Chapter 699: A Complete Transformation (1)

Stream Village was not large in scale.

But tonight the firelight was fully three times brighter than usual.

Combined with the people patrolling outside, Stream Village's scouting range was five times what it had been before.

It must be that Stream Village had also learned of the situation in town, so they arranged patrols to avoid being raided by the rebel army.

Zhao Chi approached carefully.

He was stopped outside the village.

"Halt! Who goes there!"

"It's me, Uncle Liu."

"Oh… Zhao Chi, what happened to you? You look a mess. Come in quick—is anyone following you?"

"No, I moved very carefully."

"Good, hurry into the village. Your clan is patrolling on the southeast side."

"Understood, thank you, Uncle Liu."

Zhao Chi very much wanted to head straight back to his territory.

But in the end he still went to the clan's communal hall first.

The communal hall was just as brightly lit.

The torches used nearly five times the usual amount, and the smoke was thick and a little choking.

Quite a few people were standing in the courtyard.

Every one of them wore a slightly solemn expression.

In the flickering firelight, it all looked rather eerie.

The Zhao clan now had more members than before.

Ever since the Zhao clan had become a vassal family of Zhao Quan, quite a few scattered households had joined.

Now the Zhao clan's total population had broken through two hundred, with the number of Lords approaching fifty.

The number of Lords and the population were the simplest way to measure a clan's strength—the more, the stronger, of course.

Of course, that way of measuring was too one-sided and the margin of error was large, since the quality of Lords and population mattered just as much.

The crowd was discussing something, and upon seeing Zhao Chi, they were all somewhat surprised.

Several clan brothers gathered around.

"Zhao Chi? How did you get back?"

"No way—didn't you go to River Valley Town for the competition? How did it go?"

"Are you hurt?"

"Just you alone? Where are Zhao Huai and Zhao Jiao?"

"Zhao Chi, did you see Lu Hong?"