Chapter 1286: Chapter 722: Shibo, Chen Jiazhang!

If anyone’s movements were even slightly slow, they would get a whipping.

The evening sun shone on everyone, but it brought no warmth, only a bone-chilling cold.

An old man, with inconvenient legs, carrying firewood, suddenly fell on the path. However, the Chen Clan soldier in charge of overseeing everyone immediately whipped him without mercy.

With a crisp snap of the whip, Qing Chen turned his head to look, only to find that it was Zard who had sprawled over the old man, shielding him from the lash.

“Feeling sympathetic, huh?” The Chen Clan soldier sneered, lashing down another dozen or so times, tearing Zard’s clothes to shreds on his back.

This time, Zard was very cautious, even controlling his body to abandon elementalization and endured the pain with his flesh and blood. Otherwise, if he didn’t show injuries after those dozen lashes, he would be suspected.

At a certain moment, Qing Chen felt as if there were two souls inside Zard, one serious, the other not.

The unserious one was used to resist the world that had once abandoned him.

The serious one was his true nature.

But Zard indeed had some mental issues, as he couldn’t even tell which was the real him.

This time, it was Qing Chen’s turn to cover Xiao Yu’s eyes. He didn’t want Xiao Yu to see this scene.

When the Chen Clan soldier was satisfied with the whipping, he coldly said, “Get up and work quickly. If you haven’t finished building the barracks before dark, no one will eat!”

Zard helped the old man up and, before the old man could even say “thank you,” turned to pitch tents with Qing Chen.

Qing Chen calmly said, “Don’t worry, for this whipping, we will make them pay with their lives.”

“What should I do?” Zard asked.

“Give me the puppeteer. There’s no rush. Soldiers chat among themselves and mention names. I’ll control a few first,” Qing Chen said.

After the rat tide was extinguished in City No. 10, Qing Chen had taken two days to sacrifice the bodies of the rats.

Millions of rat corpses piled up at the defensive line of District Three, which meant, over two days, Qing Chen’s puppeteer had gained thirteen transparent threads.

After splitting twelve threads from the puppeteer, the increase in length from the sacrifices slowed down. The thirteenth thread took over half a million rat corpses to grow.

Qing Chen suspected that the puppeteer had eaten too many rats and got sick of them.

At this moment, there was a commotion not far from the crowd; he saw an old man pestering soldiers for alcohol.

The Chen Clan soldiers wouldn’t indulge such people, and one of them kicked the old man over: “Get lost!”

The old man pestered again.

And the Chen Clan soldier taunted, “Old man, bark like a dog, and I’ll find some alcohol for you.”

Qing Chen knew the soldier was purely toying with the old man, because although the Chen’s Army was brutal, its military discipline was exceptionally strict. Other than Chen Clan’s artists, no one could bring alcohol.

When the old man heard what the Chen Clan soldier said, he turned and left, “I won’t bark like a dog.”

The Chen Clan soldier got angry: “When I tell you to bark, you bark!”

He kicked the old man to the ground and whipped him relentlessly. The old man curled up on the ground, protecting his head, without making a sound, until the soldier vented his anger.

Qing Chen had not intended to pay attention to this old man, but then he heard a young farmer in the crowd say, “That old rogue Chen Jiazhang, going to soldiers for alcohol now, isn’t he courting death?”

Qing Chen was stunned! Chen Jiazhang!

He quietly approached the young man, “You said his name is Chen Jiazhang? Is he from Production Base 1129?”

“No,” the young man explained, “He sneaked into the production base from outside. We brew sorghum wine there, and he often goes to the cellars to steal wine and get drunk as a skunk, forgetting to run.”

“And then? Do you just let him keep stealing alcohol?” Qing Chen asked.

“What else? We initially hung him out in the sun for three days, then we let him go, and he still came back to steal,” the young man sighed. “He’s truly addicted to alcohol, regardless of his life. We couldn’t stop him. But later, he didn’t just drink for free; sometimes, he’d bring back some wild animal carcasses for us from the wilderness, like wild boar, pheasant, or rabbits, as barter for the wine.”

