Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Xie Licheng pushed Gu Zhangyuan's head back down, then grabbed a big chopper off a dead bandit. He spun around and nailed the fleeing steward to the ground with it.

The steward could tell Xie Licheng was a tough customer. He'd been puzzled earlier about why the eldest young master was still breathing, but now that he'd seen what Xie Licheng could do, it all clicked.

It wasn't that the eldest young master was hard to kill or that he'd gotten lucky—it was that he had a deadly killing machine at his side.

With that killing machine around, even if every last bandit died here, they still might not take down the eldest young master.

If the eldest young master lived, he'd failed his mission, and the main branch would keep control of the Gu family. Once the eldest young master got back, he was done for. The only way this ended was with his death.

He didn't want to die, so he figured he'd slip away while Xie Licheng wasn't looking.

He was going to grab his two sons and run—no way was he going to just roll over and confess.

But what he hadn't counted on was that Xie Licheng, even without looking at him, had been tracking his every move.

The moment he made a break for it, Xie Licheng sent the blade flying and nailed his leg to the ground.

The steward was scared out of his wits. He'd seen bandits and pirates, but he'd never seen anyone this damn good.

That huge blade, and he'd driven it clean through his flesh, pinning him dead-on.

What if—what if that blade had been off by even a hair? He'd have been dead right then and there.

The steward couldn't help but scream in agony as he tried to yank the big blade out.

But it hurt too bad—any slight move and the flesh on his leg would rip apart.

Xie Licheng glanced back at the steward, making sure he wasn't going anywhere for now, and only then curled his lips into a smirk as he turned to the others.

Xie Licheng: "You're next."

...

While the estate was in total chaos, a young farmer slipped out in the confusion.

He wasn't running off on his own—his whole family lived on the estate, and they depended on it to survive.

He bolted out of the estate and stumbled his way to town to raise the alarm.

A bandit raid was a huge deal—they had to report it to the officials. Only the imperial court could help drive those bandits off.

There were a lot of bandits, all holed up in the big mountains around the estate.

If the officials didn't do something, not a single village or town nearby would be safe.

He was just a farmhand himself—folks like him were the most scared of these cold-blooded killers.

The young farmer didn't make it back to the estate until dawn, bringing over twenty conscript soldiers with him.

But when they got to the estate, they found not a single bandit left alive.

Xie Licheng had killed most of the bandits, and the rest had taken off when they realized things were going south.

Right then, Xie Licheng was resting in a room—and so was Gu Zhangyuan.

Xuan Cui and Yuan Qiao, plus two wounded house guards, were keeping watch outside their door.

Yuan Qiao wasn't hurt bad—just a few scrapes.

Compared to him, Xuan Cui was in a much sorrier state.

Yesterday, she'd taken a beating from that mole-faced guy to cover for the young master.

But luckily, she only looked rough—her injuries weren't actually that bad.

Yuan Qiao, sitting by the door, asked Xuan Cui, "Is that horse slave really that good? He chased off the bandits all on his own?"

He'd passed out pretty early yesterday, so he didn't know much of what happened after.

He'd woken up just before dawn and found the bandits dead, wounded, or gone.

Xuan Cui: "Can't say it was all him. Our own people and the estate's farmers pitched in too. But the biggest share of the credit still goes to him. He did right by the young master this time, so the young master's bound to reward him handsomely."

There were plenty of farmers on the estate. They were scared at first, but then, to protect their families or themselves, they grabbed weapons too.

Their fighting skills were pretty weak, though—it took four or five of them to handle one bandit.

Can't blame them for being weak—they were just dirt farmers, timid and scared by nature, who'd never dared to kill anyone.

Only when backed into a corner would they finally fight back.

The ones who actually handled the bandits were Xie Licheng and the Gu family's men, and the deadliest of them all was still Xie Licheng.

The reason people said the others helped was that, once the bandits were driven off, they handled the cleanup—tending the wounded, cleaning up the estate, and keeping an eye on the captured steward.

They'd agreed to keep one alive, but Xie Licheng was so worn out by then that he lost his touch with the last one and accidentally killed him too.

Gu Zhangyuan wasn't upset about it—as long as the steward was still alive, that was enough.

The steward was a witness, and so were Gu Zhangyuan and the others.

He figured if his father found out about this, his father would believe him.

Xie Licheng slept straight through till evening. By then, Gu Zhangyuan had been up for a while, leading a group to sort out the estate's business.

Over twenty conscript soldiers showed up in the morning, and by the afternoon, the prefect of Lingzhou had arrived too.

With so many bandits dead up in the mountains, they wouldn't dare come out while officials were around, so Gu Zhangyuan didn't rush to head back.

