“How many?” Yu Ryang's voice was gruff, tinged with barely restrained fury. Sitting in his dimly lit office, he was still half-dressed, his robe loosely draped over his shoulders. The exhaustion from a restless sleep clung to him, but the events of the night had already pulled him from its grasp.
His assistant, standing stiffly before him, swallowed hard. “We estimate… a hundred deaths, Senior Brother.”
“A hundred? Damn it!” Yu Ryang’s fist slammed against the heavy wooden desk, the resounding crack echoing through the room. His sharp gaze bore into the trembling man. “We lost over a hundred men in a single night!”
The assistant flinched but managed to continue. “Six out of the nine secret stashes of the Thunder Sky Brotherhood went up in flames last night.”
Yu Ryang's jaw clenched. “Cause?”
The assistant hesitated, but the words came swiftly. “We believe it was flour dust explosions.”
Yu Ryang stood abruptly, his chair scraping loudly against the floor. His face twisted in a mixture of rage and disbelief. “Flour dust explosions! Freaking flour dust! Those clever little rats…” He turned toward the window, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the horizon. The mountains loomed in the distance, their usual tranquility now overshadowed by the chaos of the night. “They want to retaliate? Fine. Let’s show them what happens when you cross us.”
The assistant shifted nervously. “Senior Brother…”
“What now?” Yu Ryang snapped, his patience already frayed.
“There’s an issue with the other two locations,” the assistant said carefully. “The guards we assigned for the day have refused to take their posts.”
Yu Ryang spun to face him, his glare cold and piercing. “Refused? Why?”
“They’re afraid, Senior Brother,” the assistant admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “They fear those places might go up in flames as well.”
Yu Ryang’s glare deepened, his eyes narrowing into slits. “How did word spread? I thought over a hundred died.”
“There was… a survivor,” the assistant confessed. “He managed to escape and spread the news. Thanks to him, we were able to investigate.”
Yu Ryang exhaled sharply, his frustration evident. “Let those cowards be,” he said, his tone icy. “There’s no point in guarding those locations anymore anyway.”
The assistant nodded cautiously.
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Yu Ryang strode back to his desk, his mind racing. “Have every town and village inspected,” he ordered. “I want ledgers detailing all trades from the past few weeks. Find out who entered and left, and specifically, who’s been buying supplies—food, winter clothing, anything that might help those rats survive the cold.”
The assistant blinked, the pieces falling into place. “You believe they’ve secured enough supplies for the winter?”
Yu Ryang nodded grimly. “That’s the only reason they’d abandon their stashes.”
As the assistant turned to leave, he hesitated. “There’s… one more issue, Senior Brother.”
Yu Ryang pinched the bridge of his nose, exasperation etched into his features. “What now?”
The assistant’s voice was hesitant. “Our men are refusing to hang Thunder Sky corpses in the towns. They’re afraid the Brotherhood will target them next.”
Yu Ryang’s eyes flashed with renewed fury. “Let them be cowards for now,” he growled. “But mark my words: once I get my hands on those rats, I’ll hang them alive in the streets. That’ll restore morale.”
The assistant gave a deep bow, acknowledging the order. “Understood, Senior Brother. I’ll see to it.”
“Good,” Yu Ryang muttered, turning back toward the window. The cold dawn was breaking, but the fire in his eyes burned hotter than ever. “Now get to work. We’re far from finished.”
The assistant quickly exited, leaving Yu Ryang alone in the room, the weight of the night’s events pressing heavily on his shoulders. Yu Ryang intended to make sure the next move would be his.
The atmosphere in the clearing was lively, the once somber cave now filled with laughter and relief. Around the makeshift gravestone, Tao, Shun, Gu, and Minho sat together, pouring out cups of alcohol onto the earth in honor of their fallen brothers and sisters. The stone was simple but etched with care—the symbol of remembrance for those they’d lost.
Shun raised his cup, chuckling as he glanced at Minho. “Quite a simple yet terrifying idea you came up with, Xiao Minho!” he said, his grin wide.
Minho nodded slightly, her fingers delicately plucking berries from a small bowl. “It was nothing,” she replied, a humble tone masking the brilliance of her plan.
Gu leaned back, still feeling the rush of their success. “Man, I can’t describe how cathartic it felt watching those bastards go up in flames!” His face lit up as Tao filled his cup again, slapping him on the back.
“Here, another drink, Brother Gu!” Tao said with a grin, her excitement barely contained. She downed her own drink, raising it high in a toast.
Minho let out a soft laugh, her usually quiet demeanor replaced with a bubbly smile. The scene was almost surreal; here she was, the mastermind behind a plan that had wiped out over a hundred bandits, yet her youthful innocence remained intact. The weight of what they’d accomplished hadn’t fully settled in her mind—it was hard to believe the plan had worked so flawlessly.
The idea had been simple. The Greenwood Bandits, arrogant as ever, had no idea what was stored in Thunder Sky's secret locations. Gu and Yuan had only ever used one stash to hold truly valuable items. The rest were filled with winter supplies—salted jerky, rice, flour, and thick winter clothes.
Minho had discovered a critical flaw during her late-night reading sessions. While scrolling through articles on her [smartphone], she’d stumbled upon a piece about the dangers of improper flour storage. She recalled vividly how an old storage room had exploded during the Greenwood raid back in her village. The memory aligned perfectly with her research: airborne flour particles were highly combustible. If ignited in a confined space, the results would be devastating.
Brother Gu, in his laziness, had never bothered to properly seal the flour containers in their stashes. Whenever the bandits accessed them, they’d wait for the flour dust in the air to settle. Minho realized they could turn this carelessness into a weapon.
Armed with this knowledge, Minho had approached Shun. “Go to Hisu Town,” she instructed, “and get Blacksmith Liang to make a batch of iron arrowheads. We’ll need them by evening.”
Once they had the arrowheads, Minho devised the rest of the plan. Dipping the arrowheads in oil, they set them ablaze and fired them into the storage doors. The small spark was enough to ignite the flour dust inside, creating a chain reaction that obliterated the stash and anyone guarding it.
The first attempt had been a gamble, but the explosion exceeded their expectations. Flames erupted into the night sky, and the thunderous sound echoed through the forest. By dawn, six of the nine stashes had been reduced to smoldering ruins. The Greenwood Bandits were left stunned, their losses catastrophic.
“We really sent them a powerful message, didn’t we?” Minho said now, her smile growing as she raised her cup in a toast.
Tao clinked her cup against Minho’s. “Damn right we did!” she cheered, laughing. “They won’t dare underestimate Thunder Sky again.”
The group nodded in agreement, their spirits high. The battle was far from over, but this morning, they allowed themselves a moment of victory. The forest around them was still, the cool morning air filled with the distant scent of ash. Though their path was perilous, they had proven one thing beyond doubt: the Thunder Sky Brotherhood was not a force to be underestimated.
end of Volume One