The night was late, and the stars were bright.
Lin Zhao rested his hands behind his head, a foxtail grass he'd plucked from a rooftop in his mouth. He gazed calmly at the starry sky. Many things were beyond his control. Though he could still hear the cries of adults and children, the screams of young girls calling for help, and the howls of young men from afar, these were not matters he could intervene in. Protecting the people of Zouma Lane from slaughter was already the extent of what Lin Zhao could do.
Chu Yu leaped up and sat beside Lin Zhao, hugging her knees. "Those women... what do you plan to do with them?"
"Give them clothes and food."
Lin Zhao continued to look at the sky. "Yu Rang has already ordered that the city will only be massacred for seven days. After seven days, no one will be allowed to kill indiscriminately. At that time, we'll grant them their freedom. They can choose to stay or go."
"My lord."
Chu Yu's delicate brows furrowed. "The Dongwu Kingdom has been annihilated. You cannot protect these women. Sooner or later, they will still become prisoners and refugees. You saw the Great Shang cavalry. After breaching the city, what difference is there between them and beasts? Their eyes are only on women and gold and silver treasures. Where is any semblance of human cavalry?"
"I know."
Lin Zhao frowned. "We'll take it one step at a time. At least we'll protect Zouma Lane first."
"Have you ever considered arguing with Yu Rang?"
Chu Yu gritted her teeth. "It's all my fault for having such low cultivation. I'm merely a tenth-realm martial artist. If Sister Xuánzhī were here, it would be different. An eleventh-realm peak Sword Immortal would be enough to make Yu Rang bow his head and retract the order to massacre the city."
"It's no use."
Lin Zhao sighed helplessly. "Even if Xuánzhī were here, it would be the same. The Great Shang Dynasty's army has changed over the years. The ambitions of the Yunzhou Iron Cavalry of the past are gone. The current Great Shang army... is merely a group of sycophants charging into battle for wealth and women. Even if Xuánzhī were here, it would be useless, because we would be offending not just Yu Rang, but the entire Great Shang Dynasty."
He looked at Chu Yu. "We can barely protect ourselves at Snow Domain Celestial Pool, let alone afford to make enemies of the Great Shang Dynasty. This matter must be handled step by step; rushing it is useless."
"Mm..."
Chu Yu nodded. "Am I being foolish by pressuring you like this? If Sister Xuánzhī were here, she would never say these words."
"She indeed wouldn't."
Lin Zhao smiled. "People are different. Xuánzhī is Xuánzhī, and Chu Yu is Chu Yu. There's nothing wrong with that. Xuánzhī has experienced too much hardship over the years, and her state of mind has been greatly tempered. As for you, Chu Yu, you are still young and need some tempering."
Chu Yu gave a wry smile. Was a martial artist over a hundred years old still considered young? Perhaps in Lin Zhao's eyes, she would always be the short girl at Snow Domain Celestial Pool, unchanging.
Just then, a bell rang in Lin Zhao's ear. The delayed reward had arrived.
"Ding!"
System prompt: Congratulations on completing the [Dongwu Kingdom Annihilation] storyline. You have received a storyline compensation reward: Experience points for this level +65%, Charm points +1, Gold coins +2500, Reputation points +2000!
...
Not bad, the reward is a little more than for pacifying the three northern cities!
Lin Zhao closed his eyes and dozed off for a while. There was nothing he could do in the game at the moment. The only thing he could do was wait. Wait for the seven days in the game to pass. Each day in the game equated to 6 hours of real time, so seven days was 42 hours, nearly two days and two nights. It would be a long wait. Lin Zhao even hesitated to log off. What if other Thousand Cavalry Camps attacked while he was offline? If he wasn't there, Chu Yu's decisions might not be absolutely foolproof.
"Hoo~~~"
He let out a breath and gradually fell asleep.
Chu Yu got up decisively and stood on the wall not far from Lin Zhao, holding a stance from the "Riding Horse Fist" style. This stance had been corrected by Mu Cuò for her at Snow Domain Celestial Pool, making it more authentic and helping Chu Yu to slightly rectify her previous misguided path. Chu Yu held her stance, occasionally glancing at Lin Zhao. Practicing the fist was a pretense; the real purpose was to protect Lin Zhao here. In Chu Yu's heart, this young Sword Cultivator before her was far too important, perhaps indispensable to the entire world.
In the early morning of the game, amidst a clamor, Lin Zhao woke up. Cries could be heard from the opposite street.
"What's going on?"
He frowned. "Shall we go and see?"
"Alright, let's go take a look."
Chu Yu nodded. Thus, the two of them descended, mounted their horses, and with ten cavalrymen from the Snow Domain Army, they rode through Zouma Lane to an adjacent street. There, under the large banyan tree at the street corner, hundreds of Dongwu Kingdom civilians were herded together. Beside them stood countless Great Shang cavalrymen holding swords and bows. Each of these cavalrymen had several severed heads hanging from their horses' necks as a deterrent, their bloodthirsty eyes staring at the civilians as if they were piles of gold and silver treasures.
"Still not talking?!"
A Thousand Cavalry Commander, whose collar was adorned with two silver stars, held a blood-stained long sword and said coldly, "Are you really willing to risk your lives for money? The Zhang family, come out!"
In the crowd, some people tried to dodge, but a group of more than ten people were quickly pushed out by several cavalrymen with lances and forced to kneel on the ground, their faces pale. Among them was an elder in his eighties, the head of the Zhang family. As he knelt, his knees trembled, and he was in great pain. With a whimper, his whole body shivered. Behind him were his two sons, his daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and so on.
