Volume One, Chapter 13: The Prisoner
“I wonder what Feishang and the others will gain from this trip?”
Just as Lin Xuan finished speaking, a group of people approached the village.
Jiang Feishang led the soldiers into the village and immediately saw Lin Xuan coming toward him.
A short while later, the two of them sat inside the village chief’s hall, where Jiang Feishang reported the outcome of their mission.
During this campaign to eliminate the mountain bandit stronghold, Linjia Village’s fifty soldiers suffered six minor injuries and one fatality.
They killed sixty-two enemies and captured nine prisoners, including the bandits’ chief strategist!
As for their spoils, Jiang Feishang had seized over one hundred gold coins, more than three thousand silver coins, and over five hundred thousand copper coins from the bandits’ lair.
In addition, they recovered more than seven thousand units of grain, a number of weapons, and surprisingly, a set of architectural blueprints as well as equipment forging schematics!
Also, six horses—all of ordinary grade—which, like ordinary-grade equipment, could slightly boost combat power.
Hearing Jiang Feishang’s report, Lin Xuan’s emotions swayed. The news of a fallen soldier cast a shadow over his expression.
But when he learned they had prisoners, a smile broke across his face: “This is an unexpected delight! Let’s check their info on the virtual panel.”
With that, Lin Xuan opened the virtual panel.
[Village]: Linjia Village
[Village Chief]: Lin Xuan
[Population]: 28 (excluding soldiers)
[Chief’s Hall]: Level 1
[Villagers’ Residences]: 125
[Village Assets]:
Copper Coins: 2,144,583
“Over two million copper coins—now we can finally build the Soul Hall!”
Continuing down the list, he saw:
Wood: 1,068
Iron Ore: 18,010
Grain: 27,583
Medical Clinic Blueprint: 1
“A medical clinic—that’s exactly what I need right now!” Lin Xuan’s lips curled with satisfaction.
He had been wondering what to do with the wounded soldiers—whether to send them to Jiyin City for treatment.
But unexpectedly, among the loot from the bandits’ lair was a blueprint for a medical clinic!
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He wondered, though… would the clinic require a villager skilled in medicine, like the blacksmith’s shop needed a blacksmith, to function?
After pondering, Lin Xuan scrolled further.
Shield Forging Blueprint: 1
“A shield forging blueprint, too. If only I had gotten this before the battle. Maybe that fallen soldier wouldn’t have…”
He paused, realizing that just having blueprints wasn’t enough without the funds to forge the equipment.
If only he had the money to equip all fifty soldiers with spears, that soldier might still be alive.
With this in mind, Lin Xuan made a decision: first, he would use this money to forge a hundred spears and a hundred shields.
“Feishang, take me to see the prisoners.”
After reviewing the loot, Lin Xuan followed Jiang Feishang out of the chief’s hall, heading toward the beginner training camp.
The captured bandits were held in the houses nearest to the camp.
Entering one room, Lin Xuan’s gaze fell on a slender middle-aged man.
[Chen Zeyu]: 29 years old
[Territory]: None
[Rating]: Two stars
[Profession]: Strategist
[Intelligence]: 79 (Ordinary-grade feather fan +1)
[Leadership]: 52
[Politics]: 73
[Combat Power]: 94 (Two-star skill, 20% combat power bonus)
[Skill 1]: Strategy (Intelligence +1 for 30 minutes after activation; cooldown 2 hours)
[Skill 2]: Fireball (Intelligence +2 for 5 minutes after activation; summons two fireballs dealing damage equal to combat power; cooldown 4 hours)
[Skill Technique]: Two-star “Mysterious Fire Art”
[Weapon]: Ordinary-grade feather fan
[Mount]: None
Seeing Chen Zeyu’s stats, Lin Xuan’s suspicions were confirmed.
Indeed, as he had suspected, these bandits were not natives of this world.
With this revelation, Lin Xuan checked the information for the other prisoners in two nearby houses.
Among them were even two one-star military commanders!
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Apart from these two, the rest were merely ordinary bandit grunts, comparable to beginner infantry.
[Bandit Grunt]: Li Dapao
[Territory]: None
[Strength]: 50
[Combat Power]: 55 (Beginner unit, 10% combat power bonus)
[Equipment]: None (weapon/armor/defense/accessory/mount)
“Feishang, don’t feed the prisoners for the next few days. No water either. Let’s see if starvation can persuade them to surrender.”
After instructing Jiang Feishang, Lin Xuan headed to the blacksmith shop.
There, he handed the shield forging blueprint to Wang Yan, then withdrew 100,000 copper coins and 3,000 units of iron ore from the virtual panel.
He gave the coins and ore to Wang Yan and Chu Ran respectively: “Smith Wang, Smith Chu, split the work. One for forging spears, the other for shields.”
“I want to see these one hundred spears and one hundred shields ready as soon as possible.”
Wang Yan and Chu Ran both banged their chests in assurance: “Lord, rest assured! In less than two days, these will be completed!”
Lin Xuan nodded confidently.
Both were just one step away from becoming master blacksmiths. With their skills, forging one piece of equipment took about fifteen minutes.
Two days was more than enough.
Exiting the blacksmith shop, Lin Xuan spent 1,000 copper coins and 500 units of wood and iron ore to build the medical clinic.
He then recruited fifty-one beginner infantrymen at the barracks, expanding his forces to one hundred.
Having accomplished this, Lin Xuan returned to the chief’s hall and opened the regional chat channel.
Few people were online at the moment, but Lin Xuan was unconcerned. He clicked over to his friends list and sent Ningxia a message.
“I have some news—wondering if you’d be interested?”
As soon as the message was sent, it showed “Read.”
Then Ningxia replied: “What news?”
“The general under my command discovered a bandit stronghold near the village. I initially thought the bandits were natives of this world.”
“But after we wiped out the stronghold and captured several prisoners, I found out… the virtual panel can actually display their information.”