Chapter 503: The Smug Huang Shengyong, the Black Concealment Cloak, and the Infiltration |
Year 12 of Great Xia, December 28th, late night
Zhongyang Camp, warehouse entrance
"Restricted area! No unauthorized personnel!"
Rumble, rumble, rumble... Clunk...
Ten massive iron-wheeled carts, fully loaded with beast meat, slowly rolled forward under the escort of over a thousand men. The armored soldiers on guard duty shouted to halt them, and the convoy immediately stopped.
Leading the escort team was a young man in white robes with a sword at his side. He looked to be just over twenty. His brow carried a sharp, fierce air. Seeing the thousand armored soldiers guarding the warehouse entrance, a smile immediately appeared on his face. He stepped forward, found a man dressed as a commander, clasped his hands, and said with a laugh, "I am Lu Yun from East Ridge, disciple of the Beishuo Sword Chief, Lu Yang. May I ask the general's esteemed name?"
"Chief of the Beishuo Surveillance Court, Huang Shengyong!"
Hearing the middle-aged commander's name, Lu Yun instantly understood why the man had been staring at him with such an unfriendly expression since his arrival.
At this year's Beishuo martial assembly, he had placed sixth. The person right behind him was named Huang Shengyu, the eldest son of Huang Tianxing, the current head of the Beishuo Surveillance Court.
"So it's General Huang. I've long heard of your great name. Lu Yun, acting under my master's orders, has brought these ten carts of beast meat as provisions for your esteemed army. Just now, Lord Yang Ping said we should deliver them directly here for storage..."
"Restricted area! How can anyone just come and go as they please? Remove all the tarps from the carts. We will inspect and store the goods."
Huang Shengyong still didn't give Lu Yun a friendly look. After speaking, he walked to the first iron-wheeled cart, drew his large blade, and casually slashed through the black tarp covering it.
As the tarp tore open, bundles of blue beast meat came into view.
Everyone in the East Ridge escort team, including Lu Yun, naturally looked displeased at Huang Shengyong's cavalier action.
They had delivered so much beast meat to aid Beishuo, and not only did Huang Shengyong not offer a single word of thanks, but such a careless slash clearly showed he held East Ridge in contempt.
But what angered them didn't stop there.
Noticing their expressions, Huang Shengyong's lips curled into a scornful smirk. He walked to the second iron-wheeled cart, deliberately slashed open its tarp to reveal the blue beast meat inside, then turned his head and laughed at Lu Yun, "Your East Ridge village is quite sensible, after all. Hahaha..."
"At the end of the day, it's still just a village. It *should* know its place!"
"Hahaha, if it weren't for our Beishuo's help last year, East Ridge might have been wiped out by Great Xia. Now, with a great enemy at our gates, Sword Chief Lu has finally shown some sense, aligning with us."
"Hahahaha!"
…………
The soldiers guarding the warehouse could tell at a glance that their Commander-in-Chief, Huang Shengyong, was deliberately humiliating the East Ridge group. So they all joined in the laughter, which was full of contempt and arrogance.
Heaven, when it wants to destroy someone, first makes them mad.
Hearing the chorus of mocking laughter, Lu Yun's expression naturally darkened. But when his master's words suddenly surfaced in his mind, he felt no anger at all inside.
The behavior of Huang Shengyong and the others wasn't particularly strange. Setting aside this year's Beishuo martial assembly, in recent years, as East Ridge's strength grew, its influence and say in Jingxi and even throughout Beishuo had increased. It was normal for Beishuo people to resent that.
Plus, last year, his master had Director Luo cooperate in that act. In the eyes of Beishuo people, it was *they* who helped East Ridge resist Great Xia, yet Lu Yang refused Yang Fa's recruitment, making him an outright ungrateful wretch.
Beishuo's hostility toward East Ridge wasn't a one- or two-day affair.
But at this critical juncture, Huang Shengyong actually dared to lead these men to deliberately pick on them. This truly surprised Lu Yun.
To be this stupid is truly a marvel!
Watching Huang Shengyong head toward the third cart, Lu Yun, with a grim face, strode over first and proactively pulled open the tarp covering it.
Unlike the first two carts, the beast meat on the third iron-wheeled cart was packed in giant leather sacks.
Lu Yun directly pulled out one sack, untied its opening to reveal the blue beast meat inside, and said with suppressed anger, "These ten carts of beast meat were all obtained through the hard work and hunting of our East Ridge. I hope General Huang can show some respect..."
He paused, then continued, ignoring Huang Shengyong's darkening expression, "For your convenience in inspection, the first two large carts contain loose beast meat. Each bundle is 500 jin, 400 bundles total, amounting to 200,000 jin. The following eight carts are all bagged. Each sack holds 2500 jin, with 90 sacks per cart. Eight carts make 720 sacks, totaling 1.8 million jin. Since General Huang distrusts our East Ridge, please take your time counting here. I bid you farewell!"
