Chapter 381: Chapter 381: Mount Lumin
Upon reaching Mount Lumin, they hid the car in the mountains. Ronan Kendrick, carrying a black bag, walked at the very back of the group. Ethan Dawson was somewhat curious about the bag’s contents but didn’t ask. Ronan Kendrick slung his rifle over his left shoulder. He hadn’t spoken a single word since they’d set out, and his indifference was unnerving.
Ethan Dawson’s men were armed with longswords and spears. Compared to Ronan Kendrick’s submachine gun, their gear was indeed shabby. The very reason he had come on this raid was that he knew a large cache of weapons was hidden on Mount Lumin.
At the thought of those weapons, a determined glint flashed in Ethan Dawson’s eyes.
They reached the bandit lair on Mount Lumin, which was once a temple. A giant Buddha statue still stood at the entrance. While Ethan Dawson was still trying to figure out how to get inside, Ronan Kendrick took three Smoke Bombs from his bag and tossed them in.
"Are those poison gas grenades?"
Ronan Kendrick just grunted in affirmation and ignored him. Half an hour later, Ronan dismantled the main gate and led everyone straight inside. Staring at the snapped iron chain on the ground, Ethan Dawson felt his brow twitch sharply.
How Ethan Dawson chose to deal with the Mount Lumin bandits was none of Ronan Kendrick’s concern. The moment he stepped inside, he detected the scent of a ’failed product’. By the time he found her, she had evidently sensed the danger and was trying to flee, but Ronan caught her anyway.
The teeth of long-term blood drinkers are always decayed. Ronan Kendrick could smell an overwhelming, rotten stench coming from her.
"Who the hell are you?" the ’failed product’ snarled, glaring at Ronan Kendrick with furious, bloodshot eyes. The woman’s hair was already white, and she had clearly spotted the lock of white hair peeking out from under Ronan’s black hat.
"Are you one of the lab’s edited humans too? What batch of experiments were you? What’s your serial number? Don’t kill me! I can let you stay on Mount Lumin, and we can enjoy everything here together."
There was a thermos on the table. When Ronan Kendrick opened the lid, the thick stench of blood assaulted his senses. A thick layer of caked blood coated the rim. The woman had collapsed on the floor, her limbs already festering. Even if this method prolonged her life, she wouldn’t survive another five years.
Ronan Kendrick said nothing. He simply raised his gun, aimed it at her temple, and pulled the trigger as she stared back in terror.
After collecting the valuables and weapons from the room, Ronan Kendrick moved through the temple alone. He found more than ten crates of weapons and a good amount of gasoline at the bottom of a dry well. By the time he returned to the rear courtyard, Ethan Dawson had already had his men loot half of the bandit lair.
All the bandits on the mountain were dead, but over forty refugees were still imprisoned in the rear courtyard. After checking with Ronan Kendrick, Ethan Dawson left a third of the food and clothing for them and cut the iron chains that bound them. However, despite searching the entirety of Mount Lumin, he couldn’t find the main weapon cache. He only managed to find a dozen or so handguns in the bandit leaders’ rooms. The warehouse, on the other hand, held several trucks and a lot of gasoline. With a wave of his hand, Ethan Dawson had his men clear it all out.
"Mr. Kendrick, you didn’t find anything?"
Ronan Kendrick nodded. "Nothing."
Seeing that he was empty-handed, Ethan Dawson had no reason to doubt him. He had the supplies loaded onto the trucks, along with some wild boars and mountain goats that were tied up and thrown into the cargo beds. Their trip to Mount Lumin was a resounding success. After they left, the refugees gradually came to. Seeing the iron gate wide open, they all rushed out, only to be horrified by the sight of the courtyard littered with the bandits’ corpses.
"It must have been divine intervention that saved us," a man muttered to himself.
At 6:30 in the evening, Evelyn Ford and Wyatt Vaughn played badminton for an hour. They went through three shuttlecocks and were drenched in sweat. She was just about to head back to her cabin for a hot shower.
Just then, the two guard dogs began to bark wildly as a car horn blared from the farm’s entrance. Chet Lawrence hurried over to open the gate.
"Ronan Kendrick is back."
As Ronan Kendrick drove onto the farm, everyone immediately stopped their work to welcome him. Another truck followed him, driven by one of Ethan Dawson’s men. The driver parked it and left immediately. Ronan got out of his vehicle and told Officer Graham to have the goods moved into the warehouse.
"Both vehicles are for us?"
Ronan Kendrick nodded. "I only kept one of the vehicles. I took a larger share of the food instead."
Everyone was thrilled. Nathan Xavier and Drako climbed onto the truck to unload the goods, while the others received them on the ground.
Evelyn Ford had already seen the gasoline and weapons Ronan Kendrick had stored in his dimensional space. Even though she knew how capable he was, she still breathed a sigh of relief the moment she saw him return safely.
"Look at all this food! And clothes, too."
"There are two black mountain goats and three piglets here."
"They brought back livestock too? Let me see!"
...
"Were there any refugees on Mount Lumin?"
"Thirty or forty. We left them some food and supplies."
Taylor Vance sighed. "So many refugees... Why would those bandits capture so many people? It’s just cruel."
Evelyn Ford had already seen the note Ronan Kendrick had placed in his space, so she knew about the female ’failed product’ on Mount Lumin. The bandits had captured those refugees not just to steal their supplies and use them as forced labor, but also, of course, to serve as a blood bank for her.
For Ethan Dawson, the raid was a resounding success. He hadn’t lost a single person, and it hadn’t taken much time. His only regret was failing to find the main cache of weapons.
Still, recovering more than a dozen handguns meant the trip wasn’t a total loss.
That evening, Evelyn Ford had Aunt Crane and Claudia Schultz steam two large pots of rice. They also slaughtered two chickens and two ducks and brought out the last of their sweet potato wine.
"They’re setting off firecrackers over at Fairgate Farm. Sounds like they’re celebrating, too."
"Ronan Kendrick, what did the bandit lair on Mount Lumin look like?"
Ronan Kendrick glanced at Quincy. "A small temple."
Everyone was rather surprised. "It was actually a temple? Those people were truly depraved, turning a temple into a bandit lair. Weren’t they afraid of going to hell? How many bandits were there?"
"Over thirty."
"Alright, that’s the end of it. From now on, no one is to mention this matter again," Officer Graham interjected. "Eliminating bandits is a good thing, but caution is paramount. If anyone has a loose tongue and discusses this in private, the farm will not tolerate them." After he spoke, everyone fell silent.
The normally chatty Aunt Crane was so frightened she could barely sit still.
Because of this incident, the relationship between Fairgate Farm and Immeasurable Mountain Farm grew much closer. Ethan Dawson’s livestock operation began to expand, and he came over again to trade for a few rabbits. The temperature continued to plummet. After his return, Ronan Kendrick stayed cooped up at home, never going out. Evelyn Ford would occasionally go out to play badminton with the others or watch Quincy read people’s fortunes.
Quincy’s "business" had even expanded to Fairgate Farm. Ethan Dawson had visited several times, but he had long since seen that Quincy was a phony and always refused his offers for a reading. Most of the time, Ethan Dawson would just read in the library or occasionally sit in on one of Taylor Vance’s classes.
"We need to organize some activities on our farm, too," he said. "Once my people are done with their work, they just go to their rooms and sleep. They don’t have any enthusiasm for anything besides eating."
Quincy clicked his tongue. "Not to rain on your parade, but you’re doomed to fail."
