Chapter 66: The Horse Bandit's Treasure (Part 2)

  An Yuqing opened the wooden box, and inside were all medicinal materials. Xiao Ziyang checked and found that these medicinal materials were all over 30 years old, with more than a dozen over 50 years old, including a hundred-year-old ginseng and a hundred-year-old purple fungus.

  Suddenly, An Yuxuan let out a cry of surprise and took out several pieces of jewelry from the smallest box. When An Yujuan saw what was in her hand, she revealed a sorrowful gaze. The two sisters burst into tears silently.

  Xiao Ziyang realized that the two sisters had seen their family's jewelry in the box.

  Watching her crying sorrowfully, Xiao Ziyang didn't know what to do and could only stand by and watch.

  After a while, the two of them gradually stopped crying.

  An Yuwen wiped away the tears on her face and said, "Let Brother Xiao see the joke. My sisters and I saw that there were old things from our An family castle in this box, and we thought of our relatives who had suffered difficulties, it was really unbearable..."

  Xiao Ziyang comforted them, saying: "The deceased is gone, the two of you should mourn with restraint. Now that your great revenge has been avenged, you should look forward. If your loved ones in the underworld are aware, they would not want to see you constantly immersed in sorrow."

  Xiao Ziyang changed the subject: "You two see, with all these riches, you sisters will have no problem rebuilding Anjia Fortress in the future."

  An Yuwan said: "We sisters are all female masters, why talk about rebuilding Anjia Fortress? Cao Tianhao was killed by Xiao brother. Without us sisters, the horse bandits in this mountain stronghold would not be your opponents at all, and these riches should belong to you."

  Xiao Ziyang smiled and said, "There's a saying in the jianghu that goes 'those who see it have a share'. Let's not push each other around. Many of these medicinal materials are useful for my cultivation, so I'll take them all. The rest of the wealth belongs to you sisters."

  "Miss Su, don't decline, although money is an external thing, but in life without money, it's also difficult to take a step."

  An Yuwan hesitated, she and her sisters had been wandering the world for over a year and could deeply understand the difficulties of having no money. Although she was not a greedy person, she couldn't bear to see her two younger sisters suffer, so she said: "These goods are worth a large amount of money, my younger sister's place needs this much..."

  Xiao Ziyang stopped her from speaking and said: "We also don't need to decline, these things can be placed here first, whoever needs them can come and take them later."

  An Yuwan thought it was reasonable and nodded in agreement.

  The three of them left the cellar, and Xiao Ziyang moved the large iron table back to its original position.

  An Yuwan took out pen, ink, paper and inkstone from Cao Tianhao's bedroom and wrote down the required medicine to give to him.

  Xiao Ziyang was about to go down the mountain when he suddenly thought that the Wutui Longlin horse, which was worth a fortune, would be troublesome to bring down the mountain.

  Jin State was originally the main horse-producing area of Xi Liang, and Tieqi Guild was originally a group of horse thieves, with many excellent horses in the guild. When the Cao brothers escaped, they took nearly half of the excellent horses out.

  Xiao Ziyang decided to choose another good horse.

  Xiao Ziyang arrived at the horse farm and looked at the dozens of stables with hundreds of high-quality horses, suddenly feeling a bit worried. The mountain stronghold only had some women, children, and wounded people left, how could they take care of so many horses? After thinking about it, he decided that selling these horses was the only option.

  He turned around in the stable for a moment and found another black hoof dragon scale horse, which made him very surprised. This dragon horse was all red, extremely divine.

  Apart from this black hoofed dragon scaled horse, there were over a dozen giant horses in the stable that were one foot taller and two feet longer than ordinary horses.

  This is also a precious breed from the vast grasslands, called Wubao, which is an excellent match for heavy cavalry; its speed is only average, but its strength is extremely great and its endurance is very good.

  Xiao Ziyang loved horses, but he couldn't tell good horses from bad. However, he had his own way of doing things - as long as a horse could carry him, it was naturally a good horse.

  Xiao Ziyang's test ride really found a good horse.

  Most of the fine horses in the stable stumbled and staggered as soon as he mounted them, while those sturdy horses could carry him but looked strained.

  A gaunt and bony sorrel horse effortlessly shouldered him.

  Xiao Ziyang saw the horse for the first time and felt a bit strange. Such an ugly inferior horse was being fed separately, and the feed in its trough was actually soybeans accompanied by eggs.

  He mounted the horse and was overjoyed, this thin horse carried his six hundred pounds of body without a single tremble, still leisurely chewing on fodder.

  He excitedly led the horse to the martial arts arena and galloped a few laps. This horse's speed and explosive power were even better than those two black hoof dragon scale horses.

  Xiao Ziyang did not know that this was Cao Tianhao's beloved horse. The mountain road was difficult to travel, and Cao Tianhao feared hurting his beloved horse, so he would switch to another horse when going downhill.

  Xiao Ziyang brought the black hoofed dragon scaled horse back to the mountain stronghold. Riding the jujube red thin horse, leading a string of fine horses, under the gaze of An Jia sisters, he left the mountain stronghold.

  Xiao Ziyang returned to the valley where he had a fierce battle with Cao Tianhao brothers, it was already late at night, and a sea of black figures blocked his way.

  Among the crowd, there were many familiar faces. The middle-aged man in the green robe of a seventh-rank official, surrounded by people like a moon among stars, was none other than Zhang Wenbo, the county's judicial officer.

  According to the official system of Western Liang, at the county level, in addition to the seventh-rank County Magistrate who was in charge of civil and administrative affairs, there were also a seventh-rank Judicial Commissioner and a seventh-rank Military Prefect. The former was in charge of the county's penal laws and public security, while the latter was in charge of the county's military preparations. These two officials were half a rank lower than the County Magistrate, nominally under his command, but in reality they only reported to their direct superiors and the County Magistrate had no actual control over them.

  Xiao Ziyang had just arrived in Nanba County and had dealings with Zhang Wenbo. Next to Zhang Xingling was the county's capture head, Liang Zheng, and the owner of Dujiashan Village, Du Yongxian.

  Everyone saw Xiao Ziyang and quickly stepped forward to welcome him. Xiao Ziyang spurred his horse on for a few steps, dismounted in front of everyone, and cupped his hands: "Magistrate Zhang, Captain Liang, Master Du, I don't know what happened, but it's exhausting for all of you to come here."

  "His Honor, Zhang Xingling, cupped his hands and said: "This official received news early today that the leader of the bandits on Mount Cang had been beheaded by a Taoist priest at the Three Forks Pass. Chen, the County Magistrate, Li, the Military Preparation Commissioner, and this humble official were overjoyed beyond expectation. The bandits on Mount Cang have been a scourge to the countryside, poisoning the people, and are truly a thorn in the side of Chen, Li, and myself. Furthermore, we received news that a group of bandits from Mount Cang had attacked the Old Gentleman's Temple, but were shot dead by someone at the foot of the mountain. Myself and the two gentlemen thought to ourselves, 'The person who killed these evil bandits must be Wu Daochang.' Now, seeing Daochang emerge from the mountains with a dozen fine horses in tow, it is clear that he has eradicated the bandits on Mount Cang and returned triumphant."

  Xiao Ziyang burst out laughing, "Not bad, the bandits of Cangshan, poisoning the countryside, with cruel means. I've been wanting to kill them for a long time, but unfortunately, I haven't had the chance yet."

  Xiao Ziyang then described the events of last night to everyone, glossing over the part about An Jia sisters, only saying that the mountain stronghold had been burned clean by him.