bookbashuk Chapter 346 Resettlement Supplies
Chapter 346 Resettlement Supplies
Chapter 346 Resettlement Supplies
Shino suddenly said, "He's more cautious than I thought."
Chi Quan said softly, "It's something you learn by suffering losses."
"People like that are troublesome."
"But it's easy to guess."
Why?
"Because he'll keep thinking he can't be bitten a second time in the same way." Chi Quan's gaze fell on the main room. "The more he thinks like that, the more his eyes will look towards the spot that hurt the most yesterday."
Shino remained silent for a few moments.
"so?"
"So he would fix up places like Xijingyuan, the southwest slope, and the main alley more and more tightly. On the other hand, he would leave other places temporarily unless they were needed immediately."
Shino said: "Like Shiliangkou?"
"For example, Shiliangkou."
The conversation continued in the main room, but the volume had decreased. Someone was probably moving the blueprints further in, or perhaps they had simply gone into the inner room.
Shino suddenly raised his hand and gently pressed down on Ikezumi's wrist.
"Someone is coming."
Almost simultaneously, footsteps were heard from the east side of the courtyard.
It wasn't a leisurely patrol; it was a hurried affair. Two allied ninjas carried a man quickly into the courtyard. The man was half-covered in blood, and the cloth wrapped around his legs was already stained red. He was carried directly to the eaves of a side room, and when he was put down, he let out a muffled groan of pain.
A medical ninja quickly caught up and knelt down to examine the area. Another shouted towards the main house, "Another hidden pit has collapsed over in the well courtyard! Someone fell in; it looks like an old storage level!"
Two people immediately came out of the main room.
One was a middle-aged man in gray armor, and the other was Helian.
Chi Quan narrowed his eyes.
"The old storage floor?"
Shino whispered, "The explosion last night was too violent; the things that were originally under the well were loosened."
The well courtyard originally had an old well, stone enclosure, woodshed, and large courtyard, so it wouldn't be surprising if there were storage layers, old tunnels, or even deeper cellars underneath. The question is, how will Helian view that "collapsed thing" now?
Helian walked up to the wounded soldier and asked him a few questions. The soldier was pale, his lips trembling, and he spoke between breaths. Zhi Nai paused for a few moments, then whispered to Chi Quan, "He said there wasn't just one empty level below, it seemed like there were old horizontal beams. Not all the people who fell down have been pulled out yet, and there's a smell of medicine and mold inside. There's another one..."
Shino paused.
"What else?"
"Behind a piece of shattered wooden board, there seems to be burnt talisman ash."
Chi Quan's eyes narrowed.
"Ashes?"
"Um.
""
Chi Quan quickly went through the sequence of events in his mind. They had placed long-range talismans and medicine packs near the well courtyard, so it wasn't surprising that some talisman ash would be left after they exploded. But if that talisman ash fell into the old storage layer, it was uncertain what the allied forces would think.
Helian was clearly thinking about it too.
He stood still for a moment, then said directly, "Seale the well courtyard. All irrelevant personnel, step back. Sensing team, demolition team, interrogation team, come with me."
The middle-aged man in gray-white armor immediately replied, "Yes."
Chi Quan lowered his voice: "He wants to go see for himself."
Shino said, "This is an opportunity."
"What opportunity?"
"Following those people from the past will only create more gaps," Shino said calmly. "With more people, it's easier for the bugs to attach themselves. As soon as Helian moves, I can see where he'll land next."
Chi Quan hummed in agreement, but did not move immediately.
Because now there is another problem – should they change positions and continue to move towards Jingyuan?
Not following might mean missing out on more crucial conversations; following, however, could instantly increase the risk.
As he was thinking, Shino suddenly said, "Let's not follow her yet."
Chi Quan looked at him.
Shino adjusted her sunglasses.
"He's most alert right now, and those around him will be most vigilant. What we need is to hear his decisions first," not to stand by and watch him throw a tantrum.
Chi Quan listened without offering any rebuttal.
"Alright," he said, "then we'll stay here and see who stays."
Sure enough, after Helian took a group of people away, the courtyard suddenly seemed a bit more relaxed. Two draftsmen and a Lightning Country sensory ninja remained in the main room, while two more guards were added to the side rooms to watch over the boxes.
With fewer people around, the volume doesn't need to be as suppressed as before.
One of the young men drawing wiped his face and muttered a complaint, "Back to the well courtyard again—so many people died there last night, wasn't that bad luck enough?"
The ninja with sensory abilities standing nearby said coldly, "Shut up. The general hates it when people mention bad luck."
