Chapter 991: You’ll Regret It
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Are you sure?”
Meng Chao frowned slightly. “I have to say, you’ve really disappointed me. Mr. Big Buck, I thought that advanced orcs were all made of steel and could last at least ten to twenty minutes!
“By the way, are you really not going to last another three to five minutes?”
“No! No! No!”
Big Buck let out a shrill scream. “Quick, ask me a question! I’ll tell you everything! Everything! Ah!”
The last scream came from the burning flames on his left leg, which had been ripped open.
Meng Chao had used a secret medicine that was rich in flammable oil to cauterize his wound and temporarily seal the broken blood vessels, hanging the Minotaur warrior on the dividing line between life and death.
“What’s the name of that village?”
This was his first question.
This question completely stunned the great buck, who was in so much pain that he wanted to die.
He had already planned to sell all his secrets.
This included the most shameful inside information of the b.l.o.o.d.y hoof family.
However, he did not expect the black-haired, black-eyed monster to ask an inexplicable question. “Wh-What village?”
“The village that rescued me from the tributaries of the Turan River and saved my life.”
Meng Chao patiently explained, “The village that was later destroyed by your recruitment team.”
Big Buck was silent for a while.
Confusion and surprise gradually appeared on the Pale Bull’s face.
As if he couldn’t believe it, Meng Chao didn’t hesitate to offend the entire b.l.o.o.d.y hoof family and took great pains to capture him just for such an insignificant matter.
However, under the stimulation of the secret medicine, the burning pain of the wound continued.
And with every breath he took, it became more and more unbearable.
In order to get rid of the endless nightmare-like torture as soon as possible, he could only tell the truth, “Bright Sh.e.l.l Village, it’s called Bright Sh.e.l.l Village.”
“Bright Sh.e.l.l Village…”
Meng Chao was immersed in his memories and muttered, “That’s right. I remember that in that village, every family lived along the river. The villagers loved to plunder colorful snails from the river. After eating the flesh of the snails, they would string them up and make them into translucent wind chimes to hang on the headboard or the door frame.
“When I was struggling at the edge of the Dark Abyss and the fire of my soul was about to be extinguished at any time, I heard the clanging of the wind chimes and the clear and melodious laughter of the children. The children in the village loved to play around the wind chimes or puff up their cheeks and blow hard, making the wind chimes spin faster and faster. All the colorful snails would fly up.
“It was the careful care of the villagers and the laughter of the children that pulled me back from the brink of death. Otherwise, I would have turned into the bottom of the Turan River, a skeleton that had been gnawed away by fish and shrimp.
“That was a group of very kind villagers.
“It was also a very beautiful, very peaceful small village.
“You really shouldn’t have destroyed that place, Mr. Big Buck.
“When you were burning, killing, looting, wantonly destroying, and enslaving Bright Sh.e.l.l Village, I had just struggled from the brink of death. I was still half-dead and couldn’t even lift a finger. I had no way to stop you beasts. I could only remember the looks of you animals, especially you. There were two horns on your head, one big and one small. I remember telling you at that time…”
Meng Chao coldly said five words to Big Buck.
Big Buck then remembered that when they destroyed Bright Sh.e.l.l Village and dragged the black-haired, black-eyed monster back to Black-corner City, the monster had slightly opened its swollen eyes and said the same words to him.
At that time, Big Buck thought that the monster was just moaning in pain.
But if he knew the language of Earth, then he would know that Meng Chao said to him:
“You will regret it.”
Big Buck became more and more confused and scared.
He really wanted to shout at the top of his voice, “Are you crazy? That is just a group of rat people, a group of low and weak rat people! Is it worth provoking the most powerful Blood Hoof Clan, or even the entire blood hoof family, for the sake of a group of low people?”
However, Meng Chao’s eyes, which were as deep as ice, completely absorbed, froze, and shattered his shouts.
“Where are the villagers?”
Meng Chao continued to ask, “Many of the villagers who saved my life were captured by you. Where did they go?”
“In Black-corner City.”
Big Buck hurriedly said, “A small portion stayed in the blood-skull arena as servants, while the majority were sent to various parts of Black-corner City as slave labor.”
Meng Chao nodded thoughtfully. “Where are the children? Have you killed all of them?”
“No, no, we didn’t kill the children!”
As if sensing the apocalyptic aura that was even more terrifying than death emanating from Meng Chao’s body, Big Buck was scared out of his wits. He said repeatedly, “We didn’t kill the children. We brought them back to Black-corner City together. Believe me, we didn’t kill the children. You should have seen it. You should have seen a lot of children running with the recruitment team!”
Meng Chao recalled carefully. When he was hanging in the fishing net and half-asleep, he seemed to have seen a lot of rat children stumbling and following the recruitment team under the threat of the oxtail whip and the th.o.r.n.y spear.
