Moonlight streamed through the window into the warehouse, scattering the night’s darkness. Still, Zhang Min took a candle and flint from his breast pocket. More than attracting attention with a faint light, he feared stumbling around in the half-darkness and knocking something over. Shielding the flame with his hand, he looked around at the shelves stacked with various goods, rows of chests, and sacks filled with things. Once, he had been lucky enough to take a quick look inside this warehouse while trading for a bow, so he decided to rob it first.

  “Let’s start shopping. Heh-heh,” he whispered, pulling an empty sack from under his clothes. “Shame I can’t take everything. I’ll have to be picky.”

  He moved along the shelves, touching and sniffing the items, occasionally raising the candle to get a better look in the dim light. From time to time, he opened chests and rummaged through their contents, but he was careful not to make a mess, everything unnecessary went back in its place, as if no one had ever touched it. The sack slowly filled with different goods, whose value he judged by instinct and appearance, avoiding anything too fragile.

  “Taking back stolen goods isn’t theft! I’m practically Robin Hood!” he whispered quietly, studying two palm-sized figurines that looked expensive. “How strange they are! Someone worked hard carving these… Are they gods or demons? Doesn’t matter. I’m taking both!”

  Among the boxes, sacks, and random piles of belongings, he didn’t find a single coin, not even a copper one. His hopes of stumbling upon some miraculous, life-saving artifact weren’t rewarded either; the only weapons here were plain bows and a dozen spears. This was where they tossed anything that had no proper use, things no one knew how to sort or sell quickly. Sometimes a roll of expensive fabric turned up, looking completely out of place in the middle of all the junk.

  Inside one of the chests, Zhang Min found a pile of men’s clothing and filled another bag with it. First, he was sick of walking around in rags like a beggar, especially if he planned to go home soon. Second, he considered dressing the captive girls in clean clothes as a disguise. In daylight, they would be recognized immediately, but at night it might work.

  In truth, he had no clear plan. Choosing men’s clothing for the girls had been nothing more than a sudden idea. No matter how hard he strained his imagination, he couldn’t see a reliable way to get them out of the fortress. A small act of sabotage, like burning a warehouse, wouldn’t distract the entire band; at most a couple dozen people would respond, and the guards or commanders wouldn’t even budge over something like that.

  On a mountain swarming with bandits, one man might escape, but four, impossible. The forest itself held countless dangers; real wild beasts prowled here, far more vicious than anything in his previous world. The girls, who had spent days underground, would never survive a long journey, much less a chase. If he wanted to leave right now, he’d have to abandon them.

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  Such thoughts made his head ache and his heart heavy. He had deliberately avoided asking the captives’ names and rarely spoke to them, afraid of getting attached. But indifference and selfishness weighed on him like a stone. Zhang Min kept putting off the decision, as if waiting for a miracle or a revelation.

  “Enough useless thoughts. Now’s not the time,” he muttered, shaking his head—then banged it against a cage hanging from the ceiling on a chain. “Ow. What the—? Who hung this iron… What is that?”

  Beside his face swung a small cage plastered with yellow paper charms the size of his palm, each covered with crimson ink symbols and strange patterns along the edges. In the dim light, Zhang Min couldn’t read a thing. Stepping closer, he tapped the iron bars. From inside came a faint snort and the rustling of tiny paws.

  “Eh? What idiot locked an animal in here? And sealed it with paper, too? It’ll suffocate like that.” He tore off several of the papers. “You must be hungry, huh? Sorry, but I can’t break the cage, so I can’t let you out. Here…” Zhang Min pushed a piece of dried meat through the bars. “Tch. Bastards.”

  He folded the torn papers and tucked them inside his shirt so as not to leave traces, then continued searching the warehouse. When the sack was so full it barely fit through the small window under the roof, Zhang Min finished his first raid. Unnoticed by anyone, he slipped outside, made his way to a quiet spot far from the bandits’ quarters, and, to the sound of pigs grunting, closed the door of an old shed behind him. Moments later, two bulging sacks stood in the middle of the underground hideout, and the three girls blinked curiously at him.

  “I told you not to light the oil lamp for no reason,” Zhang Min grumbled.

  “We were eating,” one of the girls said timidly.

  “Hmph. If you want, you can go through the sack. Just don’t break anything! And put it all back after.”

  The next night, Zhang Min climbed into another bandit warehouse. This one had no small window, so he dismantled part of the roof and slipped in using a rope. Making several trips under the steady snoring of the guards, he carried out around six sacks of various goods and stacked them neatly in a corner of the hideout. In addition to ordinary items, he brought back food: dried beans, nuts, rice, and other long-lasting provisions.

  The girls, dressed in clean men’s clothes a little too big for them, were sorting the loot by value. With great curiosity, they rummaged through the sacks, pulling out small figurines of clay, wood, or cheap jade, wiping dust off them with their sleeves, inspecting them from every angle, turning over carved boxes, and gently stroking the embroidery on smooth fabric.

  On the youngest captive, the shirt hung like a dress, with sleeves so long they nearly brushed the floor, hiding her small hands. She sifted through the bags as if playing with a basket of toys. Porcelain figurines, ornate boxes, and wooden carvings filled her with delight. Sometimes she wrinkled her nose at the dust when she brought them too close to her face.

  “Ah-choo,” she sneezed softly.

  Watching the girls, it became harder and harder for Zhang Min to say what he had planned. In recent days, he had brought them plenty of food from the warehouse, made the hideout more livable, and taught them how to climb in and out quickly, but he still hadn’t found a way to get them safely out of the fortress.

  The moment was drawing near, soon Zhang Min would be leaving with Tu Hama’s unit on their mission. It wasn’t clear whether Tan Gui had assigned him there on purpose or not, but Zhang Min would be lucky to survive even an hour among those enemies. Escaping easily would be impossible. Tu Hama had already broken through to the Body Tempering Realm, and no one knew how far he had progressed since. His lackeys were skilled archers who would never let their prey slip away.