Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Once the chaos kicked off, it got a whole lot easier for Xie Licheng to make his move.

Xie Licheng glanced toward the explosions and decided to leave the male lead and his crew alone for now.

Whether it was Lingzhou or the entire Dazhou, both were rotten to the core, top to bottom, and not worth saving.

Of course, his lack of support for Dazhou didn't mean he backed the male lead and his crew either.

He was fine with rebellion, but not with burning, killing, and looting your way across the land.

This wasn't a rebellion; it was a bunch of psychopaths who finally got their shot at a lawless world to kill and burn whatever they wanted.

They butchered men who wouldn't join them, raped men and women alike, and tortured and killed the old and the young.

They weren't an uprising army; they were more like foreign invaders.

Xie Licheng had zero respect for people like that.

A few garrison soldiers shouted, "What the hell was that? What's that noise?"

"Sounds like thunder, and there's fire. Let's go check it out."

But before they could check it out, all hell broke loose outside the city gates too.

The merchant caravan hadn't brought in that many people—nowhere near enough to take a city on their own.

Obviously, they were just there to cause chaos; the real force was still waiting outside.

When the explosions rang out from outside, the civilians nearby scattered in a panic.

They were unarmed civilians—even one bandit would scare the life out of them.

And since things hadn't gotten that desperate yet, regular folks wouldn't dare hurt anyone.

While the garrison soldiers went outside to check, the yamen runners guarding the prisoners stayed on task, still determined to haul the "criminals" to the courthouse.

Xie Licheng followed them all the way to the yamen.

He noticed the runners didn't take the prisoners through the front gate—they ducked into an alley next to the yamen instead.

Xie Licheng moved to follow, but one of the runners spotted him.

The runner blocked the alley, drew his blade, and said, "Government property. No trespassing."

Xie Licheng just smiled and kept walking.

The runner cursed, "You deaf or looking to die?!"

With that, he raised his blade and closed in on Xie Licheng.

When the runner got within about six feet, Xie Licheng lunged and snapped his neck clean.

Since it was a broken neck, there wasn't a sound.

The runner's blade was still up, and the second he went limp, Xie Licheng grabbed it out of his hand.

Xie Licheng chuckled, pulled out a mask, put it on, and kept following the group.

When Xie Licheng caught up, two runners were shoving the prisoners through a small door into the yamen.

Hearing footsteps behind them, they figured it was their buddy coming back.

But when they turned, it wasn't the runner who'd gone to block the alley—it was a man in a weird mask.

The two runners glanced at each other, and one reached for a wanted poster to compare.

But as he was pulling it out, the runner next to him got his head chopped off.

The runner with the poster dropped to his knees with a thud, tossed the poster aside, and begged, "Hero, hero, I didn't recognize you. Please spare my life."

Xie Licheng looked at him like he was an idiot, then raised his blade and cut him down without a second thought.

That's when the prisoners started recognizing Xie Licheng, one by one.

But his killing was so brutal that even after recognizing him, none of them dared to come close.

Xie Licheng cut the ropes on the few people outside and asked, "How'd they catch you guys?"

The boy from before whispered, "We... we'd already gotten down the mountain, but we ran into the officials. They arrested us without even asking what happened. They even said... we were the bandits, that we killed an Imperial Official."

Xie Licheng: "Imperial Official? Who's that?"

Boy: "The bandit leader. The runners said he was an Imperial Official, that he had a real government post."

Xie Licheng laughed. "What position? The guy's illiterate and couldn't pass the exams. Did he... buy the title?"

He paused. Dazhou had a huge problem with people buying offices, and that leader had looted so much gold and treasure—maybe he really had bought himself a title.

If that guy actually became an official, it would be a nightmare for anyone under his rule.

A bandit leader who burned, killed, and robbed without a care, suddenly turned into a local magistrate.

God, what a joke.

Xie Licheng: "Forget them. The city's in chaos—you guys should get out of here."

With that, Xie Licheng handed the boy a blade.

Seeing the blood still on the blade, the boy flinched back.

Xie Licheng couldn't be bothered with him. He shoved past the people blocking the door and headed into the yamen.

Just then, a runner inside sensed something off and came out to check.

And then... he ran right into Xie Licheng.

Seeing Xie Licheng's nearly six-foot frame, he recognized him right away.

The runner shouted, "What do you think you're doing? This is the yamen, not some mountain!"

Xie Licheng dug a finger in his ear, annoyed by how loud the guy was.

He asked, "Why'd you arrest them? Did that bandit leader buy his position from your boss?"

