You're Strong But Now You're Mine
Chapter 76 - 75: Avenge Qian Yuliu!

Chapter 76: Chapter 75: Avenge Qian Yuliu!

"Current progress, 102/10,000."

Le Yuxin scooped some water out of the bucket to moisten his throat. It tasted like drowsy black tea—obviously with some extra hardware part ingredients tossed in. But even so, he still had to drink it. "Was anyone really going to suddenly hop in the wagon and covet his...ahem...hot dog?"

The slave-hunting squad had been on the move the whole night without stopping for rest. Meanwhile, Le Yuxin’s new challenge, "Waste Time," was racking up progress at breakneck speed—like, download-speed fast. In a single night, people wasted a combined hundred hours for his sake. Le Yuxin felt pretty clueless about it. "Was this system bugged or what?"

But every now and then, he overheard someone outside the wagon grumbling that there weren’t actually any black-clad swordsmen chasing them, and suddenly it all made sense. The slavers actually believed him, took his words as gospel, and spent the whole night on edge, expecting some black-robed swordsman to leap out and hit them with a Starburst Stream outta nowhere.

"So just bullshitting people could make them waste time, huh?" Le Yuxin suddenly saw the light. "Guess this challenge wasn’t all that after all."

But when he thought about it carefully, he realized that pulling this off again wouldn’t be so easy. Only because he positioned himself as a hostage, playing the part of a mysterious organization’s agent, did the slaver gang swallow his lies.

Plus, the slavers were already paranoid as hell when transporting cargo, always ready to kill rather than risk letting someone go. Even if they thought Le Yuxin was talking out of his ass, they couldn’t afford to bet on it—if they lost that gamble, the fallout would be one they couldn’t handle.

Layer after layer of factors stacked up, so only then did they willingly waste so much time. "If I just bullshitted and said, ’Collect all seven Dragon Balls to make a wish,’ do you think they’d care?"

Plausibility, feasibility, unfalsifiability...Le Yuxin planned to scribble on a random wall, "Today is our founding ancestor’s birthday. Copy this to ten walls and you’ll get lucky. Been there, done that. It works. If you don’t share, you’re not a real Huiyao citizen."

Even if writing ten phrases didn’t waste much time, Le Yuxin still had faith in the power of rumor-mongering. "I mean, I used to repost these all the time back then." The only problem was that it would take longer to spread, but at least now he’d figured out a way to clear this challenge—a far cry from fumbling in the dark.

"Talk about mixed blessings. Getting nabbed by human traffickers sucked, true, but he’d accidentally figured out how to complete the challenge—call that a win."

To show his gratitude, Le Yuxin decided that, once they reached their destination, he’d go ahead and slaughter them all with the Soul Purification Demon Sword. Thankful, truly thankful.

After all, Yinyin Yin once said absorbing life force kills painlessly. Le Yuxin had tested it himself—sure enough, no pain, but a solid three-to-five minutes of deathly terror. Most folks might keel over instantly, but the Soul Purification Demon Sword could stretch that out for several minutes. "These lucky users are in for a truly unforgettable trip. Much appreciated."

Having settled on his plan, Le Yuxin relaxed, composed as ever, closing his eyes for a nap. The other three people were awake by now too. The young man sitting opposite him, after sipping some bucket water, couldn’t help but ask, "Bro, things are this bad, how are you so chill?"

"In life, the most important thing is to be happy. If you’re not happy, that’s a day; if you’re happy, that’s a day," Le Yuxin replied coolly.

"Don’t tell me you’ve got some kind of escape plan?" the young man whispered. "Could I ask your esteemed name, brother? I’m Luo Jue, this kid next to me is Feng Zhen, and the big guy over there is Xu Song’an. If you can get us out, we’ll be forever in your debt—anything you want, it’s yours!"

When he heard that, the boy Feng Zhen looked at Le Yuxin with wide, helpless eyes, like he was about to burst into tears—like a puppy in distress.

The burly man, Xu Song’an, still hadn’t gotten his gag out. It was a makeshift mouthpiece, bound tightly by hemp rope, the other end tied to the wagon wall. Unless someone cut it with a blade, there was no way he could free himself. He was trying to sip water, letting it drip in through his lips. When he heard the conversation, he nodded vigorously, like he was saying, "Me too, man."

Le Yuxin didn’t give a straight answer, only saying, "Wait, and be full of hope."

He was definitely going to take out these slavers, but before it happened, what was the point in bragging? "Anyone who says ’this one’s a sure thing’ always ends up faceplanting in the end."

Besides...

He’d only told the story about Black-Clad Tower and the Black-Clad Swordsman to these three. And yet the slavers found out and believed it, which meant someone here had leaked the info to the slavers!

"Among these three, at least one wasn’t a kidnapped slave at all, but one of the slavers planted here to watch us!"

"Was it Luo Jue, who kept sharing info and calming everyone down?"

