Chapter 26: The Shackles Shatter

[Congratulations. You have set up a defensive array for Zhaoge. You have contributed to the safety of your territory and subjects. You have received ten thousand points.]

[Congratulations. After experiencing a hearty and satisfying battle, your subjects have gained courage and growth. Public Happiness has been unlocked. When Public Happiness remains steadily above eighty points, you may receive points equal to the number of your subjects each month. Current Public Happiness: ninety points.]

[The defensive array has been connected to the national defense system. From now on, you may freely set entry and exit permissions.]

Advancing to Foundation Establishment had cost a total of fifty thousand points. His account had originally only had a little over nine thousand points left, but when he killed Song Dianlai, he had extracted three thousand points. Add to that the nine thousand points he received for killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator and the points he received today for setting up the defensive array, and his account now had over twenty thousand points remaining.

Noticing that the caravan had arrived, Chi Yixuan quickly set the caravan as a friendly party permitted to enter and leave. At the same time, he set all subjects in the valley to “free entry and exit,” so they would not be blocked outside by the array.

Qiu Ping’an was already quite mature in how he dealt with people, and in any case, with the contract in place, there was nothing else to discuss in the business deal. Chi Yixuan stopped paying attention. He extracted points, and his cultivation instantly reached the second layer of Foundation Establishment.

Unlike the Qi Refining stage, spiritual power at the Foundation Establishment stage was stronger, and there were more ways of using spiritual power that one could spontaneously comprehend. Because of that, he also needed more time in seclusion to digest it. But before he could even begin, his life-bound artifact started sending him message notifications again.

[Congratulations. Your territory now has its first prison. You have received five thousand points. Punishment is an important stage of rule by man. Its purpose is to punish criminals and protect subjects. In lands with punishments, the likelihood of crime among the people will decrease significantly.]

After Chi Yixuan saw the Dragon-Tiger Gang members being dragged back, he stopped watching. At that moment, he felt incredibly gratified because of his subjects, and even had the salted-fish impulse to become a hands-off manager.

But when he heard this notification, he still could not suppress his curiosity and glanced at the state of the “prison.”

In the image that surfaced on the game panel, several square frames made from stone and wood appeared. These were the cells Qiu Ping’an and the others had just remodeled.

The seven Dragon-Tiger Gang members had been split up in pairs and locked inside several different cells. Every one of them had swollen faces and bruised noses, looking utterly miserable. The Dragon-Tiger Gang leader had taken the heaviest beating. His weapon had long since been removed by the valley residents. At the moment, the brown clothes on his body had been torn ragged, and his face and chest were covered in scratch marks, bruises, and footprints. His eyes and the corners of his mouth were swollen and bleeding, and his arms were covered in blue and purple marks. He was lying on the ground, constantly sucking in sharp breaths.

Fortunately, he was a cultivator. If he had been a mortal who had not yet entered the Dao, he would already have been beaten to death by now.

Of course, the reason Chi Yixuan was watching him so seriously was absolutely not because he was taking pleasure in his misfortune. It was because… when he had just been observing the prison, he discovered that above the Dragon-Tiger Gang leader’s head was a bright, glittering pickled vegetable!

Skill Two: Soul of Bole was a passive skill. Only when a talent with the aptitude of a Thousand-Li Horse appeared within his field of vision would the skill activate, lighting up a pickled vegetable above the Thousand-Li Horse’s head as a marker.

So far, the only person Chi Yixuan had seen with the aptitude of a Thousand-Li Horse was Guo Qianshan, and reality had proven that he was also the fastest among all the laborers in terms of cultivation progress. And now, unexpectedly, there was one more person.

[How does Your Majesty plan to handle this person?]

Chi Yixuan asked it, “What do you think?”

The life-bound artifact answered unhurriedly, [The worst strategy: You appear in person at the prison, express your appreciation for talent, and subdue this person under your command with your kingly aura. The middling strategy: You secretly let your subjects torture them to their hearts’ content. When he can no longer endure it, you appear at the right moment, and he will beg to acknowledge you as his master.]

The second suggestion did make a lot of sense. By then, this person would have lost his arrogance and would feel that everything had been his own choice.

Chi Yixuan listened quietly for a while. Finding that there was no follow-up, he could not help asking, “What about the best strategy?”

The life-bound artifact said, [Your Majesty sees far and plans deep. Compared to you, my best suggestion can only count as a middling or poor strategy.]

Chi Yixuan lightly scraped his toes against the ground and let out an awkward laugh. “Look at you. Why are you starting with the rainbow farts again? As a life-bound artifact, don’t be such a bootlicker.”

