Chapter 207: Stealing from One's Own Charge(3K)

The Soul Lamp has shattered!!?

What on earth has happened?

Chu Yiping's heart trembled, and he hurriedly took out the items he carried with him in his bosom.

It was a wooden board with several Soul Lamps of different colors, and the corresponding names were written below them.

These are branch Soul Lamps.

They are slightly different from the main Soul Lamps kept in the clan's ancestral hall; they are lit using soul fire taken from those.

Although the ability of these branch Soul Lamps is somewhat inferior to the main Soul Lamps, the duration is limited, at most three months.

But at the very least, they still have the most basic function of a Soul Lamp: being able to indicate life or death.

The Soul Lamp has shattered, and this can only indicate one thing—death!

Fortunately, although the sound just now was chilling, the Soul Lamp had actually only shattered and had not yet completely extinguished.

A crack running from top to bottom had appeared on Jiang Mingzhi's Soul Lamp, but the soul fire was still vigorous.

Whew...

He let out a sigh of relief in his heart, but Chu Yiping still calmed down a bit.

Thank goodness, thank goodness!

As long as it is not a complete death, then it can still be saved.

It seems that they have only encountered danger, and there is currently no major harm.

I cannot wait any longer; I must go to the rescue first!

"It's just... this shouldn't be!"

"Are the Highnesses not staying safely in the camp?"

Chu Yiping, being able to serve as the leader of this Chu Family team, is naturally not a careless person.

He has always been cautious and vigilant, keeping alert every day, fearing that these Highnesses of noble status might meet with misfortune.

If Jiang Mingzhi had slipped away, it would be impossible for him not to have noticed.

According to his previous perception, hadn't Jiang Mingzhi already entered dreamland several hours ago?

How could he suddenly encounter danger?

In his panic, Chu Yiping could not care about offending others; his divine sense rushed out of the tent and swept directly across the camp.

This was simply like throwing a giant rock into a calm lake.

Splash!

"Hey! What is wrong with you!?"

"Who is peeping at me!?"

"What happened?"

"Old man!!! I am changing clothes!!?"

"Get lost! Who is peeping at me using the latrine!? You wait for me to pull up my pants! I will hack you to death!!!"

As Chu Yiping's divine sense swept over, the entire camp was thrown into chaos for a moment.

These Highnesses who were resting in meditation were offended in such a way and naturally could not endure it, each of them loudly expressing their dissatisfaction.

There is a certain beauty in throwing a stone and hearing the dogs bark.

But there were also some who could remain rational, understanding that Chu Yiping would not so easily do such an offensive thing.

Something must have happened for him to be so composed and unable to care about anything else.

But as he scanned, Chu Yiping's face turned dark, though not because of the angry rebukes of those Highnesses.

"Damn it!"

Chu Yiping was furious!

There were only ten or so people in total, yet four were missing from the camp without a trace, and three others were flying back...

As for those staying honestly in the camp, there were only a few kittens left.

Huh???

Where are the people!?

How the hell did you all get out?

This is rebellion!

Do you even have me, your leader, in your eyes at all!?

Chu Yiping rushed out of the tent in a rage, and just as he was about to roar, he saw Chu Hairen's guilty look as he was quietly slipping away...

Hm?

"Come back! What are you holding in your hand!?"

"Nothing!"

"You come back here!"

"Nothing! It's really nothing!!!"

But this time, the usually obedient Chu Hairen did not stop honestly, but instead quickened his pace and ran.

Whoosh!

In Chu Yiping's bewildered gaze, Chu Hairen disappeared into the night with a whoosh.

The speed was so fast that he did not even have time to keep up.

"What are you running for!?"

Beyond his anger, a few more doubts arose in Chu Yiping's heart.

But when he subconsciously sensed the fluctuations outside his tent, Chu Yiping fell silent.

He realized what kind of thing his good nephew had hidden away.

Evidence of a crime...

Case closed, folks.

It was Chu Hairen who had used a heavy treasure bestowed by the clan for his own protection to personally mask his perception of the outside.

It was he who had personally allowed those Highnesses to go out.

"... Huh?"

No!

What are you even trying to do!!?

Although he had ten thousand questions in his heart, Chu Yiping did not forget what was most important to do right now...

How could he have any time to waste here reprimanding them? Saving Jiang Mingzhi first was the most important thing!

Regardless of what those people were actually doing, he looked up at the sky and let out a long howl, roaring in anger:

"All of you, shut up!"

"All of you, get back here right now!"

"You are not allowed to go anywhere! Wait here for me to return!"

Then he remembered the nephew who made him the most furious and roared in the direction where he had just disappeared:

"Chu Hairen!!!"

"You better get back here quickly and watch them properly!"

"When I return, if even one is missing, I will hold you accountable!"

He couldn't easily discipline the other Highnesses on the surface, but Chu Hairen's father was his own clansman.

"You just wait for me; this isn't over. When I go back, I will definitely complain to your father!"

The furious Chu Yiping followed the faint connection between the Soul Lamp and Jiang Mingzhi, flying off in that direction.

And after he left, the camp, which had been noisy just a moment ago, immediately fell silent.

