Chapter 767 You… Are Here Too?

Things could be considered a success, though at present, it wasn’t a complete victory. After all, he was still on the snowy plains, not in Fengxin City. Although he’d bound the black-armored man like a dumpling, he hadn’t yet taken him back to Fengxin City, nor had he built a sufficiently sturdy prison fortified with formations to truly lock him up.

But the most difficult and accident-prone part was over.

Whether there would be any problems after taking him back, or any further changes after locking him up, would have to be worried about later.

A weight lifted from Zheng Houye's heart.

However, he wasn't overly surprised. He'd already gotten to this point, so successfully capturing the target was only natural, even expected. It would have been a true surprise if he'd failed and let him escape.

The master and disciple, Kong Yuan and Liao Fan, were truly blessed. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that if you stabbed them, what flowed out wouldn't be blood, but good fortune.

This incredible pair was originally preaching on the snowy plains, dreaming of building their own temple outside Fengxin City with the support of the Marquis of Pingxi.

But Zheng Houye forcibly assigned them this task.

Zheng Houye didn't believe in the mumbo jumbo of Refiners of Qi; after all, he knew even more mumbo jumbo himself. But he did believe in the concept of destiny.

So, this was essentially sacrificing two monks to pave the way for himself.

As a result, one went mad and the other developed schizophrenia.

But in the darkness, it gained him the clue.

After getting the clue, he didn't delay, immediately summoning his men and marching out, deep into the snowy plains in the dead of winter. If anything went wrong after all that, it would truly be unjust.

After collecting the bodies of the fallen comrades and treating the wounded, the team began its return journey.

On the third day, they connected with the scout riders dispatched by Liang Cheng's unit. The next day, Zheng Fan's side merged with the main force, and the army began its return journey.

On the way back, the tribal chief of the Di Shan tribe, leading his wife, children, and tribal nobles, wearing sheepskins and holding jade pendants in their mouths, knelt on the road as the army advanced.

…

"Heh heh heh."

Zheng Houye laughed and said to Gou Moli beside him, "The savages are learning the ropes now?"

Gou Moli said, "This means he has a brain. People laugh at monkeys wearing hats, but at least this monkey has a desire to be human, which is much better than those dull monkeys who only know how to eat and sleep."

Zheng Houye's smile faded, and he nodded, saying, "Indeed, being connected to that side, he's certainly not an idiot. He has ideas in his heart."

"How does my lord want to deal with him?"

"Deal with him?" Zheng Houye shook his head. "Let's meet him first and ask some questions."

Di Qiu, the tribal chief of the Di Shan tribe, along with his wife and children, were brought outside the commander's tent. They knelt down again respectfully.

Zheng Houye didn't meet them inside the tent but walked out instead.

Di Qiu was a large man. Looking at his face, one could tell he was a warrior among the savages, and his body was tattooed with the Di Shan tribe's totem.

"The sinner kowtows to the great Marquis of Pingxi. All sins were committed by the sinner. The sinner is willing to use the lives of his family to bear the Marquis of Pingxi's wrath, only begging the Marquis to show great kindness and spare the Di Shan tribe."

As the tribal chief, he was truly a man with a sense of responsibility, willing to stand up for the survival of his entire tribe at this moment.

Zheng Houye walked up to him and looked at him.

"This Marquis asks you, how did you know about them?"

"The Star Receiver notified my tribe. Our pastures are in the north, so they wanted to use our strength to intercept them."

"And you chose to go the other way?"

"Yes, the sinner has always disagreed with these Receivers, but was also tempted by what they said. So, the sinner pretended to agree to them, but secretly contacted those people in the far north, preparing to rescue them from the Receivers' pursuit and then control that thing."

Di Qiu was very candid.

"That thing" referred to the black-armored man.

A black-armored man who hadn't fully awakened and was still very weak could withstand three strikes from a Second-Grade sword from the Sword Saint with a temporary burst of power.

This thing, this kind of existence, was indeed a great weapon for the snow plains tribes at the moment.

It was only natural to be envious, and understandable to want to monopolize it.

Everyone has ambition.

Di Qiu continued,

"But the sinner really didn't know that the Marquis also wanted this thing. If the sinner had known earlier, how would the sinner dare to compete with you, my lord? The sinner would definitely go out in person, snatch that thing and bring it to you, my lord."

These words were half true and half false.

Zheng Fan knew that if the Marquis of Pingxi's mansion had simply made an appearance and given a greeting, this Di Qiu and the Di Shan tribe behind him would have definitely caused some trouble. In short, they wouldn't have handed over the person happily. If all else failed, they would have chosen a compromise, saying the person had run away.

After all, that thing was a person, so wasn't it normal for him to run away?

But after the Marquis's mansion sent troops into the snow plains, showing its determination to get this thing, Di Qiu didn't dare to disobey.