After speaking, Lu Yun wasted no more words. He directly waved his hand at the escort team.
Clearly also holding in their anger, the escort team members, upon receiving the order, immediately abandoned the carts and followed Lu Yun, walking toward the outer perimeter of the warehouse.
"Wait..."
Huang Shengyong, whose expression had remained dark throughout, finally couldn't hold back. He called out to stop Lu Yun, then, as if out of spite, gestured to the soldiers behind him.
Rip... Rip...
The soldiers immediately understood. They proceeded to slash open the tarps on the remaining seven iron-wheeled carts.
The beast meat from all ten carts was now laid bare before everyone.
Seeing the stiff expressions on Lu Yun and his men, a sense of victorious pleasure surged in Huang Shengyong's heart. He put on an apologetic tone, "It's a restricted area. We naturally have to inspect things thoroughly. Please forgive us, Young Sword Chief..."
He paused, a cold glint flashing in his eyes, then continued, "The brothers under my command are all going to fight the Xia troops. This kind of manual labor naturally should be handled by the brothers from East Ridge. Please proceed!"
Upon hearing this, a flicker of astonishment flashed in Lu Yun's pupils, but he immediately concealed it, replacing it with an expression of fury. He said angrily, "Commander Huang, pushing these ten iron-wheeled carts directly inside wouldn't take much effort. Can that even be considered manual labor?"
"Brother Lu, what do you think this place is? The great battle at Zhongyang is imminent. This is a restricted warehouse area. Nothing besides beast meat is allowed inside. These ten iron-wheeled carts are not entering. You must move all the beast meat from the carts to the locations I designate."
"You..."
Lu Yun clenched his fists, a flush of crimson rising to his cheeks, as if he were about to curse the next second.
But he ultimately held back. His fists suddenly relaxed, and he turned to the men beside him, saying, "Since Commander Huang has given the order, we will comply. Brothers, start moving!"
After speaking, he didn't even glance at Huang Shengyong. He walked directly to the first iron-wheeled cart, hoisted a bundle of beast meat onto his shoulder, and strode toward the warehouse doors.
"Hmph!"
Seeing Lu Yun forced to yield, Huang Shengyong's face was full of smug satisfaction. He signaled with his eyes to the soldiers at the warehouse doors to open them, then personally led Lu Yun inside.
And so, under the guidance and supervision of Huang Shengyong and his men, the thousand-plus members of the East Ridge escort team carried the 2 million jin of beast meat from the ten carts, bundle by bundle, sack by sack, into the warehouse.
Although 2 million jin of beast meat was a lot, it was all pre-packaged—only 1120 items in total. With over a thousand men from East Ridge, it should have taken just one trip each to finish quickly.
But Huang Shengyong, leading a group of soldiers to supervise, deliberately caused trouble. He'd say to put things here one moment, then over there the next, making Lu Yun and his men move the goods back and forth. It took a full hundred breaths to finally finish.
Delivering aid and ending up so aggrieved—this was truly a first. Including Lu Yun, almost every one of the thousand East Ridge men wore a dark, sullen expression throughout the moving process.
Finally finishing the moving, Lu Yun's face was thunderous. Forget saying goodbye, he didn't even want to speak a word to Huang Shengyong. He directly led everyone, pulling the ten empty iron-wheeled carts, and turned to leave.
"Hahahahaha…………"
Watching the East Ridge escort team depart in disarray, Huang Shengyong and his gang, like roosters that had won a fight, threw back their heads and let out triumphant, raucous laughter.
Seeing Lu Yun and the others quicken their pace, they thought their laughter was having an effect and couldn't help but raise the volume.
"These fools..."
Lu Yun, who had already walked out of the warehouse area at the front, heard his seventh junior brother, Yang He, about to speak. He immediately turned and glared at him.
"Don't speak carelessly!"
Sun Manifestation Level experts had keen senses. If they paid attention to this area, nothing they said would escape their ears.
Yang He also realized this and quickly shut his mouth.
"Young Hero Lu, Lord Yang has already arranged accommodations for you. Please follow this old man..."
As soon as Lu Yun led everyone out, an old man immediately came forward to greet them and led them toward the edge of the barracks area.
…………
"Close the warehouse doors!"
Once the East Ridge group had left, following Huang Shengyong's order, the warehouse doors were shut from the outside. The interior of the warehouse immediately fell into silence.
The warehouse wasn't too large, only about 200 meters in length. Its structure was mostly made of iron, with only a minimal amount of wood used.
For a town-level camp like Beishuo, iron ore was basically in surplus. For important places like barracks and warehouses, which needed to guard against both people and Frost Beasts while also considering a degree of airtightness, it was naturally impossible to use wood for construction.
