Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Seeing this, a timid young man quickly spoke up hesitantly, "Benefactor, Benefactor, I... I also want to follow you. I have no father, no mother, and no home anymore. I don't know where to go. Could you take me in, Benefactor?"

"Me too, me too! I... I can wash clothes and cook, I can embroider, and I can make clothes. Take me with you, Benefactor. I'll be very well-behaved and definitely won't cause you any trouble."

It wasn't just them—even the farmer and the other men wanted to follow Xie Licheng.

So when they saw Xie Licheng about to take the little girl away, they all stood there, staring at him with longing.

Seeing this, Xie Licheng looked at them and said, "My identity is rather special, and the place I'm taking her to is also special. It's just a small mountain village. Although it can keep you safe from the wars outside, life there will be pretty dull."

A small mountain village, with a big mountain to boot—it really was a tiny place.

Moreover, it had to do with his secret, so once he brought them in, he wouldn't easily take them back out.

If the pocket world turned out to be that small, and they stayed there day after day, year after year, they would surely feel miserable and stifled.

At the mention of being cut off from the wars, the group—who had been captured by bandits, caught by the authorities, and had seen Lingzhou fall into chaos—immediately looked at him with eager expressions.

The farmer said, "Benefactor, we won't get bored. Many of us are country folk. Just give us a piece of land, and we can make a living."

Another young man added, "Right. I may not know how to farm, but I can grow flowers and cultivate tea. Give me a plot of land, and I can support myself too. I definitely won't be a bother to you, Benefactor."

They thought the small mountain village Xie Licheng mentioned was just a small mountain village somewhere.

But when Xie Licheng actually took them there, they couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

Because after Xie Licheng told them they couldn't back out, he brought them all into his pocket world.

One moment they were in a narrow alley, and the next, they appeared in a small village.

Calling it a small village wasn't quite right either—this novice village was fairly large.

The village was nestled against a big mountain, where wild vegetables, fruits, herbs, and animals like wild chickens, wild ducks, and rabbits could be found.

To the south of the village ran a great river, teeming with small fish and tiny shrimp.

The village had many empty houses—some with courtyards, some without, some large, some small...

Livestock like cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits roamed freely.

The only odd thing was that the village was so beautiful and the houses so new, yet there wasn't a single person around.

After bringing them in, Xie Licheng told them to find a place to rest by themselves.

He didn't have time to explain too much. The most urgent thing now was to check his quest log.

This time, he had brought in twenty-two people, and his quest had already been completed.

Xie Licheng wanted to see whether completing this quest would unlock a new map or something else.

If it unlocked a new map, it would be fine for him to rescue more people in the future.

If not, he couldn't keep bringing people in such large numbers.

Xie Licheng tapped the quest log, and beneath it appeared a claim quest reward option.

He clicked to claim it, and a world map popped up in front of him.

Seeing the map, Xie Licheng couldn't help but smile.

This map was the complete map of his pocket world.

Currently, only two areas were unlocked on the map.

One was the novice village, and the other was Xie Licheng's private farm.

These two areas occupied only a small portion of the map, suggesting his pocket world was quite large in area.

After completing this quest, a new region could be unlocked.

The unlocked areas were green, the unlockable areas were golden, and the locked ones were gray.

The new region was located below the village. When Xie Licheng clicked to unlock it, the area lit up.

To his slight surprise, the newly unlocked region wasn't green but a very bright red on the map.

The new area was called Peach Blossom Town, and the village they were in was called Peach Blossom Village.

Peach Blossom Town needed to be attacked and conquered, which was why it was currently red.

Presumably, it would turn green only after being captured.

He had originally thought that no one existed in this pocket world except him and the people he brought in.

Now it seemed there were people after all.

Except these weren't real people—they were NPCs of this world.

Because it hadn't been attacked and conquered yet, the road from Peach Blossom Village to Peach Blossom Town wasn't accessible.

Xie Licheng, as the player, would need to launch an attack, and only after they captured the town could the villagers go there.

Xie Licheng didn't rush to attack the town. With their current numbers not being large, the village was more than enough to house everyone.

Besides, Lingzhou was in turmoil right now, and he had plenty of other matters to deal with.

And since he didn't know if capturing the town would be hard or not, he left it alone for now.

Aside from the map feature, as he brought people in, a population management system was also added.

This system had quite a lot of functions.

Through it, he could view each person's personal information.

The profiles included age, gender, personality, height, special skills, and so on.

He could also change their names, though only he could see the new names.

Once renamed, an ID would appear above their heads.

In other words, if Xie Licheng couldn't remember their names, he could use this feature to tell them apart.

The population management system also allowed him to set access permissions for these people.

