Luo Jiang did not use the main gate of the quadrangle courtyard. Instead, he employed the Wind-Riding Technique, landing lightly on the rooftop. After orienting himself, he sprinted toward the spot where he had previously spotted the high-ranking Japanese officers.
A few minutes later, he saw ahead a large compound illuminated as brightly as day. Japanese soldiers were bustling in and out, busy with god knows what. With it already approaching eight in the evening and no signs of rest, it seemed life wasn't easy for them either, working themselves to the bone around the clock.
This compound was quite spacious. Parked inside were three motorcycles, five trucks, and three sedans. At the rear stood a two-story building, its surrounding walls strung with barbed wire, and pressurized gas lamps mounted on all four corners to cast a glaringly bright light over the entire courtyard.
This place had likely been an office for the Beiping warlords in the past. After the Japanese arrived, they occupied it and turned it into their command headquarters.
Luo Jiang used the Wind-Riding Technique to land on the roof, quickly locating the stairwell leading downstairs. Releasing his Divine Sense to sweep the area, he found the corridor empty and walked down the stairs.
He first pushed open a door near the top of the stairs. Inside, a Japanese soldier sat smoking a cigarette. The man froze upon seeing him push the door open. Before he could even react, Luo Jiang took a stride forward, reached out, grabbed the soldier by the neck, and with a sharp "crack," instantly crushed his windpipe.He stripped the watch from the Japanese officer, picked up the military saber leaning against the wall, and noticed a map hanging on the north wall with some folders placed in the cabinet beside it. Pulling open a drawer, he found a Nambu pistol along with a box of ammunition. After gathering these items, he turned and left, heading to the next room.
Inside that room was a pretty female Japanese soldier in uniform, who was bent over a desk writing something. Hearing the door open, she barely raised her head before Luo Jiang seized her by the throat, cutting off any words she tried to speak. A trace of fear appeared on her pretty face, which quickly gave way to tear-filled eyes as she tried to win Luo Jiang's sympathy so he would let her go.
Seeing this pretty female Japanese soldier, Luo Jiang thought of Granny Liu, Granny Zhang, and the others who had been killed in Ligezhuang. In his eyes, every single Japanese person deserved to die—whether they wore a military uniform or were ordinary civilians, he would wipe them out whenever he had the chance.
Therefore, he completely ignored the tears in her eyes and showed not the slightest hesitation, crushing the throat bone of the pretty female Japanese soldier.
This woman, Hashimoto Miyuko, was an agent belonging to the Sakura Special Service Section. Relying on her pretty face, she had done many things to aid Woguo's invasion of the Dragon Kingdom. She had hoped her attractive looks would cause this tender young man to let her go, giving her a chance to kill him instead. Little did she know that Luo Jiang was completely immune to such charms and simply killed her outright.Luo Jiang was just a bit tall, but his temperament was still that of a twelve-year-old child; how could he possibly understand any romantic charm? With Hashimoto Miyuneko trying to act pitiful and flirt with him, it was like playing the lute to a cow.
After ransacking the female Woguo devil's room, he went into another room to continue killing people and looting weapons and money.
There were twenty-two rooms on the second floor in total—twelve on the north side, eleven on the south side, and two rooms combined into a conference room.
After slaughtering the Woguo devil officers on the second floor, he obtained a dozen or so pistols and over thirty watches. In one of the old devil's rooms, he also found two chests of large yellow croakers, three chests of small yellow croakers, along with some silver dollars, antiques, and calligraphy and painting.
He guessed that this old devil might be a high-ranking Woguo official, otherwise why would there be so much gold, silver, and treasure in his room?
Additionally, in that old devil's room, he acquired a military saber bearing a chrysanthemum crest. He had no idea what the chrysanthemum signified, but he put it into his Storage Ring anyway.
As he prepared to head to the first floor, following his usual habit, he released his Divine Sense again to scan the area. He saw that there weren't many devils on the first floor, but beneath this building, there was a basement piled high with all kinds of light weapons and ammunition, as well as several hundred cases of canned beef and dozens of bags of rice and flour.
Overjoyed, he thought to himself that he was just looking for food, and here it was! Just as he was about to go down, he heard footsteps coming up the stairs—it was a devil walking up the steps.
Standing right beside the stairwell and listening to the footsteps nearing the top, he reached out, grabbed the devil by the neck, and with a crisp "crack!", shattered the devil's laryngeal bone. He tossed the corpse into the hallway and headed down to the first floor.
There were quite a few devils moving around on the first floor. Judging by the rank insignias on their uniforms, they were different from the officers on the second floor. Luo Jiang didn't care about that; furthermore, he didn't understand military ranks anyway—his only job was to kill devils.
He quickly wiped out all the devils on the first floor, even killing the ones who were walking in and out. He scavenged some more watches, silver dollars, and military sabers. The devil officers on the first floor didn't have much money and weren't as wealthy as those on the second, but every single one of them wore a watch.
Luo Jiang didn't know since when he had started enjoying taking watches off the devils, but whenever he killed a devil, he would check their wrist first.
With no more devils entering or leaving the building, he went straight down to the basement. Enveloping all the supplies there with his Divine Sense, he waved his hand and swept them into his Storage Ring.
