Deyang

After quickly leaving the battlefield, Bai Yang finally began to feel a little better more than two hours later.

He was just an ordinary person. Eat too much and he'd feel bloated; drink too much and he'd throw up. He'd be scared by a bloody scene, too!

He clung tightly to Little Cat's hand, trying to ease the fear in his heart.

"Zhao Shi..."

He called weakly.

"Young Master, I'm here."

Zhao Shi, who had been standing guard nearby, hurriedly answered.

"How many casualties have we suffered?"

That was the first thing Bai Yang wanted to know.

The villagers felt a warmth in their hearts. Their "boss" cared about them. It was worth fighting for him!

"Young Master, we haven't suffered any casualties. Everyone's fine. A few people were struck by the bandit chief and coughed up blood, but they're all right. They're still full of fight."

"That's good."

Bai Yang let out a sigh of relief. The best outcome was that nobody had died.

Zhao Shi hesitated, then said:

"Young Master, we captured 133 bandits. We've severed the tendons in all their hands and feet. How would you like us to deal with them?"

Huh? There were prisoners, too?

Bai Yang blinked, finding it incredible. Was he really in a position to decide whether so many people lived or died with a single word?

"Uh, what do you usually do with them?"

"There are two ways. One is to kill them outright. These bandits are guilty of every crime under the sun and deserve to die. The other is to send them to the authorities, which can earn us some benefits. How they're dealt with is entirely up to you, Young Master!"

Zhao Shi answered very seriously.

Bai Yang was completely stunned. He knew life was cheap in this place, but he hadn't realized it was cheap to the point that a hundred lives could be snuffed out with a single word!

Bai Yang thought for a moment, then asked:

"Zhao Shi, would we get into trouble if we killed them?"

"No."

Zhao Shi answered bluntly, as if they were talking about slaughtering a hundred pigs.

"Good. When we get to that Deyang place, hand them over to the authorities."

Bai Yang nodded.

Huh?

So after asking all that, you pull a complete 180?

"Are you all stupid? They can't fight back anymore. What difference does it make whether we kill them? They probably won't be able to stand up and swing a knife at anyone for the rest of their lives. We could get some benefits by handing them over to the authorities. What good would killing them do?"

Bai Yang snapped. He wouldn't admit that he simply couldn't bring himself to kill more than a hundred people. Their hands and feet had already been crippled. They'd suffer enough just staying alive. Why not spare them, right?

Yeah, I'm a good person!

As for what happened to those bandits once they were handed over to the so-called authorities, that was none of his business...

He didn't explain himself. After speaking, he closed his eyes to rest. He still hadn't recovered from what had happened earlier.

But he couldn't help thinking that this world actually had something like an official government. Maybe it wasn't as chaotic as he'd imagined...

They continued onward through the crisscrossing waterways.

After throwing up until he was nearly spent, Bai Yang was in no mood for anything. He spent the whole journey feeling as if he were about to die, and the area of his psychological shadow was impossible to calculate.

Little Cat stayed by his side, taking care of him with the utmost caution, afraid something might happen to him.

They passed through several more places where waterways crisscrossed. Nothing happened; there were no exciting surprises.

Bai Yang couldn't help admiring the mountain folk's uncanny skill. He couldn't figure out how they managed to find the right route through such a complicated maze of waterways...

They didn't run into any bandits, but along the way they encountered another group of mountain folk.

Bai Yang couldn't even be bothered to lift his head. He ignored them and didn't bother wondering how they differed from Zhao Shi's people. He glanced their way and moved on...

Zhao Shi and the others, however, greeted them, as if they knew one another.

Perhaps because Zhao Shi's group had put on their "splendid" armor, the others stared in shock and confusion. They didn't even dare approach, preferring to wait for them to leave rather than travel alongside them...

They traveled on and on. About eight hours after leaving the village, they finally emerged from the forest, and the world suddenly opened up before them!

From the edge of the forest onward, it was as if a clear dividing line had appeared in the world. Dense vegetation stretched left and right all the way to the horizon. Ahead lay an endless expanse of blue water, its depths unfathomable, its surface calm and still.

"Young Master, we've left Mihe Forest. If we keep going and cross the Bibo River, we'll reach the docks at Deyang Town."

Zhao Shi spoke softly beside Bai Yang, afraid of disturbing him while he lay limp as a wet noodle.

Hearing this, Bai Yang perked up a little. With Little Cat supporting him, he stood.

Then he stared ahead, utterly dumbfounded.

Are you fucking with me? That calm, boundless expanse of water in front of us was clearly a gigantic lake, wasn't it?

As far as Bai Yang knew, even at their widest points, the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers still had opposite shores in sight. But this so-called Bibo River? He could only make out a faint horizon in the distance. It had to be at least ten kilometers wide, and they were telling him it was just a river?

Yeah, right!

"Little Cat, this really is a river?"

He wasn't sure, so he quietly asked Little Cat. She was obedient and wouldn't lie to him.

"Yes. Didn't you know, Young Master?"

What the hell would I know...

Snarking to himself, Bai Yang gazed at the opposite shore, lost in thought. He couldn't imagine how long a river more than ten kilometers wide must be, or how vast a region it crossed!

When he looked back, the lush Mihe Forest stretched all the way to the horizon. Who knew how large it really was...

He silently did the math and realized that, although the journey from the village had taken a long time, they hadn't actually traveled very far—at most, perhaps 150 kilometers. There was no helping it; the rafts were fucking slow...

"If we had a diesel-powered boat, we'd probably get there in just over an hour, right? But instead, we've spent seven or eight hours..."

Bai Yang was speechless.

Five or six rafts moved across the still surface of the river. The water was so calm that it seemed as if they weren't moving at all.

They'd set out with only four rafts. Now there were two more, taken from the bandits, with a pile of prisoners aboard.

The Bibo River lived up to its name: endless blue waters, yet not a ripple in sight.

As they continued forward, the first thing he saw was a city wall!

A stone wall lay across the opposite bank. It looked at least twenty meters high; he couldn't estimate its length, but it was certainly long...

Farther beyond, fertile fields stretched for thousands of miles, green and boundless. Whatever was growing there swayed like waves toward the distant horizon when the wind blew...

"This is going to be a real pain. A city this huge, and they call it a little town!"

A giant exclamation mark appeared in his mind...

As they drew closer, he could make out the so-called docks. The waterfront stretched for several miles, crowded with rafts and bamboo rafts darting back and forth amid a cacophony of shouts and clamor.

Anyone who didn't know better would've thought they'd arrived at Chaotianmen Wharf...

"Zhao Shi, we can't be lying about this. Are you sure that place ahead is the Deyang Town you mentioned, and it's just a little town?"

Bai Yang turned and asked Zhao Shi with utter seriousness.

"Of course."

Zhao Shi looked completely innocent. What would he gain by lying?

"No, I mean, can you tell me how big Deyang Town is, and how many people live there?"

Zhao Shi shook his head blankly, indicating that he hadn't studied and didn't know...

Fine. What could Bai Yang say? He'd have to find out for himself. Those villagers were so muddleheaded, he wondered how they'd managed to survive this long. Didn't they have even the slightest curiosity?

"Uh, does this mean I've finally left the beginner village? But even after leaving the beginner village, I'm still a level-zero newbie. At least I've got a bunch of high-level guards, so I'm not too shabby..."

He stared across the water, muttering to himself.

Something about this world seemed off. Who the hell had ever heard of a so-called little town as big as Chang'an in the history books?

Standing on the surface of the Bibo River, his thoughts were all over the place.

"I'm a frog. I've just hopped out of a little well and seen a much wider world."