For now, for instance, Xie Licheng had only opened two areas on his map: his farm and Peach Blossom Village.

Without granting them permissions, they could only move about within Peach Blossom Village.

This Peach Blossom Village included the big mountain next to it.

If anyone wanted to enter Xie Licheng's farm, they could only do so with his permission.

This function was useful for controlling population flow or keeping dangerous people out.

Xie Licheng didn't keep studying these features and quickly left the portable world.

Once he was out, he checked his personal panel.

After leveling up over the past several days, he was now level 104.

He currently had 15 attribute points to spend.

He also had one level-100 lottery draw he hadn't used yet.

He decided to use that lottery draw while he had the opportunity.

Xie Licheng found the level-100 lottery and immediately chose to draw.

This lottery gave out attribute points.

The lowest you could get was 5 points, and the highest was 100.

Xie Licheng figured that even with his bad luck, he shouldn't end up with just 5 points.

But to his surprise, his luck was actually pretty decent this time.

He drew 50 points, which, combined with the previous 15, gave him 65 attribute points in total.

Talk about a lucky break!

With his attribute points suddenly so plentiful, Xie Licheng's mood picked up too.

He put 20 points into agility, bringing it up to 50.

Then he put 31 into defense, pushing it straight to 100.

That defense was really high—even if he took a fatal hit, his health would at most be cut in half.

In other words, a normal person would drop dead from a knife to the heart, but Xie Licheng could take one and still keep fighting.

100 points in defense wasn't the cap; if he had enough attribute points, he could keep adding to it.

Xie Licheng figured that at max level, he might become completely invulnerable to weapons.

For people who weren't good at fighting, boosting defense was definitely a good thing—it greatly increased their odds of survival.

He had 14 attribute points left, and he put them all into luck.

His luck had been 30 points; after adding 14, it reached 44.

After spending his attribute points, Xie Licheng decided to head to the Gu residence to see how things were.

With Lingzhou in chaos now, the Gu family was probably a mess too, right?

Gu Zhangyuan was such a coward—would he be scared at a time like this?

With that in mind, Xie Licheng headed toward the Gu residence.

He hadn't gone far when he ran into the people he'd rescued earlier.

After Xie Licheng saved them, they'd never found a chance to leave the city.

Now that the roads in and out of the city were blocked and they had nowhere to stay, they'd just followed along to the area around the Welcome Spring Pavilion.

Figuring he'd already saved those people before, and saving a few more now was no different, Xie Licheng took them in too.

This time, the ones he saved were all the old, weak, women, and children. If Xie Licheng didn't take them along, given how chaotic Lingzhou City was, they might not make it out alive.

Xie Licheng's reasoning was simple—after all, the portable world could wipe people's memories.

If they didn't want to stay inside later, he could wipe their memories and let them go.

Besides, he needed people for quests right now, and he could save folks at the same time—killing two birds with one stone.

After the 20-person quest bar disappeared, new quest bars showed up in Xie Licheng's portable world.

These quest bars were all for unlocking maps; unless all maps were eventually unlocked, they wouldn't completely go away.

This time, there were two quests on the bar: one was to attack and take over Peach Blossom Town, and the other was a population quest at (50/22).

Xie Licheng brought all these people in, and (50/22) turned into (50/55).

Xie Licheng didn't keep managing this quest, and he didn't bother with the people in Peach Blossom Village either.

The village had chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep, and the mountain had plenty of food—there was no way they'd starve.

Right now, he was worried about Gu Zhangyuan, so he had to head to the Gu residence first.

He noticed that the chaos in Lingzhou City wasn't just being caused on purpose by the main protagonist's group—it seemed another faction was also taking advantage of the situation to stir the pot.

When he was rescuing people just now, he saw a group fighting with the main protagonist's group over the spoils.

Thinking about the Gu family's situation, Xie Licheng hurried over to their residence.

But the moment he got back to the Gu family's street, he saw the front gate wide open.

That was very wrong—it was already dark out.

Inside or outside the city, everything was in chaos; the Gu family wouldn't leave their gate wide open at a time like this.

Besides, the Gu family wasn't weak.

The main protagonist's group had very few people in the city, and Lingzhou City was huge, with plenty of wealthy households.

Even if they wanted the Gu family's wealth, they couldn't possibly put all their manpower and effort into just the Gu family.

If they wanted the Gu family's stuff, they should wait until the city fell and then come loot it.

The city hadn't fallen yet, the Eldest Master of the Gu Family was still home, and the Gu family had plenty of house guards and protectors.

Even if they threw all their forces at the Gu family, they couldn't break in that easily.

With that in mind, Xie Licheng stepped inside—and the moment he entered, he saw the injured Steward Xu frantically leading people toward the front gate.

