Chapter 1377: The Explanation Given by the King of Yao

"Because those who occupy high positions cannot reach or see what is below; they are truly beyond their reach." Even the wisest monarch is not omniscient or omnipotent.

When Dong Rui walked in, Jiang Lishui was in the middle of reporting on the aftermath of the two branch offices.

Those who needed compensation were to be compensated generously.

The Flash Gold Plain was notoriously chaotic, and going to the branch office in the Kingdom of Yao had become a good job; everyone within the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce had once vied for this spot. Who could have foreseen that it would be the first to be bloodied? Furthermore, the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce was actively negotiating with the Xialin County government.

The other side insisted that the person in charge of the Xialin branch had been "caught red-handed" and, according to the law, should be given thirty heavy strokes and imprisoned for five years. Although Fan Shuang had reported the problems encountered by the Yangshan branch to the capital, who knew how long it would take for feedback to arrive? If Dai Wangsheng stayed in prison too long, he might be done to death.

The Yangshan Chamber of Commerce had also cultivated quite a few connections in the Kingdom of Yao, so they hurriedly entrusted people to inquire, and the reply came quite promptly: Yangshan had offended "someone who should not be offended."

So what was to be done?

The crux of the matter was not in Xialin County at all; the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce had no choice but to entrust someone to send generous gifts to the officials and merchants. If spread across the price of the horses, it was equivalent to an increase of fifteen percent in the cost price of each horse.

Yangshan also had to ensure that one of the generous gifts would be passed on to the hands of "someone who should not be offended."

Since the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce was so sensible, both yielding and sending gifts... the other side still did not release the person, instead setting up various pretexts and finding all sorts of trouble.

The focus was on the torment.

The Yangshan Chamber of Commerce had no choice but to continue sending gifts.

After several more rounds of this torment, the money the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce spent to smooth over this matter caused the cost of the Chigu horses to rise by another fifteen percent.

The original purchase price was only fifty percent of the market price; now, with thirty percent added on top, it was eighty percent.

At this point, Xue Zongwu was finally barely satisfied, because the person in charge of the Yangshan Xialin branch was soon "cleared of suspicion" and released without charge.

This charge had been fabricated in the first place, so of course it could be easily dropped.

As for the accident at the Xuancheng branch, the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce conducted its own autopsy and discovered that among the ten victims, four had been killed before the fire started; either their necks had been twisted, or their skulls had suffered heavy blows.

The other six had been burned to death alive.

The killer's methods were brutal and cruel.

But the Xuancheng County government did not recognize the results of the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce's self-autopsy at all, still insisting that the Yangshan branch had merely suffered a fire, and that everything should be based on the official announcement.

Jiang Lishui had experienced storms and seen the world in the Flash Gold Plain over these past few months, growing extremely fast, but he still gritted his teeth several times while reporting this matter.

The Xue family had ten lives from the Xuancheng branch on their hands, yet the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce still had to send them money and gifts!

Sending once was not enough; back and forth, four times! "You have done very well, very appropriately." He Lingchuan, however, was not angry; instead, he was all smiles and gentleness. "The two branch offices still need to be rebuilt, reopened, and continue operations; you will have to put in more effort."

"It is my duty, my lord!"

There was still indignation on Jiang Lishui's face, but He Lingchuan said meaningfully: "Those who commit many injustices are doomed to self-destruction; such people will suffer retribution sooner or later."

"Yes." What else could Jiang Lishui say? He considered himself lacking his master's depth of character.

After Jiang Lishui left, Dong Rui, who had been listening for a long time, finally sat up straight: "Seeing your kindly face, you must be brewing something nasty in your belly. Tell me, how are you going to retaliate?"

Having been accomplices for so long, Dong Rui understood He Lingchuan better and better, knowing that this fellow was very deep. The Yangshan Chamber of Commerce, which he had raised with his own hands, had been attacked and extorted, yet he could still smile; that meant he likely had a countermeasure.

This time, who was going to be in big trouble?

He Lingchuan blinked: "No rush, you'll know in a few days."

Ling Guang scratched his cheek: "Yangshan operates in the Kingdom of Yao with the monarch's special permission; why do they still have to offer tribute to Xue Zongwu?"

The two words "offer tribute" sounded unpleasant, but they were the truth.

The monkey still couldn't understand; wasn't the King of Yao the one in charge? Clearly, Yangshan had already received the royal decree's special permission; why could Xue Zongwu still make things difficult for the Yangshan Chamber of Commerce? "Can't we go to the King of Yao to file a complaint?"

"Of course we can." He Lingchuan smiled. "Didn't I file a complaint through Fan Shuang? Let's wait a bit and see if the effect is as I expected."

￥￥￥￥￥

Time flew by.

Just as the above events were happening one after another, early summer arrived quietly, and the Flash Gold Plain grew hotter day by day.

Island Master He of the Yangshan Archipelago stayed honestly in Jucheng, managing his Yangshan Chamber of Commerce;

The Black Armor Army, however, set out one after another, completing a total of thirty-one jobs—ahem, thirty-one missions—in these dozen days or so.

In such a short time, with such high frequency and such a wide range—He Lingchuan was not stupid; he would not limit the Black Armor Army's scope of action to the vicinity of the Allied member nations, otherwise, it would be easy for interested parties to sniff out the scent.

The more frequently the Black Armor Army acted, the more evil people they killed, and the more sensational the effect they caused, the more forces would set their sights on them.

Before these dozen days, the Black Armor Army's actions were still in the initial stage, having explosive effects only within a small range.

