it slowly after going back.

"I remember he was holding a Telescope earlier?" Lu Yu pondered for a moment, carefully avoided the bloodstains, and felt around in the man's jacket pocket. Sure enough, he felt something hard.

Flipping it open, it was indeed a Telescope. Besides that, there was some loose change—one-yuan, two-yuan, and five-yuan notes—adding up to about a dozen yuan.

Lu Yu thought that even a mosquito's leg is meat, so he stuffed it into his pocket as well.

"That's strange, why doesn't this guy have a Martial Arts Manual on him?" Lu Yu's brows furrowed slightly.

He felt around carefully again, but still found nothing.

"Maybe he didn't carry it on him."

After searching for a long time without finding it, Lu Yu had to accept this reality.

Fortunately, gaining over ten thousand yuan all at once could be considered an unexpected joy.

He stood up and walked toward the two corpses nearby. After searching for a while, the money on these two was much less than their boss's, only a few hundred yuan in total.

However, there were plenty of other miscellaneous items.

A pack and a half of cigarettes, several lighters, a knife, and a bottle of seasoning. Lu Yu opened the cap and sniffed—it was actually cumin.

He couldn't help but mutter to himself, did these guys usually have picnics out in the wild?

The subsequent search confirmed his guess. MSG, salt, sugar, and even some honey; it was clear these horse bandits knew how to enjoy life.

There were more miscellaneous items than he could have imagined. Lu Yu's hands were almost full, so he simply tore off one person's coat, tied it into a bundle, and put all the looted items inside.

Of course, he didn't forget to take the weapons from the corpses' hands; these were all valuable things.

However, a problem arose at this moment. Not far away, a few people were peering in this direction.

Because they were unsure of the situation, those few people didn't act rashly for the time being, but the group of Horned Horse Beasts and the corpses on the ground kept stimulating their nerves.

"I can't keep looting." Lu Yu narrowed his eyes.

There were still a few corpses he hadn't had time to search, and they were further away. He was worried that if he went over, those people would make a move on the group of Horned Horse Beasts, and that wouldn't do—these Horned Horse Beasts were all his treasures!

Thus, he decisively gave up, placed the looted items and various weapons next to the group of Horned Horse Beasts, and held his bow and arrows, staring intently at the few people looking this way.

If they dared to approach, he would give them one warning first; if they didn't listen, then they couldn't blame him for being impolite.

The few people on the other side were still hesitating. Just then, another group of figures appeared in the distance, rapidly rushing toward this side.

Lu Yu's heart tightened, but after seeing who it was, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out to be Qin Hai and the others who had finally arrived.

On the other side, Lu Guohao saw from afar that Lu Yu was safe and sound, and the heavy stone in his heart finally fell to the ground.

Having heard Qin Hai say earlier that Lu Yu went alone to deal with a group of horse bandits, he had been scared pale. There were over thirty people; how could Lu Yu possibly be a match for them?

Although Qin Hai repeatedly assured him, he was still restless and had rushed over in a panic the whole way, fearing that if they arrived late, something might happen.

Fortunately, it was all a false alarm.

The few people in the distance saw this situation and, though unwilling, had no choice but to leave dejectedly.

"Xiao Yu, you aren't hurt, are you?" Lu Guohao ran over hurriedly and asked with concern.

"Dad, what could happen to me? Aren't I perfectly fine?" Lu Yu replied with a smile.

"Are you really not hurt?" Lu Guohao was still worried and looked him up and down for a good while before finally feeling at ease.

"Xiao Yu, you really are bold because of your high skill, daring to take on a group of horse bandits all by yourself." Zhao Shan rarely put away the smile on his face, his expression quite complex as he spoke.

"That's right, that was too risky."

"It's good that you're safe and sound."

"It's a pity our strength is too weak, and we couldn't help."

Everyone spoke one after another, feeling happy for Lu Yu while also feeling a bit ashamed.

Qin Hai had already explained the situation in detail. At the time, the horse bandits were all using a Telescope to stare at the exit, and no one knew who their target actually was.

If the target was someone else, everyone might have been able to return to the Zhai safely, but if they were coming for them, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

According to Qin Hai, in that situation, whoever went would have been a burden to Lu Yu, because their speed was far inferior to the Horned Horse Beasts.

"How could that be?" Lu Yu smiled indifferently. "I only did it because I was confident. The facts prove it was a close call but safe; you uncles shouldn't take it to heart."

Actually, he didn't have to take the risk. If he waited a few more days, his strength would definitely be stronger, and dealing with these horse bandits would be much easier.

It was just that, on one hand, the number of people in the Zhai had increased, and they were in urgent need of grain and salt, and prey wouldn't be fresh if left too long; on the other hand, he also wanted to verify whether what Meng Yu said was true or not.

"Sigh." The crowd nodded one after another, at a loss for what else to say for a moment.

"Alright, everyone, stop dwelling on this. As for these Horned Horse Beasts ridden by the horse bandits, I'm thinking that since there are fifteen of us in total, leading two horses back to the Zhai each shouldn't be a problem; if anyone has a better idea, feel free to speak up," Lu Yu said, looking at the twenty-some Horned Horse Beasts nearby.

Upon hearing this, the crowd hurriedly looked around, their breathing instantly quickening.

In fact, they had noticed these Horned Horse Beasts when they arrived, but they had been so focused on Lu Yu's safety that only now did they realize they seemed to have struck it rich!

Everyone knew that Horned Horse Beasts in the wild were very difficult to capture and were full of wild nature, completely unwilling to let people ride them, so trying to catch wild Horned Horse Beasts as mounts was almost an impossible task.

Therefore, these Horned Horse Beasts must have been carefully raised by people since they were young, with docile temperaments suitable for riding; because of this, the price would be at least three or four times higher than ordinary Horned Horse Beasts!

An ordinary adult Horned Horse Beast is calculated at five yuan per jin, so one could be worth one or two thousand yuan; this kind of adult mount couldn't be bought for less than five or six thousand yuan.

In other words, the twenty-some Horned Horse Beasts before them were worth over one hundred thousand! This figure was simply astonishing!