Steward Xu froze when he saw Xie Licheng, then said, "You... why are you back? You can't be here right now. Go, go now!"

"What's wrong? Where's the Eldest Young Master?"

“Second Master has returned with people—not only government officials but also mounted bandits. They are now forcing the First Master to reveal where the Gu family’s hidden chamber is. The Eldest Young Master and the others have also been captured along with them. Alright, I won’t say more—I need to flee for my life.”

A hidden chamber? It doesn’t seem to have been mentioned in the book.

The Second Master allied with the bandits to kill Gu Zhangyuan, and the bandits are close with the government officials.

The three parties are in league together, so it’s not surprising.

What puzzles Xie Licheng now is that the protagonist’s male lead’s people have already attacked the city.

Shouldn’t the government be helping the garrison defend against them?

Why do they have the leisure to meddle in the Gu family’s affairs?

What treasure is hidden in the Gu family’s vault that even the government would disregard Lingzhou for?

Xie Licheng didn’t bother to stop those fleeing but instead rushed toward the inner courtyard.

He quickly reached the inner courtyard—he already knew the place quite well, which made locating people a breeze.

The Gu residence was in quite a mess—quite a few servants had fled from the outer courtyard.

As they fled, they also helped themselves to quite a few things.

Some refused to leave, while others ran out to find help.

Others rushed to the inner courtyard, seemingly trying to rescue people by relying on themselves.

Some were wounded or had been taken prisoner.

The inner courtyard was even more of a mess—he spotted bandits, government runners, and that Yue Young Master from the second branch.

Xie Licheng acted as if he hadn’t seen them at all, grabbed a servant of the Gu household and asked, “Where is the Eldest Young Master?”

The servant tried to run but couldn’t get away, so he stammered fearfully, “He’s in the First Master’s courtyard—they’re all over there now, plus a lot of government people.”

Xie Licheng released him and rushed toward the Eldest Master of the Gu Family’s courtyard.

At the same time, over on the other side, the Eldest Master’s courtyard was in an uproar.

The Eldest Master had one arm around Gu Yangxue and the other pulling Gu Tinghe, his expression dark as he glared at the people standing opposite him.

The person facing him was none other than his second brother, who was supposed to have fled.

In truth, if it were just his second brother and those government officials, breaking into the Gu residence so easily would have been tough.

The reason they got in so easily was twofold: first, they had a gang of bandits helping them; second, a few people in the Gu family were working against their own.

Xie Licheng had razed the bandits’ hideout, but those bandits weren’t the whole crew.

To hunt for the secret chamber the Gu family had stashed away, the bandits had been trickling into the city over the past four or five days.

According to the Second Master, the chamber was packed with gold, saved up by the Gu ancestors for their descendants.

At first, the Second Master just wanted the bandits to kill Gu Changyuan.

His plan was simple: with Gu Changyuan dead, the first branch wouldn’t have a decent kid to inherit the family business, and the whole Gu family would naturally end up in the second branch’s hands.

But once he actually started working with the bandits, he couldn’t pull out later.

He realized the bandits could be so brazen because they were in cahoots with the government.

The government looked the other way, and the bandits handed over half their loot.

Later, once he was in too deep to get out, and scared the government and bandits would kill him and his boy, he spilled all the Gu family’s secrets.

Come to think of it, this whole disaster for the Gu family all came from his greed.

Seeing his big brother staring at him with such disappointment, the Second Master felt a mix of guilt and helplessness.

Second Master: “Big Brother, just tell them where the secret chamber is, or they’ll do anything to you. You have three children with you, all boys and girls—you wouldn’t want to see them get hurt, would you?”

Hearing him mention his children, the Eldest Master’s eyes turned red with rage.

The Eldest Master roared, “A thief in the house! I never imagined the Gu family would be destroyed by a beast like you!”

The Second Master was so scolded he couldn’t lift his head, but still spoke in a soft, coaxing tone, “Blame me all you want now, but blame your own favoritism. If you hadn’t been so set on leaving the family business to a boy, none of this would have happened.”

Hearing that he still refused to repent and tried to shift the blame onto Gu Changyuan, the Eldest Master wanted to rise and strike him.

But before he could approach, a government runner kicked him back down.

Seeing the Eldest Master knocked to the ground, Gu Yangxue hurried over in fright to help him up.

Gu Yangxue asked worriedly, “Father, Father, are you alright? Did it hurt? These people are truly outrageous!”

Gu Tinghe had also wanted to help, but seeing Gu Changyuan move to assist, he shoved him hard.

He thought his second uncle’s words made sense—all the misfortune stemmed from Gu Changyuan.

