"How far am I from the small wooden building now?" Zhu Yu asked.

"It’s about more than a mile away." Lu Qing answered. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Zhu Yu was quite shocked.

No wonder when she looked around earlier, there wasn’t even a shadow of the small wooden building to be seen. Even the surroundings felt completely different from the night before, leaving her unable to determine her direction.

Initially, she thought it was because her ability to discern direction and location in the wilderness was too weak. Now, after reassessing her situation, she realized it wasn’t entirely her fault. This area was indeed unfamiliar territory she had never traversed before.

"So... none of us are hurt, right?" Zhu Yu confirmed with Lu Qing.

"Not a scratch." Lu Qing nodded, clearly relieved.

"What about our supplies?" Zhu Yu guessed the answer when Lu Qing ordered Fu Lu to find firewood, and he hugged her, trying to warm her clothes with his body heat.

"All gone, didn’t get thrown out with us."

"Hmm..." Zhu Yu slightly furrowed her brow and mumbled thoughtfully, choosing not to say more.

After a while, Fu Lu managed to find some relatively dry firewood. They piled it up in the open and tried to light it with flint for quite some time until it finally kindled weakly, with the flames seeming on the verge of dying out at any moment instead of burning robustly.

The four of them stared at that pitiful fire, feeling like relying on it to dry their clothes was less promising than waiting for the sun to come out...

"Damn it, if they could throw us out, why not toss our supplies too! If we had the pine oil from the bundle, I could have lit even water-soaked wood, at least allowing the Second Master to warm himself!" Fu Lu muttered irritably, carefully tending to the fire while complaining softly, "Using sedatives... Pah! What kind of gentlemanly conduct is that? It’s downright sinister! So many despicable tricks, stealing someone’s belongings, shameless!"

"If Yan Daoxin heard you, you might not have peaceful days ahead!" Zhu Yu said to Fu Lu with a smile.

Fu Lu froze, remembering that his master’s close brother was fond of experimenting with various strange poisons and antidotes, including bizarre sedatives, making his words earlier likely to offend him.

He rubbed the back of his head, silently continuing to fiddle with the flames.

After quite a while, with the dim fire, the four of them managed to dry their soaking clothes to a decent level.

Zhu Yu was thrown face-up on the ground, so her back got wet. Lu Qing was in a similar situation.

Fu Wen and Fu Lu were thrown face-down, so their front clothes were soaked, especially Fu Lu whose outfit was not only wet but had dirt and grass leaves stuck to his sleeves, showing traces of grass sap.

After warming herself significantly by the fire, Zhu Yu turned her body to face the fire pit, her gaze landing thoughtfully on Fu Lu.

Fu Lu was unsure why his lady was staring at him like this. Initially thinking Zhu Yu had instructions, he wanted to ask, but Lu Qing raised his hand to stop him, signaling him to remain silent and not disturb Zhu Yu.

Fu Wen glanced at Lu Qing and then Zhu Yu, smartly choosing to remain quiet as well.

"I think we should go inside once more." After being silent for a while, Zhu Yu suddenly came to, turning her head to speak to Lu Qing.

"Second Master, we mustn’t!" Finally, unable to hold back, Fu Lu objected desperately, "This time we’re lucky none of the four of us were harmed. Next time, getting caught off guard might leave us with no chance of waking up at all!

If you and Master allow it, my brother and I will tear down that blasted wooden building with our bare hands! After dismantling their lair, let’s see where they try to hide!"

Even before Zhu Yu and Lu Qing could respond, Fu Wen already shook his head, "No, it’s not that simple. Your reckless approach won’t work.

Do you really think I’m someone who conducts matters carelessly and impulsively?"

"Of course not!" Fu Lu responded immediately.

Although his older brother wasn’t as physically strong or powerful, when it came to brains, he could accomplish the work of two men.

If Fu Wen were careless, Master wouldn’t trust him with so many tasks over the years.

"Exactly!" Fu Wen looked slightly helplessly at his younger brother, "Yesterday I thoroughly explored that small building; there were truly no signs of people hiding there. If not certain, how could I dare let both Master and Second Master go there together?!

What does this mean?

It means the scoundrel has extremely secretive hiding spots that are invisible and not easily found!

Even if we dismantled the wooden building completely, what if we can’t find them successfully? What if they get desperate and retaliate fiercely?"

Fu Lu sighed regretfully, pulling the topic back, "I also don’t think Second Master should risk getting near there again!"

Here, Fu Wen agreed with Fu Lu, nodding along from the side.

"Why go again?" Lu Qing neither agreed nor disagreed immediately but asked Zhu Yu her reason for this decision.

"Because I feel the other party doesn’t harbor ill intentions towards us and likely doesn’t know who we are, hiding here perhaps just to elude something." Zhu Yu poked the fire casually with a stick, "The night before, I vaguely saw several old talisman papers on the outer walls of the small wooden building, along with strange symbols that seemed like demon-repelling or evil-banishing designs.

I didn’t understand why those things were there at the time.

But from the fact they threw us out unscathed but kept our belongings, I suspect the other party didn’t intend to harm us, only wanted to frighten us, making us feel the place was eerie and not to be approached.

Moreover, due to constant hiding, they must have scarce resources inside, hence keeping all the practical items we brought.

Since this is the case, last time we were caught off guard by their trick, what if this time we went in fully prepared?"