After finishing his instructions, Lu Ye hurriedly left the house.
Everyone in Red Tree Slope was awake, and all the torches were lit, illuminating the night sky.
Lu Ye went to find Prince Yu, handing him a sword and telling him to sit by the door to protect the people inside.
Protecting the little dark-faced boy? He was more than willing.
Lu Ye, along with Zhao Dazhuang, Huang Gousheng, Chi Bao's father, Xiao Ma's father, Zhu Gan's father, Lu Yun, Lu Yu, and over twenty others, went to "pick up" the people.
Although Lu Yun and Lu Yu were still young, they already possessed some martial skills. Moreover, Lu Ye liked to take them for combat training. Only by growing up immersed in battle could his two younger brothers become true powerhouses, ultimate masters.
He planned to train his three sons similarly in the future.
As for his daughter, she deserved to be pampered.
Four to five hundred meters southeast of Red Tree Slope, indeed, over twenty men in black were lying on the ground.
Five of them had dark faces and had already perished. Nearly twenty more appeared to be suffering from severe poisoning and had already been tightly bound by Yang Ming, Hu Da Niu, and others.
"Chop up the corpses of these dead ones and throw them into the septic tank to be fertilized. Take the living ones back, have my master cripple their martial arts, and then help them detoxify," Lu Ye said, his expression grave and his voice cold and stern.
Upon hearing Lu Ye's words, the living black-clad assassins all trembled violently, breaking out in a cold sweat of terror.
Their master had sent them to eliminate everyone here, stating that these people were nothing to fear, merely low-class, insignificant commoners.
Damn it, were these commoners? Would commoners be so ruthless? They were going to chop up their comrades' bodies for fertilizer! And cripple their martial arts… this was too cruel!
"Antidote? You're going to detoxify them?" Hu Da Niu asked in surprise.
Lu Ye smiled slightly. "Such strong bodies, if they aren't doing manual labor, it would be a waste. My precious little one will really like them."
Everyone suddenly understood. It turned out the master was going to recruit people for labor again, just like those bandits. They would be made to work desperately, without pay, and only be provided with food.
The matriarch was right; Red Tree Slope's development and construction indeed needed these strong men.
Alright, then they had to hurry and bring them back for Grandma Wu to save their lives.
Everyone who had followed began to "pick up" the people, two people dragging one. After all, these men were the working tools of Red Tree Slope. There was no need to be gentle with tools.
And so, the black-clad assassins were dragged across the sandy ground for four to five hundred meters. Although the sandy ground was soft, it was still sand, and it was quite abrasive.
A few unlucky individuals even had their pants dragged off, leaving them only in their undergarments.
Their hair was also completely disheveled, making them truly unkempt and wild in appearance.
Lu Ye rode Hei Feng, preparing to patrol the surroundings. Bao Yu and Shan Dian raised their heads, following Hei Feng majestically, becoming Lu Ye's flanking guards.
Lu Ye hadn't gone far when he encountered some members of the guard team.
The guard team currently consisted of thirty people. With Red Tree Slope as the center, they formed a circle, surrounding Red Tree Slope. They were divided into groups of three, with patrol points set up every few hundred meters.
If any outsiders entered, they could be detected quickly. Moreover, Bao Yu and Shan Dian played an important role. Their senses were particularly sharp; once there was any anomaly, they would immediately report it to the nearest guard team member.
Although the two creatures could understand human language, they couldn't communicate with humans verbally. Lu Ye instructed them to use body movements to convey signals.
Nodding three times meant "danger," and pointing their tails in a certain direction indicated the direction of the danger. If their tails spun in circles, it meant danger from all sides.
A shake of the head indicated "safety."
In addition to Bao Yu and Shan Dian, the pangolin Bing Bao also became a very important scout. It would burrow into the ground, and it could clearly sense vibrations coming from any direction in the earth.
The cloth bag Lu Ye carried when he left contained dried insects that Bai Sheng usually collected in his spatial realm, along with chopped chicken pieces and a waterskin filled with spirit spring water.
The snakes and scorpions in the desert had made significant contributions tonight, and Lu Ye intended to reward them.
After bidding farewell to the guard team, Lu Ye went to a secluded area to feed them.
With the Snake Gu King in his body, it was easy to summon those small venomous creatures. The Snake Gu King also released some signal that the poisonous creatures within a few miles could quickly perceive.
Lu Ye felt that Gu techniques were truly mysterious and profound, making it difficult for people to glimpse their true essence.
Yang Ming and the others finally dragged all the black-clad assassins who were still alive after being poisoned back, letting Grandma Wu treat them.
Grandma Wu asked no questions; she understood the style of her two disciples. Red Tree Slope had gained 21 more free laborers.
Those who had already died were chopped up by Wang Xia Ma and Wang Zhu Gan and thrown into the septic tank.
Lu Yun was delighted by this sight.
His manure collection endeavor had been yielding abundant harvests recently. The manure fertilizer was potent, and the fertility had significantly increased.
Grandma Wu secretly planted Gu poisons in these assassins, crippling their martial arts before beginning their detoxification.
These assassins were all extremely weak at this moment. Even if they wanted to resist, their strength did not permit it.
Looking at the room filled with unfamiliar men, women, old and young, all staring at them fiercely, they felt fear for the first time.
Before tonight, they were elite assassins secretly raised by the Empress and the Crown Prince, awe-inspiring and formidable. But now, they were like half-dead dogs, dragged around, manhandled, and unable to resist at all.
They all couldn't help but reflect and summarize in their minds what had happened in less than an hour.
They remembered that in the dead of night, over twenty of them, clad in black, carrying great sabers, had landed gracefully in the southeast entrance of Red… Slope, preparing to slaughter everyone here and then burn the place down.
However, the moment their feet touched the ground, something jumped up and bit their exposed skin with ferocious force.
Although it felt like being pricked by needles, after the needle pricks, it felt like being severely poisoned, with a stuffy chest, limp limbs, and a dizzy head as if they had been punched hard.
The night was too dark for them to see clearly what had bitten them. They resembled snakes, or scorpions, or some unknown venomous insects.
And so, their originally elegant landing posture did not last long before they all fell down in a disheveled mess, their image quite pathetic.
A few companions who were severely poisoned twitched a few times and then died.
Those who hadn't died desperately tried to get up and flee, but at this moment, over a dozen teenagers holding torches arrived, kicked each of them several times, and then used ropes to tie them up tightly.
They found it unbelievable, everything that was happening before their eyes. They were death guards trained by the Empress and the Crown Prince for many years! And like this, before they could even lift a finger, they were taken down?
This was truly a blow to their pride. They had no face to return to their masters.