Brocade Guard

"A scroll?"

The Marquis's legitimate daughter wore a look of confusion, gazing blankly at the scroll in Lister's hand.

"Young master, I have never seen this scroll before?"

She suspected the other party was playing dumb with her.

Lister immediately raised his leg, intending to kick her right in the face.

"Young master~! Young master~! Wait...! I... I really don't know!"

"This painting in your hand is the first time I've seen it today... Sob~...! My late father usually didn't care for calligraphy and paintings either; apart from some cultivation method manuals, the family couldn't even pull out a single portrait...!"

His sole finally stopped right at the tip of this Marquis's daughter's nose, startling her so that her chest heaved continuously, and the voice she had just spoken with had already turned into a whimpering cry.

Lister stared intently at the woman, as her fear did not seem feigned.

After that very first kick of his, she had also become exceptionally sensible, and logically speaking, she should not have dared to lie to him anymore.

Yet if that truly was the case, this matter was somewhat absurd, since this painting was something he had seen with his own eyes as it fell from the carriage.

The scoundrels also seemed to have caught wind of it beforehand, and their target was clearly for this painting.

"This painting was picked up by the scoundrels from your carriage, and you yourself know nothing of it?"

"Young master, I truly dare not deceive you... Sob...~!"

"How about this, young master... I will take you to find my father; could it be that this is a calligraphy or painting he recently collected?"

"Heh heh~!"

Lister let out a cold laugh, instantly seeing through this woman's intentions.

Her scheming was indeed shallow, with her little thoughts written openly across her face.

She merely wanted to wait until they reached the Mansion of the Marquis of Courage to find the Marquis of Courage and exact revenge on him.

It was just that because of this, Lister found himself less and less able to understand.

Could this Marquis's daughter before him truly be unaware that this painting was on her carriage?

Could it that this painting really wasn't the hereditary visualization method of the Marquis of Courage?

"Fine~! Have your people lead the way."

Lister's cold laugh just then made her skin crawl a little; however, the next moment she heard Lister's consenting words, a look of relief immediately washed over her face, accompanied by a faint smile.

This demeanor only made Lister more convinced that this calligraphy and painting seemed to genuinely have nothing to do with the Marquis's daughter.

Now he had no choice but to head to the Mansion of the Marquis of Courage first and try his luck.

After traveling for a day, the group finally entered the outer city of Jiangling Prefecture.

Jiangling Prefecture was located in Jiang Province, and Jiang Province belonged to the border provinces of the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty, comprising a total of three prefectures and eleven cities.

Among them, the large cities were prefectures, and the small cities were cities; Jiang Province was actually composed of fourteen cities.

Jiangling Prefecture could be considered the city with the highest status, second only to the Jiang Province capital, Jiangxia Prefecture.

Because it was situated at the very border city, it was also the largest in area among all the cities in Jiang Province.

As for this Marquis's daughter, Lister now also knew her name: Xiong Ranran, and her father, the Marquis of Courage, was named Xiong Yongjie.

Lister didn't even need to pry anything out of her; all the way there, Xiong Ranran continuously blurted out her family's situation on her own, as if trying to find someone who could make Lister feel fear.

It was just a pity that Lister currently had zero connections in Great Chu.

Moreover, his present strength no longer required him to weigh every little thing the way he had during his early days in the Duchy of Will.

Many matters could now be handled directly with brute force, without needing to harbor so many misgivings.

This was also the reason he wanted to directly confront the Marquis of Courage.

The lives of the commoners in the outer city of Jiangling Prefecture were actually much the same as those of the outer city folks in the Duchy of Will.

They all wore coarse cloth and cotton clothes, bustling about for their livelihoods day in and day out, and those who could become professionals were an extreme minority.

As for the inner city, it instantly took on a completely new look, with smooth roads and orderly houses.

The core few neighborhoods were where the grand mansions and wealthy households gathered.

As soon as Lister followed Xiong Ranran's troop into the inner city, he was already being secretly scouted by several factions.

They journeyed all the way into the very core of Jiangling Prefecture, where a residence built of towering red walls stood tall.

Above the huge main gates, the plaque bearing the four characters "Mansion of the Marquis of Courage" leaped into view, vigorous and powerful.

Yet the gates of this Marquis's mansion were completely wide open at the moment, and there were no footmen guarding the outside, as if someone had just led people through them.

Xiong Ranran finally relaxed at this moment, casting off the troop without any hesitation as she strode inside her family's front gates.

Lister, bringing Rolf along beside him, followed her inside.

