socalfunplaces Chapter 63 Investigation
Chapter 63 Investigation
Chapter 63 Investigation (Seeking first subscription, seeking follow-up reading, seeking monthly votes)
At the foot of the mountain, Taiyi and his two companions hid in a large tree. The dense foliage provided excellent cover for them, and a winding path lay a hundred meters away.
This small hill is not high; its highest peak is less than 600 meters high, and its area is only about three or four kilometers in circumference. Although it is not high, it has a unique feature of the Land of Fire: many trees.
The mountain is covered with dense trees, and from the foot of the mountain to the top, you can hardly see any signs of human habitation.
Before arriving, Taiyi and his two companions had already circled the hill and found that apart from the path in front of them, there were no other routes that could accommodate a large number of people and supplies.
The three of them gathered together and discussed it for a while. In the end, they decided to slowly search up the path together to see if they could find anything.
With the plan finalized, the three carefully concealed themselves and split into two groups, proceeding along the path.
Taiyi explored the left side of the path alone. Judging from the traces along the way, no one had walked this path for more than ten days, and there was no sign of human habitation in the jungle on the left. This made Taiyi somewhat doubtful about his trip up the mountain.
The three explored slowly, but they reached the end of the path in about half an hour.
It was a mountain stronghold, but it was clearly abandoned. Taiichi gave a coded message to Yangping and Saori, who were not far away.
The three then split up and began exploring the mountain stronghold.
Taiyi found a corner, climbed over the dilapidated stockade wall, and used the height to look down at the entire stockade. Just as he had thought, the entire stockade was probably deserted.
However, just to be on the safe side, Taiyi still acted cautiously, afraid of alerting any remaining personnel.
Starting from the edge of the village, Taiyi searched room by room, and gradually, he noticed something was amiss.
Even though it's an abandoned village, the state of disrepair is astounding. The gate hanging halfway from the frame, the tables and chairs covered in thick dust—everything here indicates that no one has lived here for a long time.
It wasn't until Taiichi searched the center of the stronghold that he discovered some signs of human habitation. By then, Yangping and Saori had also found their way here.
Taiyi looked at the three approaching people and asked, "So, did you make any special discoveries?"
Both of them shook their heads, clearly having found nothing, just like Taiyi.
"Except for this place, the rest of the mountain stronghold looks like it has been abandoned for a long time," Yang Ping said.
"Yes." Saori nodded in agreement, then added, "It looks like no one has lived here for more than ten days."
"Taiyi, do you think these bandits knew things were going badly and all ran away?" Yangping said with a worried look, as if to say that there were no bandits and what would happen to their mission.
"That's possible. Judging from the traces, this group left quite calmly, taking everything they needed to take," Taiyi analyzed. "Perhaps they really knew they were being exposed and ran away beforehand."
"And have you noticed that this stronghold was obviously not built by those bandits themselves? They were just temporarily residing there, otherwise they wouldn't have cleared out this central area." Taiyi continued to share his findings.
"You mean, this is very likely a group of mobile bandits who commit crimes?" Saori continued Taichi's analysis and expressed her opinion.
"It's just a possibility." Taiichi was clearly unsure of his own opinion.
"So what do we do now? Should we go back to the village to investigate?" Yangping asked immediately. "I haven't even tested my new ninjutsu yet!"
"Of course we should go. It's the last clue, after all. It's so close to this mountain, the villagers must know something about what's happening on this mountain," Taiyi said.
"Alright, let's get going!"
The sunset painted the entire sky. After a day of exploration, even though Taiyi and his companions rode at full speed, it was already evening when they arrived at the village.
At this moment, smoke rose from every household's chimney, and the entire village was enveloped in a peaceful atmosphere.
Taiyi and his two companions walked through the village, which was quite small, with fewer than 50 households at most.
The three walked around, stopping frequently, and whenever they saw someone, they would find an excuse to go up and chat with them.
"Auntie, may I borrow a bowl of water?" Taking advantage of being the youngest, Taiyi knocked on a door and, with an innocent look, struck up a conversation.
But he was met with indifference. The woman closed the door without hesitation when she saw a stranger, without saying a word.
Looking at the tightly closed door, Taiyi and the other two exchanged bewildered glances. Were they really that scary?
"Let's split up and wander around, ask a few more people, and see what's going on in this village," Taiichi said to the two.
After the three parted ways, Taiyi continued walking along the path. Perhaps because bandits often roamed the area, the village seemed particularly xenophobic and unfriendly to Taiyi, an outsider.
Pedestrians on the road avoided Taiyi, and even people working in the fields with pitchforks would immediately put down their pitchforks and go home. Taiyi approached and knocked on the door, but received no response.
Next, Taiyi asked several more households, and the situations he encountered were all similar. The only slight improvement was that he finally got a sip of water.
Looking at the exquisite porcelain bowl filled with clear water in his hand, Taiyi went straight to the point: "Brother, our village doesn't seem very big. I heard a group of bandits came nearby. Has our village suffered any damage?"
"What loss could there be? Our village is full of strong young men. We're already being lenient by not going after them." The burly man, with a face full of scars, was clearly quite strong and didn't care about Taiyi's question at all.
"Kid, it's getting dark. Why don't you stay the night?" The big man looked at the sky and said to Taiyi.
"No need, brother. I have companions waiting for me. I'll leave after I finish my water."
"Then you should leave now!" Without waiting for Taiyi to finish his drink, she started urging him to leave.
Looking at the closed door again, Taiyi frowned. This village always gave him a strange feeling.
Soon after, Yohei and Saori arrived and met up with Taichi. The three exchanged information and found that they had all received the same treatment, which left them speechless. The people who were spying on this village were really quite uniform.
"Let's go to the village chief's house. He definitely knows something, and he has to cooperate with our questioning."
"Hmm."
After saying that, the three of them headed straight for the village chief's residence. As for how they knew this, it was simple: they just went to the biggest and best house in the village. Even if it wasn't the village chief's house, it must be connected to him.
Sure enough, after Taiyi and his two companions arrived at the tallest house in the village, they knocked on the door and confirmed that it was indeed the village chief's house.
Given the situation in the village, Taiichi didn't mince words with him. He immediately produced his ninja certificate and the mission authorization letter from the Daimyo's office, demanding the village chief's cooperation.
The village chief held the task assignment and examined it for a long time before reluctantly letting the three people into the house.
Once inside, the group took their seats, and Taiyi immediately asked, "Sir, you've seen our mission assignment. We're here to ask what you know about this band of bandits?"
"You're too late," the old man said unhurriedly. "Those bandits fled to the Land of Grass more than ten days ago."
"They really all ran away!" Yang Ping exclaimed in surprise, drawing everyone's attention. Feeling embarrassed, he awkwardly scratched his head. "You guys continue."
"Sir, do you know where these bandits come from? Your village is so close to theirs, haven't they come to rob you?"
"I don't know, but one day suddenly this group of bandits appeared on the mountain." The village chief recalled, "Not long after they arrived, they came and robbed the village. Didn't you see that everyone in the village was afraid of outsiders? They were all scared of them."
"Oh, that village is quite strong; they actually managed to stop the bandits," Taiyi said, staring intently at the village chief.