"I didn't mention it to his face," the young man muttered softly. "I just feel that this village has been eerie ever since the well courtyard. First, it was bombed, and then the people who kept watch at night said they always felt something moving in the cracks in the walls—"
The sensory ninja glanced at him.
"That's because you weren't asleep."
"I really heard it," the young man said in a low voice. "It sounded like something was crawling behind the planks."
Hearing this from behind the wall, Izumi turned her head and glanced at Shino.
Shino's face was expressionless.
Chi Quan said softly, "Your bugs are scary."
Shino replied calmly, "That shows they weren't focused enough."
Another older man in the main room chimed in, "Don't be paranoid. What we should be keeping a close eye on right now is that forest in the southwest. Konoha retreated from there last night, and he might try to sneak in again via the southern path today."
Chi Quan's eyes flickered slightly after hearing this.
This wasn't said by Helian, but it was clearly a judgment that had gradually formed within the Allied Forces. They implicitly assumed that Konoha's next infiltration would be in the "southwest or south".
This means that, in the short term, some passages on the gentle eastern slope, or even further north, may be considered "relatively safe."
Just then, someone in the side room brought up another matter.
"Have those boxes of Thunder Explosion Talismans been recovered from the North Warehouse?"
"no."
"The group that was robbed in the woods last night?"
"Hmm, not many marks remain. The fire was too big, and the footprints are all messed up."
"The general really scolded me harshly this morning."
"Wouldn't you be cursing if you were in their shoes? They looted all night, took the village, but then Konoha took a whole cartload of talismans, medicine, and soldier rations."
At this point, the man's smile suddenly became somewhat forced.
"Honestly, this is the first time I've ever seen someone steal logistics so brazenly."
The other person didn't laugh, but simply said, "You'd better not let the general hear you say 'steal.' He'll think you're praising the other person's cleverness."
Upon hearing this, Chi Quan's lips twitched again.
After a moment of silence, Shino suddenly said, "You have a good reputation among them."
"Yeah?"
"At least enough to keep them up at night."
"That's fine then."
The two remained hidden behind the wall for nearly a quarter of an hour.
In that moment, Shino gleaned a lot of fragmented information from the insects. For example, the Allied Forces had transferred another water-escape team from the north last night, specifically to keep an eye on forest fires and fire attacks; a deeper storage pit was being dug beneath the high courtyard in the east of the village, in preparation for dispersing and storing the remaining medicinal herbs and talisman materials, instead of keeping them concentrated as before; and before this evening, three new sentry posts would be erected on the path to the south, one of which would be staffed with a sensory-type officer.
These were all very useful, but Chi Quan always felt that something was still missing.
It's missing something that's more like a "next step".
It's not about "what they're doing now," but rather "which hand they plan to extend next."
After a while, people finally started returning from the direction of Jingyuan.
The first to return were two members of the demolition squad, their trousers and cuffs covered in dust, their faces looking rather grim. Close behind was the middle-aged man in gray-white armor. He walked faster than he had left, his expression even more somber, and went straight into the main house upon entering the courtyard.
Helian did not return immediately.
Chi Quan's gaze darkened: "He's still in the well courtyard."
Shino closed his eyes, as if chasing the thread of another batch of insects.
"Hmm. There are three other people with them. One is a perception specialist, one is an explosives specialist, and one seems to specialize in rune analysis."
"What did they find down there?"
After a moment of silence, Shino said in a low voice, "Old wooden beams, medicine pots, two long-rotted skeletons, and a few fragments of shattered talisman boards."
"A fragment of a talisman?"
"It's not the standard we use now. It's older." Shino paused. "There might have been old seals or old storage talismans under the well, not all of them were left over from last night."
Chi Quan frowned.
That makes things complicated.
If the talisman boards unearthed below the well don't all belong to their setup last night, how will Helian judge? Will he suspect that Osmanthus Village has buried or hidden something before? Or will he simply attribute everything to Konoha?
Shino continued, "Helian is asking a question now."
"What?"
"Ask the village who used to be in charge of medicine and sealing items."
Chi Quan's eyes flickered.
"He wants to investigate his past."
"right."
"Then his next step will be to find a local."
"Or find the people who were arrested to identify the village."
Chi Quan muttered a curse under his breath.
This is troublesome. As long as the Allied forces begin systematically searching for locals, old rosters, and even the village's original account books and house deeds, their "temporary deployments" in Guihua Village, while not necessarily directly exposed, will reveal the village's complexity more and more clearly. The more complex it is, the more they will fortify it and the less likely they are to trespass on it recklessly.
Conversely, once they start investigating the "past," their attention will be diverted to "what is happening around them now."
Chi Quan suddenly asked, "If we were to do it again, not by bombing, but by killing one person and leaving, which route do you think we'd most likely encounter Helian from?"
