Chapter 422: Rest in Fengyang Village, interception and serious injury, resentment and rage

The ninth year of Great Xia, February 18th.

South of Chui Mountain Town, late at night.

On the bluestone road in Jiangyan territory, two in front and three behind, a total of five figures are galloping south through the wind and snow. All five are carrying luggage, their breathing slightly rapid, clearly having traveled for a long time.

The person on the left in the front row looks to be in his early thirties, wearing a white Xia uniform, with a long sword hanging at his waist, his brows quite heroic, and his eyes flowing with a thick aura of a superior, clearly the leader;

The person on his right looks older, should be in his early forties, wearing a yellow Xia uniform, holding a standard horizontal knife in his hand. From the degree of rapid breathing, it is easy to see that his strength is not as good as the leader's;

The three following behind are all dressed in black, ranging in age from 30 to 40. Although the three are flushed and panting, they are still trying their best to keep up with the two in front, appearing like followers.

The white-clothed youth suddenly slowed down, then turned his head to notice that the three people beside and behind him were all somewhat disordered in breath, and slowly opened his mouth: "Alright, we can reach Fengshan territory in another five or six kilometers, no need to rush so much!"

The three behind immediately slowed down upon hearing this, all slightly relieved.

Li Longkai, in yellow, was also the same. After slowing down and his breathing stabilized, he turned to look at the white-clothed youth and smiled helplessly: "Can't help but admit defeat! It's thanks to Lord Lin waiting for us along the way. If the Lord really traveled at full speed, let alone the three of them, I'm afraid even I couldn't keep up."

The white-clothed youth is none other than Lin Kai, the Hong Sect Guardian appointed last year.

Hearing this, Lin Kai turned his head to look at Li Longkai and smiled: "Cultivation has its order; my strength is slightly stronger than Brother Li's, so my foot speed is naturally faster. They definitely can't keep up, but for Lord Li to say he can't keep up, that's a bit exaggerated."

"Alright, Lord Lin, don't comfort me!"

Li Longkai waved his hand. He was originally the Deputy Martial Equipment Officer of the Camp Needs Department of the East Eighth District. He was promoted in the same period as Lin Kai last July and became the Martial Equipment Officer of the Hong Sect Camp Needs Department.

Speaking of his resume, it can be considered quite rich.

Member of Great Xia's first hunting team; first batch of title conferment after the Longyou Battle; Jinggu Garrison Commander; Deputy Martial Equipment Officer of the East Eighth District Camp Needs Department, and now the Martial Equipment Officer of Hong Sect.

A rich resume often represents outstanding achievements. It is impossible to be promoted steadily like this without merit, and his strength has also been steadily improving step by step along with his resume.

When he came to Hong Sect to take office last year, his strength was already 26 jin. At that time, he could feel that Lin Kai's strength was stronger than his, but not by much, at most a gap of 3 to 4 jin.

More than half a year has passed, and his strength has improved to 29 jin. He originally thought that the gap with Lin Kai should narrow a little, but after running this trip to Muyin, he discovered that he was ridiculously wrong.

Last year, he could still feel the rough gap between himself and Lin Kai, but now he couldn't see through Lin Kai's muscle changes at all. That is to say, the gap in strength between the two not only didn't narrow but was getting wider and wider.

"We both use pills to improve our strength, but Lord Lin is a superior combat body, his aptitude is stronger than mine, and he is younger than me. Moreover, his net worth is among the best in current Great Xia, and the cultivation resources he can exchange for are also more than mine. Under the superposition of three factors—aptitude, age, and financial resources—it is normal for his cultivation progress to be faster than mine!"

While Li Longkai was deep in thought, Lin Kai had already led the four of them to walk south for five kilometers.

Li Longkai nodded immediately and said: "That's right, it's Fengyang Village, there's only about seven kilometers left from here."

"Seven kilometers..."

Hearing the distance, Lin Kai frowned and thought for a moment, then shook his head and said: "Too far, then don't cross the Fengyang border. Find a place nearby to rest first, and after resting, go straight back to Hong Sect."

From Hong Sect to Muyin, the total distance is over 500 kilometers. Naturally, they couldn't sleep in the open all the way, and the Frozen Abyss wilderness is full of dangers. Finding a village-level camp to rest and resupply is clearly safer and more comfortable.