“Why?”
Meng Chao asked, “When you carried out the recruitment mission in many remote mountain villages, you only took the young and strong, killed all the old, weak, women, and children, or left them to fend for themselves in the devastated ruins.
“Why did you take all the children with you when you arrived at Bright Sh.e.l.l Village? What’s the use of children? They can’t fight, so wouldn’t they waste a lot of precious food?”
“It’s useful. The children of the rat people are also very useful.”
Big Buck stammered and explained, “The remote mountain village is too far from Black-corner City. If we recruited all the people here, we would waste too much food along the way. It’s indeed not worth it.
“However, Bright Sh.e.l.l Village is not far from Black-corner City. Moreover, if we follow the Turan River, the road will be flat and there is no need to climb over mountains. Sometimes, we can even take a wooden raft. The cost of transporting a servant or slave is not very high, so we can capture more people.
“If we capture an adult, we can be a servant or slave. If we capture a child, we can be garbage worms!”
“Garbage worms?”
Meng Chao asked, “What’s that?”
“It’s a slave that cleans the septic tanks and sewage pipes in Black-corner City.”
Big Buck said, “As you know, high-level orcs eat a lot and p.o.o.p a lot. Recently, more than ten times the population of Black-corner City flooded in. However, our sewers were built by our ancestors thousands of years ago. Many places have fallen into disrepair and collapsed again.
“If we don’t send people to the deepest part of the sewers to clean them up, all kinds of garbage and filth will erupt at any time!”
Meng Chao suddenly realized something.
“Because the children of the rats are pet.i.te and have soft bones, they are easy to crawl in the narrow and rugged pipes. So, you sent the children to the deepest part of the sewers to carry out such dirty work?”
Meng Chao said, “Wait a minute. It’s not just dirty. Won’t a large amount of biogas acc.u.mulate in the depths of the sewer, which could suffocate people to death at any time?”
Big Buck was silent for a long time before he said aggrievedly, “So, we can only let the rat people be garbage—they are just rat people!”
Meng Chao sighed.
“Alright, the young adults and children were caught by you to carry out all kinds of dirty, dangerous, and desperate missions in Black-corner City. What about the rest of the people, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled? All of them were killed by you?”
“No, we really didn’t kill too many people that day. They were just rat people. It was meaningless to kill them!”
Big Buck shouted, “We just burned down their houses!”
“That’s another thing that I can’t figure out. Why?”
Meng Chao said, “If your purpose is merely to ‘recruit ‘enough slaves and cannon fodder and seize all the mandala fruits, then your purpose has been achieved.
“Why did you set a big fire and burn down the entire village before you left?
“Also, as far as I know, you didn’t just do it in Bright Sh.e.l.l Village. You did it in almost all the rat villages.
“It seems that the commander’s brutality can’t be used to explain it. It seems to be some kind of unified order
“That’s right. That’s right. Actually, I don’t want to burn Bright Sh.e.l.l Village!”
Big Buck nodded hurriedly. “Please believe me. I just want to capture those young and strong men. No, I want to recruit them and bring them out of their mediocre lives so that they can embark on a glorious path worthy of their ancestors!
“Yes, it was Sir Casanova who ordered us to destroy all the villages on the recruitment road. Even if I didn’t throw out the first torch, others would have done the same!”
“The reason,” Meng Chao said.
“To recruit more rat people!” Big Buck said quickly.
“Explain,” Meng Chao said.
“The recruitment team has limited manpower. It’s impossible to bring all the rat people in the village to Black-corner City. They can only take the young and strong men who have the strongest combat ability and labor force first. However, the rest of the old, weak, women, and children may be useful if they are picky. Therefore, their houses have to be burned.”
Big Buck explained in detail, “The recruitment team has collected all the mandala fruits and burned their houses. They have neither food nor a place to live. If they want to survive, they can only migrate to the places where there is food and houses.
“Where is the place with the most food and houses within hundreds of kilometers? Of course, Black-corner City!
“Therefore, with this method, there is no need for the bullwhip and the thorn gun to threaten them. The pariahs will come to Black-corner City of their own accord!”
Meng Chao Thought for a moment.
“It’s unlikely, right?”
He said, “Can the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children, who lack food and clothing, cross the mountains and travel long distances to reach Black-corner City?”
“Of course not all of them can. It would be good if two or three out of ten of them could reach Black-corner City.”
Big Buck said, “However, this is exactly what we need. After all, the past ten years of prosperity have been too long. There have been too many mouse people born.. There are so many that the clan army simply can not bring so many people. Of course, we have to carefully choose who is the most qualified to become cannon fodder and slaves!”