northernbook Chapter 403 "Empty Box"
Chapter 403 "Empty Box"
Zhong Ming found it amusing to see him suddenly become alert and assume a fighting stance. He was about to tell him when the other man was one step ahead.
He took out a box from his storage bag, which was also empty; you could tell from the sound it made when it landed.
Then he began frantically searching everywhere.
This made Zhong Ming feel uneasy. Why put a box there? Is it some kind of array point? Or is it hiding something?
He checked, and there was nothing on the ground under the box.
The man nervously turned around, then suddenly rushed towards the cabinet where Zhong Ming was.
Zhong Ming almost thought he had been discovered, but the man bent down and pulled out a lower box.
He opened the box, checked the shells inside, glanced around to make sure no one was there, then immediately took half of it, filled the bottom with a pile of stones, laid a layer of shells on top, closed the box, and put it back as it was.
Zhong Ming was completely dumbfounded by this operation. Was there really such a stupid thing to do? You know, the quantity of these things is always checked, and it's extremely strict.
This is an artillery battalion! How could artillery shells be stolen so brazenly?
That person's cultivation level wasn't too high either. After all, it had been so many days, and the Third Guard Team still hadn't filled all the late-stage Qi Refining personnel they needed. If any of these people had a slightly higher cultivation level, they would have been immediately taken to Zhong Ming's side.
He looked around again, and after confirming that no one was around, he immediately took action.
Zhong Ming's wicked thoughts immediately came to mind. He quietly crawled out of the box and looked at the empty box he had just put down.
He wasn't going to take it; he was going to do something bad.
He tiptoed and switched the two boxes, exchanging the half-filled box with the empty one, and then immediately followed.
From a distance, he saw the man talking to the guards at the warehouse entrance.
"...An empty box is missing. I created a false impression; please be careful when the time comes..."
The man rambled on and on in a foreign language, but Zhong Ming didn't hear the first part. The guard at the door replied, "The captain of the Third Guard Team is now in charge of a special group and will be inspecting this place every day. Could it be him who did it?"
"Who knows? I saw that box half a day ago. If he did it, then... is he still inside?"
"I don't know, but it didn't come out of my door. If it wasn't him, you'd better be careful. If he catches the thief beforehand, we'll all be in big trouble."
Zhong Ming almost laughed as he listened. After the two people at the door finished talking, the other person left in a hurry, apparently having finished get off work.
Zhong Ming wasn't idle either. It was difficult to bypass these people's sight, but it would be much easier if he could only be seen by the sentries.
He took a less common route and arrived at the top of the warehouse, where he could barely see the man's figure in the distance. He had been walking on the street for a while.
Zhong Ming gave a friendly gesture to the sentry, then leaped down the high wall of the warehouse. The moment he landed, he used the mother and child swords to stop his fall without making a sound, and then quickly walked in the direction the man had left.
He didn't follow too closely, but left after seeing him enter a house.
That's the foundry's building.
Zhong Ming roughly understood what was going on, and then made his way back to the warehouse.
For the rest of the night, he walked through every accessible part of the warehouse, including "unauthorized access points."
Basically, most of the guards in the warehouse—the sentries at the windows, the gatekeepers at the side doors, the guards at the pipe entrances, the sentries on the roof—constantly saw him coming and going. To the point that later on, even if all the guards were gathered together, they couldn't tell whether Zhong Ming had actually left or not.
After entering the warehouse for the last time, he went straight back to the empty box and took a nap inside.
At noon, a lot of noise came from outside the warehouse.
Zhong Ming put on a talisman, a commonly used small talisman, which can make the surrounding noises clearer, but the side effect is that a lot of noise rushes into the ears, which may cause serious damage to the ears.
Once the talisman was affixed, Zhong Ming could hear all the sounds within a radius of tens of meters. The footsteps and wheels of others sounded like thunderous drums constantly striking his ears.
"Please make sure you've checked carefully. In these special times, no one dares to be careless. The number of shells I've cast this time is exactly the same. Once you've checked everything, then you can sign off."
“Reporting to you, sir, I have checked three times and the quantity is confirmed to be correct. If there are any missing items in the future, then the responsibility will fall on the guards and me, and will have nothing to do with you, sir. Everyone present is a witness.”
"Alright, then I'll head back."
The blacksmith's voice was unfamiliar to Zhong Ming, but this "young man" was none other than the monk who had guarded the gate yesterday.
After a while, a large group of people walked in.
In fact, we don't need that many people, but we should follow the procedures to avoid any unforeseen complications.
One of them took the five large boxes of shells out of the storage bag, placed them on the ground, opened the boxes again to inspect the goods, proved that there were no problems during the "transportation", signed the document, and then put them on the shelf in front of everyone.
"Alright, everyone back to your posts, that's all."
People dispersed in twos and threes, but some of the junior leaders kept reminding them, "Patrol a few more times. It's better to be tired for a few days than to have anything happen at this critical time."
Zhong Ming found it all laughable. You took half a box of shells yesterday, and today you dare to complain like a thief...?
The thought immediately made him frown, realizing that this was probably not an isolated case, so he set a deadline in his mind.
If nothing changes within three days, he will personally expose the matter.
Zhong Ming also overheard people asking him about his whereabouts, but he was casually brushed off.
"I checked all night yesterday. He's probably cultivating right now. Someone like him is the face of the camp. It's said that the camp commander's wife locked him in solitary confinement and wouldn't let him participate in the war. She'll probably keep him under her thumb until he reaches the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage or the Golden Core stage before he goes out to wreak havoc."
"Oh, I understand. After all, he's the only promising young talent in the Flame Wolf Army. In the Sky Wolf Army, champions are everywhere, and runners-up are nothing. They're just thrown onto the battlefield and that's it. If you ask me, these geniuses really do get stronger the more they fight, and their cultivation levels rise higher with each battle..."
Soon, the people in the warehouse dispersed, and the silence barrier within the enclosure was activated again, with only the faint breathing of the sentries being heard.
If you stay still in the box like a bell, the noise you make will probably be less than the sound of the wind.
The next day, the patrols around the area became more frequent, but nothing changed.
Night fell again, and twenty-four hours had passed since the cannonballs were taken away. The monk finally returned furtively.