Those who were going to the latrine stopped, and those who were changing clothes stopped; everyone fell silent.

The curtain of one of the tents lifted, and a large man with his face covered in paper strips walked out, looked at the light fading into the distance in the sky, and smacked his lips:

"I say, what do we do now?"

A person walked out from behind him, curling their lip:

"What do we do? We just let it be!"

"I already said, we should have just brought him along to play earlier. Now the old guy feels like he's been isolated and is angry!"

After speaking, he shook his head, causing the small paper strips on his face to flutter.

These two were the ones who had been shouting the loudest earlier.

There was not a hint of anxiety on their faces; the shouting earlier was clearly because they had lost so badly at cards that they didn't want to be caught on the spot...

"Don't worry, don't worry, what could possibly happen?"

Walking leisurely out of the forest, Chu Hairen didn't look the least bit as disheveled as he had when running away earlier.

"Aren't you afraid he'll really go complain to your father?"

Chu Hairen patted the fallen leaves off his body and smiled honestly:

"What's the big deal about complaining to my father!"

"I took your money, so I will definitely do things for you. Rest assured!"

He patted his chest hard and said loudly:

"Everyone, rest assured! I guarantee you won't have any trouble, so the money I collected earlier will not be refunded!"

Hearing him say this, everyone looked at him with disgust.

But fortunately, it wasn't their first day knowing him, and they had a basic understanding of his moral bottom line.

Only one person expressed opposition at this moment:

"Heh, idiots!"

The youth who had led the mockery of Chu Hairen earlier snorted coldly and turned to walk toward his own tent.

Unlike the people around him, his tent was at the very edge of the camp, maintaining a subtle distance from the others.

He hadn't participated in Chu Hairen's business and had always stayed honestly in his tent.

He had been suffering for a long time, and now he could finally vent the resentment in his heart out loud.

Aiming it at the others, he added:

"A bunch of idiots."

After speaking, he returned to his tent with a caustic smile on his lips.

"Tsk! This guy is really..."

The large man frowned and wanted to rush over to argue with him, but was held back by the person behind him.

"Calm down, why do you care about him? He, Pang Lixing, has the Pang Family backing him; can your family compare?"

"Damn it! We can't compare! So what!?"

Although he was cursing, the large man still knew clearly that his family's power could not compare to the Pang Family.

In the Eastern Wasteland, the Pang Family was the strongest force besides the Chu Family.

Furthermore, because they had gradually controlled over seventy percent of the Demon Beast trade in the Eastern Wasteland in recent centuries, the Pang Family's financial power was also the most formidable.

Everyone knew that if there were to be someone to challenge the Chu Family's authority and vie for the title of master of the Eastern Wasteland, it would definitely be the Pang Family.

"Pang Lixing has always looked down on us; didn't you already know that? What is there to be angry about?"

"Let him be arrogant; when the Pang Family falls into decline one day, his days will be... hehe."

The burly man thought about this upon hearing it, glanced at the honestly smiling Chu Hairen, and a smile also appeared at the corners of his mouth.

The Pang Family is powerful; who is the most anxious?

Is it old-established kingdoms like them, with solid strength and astonishing foundations?

Compared to those small kingdoms, hard bones like them are the most difficult to chew; no one is willing to spend time and effort to break them.

The most anxious one will always be the Chu Family, whose authority has been provoked.

From the moment the team set off, the tit-for-tat between Chu and Pang has never stopped.

Or rather, it is just Pang Lixing provoking unilaterally, while Chu Hairen has never shown any sign of counterattacking.

Aside from wasting everyone's time looking for treasure for no reason, he just took it upon himself to act as the old man on night watch in the middle of the night...

It is still hard to say who exactly has the upper hand between these two.

Only after the competition can the truth truly be revealed.

If they win the competition, everything is easy to talk about; if they don't win... saying anything more is useless.

"Speaking of which, why did Chu Yiping suddenly go out? Did someone get lost?"

The burly man looked around and discovered that a guy who would absolutely never go missing on a normal day was gone.

"Where is Jiang Mingzhi? Is he too miserable? He got caught the first night he snuck out?"

The young man beside him clicked his tongue upon hearing this and sighed regretfully:

"Miserable indeed!"

"This guy Jiang Mingzhi is very unsociable; who knows what he has in his head all day long."

The burly man nodded in agreement upon hearing this and lamented:

"This kind of guy doesn't look like much, but he is very arrogant to the bone! Even if someone holds a knife to his neck in the future, I'm afraid he still won't bow his head, right?"

When Chu Yiping arrived at Jiang Mingzhi's side, his expression was full of confusion.

Jiang Mingzhi, whom he had assumed was in danger, was actually squatting on the ground, unharmed, constantly tracing on the ground with his finger.

This is...

"Your Highness Jiang, what are you doing?"

After calling out twice without receiving a response, Chu Yiping helplessly leaned over and looked at the handwriting Jiang Mingzhi had written with his finger.

He was repeatedly writing:

"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have spoken to you in that tone!"

"I'm sorry! I shouldn't have..."

The ground was densely packed with it, already written no fewer than several dozen times.

Chu Yiping:???