If Gu Changyuan hadn’t insisted on inheriting the Gu family, their household wouldn’t have fallen apart.

He now hated Gu Changyuan, and seeing him shamelessly try to help his father, he wished he could tear him apart.

Gu Tinghe cursed, “You wretch, get away! It’s all your fault, all your fault! If not for you, the Gu family wouldn’t have come to this!”

Gu Yangxue helped the Eldest Master up and, hearing Gu Tinghe still bickering even now, lost her temper—she, who was usually so mild-mannered that she seemed almost timid, suddenly snapped angrily, “Enough! You fool! At a time like this, why are you still picking on him? Even if you killed him, the Gu family’s calamity wouldn’t end. The root of this disaster isn’t him—it’s the second branch coveting the first branch’s inheritance. Even without Gu Changyuan, the second branch wouldn’t have let us go.”

Gu Tinghe refused to believe her, thinking she was just defending Gu Changyuan.

His second uncle had always been good to him—whatever he wanted, no matter how hard, his uncle would get it for him.

He didn’t believe his uncle didn’t care for him.

Gu Tinghe: “I don’t believe a word you say. You’ve always clung to Big Brother since childhood—you’re his little shadow. Even when Big Brother drove your mother away, you never dared to resent him. Now that he’s brought ruin to the whole family, you’re still foolishly siding with him, helping him—you’re an idiot!”

Gu Yangxue was about to argue further when the Second Master, who had been watching the scene unfold, finally lost patience.

Second Master: “Enough, stop quarreling. The prefect is probably getting impatient. Big Brother, just tell them already. If you delay any longer, I’ll have your three children brought to serve the prefect. I hear the prefect treats his wife quite well, but if he doesn’t want them and casually hands them off to those savage bandits, they’ll all be in for a miserable fate.”

Hearing this, not only was the Eldest Master furious, but everyone else in the Gu family was enraged too.

Just moments ago, Gu Tinghe had thought his second uncle was so kind to him, but now hearing his words, his face turned pale with anger.

He said anxiously, “Second Uncle, this has nothing to do with me. I don’t know anything about the Gu family’s secret chamber, and I never wanted to seize the inheritance. All of this is Gu Changyuan’s fault. If you have a grudge, take it out on him, but can you please let me go?”

The Second Master replied with a look of feigned difficulty, “I can’t do that—the situation is no longer in my control. As for you, blame your own bad luck in being born into this family. Next life, remember to choose a more ordinary household.”

He said this and raised his hand to signal the yamen runner that they could take the person away.

He'd been going on for a while, but his elder brother still wasn't giving up a single word. Looks like he needed to teach him a lesson.

Seeing the yamen runners coming to drag him away, Gu Changyuan angrily said, "How dare you?! I'm tight with your prefect's son. If you dare treat me like this, he'll make you pay for this."

A yamen runner grinned at that and even reached out to touch Gu Changyuan's chin, but Gu Changyuan swatted his hand away without a second thought.

The runner didn't get mad at being slapped and instead chuckled, saying, "Heh, pretty soon there won't even be a Dazhou to worry about. That young master's all bark, no bite. Rather than begging him, you're better off begging our lord later. Our lord's a kind man with a thing for pretty faces—maybe he'll treat you well."

With that, he reached out to grab Gu Changyuan's hand.

That pale, soft hand—he'd been dying to touch it for ages.

Now that he finally had the chance, he wasn't about to pass it up.

Gu Changyuan wasn't about to let himself be dragged off, backing away and letting out a startled yelp.

"Xie Licheng!"

The city was in chaos now—once Xie Licheng caught wind of it, he'd definitely come for him.

He'd come to save him, no doubt!

Xie Licheng had just reached the eldest master's courtyard when he heard Gu Changyuan's slightly panicked call.

Ignoring the bandits posted outside, he vaulted straight over the wall into the courtyard.

He moved fast and clean.

The bandits outside spotted him and had no choice but to rush in through the gate after him.

Inside the courtyard, the yamen runner saw that Gu Changyuan still wouldn't give up and was still causing a scene at this point. He finally lost his patience.

He said furiously, "You won't take the easy way out, huh?!"

With that, he pulled out a whip and was about to lash it toward Gu Changyuan.

The eldest master quickly shouted, "Stop! I'll talk, I'll talk!"

The second master was about to say that he should have spoken sooner instead of letting things get so ugly.

But before he could get the words out, the yamen runner with the whip, his face twisted in fury as he moved to strike Gu Changyuan, collapsed to the ground in the next instant.

As he fell, several voices of bandits sounded from behind.

"Someone's come in!"

"A man has broken in!"

The second master quickly turned to look and saw a familiar figure.

He had seen him before—it was... that horse slave.