Zuo Lin'an casually closed the door, concealing the scene behind it.
He then found some water and washed his hands and the knife clean.
He checked the time; it was already 6:10 AM, and the sky outside was turning a hazy gray.
In another half hour, it would probably be fully light.
Zuo Lin'an looked at the man who was still tied to the pillar in the living room. His head was slumped, and he seemed to have fallen asleep.
After some thought, he decided to cook a meal.
They had plenty of prey for now, so there was no immediate need to go out and capture anyone.
Actually, eating bread would have been the best option—it saved time and effort.
After all, his and Xu Youyou's situation was unique, and they couldn't afford to waste too much time on trivial matters.
However, Zuo Lin'an really wanted to eat something warm right now.
Although he was on his way to becoming a Human-Specter Symbiont, he wasn't a specter yet. Being constantly busy with executions had taken a slight toll on his emotional state.
His mind was a bit tense, and he felt a little cold.
Right now, he wanted to eat something warm just to dispel the chill in his heart.
Perhaps it was just a drop in the bucket, perhaps completely useless, but he still wanted to make a small effort to struggle against it.
Meanwhile, Xu Youyou was already running toward the criminal settlement controlled by Zhao Cheng.
He was incredibly fast!
As dawn broke, he spotted a group of people in the distance, either sitting or standing under a large tree, seemingly waiting for someone.
Xu Youyou knew that these must be the people Wang Lu had mentioned who were sent to meet them.
He immediately walked over with a bright smile.
“Hey there, big brothers! Are you the ones Boss Zhao sent to meet us?”
Seeing Xu Youyou's unfamiliar face, they exchanged looks of confusion and wariness. After all, the contact person they had agreed on was Wang Lu.
“Who are you?”
Instead of confirming their identities, they questioned Xu Youyou first.
Xu Youyou smiled sheepishly.
“I'm new here!”
“Just the night before last, my buddy and I were dropped off nearby by a plane. Then we ran into Wang Hu, who brought us to his settlement and tried to convince us to join him.”
“Later, Wang Lu found me and said that Boss Zhao has a lot more people, and that if we agreed to defect, there would even be rewards. My buddy and I agreed on the spot.”
They didn't really doubt Xu Youyou's words.
After all, Wang Lu had previously sent word that Wang Hu had been lucky enough to find two newcomers.
This person and the buddy he mentioned must be those two.
In fact, seeing Xu Youyou's unfamiliar face and the clearly new prison uniform he was wearing, they already believed about sixty percent of his story.
“Is that so? What happened after that?”
Xu Youyou replied, “After that?”
“Well... we originally planned to leave with everyone late last night to meet up with you guys, but we didn't expect something to go wrong along the way.”
“Wang Lu told me before that he had secretly convinced over twenty people to leave together, but when we actually set off, only ten showed up!”
“Because of a traitor, we were ambushed by Wang Hu and his men on our way out, and everyone scattered.”
At this point, Xu Youyou paused and let out a long sigh of relief.
“But luckily, before we ran very far, we heard someone shouting that Brother Tiger had been bitten by a snake!”
“We didn't know if it was true or not at the time, so we just kept running. Once we were sure no one was chasing us, we met up at a prearranged location.”
“Some wanted to come straight here to meet you, but Wang Lu insisted we look into Wang Hu's situation first and decide our next move based on that.”
“And guess what? When we checked, we found out that Wang Hu actually was bitten by a venomous snake!”
“Right after he got bitten, he was carried back on the spot. They say he's just lying at home now, unable to move a muscle, basically waiting to die!”
“With Wang Hu on his deathbed, everyone else in the settlement has actively approached Wang Lu, saying they want to join us and defect to Boss Zhao!”
The leader of the group looked shocked. “What did you say?!”
Wang Hu had led his men out in the middle of the night to ambush Wang Lu's group, only to get bitten by a venomous snake and end up on the verge of death?!
He clearly didn't fully believe it.
However, the hesitation on his face betrayed his inner turmoil. After all, if Zhao Cheng could really absorb all of Wang Hu's people, their settlement's strength would receive a massive boost.
“If that's the case, why did only you come over?”
Xu Youyou replied, “Naturally, it's because too many people want to defect! Wang Lu is busy out of his mind and can't spare a moment to come. Besides, those people only trust Wang Lu, so he can't leave.”
“As for the others, they all got injured to varying degrees during last night's escape, so I was the only one left who could make the trip.”
At this point, Xu Youyou recalled the paddy field.
“Oh, right, they also mentioned that the rice crops over there are about to ripen, so they want to stay behind for now to harvest their own shares.”
The man clearly understood the underlying message in Xu Youyou's words.
These people were worried that if they went to Boss Zhao's territory right now, the promised benefits might not be delivered.
If they came over together, they might be forced to relocate to Boss Zhao's side early, meaning they would miss out on the resources left behind at Wang Hu's place.
Thinking of this, he believed Xu Youyou's story a bit more.
Xu Youyou observed the man and noticed he still had some lingering doubts.
“Big brother, if you don't believe me, you can send someone over right now to check. Wang Hu is done for, and the others are leaderless. If you go over there, you can easily step in and stabilize the situation.”
“Wang Lu's status definitely can't compare to yours.”
“Before I left, I even saw a few guys acting really suspicious. They didn't seem to have any intention of talking to Wang Lu, and looked like they were planning to pack up and leave immediately.”
Hearing that some people might leave immediately, they could no longer sit still.
“Wait here, we need to discuss this briefly.”
They huddled together to talk, and quickly reached a decision.
The group of twenty-five was split into two.
Five of them would form a group to return to Zhao Cheng's settlement.
Meanwhile, the remaining twenty would follow Xu Youyou to Wang Hu's side to assess the situation and help stabilize the crowd.
Xu Youyou knew that these twenty-odd people staying together was also for safety.
If anything unexpected happened, at least some of the twenty would be able to escape and report back to Zhao Cheng.
Xu Youyou walked ahead to lead the way, keeping a watchful eye on the people behind him while his mind wandered.
Twenty people!
Even he wasn't confident in taking them all down at once in a short amount of time.
While he was certain none of them were his match, if they focused entirely on fleeing, he wouldn't be able to catch everyone, no matter how fast he was.
So he had to head back to Zuo Lin'an. He would make the first move, and Zuo Lin'an could help block their escape routes.
Working together would be much safer.
In truth, even Xu Youyou hadn't expected that a random excuse he came up with on the way here would actually trick twenty preys.
Even though five had gone back to report, twenty was still a massive haul.
Rate on N.U.
