Chapter 47

"Old Li, you're experienced in this area, so go and gather the information they asked for, and compare it to see if there are any issues," Cheng Yang said immediately.

Li Wanshan did not refuse, and went directly to listen to the reports of those warriors. However, to prevent others from hearing, their voices were not loud.

A moment later, Li Wanshan returned to Cheng Yang's side and said, "Lord, the situation is not good."

Before Cheng Yang could speak, Fang Lei was already anxiously asking, "What's wrong? Didn't they see my wife?"

Li Wanshan looked at Fang Lei, his eyes filled with sympathy, and then said, "Xiao Lei, you need to be prepared. Although I can't guarantee that what I heard is true, I think it's not far off. After questioning, seven of them insisted that your wife left with another group. Three women, after being threatened, admitted some things. They said your wife was indeed with them for shelter. However, yesterday, the leader and a few others, to distract a few monsters that were wandering around their hiding place, forced your wife to leave the cave. You can probably guess what happened next."

Li Wanshan's words were like a bolt of lightning to Fang Lei, plunging him into a state of despair, and he couldn't recover for a long time. After a while, Fang Lei asked in confusion, "Captain Li, you said my wife was forced to leave the hiding place. Why weren't the other women forced out, only my wife?"

Li Wanshan said, "The other women had already submitted to that group, while your wife was stubborn and resisted strongly. They didn't use force at first because they were worried that your wife's loud cries would attract monsters. But yesterday, a few monsters were lingering outside their hiding place, so they decided to use your wife's life and honor as leverage to force her out of the cave."

Hearing this, Fang Lei couldn't help but shed tears, and the others' eyes also became moist. They felt sympathy for Fang Lei and admiration for Ruan Meng.

At this moment, no one doubted Li Wanshan's words, as they came from several people and were completely consistent. They hadn't colluded beforehand, making their statements more credible than others.

"Xiao Meng, why are you so foolish?" Fang Lei fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

It was clear that Fang Lei and his wife were deeply in love; otherwise, Ruan Meng's death wouldn't have affected him so much.

Cheng Yang walked over and helped Fang Lei up, saying, "Now you should go and question the others yourself. If the facts are as you've heard, those people will be handed over to you for punishment. I'll back you up if there are any issues."

Fang Lei wiped away his tears, his eyes filled with a hint of ruthlessness, and then nodded resolutely, saying, "Lord, I know what to do."

With that, Fang Lei walked toward the leader of the group, who now looked fearful, not knowing what Fang Lei had found out.

Fang Lei, his voice cold, said, "If you confess now, I'll spare your life."

The man pleaded, "Boss, sir, everything I said earlier was true. If others said anything bad about me, it must be because they bear a grudge against me, after all..."

"Shut up!" Fang Lei interrupted him coldly, then drew an arrow from his quiver and pressed it against the man's throat, saying, "I'll say it again, if you confess now, I'll spare your life."

Although the arrow was wooden, its tip was iron, and the cold gleam made the man feel a chill.

"I... You can't do this, this is a rule-of-law society, you can't kill me..." The man was already speaking incoherently.

Fang Lei sneered, "Rule-of-law society? Do you think this is still a rule-of-law society?" With that, he plunged the arrow into the man's thigh, causing him to scream like a pig being slaughtered.

"Have you thought it through now?" Fang Lei asked coldly.

The man, sweating and terrified, said, "I... I'll confess, you really won't kill me?"

Fang Lei didn't waste words, and plunged another arrow into the man. The man couldn't hold out any longer and immediately said, "Okay! Okay! We forced Ruan Meng out, and she was killed by the monsters."

"You... bastard!" Fang Lei roared, and plunged the arrow into the man's chest.

The man, looking at the arrow in his chest, seemed to forget the pain, pointing at Fang Lei in terror, "You... you said you wouldn't... wouldn't kill me?"