After these dozen days, the Black Armor Army's reputation expanded toward the central, southern, and northern parts of the Flash Gold Plain, because it had appeared in all these places! Every time this strange army arrived at a place, it would judge and execute the locally recognized great evils, then behead them and display the heads to the public.

In He Lingchuan's words, this was both the model and the selling point.

After all, he was only one person and could not be in two places at once; it was impossible for him to appear in every location simultaneously. Therefore, most of these were split-force operations, breaking the whole into parts, with leaders like Wanqi Feng, Wanqi Liang, Wang Fubao, and Pu Hua each leading a dozen riders to rush to various parts of the Flash Gold Plain.

After the battle at Shizhoutou and the Green Manor, He Lingchuan adjusted his strategy again, striking out in small teams, with short durations, high frequency, and explosive points, striving to achieve the greatest influence in the fastest time.

The targets for killing were all carefully selected by He Lingchuan; not only did they have to have committed irrefutable sins, but their combat power was assessed to be below their own, ensuring that every Black Armor team could succeed upon arrival.

Now, the total number of the Black Armor Army had risen to about two hundred, with each small team adopting the method of the old leading the new to help new members quickly enter their roles.

These dozens of concentrated actions were indeed effective; the Black Armor Army's reputation rose everywhere, expanding in ripples like in a deep pool.

In restaurants, eateries, red houses, and post stations, the Black Armor team was the number one trending topic everywhere.

Commoners, peddlers, merchants, and officials—as long as people were eating, working, or socializing, they could hear the glorious deeds of the Great Emperor of the Nine Netherworlds.

Of course, Yangshan's pushing of the waves behind the scenes was indispensable in this.

Because the time elapsed was too short, to avoid leaking clues, Yangshan did not give the storytellers ready-made scripts, only informing them of the basic information and letting them collect material from the folk and improvise freely.

Storytellers had always done this; once they reached the free improvisation stage, all sorts of bizarre tales and fake news—which one knew were unreasonable upon hearing but were eye-popping—began to spread more and more rampantly everywhere.

The more bizarre, sensational, and terrifying, the more widely it spread.

The Black Armor Army's limelight even overshadowed the news of the King of Yao's upcoming fifty-ninth birthday.

Unlike the common people who talked about it with relish, most of the powerful and wealthy in various countries had only one impression upon hearing the intelligence that the Black Armor teams were repeatedly successful: these people were killing like madmen!

Many powerful and wealthy people began to feel insecure, secretly strengthening their security, fearing a ghost knocking on their door in the middle of the night.

In the courts of various countries and forces, discussions began about this elusive Black Armor Army and how to be strictly vigilant against them.

Everyone wanted to know, what exactly was the goal of the Black Armor Army in being so active and dedicated to punishing evil and eliminating villains?

Time passed quickly amidst the worries of the upper echelons and the carnival of the lower classes.

When Dong Rui came to find He Lingchuan for experimental raw materials, Ling Guang was also there. Over these past few days, under its care, the injured Black Armor warriors had recovered quickly.

But Ling Guang was still somewhat unhappy.

Dong Rui touched the monkey's head: "What's wrong?"

The Ghost Ape also bared its teeth and asked the same.

He Lingchuan explained: "Fan Shuang kept his word and indeed reported the injustice suffered by our two branch offices to the King of Yao. Just now, I received a message from the Yao capital."

"Oh?" Dong Rui became interested. "Did the King of Yao uphold justice for you?"

"You could say yes, or you could say no."

"Hey, speak properly."

"The King of Yao also wants me to go to Tianshui City to offer birthday greetings, so he had to give me an explanation for these two matters." He Lingchuan said slowly, "Regarding the Xuancheng arson case, Tianshui City let the Xuancheng government investigate thoroughly. After working hard for so many days, Xuancheng finally caught two murderers and arsonists; in fact, they were just two rascals. They claimed that they went to the Yangshan Xuancheng branch to collect 'lighting money' and were refused, so they harbored resentment and set the fire privately; when they were discovered by the branch staff while committing the crime, they simply went all the way and killed them."

"'Lighting money'?" Dong Rui was bewildered; what kind of money was that?

"It's just protection money collected from merchants by street ruffians."

Dong Rui didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Is our branch a place where these two little punks can extort money and kill people? Even fooling a fool wouldn't be done like this."

Ling Guang looked at him resentfully; wasn't this scolding itself? The Kingdom of Yao was just fooling Yangshan like this.

Dong Rui coughed lightly: "Then what about the autopsy results?"

"They insisted that the people at the Xuancheng branch were all killed by them." He Lingchuan said indifferently, "They caught them, tried them, and sentenced them; these two arsonists confessed everything, so the case was successfully closed."

"Fine, just push out two scapegoats, and it's over." Dong Rui gave a thumbs up. "As long as there are criminals caught, the one surnamed Xue can give an explanation to the King of Yao, and you have no way to investigate further."

"As for the frame-up case in Xialin, the Yao capital also investigated; two officials in the Xialin government were demoted, and three bailiffs were fined their salaries. So—" He Lingchuan spread his hands, "that's it, it's over."

Ling Guang was unhappy: "But the real culprit is still at large."

It also knew that the two rascals sentenced were just scapegoats, and the real killer might be laughing at Yangshan and He Lingchuan right now.

"Do you think the King of Yao doesn't know?" He Lingchuan shook his head. "He should know Xue Zongwu's character better than I do. But he doesn't care about life or death, he just wants a result. And Xue Zongwu gave him a result."

Thanks to the classmate "Peaceful Life" for the reward; we have added another new alliance leader~

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1378 =====