"I am a man who values fairness. Whoever wants my life must pay the price." He Lingchuan slowly squatted down in front of Moqi Feng. "So, who do you think should pay that price? Your old uncle, or the hundreds of men who are loyal to you through thick and thin?"
Torn between his own flesh and blood, Moqi Feng's thoughts were in complete disarray.
From the side, Dong Rui added fuel to the fire: "Don't forget the several hundred dependents, too."
At those words, Moqi Feng looked up in terror. "What did you say?"
The crowd of captives instantly grew agitated, like a lit powder keg. Dozens leaped to their feet on the spot, shouting:
"What have you done to them?!"
"Don't touch my wife and children!"
Min Tianxi and the others kicked hard behind their knees, forcing them back down onto the ground. "Kneel! Kneel properly! Do you still want to rebel?!"
He Lingchuan glanced sideways, glaring daggers at Dong Rui. *Why bring that up now? It isn't time yet, not the right time!*
Knowing he had spoken out of turn, Dong Rui rubbed his nose and fell silent.
Zhu Daniang's voice echoed faintly in his ear:
"Loose tongue."
"..." *Fine, I'll just mind my own business, alright?*
"Your families are still in the deserted village in Baisha County, safe and sound." Infusing his voice with inner power, He Lingchuan's words cut through the clamor to reach the ears of every captive. "As for whether they remain safe—"
The captives exchanged uneasy glances, their hearts sinking cold.
With even their families falling into enemy hands, how could they not be constrained by fear?
How on earth had the news leaked? How had Island Master He known they intended to rebel?
He Lingchuan continued unhurriedly, "—that depends on your young master!"
Moqi Feng's cheeks twitched twice, his jaw tightening rock-hard.
Whose life should he spare? His uncle's, or those of his hundreds of men and their dependents? He Lingchuan wanted him to make an either-or choice.
The answer lay right there before him.
Moqi Feng knew he had no real choice at all.
He did not dare look at Moqi Song's face, steeling his heart as he prepared to speak.
Yet the moment he opened his mouth, He Lingchuan was half a second faster: "So, have you made up your mind? Do you want your old uncle to dig in my mines, or should these six hundred-odd men and their families all be sent down into the mines?"
"Dig..." Moqi Feng choked on his words. "Mining? I... didn't you say..."
Having witnessed He Lingchuan's brutal methods in dealing with Yu Zecheng and the other Beijia people, he had assumed that the outcome of this choice was death—and a horrific death at that.
To have disaster turn suddenly to fortune left him in disbelief.
Could Island Master He truly be so... so lenient with his uncle?
"My mines are severely short-handed," He Lingchuan said with a smile. "What else did you think?"
The expressions of the hundreds of captives kneeling on the ground were quite a sight.
Indeed, Island Master He had only asked their young master to make a choice between the two and insisted someone had to pay a price, yet he had not said a single word about execution.
Moqi Feng exhaled a long breath and blurted out, "I choose, I choose! Send my uncle to the mines!"
To ask his uncle to go to his death would have weighed heavily on his conscience.
But if his uncle was merely being escorted off to work the mines without losing his life, Moqi Feng felt completely relieved.
Even knowing that He Lingchuan had intentionally misled him earlier, Moqi Feng felt a surge of gratitude at this moment.
Yes, gratitude.
Grateful that He Lingchuan had not forced him to make a life-and-death choice, nor forced him to betray his conscience.
He and his uncle had clearly planned to take his life and seize his island, yet He Lingchuan was still willing to stay his hand and spare his uncle.
Repaying malice with upright justice—this was already an unimaginable benevolence.
He Lingchuan flicked two fingers toward Moqi Song. Min Tianxi immediately ordered men to slap hand- and leg-irons onto him and led him away to be held separately.
Once the storm subsided and navigation among the islands resumed, Moqi Song would be escorted to the mines to dig alongside the Third Channel pirates under dedicated guard.
Moqi Song glanced at his nephew, then looked at the Bailong people, and ultimately shuffled away in dejection.
His entire clan had abandoned him.
From beginning to end, He Lingchuan had not given him a single chance to speak.
This man no longer mattered.
"As you wish." He Lingchuan rubbed his hands together and said to Moqi Feng, "Now, let us discuss where your several hundred men belong."
These several hundred Bailong men had merely surrendered, compelled by Moqi Feng's lead, but their resentment was written clearly across their faces.
"Once you leave the Yangshan Archipelago, where do you plan to settle down? The Ya Kingdom declared long ago that whoever shelters you gets beaten.
In this world, the victor is king and the vanquished is a bandit. Had you taken the archipelago, everything would be fine. But now you have lost and are slinking back to the mainland in disgrace. Tell me, who would dare take in an outcast clan like you?"
The Bailong men had no answer.
It was precisely because they had no foothold on the mainland that they had plotted to seize He Lingchuan's islands.
Now that this desperate gamble had failed, everyone knew their future was pitch-black, without a single glimmer of light.
"Out of the kindness of my heart, I took you in so you would have a roof over your heads and your families wouldn't have to suffer displacement. And what did I get in return? You had full bellies for only a few days before you turned around to harm me and scheme against me?" He Lingchuan swept his gaze across the crowd below. "What you did on my island will soon spread far and wide. By then, whether it's the Qing Kingdom, Bailie, or the Mou Kingdom, everyone will know the Bailong tribe breeds nothing but backstabbing scoundrels who return kindness with ingratitude and plot murder for power. You have other branches of the Bailong clan lingering in those lands, don't you? Do you want to see them driven away, spat upon, and guarded against wherever they go? What will your patriarch, Moqi Tong, think? 'Good thing I kicked them out, or they would have been nothing but bad apples ruining the barrel'?"
When dealing with the Moqi uncle and nephew, he would not bother lecturing about benevolence, virtue, or morality, for it was pointless.
Yet these Bailong people kneeling below were ordinary folk. Ordinary people still distinguished between good and bad, held standards of right and wrong, and still believed in justice.
That was why his words struck home, leaving them unable to lift their heads.
He gave a cold sneer. "National Preceptor Wang of the Mou Kingdom is currently a guest on Suoding Island and will return to the Mou Kingdom once the hurricane passes. Would you like to go with him? Do you think he would want a bunch of blind, repeatedly defeated 'warriors' like you?"
Most of the Bailong people hung their heads in shame at his dressing-down, rain streaming down their faces and dripping onto the ground.
In the vastness of the world, there truly was no place for them.
Yet the words "repeatedly defeated" cut deep to the bone. Several Bailong men snapped their heads up, defiance in their expressions, though they could not utter a word.
Their valor had been renowned throughout the Ya Kingdom; they refused to accept such a label.
He Lingchuan keenly caught their indignation and sneered:
"Trivial little skirmishes mean nothing even if you win a thousand times. But in a pivotal battle, losing just once is fatal and irreversible! Look at you: first, you lost the Battle of Baining Pass to the Ya Kingdom, and tonight, you lost to me. One was a battle of destiny, the other a battle for your future. You lost both in a row—all you have to show for yourselves is a string of defeats!"
The Battle of Baining Pass had been the decisive clash between the Bailong tribe and the Ya Kingdom. The Bailong defeat had directly led to the tribe being expelled across the border and fractured into pieces.
He Lingchuan laid out the hard facts and cold logic, leaving the Bailong people utterly unable to refute him.
Indeed, they had lost the crucial battles.
If warriors did not let victories speak for them, were they supposed to fight with their mouths alone?
Chapter 1004