Chapter 230: Treasure Vault

Zheng Fan rode forward, with numerous barbarian soldiers following behind him.

The barbarian soldiers could be considered the most loyal core force at City Defender Zheng’s side, because they had been subjected to the Blind Man’s indoctrination for the longest.

“You all right?” Zheng Fan asked.

A’Ming placed his left hand over his lower abdomen and bowed with impeccable gentlemanly grace.

“Many thanks for Master’s concern. This subordinate feels extremely comfortable right now.”

A’Ming truly did feel wonderful.

Among the Demon Kings, the Demon Child was the biological son, while Siniang was the only woman. For him to become the third to recover his strength was already an impressive achievement.

From now on, he could sip his “wine” while watching the remaining four devise all kinds of elaborate ways to struggle for advancement.

That feeling was excellent.

Zheng Fan nodded.

He pointed toward the stronghold ahead with one hand and calmly said, “Anyone who dares resist—kill without mercy.”

Liang Cheng and Xue San led the way. Large numbers of barbarian soldiers poured into the stronghold and began searching it.

Zheng Fan dismounted and slowly entered the settlement with A’Ming accompanying him.

The stronghold’s layout was not particularly complicated. There were houses built of stone, thatched huts, and even dwellings constructed around caves cut into the cliffside.

One could tell how rigidly stratified this savage settlement was merely by looking at the buildings.

Perhaps because A’Ming had successfully recovered some of his strength, the old man’s final “counterattack” had lost much of its ability to provoke hatred in Zheng Fan.

So Zheng Fan did not order the settlement massacred.

“Anyone who dares resist gets cut down immediately! Bind up the obedient able-bodied men first! Gather the children and grown women together! Leave everyone else alone!”

Xue San shouted as he issued orders.

This had been the plan from the beginning.

The desert barbarians followed similar rules during tribal wars of conquest and annexation. Men taller than a wagon wheel would all be killed, because children could be brought back and assimilated, while women could be brought back to bear children.

At that moment, the stronghold descended into chaos. Chickens flew, dogs scattered, and cries and screams rang out everywhere.

But the fate of this settlement could no longer be changed.

War rarely had such a thing as absolute justice. Where you sat determined what conclusion you reached.

Zheng Fan was not a bloodthirsty man, but since these savages had dared resist his rule and had even taken the initiative to unite against him, he had no reason to show them courtesy.

The three savage settlements, including the one before him, would all be erased from the map starting today.

“Master, this is only the beginning,” A’Ming suddenly said.

Zheng Fan smiled.

“I’m not that fragile.”

Once you had experienced that night in the corvée laborers’ camp, whatever tender illusions this world might have possessed had long since been torn to shreds.

Just then, the sounds of fighting suddenly came from the southwest of the stronghold.

A’Ming’s gaze sharpened. His figure immediately swept toward the sound.

Zheng Fan drew his saber and followed close behind.

There, around a dozen barbarian soldiers were fighting seven or eight martial artists who clearly did not look like savages.

Those martial artists were all fairly skilled, and three or four had obviously entered the graded ranks.

Behind them stood a little girl wearing a red padded jacket.

“Master, they don’t look like savages,” A’Ming said.

“Capture them first. We’ll talk afterward.”

“Understood.”

A’Ming charged into the melee.

Truthfully, small-scale battles like this were precisely where the Demon Kings’ individual strength could shine.

With A’Ming joining the fight and more and more barbarian soldiers arriving from the surrounding area, those martial artists were quickly cut down.

The final man tried to break through while carrying the little girl, but a barbarian soldier shot him in the back. He crashed to the ground.

The girl was thrown from his arms and landed on the ground, immediately bursting into tears.

Zheng Fan walked over to her.

After hesitating, he still chose not to reach out and touch her.

A’Ming came over, pointed at the girl, and said, “Take her back for Siniang to raise?”

“Question her first.”

As he spoke, Zheng Fan gestured for the surrounding barbarian soldiers to search the corpses.

“Scare her?” A’Ming asked.

“Comfort her,” Zheng Fan corrected.

A’Ming nodded somewhat helplessly, bent down, and picked up the little girl.

The instant he lifted her, he silently set her back down again.

Then he spread his arms.

More than twenty needles had somehow pierced into them.

The saber in Zheng Fan’s hand slashed downward toward the girl.

Terrified, the child squeezed her eyes shut.

She was unharmed.

But the padded jacket around her body had been split open, revealing a silver vest beneath.

Siniang had once woven golden-thread soft armor for all the Demon Kings.

Clearly, what this little girl wore was an even higher-grade item.

Whew.

Zheng Fan felt somewhat relieved.

Sure enough, being a little cautious was never a bad thing.

When you had a convenient human tool standing beside you, refusing to use him would simply be stupid.

Liang Cheng and Xue San arrived as well.

A’Ming immediately raised both arms toward Liang Cheng.

“Help me check whether they’re poisoned.”

A’Ming wasn’t afraid of superficial wounds.

But if the needles were poisoned, that would be troublesome. Poison would mingle with his blood, which was particularly problematic for him.

Ordinary toxins were one thing.

But this was a world where magic and battle qi existed. Would it really be strange for some extraordinary toxin to appear?

Before Liang Cheng could examine them, Xue San jumped up, pulled a needle from A’Ming’s arm, and held it in front of his eyes.

“Relax. There’s no poison. These needles were probably added later. They don’t have the tiny grooves used to hold toxins.”

Xue San was an expert in hidden weapons.

Applying poison to weapons was one of his specialties.

Since he said they weren’t poisoned, A’Ming relaxed and began leisurely pulling the needles out of himself one by one.