The runner's eyes flickered, then he turned and ran for his life.

Xie Licheng sighed. That guy really couldn't be trusted.

Since he couldn't get anything out of him, there was no point in keeping him alive.

With that thought, he pulled out a small dagger and took aim at the back of the man's head.

Just as Xie Licheng was about to hurl the dagger, a woman nearby suddenly cried out, "Benefactor, benefactor, please, save those girls and young lads."

Xie Licheng didn't lower the dagger at her words; instead, he turned his gaze to the woman who had spoken.

He recognized her—she was from that village up in the mountains.

Seeing him look her way, the woman quickly said, "A bunch of us got arrested by the yamen runners, and they hauled Xiao Ruan and the others off separately. They said they were going to sell them off for money. They got into the prefectural city ahead of us, and I don't know where they are now."

Xie Licheng nodded to show he understood. So that's why he hadn't seen those women and young lads—they'd been split up and brought into the city first.

He figured the yamen runners knew that selling women and young lads wasn't exactly respectable, so to keep the folks of Lingzhou City from finding out, they'd secretly brought those people in separately.

But since it hadn't been long since they'd parted ways, those women and young lads should still be in decent shape.

Xie Licheng didn't waste any more time. He quickly entered the yamen, cut down the few runners on guard, and freed the people inside.

As he watched them slip out through the side gate, the runner who'd fled earlier came back with a large group of men.

Leading them was a middle-aged man with a beard, looking refined and bookish.

He was probably the yamen's secretary, and he seemed to have some pull.

The middle-aged man pointed at Xie Licheng and said, "Who's this reckless brute? Do you know where you are?"

Xie Licheng urged the people behind him to keep moving while he casually answered the man's question.

"I know. This is the yamen."

"You know it's the yamen, yet you still dared to barge in, kill the government runners, and free wanted criminals."

"Wanted criminals? Who? Where?"

The middle-aged man was pissed off by Xie Licheng's attitude and signaled the runners behind him to get ready to arrest him.

He refused to believe that once they had him strung up and beaten, he could still be so cocky.

Then the runner who'd reported in hurriedly leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Secretary, we're no match for him. This guy's tough—Lord Hu's second and third brothers both died at his hands."

The middle-aged man, the secretary, went even paler at that.

He snapped, "If we can't beat him, then why the hell did you call me over?"

The runner looked hurt. "I was thinking you could find some conscripted soldiers, or better yet, get the garrison troops to come."

"The city gates are in chaos right now. Where the hell am I supposed to find garrison troops?"

The garrison and the yamen were two separate systems, and the garrison wouldn't take orders from some secretary.

"Then... what the hell do we do now?"

The secretary flicked his sleeves. "Forget him. Come with me, quick, to find the magistrate."

With that, he shot Xie Licheng a venomous glare and turned to hightail it out of there with his men.

Xie Licheng didn't chase after him right away but used his dagger to detain one of the runners.

He needed to find out where the little girl and those women and young lads had been taken.

As for the secretary and the prefect, the protagonist's men were swarming the city outside—there was no way they'd get away now.

No need to rush dealing with them.

Xie Licheng asked the detained runner, "Where are the women and young lads who were with them?"

The runner initially tried to stay tough, but then he noticed that among the people Xie Licheng had freed, the young man and the able-bodied men hadn't left.

They'd picked up the fallen runners' weapons and were now glaring at him menacingly.

Seeing that, the runner could only clutch his wounded neck and say, "This really ain't our fault. We were just following orders from above."

The farmer glared with bloodshot eyes and demanded, "Where is he? Where the hell is he?!"

He was asking about his lad—the one he'd only just gotten today.

He'd told him he'd protect him.

But before a single day had passed, he'd watched, helpless, as he was taken away.

The runner said, "They should've been sent to Yingchun Tower."

Xie Licheng said, "Lead the way. If I catch you lying or stalling, I'll hang you up and slice you piece by piece."

The runner's face went ashen, and he hurriedly led the way while clutching his neck.

Yingchun Tower wasn't far from the yamen, and the group got there quick.

Since it was broad daylight and the city was in chaos, the brothel was shut when they got there.

Xie Licheng didn't take a detour or climb over the wall—he just kicked the front door open.

Hearing the racket at the entrance, several brothel attendants rushed out from inside.

Seeing that the leader was a government runner, one attendant couldn't help but ask, confused, "Officer, what's this all about? Didn't we already send the silver?"

They'd paid in full for the goods, and they hadn't even had a chance to inspect them yet—why were they coming back with such a menacing crowd?