Another young person beside him said, “He actually can’t hold his drink, six taels and he’s dead drunk. We all figured, fine, let him be.”

These farmers’ ancestors might have been city residents, but unable to live in the cities anymore, they fled to the wilderness to farm. At least at the production base, they could eat real grain, and with guns, they could hunt to improve their meals.

Even though they faced raids by the wilderness people, with metallic storms and weapons, they could hold their ground.

These people were inherently simple, which is why they didn’t kill Chen Jiazhang.

And Qing Chen suddenly understood that this was his senior uncle whose path in cultivation had been cut off.

Uncle Li Dong said, after Chen Jiazhang’s path of cultivation was cut off, he went into hiding to find a way to break the shackles of the Reverse Breathing Technique.

But now it seemed, he hadn’t found a way, instead starting to give in to despair.

A broken path of cultivation.

Betrayed by blood relatives.

It was more than Chen Jiazhang could bear.

Knights are not saints; they also tread the wrong paths and suffer setbacks like ordinary people. Knights aren’t all the same in character and personality.

Qing Chen could understand why Chen Jiazhang ended up like this, but it was painful to watch.

Furthermore, after his path of cultivation was broken, it seemed he was aging rapidly, unlike Uncle Li Dong who remained eternally youthful.

When many Knights, like Qin Sheng, died, their appearances remained as those in their early twenties.

It seems Chen Jiazhang’s aging was the aftermath of the Reverse Breathing Technique.

Qing Chen walked over and whispered in Chen Jiazhang’s ear, “I am Qing Chen.”

The old man, sitting on the ground, tensed up, turned his head and responded, “Who cares what ghost you are? I want to drink!”

“I know you’ve heard of me, and I know you don’t dare to acknowledge me now, but it’s okay,” Qing Chen said with an unrefusable demeanor, supporting Chen Jiazhang to his feet, heading towards Zard and Xiao Yu.

Chen Jiazhang tried to break free, but found Qing Chen was even stronger than him!

Normally he should have been stronger than Qing Chen since he was a legitimate A-Class Knight. But over the years, alcohol had corroded his body and will.

He looked in astonishment at his junior, who he had only heard of two months ago and didn’t expect to have grown so much in such a short time.

Qing Chen said softly, “There’s no room for your self-indulgence anymore. We need to rescue these farmers from the production base. With your help, it’d be for the best.”

Chen Jiazhang evaded, “I’m not your senior uncle; I don’t know you.”

“When you hear my name, you know who I am, which means you’re still following the Knight Organization,” Qing Chen said. “Before, when I couldn’t find you, that was different. Now that I have, I won’t let you continue down this path of self-indulgence.”

Chen Jiazhang said nothing further, only sighed softly.

Qing Chen asked, “Master said you’ve been looking for a way to break the shackles of the Reverse Breathing Technique, did you find it?”

Chen Jiazhang did not reply.

…

…

Night fell, and the Chen Clan soldiers distributed a cheap protein bar to each refugee. This would be their only meal for the day.

If things continued like this, even if they reached Taboo Land No. 008, the refugees would likely be close to starving to death.

After eating, the refugees wanted to sleep, but the Chen Clan soldiers wouldn’t allow them to lie down, forcing them to sleep sitting up in the wilderness.

There were 1,329 refugees, guarded by 120 Chen Clan soldiers, divided into four combat squads, each led by a squad leader.

Using his hearing, Qing Chen had already confirmed the names of 87 soldiers, planning to control the four squad leaders at a suitable time. This way, at least the refugees’ situation could improve slightly.

At this time, several Chen Clan soldiers walked secretly towards the refugees after the main force turned in for the night, picking a few women out from the crowd, trying to drag them into tents.

Zard, seeing this, was inexplicably outraged: “Let them go, if there’s anything come at me!”

Qing Chen: “…”

Chen Jiazhang looked at Zard with a strange expression, suddenly asking Qing Chen, “Is he also part of the Knight Organization?”

Seeing Zard, Chen Jiazhang almost couldn’t keep his cool anymore.

…

…

11,000 words in two chapters, requesting subscriptions, asking for monthly tickets

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