Honestly, the officials bore some blame for last night. After two able-bodied young men went missing from the estate in a row, the officials just came for a quick look and then washed their hands of it.

Now that bandits had cropped up in the mountains, the biggest blame fell squarely on the officials.

But Gu Zhangyuan couldn't come out and blame the officials—he had to butter them up with fine tea and good wine.

Only by treating them right would the officials take his side and help him get justice later.

No way around it—the Great Zhou court was rotten to the core, and this prefect of Lingzhou was no upright judge either.

Even though Gu Zhangyuan was the victim here, getting this prefect to do right by him would take some effort and money.

When Xie Licheng woke up, the first thing he did was check his stamina bar.

After a full day of rest, his stamina was back up to 93.

His stamina bar has 100 points total. Yesterday, after killing to level up, his stamina dropped to 6 points.

That number was pretty dangerous, but fortunately, the farmers from the estate came to help at the end of yesterday, so Xie Licheng didn't end up passing out from exhaustion in some super embarrassing way.

Of course, Xie Licheng wouldn't actually let his stamina drop to zero.

In this other world, he didn't have many people he could trust, and he wouldn't just recklessly put himself in a vulnerable spot.

Even if he did pass out, he'd make sure it happened inside his own personal world.

Honestly, even without the farmers' help, he could've gotten out safe given how things were, because by then there weren't many bandits left.

At that point, it wasn't the bandits chasing Xie Licheng to kill him—it was him chasing them down to level up.

Xie Licheng's hard work really paid off.

He was now level 89, and with the 10 attribute points he'd saved earlier, he had 20 points total.

As Xie Licheng got out of bed, he opened his panel and started allocating points.

Of the 20 attribute points, he used 10—all of them going into defense.

The original owner's defense was already high, and he'd added to it once before. With these 10 new points, his defense was now 69.

The higher his defense, the less damage he'd take when he got hurt later.

This defense didn't just block physical damage—it also resisted poison, bacteria, viruses, even hereditary diseases.

If his defense went above 100, calling him a man of iron wouldn't be a stretch.

Xie Licheng figured his strength was already pretty high, so it made sense to bump up his defense a bit too.

After getting up, Xie Licheng threw on a plain set of low-ranking slave clothes and headed out the door.

Xuan Cui, who was waiting outside the door, saw him and immediately said, "Young master, you're finally up."

Hearing this new title, Xie Licheng shot her a glance—it didn't sound as good as "horse slave," and something about it felt off.

Xie Licheng: "Where's your young master at?"

Xuan Cui: "The young master's got the estate farmers packing up to leave with him."

Now that bandits had shown up at the estate, the government didn't seem likely to send troops to deal with them anytime soon.

So the estate wasn't safe to stay in anymore. It hurt to leave all that stuff behind, but lives mattered more than things.

Xuan Cui: "Want me to take you to find the young master?"

Xie Licheng: "No need. I'm gonna go find the weapons I tossed out earlier."

Those weapons were his—he couldn't just treat them like they were disposable.

With chaos coming, he'd only feel safe if he stockpiled more weapons.

Xuan Cui: "I know where those weapons are. The officials took them all, saying they'd be used as evidence."

Hearing that, Xie Licheng frowned. Trouble—dealing with the ancient government was never easy.

The officials had taken his stuff, and getting it back wouldn't be easy.

Seeing he was annoyed, Xuan Cui couldn't help but smile and say, "Don't be upset. If you want weapons later, just ask the young master. He treats you so well and spoils you so much—he'd definitely shell out big money to forge some for you."

What the hell?

Gu Zhangyuan doted on him? Wasn't it the other way around?

Last night, in that dangerous situation, he'd kept Gu Zhangyuan close the whole time, exhausting himself so the guy never had to touch the ground.

Saying Gu Zhangyuan doted on him—how did this little maid have the nerve to say that?

After that, escorted by the officials, they made it back to Lingzhou City overnight.

By then, the folks in Lingzhou City already knew about the bandit trouble outside the city, and panic was spreading everywhere—inside and out.

The Gu family's steward had been waiting at the city gate with his people since early morning, looking real worried about Gu Zhangyuan.

Gu Zhangyuan stayed in the carriage, just lifting the curtain to glance outside.

Not seeing his second uncle, a flicker of understanding and a hint of sadness crossed his eyes.

As if he knew who Gu Zhangyuan was looking for, the steward hurried over and said in a low voice, "Second Master left the residence with Young Master Yue early this morning. At the time, this old servant thought Second Master seemed a bit off, so I sent someone to check on the estate. But before that person could get to the estate, word came that a bunch of bandits were hiding there. When I heard that, it nearly scared me out of my wits, and I immediately had someone report it to the authorities. Thankfully, the young master's luck held and nothing happened to you; otherwise, I wouldn't know how to face the master."

