Chapter 015: The Execution Stake
Lia could handle one opponent, but it would be troublesome if there were more. Once they surrounded her, Lia’s mobility would be restricted, and she would inevitably be captured. Her hesitant gaze couldn’t help but drift toward Chen Ran.
“Lia, don’t worry about me! You go first! They can’t catch you!”
At the critical moment, Chen Ran acted like a bachelor again, putting on a show of seemingly great sacrifice. He personally felt that rather than watching both of them get caught, it was a safer bet for one to escape. It would also be easier for one person to come up with a plan.
Perhaps he was also afraid that Lia would ultimately choose to abandon him. After all, for that goal of hers, Lia was willing to risk even her life. By saying this, he was just honoring the feeling that had grown between them these past few days, avoiding potential future awkwardness, and leaving a better impression in her mind.
Most importantly, this group of natives didn’t seem to have any intention of killing him immediately. This was a good sign. As long as there was a chance, Chen Ran would try to find a way to escape. If they thought a single vine could hold him, they were seriously underestimating the King of Uselessness. Not to mention, the Brother Chun aura from the Sacred Cross Emblem in his bag was always with him. It was a risk worth taking.
Upon hearing Chen Ran’s reply, a complex look appeared in Lia’s eyes. In the end, she nodded guiltily. Aided by the wind effect of her Tiger King battle skirt, she suddenly leaped up. With an effect like a qinggong skill, she stepped on the shoulders of several natives and jumped out of the encirclement of more than a dozen people, fleeing into the woods.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Several javelins were thrown at Lia, but her movements were too agile. The javelins all landed on the grass behind her, some embedding themselves in tree trunks.
“After her!”
Unwilling to let his prize escape, the iron-tower-like man’s face was filled with anger. He immediately led several tribesmen in pursuit into the dense forest, leaving a few slower ones behind to deal with the captured Chen Ran.
Chen Ran swallowed hard.
“Brothers, I’m really not a bad person. Please be so kind as to loosen these vines. I definitely won’t run…”
He tried to make his expression as harmless as possible, doing his best to fight for his last bit of sovereignty.
Unfortunately, there was no room for negotiation.
A wooden pole was threaded through the vines on Chen Ran, and with a light lift, he was carried away by two men like a tightly wrapped wild boar…
“Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!”
Half an hour later, Chen Ran was brought into a small tribal village. Because he had been talking too much, a piece of ragged animal hide had been stuffed into his mouth, and he could only make muffled sounds from his throat.
Perhaps the Tiger King tunic he was wearing was too eye-catching, as these savage natives had stripped him naked before entering the village, leaving him with only a pair of underwear that hadn’t been washed in who knows how long.
Clearly, to these natives who only knew how to make crude clothes from animal skins, the only valuable thing on Chen Ran was his clothes.
The tribe he was brought to was, in Chen Ran’s eyes, an uncivilized place.
The houses here were mostly made of stacked stones, plastered with some mud, with no aesthetic appeal whatsoever. Such earthen houses were scattered along the road without any neat planning, making one dizzy just by looking around. The people of the tribe also wore slightly tailored animal skins as clothes, and their customs seemed very primitive.
Before long, the native wearing the tiger-skin coat robbed from Chen Ran called over an old man with a headdress of various bird feathers. The old man’s hair was dry, gray, and hadn’t been washed in who knows how long. His skin was wrinkled and shriveled. From the animal-skin cloak he wore, which was noticeably longer than the other natives’, he was likely a respected elder in the tribe. And from the withered vine staff in his hand, which was tied with the skulls of various young beasts, he was either an elder or a witch doctor.
In fact, he had guessed right…
“Elder, today while patrolling the ancestral lands, we encountered two trespassing foreigners who were trying to disturb the slumber of our ancestors. A woman with considerable strength escaped, and Captain Zara is leading our people in pursuit. We’ve captured the foreign man first.”
The old man, who was called Elder, wrinkled his face, which was almost entirely dead skin. He opened his cloudy eyes and carefully looked Chen Ran up and down.
“The ancestral land is our most sacred place. No one is allowed to disturb it. No matter what this foreign man’s purpose is, since he has disturbed the slumber of our tribe’s spirits, he must pay the price.”
Although the old man was old, his every move carried an air of authority. With a light wave of his bony hand, he didn’t spare Chen Ran another glance and said lightly, “Prepare the divine punishment. Just like we dealt with the Fire Tribe people, as a sacrifice to the spirits of our ancestors.”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
Chen Ran struggled violently, cursing that this wasn’t fair. I just accidentally walked into a cemetery! Not only did I bring bad luck upon myself, but you can’t just sentence me to death like this! If I die like this, it’s a real loss!
More importantly, Can’t you give me the right to say a single word? Not only did you strip me naked, but you also stuffed a ragged cloth that reeks of piss into my mouth! What kind of world is this!
Next, Chen Ran was brought before the eyes of the crowd to an iron rack. Looking at the crude structure, it was not hard to see that the so-called “divine punishment” here specifically referred to execution by fire. At the same time, from the executioner’s practiced movements, it was clear this wasn’t the first or second time they had executed someone here.
What Chen Ran found ridiculous was that this execution rack had several sturdy iron chains to bind the criminal, and a huge lock weighing three or four jin was fastened behind him. Plus, the lazy executioner hadn’t bothered to untie the vines on Chen Ran, so he was bound so tightly that he couldn’t escape even if he had wings.
Chen Ran’s execution also attracted a crowd of native onlookers.
These people, old and young, all had dark brown skin, which matched Chen Ran’s image of natives.
Not far from the execution rack, a little native girl in animal skins looked up at her mother and asked, “Mama, why does the person being executed this time look different from the Fire Tribe people from before? His skin is so fair and clean, he doesn’t look harmful…”
“Child, never be deceived by appearances,” the woman said, glancing at Chen Ran as if another look would soil her eyes. She whispered a warning to the little girl, “The more harmless a person looks on the surface, the more terrifying they are. You can never see the filth in their hearts. Just like the Fire Tribe people, they have long sold their souls to the devil in exchange for their filthy, immortal power. Perhaps this person is from the Fire Tribe and has used sorcery to try and infiltrate our tribe. Look, he’s not even wearing clothes, so he obviously comes from an even more barbaric civilization. And look, there’s even a devil’s pattern on his shorts!”
“Oh~~” The little girl nodded in understanding. She looked at the pitiful Chen Ran on the execution rack, then at the so-called devil’s mark on his shorts, and a trace of vigilance gradually appeared in her innocent eyes.
