Chapter 83 The Truth of Chaoyue Village

Fang Yue asked suspiciously, "What's the reason?"

Captain Shan revealed a look of reminiscence.

"A long time ago, Chaoyue Village was also a large village, comparable to our Manshui Village in terms of area and other aspects, and even far surpassed it in terms of traffic, because the food here was particularly famous, attracting many outsiders."

"The prosperous Chaoyue Village, at its peak, had as many as five team captains, and its strength was also very strong! At that time, Chaoyue Village was far more secure than other villages."

"But later, I don't know if it was because of the large flow of people, or if they did something, Chaoyue Village was targeted by a powerful guiyi (ghostly creature)."

"The guiyi destroyed Chaoyue Village, and the remaining people fled to Manshui Village."

"Originally, Manshui Village didn't mind accepting this group of people from Chaoyue Village, but the two sides always disagreed and had frictions. In the end, Manshui Village contributed people and efforts, and took the people from Chaoyue Village back to their original residence..."

Captain Shan sighed as he said this.

"Like Chaoyue Village, which is no longer considered a village, there are actually many more. Most of them are like Manshui Village, and they no longer have the ability to protect the village. Once they encounter a strong guiyi attack, they have to abandon the village and flee to nearby large villages for refuge."

"Escaping as an entire village is not an easy task. Encountering guiyi on the road, most of the last villagers in this kind of small village will die on the road, and even the name of the village will completely disappear into the long river of history, and no one will remember it."

"The situation in Chaoyue Village is considered good. As long as they steadily hand over resources to Manshui Village every year, Manshui Village will provide care."

"This is also because Chaoyue Village took good care of Manshui Village in the past, so they have this much affection. In addition, Chaoyue Village is very close to Manshui Village, and there is also a relatively safe village road, and it only takes half a day to reach, which is one of the reasons why Chaoyue Village can survive."

"As for the house problems and other problems you see in Chaoyue Village now, it's all because the villagers here are always ready to abandon the village and flee to Manshui Village."

Listening to Captain Shan's words, Fang Yue was stunned. It took him a long time to absorb this knowledge.

He looked at the villagers of Chaoyue Village, and sure enough, they were all sallow and emaciated, as if they were eating one meal and missing the next, often going hungry.

In addition, looking into the holes in some of the houses, he could see that the daily necessities inside the houses were very simple, the kind that could be abandoned at any time.

This hard life is simply incomparable to Guyue Village, Manshui Village, and the like.

Fang Yue frowned. Could it be that… this is the norm for other villages?

Fang Yue had only seen a few villages in total, and didn't know what the general environment was like for ordinary people in the face of rampant guiyi.

But he vaguely felt that the phenomenon like Chaoyue Village was the most common, and villages like Guyue Village and Manshui Village, protected by experts, were scarce!

After thinking about it, Fang Yue suddenly thought of something.

"Captain Shan, I remember that the replacement of a captain in the village needs to be reported to the higher-level Qing Si, right?"

Fang Yue was stuck because of this kind of official procedure, and he is still treated as a deputy captain.

"For large villages like our Manshui Village and your Guyue Village, the replacement of a captain naturally needs to be reported. But for villages like Chaoyue Village, there is no need to report it anymore, because in the official maps of the government, small villages like Chaoyue Village are not included in the statistics—that is, they have been deprived of the qualification to be called a village!"

"Ah? If it's not a village, what is it called?"

"I don't know, a settlement? A tribe? A gang? No matter what it is, it's not recognized by the above. In the eyes of the government, Chaoyue Village will always be in a state of being removed from the list until a captain with sufficient ability is born."

"...That's too cruel, right? Doesn't being removed from the list mean completely ignoring their life and death? But their Chaoyue Village has a guard team, doesn't that mean they hold the Bronze Longevity Token, which is the representative of the government!"

Captain Shan shook his head when he heard this.

"No. Chaoyue Village had all its Bronze Longevity Tokens recovered during the first village destruction. Now, those people in Chaoyue Village are called the guard team, but in reality, they are just a group of villagers who have given themselves a title and are not recognized by the government."

"So, they don't need to go through any procedures for changing their captain position, and they can even have as many captains as they want. Of course, in order to continue the tradition, they only set up one captain, who is generally the strongest person in their village."

Fang Yue understood.

To put it bluntly, the government treats situations like Chaoyue Village as bandits and pirates.

Of course, it's not that serious, after all, the government won't send people to deal with them.

But the attitude of ignoring them is also equivalent to letting them live and die on their own, unless a martial arts-level powerhouse is born and re-appointed as the captain, can they be re-recognized and the name of Chaoyue Village be re-printed on the Qing Kingdom map.

Now, Fang Yue probably understands why the people of Chaoyue Village are so ingratiating to Captain Shan.

After all, their Chaoyue Village relies on Manshui Village to survive. Once they encounter danger, they will definitely flee to Manshui Village. Naturally, they will recognize Captain Shan. Perhaps Captain Shan has saved their people before.

This kind of affiliated village, forming a relationship of supply and protection with the big village, is probably the norm between villages.

As for Guyue Village... because of its awkward geographical location, there are no small villages around it at all, so naturally there are no affiliated villages to exploit it. It seems reasonable that the village develops more slowly.