Chapter 51: The Lord Always Pays His Debts

Four hours later, Xiahou Yan strolled out of the tent, casually wiping his hands with a handkerchief. Every step he took left a bloody footprint in the dirt.

Master Laurie, Alice, and several Guards, who had been waiting in the distance, hurried over at the sight.

Seeing Tom Lawrence among them, Xiahou Yan raised an eyebrow. "How are you feeling? Is your body holding up alright?"

"Reporting to you, my Lord, I’m doing fine..." Lawrence replied sheepishly.

During the previous ambush, this unfortunate Guard had his head lopped off by a Mercenary Knight’s Sabre, biting the dust for the third time in just a few short days. Of course, he had subsequently been resurrected by the Lord and was now completely alive and kicking.

Xiahou Yan thought that if he tossed this guy onto Earth to work as a background extra at Hengdian World Studios, Lawrence alone could monopolize every single corpse role on set.

"Since you’ve recovered, do me a little favor." Xiahou Yan tossed the bloodstained handkerchief to Lawrence and jerked his chin toward the tent. "Be a pal and clean up in there. The scene is a bit unsightly, and I can’t let a girl like Anjie clean it up."

Lawrence’s face instantly turned as green and bitter as a sour gourd.

Was the scene inside the tent truly just "a bit" unsightly? Even though everyone had followed the Lord’s orders and stayed far away from the interrogation tent, it had been impossible not to hear the bastard mercenary’s agonizing, earth-shattering howls.

Four hours! Four whole hours! The Lord’s interrogation had lasted for four hours, meaning the group had endured the faint, incessant sounds of screaming from afar for four agonizing hours!

Master Laurie had even sensed several distinct ripples of Spiritual Magic Power. In his expert judgment, the Lord inside the tent had been repeatedly using the Apprentice-tier Magic "Clarity Technique" to jolt the unconscious mercenary back awake!

Even the usually ruthless and sinister Master Laurie now looked at the Lord with a trace of genuine respect.

Jailers capable of interrogating a prisoner for four consecutive hours certainly existed. However, a nineteen-year-old noble capable of making a seemingly unyielding mercenary boss scream in a variety of agonizing pitches for four hours straight? You wouldn’t find a single one even if you scoured the entire continent!

Master Laurie deeply wondered what on earth his Lord had actually been learning at the Mage Academy.

Xiahou Yan was still meticulously instructing Lawrence on the side. "Remember to bring a bucket of water when you clean and wash the ground down thoroughly. Also, carefully check if anything was left on the floor. I snapped quite a few iron prods, so don’t leave any jagged metal scraps behind. Or any chunks of human flesh, for that matter. We wouldn’t want to frighten Anjie..."

Everyone collectively shuddered. The few living-dead Guards, who possessed no body heat, suddenly felt incredibly cold.

Lawrence didn’t dare listen any further. Casting a deeply tragic glance at his companions like a martyr walking to the gallows, he muffled his nose and mouth with a scarf, grabbed a bucket, and marched resolutely into the Lord’s tent to start cleaning.

No one asked whether they should lock the mercenary captive back up. They tactfully realized that after the Lord’s "interrogation," there was zero possibility that the guy was still alive. In fact, it was probably more appropriate to refer to the captive as a "puddle" rather than a person.

The sound of Lawrence’s dry heaving echoed from inside the tent.

To divert everyone’s attention, the ever-merciful Master Laurie hurriedly asked, "My Lord, what information did you squeeze... er, ’ask’ out of him?"

"I reckon he told me everything he knows. The information he spilled was no less than the blood he spat out." Xiahou Yan shrugged, wiping a dripping, bloody crowbar with his handkerchief. "That’s just how people are. When they want to survive, they might remain tight-lipped. But when all they want is to die, they turn into an open tin can, ready to spill all the beans!"

The living-dead Guards stared at the Lord as if they had just seen a ghost.