As early as before departure, they had planned the round-trip route, and where to rest and resupply along the way had long been discussed.

Originally, the plan was to rest in Fengyang. Lin Kai now saying to find a place nearby to rest is a temporary change of plan.

Li Longkai was actually a bit tired and wanted to find a village to rest his feet, but considering that Fengshan was already bordering Hong Sect, the straight-line distance back from here was less than 40 kilometers, and resting in Hong Sect was clearly more comfortable, so he agreed with a nod.

The three followers behind naturally couldn't have any opinions, so seeing Li Longkai nod in agreement, Lin Kai directly looked around to see if there was any place suitable for the five of them to light a bonfire and rest.

"My Lord, there is no water left in the luggage, and the coal stones are used up. It's too slow to melt water with firewood. Why don't we go to Fengyang Village to rest?"

But just at this moment, one of the three followers behind actually stood out and opened his mouth with hesitation.

When that follower stood out, Lin Kai raised his brows slightly. After hearing the other party's suggestion, he first turned his head and exchanged a subtle look with Li Longkai, then nodded: "That's right, 40 kilometers without water won't do. Then let's follow the plan and go to Fengyang Village to rest!"

Lin Kai took the lead and walked south after finishing his words; after Li Longkai quickly followed, his brows immediately lowered significantly; the attendant who made the suggestion followed the two, his eyes flickering slightly; in the end, the last two had no objections and quickly followed the four.

The extreme cold environment of the Frozen Abyss is naturally not short of water.

But that kind of water cannot be drunk directly.

Normal camps generally take slightly cleaner snow or ice cubes, first melt them with high temperature, then filter out the impurities inside, and then they can be drunk directly.

Due to the extremely low temperature in the Frozen Abyss, the difficulty of melting water is also extremely high. Firewood has low heat, so the speed of melting water is naturally far less than coal stones with higher heat.

Great Xia also used this method to get water in the early days, but with the high-speed development in recent years, the Craftsman Department's research on water has deepened day by day. They have long discovered that whether drinking water is clean or not determines a person's health and even lifespan to a certain extent, so the requirements for drinking water are getting higher and higher.

Great Xia's normal water-taking process currently has the same melting process in the front, but the filtering process in the back is different.

Normal camps only use screens to filter out obvious impurities in the water, and then they can be drunk directly; while filtering out obvious impurities is only the first step of Great Xia's water filtering. The second step is to use coal stone powder dissolved in water. After the coal powder absorbs and precipitates the finer impurities in the water, it reaches the third step, using the cold light of the day to refreeze the purified water, and then obtaining a piece of pure ice that can be drunk directly after melting.

Lin Kai is not from the Craftsman Department, and he doesn't know why Mu Dong made the water-taking procedures so cumbersome, but Mu Dong once publicly declared that as long as one drinks this kind of pure water source for a long time, the risk of illness will be greatly reduced, and the lifespan can be increased by at least 20% or so.

Who doesn't want to get sick less and live a few more years?

So ever since Mu Dong made this water-taking method public, almost every family in Great Xia with conditions has used this method to get water.

Of course, that's in Great Xia.

Requirements are not so high when going out, but it's not to the point of having to get water on the spot. Lin Kai and his group's water and material supplies along the way were all bought with money from village-level camps along the way.

So the follower's suggestion can indeed be considered reasonable.

Soon, the five of them saw a small village appear in the south.

The village was sandwiched between two small hills. Without considering the size, it was somewhat similar to Shuanglong Valley where Xia City is located.

It was late at night, and supposedly it was the time for human activity, but the village in front of them had very few people. Lin Kai and his group called out a dozen times at the village entrance before three trembling middle-aged men in the Earth-Digging Realm walked out. After negotiating with them, they led them into the village.

Soon, the three middle-aged men led them into the best house in the village. The leading middle-aged man first gave an instruction to the other two, and those two immediately went outside and brought back five strings of animal meat and a bucket of pure water.

The middle-aged man took the two things, first placed them on the table, and then turned to cup his fists at Lin Kai: "My Lords, forgive me. The village suffered a great disaster last year, and now there are only 400-plus people left. This small place has nothing good to entertain you, only this animal meat and pure water."

"Chief Zhu, take the animal meat back! We only need some pure water, and I won't take yours for nothing..."

Thinking of the miserable state of Fengyang Village, Lin Kai frowned slightly. He took out a small piece of silver from his arms and handed it to the middle-aged man.