"Or Feng Zhen, always whimpering and begging for sympathy?"

"Or was it Xu Song’an, stuck with a gag in his mouth?"

"Damn, kidnapped by slavers and still end up playing a round of four-person Werewolf. This trip really is a riot."

But Le Yuxin had zero interest in chit-chatting any more. Once they arrived, he’d whip out his prized Soul Purification Demon Sword and go on a killing spree—flip the damn table. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

Le Yuxin liked to dream big, but the wagon trundled on for another day, still not stopping at all. Midway, the slavers dropped off another bucket of water; the drowsy black tea flavor was even stronger now. Le Yuxin was sick of sitting in the wagon, so he napped for a bit.

By the time he woke up, it was already night.

The slaver squad actually forced a forced march for two days and nights!

Judging by the distance, Le Yuxin figured they’d already left the Chenfeng District, maybe even reached Dongyang District.

"Were these slavers really not planning on resupplying along the way? Thinking of making a beeline back to the Dongyang District capital? What, did you guys nab some peerless beauty or what—was it that urgent?"

Almost like hearing his silent complaints, the slavers finally stopped. The ground became much smoother, and peering out the skylight, Le Yuxin saw streetlights and some kind of illumination out there—they’d obviously entered a town or village area.

"Out! Get out!"

"Slowpokes looking for a beating, huh!"

"Hands up!"

The slaver squad herded everybody out of the wagons. Le Yuxin knew right away—this was his shot. This place was probably the slavers’ temporary base, which was why they dared let a group of starved, exhausted captives out for further "taming."

When it was Le Yuxin’s wagon’s turn, the door creaked open. A guy outside rapped the side: "Get out, quit dawdling!"

"Soon as I get out, I’ll kill you all."

"Now, let’s see—start by using the Saint’s Relic to off a few extras, then slip into the residential area under cover of dark, take out anyone stupid enough to enter the shadows one by one using the Hidden Sword Technique. Once the slaver crew freaks, come out and slaughter the rest."

"Solid plan!"

Le Yuxin sauntered out with the other three. The moment his feet hit the ground, he took a deep breath of fresh air and elegantly raised his right hand, preparing to morph the Saint’s Relic—

"What are you doing!?"

Shouted a furious voice—followed instantly by the sound of dozens of firearms being leveled.

Le Yuxin blinked, just now noticing they were actually in a walled enclosure, the place blazing with light. Dozens of heavily armed men stood on the ramparts, all packing firearms. The slaver squad members below were armed to the teeth, too.

The moment Le Yuxin raised his hand, every single guard up top trained their guns on him.

He looked back—behind them was a mining cave, not a single house in sight; just wagons and a pack of slavers licking their chops. Floodlights everywhere. Le Yuxin glanced around—couldn’t spot a single shadow within reach.

Le Yuxin thought about it and slowly raised his left hand, too.

┗(´・∧・｀)┛

...

...

Just outside Star Engraving District, in a house in the suburbs.

"You mean...Qian Yuliu didn’t betray the teacher? Didn’t betray us?"

Gao Jin stared at the battered, deep-blue jacket lying on the table, his face full of disbelief and resistance. "No way..."

"Not only that, he only endured humiliation by joining the Statistical Department for the future of White Night," Xia Lingguo said. "Wake up. If Qian Yuliu hadn’t killed the teacher that night, and if the teacher had ended up in the hands of the Statistical Department, White Night would have been wiped out in Star Engraving District already."

"But...the second teacher..."

"Lin Xueen was the real traitor. Qian Yuliu was shot right as he was breaking off with Lin Xueen. Don’t tell me you never doubted that. If Qian Yuliu had lost to Lin Xueen back then, Lin Xueen would have had the most to gain."

"But still..."

"When White Night started the revolution two days ago, they used lots of unregistered firearms. There’s no way White Night would stash a whole arsenal in dangerous Star Engraving, and after the lockdown, the one in charge of gate checks was none other than Qian Yuliu."

Gao Jin collapsed onto the table, shaking all over. Suddenly, he slammed his fist against the wall, punching until blood finally seeped out!

"I...wronged him...all this time..."

Tears streamed down Gao Jin’s face. Suddenly, he snapped his head up at Xia Lingguo. "What do you need from me!?"

"For the teacher, for the people of White Night, for Qian Yuliu, avenge them," Xia Lingguo said steadily. "This revolution was crushed in record time, not because of a bad strategy—but because we had a mole, someone colluding with the Statistical Department’s Lan Yan!"

"And that traitor is likely the one who killed Qian Yuliu! Qian Yuliu didn’t die at the hands of an enemy—he was killed from within!"

"Just as Qian Yuliu was the teacher’s secret agent, I know you’re one, too—Gao Jin, you must have a way to contact White Night, right?"

"Avenge..." Gao Jin tasted the word, eyes growing steadily sharper.

"This time, I will definitely avenge every one of you!"