The Trembling World
chapter-473-30041322

TL: LifeisaJourney

Did these villagers lie to him? They said their leader was only level 12! With such powerful offense and defense, was this possible if he was only level 12? What a farce! He was at least level 17, right?

With his Mist Armor destroyed, Cao Yi knew that he couldn’t fight anymore. He didn’t dare to be as arrogant as before. Standing up, he called forth his uniformed lackey, and prepared his escape.

“Now you want to leave? Do you think my Village is like a motel, that you can come and go as you please?” Liu Gan shouted as he darted forward and kicked Cao Yi in the ass. Cao Yi tumbled a few times and was suppressed by Liu Gan’s foot.

Even after the fight, Liu Gan’s Mist Armor was still shrouding him all over. From a distance it had a very sinister look. So when the villagers saw it, they were quite scared.

“A level 17 Mist Armor Manipulation…”

“Lord Liu is already level 17?”

“No way, right? Wasn’t he level 12 when he left the village?”

“...”

Wang De Cheng was just as afraid as the other villagers. He also thought that Liu Gan was level 12, so how could he be level 17? However, from the moment Cao Yi had been beaten down in one hit, the only reasonable answer was that he was level 17.

Cai Hao Chen, Ana, Stratos and the other members from the expedition group didn’t clarify the situation. Things like Liu Gan’s level were considered top-secret information. It was on a need-to-know basis, and not everyone needed to know.

“What are you doing standing there? Come save me!”

Cao Yi pulled out a whistle and blew on it numerous times. Now that he knew Liu Gan had reached level 17, he was uneasy. In addition, he tried to signal his patrolling lackeys around to come back to the Village to rescue him from his dire situation.

In an instant, a dozen uniformed lackeys rushed in from all directions toward the plaza center. Yin He didn’t hold back, she pulled out her pair of blades and started her assault. NaNa followed up and joined in on the attack on them.

The expedition members, coming back from the Evil Dragon Gulf, were all level 11. While collecting tokens, they had perfected their tag team combination of attacks. They also contributed in attacking a few of those level 12 lackeys.

The occasional enemies that slipped through were able to reach Cao Yi, but Liu Gan took care of them with a single Crescent Blade skill. He didn’t kill them, but severely incapacitated them. Among the dozens of lackeys, one of them was able to release a wireless signal flare. The flare reached great heights in the sky,and a signal was transmitted.

The lackey responsible for releasing the wireless signal was suppressed immediately. Once they were all captured, they were handed off to Wang De Cheng as prisoners. Even Cao Yi was escorted away.

“Bastard!”

“Look at the clown now!”

“Let’s kill him!”

“No, let’s toy with him first, then cripple him!"

“Let’s torture him for three days and three nights!”

“...”

Suffering through days without end of humiliation, Wang De Cheng and other villagers hated Cao Yi. Now that Cao Yi was secured in the prison cell, they could start thinking of cruel tortures like pulling teeth, nails, flaying him, whips, and other unspoken methods on open orifices.

Once all the foreplay tortures had been done, Wang De Cheng pulled out an alloy metal chain on both sides of Cao Yi’s clavicles and strung him up in the cell. Cao Yi enjoyed the full pleasures of being beaten around the clock, so that his Mist Armor didn’t have time to regenerate. Interrogation was also a key process, mainly to extract information about the whereabouts of the abducted villagers.

As for Cao Yi’s long sword, Liu Gan felt that he didn’t need it, so he awarded it to Cai Hao Chen, who had demonstrated his usefulness throughout.

***

“My Lord, I have something to report to you.” Wang De Cheng walked into Liu Gan’s mansion.

“What’s the matter? Speak up.” Liu Gan wasn’t in a good mood. All his former allies were taken away, and their condition was still unknown. Torturing Cao Yi didn’t result in any new information, so Liu Gan was quite agitated.

“Those uniformed soldiers have suspicious glances, as if their mental state is controlled,” Wang De Cheng continued to explain his observations.

“Yeah, I also noticed that. They might be controlled by the organization supporting Cao Yi from the shadows. Their organization seems to specialize in manufacturing humanoid puppets,” Liu Gan nodded in agreement. He also felt that something was fishy about the uniformed soldiers.

“So… among the dozen of uniformed soldiers that we captured, one of them is lady Lin’s father, Lin Feng. However, he isn’t acting like himself,” Wang De Cheng continued.

“Lady Lin? You mean Lin Shi Ya? One of them is her father?” Liu Gan frowned. This father and daughter pair had such a hard life. When one arrived, the other disappeared.

“Lord Liu, sorry, but I have more bad news. I investigated lady Lin’s disappearance, it seems that she might have been murdered. I heard rumors that Cao Yi sent people to lady Lin’s household the prior night. However, there was no mention of her returning from the visit. This is all because I’m so useless! I couldn’t even protect Fifth Elder!” Wang De Cheng started slapping himself as punishment.

During Cao Yi’s interrogation, when asked about Lin Shi Ya, he said that he had violated her and then fed her to the dogs, then continued on with a falsified testimony of what vulgar things he had done to her.

If fact, Lin Shi Ya had escaped out of the Village. She ran in the one direction that she thought was toward Evil Dragon Gulf, but since she wasn’t too familiar with the route, she was lost. Due to fate, she had passed by Liu Gan’s group when they were returning to the Village.

The other villagers didn’t know about Lin Shi Ya’s whereabouts, so they were forced to believe Cao Yi’s lies. From Wang De Cheng’s perspective, since Lin Shi Ya was Liu Gan’s woman, if she suffered from any reputation damage it would be like he had suffered through the same insults. From the moment he had lost contact with Lin Shi Ya, he knew that he had to report it to Liu Gan.

“No, this matter was out of your hands. Don’t blame yourself too harshly. Right, let's get back to business. What about the laboratory? What is the situation there?” Liu Gan held Wang De Cheng’s hand from slapping himself further.

“From the moment the Village had trouble, I used our transmitter to contact them. I ordered them to maintain radio silence and shut off all routes leading into the laboratory, until they have new orders to open up. So until they receive updates to our current situation, they won’t open up the secret passage. Before I came to report to you, I updated them on our situation and the laboratory was running according to schedule.” Wang De Cheng told Liu Gan.