228 Varian

When Xiang Shaotian saw Zhao Fu walk towards him with an incredibly murderous air, he felt some fear in his heart. He retreated a few steps, but after realizing that even his trump card had failed, he definitely wouldn’t be able to defeat Zhao Fu. As such, he rushed towards the side, deciding to run away.

Zhao Fu immediately acted, transforming into a black blur and rushing towards Xiang Shaotian. His sword brought with it a sharp sword qi as it slashed towards Xiang Shaotian.

Xiang Shaotian was given a big fright and could only try to use his halberd to block Zhao Fu’s attack.

In response, Zhao Fu coldly harrumphed and sent all of his strength into his strike, sending Xiang Shaotian back a few steps. He lost his balance and leaned slightly backward.

The Sky Demon Sword gave off a massive sword light, and Zhao Fu grasped this opportunity to stab Xiang Shaotian’s throat.

This strike gave off an extremely dangerous aura, causing Xiang Shaotian’s hairs to stand on end, and he tilted his neck and head to the side with all his might.

“Arghh!” Xiang Shaotian screamed. Even though he had avoided having his throat pierced, he was still hit on his shoulder, and blood spurted out, dying his shoulder red.

Zhao Fu was completely determined to kill Xiang Shaotian, so he didn’t show any mercy. His sword, which had stabbed out, suddenly swept sideways, attempting to cut off Xiang Shaotian’s head.

Under the stimulation from the pain, Xiang Shaotian released all of his strength to sweep out with his halberd, knocking Zhao Fu’s sword askew. However, Zhao Fu borrowed this momentum to leap up and spin in the air before furiously slamming the sword down towards Xiang Shaotian.

Seeing this, Xiang Shaotian’s expression became savage as he lifted his halberd and tried to block.

_Clang!_

A massive collision sound rang out as the two parties clashed, resulting in a gale around them. The Sky Demon Sword was once again blocked by Xiang Shaotian, and this time, he gritted his teeth and pushed up with his halberd.

Zhao Fu’s sword was sent flying, causing Xiang Shaotian to feel immense glee. His hands gripped his halberd with all of his strength, and he raised his halberd and prepared to strike Zhao Fu down.

However, at that moment, Zhao Fu drew a blood-red sword from his waist at lightning speed, stabbing forward abruptly.

_Chi!_

The world seemed to freeze as the blood-red sword pierced through Xiang Shaotian’s chest. Xiang Shaotian’s knees weakened, and his gaze became dull as he finally died.

The Sky Demon Sword flipped in the air and fell down, stabbing into the ground. The Sky Demon was quite displeased when looking at the Slaughtering Ghost Sword in Zhao Fu’s hand. It was incredibly annoyed that Zhao Fu had thrown it in order to do such a thing.

As soon as Xiang Shaotian died, Highstone Town stopped resisting. This was because out of Highstone Town’s current fighting force, only some were actual soldiers, and most were residents. Now that their Lord had died, how could they continue resisting?

After concluding this battle and having the survivors submit, Zhao Fu went to the Town Hall and chose to conquer Highstone Town. He was quite surprised to find that it was actually Gold grade, which was quite good.

Zhao Fu was quite pleased as he walked out of the Town Hall and looked at the people who had submitted. He asked Bai Qi, “How were our losses this time?”

Bai Qi cupped his hands respectfully as he replied, “Your Majesty, 2,718 soldiers were injured, and 256 died.”

When he heard this, Zhao Fu sighed – this was the heaviest loss they had ever taken before. From the beginning, he had tried to minimize injuries and deaths as much as possible; after all, these soldiers served him. Zhao Fu truly didn’t want to see them die.

Zhao Fu knew that battles were incredibly cruel. He sighed before he ordered for the corpses of Great Qin’s soldiers to be collected so that they could be given a proper burial when they returned.

Zhao Fu then gave the order for Dark Ghost World, which was on the western side of the Town, to be canceled, and Great Qin’s soldiers bound up the soldiers, who were still paralyzed from terror. Afterward, buckets of cold water were poured on them, waking them up.

Upon waking up and finding out that Highstone Town had already been taking over, ugly expression appeared on the soldiers’ faces. Most of the soldiers decided to surrender, but 100 or so of them would rather die than submit. They demanded to be released so that they could take revenge for Xiang Shaotian.

Zhao Fu didn’t bother with those people and immediately ordered for them to be executed. Including them, Highstone Town lost 5,879 people during that fight, and there were 24,810 people remaining. Zhao Fu’s side also obtained around 100,000 or so silver coins and a massive amount of crops and equipment.

Apart from the people, Zhao Fu didn’t care for much else. He gave out the money as a reward, and because it was already quite late, Zhao Fu decided to rest here before taking down the two exploration teams the next day.

Finally, Zhao Fu looked at Xiang Shaotian’s corpse and used Corpse Examination to find that it was SS grade. He first took Xiang Shaotian’s spatial ring before putting his corpse into his King’s Ring.

Apart from some food and equipment, Zhao Fu also found a good item that caused him to be quite pleased – it was a pill recipe.

[Hidden Evil – Recipe]: Required Ingredients: Blackharm Ash, Scorch Wood, and Hidden Evil Grass, Description: A strange recipe that, when added to a medicinal pill, will indicate the successful creation of the medicinal pill but will contain a type of colorless, odorless, tasteless poison. If consumed over a period of time without taking the antidote, one’s body will grow feeble, resulting in death.

This was yet another tool for victimizing others. If Zhao Fu added this to medicinal pills and sold them, he would be able to kill many people. Zhao Fu suddenly felt incredibly worried about the markets – he would never be able to use consumables that weren’t from Great Qin anymore. Who knew if others were doing the same thing.

Hidden Evil required Hidden Evil Grass to refine, and because Hidden Evil Grass was a Stage 2 grass and much rarer than Hundred Origin Grass, it would most likely be quite difficult to find. Even if he did find some, it would take a long time to grow before he could use it, so he had no idea when he would actually be able to start using this to plot against others.

As such, Zhao Fu could only put the Hidden Evil Recipe away for now. However, soon after, Zhao Fu was delighted to find that there was actually a lot of Hidden Evil Grass being grown at the southern side of the Town.

Zhao Fu immediately went over to take a look, and he found many rows of Hidden Evil Grass being grown there. They were around 10 centimeters or so tall and had sword-shaped leaves. They were also completely black, giving them an insidious look.

Zhao Fu had never expected to find Hidden Evil Grass in Highstone Town, nevertheless so much of it. If he hadn't done anything about this Town, it was likely that Xiang Shaotian would have become the overlord in this region, and his growth would have been unhindered.

It was a pity that Zhao Fu had found him, and he had presented Hidden Evil Recipe on a silver platter to Zhao Fu. He ordered his people to dig up all of the Hidden Evil Grass to be replanted in the Great Qin Town when they returned.

At noon the next day, the sun hung high in the sky as the two exploration teams returned to Highstone Town. However, they were received not by the friendly residents but by an army of ferocious Great Qin soldiers.

Facing the 20,000 soldiers, the 600 soldiers were scared stiff and immediately chose to surrender. After making these two teams submit, Zhao Fu chose to [Relocate] Highstone Town, and because it was already a Basic Town, it would remain as one. The Great Qin Town suddenly received 110,000 EXP.

This expedition had finally concluded, and Zhao Fu and his army returned to the Great Qin Town.