The runner said bitterly, "They're not from the government. They're here for the women and young lads."

Hearing they weren't government officials, the attendants immediately stopped being scared.

Anyone in their line of work was dirty to begin with.

So even with Xie Licheng and the others carrying blades, they didn't feel particularly scared.

"Since you're not from the government, we won't be hosting you. Lingzhou City is in chaos right now—you'd best not get too cocky."

The words carried a threatening edge, but they didn't faze Xie Licheng.

He swung his blade and lopped off the arm of the attendant who'd spoken, instantly sending the runner and the brothel staff into a panic.

Xie Licheng asked, "Now, can you take us to see them?"

A man who looked like the manager stepped forward and said to Xie Licheng, sounding helpless, "We paid a hefty price for those people. You can't just take them away like that."

Seeing that the man wouldn't give up until he saw blood, Xie Licheng had no choice but to cut his head off.

The rest of the crowd, seeing this, immediately understood that they had run into a tough opponent this time.

With the manager dead, one person pointed to a door at the back and said, "They... they're all in the back courtyard."

Xie Licheng nodded and led his men toward the back courtyard.

Everyone else, including the yamen runner, all looked as if they had seen a ghost.

They had seen ruthless men and fierce men, but they had never seen a cold-blooded killer like this who wouldn't even spare a word.

When Xie Licheng found them, the madam of the Welcome Spring Pavilion was just about to check out the new arrivals with her people.

When the door was suddenly kicked open, the madam was still caught off guard.

When she saw a crowd of people outside, she screeched, "Who are you people? Is there no law anymore?!"

The young man shouted, "Law? You buying these innocent people from the authorities—that's your idea of law?"

Madam: "To be honest, if they weren't at least a little good-looking, I wouldn't have wanted to buy them at all."

Young man: "If you don't want them, then give them back to us!"

Madam: "No way. We shelled out good money for them. If you want to take them away, you'll have to pay twice the original price. Otherwise, not a single one of them leaves today."

Xie Licheng had indeed briefly considered buying their freedom when he heard that money would settle it.

Not because he had suddenly become easygoing, but because Lingzhou had fallen into chaos earlier than expected, and gold and silver wouldn't be worth much after this.

His personal storage space was stocked with plenty of gold and jewelry—keeping them around was just a waste of space.

So he figured he might as well fork over a little and get the people out quickly and without trouble.

But since they insisted on double the original price, Xie Licheng immediately decided it wasn't worth the cost.

Xie Licheng: "If you're going to be this unreasonable, then I'll have no choice but to get rough with you."

The madam chuckled at that, crossing one leg over the other and looking up at Xie Licheng, amused. "I've been in this business for twenty years. Even the prefect of Lingzhou has to treat me with respect when he visits. You young punk—small in years, big in temper—coming to my turf to cause trouble, aren't you afraid you'll walk in but never walk out?!"

This time, before Xie Licheng could speak, the farmer said to him, "Benefactor, don't waste words with her. Just kill her!"

Xie Licheng didn't kill the madam, but he sent a short blade flying, slicing her face open.

The madam, who had just been acting like she was the toughest and strongest around, felt her eye twitch. Suddenly changing her tune, she let go of one of the women next to her.

Covering her face, she laughed, "Hahaha, hahaha, we're all family here, all family. Calm down, calm down. We'll let them go right now. They're just a few women and lads—no big deal, no big deal."

As she said this, she also signaled the thugs behind her to release the people quickly.

Since their attitude was good, Xie Licheng didn't give them a hard time.

He had said it before—he wasn't a murderous man.

As long as they didn't cause him trouble, he wouldn't cause them any either.

Xie Licheng managed to lead the people out of the Welcome Spring Pavilion. He asked the ten-year-old girl, "Do you want to come with me?"

The girl's eyes lit up at the question. "Really? Can Xiao Ruan come with you?"

Xie Licheng: "As long as you don't cry or make a fuss, I'll make sure you're fed and watered."

The girl, Xiao Ruan, quickly replied, "Yes, yes! Xiao Ruan is willing to follow you, to work like a mule and serve you as a maid for life."

Seeing how adorable she was, Xie Licheng smiled and said to her, "I don't need you to work like a mule, nor do I need you as a maid. You just need to help me raise my cattle and horses."

"That's wonderful! Xiao Ruan was born in a mountain village—not only can she raise horses and cattle, but she can also wash clothes, cook, and raise chickens, ducks, and geese."

The others looked toward Xie Licheng as well, and the young man said to him, "Benefactor, can I follow you from now on too?"