Siniang had once remarked that when everyone else went to war, they returned with damaged armor and chipped weapons.

A’Ming alone could go off to war and still bring extra things home stuck in his body.

Zheng Fan crouched and looked at the little girl.

The fact that seven or eight martial artists who clearly weren’t savages had been protecting her was already enough to prove she had an unusual identity.

The fact that she was wearing something like this only made that even clearer.

“What’s your name?”

The little girl looked at Zheng Fan with a trembling body.

Then answered, “My name is… my name is Baozhu…”

“Baozhu?”

Zheng Fan frowned slightly.

Then he asked, “What is your surname?”

“My surname… is Helian.”

…

Nothing unexpected happened at the other two settlements.

By afternoon, the three forces returned one after another to the army camp on the flat ground in the mountain hollow.

With most of their able-bodied men either dead or fled, the people left in the savage settlements posed almost no threat.

The captives were escorted over and gathered in one place.

Armored soldiers carrying bows and crossbows stood guard in every direction.

A considerable amount of wealth and goods had also been hauled down.

But Zheng Fan had seen truly grand things before.

He had even plundered the imperial palace of Jin.

So although the tamed-savage settlements contained no shortage of gold, silver, jewels, and valuables, they could no longer stir much feeling in City Defender Zheng.

Alas.

Once your threshold of stimulation had risen, life suddenly lost quite a bit of the pleasure it ought to have contained.

The Blind Man was already swamped with work.

There were simply too many things that needed to be counted and recorded, and if certain figures were not properly tallied now, trouble could easily arise later.

Even so, Zheng Fan still called him over.

“Her?”

The Blind Man pointed toward the little girl in front of him.

Zheng Fan nodded.

“Blind Man, you question her.”

The Blind Man licked his lips and smiled.

“Master, this child is still very young. If I force my mental power directly into her, once the interrogation ends she’ll almost certainly become an idiot, perhaps even fall straight into a vegetative state.”

“Isn’t there a gentler method?”

“We can try questioning her through hypnosis.”

As he spoke, the Blind Man turned toward A’Ming and Xue San.

“She isn’t the Child Matriarch of Mount Heaven, is she?”

Xue San and A’Ming both shook their heads.

“As long as she isn’t the Child Matriarch of Mount Heaven, hypnosis will work just fine.”

Hypnotic questioning was naturally nowhere near as convenient or accurate as directly using mental power to “search the soul.”

If one encountered someone with extraordinary willpower, or someone who had trained in similar methods, the subject might even deceive the interrogator in reverse.

But since this girl clearly wasn’t the Child Matriarch of Mount Heaven, there was no need to worry about such a situation.

The Blind Man took out a copper coin, found a thread, and tied the coin to it.

Zheng Fan asked curiously, “I’ve always wondered about this. Pocket watches, clock pendulums, dangling things like that—is using one of these actually necessary for hypnosis to work?”

Psychiatrists and psychologists in his old world always seemed fond of this routine.

The Blind Man shook his head.

“No. Its only purpose is to make laymen think the whole thing looks mysterious and impressive.”

“…”

Zheng Fan.

“Come now, little sister. Be good. Look here. Look at it. Keep looking at it. Yes, just like that. You feel very tired. You’re getting sleepy. You want to sleep now. Go sleepy-bye. Good girl, go sleepy-bye. Baozhu is going sleepy-bye…”

The Blind Man was probably supplementing his words with a little mental power.

The girl’s body began swaying slowly.

Her eyelids gradually closed.

Beside them, Fan Li also started swaying.

He looked as though he was about to fall asleep too.

Xue San took out a needle and stabbed Fan Li in the thigh.

Fan Li immediately jolted upright.

“What’s your name?”

“Baozhu. Helian Baozhu.”

“Who is your father?”

“Helian… Xiongbi.”

The moment that name appeared, Zheng Fan’s gaze instantly sharpened.

Helian Xiongbi.

The old patriarch of the Helian Clan.

A man who had once stood on equal footing with Situ Lei.

According to popular rumor in the Great Yan Dynasty, Helian Xiongbi had been cleaved apart by Marquis of Zhenbei Li Liangting with a single saber strike, mount and divine beast included.

Of course, the truth was somewhat different.

Helian Xiongbi had intended to make one final desperate gamble. He led the three thousand most elite Helian cavalry in a surprise attack against the Zhenbei Army camp—the place where the Marquis of Zhenbei’s command banner stood.

In the end, he had been killed by Qingshuang, who remained at the Marquis of Zhenbei’s side as his personal guard.

“People really do get tougher the older they get. How old was that old bastard already, and he still had a daughter this young?” Xue San said admiringly.

By normal reckoning, she could easily have been his great-granddaughter.

Zheng Fan raised one hand, signaling Xue San to shut up so he wouldn’t interfere with the Blind Man’s hypnosis.

“Why are you here?” the Blind Man continued asking.

“Uncle… Uncle Shan brought me… brought me here…”

“Why did Uncle Shan bring you into the mountains?”

“Uncle Shan said… said I’m the Young Master… and I have to… have to shoulder… the family’s… hope…”

“You’re so young. How are you supposed to shoulder it?”

“Uncle Shan said… said… Father, a long, long time ago… left… left a treasure vault in the mountains… so that… so our family… could… could… could rise again…”

Hiss…

Including the Blind Man, Zheng Fan, A’Ming, Xue San, and even Liang Cheng all sucked in a sharp breath together.

Fan Li frowned.

To avoid looking out of place, he sucked in a breath too.

Then, Pffffffffffft~~~~

[End of Chapter 230]