Before dawn, the last tough bandit lurking in the mud deep inside the lake was found and killed. The battle of the Village of Peace was finally over.
Countless corpses with their intestines pierced through were floating on the surface of the lake. There were also patches of blazing flames that illuminated the darkest sky before dawn as if it were a cruel hell of fire.
The glamorous, bloody Flowers of the Other Shore in the sky, on the other hand, were long gone. The noble angels who lived in 'Manjusaka, the City in the Sky' did not seem to be interested in the battles of the bottom-level 'worms' in the remote villages.
The dead had staggered to the other side of the lake, but the living still had to struggle on the devastated land.
Although the short and fierce battle did not cause much damage to the Village of Peace under Li Yao's best efforts, a lot of precious weapons, ammunition, and energy reserves were consumed after all.
A few iron warships were also destroyed by the cannon fodder of the Black Water Gang. One of them was even related to the water-purifying chips that were of paramount importance.
In the Land of Sins, almost all the water sources had been seriously polluted. Drinking natural water that had not been purified was tantamount to suicide. Even boiling it at a high temperature might not be able to eliminate all the impurities and poisons. The filtration of the water-purifying chips was necessary.
There were thousands of people in the Village of Peace, and the daily water consumption was calculated by tons. Without the water-purifying chips, it would be a catastrophe.
Also, Li Yao had saved a large batch of sinners who had been driven by the Black Water Gang to fight against the Village of Peace the day before. Those sinners had been soaked in the cold lake for a long time. The effects of the excitants had long passed, and they were struggling and crying for help under the boost of their desire for survival.
Behind them were their wives and children, too. They did not even have weapons and had been driven to their deaths by the Black Water Gang. They hugged each other and cried hard, shuddering in fear under the guns and blades of the Village of Peace.
Many people in the Village of Peace wanted to simply leave those guys to die on their own and drown in the lake.
However, they could not resist Gu Zhengyang's order. They still picked up most of the sinners unwillingly.
Now, those people had all become the captives of the Village of Peace. They were locked in two iron-shelled warships that did not have any power, waiting for the final verdict in fear and desperation.
Their fates bode ill rather than well.
Even if Gu Zhengyang was truly merciful and did not want to execute the thousands of sinners, including the old, the weak, the women, and the children, if they were banished just like that, their few assets would be looted by the Black Water Gang. Now that they were defenseless and had no food, their only outcome would be death.
Just like what Zhao Lie had said when he was alive, it was a slow and painful death.
However, the Village of Peace already had a population of several thousand in the first place. If it were to take in several thousand more people all of a sudden, its size would be doubled. There was no way that it could support the food, energy, space, and other resources.
Needless to say, the two sides had fought fiercely in the Bliss Ceremony and the previous night's attack and defense battle, forming a deep hatred. It was impossible for them to accept each other easily.
Now that they had been defeated, they were willing to accept the rules of the Land of Sins and be executed by the Village of Peace without any regrets.
However, could the lords of the Village of Peace show mercy and spare all the children below fourteen, even if they had to live at the bottom level of the Village of Peace as slave soldiers, as long as they could survive?
Gu Zhengyang did not make a decision for a moment.
There was a valid reason for his hesitation, too. The Village of Peace had only defeated the vanguards of the Black Water Gang and the Red Fire Gang. They were far from the main force of the two gangs.
It was possible that, in the eyes of those gangs, there was no need for them to mobilize all their forces to invade the Village of Peace. They had already shown enough respect by sending a few bandits.
Right now, dawn was approaching. If the news was not sent back to Double Dragons Valley before sunset, the ferocious bandits would certainly take action.
Gu Zhengyang did not think that either the Red Fire Gang or the Black Water Gang would be merciful and spare the Village of Peace after they had been greatly humiliated.
The Village of Peace was still in peril, and it was severely short of hands. A lot of the captives were strong and healthy. Even their wives and children had been caged in the place. Naturally, they had to be very prudent in dealing with those people.
However, when the first morning sun shone on the deck of the iron warship, Gu Zhengyang was not focused on the captives or the bandits of Double Dragons Valley but on Li Yao.
He had circled around Li Yao for the 137th time and raised the same question for the fifty-second time. "Did you really do everything last night?"
"Yes, sir," Li Yao replied casually.
Then, it was another question that was repeated fifty-two times. "Tell me. How did you do it exactly?"
"No comment."
Li Yao said calmly and indifferently. "There are no plug-ins installed in the database that can explain complicated tactical missions for civilians. With your level, battle experience, and understanding abilities, it is difficult for me to explain it to you reasonably and adequately."
Gu Zhengyang was dazed for a long time. Staring at the light on Li Yao's chest, he finally could not help but raise a brand-new question to Han Te and the Coloured Glaze, who were chuckling nearby. "Have you ever thought of dismantling its crystal processor and seeing what its core processing chip looks like?"
"No."
