Chapter 7 Chapter 7 "Who is it?" The boy suddenly alerted...
"Who is it?" The young man suddenly became alert and asked coldly towards the shadow not far from the cellar.
The swordsman walked out slowly.
The boy squinted his eyes and looked at him, but did not recognize him.
But the young man's companions knew him. The injured man immediately recognized that this was the man who saved him last night. He immediately burst into tears and shouted, "How did you get in? It would be terrible if they found me! I wanted to leave, but they caught me and brought me in. Please go with me."
After hearing what he said, the young man realized what was going on and asked, "Is this the man who saved you and beheaded the bear with a single sword last night?"
The injured man nodded repeatedly: "That's right, if it weren't for him, I would not have survived."
The young man changed his cautious attitude towards the sword bearer and smiled gently and gratefully: "Thank you for saving my friend's life last night. I thank you here, but my hands and feet are tied, so it is difficult for me to kneel down. Please forgive me."
"It's just a small favor. You're welcome." The swordsman was surprised by their enthusiastic attitude and said hesitantly.
"If we are not polite even for saving our lives, then there is nothing we should be polite about. But we can only be polite now. There is nothing we can do by being polite. I'm sorry to embarrass you." The young man said with a wry smile.
The injured man nodded slowly and swore in a low voice: "If there is a day, I will definitely give you a grass ring as a reward."
The Sword Bearer did not come here to ask for their gratitude. He waved his hand and said nonchalantly, "I am here to rescue you."
As he spoke, he strode over, drew his sword, and cut the ropes on them in two quick strokes.
They immediately broke free from their bonds, stood up with renewed energy, and began by expressing their gratitude.
The swordsman did not want to say more to them and prepared to leave with them.
The young man said quickly: "They have taken the ladder away. I'm afraid we can't get out from the top. Besides, there must be someone guarding it. It will be even harder to escape."
The swordsman took out a handkerchief from his sleeve and shook it in the air. The handkerchief suddenly stretched out like a big snake, with its head at the entrance and its tail on the ground, connecting the upper and lower parts, just like a ladder.
He took the lead and after climbing two steps, he turned around and looked down at the two people behind him: "Let's go."
The boy hesitated and pulled his companion and said, "I don't dare. It's too smooth."
The swordsman nodded: "It's understandable. I'll take a look first. If there's nothing wrong outside, you can follow me out."
The boy nodded repeatedly, impatiently: "Okay, okay."
The swordsman walked up step by step and took a look at the ground at the entrance of the cellar.
At the same time, the county magistrate, who came with his men to surround the village, met the village chief who hurried out to meet him.
"Why did you bring so many people here today? What happened?" the village chief asked in panic.
"What's wrong? Someone saw with their own eyes that people from your village entered the mountain that they are not allowed to enter. Some people who went in even came back. It was in your village. What do you say?" The county magistrate shook his sleeves, snorted coldly, and asked condescendingly, squinting his eyes and looking at him with his nose.
The village chief took a deep breath, his hands shaking badly, and said anxiously: "What do people outside know? They are talking nonsense. Such words are just spread by idlers and cannot be believed."
The county chief sneered, "Now that things have come to this, why don't you tell the truth? I'll tell you the truth. The emperor already knows about this matter. It was because the emperor ordered a thorough investigation that I came here."
He changed his tone to a dark and oppressive one, and his sarcastic and disdainful eyes slowly swept across everyone's face, like calling out names in the King of Hell's Book of Life and Death: "If you continue to lie now, you will be guilty of deceiving the emperor, and adding crime to crime will be a serious crime. No one will be able to escape, and everyone in the village will die. Think it over first."
Everyone looked at each other in silence, afraid of saying something they shouldn't and causing fatal disaster.
After all, none of them wanted to die.
The village chief slowly calmed down, looked at the county chief calmly and asked: "I don't believe that someone casually said that they saw people from our village entering a mountain that they shouldn't enter, which would attract Your Majesty's attention. I'm afraid there is something else going on? Please tell us the truth, County Chief. Otherwise, we don't know how to say it even if we want to. We can't help if we accidentally say something we shouldn't say."
The county magistrate vaguely heard the danger in his words and said with disdain: "If you have anything else you shouldn't say, just confess it. I don't care. I'm here to arrest you. If you hand over the culprit, you can suffer less punishment. If you can't hand it over, you will be guilty of the same crime."
The county chief smiled like a mouse stroking its whiskers after crawling out of a sewer: "The village chief is getting old too. With so many people accompanying you on the journey, you won't be lonely when you get there."
