In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 513 It’s time to go

"Trading people with barbarians?"

Chen Dao felt a chill run down his spine. The barbarians and the Xia people had a history of hatred spanning thousands of years, yet the officials of the Xia Kingdom... were using the Xia people to make trade with the barbarians...

This is simply unscrupulous!

"Exactly."

Jiang Changye said in a deep voice, "Although my cultivation level was not high at the time, I was quite bold. After discovering this matter, I decided to follow the group of barbarians who were secretly trading with the local magistrate. I saw the miserable fate of the women who fell into the hands of the barbarians!"

A trace of sorrow flashed across Jiang Changye's face: "Those women's experiences were no different from Lü Xiaoyu's. They fell into the hands of the barbarians and didn't even have time to return to their tribes. They were brutally raped on the way, and then the barbarians cruelly cut out the flesh from their breasts, either to eat them raw or to cook them..."

I could not bear to see this happen, so I drew my sword in anger, intending to kill those barbarians.

However……"

Jiang Changye sighed and said, "At that time, I was only at the peak of the seventh rank, while the barbarians were born with strong bodies. Not only did I fail to kill them, but I was also severely injured by them and had no choice but to flee in panic."

"After narrowly escaping with my life, I first recovered from my injuries, and then found the county magistrate who had traded with the barbarians, and chopped off his head with a single sword stroke!"

Jiang Changye sneered, "It's only because Heaven is blind that this kind of corrupt official lives even one more day!"

Chen Dao gritted his teeth as he listened. Not to mention Jiang Changye, even he felt the urge to punch that county magistrate's head off!

A county magistrate who received a government salary and lived off the people's hard-earned money actually treated the people under his jurisdiction as commodities, trading them with barbarians.

What an outrageous thing to do!

Didn't that county magistrate know what fate awaited those women traded to barbarians?

He must know, but he doesn't care at all.

In the eyes of many officials and nobles in Kyushu, the common people were like cattle and horses, who worked diligently to support them in ordinary times, but when they needed money, they would sell these cattle and horses to make money...

No, in their eyes, ordinary people are probably not even as good as cattle or horses.

After all, cattle and horses need careful care and fodder, while the common people...

Not only can it support itself, but it also has an extremely strong reproductive capacity, just like an inexhaustible weed, so there is no need to worry about it becoming extinct.

"call!"

Chen Dao exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling a tightness in his chest.

Having been in this world for almost a year, he thought he understood the suffering of the people. However, it was obvious that the human suffering he had seen before was only a tiny fraction of what he had experienced.

The truth is that the people of Xia were suffering far more than Chen Dao had witnessed.

They toil day and night, supporting the country and the powerful, yet they cannot even guarantee their own basic survival...

Night had fallen, and the June evening breeze carried a slight chill. As a fourth-rank martial artist, Chen Dao naturally didn't feel cold, but his heart was ice-cold.

As someone who lived in China in his previous life, Chen Dao found it hard to imagine how people could be so cruel.

Do people like King Qing and the magistrate of Liangzhou have no heart?

How could they bear to hand over living, breathing civilians, vibrant young women, to barbarians, allowing them to cruelly kill them, even to treat them as food...?

Chen Dao stood there silently for a long time, but endless anger was surging in his heart.

As night deepened, Yu Cui and Lü Xiaoyi, their tears dried, fell asleep in each other's arms under a tree.

Chen Dao looked at the two people who, even in their sleep, still had furrowed brows, as if their brows held endless sorrow, and felt a pang of sadness in his heart.

Chen Dao used to only think about having enough to eat and wear, and about developing Chenjia Village peacefully. But at this moment, his thoughts have changed a little.

"King Qing".

Chen Dao turned his gaze northward, looking at the magnificent city shrouded in darkness, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

"Little friend."

Jiang Changye walked over, took off the sword from his waist, and handed it to Chen Dao, saying, "You don't have a suitable weapon yet, do you? You can borrow this sword for now."

Chen Dao took the sword, drew it from its sheath, and the moonlight shone down, making the blade gleam with a cold light.

"This sword is called the Sword of Slaying Evil."

Jiang Changye slowly said, "This is the sword that the second sect leader of the Sword Sect spent a lot of energy and time collecting materials to forge."

This sword is forged from the unique cold iron of Mingzhou. It is sturdy and sharp, capable of cutting through iron like mud and severing hair with a single breath.

The second-generation sect leader once used this sword to slay countless villains; presumably, this sword can lend a helping hand to young friend Chen.

Chen Dao plucked a hair and blew it onto the sword. Sure enough, the hair broke in two the moment it touched the blade. Just as Jiang Changye had said, this sword was incredibly sharp and could cut a hair in two!

"Thank you, Senior Jiang."

Chen Dao accepted the sword and bowed to Jiang Changye in thanks.

"No need to be polite."

Jiang Changye waved his hand, "If you can really kill the King of Qing, then you will have done a good deed for the people of Qingzhou."

The exploitation of the people of Qingzhou by the King of Qing is obvious to everyone.

If Chen Dao can really kill the King of Qing, it will definitely be a blessing for the people of Qingzhou.

"Senior Jiang, rest assured, the Green King will surely die tomorrow, I said so."

Chen Dao said something in a firm tone, then walked to a tree, sat cross-legged on the ground, and closed his eyes to rest.

Jiang Changye, Xue Qi, Zheng Qiuyan, and the others sat not far from Chen Dao, glancing at Chen Dao from time to time, and then at the sleeping Yu Cui and Lü Xiaoyi, their thoughts in turmoil.

The mass grave grew increasingly cold and eerie in the dead of night, but because everyone there was a martial artist, the gloomy and terrifying atmosphere and the chill did not affect them in the slightest.

On the contrary, Yu Cui and Lü Xiaoyi, who were asleep, kept saying that they were cold. Seeing this, Chen Dao gestured to Chen Cheng to take off his shirt and wrap it around Lü Xiaoyi.

Qingying followed suit and took off her coat to put on Yu Cui.

After that, the mass grave returned to silence, with only the sound of the night wind whistling through it.

The moon overhead moved slowly, and finally, it disappeared completely, revealing a sliver of light on the horizon.

At that moment, Chen Dao suddenly opened his eyes.

"It's time to go!"

Chen Dao got up, woke up Yu Cui and Lü Xiaoyi, gripped the scabbard in his hand, and led Chen Cheng, Xue Qi, Yu Cui and Lü Xiaoyi toward the prefectural city.

Jiang Changye, Zheng Qiuyan, and Qingying exchanged a glance and chose to stay far behind Chen Dao.

Of the three, Jiang Changye refrained from taking action because of his status as the leader of the Sword Sect and to avoid implicating Zhang Shancun.