Chapter 56: Moving?

Far more than just Shi Min was lingering in sheer terror. Following the death of the tiger, Zhao Mu, Wang Wu, and Wen Zhi could no longer help themselves and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.

In the split second they killed the tiger, it had felt intensely thrilling. Even Zhao Mu had experienced a reckless sense of going all in. When that singular thought had cleared his mind, he had felt utterly fearless. Yet, once the beast was dead, the lingering dread of having narrowly escaped death washed over his entire body. He could even feel a strange numbness spreading through his limbs. At that moment, all he wanted to do was lie flat on the ground and never move again.

Nearby, Liu Jun was still clinging to a thread of life. Having been the sole spectator to this battle of tiger-slaying, his dormant heart stirred once more upon seeing the beast brought down.

"Save... save me..." Liu Jun mustered every ounce of willpower to force the words out.

Zhao Mu turned his head. Though Liu Jun could still speak, judging by his missing arms, he had zero hope of survival. Furthermore, Zhao Mu held not an ounce of goodwill toward Liu Jun and his companions. From the moment those youths had ridden out of the city in fine clothes and on proud horses, whipping refugees for amusement, it was destined that Zhao Mu would never walk the same path as them. If not for the fact that they had killed the tiger cub, they would never have provoked the adult beast into emerging.

Yet, remembering the two who had just fled, Zhao Mu struggled to his feet and walked over to Liu Jun.

"Say whatever you must, for you are doomed to die."

Kneeling beside Liu Jun, Zhao Mu felt a trace of pity in his eyes despite his deep hatred for the man's actions.

The brief spark of hope in Liu Jun's heart was extinguished once again.

"I... my name is Liu Jun. Take my corpse back to the Liu family and tell them Shen Qiang and Qi Long are the ones who murdered me."

Though his hands were gone, Liu Jun still tried to clutch at Zhao Mu. After a few futile attempts, his fingers clawing at empty air, he could only burst into helpless tears. Soon, his cries faded into absolute silence.

Watching the color gradually drain from Liu Jun's eyes, Zhao Mu sighed and reached out to close them. The ancients valued the peace of the grave, and even in death, Liu Jun wished for his remains to be returned home. Moreover, the two names Liu Jun had uttered were precisely the information Zhao Mu needed. Even though Shen Qiang and Qi Long did not know that he, Wang Wu, and the others had been lurking nearby, should they ever find out, they would inevitably take precautions against anyone exposing the fact that they had abandoned Liu Jun to save themselves. And then, they would silence the witnesses!

Though the probability of that was not high, Zhao Mu had to guard against it. To young masters of their station, a few human lives meant nothing at all. The exposure of their disgraceful cowardice was far more unacceptable to them. Therefore, Zhao Mu paid little heed to Liu Jun's final request. He was merely a passing acquaintance, and Liu Jun's previous impression of him had been poor indeed. Forget returning the body, simply notifying the Liu family of the location of his demise would already be an act of profound kindness on his part.

Zhao Mu rummaged through Liu Jun's garments, unearthing a jade pendant and several silver ingots. The ingots were not particularly large, but combined they amounted to more than a dozen taels, alongside a few banknotes. Most of these notes were of the smallest denominations, totaling twenty or thirty taels of silver in all.

Holding the silver and the notes, Zhao Mu could not help a sigh of emotion. No wonder commoners in ancient times could barely survive and so many turned to banditry; robbery truly was the fastest way to acquire wealth! The old saying that murder and arson bring golden belts was entirely accurate. Besides, he reckoned that the most valuable item on Liu Jun was the jade pendant he had just retrieved. If taken to a pawnshop, it could easily fetch several dozen taels of silver.

However, this item had been stripped from a corpse, and that corpse was a scion of the influential Liu family; holding onto this pendant was somewhat akin to handling a hot coal. Even if he were to pawn it, he could never do so within Taiping County.

At that moment, Wang Wu and the others walked over.

"Brother Mu, how should we deal with this fellow?" Wang Wu asked, eyeing the corpse with a troubled expression.

After a moment of thought, Zhao Mu replied, "Leave him here for now. We will come back in a couple of days to bury him."

Wang Wu blinked in confusion. "Why wait a couple of days?"

Without explaining, Zhao Mu simply said, "You'll understand when the time comes."

He then turned his gaze toward the carcass of the tiger. In ancient times, tigers were not protected animals; indeed, tiger infestations plagued certain regions. Whenever that happened, the authorities would rally hunters to head up the mountains and slay the beasts, offering substantial rewards for success. In *Water Margin*, when Wu Song killed a tiger, the magistrate directly rewarded him with a thousand strings of cash—roughly equivalent to a thousand taels of silver.

Under the Great Qi Dynasty, the magistrate might not offer quite that much, but Zhao Mu could still sell the creature. To anyone versed in pharmacology, every part of a tiger was a treasure. A complete tiger pelt could easily command over a hundred taels of silver. Though the pelt they had was somewhat damaged, fetching a few dozen taels should present no problem. The remaining tiger bones, meat, fat, blood, internal organs, gallbladder, and eyes could all be used in traditional medicine. Even though tiger meat was not particularly delicious, many wealthy people pursued it avidly, believing it possessed tremendous restorative properties that could grant them vigor and strength.

Between the pelt, the meat, the bones, and the rest of the carcass, earning over a hundred taels of silver in total would be a breeze.

"Let's go. First, let's haul this tiger back," Zhao Mu said, catching his breath. "At dawn tomorrow, we'll head into the city and sell it!"

Hearing this, Wang Wu and Wen Zhi nodded with suppressed excitement. Having brought down a tiger, they were now veritable tiger-slaying heroes! While it might not come with an official title or reward, it was a feat they could boast about for years to come!

"Right!"

Wang Wu and Wen Zhi strode over, grabbing the tiger's carcass and dragging it toward the edge of the mountain. With the beast's death, the forest had returned to a deep, profound silence.

By the time Zhao Mu and his companions returned to Little Wang Village, the sky was growing dim. The villagers were utterly startled to see them dragging an entire tiger behind them. This was a fully grown adult beast! Even when the local government organized hunts, it usually took a dozen seasoned hunters to bring down a single tiger. And yet, Zhao Mu and his friends had gone into the mountain for merely half an afternoon and returned with one?

Before they could even fully celebrate, Zhao Mu instructed, "Pack up. Once we finish eating, we're immediately moving to stay in the village to the south."

Everyone looked at him in bewilderment. Bagging a tiger was supposed to be a momentous occasion for celebration. Instead of offering words of encouragement, Zhao Mu wanted to relocate?

Noticing their confusion, Zhao Mu explained, "The tiger's roar earlier triggered a minor beast tide. There's no telling if the refugees will notice that the small animals outside the wilderness have suddenly multiplied. To survive, they'll inevitably push into the mountains to hunt them down."