"Originally, this Marquis was waiting to return to Xuehai Pass before sending troops to destroy your Di Shan tribe."

Di Qiu pressed his head to the ground, not daring to rise.

"Now, this Marquis is thinking of changing his mind a bit, Di Qiu."

"The sinner is here."

"This Marquis orders you to select three thousand strong tribesmen to follow this Marquis into the pass and become armored slaves under the Marquis's mansion. If there is war, they will atone for their sins with military merits. If there are no military merits, they will be slaves for generations!"

"The slave thanks the Marquis for his great kindness!"

Zheng Fan turned around, and the armored soldiers on both sides came over and escorted the family away.

Gou Moli walked out at this time and said, "My lord, you've softened again."

Zheng Fan shook his head and said, "I just like the tattoos on this guy's body."

Gou Moli added, "Is my lord preparing to mobilize troops?"

"I wasn't planning to, but since this matter is progressing smoothly, after we go back, let's stretch our muscles along the way."

"My lord is wise."

"This matter still has to wait until we get back to discuss it."

"Yes."

Zheng Fan walked back to the commander's tent. Inside, the Sword Saint was holding Long Yuan and still wiping it.

Swords need to be nourished, nourished by the swordmaster's qi.

This time, Long Yuan was contaminated, which meant that most of the nourishment from previous years had been wasted.

"Can it be repaired?" Zheng Fan asked.

The Sword Saint nodded and shook his head, "It can, but it will take a long time."

"Is there a faster way?"

"Finding the person who made the sword to repair it would be faster."

"I'll send an official letter. You can go to Zhennan Pass and wait for him there."

"No need, it can still be used for now."

At least, it can still be used as tongs and a rocking chair.

"This kind of thing can't be used as a substitute," Zheng Fan said.

"I just don't think it's necessary to go to such great lengths for it."

"I'm not afraid of trouble. You have to think about me. How about this? I'll order someone to send a message to the Dugu family in Chu soon. Once we enter Xuehai Pass, you can go directly to Zhennan Pass. It won't take long. Once Long Yuan is repaired, you can return to Fengxin City."

"So urgent?" The Sword Saint understood, "Is there going to be a war?"

"My brother-in-law is about to officially ascend the throne."

In fact, the Regent had originally planned to officially ascend the throne in the first half of the year, but it was delayed because the Empress Dowager was seriously ill and he wanted to pray for her.

Of course, that was just an excuse. The real reason was that the war with Qian hadn't ended at that time, and then some domestic matters hadn't been properly handled.

Zheng Fan had once ridden in the same carriage as his brother-in-law. In his opinion, his brother-in-law had obvious obsessive-compulsive disorder, even having to pay attention to the arrangement of his food when he cooked himself a bowl of noodles to satisfy his hunger.

"We're going to attack them, and we still want them to help me repair my sword?"

"One thing is separate from another. Didn't I also sell horses to Chu?"

"Why do we have to fight?" the Sword Saint asked. "We can choose not to."

"Wei Dong, the soldiers and civilians are just idle anyway."

"They can beat their children at home." The Sword Saint regretted saying that.

Zheng Houye didn't mind and said,

"The key is that under our Marquis's mansion, the standard household system can't function without war, there's no military merit, and without military merit, there's no profit. Problems will arise, many of them.

On the contrary, after the war starts, there will be fewer problems, or even none at all."

The system designed by the Blind Man for the Marquis's territory had shadows of the Qin Dynasty's military rank system and the Later Jin's Eight Banners system from another time and space. In the end, it was a military group.

In the past year, everyone had worked hard to restore production, but if there was no war and no income from external wars, this system would be like the source of living water being blocked.

Of course, the war here didn't refer to a major war, but a small one, but it would definitely be much larger than the scale of two or three thousand riders outside Fancheng.

As for whether it would cause a national war, if the Chu people really dared to start a national war, it must be because they were prepared, not determined by whether you provoked them or not.

"Tiring." The Sword Saint was a little helpless.

"Let's see how it goes. There's no hurry. Maybe there won't be a fight. We have to see the situation at the time. Oh, right, you took down that guy. I said, whoever takes him down will be appointed as a commander-in-chief."

"Then wouldn't I become Li Liang Shen?"

"Do you want to?"

"You're talking about whoever cuts off his head." The Sword Saint was obviously not interested in being a commander-in-chief at all.

"Heh heh."

Zheng Fan walked out of the commander's tent to check on Xue San in his tent.

Xue San was still unconscious. Liang Cheng had just extracted some of the corpse poison for him. A wooden basin next to him was full of black blood.

Tian Tian and Liu Dahu were carefully handing things over.

"How is he?" Zheng Fan asked.

"Fortunately, he was decisive, using poison to fight poison and block the spread of the corpse poison. Plus, his body itself is a medicine jar, so his resistance is good. Otherwise, there would really be no hope.