Chief Zhu took the silver and noticed it was at least over a jin. His expression was immediately stunned, and then he waved his hands repeatedly, hurriedly opening his mouth to decline.

"My Lord, a little pure water, absolutely not, absolutely..."

"Alright, we are passing through this place and won't stay for too long. You go back first and let us have a good rest."

This white-clothed youth with an extraordinary bearing clearly saw the miserable situation of the village and deliberately gave him so much silver. Chief Zhu couldn't react, looked up at Lin Kai, and his expression was inevitably moved.

"Thank you, my Lords, Zhu Fu takes his leave!"

After Chief Zhu and the other two left, Lin Kai found a position by the window and sat down. He looked at the situation in the village and shook his head, sighing: "Longgu Town basically ignores these villages below. If I had known, the Lord would have been better off taking Fengshan down in the first place, saving these people from living such a bitter life."

Fengshan was originally Jiangxia territory, was taken away by the Great Awakening Temple in the middle, and after the Great Awakening Temple was destroyed, Chui Mountain wanted to occupy it but was stopped by Great Xia. In the end, it was Xia Hong who made the decision to divide Fengshan to Longgu Town.

In the final battle of Ba Shang, in order to resurrect the Five-Headed Ghost-Faced Maitreya, the Great Awakening Temple killed 90% of the people in the village-level camps within its territory. This Fengyang Village is a village around the Fengshan camp, so it was naturally among them.

Fengshan is not far from Hong Sect. Lin Kai, as the Hong Sect Guardian, has the task of collecting information about surrounding villages, so not only Fengyang Village but also the situation of all villages in Fengshan territory, he basically understands.

The population plummeted by 90% instantly, and the top combat power all died. Village-level camps like Fengyang Village that have been controlled by the Great Awakening Temple now have a situation of difficulty that can be imagined.

Jiangxia is slightly better. They suffered heavy losses in the war with the Great Awakening Temple. In order to fill the population of the town city, Jiangxia pulled the remaining population of all village-level camps within its territory to the town city, which is why their recent resource pressure has become so great;

Longgu is different. They didn't fight the Great Awakening Temple head-on, so the town city's losses were not significant, and there was no need to fill the population, so they basically didn't manage the village-level camps in Fengshan and Long Zhou territory. Judging from the current situation, it is estimated that they can't even collect tribute.

"The Lord's focus is on the entire Nine Towns. Taking Ba Shang and Jiuqu has already made the towns somewhat restless. Occupying a few more places, our Great Xia will really become a target of public criticism..."

Li Longkai also understands the situation. Speaking of this, he paused slightly, shook his head, and continued: "It's actually not difficult for these people to save themselves. Just go to Hong Sect. The Civil Affairs Department has already opened a reception station in the city. As long as you serve in the reception station for two years, you can obtain Hong Sect permanent residence qualification. Later, as long as you don't commit crimes, becoming a member of Great Xia is also very easy."

Hearing this, Lin Kai laughed immediately.

Li Longkai still doesn't know that the idea of the reception station was thought up by him, and the Civil Affairs Department Head Ying Yi was the one who listened to his suggestion and opened the reception station.

"I estimate that Brother Ying hasn't passed the news to this side yet. Let him speed up when we go back this time. Great Xia taking these people away actively definitely won't work. We must let them run to Hong Sect themselves, so that it is logical. Even if Longgu Town knows, they can't say we have any faults."

Zhu Fu and his group have Earth-Digging Realm cultivation. Supposedly, 40 kilometers, walking along the bluestone road, going to Hong Sect is not too difficult. Clearly, they still don't know about the Hong Sect reception station.

"Talk to him when we leave later! These 400-plus people only have 20-plus Earth-Digging Realm experts. Hunting is difficult. Now it is estimated that they can only maintain food and clothing. If they encounter any difficulties, it is estimated that it is a dead end!"

After Lin Kai finished speaking, he looked at the follower beside him inadvertently, and then signaled Li Longkai with his eyes subtly.

Li Longkai immediately understood, turned to look at the follower who had previously proposed to come to Fengyang Village to rest, and smiled: "Chengping, I remember you were originally from Beehive, and you merged into Xia City in the second year of Great Xia, right?"