Fang Lei instantly pulled out the arrow, his eyes full of hatred, and said, "When dealing with people, I keep my word, but are you even human?" With that, Fang Lei turned and left.

After the arrow was pulled out, a stream of blood gushed from the man's chest, and he finally took his last breath, unwillingly.

Fang Lei had killed countless monsters in recent days, but this was his first time killing a human. Although the pain of losing his wife filled him with rage, the act of killing still made him somewhat uncomfortable. However, he forced himself to endure it and didn't vomit.

Fang Lei walked to Cheng Yang's side and said, "Lord, the leader is dead, and I leave the others to you. Xiao Meng is already dead, and even if I kill more people, it won't bring her back."

Cheng Yang looked at Fang Lei and said, "It's good that you can see this clearly. The remaining men will be taken back to Luofeng Village. When there are available slots for job changes in the territory, we'll give them job changes, and they will take on life jobs, working for the territory without pay. Thirty percent of their earnings will be your private property, as compensation."

"Thank you, Lord!" Fang Lei said immediately.

After that, Cheng Yang led all the warriors away. The others were left behind, and Cheng Yang wasn't worried about them escaping. Apart from this area, the rest was infested with monsters, and if they died, Cheng Yang and the others wouldn't feel sorry for them, as these people were dispensable.

In the following three hours, they reached four more rescue points. Their luck was good, and they managed to save the people at one of the points. Although they didn't find anyone at the other three, they didn't hear any bad news, which gave people some hope.

It was already 4 PM, and they had an hour left before their planned return time. However, due to the many people they had left behind who needed rescue, they decided to return earlier for safety.

The large group began to return along the same route, and anyone who needed rescue was taken with them. As the number of people increased, their speed slowed, and the frequency of monster attacks increased.

Fortunately, the large groups of monsters along the way had been killed, and any wandering groups that appeared were quickly eliminated by Cheng Yang and the others.

When they returned to the southern passage of Xiangcheng City, their group had grown to nearly 3,000 people, forming a human stream about 20 meters wide and 70-80 meters long. This included not only the rescued civilians but also the "criminals" who were given special treatment by Cheng Yang and the others.

It was almost dark, and the rescued people were all somewhat fearful, not knowing what awaited them.

Once they entered the forest, the group's speed slowed even more, and the 30 warriors couldn't ensure everyone's safety. Occasionally, a few monsters would appear, taking one or two lives, making the refugees even more afraid.

To address this, Cheng Yang and the others had to both deal with the monster attacks and calm the civilians.

Actually, the reason Cheng Yang decided to rescue these people wasn't because he was particularly kind, but because he understood the importance of population. Although Luofeng Village was currently crowded, with the increase in bases and levels, population would become the biggest obstacle to development. In the early stages of the apocalypse, there were still many refugees to save, but after a month, finding a group of refugees wouldn't be so easy.

The journey from the southern passage of Xiangcheng City to Luofeng Village, a mere 5 kilometers, took over two hours. When Cheng Yang stepped into the gates of Luofeng Village, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although nearly 200 civilians died due to monster attacks along the way, overall, the journey was relatively smooth. No one blamed Cheng Yang and the others for their care, and no one dared to.

When the civilians saw the tall walls of Luofeng Village, they couldn't help but cheer, as it meant they no longer had to worry about monster attacks day and night. No matter what their future held, it couldn't be worse than death.

After returning, Cheng Yang handed the task of resettling the refugees to Yu Kai and the others. He then went to the job statue and began upgrading its attributes. This time, Cheng Yang chose to upgrade the magic defense of the four main job statues, and for the priest statue, he chose to enhance magic power.

After completing all the operations, the territory had 2,600 points of spiritual energy left. It seemed that the spiritual energy points earned during the day were just enough for this upgrade. At this rate, it would take a long time to gather the 20,000 points needed to upgrade to a level 3 village.

Cheng Yang only felt a brief moment of frustration. Considering that other bases were still undeveloped, and he had already upgraded his village to level 2, he had a significant advantage.

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