Li Yao continued calmly. "My crystal processor is a military secret of the highest level. According to the twenty-second military rule, only the commander-in-chief of the special forces under the command of the Northern Space Zone or the refiners who boast the Qualification Certificate for Maintenance and Modification are allowed to open the shell of my crystal processor. Everybody else, regardless of whether they are friend or foe, will be regarded as the most serious hostile behavior once they touch or even spy on my crystal processor. They will be subject to my instantaneous reaction."
Gu Zhengyang was confused. "Instantaneous reaction?"
Li Yao explained, "Just like last night."
"…"
Gu Zhengyang gasped hard, his face extremely awful. He finally understood it. "So, you can obey Han Te's orders, but you cannot let him dismantle your deepest structure or perform maintenance and modification on you?"
"Basically, yes."
Li Yao said coldly, "I've just activated a brand-new fully-automatic maintenance and upgrade database. As long as I am provided with enough energy and materials, and as long as the predetermined battle environment, mission, and target are set, I will be able to maintain, modify, and upgrade automatically."
"What an … incredible guy!"
Looking at the drill and the chainsaw at the front end of Li Yao's mechanical arm, Gu Zhengyang remarked with mixed feelings, "I've never seen such a war puppet before."
Han Te held back his laughter and said, "Master, the Land of Sins is such a large place. Who can know all the secrets? Maybe we were lucky enough to pick up the most awesome military crystal processor of the Martial Meritocrats Sector before 'Judgment Day'. All in all, if it weren't for the help of 'Fiend Star' last night, the Village of Peace would've been screwed! Isn't everything fine right now? "
"Yes, Dad. Uncle Liu seems to be talking to you about the wounded."
Coloured Glaze blinked quickly and said, "Go now. The two of us can look after 'Fiend Star'. We'll call you immediately if anything happens!"
"… Alright."
Gu Zhengyang did hear someone calling his name on another iron-shelled warship. He walked forward and suddenly stopped. He turned around and asked, "Let me ask you another question. I don't know if you can find the answer in your database. Last night … you intentionally spared the sinners, didn't you? Why? Judging from how you dealt with Ma Ku and Fei Zhong, you should've been capable of annihilating all the sinners. If Han Te had only given the order to 'defend the Village of Peace', there would've been no reason for you to show mercy to the sinners, right? "
After a brief silence, Li Yao said, "I don't know. It's just that the 'rules' deep inside the crystal processor asked me to do so."
"Maybe —"
Coloured Glaze suddenly had an epiphany. Clenching her fists, she said, "A long, long time ago, the creators of 'Fiend Star' were a bunch of Cultivators."
"Is that so?"
Gu Zhengyang was slightly dazed. Then, he was greatly enlightened. He grinned and put on a sincere smile. "Got it. Don't worry, you two. I'll certainly find a way to protect the Village of Peace!"
The middle-aged man who had fought fiercely for a whole night with his sick, broken body waved his fists hard and rushed away like a vigorous young man.
Looking at his back that was gradually disappearing, the smile on Han Te's face suddenly froze. Complicated feelings beamed out of his eyes.
Li Yao sensed the subtle ripples in the young man's heart. He asked, "Is there a problem?"
"Huh?"
Coloured Glaze blinked her big, clear eyes and looked at Han Te suspiciously.
"It's not really a problem. It's just that …"
Han Te scratched his head for a long time. Finally, he summoned his courage and asked, "Grandpa Yao, do you think my master is right?"
"Your master is right," Li Yao said.
"What are you thinking about exactly?"
Coloured Glaze puffed her cheeks and said, "Of course Dad is right. We have to fight those jackals to the end. Look at our current situation. Isn't it great?"
Han Te shook his head hard and said, "No, Coloured Glaze, it's not like that! The Village of Peace still exists because we discovered 'Grandpa Yao' by accident. It was Grandpa Yao who turned the tides and saved everybody in the Village of Peace!
"Without Grandpa Yao, the Village of Peace would've been swallowed by the gangs a long time ago. Perhaps a lot of blood would've been shed, and a lot of people would've died. Those who luckily survived would've been deformed into inhumane, ferocious animals, like the sinners who had been injected with excitants and charged at us in their self-detonating shuttles.
"From that perspective, is it possible that Zhao Lie is right? After all, not every village in the world is lucky enough to find a 'Grandpa Yao'!
"Last night, at the last moment, even my master wavered and admitted that Zhao Lie was right. He could only escape by killing himself … No, I'm not blaming my master. It's only natural that my master did that. I just don't understand and can't convince myself that it would've been better if we had listened to Zhao Lie earlier."
"No," Li Yao continued, "Zhao Lie is wrong, but your master is right."
"If my master is right," Han Te said stubbornly, "how can the path be paved without 'Grandpa Yao'?"
"Paved. Neither your master nor Zhao Lie's path is paved, but it doesn't mean that your master is wrong."
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