72: Chapter 72 Just a lowly commoner!

"Lord."

Wan'er stepped forward.

Her voice was as steady as ever, but if one listened carefully, a minute tremor could be heard in the tail end of her words.

"It is not the Lord's fault."

She stood beside Zhou Yun, her gaze sweeping over the corpses littering the ground, the hideous scar on her face appearing particularly jarring under the pale daylight.

"I have just interrogated several eyewitnesses inside Han City."

She paused, seemingly restraining herself, and then said, word by word:

"According to their testimony—the moment those thousand people were arranged to leave the city to poison Flower City, their families, immediately after... were killed."

Zhou Yun's body jolted violently.

The moment before.

The moment after.

In other words—

From the very beginning, from the moment City Lord Zhang Hao of Han City sent those thousand people to poison Flower City—

He never intended for these hostages to live.

The people poisoning were pawns.

The hostages—they didn't even count as pawns.

They were just... things to be thrown away after use.

Wan'er continued: "The one who gave the order was City Lord Zhang Hao of Han City."

"And the ones who did it—"

Her gaze turned to the group of City Guards not far away, who were being controlled and were kneeling in a row.

"Were them."

"Every one of these City Guards is an executioner under City Lord Zhang Hao."

...

Zhou Yun stood up, holding the child, and slowly walked in front of the City Guards.

"These people... were they all killed by you?"

His voice was very calm, but the few City Guards kneeling at the very front visibly trembled.

No one spoke.

They lowered their heads, their eyes darting around; some stared at the ground, others looked at their own hands, but none dared to look directly at Zhou Yun.

Silence spread for a few seconds.

Then, the City Guard captain spoke.

His surname was Zhao, and he was in his thirties.

His nose was still smeared with blood—left by the punch he had taken earlier.

"It... it was us who killed them."

When he said this, his head was pressed very low, and his voice was fast and hurried, as if he were rushing to finish speaking.

"But we were forced to do it!"

He suddenly raised his head, his face contorted into an expression of extreme grievance.

"The Lord gave the order! As City Guards, we obviously had to obey!"

"If we didn't listen, we would have been the ones to die!"

"Obey orders..."

Zhou Yun muttered these four words in a low voice.

As if savoring them.

Or perhaps as if confirming whether he had heard correctly.

Then, he asked a second question.

"Why did you have to kill?"

His tone remained very flat.

So flat that it didn't sound like an interrogation.

It sounded more like he truly—did not understand.

"Why... did you have to go to such lengths?"

He tilted his head slightly.

"They were all living, breathing lives. Old people, women, children. Defenseless."

"Even if your Lord really found them to be in the way—couldn't you have just driven them out of the city?"

"Expelling them from the city, letting them fend for themselves, would have been better than..."

"But why—why did you have to go to such lengths?"

He asked this last sentence very softly.

So softly that it sounded like a sigh.

Captain Zhao was stunned for a moment.

As if he hadn't expected Zhou Yun to ask this question.

After all... what was there to ask about this?

He licked his chapped lips, deliberated his wording for a moment, and then said:

"Come to think of it... one can only say they were courting death themselves."

As soon as this sentence came out.

Lei Lie, standing behind Zhou Yun, constricted his pupils sharply.

Strategist Zhu Ge's fingers gripping the armrests of his wheelchair made a "crack" sound in his knuckles.

But Captain Zhao was completely oblivious and continued:

"Originally, driving them out would have been the end of it, but who knew they would refuse to leave even if it killed them."

He shrugged, his tone even revealing a hint of helplessness.

"I heard the Lord had promised them before that as long as their sons successfully completed the mission and returned, they could continue to stay in the city. So they believed it. One by one, they said they wanted to wait for their sons to return, and they refused to leave no matter what."

He shook his head, his face actually showing a hint of "frustration at their failure to meet expectations."

"What could we do?"

He spread his hands.

"It was useless for them to linger in the city one by one; they couldn't work, they couldn't fight, and one extra person meant one extra mouthful of food wasted."

"Since they wouldn't leave on their own..."

Captain Zhao's mouth curled slightly.

"We had to help them."

Help them.

Help.

He used this word.

The word "help."

Killing two or three thousand defenseless old people, women, and children—he called this "helping."

"Help them?"

Zhou Yun repeated it once.

His gaze slowly swept over these City Guards kneeling on the ground.

Looking at them one by one.

He was looking at their eyes.

He looked very carefully.

There was fear in Captain Zhao's eyes—he was afraid of death.

The slightly younger City Guard next to him had shifty eyes—he was guilty, but more than that, he was worried about his own fate.

The one next to him had unfocused pupils—he had already been scared silly, his mind filled with fear.

Fear.

Guilt.

Worry.

Terror.

It was all there!

Only—

There was no regret!

...

Zhou Yun withdrew his gaze.

He lowered his head and was silent for a few seconds.

The surrounding air seemed to have solidified.

Three hundred weeping refugees, five thousand Flower City soldiers, Lei Lie, Strategist Zhu Ge, Wan'er—everyone was waiting for him to speak.

Then, he spoke.

Only two words.

The voice was very soft.

So soft that it seemed to leak from between his teeth.

"Animals."

Captain Zhao looked at Zhou Yun's expression, and his heart suddenly tightened.

Something was wrong.

This person seemed to be truly enraged.

No—he had to quickly show his own merit!

Otherwise, if the other party was enraged, he might lose his head, right?

He quickly straightened his back and said quickly:

"Lord! Don't be in such a hurry to get Life Qi!"

"We opened the city gate for you!"

As he spoke, he looked around eagerly, as if looking for agreement.

"Think about it—five thousand people attacking the city; even if you could take it, how many people would die? How many would be injured?"

"But we voluntarily opened the city gate! Not a single person was injured!"

"Isn't this a merit? We have merit!"

When he said this, he seemed to feel that his words were quite reasonable, and his back straightened a little more.

"Taking a step back—even if we killed people, they were our people from Han City."

"Han City's affairs, Han City's people—that's all in the past."

He looked at Zhou Yun, trying hard to make his expression look sincere.

"You cannot take your anger out on us because of this."

Zhou Yun did not speak.

Captain Zhao took this silence as tacit approval.

Or rather—he wanted too much to take this silence as tacit approval.

So his courage grew a bit more, the corners of his mouth even curled up slightly, and his tone became a bit more casual:

"Besides—"

"They were just lowly people."