Chapter 637: Capturing Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing Alive

"My Lord, this subordinate is incompetent for letting Tang San escape, and I am willing to accept punishment." Dian Wei had returned, kneeling directly before Nan Feihuang with a face full of self-reproach.

He took all the blame upon himself; his Lord had put so much effort into nurturing him, yet he had dropped the ball at the critical moment, and he felt like dying right now.

"E Lai, get up quickly. Your contributions are already great enough; Tang San's escape is not your fault!" Feihuang helped Dian Wei up.

No matter how formidable Dian Wei was, he was currently only a Title Douluo, so naturally, he could do nothing against the divine artifact, the Asura Sword sheath; how could this be blamed on him?

Moreover, he had single-handedly slain five Title Douluo of Star Luo; such a monumental achievement wiped away any mistake, no matter how great.

"Although we did not capture Tang San, capturing this fellow is not bad either, my Lord!" Xun Yu's voice arrived; it seemed he had returned in triumph.

Feihuang had sent him to clear the battlefield, round up surrendered soldiers, and pursue the defeated army.

"Hehe, it seems Wenruo has brought me a gift." Feihuang immediately went to meet him.

Only to see Xun Yu walking over in high spirits, with Oscar and Ning Rongrong following behind him; he had not expected them to have gone to lend a hand as well.

It seemed Ning Rongrong truly hoped to accumulate as much merit as possible in this war.

And behind the two of them were Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing, bound hand and foot.

Nan Feihuang's eyes lit up; as expected of Xun Yu, he had actually captured Dai Mubai alive.

"Wenruo, how did you capture him?" Feihuang asked. He remembered the scouts reporting that Dai Mubai and Tang San had fled separately, and at the time, due to his orders, everyone had focused more on Tang San, allowing Dai Mubai to escape first.

As it turned out, Tang San had vanished without a trace, while this fellow had instead become a prisoner.

Xun Yu smiled slightly, "It is very simple: one only needs to analyze his destination. Although Tang San and Dai Mubai fled separately, I am certain of two points. First, neither of them would return to Xingluo City to become lambs waiting for the slaughter. Second, they would definitely agree to meet at a certain location to make a comeback. But to make a comeback, they must have troops. Although the six hundred thousand Star Luo troops were defeated by us, they still have a total of five hundred thousand garrison troops stationed across their borders, completely untouched. Dai Mubai would definitely go there to reorganize the army, so I pursued him along his only path, and sure enough, I caught him."

"By the way, my Lord, Miss Ning and Oscar also made no small contribution this time. If not for their help with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and the Sausage martial soul, it would have been very difficult for me to catch up to Dai Mubai. Even if I had caught up, Dai Mubai still had tens of thousands of troops, and with Zhu Zhuqing's assistance, the rapid-response force I brought was too small, so dealing with them would not have been easy."

Xun Yu also requested a reward for Ning Rongrong and Oscar. A commander of an army must be clear in rewards and punishments. Although the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Nan Feihuang had long had grievances, that was the original Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, which had already been destroyed.

The new sect established by Ning Rongrong had no grudge against Nan Feihuang, and Xun Yu had seen her changes over these years. Therefore, he would not target them because of past grievances; he would not withhold the credit that was due to them.

Nan Feihuang nodded, "Ning Rongrong, Oscar, I will not forget the contributions you made in this war. Upon returning to the capital, I will grant you the seats of Duke and Marquis of our nation."

"Many thanks, Your Highness the Crown Prince!" Ning Rongrong and Oscar were overjoyed.

An imperial Duke was recognized by the empire and was the highest-ranking noble seat, second only to the royal princes; a Marquis was only slightly inferior.

With this title, they would be legitimate members of the Gu Lei Empire's noble class, which would be of great benefit to the future development of the new Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect within the country. For instance, Jia Chong, the Sect Master of the Gu Lei Empire's guardian sect, the Brute Force Sect, was also an imperial Duke, though slightly higher—strictly speaking, a Grand Duke.

Just by looking at the title of Duke, no one would dare to make things difficult for their sect.

Nan Feihuang nodded; this reward was not excessive. The great merit of assisting Xun Yu in capturing Dai Mubai alive was enough, not to mention that she had previously assisted Dian Wei in slaying five Title Douluo in one go; no one would have any objections.

"Alright, bring Dai Mubai over!"

"Understood!" Xun Yu replied.

Soon, several soldiers escorted Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing, whose soul power had been sealed, before Nan Feihuang.

Dai Mubai was still roaring in anger, "Nan Feihuang, you invader! You invaded my Star Luo; you will meet a miserable end!"

"Bastard, a prisoner dares to curse my brother? Kneel for me!" Nan Feiling was enraged; she walked behind Dai Mubai and kicked the back of his knees, forcing him to kneel on the ground.

"Dai Mubai, a defeated general, stop acting crazy." Nan Feihuang said calmly, "Moreover, if we are talking about invasion, it was your Star Luo that first invaded our Gu Lei back then. My grandparents both died because of your invasion war in those years. My father worked day and night to revive the country, forced to bow his head and pay tribute to the Heaven Dou Empire year after year. Plus, the Spirit Hall intervened to prevent Star Luo from unifying the continent, which allowed our nation to barely preserve its sovereignty. This deep hatred is something I have never forgotten since I was old enough to understand, and I swore that one day I would make your Star Luo pay it back!"

"That was all a matter of the previous generation; what does it have to do with me?" Dai Mubai argued unconvinced.

Back then, Star Luo had indeed almost unified the continent; not only the Gu Lei Kingdom, but the Hagendas Kingdom, the Silves Kingdom, the Ba La Ke Kingdom, and others had all suffered from Star Luo's invasions.

If not for Heaven Dou's resistance and the Spirit Hall's interference, this continent would have long been the Star Luo Empire's.

But those were all things that happened before he was born; no matter how one blamed it, it couldn't be blamed on him.

Xun Yu shook his head with disdain; he had not expected that Dai Mubai, who had won the Star Luo succession struggle, was such a person, not even knowing what it meant to "bear the weight of the crown."

Since he had become the Crown Prince of the Star Luo Empire, he naturally had to bear all of Star Luo's karma; it was not something he could brush off with a single sentence about it having nothing to do with him.

It seemed that if not for Tang San's help, he would never have been able to become this Crown Prince; he was inferior to Dai Weisi in every aspect.

Xun Yu had met Dai Weisi back then, and compared to Dai Mubai, he was clearly more calculating.

Nan Feihuang could no longer be bothered to pay attention to him and turned to look at Zhu Zhuqing. Nan Feiling was just about to step forward and kick her again to make Zhu Zhuqing kneel as well, but she was stopped by Nan Feihuang.

"Sister, there is no need to treat her like that."

"Zhu Zhuqing, I have a question for you. I heard that ever since your sister died, you returned to Star Luo and locked yourself in your room, never interfering in the Star Luo succession struggle. In this continental war, I did not see you in the Star Luo military ranks at first. Why did you suddenly join the battlefield to assist the doomed Dai Mubai? Do you know that at that time, Star Luo had already collapsed, and your appearance could not change anything at all; it was merely throwing away one more life in vain."

(End of chapter)