Chapter 458: Surrender

“You guys have already won. Release them. Use my life in exchange for all of theirs.” Qingyun Sword appeared at the top of the city wall.

“Village chief!”

“Senior!”

Regardless of where the people were, they were all grieving and extremely moved by the village chief’s action.

Qingyun Sword was a Spirit Wheel expert, yet he actually sacrificed his own life for those Earth Wheel and Man Wheel experts. This made everyone almost burst into tears.

Ren Baqian pondered for a while.

Is this old man unable to put down his pride and surrender? Does he want me to give him another way out?

Of course, having such thoughts made him seem as if he wasn’t a gentleman… After all, these people came here with the mindset that they would die for anything.

However, this old man’s lifelong wish was for the people of Tianjing Basin to leave this place. Since Ren Baqian had already told him of his future plans, didn’t he want to see if Ren Baqian could fulfill his promise?

At the end of the day, this was Qingyun Sword’s lifelong wish, and it was very close to being fulfilled. If it were Ren Baqian, he would definitely want to see it happen.

Furthermore, what was the purpose of releasing the more than 20 captives? Wasn’t Qingyun Sword afraid that Ren Baqian would still massacre everyone in Wu City? Even if he didn’t do it, Xi Wanya was definitely capable of doing such a thing.

The fact that they tried to assassinate the empress was by itself sufficient for Dayao to exterminate the entire city.

Ren Baqian thought for a while. Regardless of whether Qingyun Sword’s words had this intention or not, Ren Baqian decided to give him a way out.

He walked forward and said, “Can you see the 1,000 anikis behind me? There’s still another 1,000 super anikis that are waiting for all of you in high-spirits!”

The 2,000 burly chaps behind him immediately pounded on their exposed muscles as if they were annotating the words of Ren Baqian.

Of course, if they knew what aniki meant, they wouldn’t have acted in this way.

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“Surrender! If you open the city gate and surrender now, we will not massacre the entire city. This is your only way to survive. Otherwise… these people as well as everyone in Wu City will die. You are included as well. All of you can only die if I allow you to do so. If anyone dies when I have yet to give my permission… a massacre will be awaiting all of you!

Oh, my mistake. All of you can only die if Her Majesty allows it…”

Qingyun Sword stood at the top of the city wall and remained silent for a long while. He looked at the sky and let out a deep sigh that was filled with heroic spirit, gravity, and desolation…

He was acting as if it was real…

The more Ren Baqian looked at Qingyun Sword, the more he felt that Qingyun Sword was just putting up a front…

“Open the city gate!” Qingyun Sword said in a deep voice.

“Village chief?”

“Open it!” Qingyun Sword yelled.

Moments later, the city gate slowly opened. A group of people stood at the entrance, and their gazes were filled with anger.

Even though they knew that they had already lost this war two days ago, threatening to massacre the entire city was extremely despicable!

“Go and tie everyone up.” Ren Baqian instructed his underlings.

Immediately, someone shouted furiously, “Don’t go too far!”

“Let them! Defeated… we are defeated! There is no need to involve the innocent commoners…” Qingyun Sword said calmly. His voice was emotionless; only people who were familiar with him could hear the sorrow in it.

Whatever the case, he had already surrendered.

Even if he had more excuses, he was unable to get over the barrier in his heart because he had let down those who had died.

Although everyone was furious, they also knew that any form of resistance was futile at this point. Since the winged cavalry had arrived here, even if they resisted, they would still face death. It might even infuriate the other party and cause them to massacre the entire city. Immediately, they made a firm resolution and stopped resisting.

The ropes used to tie them were made of vines that were soaked in animal fat. They were extremely tough and durable. The more they struggled, the tighter the ropes got, so much so that it would sink into their flesh. It was even difficult for an Earth Wheel expert to escape from these ropes.

However, using such a rope on a Spirit Wheel expert wasn’t sufficient. This was because a Spirit Wheel expert was able to use their soul to the extent that they could form their own Heaven-grade weapon. As such, they had many methods of breaking the ropes apart.

After everyone was tied up, Ren Baqian covered his nose and walked in front of everyone to look at their faces. There weren’t many people left, only a dozen of them that were all from the hidden village. Out of all the Spirit Wheel experts, Qingyun Sword was the only one here.

“Where are the rest?” Ren Baqian asked.

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“I thought you already knew.” Qingyun Sword was the only person who wasn’t tied up. He looked at the captives that were caught last night and sighed.

