Chapter 317: Chapter 313: Act First, Report Later_1
In the following days, Zhou Wuchang hired people to purchase some square stones, timber, bamboo, and enough tiles to cover five rooms.

Within less than ten days, these materials had arrived one by one.

When building the house, the laborers from the surrounding villages all came to help, and they got a full meal at noon.

When the house was almost finished, a group of soldiers suddenly arrived, with a sneering leader at the head, shouting, “Who allowed you to build a house here?”

The villagers became nervous at the sight of these troops from a nearby military camp, gradually stopping their work.

Little Douzi, who was helping to carry tiles, saw the trouble coming and quickly slipped back to the village to find Zhou Wuchang, “Sir, the officer from the military camp has come and forbidden us from building. You need to come and see!”

“Alright, lead the way.” Zhou Wuchang got up, attached the purple and gold dagger to his waist, and followed Little Douzi to Stone Spring Mountain.

Yingbao and Senior Zhou Hao quickly followed.

By the time they arrived at Stone Spring Mountain, they saw three to four dozen villagers chased to one side by the soldiers. The colonel was inspecting the house, his face full of greed.

Zhou Wuchang walked up to the villagers and asked, “Why has the work stopped?”

Before the villagers could reply, the colonel turned around, looked Zhou Wuchang up and down, and sneered, “Who are you? Do you dare to defy my orders?”

Zhou Wuchang also looked at him, “Who I am, you are not worthy of knowing.”

Enraged, the colonel drew his waist knife and swung at Zhou Wuchang.

Zhou Wuchang didn’t move, but several soldiers did. They promptly ran over, grabbed the colonel, and tried to calm him down, “General, please calm down.”

Still restless, the colonel pointed his sword at Zhou Wuchang and yelled, “Where did this spy come from! I’m going to arrest you and thoroughly interrogate you! You! You! And you guys too! Arrest him!”

The soldiers hesitated and murmured, “General, keep your temper in check. We haven’t figured out his background. What if he belongs to a prominent family? That could be troublesome.”

The colonel roared, “I don’t care which family he belongs to. Once they’re on my mountain, they must obey my rules!”

Zhou Wuchang chuckled and asked loudly, “Where is your mountain gate?”

Taken aback, the colonel growled, “I’ll fuck your mother! My mountain gate is…”

Before he could finish, Zhou Wuchang had already swiftly moved forward and brutally stabbed him in the chest with his dagger.

Everyone was stunned.

The two soldiers that were restraining the colonel instinctively backed away, watching as the colonel fell stiffly to the ground, dead.

“You! You dared to kill?” One of the soldiers finally reacted, hastily pulling out his waist sword and pointing it at Zhou Wuchang.

Zhou Wuchang calmly pulled out a handkerchief, wiping the blood off of his dagger, then replied coldly, “You exploit the people and rob travelers on the road. You all deserve to die!”

This soldier’s arm shook, and he glanced at his comrades, hoping for their support.

But the dozen or so other soldiers stood rooted to the spot and didn’t move.

“This person killed our colonel general. Instead of standing there, why don’t you help capture him?” The man was the colonel’s trusted aide and squad leader. Seeing his superior officer’s death, he was shaking from head to toe.

If this incident got reported to higher-ups, he would surely be held accountable.

A few soldiers hesitated for a moment, then walked forward, and while the trusted aide was still dazed, they killed him.

The villagers cried out in shock, but deep down, they felt a sense of secretive satisfaction.

Yingbao’s eyes widened in shock; she didn’t understand why the soldiers had also killed that man.

Senior Zhou Hao remained expressionless, as if he was used to such sights.

Zhang Min covered her little apprentice sister’s eyes, whispering, “Don’t look, don’t look. Both of those men were bad guys. Master didn’t kill innocents. Don’t be afraid.”

Suddenly, several soldiers knelt on one knee in front of Zhou Wuchang, clasping their fists and saying, “We pay our respects to the general!”