The moment they stepped into the estate, various noisy sounds continuously drifted from the grand hall of the Marquis's mansion, and along the way, the interior of the mansion looked somewhat chaotic, as if it had just been searched by someone.

By the time Lister walked completely close, two groups of people had appeared before his eyes inside the Marquis's grand hall.

One of those groups wore blue uniforms and guards' attire, clearly people belonging to the Mansion of the Marquis of Courage.

As for the other group, they wore black robes with cyan patterns, black headwraps on their heads, and uniform standard long sabers at their waists.

The man leading this team wore cyan-backed flying fish attire, a special official cap on his head, and a long sword tucked at his waist. At that moment, he was shouting with a stern expression at the middle-aged man opposite him.

"Marquis Xiong, this must be your legitimate daughter Xiong Ranran, right!"

"It looks like this subordinate misunderstood just now. Since that is the case, I'll have people finish the search now and leave."

"I will not disturb your Marquis's mansion for another single moment."

"Commander Li, this Marquis has never offended you on ordinary days; could you point out a clear path for this Marquis? What on earth is the reason for coming here today?"

The Marquis of Courage wore vermilion casual attire, with an exquisite jade pendant hanging from his waist.

He had thick eyebrows and large eyes, with a few wrinkles already at the corners of his eyes, and a straight bridge of his nose. He looked to be a middle-aged man with a rather rugged and charming appearance.

Yet at this moment, his face was full of helplessness and worry, and he could only watch blankly as Li Fu, the Commander of the Brocade Guard standing before him, turned his house completely upside down.

As for Xiong Ranran, she was even more pitiful; she hadn't even had time to complain to her dad before she was searched on the spot by the Brocade Guard.

It wasn't until this moment when the search began that the Marquis of Courage and that Commander Li finally cast their gazes toward Lister.

[Level: Lv20]
[Class: Cavalryman (Martial Dao Lineage)]
[HP: 1271/1271]
[Stamina: 461/461]
[Attributes: Strength 20, Endurance 18, Intelligence 12, Agility 14]
[Skills: Fierce Spear Technique (C-Rank) LV13: Spear technique deals 617~819 points of damage (can be augmented by Strength attribute), comes with a slight knock-back effect; Body Hardening Technique (C-Rank) LV11: For a period of time, slightly increases defense and rapidly restores stamina.]
[Overall Evaluation: D]

This was the strength of the Marquis of Courage?

When Lister completed quests in his past life, he had never crossed paths with the Marquis of Courage. Although he knew the other party's level wasn't high, he hadn't expected even the overall evaluation to be merely D-rank.

Sure enough, a newbie village was a newbie village; the overall standard was just like that.

Lister still dared not quite believe it at this moment, and couldn't help scanning the Marquis of Courage once more.

It wasn't that he doubted the Marquis of Courage's low strength; rather, among the Marquis of Courage's skills, there truly was no entry for the Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method.

Not even a pseudo-visualization method, and he didn't even use a saber, opting for spear techniques instead.

Could it be that he really found the wrong person?

Was this Yellow Court Saber Art Visualization Method truly unrelated to the estate of the Marquis of Courage?

Pulling back his thoughts, Lister once more cast his gaze toward this Commander Li at the side without changing his expression.

[Level: Lv40]
[Class: Iron Heart Swordsman (Martial Dao Lineage)]
[HP: 1271/1271]
[Stamina: 461/461]
[Attributes: Strength 33, Endurance 39, Intelligence 32, Agility 24]
[Skills: Iron Heart Sword Technique (C-Rank) LV27: Sword technique deals 1771~2191 damage (can be augmented by Strength attribute), when using this sword technique, immunity to a portion of self-crowd-control; Brute Bull Visualization Method (Passive, Unranked) LV9: Additionally increases 9 points of Strength attribute,...]
[Overall Evaluation: D]

Level forty?

Lister instantly determined that this Commander Li was definitely not someone from within Jiangling Prefecture.

Just as he had envisioned, only the native factions within Jiangling Prefecture had their levels temporarily capped at level 20.

As for other regions of the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty, especially the faction levels of the imperial capital, he couldn't confirm them just yet.

According to the order in which game factions appeared in his memory, the full emergence of the Great Chu Imperial Dynasty was a faction from Act III, and they belonged to a state of wartime hostility with the Lucian Empire.

By that time, the highest professional level cap was level 60. There were still twenty to thirty years remaining until the start of Act III; crudely estimating, the level cap might likewise be restricted to level 40, and would at most not exceed level 60.