350 Ulterior motives

On a rainy mountain road near Mt. Daban, a large group of motorcycles suddenly drove up the mountain. A large banner embroidered with the image of a tiger's head was being carried by the lead motorcycle.

Each of these bandits had a blue bandana covering their nose and mouth. From afar, there were two rows of motorcycles, and all of the riders were wearing the same type of blue bandana on their faces. This was a spectacular sight to behold.

Furthermore, there were a lot of people in this group. With more than 300 of them heading up the mountain together, they would not be mistaken for some small gang at a glance. At the very least, they looked way better than the ordinary bandits just in appearance alone. Some bandits were so poor that they even wore tattered pants, much less had bandanas and a large banner.

When they arrived on the North Face, they parked their motorcycles by the side of the road. The leader of the group walked towards a small mountain path that would lead to a campsite.

These fierce-looking bandits trekked on the path up the mountain silently. No one was speaking. Everyone was carrying their guns in front of them so they would be ready to deal with anything unexpected.

They had thought there would be people lying in ambush to put up a fierce resistance against them. However, the whole stretch of the mountain path was silent, and there wasn't even anyone keeping a lookout.

When they reached the entrance of the mountain hideout, the leader pushed open the wooden door with a creak. He was not afraid of anyone sneaking up to attack him and entered first. But when he went inside, he saw this mountain hideout was totally empty. It seemed like no one had been living here for some time.

The leader said softly, "There's something strange about this Mt. Daban. We've come across five or six empty hideouts along the way already. What's happened here?"

"Could it be that it's been getting too hard to get by these days, so everyone decided to head back to the consortiums' factories to work? Since there's still a few hideouts on the mountain. Should we go and look at them?" the leader's trusted aide asked.

"Let's go! I don't believe that all the bandits on Mt. Daban turned over a new leaf." The leader sneered as he led his group further up the mountain.

It wasn't until they checked another three hideouts before they discovered a few sporadic bandits in one of the campsites.

When these solitary bandits saw the turnout, they immediately knelt down on the spot and begged for mercy, "Please don't kill us!"

The leader thought for a while and asked with a frown, "Where are your other men?"

The two-bit bandits wailed, "They were captured by bandits!"

The leader was stunned. "Aren't y'all fucking bandits yourselves?"

This group of people got so angry that they started laughing. They were only supposed to be abducting refugees. Why would anyone even abduct bandits?!

But actually, they were also here to recruit the bandits from the other mountain hideouts. They had thought their plans were well ahead of the other groups', but who would have expected that someone had beaten them to it.

The leader asked, "Who's the leader here? Stand up and talk!"

The bandits shouted, "Our boss was taken away as well."

The leader was shocked. "Damn… Who captured them? How did the few of you escape unharmed?"

One of the bandits said, "They were captured by the refugees from a settlement at the foot of a mountain to the south. Us few only managed to escape because we ran away in advance when we sensed that something was wrong."

"How large is that settlement?" the leader asked curiously.

"4 to 500 people live there. They are extremely fierce, and there's two supernatural beings among them as well!" the bandit said.

The leader became wary at this moment. There were two supernatural beings in a refugee settlement? How could that be a normal refugee settlement?

The leader thought for a moment and asked, "What kind of people do they usually capture? And how do they capture them?"

"They take anyone they come across. Basically, the two supernatural beings do all the work so the others don't have to do anything at all. Our boss was beaten to the ground."

"What do they do with the people after capturing them?" the leader asked.

"I don't know. In any case, I don't think they killed them. The group just gathers there to dig ditches and make bricks."

The leader said to his trusted aide next to him, "It seems like this group of people don't have any sense of vigilance. Xu Jinyuan, take a group of people with you and let them capture you. After you join them, get a better understanding of their situation and wait for my signal to concentrate an attack on them."

The bandit named Xu Jinyuan nodded. "Got it!"

He picked out 11 people to head down the mountain with him.

The leader looked at another person and said, "Head back north and get some brothers to come over. It seems like we might be in for a tough battle, but we should still be able to handle it without much effort. In any case, just get them to come here."

All of a sudden, the original bandits of this mountain hideout noticed the Tiger Head Banner. "You're that bandit gang from the north!"

The leader smiled. "You're pretty observant."

…

Xu Jinyuan aggressively led a group of people to attack the refugee settlement. As expected, they were also captured by Ren Xiaosu.

In order to make it more realistic, Xu Jinyuan and the others deliberately resisted capture with all their might. Although they couldn't land a shot on Ren Xiaosu, they still looked quite aggressive in their attacks.

After Ren Xiaosu handed Xu Jinyuan over to Jin Lan, Yang Xiaojin suddenly whispered, "Something's a little off with this group."

"How?" Ren Xiaosu asked.

"Someone's trained them on how to hold their guns, and there's also some form of cooperation between the 12 of them. You can see that there should have been a group symbol engraved on their motorcycles, but it was deliberately scratched off on their way here." Yang Xiaojin had a very keen eye, so there was no way of hiding any details from her, especially when it was related to firearms.

These people only knew there were two supernatural beings here. Although they had played their parts well, Yang Xiaojin could still see the problems with their act.

"Are they soldiers?" Ren Xiaosu asked.

"Not really. There are no signs they've been through the tough training regimen of the military. I'm guessing this group of people must've been sent by one of the larger bandit gangs in the valley. Who knows, they might have bad intentions," Yang Xiaojin said.

Ren Xiaosu chuckled. "It's alright, we can let them stay here."

Ren Xiaosu didn't seem worried about this group of people in the slightest.

When the rain stopped, Xu Jinyuan and his group started digging for silt in the river after being put through Jin Lan's systematic training. What surprised them was Jin Lan's claims that these two supernatural beings were from Stronghold 178.

Why would Stronghold 178 get involved with matters in the valley? Xu Jinyuan was rather skeptical. Then he was shocked to discover that the people digging silt with him were all bandits as well. Could it be that they were all here because they wanted to join Stronghold 178, just like what Jin Lan had hinted at?

"Brother Xu, what do we do now?" someone asked in a whisper.

Xu Jinyuan thought for a moment and said, "We'll continue making clay bricks with them. Didn't they say that we can get our guns back once we collect a 100 bullets each? We can only coordinate with our brothers back at the lair if we get our guns back."

"Alright!"

A few days later, the brick firing process was completed. Jin Lan and the others happily waited for the temperature in the kiln to cool down before carrying the black bricks out.

Someone next to Xu Jinyuan said, "Brother Xu, why did they come here and work so hard to make bricks when they could have been bandits instead?"

Xu Jinyuan thought for a moment before answering, "They could be building defenses."

"No way. I heard it's because they wanted to build houses for the refugees. I also heard that the refugees are quite good to these bandits and even offered them food."

"Cut the bullshit." Xu Jinyuan snapped at him, "How could it be possible that bandits would build houses for refugees? Isn't that like a weasel dropping by a chicken coop for a visit? And you said that refugees offered food to the bandits? I don't believe it one bit!"

But at noon, the refugees came over to the riverbank with baskets and said with warm smiles, "Everyone, come and eat lunch. We've cooked some ears of corn for all y'all. Please don't mind the simple fare."

Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng took the baskets from the refugees and distributed the corn to everyone one by one. The ears of corn were from last fall's harvest, and the refugees could not finish eating them during the winter, but no one minded that.

Xu Jinyuan was stunned for a while. "What the fucking hell is this!"

Just as he finished saying that, Jin Lan stuffed a piping hot ear of corn into his hands and said, "Talk less, eat while it's hot."