Chapter 421: Infants

"Here... is..."

The bandit said weakly.

The mountain wind blew, stirring up dead branches and fallen leaves, making a dry, rustling sound, while also sweeping away all scents.

This was a flat area in the middle of the woods.

Wu Mingxiao's gaze was fixed firmly on the ground.

If not for Li Miao's reminder and the bandit leading the way, he might never have discovered the oddity here in his entire life. But knowing there was a problem, some clues naturally surfaced.

For instance, this shouldn't be a flat area. Judging by the growth of the weeds, the soil here should be more fertile than elsewhere, so why was there not a single tree?

For instance, what was the purpose of the lime powder scattered in a circle around this flat area?

And more obviously, there were dozens of strange, dense mounds of various sizes on the ground.

Wu Mingxiao vaguely guessed what it was.

Why did Li Miao bring the wild man here?

To keep the wild man firmly in his grasp, Zhao Wuji was constantly providing him with milk, and the source of this milk was the women the bandits had kidnapped and imprisoned... But humans don't produce this stuff all the time; this process must have been accompanied by the birth of a large number of newborns.

Yet, following Li Miao all the way here and slaughtering through the entire bandit stronghold, Wu Mingxiao hadn't seen a single child.

So, where did these children go?

Li Miao tossed the wild man next to one of the raised mounds, kicked the soles of his feet twice, and reconnected all his dislocated joints.

"Dig."

The wild man couldn't understand Li Miao's words. After regaining his ability to move, he let out a roar and lunged at Li Miao with all fours.

Slap!

Li Miao slapped him away, and before the wild man could land, he reached out and grabbed him back from a distance.

"If you don't want to dig, that's fine."

"Then be a shovel."

Bang!

Before the wild man could react, he was lifted into mid-air and slammed head-first into the ground.

Li Miao waved his hand.

The wild man shot off like an iron rod, then suddenly turned back, carving a long, narrow trench into the ground that connected all the mounds.

By the time Li Miao put him down, the wild man was dizzy and disoriented.

It took him a while to crawl up. He was still growling, wanting to charge at Li Miao, and pressed his hands into the ground to exert force, but with a "crack," he crushed something, his palm sank, and his body tilted.

He glanced down.

It was this one glance that nailed him to the spot.

What he had crushed was a palm-sized skull.

The skull of an infant whose fontanelle had not yet closed.

The wild man suddenly realized something and turned his head to look.

On the flat ground, dozens of mounds had been opened, and countless white, tiny bones were exposed from the soil, with countless maggots rolling over them, emitting a foul, nauseating stench.

"You ask why I bully you?"

Li Miao's voice came from behind.

Footsteps approached, and Li Miao grabbed the wild man's head, slamming it down onto the infant bones scattered on the ground, pressing his eyes firmly against the bones.

"This is the reason."

"Look clearly, smell carefully. There are over forty skulls just exposed here; these children all died for the sake of your child."

Li Miao's palm pressed lower and lower, and his voice became deeper and deeper.

"Do you think it's unfair that I killed your tiger?"

"What about those people who were sent to the bandits by you, who were dismissed as casualties of a tiger attack because of the Lean Tiger's cover, and who died without their bodies ever being found—is that not unfair?"

"Do you think I'm bullying you?"

"I'll assume you're an ignorant fool who didn't know the bandits were giving you human milk. But you knew they weren't good people, right? Those heroes you defeated, those women you kidnapped to the mountain—where can they go to cry out for justice?"

Li Miao released his palm and used his foot to flip the wild man over.