“Don’t play any dirty tricks on me. Otherwise, even immortals will not be able to save all of you,” Ren Baqian warned.

“There is no need to do so,” Qingyun Sword said faintly. The other party had 1,000 Earth Wheel experts, four Spirit Wheel experts, and Qi Zixiao herself was a top-notch expert. At present, even if he gathered all the Tianjing Basin experts who were at their peak, they still wouldn’t be Dayao’s match.

Moreover, half of the Tianjing Basin experts had already died.

Ren Baqian returned to the front of the empress’s seat and said, “Your Majesty, please enter the city!”

“Enter the city!” The empress waved her hand before lowering her voice to ask Ren Baqian, “Does that stench still linger?”

Ren Baqian gritted his teeth. He deserved it!

“Your Majesty, bear with it. As a matter of fact, only this group of people have the stench on their bodies,” Ren Baqian replied softly.

The empress also gritted her teeth upon hearing what he said.

Even though this was the case, she still had to enter the city.

The winged cavalry was divided into two groups. One group was in front of the empress while the other group was behind her. When she passed by the city gate, she didn’t look at the people that were being tied up. To her, she had never considered these people as her opponents, but as a bunch of unsettled rebels. Now that Ren Baqian was dealing with them, she couldn’t even be bothered to look at them.

This had in fact left an indescribable feeling in those that were tied up. The empress actually couldn’t even be bothered to take a glance at them.

The people from the Protectorate of the South were following behind. After entering the city, they immediately dispersed to look after the original guards of the city. In addition, they also sent out another unit of soldiers to guard the city gate.

Although the streets were very quiet, the sound of children crying from the houses on both sides of the street could occasionally be heard. However, someone would immediately cover their mouths to shut them up.

When the winged cavalry entered the city, everyone ran back into their homes and prayed for their fate that was to come. After that, they peered through the crevices of their windows and looked at these world renowned troops as well as the ruler of Dayao.

After passing through half of the city, everyone arrived at the warlord’s residence. Ren Baqian went inside to check first before coming out with his hand covering his nose.

Previously, this place was the headquarters of the Tianjing Basin experts. As such, the stench inside the residence was extremely heavy.

He instructed someone to find another huge residence without any stench, drove away the family living inside, and made it the empress’s temporary residence.

“I want to take a bath. All the other tasks will be handed to you, so go settle them. Qing Yuan…” The empress entered the residence and continued to talk. After shouting midway, she suddenly recalled that Qing Yuan and Hong Luan had been left behind on Earth.

“Bring the both of them back tonight.”

Ren Baqian went closer to her and asked, “Your Majesty, since there’s no one to serve you now, why don’t I help to heat up the water and prepare the bath for you?”

Just as he finished his sentence, the empress stomped on his foot. He felt as if his big toe had fractured…

“Ssst!” Ren Baqian exhaled cold air as he held onto his foot and realized that Gong Zheng and a few of the bodyguards were looking at him. As he glared back at them, everyone immediately gave him a silent thumbs up.

“Find a room. I want to take a rest as I haven’t been sleeping well for the past two days.”

“Yes! I have already instructed someone to tidy up a room for you.” Ren Baqian was limping and grimacing in pain as he followed behind the empress.

“Take your leave and settle the tasks that you need to do.” The empress waved him off when they arrived at her room.

After seeing the empress enter her room, Ren Baqian turned around, entered the hall, and instructed people to bring in Qingyun Sword as well as those captives from the night before.

Sitting upon the wooden chair in the hall, the backrest of the chair turned out to be curved and incorporated the slightest hint of human engineering. Furthermore, there was actually a pillow behind the waist area that made him feel comfortable when he sat down. This actually increased the value of the people of Tianjing Basin in his eyes.

“Go and find the original family that was living here. Ask them who made this chair, then bring that craftsman here,” Ren Baqian instructed the bodyguard next to him. It just so happened that he was lacking a carpenter who could make chairs and sofas.

Thereafter, Ren Baqian fell into deep thought since it seemed as if there was something that was missing. When Qingyun Sword and the captives were brought into the hall after some time and saw the pensive look on Ren Baqian’s face, they began to guess that he was thinking of how to deal with them.

Ren Baqian thought for a long time. All of a sudden, he finally realized why he felt that something was missing!

It seemed like there was someone missing?

Where did that little lady, Lin Qiaole, run to?

Did anyone wake her up when they left this morning?

…

Lin Qiaole was squatting on some branches as she looked at her surroundings. Everything was in complete disorder. She was dumbfounded…

???

Where is everyone?