Once the warehouse doors closed, the cold wind outside was immediately cut off, and almost no sound could be heard inside.
Rip…………
Yet, in such a quiet environment, a faint ripping sound suddenly came. It was clearly the sound of a blade cutting through a sack.
The sound came from the northwest corner of the warehouse.
A knife tip had, at some unknown time, quietly emerged from within a sack.
Then the blade slowly sliced downward. The giant leather sack holding the beast meat was cut open, and from within the pile of meat, a hand quietly extended.
Rip…………
A figure entirely wrapped in a black robe cautiously crawled out of the sack. He first turned his head to survey the pitch-black warehouse, then gently tapped the ground with his long knife three times.
Thud... Thud... Thud...
As the three taps sounded, the previously empty, silent warehouse, as if receiving a signal, immediately emitted one ripping sound after another.
Four black-clad figures, one after another, emerged from sacks in different areas. Once out, they immediately gathered around the first one who had emerged.
The five removed the black hoods from their heads, revealing five exceptionally young faces.
"These fools, actually making Big Brother carry us in... so stupid it's unbelievable. Second Brother..."
Zhu Baixu really couldn't hold back, but he also knew they absolutely must not make a sound now. So he just patted his second senior brother and mouthed the words to him.
The first person to emerge from the sack was none other than Lu Yang's second disciple, Han Li. Seeing Zhu Baixu's words, he merely nodded slightly without responding. He turned to look at the massive amount of beast meat in the warehouse, the excitement in his pupils impossible to conceal.
"This warehouse is basically iron, using only a tiny amount of wood. Luckily, we tampered with the beast meat. Otherwise, we wouldn't even be able to start a fire..."
Han Li also spoke by mouthing the words. He walked to the leather sack he had just hidden in and cut it open with his knife. That sack contained only a layer of beast meat on the outside; the inside was packed with dry grass and beast down.
He reached inside and rummaged for a bit, pulling out two pottery jars as large as human heads. Opening them revealed they were filled with black kerosene.
"We brought 50 jars of kerosene in total. Be careful. Find them all according to the markings. Don't make a sound. Spread it all over every corner of the warehouse. Also, keep 10 jars on your persons. Once the warehouse fire starts..."
As Han Li meticulously described the task using mouth movements, Zhu Baixu, Bai Wuji, Wan Qingyu, and Nie Shen, the four young men, were filled with excitement.
Only after Han Li finished did the four nod heavily. Then, they put their black hoods back on and began moving stealthily around the warehouse.
Watching his four junior brothers start their separate tasks, Han Li looked down at the black robe he wore, his eyes also brimming with excitement.
"This Black Concealment Cloak can perfectly evade even the perception of Sun Manifestation Level experts. It's truly incredible. A pity there are so few. I heard there are less than ten in the entire Great Xia..."
To call Huang Shengyong stupid might be a bit excessive.
Han Li knew clearly that their successful infiltration into the warehouse tonight had little to do with Huang Shengyong's foolishness.
Earlier, when coming up from the southwest mountain path, he could sense a Sun Manifestation Level expert inspecting the iron-wheeled carts. That meant Beishuo wasn't completely without vigilance toward them.
It made sense. After all, it was a restricted warehouse area. Normally might be one thing, but with a major battle imminent, how could they just let anyone in?
Unfortunately, that Sun Manifestation Level expert seemed far too confident in his perception ability and didn't conduct a thorough inspection at all.
"The seven of us are gambling our lives for wealth and honor. If we can help Commander Mu capture the Zhongyang Camp, we will have the top merit in Great Xia's northern expedition this time!"
Han Li's eyes shone with fervor. It had been over five years since his master, Lu Yang, formally brought him into Great Xia. Like ordinary people in Great Xia, he dreamed constantly of one day being enfeoffed and ascending to the court.
Unfortunately, Great Xia had seen little military action in recent years. Under normal circumstances, with his current strength of 22 zong, it was difficult to achieve merits sufficient for ennoblement.
Wealth and honor are sought in danger. It wasn't just him. His senior brother Lu Yun and his five junior brothers also desired ennoblement. The seven of them discussed it and came up with this plan.
Their master, Lu Yang, initially refused.
But the seven persisted, and he finally agreed.
Of course, Lu Yang didn't let them risk their lives blindly. He specifically made a trip back to Xia City to borrow these five Black Concealment Cloaks for them.
"If things seem impossible, abandon the plan. Don't lose your lives recklessly. It's just a Zhongyang Camp. We'll take it eventually, sooner or later."
Touching the Black Concealment Cloak on his body and recalling his master's instructions before departure, a look of gratitude appeared on Han Li's face. His eyes then grew even more resolute. He stood up and began moving about the warehouse with light, careful steps.