After gathering all the supplies from the basement, he wanted to go back and sleep, but suddenly remembering that he still hadn't found any meat, he used his Divine Sense to scan around again and quickly located the devils' kitchen.In the kitchen of those Woguo officers, there were actually several large iceboxes—essentially well-sealed iron cabinets containing blocks of ice and various meats, which kept longer in the cool environment. In the Imperial Palace and the homes of high-ranking ministers, ice cellars were common; they used ice blocks to cool their rooms during the sweltering heat of summer.
Luo Jiang saw that these large iceboxes were filled with pork, mutton, beef, chicken, duck, and fish. With a wave of his hand, he stowed them all into his Storage Ring. He also swept up some of the kitchenware before casting several Fireballs. Using the Wind-Riding Technique, he alighted on the rooftop and vanished after a few quick bounds.
The headquarters building of the Woguo forces in Beiping City was soon engulfed in flames. As fire shot toward the sky, the sentries at the gate began to shout frantically. Fearing their cries weren't enough, one of them raised his rifle and fired into the air to sound the alarm.
"Bang! Bang! Bang..." The sound of gunfire echoed far into the night. Soon, Woguo patrols came running, and seeing the headquarters in flames, they scrambled to join the firefighting efforts. They grabbed buckets and splashed water onto the building, their numbers swelling until hundreds of soldiers had gathered.
However, magical fire is not so easily extinguished; the more they poured, the faster the flames roared, as if the water were mere gasoline. After a series of thunderous rumbles, the entire building collapsed. Only when the spiritual energy was completely consumed did the fire die out on its own.
The soldiers used shovels to search the ruins for any surviving officers, but they couldn't even find a single corpse; it was as if the officers had never been inside at all.
Luo Jiang returned to his quadrangle courtyard and took out some spirit stones to cultivate. He knew that the puppet troops and Woguo soldiers would surely come to investigate soon. He hadn't expected that by wiping out the officers of the Beiping headquarters, the remaining soldiers would be left completely leaderless and at a loss for what to do. Fortunately, a squad leader managed to alert the division commander at the barracks to wait for orders, while the rest stood by.
The next morning, Luo Jiang had barely slept when he heard a knock at the door. Using his Divine Sense, he saw a middle-aged couple standing outside; the man wore a robe and a bowler hat, while the woman wore a qipao. They were carrying a wicker trunk.
"Who are you looking for?" Luo Jiang asked as he opened the gate, though he did not invite them in.
"We’re here to rent the place. We’d already arranged it with the landlord, Old Wei, a few days ago, but only today did we have the time to come. May I ask, young brother, are you…?"
"Oh, I'm Luo Jiang. Old Wei had an urgent matter to attend to, so he sold the house to my uncle yesterday. My uncle has gone out of town on business and left me to look after the property. Come on in."
Luo Jiang hadn't intended to rent the house out, but realizing that living alone in such a large property would inevitably invite suspicion, he changed his mind and decided to let them move in.
After he closed the gate, the three of them walked through the gatehouse and into the inner courtyard. Luo Jiang gestured toward the east and west wing rooms and asked, "See which side you'd prefer to stay in. The previous tenants have moved out. My uncle likes peace and quiet, so he doesn't want too many people around."
"Could we stay in the house at the back? We wouldn't mind paying a bit more in silver dollars," the man said, pointing toward the room west of the main house.
"No, that's where I live," Luo Jiang replied, refusing the request immediately. He had plenty of silver dollars in his ring; if it weren't for the need to avoid suspicion, he wouldn't be renting the place out at all.
"Then we'll take the east wing. How many silver dollars a month?" The couple exchanged glances before asking about the rent.
"Whatever you think is fair," Luo Jiang replied. He had never rented out a house before and had no idea what the going rate was.
"Well... we paid six silver dollars a month for a place like this elsewhere. Yours is a bit more spacious and looks very well-maintained, so how about eight silver dollars?"
"That's fine. By the way, what are your names? Do you have your Resident Certificates?" Luo Jiang didn't care much about the amount, but he needed their names.
"Yes, yes, of course. My name is Li Fucheng, and this is my wife, Guo Yunxia. I am a teacher at Qingshui University. My wife is currently unemployed; these are such troubled times, it’s not suitable for women to go out much."
As he spoke, Li Fucheng produced two Resident Certificates for Luo Jiang to inspect. Guo Yunxia took out a stack of silver dollars from her handbag, counted out eight, and handed the rest back to her husband before passing the money to Luo Jiang. "We'll start with a six-month lease."
"Alright. See if you need anything else for the room—if I have it, you're welcome to use it." Luo Jiang took the silver dollars and tucked them into his coat, though he immediately transferred them into his Storage Bag.
"Um... would you mind writing us a receipt?" Guo Yunxia asked, noticing Luo Jiang was about to walk away.
"Is that necessary? Rest assured, you can stay here; I won't come asking for the money again." Luo Jiang had no idea what a receipt was, nor did he see the point, having never been a landlord before.
"It's quite alright. A receipt isn't strictly necessary. This young brother Luo is very straightforward," Li Fucheng said to comfort his wife. He smiled at Luo Jiang, picked up the wicker trunk, and headed into the east wing, with Guo Yunxia following close behind.