That person was suddenly named by Li Longkai, and a flash of panic flashed in his pupils, but he quickly recovered, nodded, and answered: "Subordinate is a nobody, I didn't expect Lord Li to remember so clearly."

Li Longkai shook his head with a smile and said: "You can't be considered a nobody. I heard people say that the Lord once lurked into Beehive under the pseudonym Hong Yu, and you took a fancy to the Lord's knife and almost took action. Is there such a thing?"

Hearing Li Longkai mention this, Chengping's expression stiffened. Recalling this absurd thing seven years ago, a bitter smile first appeared on his face, and then he cupped his fists and bowed to Li Longkai: "Chengping is terrified, I didn't expect that even this matter, the Lord knows..."

Speaking of this, he paused, a flash of gratitude appearing on his face, and continued: "Thanks to the Lord's magnanimity that year, he didn't care about Chengping. Coupled with the subsequent merger of Beehive into Great Xia, the subordinate also made some contributions.

Relying on these contributions, the subordinate not only settled down in Xia City, but his cultivation also climbed step by step. Now he has become a member of the Hong Sect Camp Needs Department, serving under Lord Li. Every time I think of these, Chengping is full of gratitude to the Lord. May the Lord live for ten thousand years, and Great Xia live for ten thousand years..."

Seemingly triggered by Li Longkai's memories, Chengping thought of many things instantly. The last sentence was clearly emotional, and his voice was slightly choked.

Li Longkai nodded. When it comes to gratitude to the Lord Xia Hong, the reaction of the vast majority of people in Xia City is not much different from Chengping's, so he naturally wouldn't find it strange.

"You don't have combat body aptitude. If you hadn't become a member of Great Xia, let alone today's 14 jin of strength, whether you could break through to the Cold-Resistance Realm, it is estimated that it would be a question..."

Speaking of this, Li Longkai paused, changed the subject, and asked: "The case of your eldest son Cheng Yang being killed last month, the Prison Department hasn't found a result yet. You must have some anger in your heart, right?"

Hearing this question, Chengping's expression stiffened, and he almost subconsciously looked up at Lin Kai, but he immediately realized his behavior was wrong, hurriedly lowered his head, and said in a deep voice: "Subordinate firmly believes that the Prison Department will definitely bring this matter to light."

Li Longkai sighed slightly, shook his head, and said: "Chengping, your son just accidentally bumped into Lord Lin in the South City. You wouldn't suspect that it was Lord Lin who killed your son, right?"

"Subordinate dare not!"

Chengping's expression was incomparably terrified upon hearing this, and he immediately knelt down to Lin Kai.

Seeing his reaction, Li Longkai shook his head endlessly.

Lin Kai directly placed his sword on Chengping's knees, not letting him kneel down.

"If you don't suspect me, then you don't need to kneel down!"

Chengping was frozen on the spot, helplessly having to stand up slowly. He cupped his fists and was about to open his mouth, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

Knock, knock, knock…………

"My Lords, my Chief said that you are tired from the journey, so he prepared some melons, fruits, and cooked food, and ordered us to send them to you to enjoy."

"Lord Lin gave too much silver just now. It seems this Chief Zhu is still a hospitable person!"

"Indeed hospitable..."

Hearing Li Longkai's words, Lin Kai nodded with a smile, then turned to the door and continued: "Come in! Just happen to be a bit hungry."

Creak...

The wooden door was pushed open from the outside. It was night, and two middle-aged men in ordinary cotton clothes walked in slowly. The one on the left was carrying a large string of freshly roasted animal meat, and the one on the right was holding a wooden tray filled with washed melons and fruits.

As soon as the two walked in, the room was filled with fragrance. Lin Kai and Li Longkai couldn't help but twitch their noses, and their appetite seemed to be hooked.

"Your Chief is quite sensible, put them on the table side!"

Lin Kai waved his hand with a smile, signaling the two to come in.

Both of them only had Earth-Digging Realm cultivation. Their expressions were clearly nervous when they walked in, and they didn't dare to move when standing at the door. After receiving Lin Kai's instruction, they slowly walked toward the table.

The one on the left seemed to be better at talking. He smiled and started to introduce to Lin Kai and the others when he was still five or six meters away from the table.

"My Lord, this animal meat is nothing valuable, just to satisfy your hunger. However, these melons and fruits are our Fengyang Village's special..." ===== CHAPTER 423 =====