I'll extract the corpse poison a few more times. He can slowly digest the rest himself. He should wake up in half a month. As long as he wakes up, he can take care of himself."

"Okay," Zheng Fan nodded.

Xue San was extremely unlucky. He thought the black-armored man was out of power and wanted to grab the kill, but he was sprayed in the face with corpse qi. Anyone else would have been killed.

"My lord, that thing is indeed a zombie," Liang Cheng said.

"I know. Tell me some different things you, as the progenitor of zombies, see."

"The aura is very pure. If we have to classify the grade, his bloodline grade is very high. I can't imagine encountering it here…"

Zheng Fan joked, "Encountering a true family member?"

Liang Cheng didn't disagree and nodded, "It's not just the bloodline grade, but also the physique. His physique is much stronger than mine now."

"He's very fierce. You didn't see it, but the Sword Saint couldn't kill him in one shot with his Second-Grade technique. Dai Li, under Xue San, said that he had been sealed all along and had previously been awakened to repel two groups of attackers."

"The power is deficient," Liang Cheng said. "It can also be said that he's half-asleep, half-awake."

"I don't like listening to overly abstract expressions. Say something that people can understand."

"Just as you, my lord, are a Fifth-Grade martial artist, what a martial artist relies on is qi and blood, and physique. Zombies are the same, baleful qi and a zombie physique.

His half-sleep, half-wake is not a true half-sleep, half-wake. His physique is too strong, causing an imbalance, suppressing his sanity and baleful qi with his overly powerful physique.

In other words, a zombie physique that is too incompatible with his current stage forms a seal on him."

"So, how did this happen? Was it acquired?"

"I'm not sure. I need time. After we return to Fengxin City and build a prison to hold him, I can try to wake him up again and ask him."

Zheng Fan nodded.

Before leaving, Zheng Fan turned around again, looked at Liang Cheng, and pointed to the top of his head,

Saying:

"Could it be from there?"

Dropped from the sky.

Not really smashed down from the sky, but maybe he's like us.

"Probably not," Liang Cheng said. "Because I discovered something."

"Oh?"

"There's a clan emblem on his armor fragment."

"Clan emblem?"

"Yes."

"Whose?"

"The Helian clan's emblem."

"Are you sure?" Zheng Fan asked.

"Has my lord forgotten? We once went to search for the Helian clan's treasure. We are naturally familiar with the Helian clan's emblem."

"People from the Helian clan appeared in the far north and became zombies, fulfilling the prophecy. Tsk tsk." Zheng Fan smiled. "Things are getting more and more interesting."

"But at least we have proven that prophecies can be intervened and changed in advance."

"Isn't that obvious? Otherwise, we'd just be waiting to die, right?"

Zheng Fan looked at Xue San, who was still unconscious, and said, "After we get back, let the Blind Man be responsible for contacting the people from the Secret Spy Division to investigate this guy's life details. I don't think he's a modern person. Since he's turned into a zombie and his physique is so strong, he should be quite old."

"I think so too."

"Do you think it might be related to the environment in that far northern place?"

"What does my lord mean?"

"I mean, since this guy has been soaking in the ice pool in the far north for so many years, it can cultivate such a strong physique, able to withstand hits even when he's not fully awake…

Why don't you go soak there too?

There's no reason why he can soak there, and you can't."

Liang Cheng nodded in agreement,

Saying:

"Provided that you, my lord, accompany me to soak. You know my situation."

"………" Zheng Fan.

"Heh heh, I'm just joking. Don't take it seriously. Don't take it seriously. You have to help me lead the troops. Where would I have the time to take a vacation to soak in the bath?"

Zheng Houye pointed his finger at Tian Tian and said, "Tian Tian, come, light a cigarette for Dad."

"Here I come, son."

Because Xue San was unconscious, Zheng Houye was too embarrassed to smoke in the sickroom, although this bit of cigarette poison didn't seem to be anything compared to corpse poison.

He walked out of the tent and squatted down.

Tian Tian first used his small body to block the wind, then took out a fire starter to light Zheng Fan's cigarette.

Zheng Houye took a puff and reached out to touch Tian Tian's head.

The child had seen the world this time and was very happy. Although he didn't really go to the battlefield, it was a rare experience for him, who could only play alone in the yard from childhood to adulthood.

Zheng Fan remembered when he came back, Tian Tian said proudly that he had protected the madam well.

"Dad."

"Hmm?"

"Who exactly is that person who was captured…?"

"I don't know yet. I have to investigate."

"Is he a bad person?"

"Yes."

Anyone who can threaten me is a bad person.

"Dad…"

"Tian Tian, don't hide anything from Dad."

"I know, Dad, it's just that on the day you captured that person, I seemed to hear someone say something to me…"

"What did they say?"

"You… are here too?"