Shino paused for a rare moment, as if seriously considering whether his question was just a casual remark or if he was already thinking about what to do next.
"Now?" he asked back.
"Let's ask first, not now."
Shino then said, "It's impossible during the day. If he's still going back and forth between the well courtyard and the high courtyard at night, the shortest route is along the beam line past the collapsed roof on the west side. But once you go down that line, it'll be very difficult to bring someone back."
3
"What about me?"
"You can get there by yourself," Shino said calmly, "but you'll probably die at the third wall you come out of."
Chi Quan clicked his tongue.
"You're really direct."
"Because you asked something that doesn't deserve to be tactful."
As the two were talking, Helian finally returned.
He walked back to the High Court with a faster pace, his face colder than before, and his cloak was dusty. As soon as he entered the main room, everyone inside stood up immediately. Now that they were closer, even Chi Quan could vaguely hear a few words.
"—Seal off the area below the well first."
"Don't dig through the entire old layer; leave two people to watch over it."
"—Go and bring the medicine deliveryman over again."
The middle-aged man in gray armor immediately replied, "Yes."
Chi Quan said in a low voice, "He really does need to ask someone else."
Shino suddenly said: "Wait a minute."
"What's wrong?"
"He provided a list."
""
"What list?"
Shino seemed to be piecing together a few incomplete sentences.
"Search everything you can find: old household registers, medicine contracts, lists of transactions with outsiders." That's roughly it. He paused, then added, "There's one more thing: 'If you can't get it from the local officials of the Land of Fire, get it from somewhere else.'"
Chi Quan's eyes instantly turned cold.
"Elsewhere, do you mean arresting people along the way, or intercepting logistical documents?"
"Both are possible," Shino said, "but it's more likely to be the latter. Lists like that aren't all in the village."
Chi Quan's mind immediately flashed through the southern rendezvous point, the evacuation roster, the compensation registration documents in Jingyin's hands, and the resettlement records of Guihua Village villagers that the border logistics side might have already begun to re-file.
If the Allied Forces really set their sights on these things, the problem will not just be Osmanthus Village.
That means they will trace back along the lines of "who was evacuated, where they were evacuated to, who is still alive, and who can come out to identify the village".
Chi Quan said in a low voice, "We need to take this back immediately."
"That's not enough," Shino said.
"What's missing?"
"I need to know where he's planning to reach for it." Shino's gaze behind his sunglasses remained calm. "He's only just having the idea right now. But if we could hear exactly which line he's planning to touch, the intelligence would be twice as valuable."
Chi Quan remained silent for two breaths.
Then he said, "Listen a little longer."
Time seemed to pass even more slowly these days.
Both of them knew that staying any longer would increase the risk with every breath. The village was growing larger, patrol positions were being rearranged, and even the sensory ninja on the southwest rooftop had moved to a slightly closer position.
But precisely because of this, if Helian Wuli has indeed decided on the "next step," now is the easiest time for him to emerge.
Finally, someone else went into the main room.
This time, a young ninja carrying a short scroll entered. He knelt down and held the scroll up with both hands.
Helian opened it, glanced at it, and asked a question.
The young man replied immediately, speaking very quickly.
Shino paused for three or four breaths, then relayed in a low voice: "We only managed to probe two layers of the outer perimeter of the southern rendezvous point; we can't get in. The Fire Country's border logistics have been reinforced with more people these past two days. We haven't received the list of villagers to be resettled yet, but the convoy escorting the compensation documents will take the western post road the day after tomorrow."
Chi Quan's eyes narrowed sharply.
The day after tomorrow, on the western post road.
This is no longer a vague "want to get the list", but a specific time and route.
Inside the room, Helian remained silent for a while before saying, "Don't touch it the day after tomorrow. It's too conspicuous. Mark out the western post road first, and intercept them when their second batch of resettlement supplies leaves."
The young ninja responded.
Helian added, "Have someone keep an eye on the rendezvous point first, don't rush to make a move. I need to know whether it's officials or villagers coming out."
Hearing this, Chi Quan knew he had had enough.
This information must be sent back immediately.
But just then, an unexpected change occurred.
A very faint creak suddenly came from a crack in the collapsed wall not far from the two people.
It wasn't the sound of insects, nor the sound of wind.
It looked more like someone's shoe sole had scraped against a piece of broken tile.
Ikezumi and Shino turned around at the same time.
A ninja from the Allied Forces had somehow wandered to the edge of the abandoned courtyard behind the collapsed wall. He was crouching behind a low wall, holding a half-empty water pouch. He had originally come looking for a quiet place to rest, but when he looked up, he caught sight of a dark shadow that shouldn't be there.