The life-bound artifact fell silent.

In its long silence, Chi Yixuan realized something: No way, no way! Could it be that the life-bound artifact really had not been blowing rainbow farts? Could it be that what it said was truly its own heartfelt feeling?

Chi Yixuan was shaken once again, and swiftly rationalized that shock. As expected of my life-bound artifact. Truly honest and reliable!

Only after a long time did the life-bound artifact speak again. Chi Yixuan did not know what it had been thinking during that silence. He only heard that its voice was still as gentle as ever. [Then how do you intend to deal with this talent?]

“How to deal with him?” Chi Yixuan chuckled. “I won’t.”

“There’s an old saying: Thousand-Li Horses are common, but Boles are not. That means this Bole is the rare one. There are plenty of talents. Why should this Bole accommodate him?”

Whether personally going to see him or finding people to deal with him so that he would passively and voluntarily submit, Chi Yixuan was too lazy to do either. “This person isn’t anything good to begin with. The laborers treasure those flatbed carts so much. Every day after they finish hauling goods, they arrange them neatly, and from time to time, they even maintain them. Then this group charged in and kicked them over! Who knows how many they damaged?”

“And those neat little houses in the valley were all built through everyone’s hard work from dawn to dusk. Our own people didn’t even get the chance to go in and admire them, yet these people came in and out, nitpicking, and dirtied the floor with their feet.”

“And that design drawing too. You worked so hard to draw it, but they actually cursed you as an idiot. I’m not giving them that kind of face. They can do whatever. Let the valley residents handle them themselves.”

In Chi Yixuan’s eyes, these people deserved to be beaten. The vast majority of the valley residents had originally been slaves, each of them timid and shrinking. It had not been easy for them to finally stand upright. If he gave face to the Dragon-Tiger Gang leader at a time like this, wouldn’t that be trampling his subjects’ faces into the dirt?

Whether for his own satisfaction or to vent anger on behalf of his points, he could not be bothered with these people.

Hearing this, the life-bound artifact’s voice became even gentler. It answered, [Very well.]

Just then, Qiu Ping’an came to knock on the door. From outside, he said respectfully, “Owner, Boss Luo has sent over some gifts. She also wishes to request an audience with you.”

Chi Yixuan had to stabilize his cultivation, study the knowledge of this world—the last time they went to Silver City, the life-bound artifact had copied backups of quite a few books—and also think about how to build a running-water system to bring in the water source eighty li away. Even his rest time had to be squeezed out. He really did not have the spare effort to meet with a merchant, so he told Qiu Ping’an to handle it himself.

Outside the door, Qiu Ping’an’s voice sounded somewhat hesitant. He said, “But the gifts Boss Luo brought are extremely valuable. I don’t dare handle them myself. She brought a box of spirit stones, and a magic artifact.”

…

In a certain corner of the valley, Shi Dahai sat on a small wooden stool, his heart still unable to calm down. Around him were quite a few people just like him, their faces flushed and their emotions stirred.

The last time they had been like this, it was because the immortal master had protected them from cultivators.

But this time was different from the last.

Shi Dahai had once been an ordinary law-abiding citizen. Because his family had fallen into enormous debt, and because both his parents had died, leaving them unable to repay it, the three siblings had been forced to become slaves to offset the debt.

A slave’s days were naturally not fit for humans. In a mere two or three years, they had almost forgotten their former lives and their former temperaments. They became more timid and cowardly by the day, because resisting or arguing back would bring beatings and insults, and their food would also be docked. And so they grew afraid to fight for anything, afraid to resist. Every time even a small thought of resistance rose in their hearts, they would viciously suppress it themselves.

They wore no shackles on their bodies, yet they wore shackles at every moment.

But today, they had resisted. And they had succeeded! They had protected their home, and they had defended their benefactor!

For the first time, they had fiercely struck back at those who invaded them!

That feeling was too wonderful and too complicated, so much so that after many people came back to themselves, they could not help feeling a sour ache in their hearts and choking up.

In the past, they had no dignity. Later, the immortal master gave them dignity. And now, their dignity had been given to them by themselves!

There was clearly no sound, yet everyone seemed to hear the sound of the shackles on their bodies shattering.

Shi Dahai covered his face, not wanting others to see that his eyes were completely red. After all, he was a man, and he still had to set an example for his younger brother and sister.

After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly found that something was pressing uncomfortably against his face. Shi Dahai lowered his hands in confusion, then discovered in astonishment that a pair of gloves had appeared on them!

Some voice in the unseen told him that this was his life-bound artifact.

Next Chapter >