Chapter 923

Right now neither village's lord is really fighting hard — it's a passive engagement.

But whether it's the alien race or the Heavenly King Army, their ultimate goal is the same: to control these ordinary lords.

The lords' passive reluctance to fight also preserves their own strength.

When the battle ends, whether the alien race wins or the Heavenly King Army wins, their spoils will be greater, and they'll be happier with such an outcome.

After all, the more of the lords' strength that is preserved, the more surrendered power they can absorb.

Zhao Chi replied, "Got the gist, thanks."

Su Qin: "No need to thank me. The war that's still going on might drag on a while longer, and there's nothing we can do to help, so let's just wait."

Zhao Chi: "Alright."

The village groups and family groups are all very lively.

But this time there aren't as many trade listings as last time.

On one hand, the current taxes are really too high, so the lords of Stream Village are all waiting to see the war's outcome.

If the alien race wins, then trade as usual, pay taxes as usual.

Nothing left to struggle over.

If the Heavenly King Army wins, then Stream Village will probably fall under their rule.

Maybe the taxes can go back to what they were before, and trading then could save a lot of money.

Zhao Chi stopped concerning himself with other matters and turned to deal with Huang Bian's territory.

After the earlier battle with Huang Bian, 335 beastmen were captured.

All of them were locked up in Taoyuan Village.

But there were still several hundred beastman villagers in his territory that hadn't been dealt with — he didn't know whether they'd still resist.

Even if they resist, it doesn't matter.

Having just gone through the baptism of the werewolves, now that the enemy is just ordinary beastman villagers, his confidence shot right up.

Isn't this a cinch?

"Bring the ropes, let's go tie up the beastman villagers."

At Zhao Chi's command, the remaining 100-plus female soldiers took their gear, grabbed their backup weapons, and set out immediately.

Over ten minutes later, they entered Huang Bian's territory.

Climbing that slope again, everything around was exactly the same — identical to when they had just left.

Looks like those beastmen never came down.

Looking up, the defense towers at the mountaintop could be seen in the distance.

Only 3 beastmen were on the towers; upon seeing Zhao Chi's army, they all craned their necks and shouted something down.

Zhao Chi couldn't hear clearly, but from their looks they didn't seem to be about to resist.

Sure enough.

Before Zhao Chi's group had even reached the mountaintop, those beastman villagers all came out on their own.

About 200-plus of them.

All empty-handed, none wearing armor — clearly they had come out to surrender.

Among them, over 20 beastmen were tied up, with several bruises on their bodies — unclear what was going on.

At this point the beastman leading the front shouted: "Lord, we all surrender, please don't hurt us."

Just as expected — they had come to surrender.

Zhao Chi pointed at the beastmen in the middle: "What's the deal with those people? Why are they tied up?"

The leading beastman said: "They still wanted to resist, but we all understand the current situation. People like us can't beat you, and resisting would just be dying for nothing. So we tied these few up as captives and surrendered together to you."

Zhao Chi laughed: "Not bad, you did well. But now it's your turn — put your hands behind your backs, all of you turn around, and don't move around."

Those beastmen obediently turned around, one by one, very compliant.

Zhao Chi didn't rush forward.

No matter what, as long as he hadn't fully taken control of the situation, he couldn't be careless.

He ordered: "Stay alert, ready for battle at any time. Tang Ruan, take people over and tie them up. Qi Yue, take people and watch those beastmen — any resistance, kill on sight."

Zhao Chi's words were both an order and meant for those beastmen to hear.

The phrase "kill on sight" still carries plenty of deterrent power among commoners.

"Yes!" The two female heroes led their people over.

Things went very smoothly.

These beastmen didn't resist at all — all were obediently bound, hands tied behind their backs, no struggling whatsoever.

Counting them up, a total of 232 beastmen.

Among them were some mid-level craftsmen, who could be sold for more money.

Not bad at all.

When fighting a war, you really have to pick the right opponent.

This Huang Bian is pretty good — fighting him is easy, and the haul isn't small either.

Opponents like Xiao Ning and Yan Ping — Zhao Chi doesn't want to meet them a second time.

The haul was decent too, but it was too dangerous.

The gains and the付出 weren't proportional.

With all the beastman captives secured, next came the looting of the territory.

Huang Bian's stored supplies weren't much.

Mostly mineral resources, and all of it raw iron ore.

After all, this was mountainous terrain, so there would surely be more mines.

Iron ore wasn't worth much, but Zhao Chi didn't mind—he had it all hauled away.

Like other male bandit lords, Huang Bian had quite a few female slaves here too.

Humans, elves, beastfolk—every race was represented, and there were even two female goblins…

Zhao Chi stared at those two goblins, finding it utterly baffling.

But that was just how things were.

He didn't understand it, but he accepted that such things existed.

There were 47 female slaves in total.

So many people—surely Huang Bian couldn't use them all himself; their past experiences were probably miserable.

Every one of them was listless, their eyes vacant.

Nearly every one of them carried wounds.

Gu Qing watched, feeling a pang of heartache for them.

"My lord, let me heal them."

Zhao Chi nodded, of course.

Gu Qing didn't use a healing technique—instead, she opened her palm and sprayed out red silk.

Then she opened her mouth and spat out white silk.

She sprayed a bit of silk onto every wounded female slave.

The silk stuck to their bodies and immediately emitted a faint glow.

Soon the glow faded, and the silk's stickiness vanished too, falling to the ground.

The female slaves' wounds had healed.

Just as he'd guessed—Gu Qing's healing wasn't limited to yellow silk; her other silks could heal too.

The female slaves softly murmured their thanks, then lowered their heads again.

They really did look pitiful.

But the Zhaochibu Society wouldn't take them in.

He'd let them have a full meal later, then sell them off to someone fated.

Besides the female slaves, there were 40 male slaves.

Likewise, every race was represented.

Most of them were miners—covered in black grime, filthy beyond words.

But their digging skills weren't bad.

They could fetch a bit of money too.