"Don't think I don't know anything. In fact, I know everything!"
The Thousand Cavalry Commander revealed a sinister grin. "Your Zhang family had a Jinshi scholar decades ago who later became an official in the Ministry of Revenue. Tsk tsk, such a high-ranking official, and your family fortune is so thin? You think you can fool me with a few dozen Green Cicada Coins? Do you really think I'm stupid!"
Saying this, he stepped on the elder's head, instantly flipping him to the ground. He roared, "Last question, where are the rest of the Zhang family's treasures hidden?!"
The elder trembled all over. "There's really nothing left, truly nothing. Our Zhang family hasn't produced any notable descendants for generations. That little ancestral property has almost been sold off..."
"You won't shed tears until you see the coffin, is that it? Fine, fine, fine."
The Thousand Cavalry Commander sneered. "Then let your Zhang family see a coffin. Come, hack his second daughter-in-law to death!"
"Yes, sir!"
A cavalryman swung his saber, and the woman fell to the ground without even a cry, her head rolling far away, blood splattering everywhere.
"You... you..."
The head of the Zhang family was so scared his face turned ashen.
"Still not willing to talk?"
The Thousand Cavalry Commander's voice was icy. "Very well, we'll kill them one by one. Come, hack his eldest daughter-in-law to death!"
Another woman fell, her head severed.
"You inhumane wretches..."
The head of the Zhang family wailed endlessly. "Don't kill anymore... don't kill anymore..."
"Tsk tsk..."
The Thousand Cavalry Commander said indifferently, "Come, hack his second son to death!"
"Wait!"
The head of the Zhang family's face was already ashen. He knelt and kowtowed repeatedly. "I'll talk, I'll talk! Under the willow tree in our ancestral home, there's a jar buried. Inside the jar are two hundred Flying Fish Coins. Those are our... our Zhang family's..."
"Come, go and check!"
"Yes, sir!"
A while later, a cavalryman returned with two hundred Flying Fish Coins wrapped in golden silk cloth, smiling. "Sir, there really are two hundred Flying Fish Coins!"
"Hmph!"
The Thousand Cavalry Commander sneered. "The Zhang family is not honest. You refused to pay when asked, and you had to wait until heads rolled. Come, hack all the Zhang family members, big and small, to death as a warning!"
"Yes!"
Several cavalrymen swung their sabers, and the entire Zhang family was wiped out, not a single one left!
"Did you all see?"
The Thousand Cavalry Commander sneered. "This is the consequence of refusing to pay. Cooperate by paying your money and handing over the young women of your family, and the rest will be pardoned. I keep my word! Come, Wang family, get out here. I'll ask only once, how much treasure has your family failed to hand over? If you're not honest, prepare for extermination!"
...
Lin Zhao and Chu Yu watched from twenty meters away, their brows furrowed. Such scenes were unfolding in almost every alley and street in the capital of the Dongwu Kingdom.
"Oh~~~"
The Thousand Cavalry Commander seemed to notice Lin Zhao and Chu Yu behind him. He immediately turned around and cupped his fists, smiling. "So it's the young swordsman in white. Your Zouma Lane is quite lucrative. Why do you have time to come here and watch the show?"
Lin Zhao frowned and did not return the salute. The reason was simple. In the martial arts world of the human realm, the fist-and-palm salute involved clenching the right fist and covering it with the left hand. This gesture of cupping the fist implied that one possessed martial prowess but could control it, that one's fist would not strike the weak. These Great Shang cavalrymen, who wantonly slaughtered and showed no humanity, were simply not worthy of Lin Zhao's martial salute.
"Actually, you could kill fewer people."
Lin Zhao smiled indifferently. "After all, every extra person killed is a sin, and it stains one with karma. Even if you don't repay it in this life, it will eventually fall upon your descendants."
"It can't be helped."
The Thousand Cavalry Commander smiled. "These wicked peasants are very cunning. If we don't make an example by killing a few households, they won't hand over a single cent. We Great Shang cavalrymen have traveled a long distance to the Dongwu Kingdom, risking our lives. Now, more than three out of ten camps have been lost. The families of our fallen brothers also need support, don't they? If we old brothers who fought side by side don't make some money, are we supposed to wait for the ever-deficit national treasury to provide pensions?"
Lin Zhao frowned and said no more, turning to leave with Chu Yu.
The Thousand Cavalry Commander was somewhat speechless. What a strange person. A sword cultivator in the lower five realms controlling a tenth-realm martial artist was already bizarre. Now, occupying a lucrative Zouma Lane, he wasn't plundering extensively. Had this Sword Cultivator's head been squeezed by a door? Did he really think such opportunities were abundant throughout his life?
He couldn't understand, and the more he thought, the angrier he became. He strode forward and split a young boy in two from head to shoulder with a saber, angrily exclaiming, "If you don't pay, you die! My patience is wearing thin!"
...
At this moment, a group of Great Shang cavalrymen swept past. A Thousand Cavalry Commander on horseback said sternly, "Where are they? Where did they run off to? You must find them for me. That woman is the Prime Minister's daughter from the Dongwu Kingdom! As long as we capture her, all the gold and silver hidden in the entire Prime Minister's mansion will be ours. Lord Yu Rang has already ordered us to search house by house!"
"Yes, sir!"
In the distance, plumes of smoke billowed, as the cavalrymen in the city burned the bodies of civilians. A pungent smell of burning filled the entire city. The entire Ye City, in its streets and alleys, was covered in blood, resembling a human purgatory.
Lin Zhao frowned, remaining silent, and led Chu Yu back to Zouma Lane.