Chapter 16 – White Bone and White Silver (1/2)

The two other scoundrels paled and became immobilised with fright, but the items in the porcelain jar immediately blinded their eyes. Pieces of glistening silver filled the jar. They had never seen so much money in their lives. Even caretaker Liu and a few village elders who were on their last legs were visibly moved.

Li Qingshan pushed them away, and they almost flew into a rage. No matter how cowardly people were, they would be tempted by wealth and could become vicious for it. However, when they saw it was Li Qingshan, they were afraid of doing anything.

Li Qingshan was in no mood to care about their thoughts. He placed the jar aside. A tiny skeleton laid below the jar. Blood and flesh had already rotted off from the skeleton completely, revealing a greyish-white colour. Who knows how long it had been buried there.

Xiao An finally nodded, and Li Qingshan sighed gently. He looked around and tipped out all of the silver in the porcelain jar before storing the skeleton inside.

The silver pieces rolled onto the floor and formed quite a pile.

With that, everyone’s eyes became glued to the pile. They even stopped caring about the remains.

Caretaker Liu was someone experienced and knowledgeable, having gone out and seen the world. He roughly estimated that there were several hundred taels of silver there. Even he became green with greed, let alone the others.

In a tiny mountain village like this, that was truly a tremendous sum.

Li Qingshan had never expected the witch to have managed to extort so much silver over the years either. As the saying went, wealth tempts people. He was not an otherworldly immortal who had transcendent worldly affairs, so he was also affected by the sum. After all, there were plenty of aspects where he would have to spend money in the future!

Just in terms of meat, he did not want to continue relying on the black ox. Since the black ox wanted him to be independent, he wanted to show it just how independent he could be. Moreover, he wanted to change up his tastes. Maybe he could go to the market and buy some good alcohol as well.

However, he also understood the principle of ‘The wages of avarice is death’. If he took all of the silver with him, these people would be afraid of saying anything due to fearing his might, but they would definitely resent him, which would bury quite a large seed of misfortune. Even the death of the witch might not be able to pacify them.

“Village head Li, you are the person of the highest prestige and respect in this village. Let’s hear if you have any plans regarding this silver.” Li Qingshan wiped off the blood from his steel blade and stowed it back into the sheathe. He seemed to be letting village head Li take charge, but he stressed the words ‘highest prestige and respect’ when he mentioned it.

Li Qingshan looked around, and all those he saw nodded in a hurry. “You decide, Erlang!” Only then did he nod slowly. He did not mind sharing some silver in exchange for peace, but if there really were someone ignorant enough to decide what to do with his spoils of battle, then they would have to ask whether the blade in his hand agreed to it or not.

Every single person in the crowd was much older than Li Qingshan, yet they had to follow the arrangements of a fifteen year old. However, none of them felt unhappy with that. The current Li Qingshan was no longer the Li Qingshan of the past. His viciousness and decisiveness that came with drawing the blade and committing murder had stunned them.

Li Qingshan sat down to split the silver. He pressed one hand on the porcelain jar that held the white skeleton as he leaned on his blade with the other hand. The adults and old people all lowered their heads and listened to him closely.

However, the first person to receive a share of silver surprised all of them slightly.

“Uncle Fugui, the witch destroyed your family, so you deserve compensation. You better take this silver. Don’t drown yourself in alcohol anymore. Only then can you console the dead.” Li Qingshan used the sheath of the blade and parted some silver from the edge of the pile.

“H- how can I accept that!” Li Fugui had never expected Li Qingshan to say that. He was at a loss as for what to do.