Sudden Change (Please Bookmark and Recommend)

Zhao Fu had no favorable impression of these great families and had no desire to become entangled with the Ying Family, so he had not planned to approach them proactively.

He continued browsing the Apocalypse World forum and was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had drawn a rough map. It showed Huaxia's distribution within Apocalypse World, as well as the surrounding countries. Zhao Fu set his sights on the Lesser Viet Kingdom in the southwest; that was where he intended to go after leaving Huaxia's main war zone.

After that, Zhao Fu found no other interesting news and entered Apocalypse World once more.

"Your Highness, you came at just the right time. One of our villagers was wounded by an arrow from another race, and Bai Qi has captured several of them."

The moment Zhao Fu entered, Li Si stepped forward to report.

Zhao Fu was puzzled. "The villagers generally only move about near Great Qin and do not go far. I also had people patrol the surrounding area, and there was no danger. Why have members of another race suddenly appeared?"

With those doubts in mind, Zhao Fu followed Li Si to find Bai Qi.

Bai Qi had ordered several creatures tied up with ropes. They were slightly taller than Goblins, thin to the point that they seemed to have no flesh on their bodies, with grayish-black skin and ugly appearances. They looked much like the Gnomes of Western legend.

"Bai Qi, what happened?" Zhao Fu asked as he walked over.

Bai Qi turned and saw Zhao Fu had arrived. He cupped his hands and explained, "Your Highness, our villagers were gathering wild fruit nearby when several members of another race suddenly sprang out and shot one of them with crossbows."

After saying this, Bai Qi had someone hand Zhao Fu a small crossbow.

Zhao Fu took it and examined it. It was exquisitely made. Without blueprints, it would be impossible to manufacture such a delicate crossbow.

"Did you get anything out of them?" Zhao Fu asked.

Bai Qi shook his head. "Your Highness, because we do not share a language, we obtained very little information. However, I have already sent people to thoroughly investigate the place where these Gnomes appeared."

Just then, someone came to report that they had discovered a well-hidden cave entrance.

Hearing this, Zhao Fu led his people to the hidden entrance. It was one meter high and surrounded by thick weeds. If the entrance were concealed a little more, it would indeed be very difficult to discover.

The several Gnomes brought there also looked rather unsightly, as though something very important had been discovered.

Seeing this, Zhao Fu understood. These Gnomes had been hiding inside. However, he did not dare enter rashly. First, he did not know how many Gnomes there were, and with an entrance only one meter high, people could only crawl in. That made it far too dangerous.

Zhao Fu dragged out a Gnome and ordered someone to whip him. The whip lashed fiercely against the Gnome again and again, immediately tearing open his flesh. The Gnome let out miserable gurgling cries.

After a while!

"Notice! Gnome Duo Ji is willing to surrender to you."

Upon hearing the notification, Zhao Fu chose "Accept," then had the Gnome brought before him. The Gnome's loyalty was only 10 points, but Zhao Fu did not care. It was not the Gnome's loyalty he wanted, but someone who could understand the Gnomes' language.

"How many Gnomes are still in your village?" Zhao Fu asked the Gnome.

The Gnome looked troubled, but when he saw the fierce soldiers beside him preparing to whip him again, he finally answered, "Honored sir, Duolun Village has ninety-six villagers in total. Forty-six are warriors, while the rest are women, elderly people, and children."

"So there are only this few. No wonder they did not dare live above ground."

Zhao Fu nodded and said to the Gnome, "I will release one person to return and tell them that I do not wish to harm them, but they must submit to me."

The Gnome nodded, walked over to the remaining bound Gnomes, and gurgled a few words, conveying Zhao Fu's meaning. Zhao Fu then selected one of them and allowed him to enter the cave.

"Shield Bearers, surround the entrance. Be careful; crossbow bolts may shoot out from inside at any moment," Zhao Fu ordered before beginning to wait.

Time passed bit by bit. A full hour went by, yet no Gnomes emerged to surrender.

Zhao Fu's face darkened as he said to Bai Qi, "It seems these Gnomes do not intend to surrender. Go prepare some dry grass and smoke them out."

Bai Qi nodded and had people prepare dry grass, which they began burning at the entrance. Thick smoke slowly drifted inside, but after a while, it could no longer enter. It seemed the Gnomes had blocked the entrance themselves.

"These Gnomes!"

Zhao Fu snorted coldly and ordered the entrance sealed completely. He then asked how many hidden passages led out of Goblin Village. Ordinary Gnomes did not know about these hidden passages; only several elderly Gnomes in the village knew.

So that was what they were relying on. Even if people dug their way inside, they could escape through the other passages.

Zhao Fu had a way to deal with this. He summoned ten Goblin Champions. Zhao Fu now had two Goblin Villages, and each village had a limit of five Goblin Champions, making ten in total.

After summoning the Goblin Champions, Zhao Fu ordered them to use specially made massive stone hammers to smash the ground around the approximate location of Goblin Village he had deduced. They were to collapse every passage extending from there and simply bury the Gnomes alive, then return in a few days to collect the bodies.

Of course, the Gnomes might dig new passages, so Zhao Fu made the ten Goblin Champions' main task for the next few days to be smashing this area. Whenever the Gnomes dug a passage, they would collapse it. That way, the Gnomes would have no options left.

That settled the matter for now. The remaining Gnomes were all locked up. The Gnome who had surrendered to Zhao Fu was also imprisoned because his loyalty was too low and he could defect at any time. However, as someone who had surrendered, Zhao Fu still treated him preferentially and provided him with sufficient food. As for the other Gnomes, they could starve for a few days first.

After returning to the village, Zhao Fu, Bai Qi, and Li Si began discussing the information Zhao Fu had obtained earlier from the Apocalypse Forum.

Boom!

A massive explosion suddenly rang out, startling everyone in Great Qin Village.

Zhao Fu rushed out with his people toward the source of the sound. Several Goblin Champions stood off to one side, stunned, while the ground had collapsed into a fissure more than ten meters long and over fifty meters deep. Wisps of cold air rose from the crack, giving off an eerie and terrifying feeling.

"What happened?" Zhao Fu asked the Goblin Champions nearby.

The Goblin Champions cried, "Wah-woo, wah-woo," meaning that they had originally been following Zhao Fu's orders and smashing the ground with massive stone hammers. However, when one Goblin Champion struck the ground with all his strength, they did not know how, but it had become like this.

"Notice! Duolun Village has surrendered to you. Do you accept?"

Zhao Fu had been deep in thought when the notification suddenly interrupted him. He could not help muttering to himself, They really have to suffer a little before they are willing to submit.

Zhao Fu chose to accept and called for people to begin digging.