As he spoke, the steward's eyes got a little red, and his voice started shaking.

In the past, Gu Zhangyuan would've been touched, thinking the steward really cared about him.

But after what happened yesterday, he couldn't really trust the elders in his family anymore.

His second uncle had also been really, really good to him since he was a kid.

When he looked at him, his eyes were always especially gentle.

When the second branch's young masters messed up, his second uncle would let him discipline them however he saw fit.

Back then, he felt his second uncle was the one who treated him best, aside from his father.

His mom was good to him too, but... she had to take care of his younger brother.

Ever since his mom had his younger brother, all her energy went into taking care of him, and over time, they drifted apart.

Given what had just happened, and since the steward wasn't blood-related, seeing him so concerned now made Gu Zhangyuan unsure if he could trust him.

The steward: "It's this old servant's fault for being careless. In the past, I always followed the Eldest Young Master wherever he went. How could I have listened to Second Master this time and let you go off alone to such a remote place?"

After listening to the steward's words, Gu Zhangyuan was silent for a long while before asking, "Did you send someone to chase after them?"

The steward quickly replied, "When I noticed something was wrong in the morning, I sent someone to search, but unfortunately, I discovered it too late. By the time they went looking, the people had already fled far away."

Hearing this, Gu Zhangyuan suddenly felt a bit weary. He lowered the curtain and told the coachman outside to continue driving.

The coachman driving the carriage outside was none other than Xie Licheng.

Originally, Gu Zhangyuan didn't want to let him work so hard, since Xie Licheng had exhausted himself protecting him last night.

But Xie Licheng felt that he was just a coachman—what else would a coachman do if not drive the carriage?

Moreover... yesterday Xie Licheng had been too prominent, and Gu Zhangyuan wanted to protect him a bit, so he had no choice but to let Xie Licheng continue driving the carriage.

Why would he need to protect Xie Licheng?

Because Xie Licheng's identity was special—he was a descendant of a military official from the previous dynasty, making his background somewhat sensitive.

If the officials of the Great Zhou learned that a remnant of the former dynasty had not only left the slave camp but was also a formidable warrior who had cut a swath through enemies,

would they recruit him into the army to shine, or would they devise a way to have him secretly killed?

Gu Zhangyuan figured it was probably the latter.

The Great Zhou emperor wasn't that big-hearted, and the Great Zhou court was already rotten. They would never allow a remnant of the previous dynasty to become a hero or a general in the Great Zhou.

So when the conscript soldiers and the prefect questioned what had happened at the estate, Gu Zhangyuan credited the feat to the Gu family's guards and retainers.

When those guards and retainers learned of this, they were, of course, more than happy to take the credit.

This was a huge honor, and there might be plenty of rewards coming their way.

As for whether Xie Licheng might feel wronged?

He figured someone as sharp as Xie Licheng would get his good intentions.

Besides, whatever rewards the court could give, he, Gu Zhangyuan, could also bestow upon him—even way more than the court ever could. He didn't think he was shortchanging the guy.

When they got back to the Gu estate, the second branch's quarters were almost deserted, leaving only two neglected concubines and a bunch of servants.

It wasn't their fault, so Gu Zhangyuan naturally didn't take it out on them.

He was tired, so as soon as he got back, he got ready to bathe and then crash.

But while bathing, he suddenly got spooked, like a bandit might be lurking somewhere in the room.

Thinking back on all the terrifying stuff from the day before, Gu Zhangyuan couldn't help telling Xuan Cui, "Go, get someone to bring Xie Licheng here."

Xuan Cui went, "Huh?" and said, "This... now?"

Gu Zhangyuan knew it was a little weird too, but he just couldn't shake that creepy, crawly feeling.

Even with Xuan Cui right there, that uneasy feeling still had him scared.

Xie Licheng was also in the bath when he got called out halfway through to "serve his lord"—no, wait, scratch that—he was called to keep Gu Zhangyuan company and help him unwind.

He walked in with his long, wet hair hanging loose, brows knitted tight, looking totally fierce and not to be messed with.

The second he came in, Xuan Cui slipped right out.

The moment Xuan Cui stepped out, Yuan Qiao grabbed her.

Yuan Qiao, all nervous and excited, said, "Is the young master... that close with that horse slave now?"

Xuan Cui replied, "It's probably not what you're thinking."

Yuan Qiao asked, "Then... what is it?"

"It's just—I can't quite explain it. The young master was scared out of his wits. He thinks I'm no good at protecting him, so he called for that horse slave... no, we should call him *langjun* from now on. The young master said he has a proper name and isn't just some ordinary criminal slave."