Only Master Laurie gave a thumbs-up, expressing profound agreement with the Lord’s psychological analysis. "You are truly a master of interrogation, a human can opener!"

Far off in the camp, a certain "iron can" named Clement sneezed for no apparent reason.

"This bastard is named Jose Tebili." Xiahou Yan pointed his crowbar backward over his shoulder. At that moment, Lawrence was pinching his nose as he hauled a bright red, indescribable lump of flesh bound to a chair out of the tent. "He’s the vice-captain of a Mercenary Corps from the southern Wilderness called the ’Desolate Wind’. Master, our previous guess was spot on. Someone really did hire them to wipe our convoy out."

"Who?" Master Laurie’s eyes were visibly laced with murderous intent.

"The Houston Duke." Xiahou Yan aimed the crowbar at the sun, inspecting the polished, gleaming metal surface. "It cost them five thousand Gold Coins. Who would’ve thought that the head of a down-and-out Lord like me would command such a high price."

Master Laurie narrowed his eyes.

In the Master’s memory, the Houston Duke was not a particularly distinct figure. This imperial noble was a distant relative of the reigning Emperor. Although his title was exceedingly high and his domain was one of the largest among all the Noble Territories, his lands were ultimately located on the desolate southern frontier, far away from the Empire’s economic center. Consequently, the Houston Duke did not hold much sway in the Empire’s political arena, constantly playing the role of a silent, good-natured peacemaker.

What puzzled Master Laurie the most was that the past relationship between the Houston Grand Duchy and Duke Igor’s Domain had actually been quite good. The Lords of the two families had even brought their dependents together to host banquets at Eagle’s Rest Castle...

Was it really a case of kicking a man when he was down? After that bizarre, major treason case, had the disgraced Igor Family truly fallen to the point where anyone could trample over them? Yet, what benefit could the Houston Duke possibly gain from risking the hire of mercenaries to assassinate the Lord?

Master Laurie pondered endlessly but could not find an answer.

"The problem at hand is this," Xiahou Yan, who clearly hadn’t thought that far ahead, said as he slipped the crowbar back into his belt and frowned. "Since the Houston Duke is a foe and not a friend, our original plan to resupply the convoy in Yanxi City will have to change..."

Alice and Master Laurie both nodded in agreement.

Since the Houston Duke had already laid his cards on the table, their group naturally couldn’t swagger right into his home base of Yanxi City. Doing so would undoubtedly be a suicide mission, tantamount to delivering a lamb to the slaughter or handing themselves over on a silver platter.

"My plan is for the convoy to remain camped here. Then, a few of us will sneak into Yanxi City as covertly as possible, secure the supplies, bring them back, and then we hit the road again," Xiahou Yan said seriously. "Although I will one day make the Houston Duke pay his blood debt, going head-to-head with them right now is unwise."

Master Laurie nodded, flashing a relieved smile. He was highly satisfied to see that his Lord was not easily blinded by rage like most youths his age, but rather consistently maintained calm judgment.

If he knew that the body standing before him actually housed the soul of an Outer God from Earth, who knew what Master Laurie would think.

"Furthermore, if we sneak into the city in secret, we might reap another unexpected harvest." Xiahou Yan narrowed his eyes.

Master Laurie noticed that a glint flashed through the Lord’s eyes—the kind of look a Giant Dragon would only get upon seeing a hoard of treasure.

"Isn’t this Mr. Tebili the vice-captain of the ’Desolate Wind’? He just told me during the interrogation that the reason the chief captain of the ’Desolate Wind’ didn’t participate in this operation is that he’s currently busy helping the Houston Duke escort a very important shipment to Yanxi City."

"What shipment?" Master Laurie picked up the scent of a windfall like the most seasoned of thieves.

"Elf Plants!" The Lord looked at his Chief Mage, and the gazes of the two crafty foxes met in an instant of absolute mutual understanding.