Zhou Wuchang glanced at them lightly and said, “I am no longer your general, from now on, call me Wuchang the layman.”

The soldier who killed the colonel’s trusted aide saluted and said: “Zhu Sihu pays his respects to the general… I mean, Mister Wuchang! I once fed horses in your army tent.”

Eight or nine soldiers also said, “We were all soldiers in your army.”

Seeing that their colonel was killed by their former general, a few other soldiers couldn’t help but shrink their necks, not daring to utter a word.

Zhou Wuchang glanced at them and said to Zhu Sihu: “This Taoist temple was built by me, with all the necessary procedures completed, and the land was purchased by me. From now on, you are not allowed to harass the villagers here.”

Zhu Sihu looked embarrassed, and hurriedly said, “I dare not do it again.”

Zhou Wuchang nodded, “Take the colonel back with you then. If anyone asks, let him come to me. The Purple Gold Sword in my hand is bestowed by the emperor. It’s used to kill corrupt officials and tyrants, and even the soldiers in the army who cause chaos. If I encounter any, I will execute first and report later, and will never tolerate them.”

“Yes! I will take the colonel back and report the truth.” Zhu Sihu said.

The remaining soldiers also echoed his words.

Afterward, a dozen soldiers took two corpses back to the camp. On their way, they agreed to tell everyone that the colonel and his trusted aide were killed by bandits, who then escaped.

Anyway, such incidents were quite common— which military camp did not have casualties?

Moreover, this colonel was notorious for his arrogance within the army. Leveraging his uncle’s position as the supervising officer of soldiers and horses, he overlooked his subordinates and other officers, so it was not unusual for him to make enemies.

Although these dozen soldiers were his personal guards, they had never received any benefits within the army. On the contrary, they would be whipped when the colonel was in a bad mood, treating them like slaves.

Now it’s finally over; he was dead. Even the chief in charge of his property was also dead.

They all thought it over, planning to divide the colonel’s private property amongst themselves once they returned, lest others take it first.

About ten days later, the Taoist temple was finally completed with an enclosing wall as well.

The name “Wuchang Temple” was carved into the plaque above the entrance.

Yingbao and a few others moved into the temple, with her occupying one of the rooms.

The next day, Cui Lan and Little Douzi were arranged by their father to live there as well, saying that the newly built Taoist temple needs a thriving atmosphere.

In recent days, Yingbao was always leaning on the heated table, weaving a story about Immortal Cave—a narratively stirring romance about immortals—to sell to the local storytellers when she and her master went to Jingzhou Prefecture.

She not only wanted everyone in the prefecture city to know about the Immortal Cave in Jujube Tree Village and the Immortal Water inside it, but she would also tell this story to the villagers, making the tale become well-known.

Finally, after finishing writing it, Yingbao turned to Cui Lan and said, “Cui Lan, go home and call everyone in the village, I have something to say.”

Cui Lan puckered her lips, not wanting to go.

She was content to stay here where the stove was still burning, keeping the place warm. Plus, she was able to eat two meals of white bread every day; she certainly did not want to go home.

Seeing her reluctance, Yingbao took out a piece of candy from her bag, “I will ask second senior brother to drive you home, and then you can ride back later.”

“Okay.” Only then did Cui Lan cheer up. She took the candy into her mouth, jumped off the heated bed and left.

Watching as the second senior brother drove away, Yingbao quickly ran to the rear of the house.

Indeed, Shiquan Cave was just thirty feet behind the Taoist temple.

Under the blazing sun, the cave was fairly bright at this noontime.

Yingbao took off her shoes, waded into the cave without daring to venture too far, stood on a relatively flat area, took out a chisel from the cave mansion and started to plant two peony bushes.

She dug two pits with the chisel and planted two robust peonies in them.

After watering them with the water from the Pupil Spring and cleaning up the broken rocks, she made sure nothing looked out of the ordinary in the cave. She then put back the chisel and other items and waded out of the cave.

The interior of the cave was much warmer than outside, so she suspected these two peony bushes could survive for a long time.