The village chief said coldly: "But after we are arrested, we will tell you everything we know. The first thing we will say is that we did everything under the instructions of the county chief."
The county magistrate's expression suddenly changed, his eyes widened with anger, and he glared at him and asked, "How dare you!?"
The village chief’s face twitched slightly, as if he was smiling: “I am also old, too, and it is time for me to die. I am not afraid of anything, I have lived enough, but I can’t drag the whole village down with me.
If everyone in the village dies with me, I won't be able to face my ancestors in peace in the underworld. In this case, what else can I be afraid of? I think everyone is the same. Who doesn't have children in their family? "
The county chief gnashed his teeth, clenched his fists and whispered, "You are so cruel!"
The village chief slowly shook his head, suppressed his smile and whispered: "We are just forced into a corner. Please have pity on us. Even rabbits bite when they are cornered."
The county chief gritted his teeth and said, "The reason why the emperor knew about your affairs is because someone wrote a memorial to accuse you, saying that someone here is plotting a rebellion."
The village chief couldn't help but smile bitterly: "The crime of treason is so serious that the entire clan must be executed. How can a small village like ours bear the responsibility?
It's hard to believe that someone would write a memorial for us. I've lived for so long, and this is the last memorial before I die. I never thought I would die for something like this."
The county chief saw that they all looked sad and deathly, and his displeasure faded away. He laughed and said, "Everyone, pack up and leave. Don't let us use force. It will make everyone look bad."
As he spoke, he straightened his clothes and waited for them to follow him, looking very confident.
The village chief remained silent and said nothing.
The villager with blood on his neck suddenly stepped forward and walked out of the crowd, asking the officers and soldiers, "If we point out the culprit, can we reduce the punishment a little?"
They now knew that being captured was inevitable.
The county magistrate looked at him, nodded and said, "You tell me first. If what you say is true and useful, we will naturally reward and punish you clearly. You will get a lot of rewards and you will be better off."
The villager's eyes were blazing with fire, as if two burning stars fell from the sky. He shouted, "The culprit is in the cellar near our village chief's house. There are two of them, both young men. We tied them up and were about to hand them over to you when you came. I say this only in the hope that it will be of use to you and make everyone's life easier."
He said it well.
Before, he only asked whether the sentence could be reduced, but now he said it was for the betterment of everyone. He really is good at winning favor.
When the county magistrate heard his words, he felt that his merit was beckoning to him, so he immediately walked up to him with a smile, took his hand affectionately and said, "Show us the way."
The villager was startled and nodded repeatedly, his face flushed as if he had been drinking, and he staggered towards the cellar.
Without waiting for the county magistrate to wave his hand, the others followed spontaneously and walked towards the cellar in a mighty manner.
At this moment, the swordsman who opened the entrance to the cellar was already standing on the ground. He squatted on the ground and said to the two people in the entrance: "There is no one outside, come out quickly."
The two nodded repeatedly and climbed up, supporting each other.
The sunlight outside stung their eyes, which immediately turned red and tears flowed.
The swordsman suddenly heard a large number of footsteps coming towards him and couldn't help but frowned.
The two wiped their tears and said quickly, "We can leave now. Where should we go?"
The Swordsman originally planned to lead them outside and settle them not far from the village, and then take them to join his old subordinates, but after hearing those footsteps, he felt it was too late.
If these two people hid on the spot, they would definitely be discovered, and if they ran, they would definitely be caught. After all, they must have run before.
If they are given all their own miscellaneous stuff to use, whether they dare to use it is one thing, but whether they will make mistakes is another.
If they make a mistake when using it and get discovered and arrested, it will probably not be as simple as just arresting and locking them up. It will definitely be worse than it is now.
The sword bearer thought for a moment and said to the two of them, "Follow me."
The two nodded and followed him.
"It's here!" the leading villager said loudly, pointing at the cellar.
The county magistrate took a look and waved his hand. Immediately, some people rushed forward, opened the entrance to the cellar, put the ladder in, and went down one by one to check the situation inside. However, after a thorough check, they found no one inside and immediately came up to report.
The county magistrate listened, squinted his eyes at the villagers, and became furious: "Didn't you say there was someone? Where is he?"
The villagers took a look and were a little panicked, but immediately defended themselves, saying, "I am absolutely not lying. Everyone can testify that there were indeed two people imprisoned here before, and those two people are the culprits."
The county magistrate sneered and looked at him and said, "You have already said these words."
The villagers immediately knelt down and said, "I don't know why this happened, but they must have just left. It's too late for them to get far now. We should be able to catch them if we search nearby."
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