My lord, spare his life!

"What's wrong? Did you see your brother?"

Zhang Yang, preoccupied with his mission, did not miss his change.

Shen Zhi pursed his lips, his eyes darkening slightly: "No, I just saw the prefect of Tianbian County—"

"You mean you saw it here?" She leaned closer, looked around but didn't see anyone dressed particularly cleanly and luxuriously. She lowered her voice and whispered in his ear, "Tianbian County was taken over by an inside-outside collusion. The prefect will either be a prisoner, or he'll escape and lie in wait for a chance to take it back, or he'll be smart enough to submit to the enemy. Which one are you talking about?"

In fact, Zhang Yang prefers the third option.

Shen Zhi winked at her, signaling her to follow his gaze: "If you have the chance, try to take them away."

"Which one? Let me see."

Zhang Yang, who was initially in a relaxed spectator's mindset, perked up upon hearing this. Wasn't this a clear indication that a new mission had been assigned?

She successfully identified her target without much effort.

There's no other reason than that this prefect was the center of attention.

This stall was the most unusual; the owner wasn't an ordinary person, but a warrior in armor, with a dozen or so guards beside him. Dozens of customers were gathered around, sometimes whispering to each other, sometimes frowning and sighing, all deterred by the prices tucked around the necks of the goods.

However, no one openly complained about the high price.

Because the person being pushed up to sell was none other than the Prefect of Tianbian County.

At this moment, she was disheveled, her hands were bound by leather ropes as thick as a baby's arm, the marks from the ropes were deep in her flesh, pus was flowing from the wounds, and maggots were crawling on her filthy, black prison clothes. Even from this distance, you could smell the stench emanating from her.

Her prison clothes were torn to shreds by the iron whip, leaving horrifying wounds on her skin. Almost no intact flesh was visible to the naked eye, except for her face, which was spared and whose true features could be discerned. Even in her wretched state, she only kept her eyes slightly closed.

He remained unfazed by the noisy haggling and chatter around him, letting the stall owner deliberately provoke him loudly: "...This important person is someone you gentlemen are surely familiar with. Without further ado, this price is definitely worthy of him..."

Shen Zhi's face turned both green and red with anger.

"This is outrageous! This is absolutely outrageous!"

Fan You suddenly grabbed Shen Zhi's wrist: "Calm down."

Shen Zhi: "But..."

Zhang Yang added dismissively, "No wonder your IQ is only 69."

They really don't have much of a brain.

She glanced around, or more accurately, around the heads of the people around her; almost all of them had yellow or red names.

The red names appear to be scattered randomly, including vendors and passersby, but upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that these people are all subtly watching the stalls, indicating that someone is deliberately lying in ambush.

Zhang Yang wiped his face.

"You useless piece of trash, you still have to watch me."

"The Prefect of Puyang has guts; he hasn't uttered a sound." The stall owner flicked the prefect's wound with a thin thorn stick, but the latter only twitched his brow slightly. "However, no matter how much guts you have, you are still made of flesh and blood, and you only have one life."

The woman known as the Prefect of Puyang seemed to have heard a huge joke and wanted to laugh, but something was stuck in her throat, and she could only make heavy hoarse sounds, which eventually turned into intermittent coughing. Blood mixed with saliva spilled from her lips and she spat it on the ground.

The stall owner's hawk-like eyes swept across the crowd.

They seem to be looking for someone.

"There's only one of these items. If someone can buy it before sunset, the deal is done. If you miss this opportunity, then..."

"I bought it!"

A clear female voice suddenly rang out from the crowd.

The stall owner and guards all turned to look at the source of the sound, and even the Prefect of Puyang looked over with a hint of anxiety. The crowd parted like a tide, revealing the bold young man who had dared to call out a price. The Prefect of Puyang saw the newcomer and a look of surprise crossed his eyes.

She didn't recognize the boy.

Yes, it's normal not to recognize it; this is Zhang Yang's new character creation.

Zhang Yang was used to being the center of attention. He strode forward and, with an arrogant expression, declared to the stall owner, "I'll buy it!"

A fierce glint flashed in the stall owner's eyes.

"You said you wanted to buy her?"

Several guards surrounded Zhang Yang and his companion.

"What, do I need to verify my funds to buy someone?"

Zhang Yang took out two small gold ingots from the money pouch hanging from his waist. Their golden color indicated they were of good quality. Earlier that morning, Xie Shu had sent a tray of silver ingots as a farewell gift for Zhang Yang and the others. Only then did Zhang Yang realize that the currency in the Homestead side quest wasn't Alliance Coins, but rather general equivalents like gold, silver, and copper.

This discovery delighted her.

She has gold in her game inventory!

In an instant, they went from being poor to being moderately wealthy.

"Are these two gold ingots enough to buy her?" She tossed the gold ingots up and down, as if she wanted to write the words "wealthy and arrogant" all over her face.

It's enough, of course it's enough.

However, he didn't bring up the Puyang prefect to humiliate her by selling her for a good price, but rather to lure out the old Puyang subordinates lurking in the capital city. He didn't catch the big fish he wanted; instead, he caught a hothead who wanted to cause trouble.

His face turned ashen, and a murderous intent arose within him.

Zhang Yang, not wanting to read his expression, casually tossed two small gold ingots into his arms. He instinctively reached out to catch them, but Zhang Yang didn't even glance at him, turning to walk towards the Prefect of Puyang: "Come with me!"

The sturdy leather rope shattered into dust in her palm, yet it didn't harm the Prefect of Puyang in the slightest. The stall owner, secretly alarmed by Zhang Yang's unintentional display of strength, spoke up to stop her: "Wait!"

"What do you mean by this?" Zhang Yang stopped, released his grip on the Puyang Prefect's hand, and glanced impatiently at the stall owner as if he were already dead. "You've paid, but you're not going to deliver the goods, are you?"

"I'm not the owner of this item. Someone consigned it to me for sale. Whether this deal goes through depends on the owner." The stall owner waved his hand, and the guards flashed their blades, their blades gleaming coldly. "Get out of the way if you don't want to die!"

Normally, the next step should be to take action.

Zhang Yang's response surprised the participants.

"Is that so? Then please go and call the owner of the goods. I want to talk to her face to face. I'm determined to get her. I'm willing to pay a higher price if she's willing to part with her money." Her face was so deceptive. When Zhang Yang deliberately softened her tone and put on this friendly and negotiable attitude, she seemed like a buyer who had found a good deal and didn't want to miss the opportunity.

It would have been perfect if she hadn't shown any murderous intent.

The murderous aura made the stall owner's heart skip a beat. At that moment, Zhang Yang stepped forward, blocking the Puyang prefect, and pulled out her large walking stick from her game inventory. Seeing this, the stall owner took a step back, and his guards on either side moved in perfect unison to block him firmly: "Take him down!"

The chaotic market suddenly erupted into chaos as hundreds of soldiers, disguised as buyers and sellers, drew their swords and surged in from all directions. They were fast, but Zhang Yang's cane was even faster. Using her cane as a sword, she swiftly slashed downwards towards the stall owner's face, while with a flick of her other hand, she pushed the Puyang prefect towards several green-named individuals—these individuals had initially been yellow, but turned green after her intervention. Zhang Yang boldly guessed that these were reinforcements coming to rescue the Puyang prefect.