I Have a Date with a Thousand-year-old Female Corpse-Chapter 1884 - 1886: Welcome to Purgatory

That evening, when your group escorted more than 3,600 naked, utterly exhausted captives into the sentry’s line of sight at Xuzhou City, the entire city was in an uproar.

Due to the large number of people, the dungeon within Xuzhou City couldn’t hold them all, so you simply established a concentration camp outside the city and stuffed them all into it. Then, in dealing with the matter of these captives, you went against the majority opinion and directly issued an order to have them all take up farm tools and start clearing land near Qingan Lake, south of Xuzhou.

This decision dissatisfied some of the scholar gentry; they claimed those wastelands were their properties and your actions severely harmed their interests.

In the first couple of days, you paid no heed, but little did you expect that they would become increasingly aggressive. They even thought that you were too afraid to face them, and in the end, the Five Aristocratic Clans gathered over a thousand people to make trouble in front of your residence, which was originally Tao Qian’s mansion.

You got up early, had breakfast amidst the clamor outside, and initially wanted to whisper sweet words to your wife in the garden or somewhere. However, Xiao San quickly came in and said to you, "Lord, Cao Hong’s nephew, Cao Lin, requests an audience."

"What does this person do?"

"Seems like he’s an official, but it’s unclear what exactly he does. He’s with those people outside."

You slowly stood up, left the room, and stood in the courtyard, gazing at the sky above.

"Cao Cao has already started confronting Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao’s target is Jizhou, while Cao Cao’s is Yan Province. It seems the time their duel should not last long. With Cao Cao’s rough nature, once he has some leisure time, he will definitely act against us in Xuzhou. It’s estimated to be within one or two years, so during this time, we must internally forge into an ironclad entity."

You seemed to be speaking to Xiao San, or perhaps just talking to yourself. Xiao San was merely your guard and dared not interrupt or say anything.

"Cao Bao and Cao Hong, the two brothers are not on good terms internally. Cao Bao is a somewhat better person and has some uses, but Cao Hong is nothing more than a parasite." You paused for a moment, then looked in the direction of the door and said, "It’s just that they came a bit early. Let Zhang Zhao handle this matter, and announce externally that I’m going on a trip. There’s no need to specify the direction, and the time frame is about three to five months."

"Yes!"

Your sudden departure, although it did not cause turmoil in the Xuzhou regime, left many people unaware of what was happening. Additionally, your whereabouts became a focal point for various influential forces.

Curiously enough, not even your main wife, Zhao Yu, or Ren Hongchang knew where you had gone, and along with you, your personal guard team and the recently recovered Zhao Yun also disappeared.

If anything, there was one person who might know a clue, and that was your Chief Guard Little Liu because you had previously given him an extremely secretive order. You tasked Little Liu with discreetly purchasing slaves from various places, these slaves coming from across the Nine Provinces, with their number being quite substantial, a total of five thousand!

To disappear with five thousand people all at once, your methods could truly be considered masterful.

In fact, you had not gone far. You merely led the five thousand people secretly across the sea, infiltrating Penglai Island at the eastern end of Eastern Sea County. If described in modern geographical terms, this is the location of the current-day Lianyungang. However, during the Three Kingdoms Period, Penglai Island was separate from the mainland. It was the largest island within Xuzhou’s territory, and on this island stood Huagup Mountain, the old home of the Monkey King in Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West.

One might wonder how these five thousand people crossed the sea to Penglai Island. In truth, it was simple: they used humanity’s most primitive and straightforward method—swimming!

The distance across the strait was about ten kilometers. It was through this ten-kilometer sea route that you conducted the first inspection of the physical and mental fortitude of these soldiers about to undergo the most rigorous and brutal training.

Little Liu always carried out tasks reliably, particularly those entrusted by you. During this time, he utilized various secretive channels to purchase strong slaves, regardless of gender, as long as they possessed robust physical quality. The prices were significantly above market value.

After crossing the strait, with the tally from Xiao San and others, to your great relief, not a single person was missing.

At this moment, you stood on the highest rock on the coastline, overlooking the scattered slaves on the beach below. Under your gaze, only a few managed to raise their heads to meet your eyes. Those who dared to look up at you were in excellent spirits and had bodies significantly stronger than usual. To your surprise, some of them were women.

"Silence!"

Xiao San’s bellow quickly quieted the slaves, who were already accustomed to scolding and beatings. This was one of the main reasons you paid a premium for slaves. He discovered that in this world, the most obedient people were the slaves. Many of them were branded with the identity of a slave since birth. Even if they married and had children, their children would still be slaves. Without encountering a benefactor, they would never escape this nightmarish title for their entire lives.

In the eyes of the Aristocrats, they were merely tools, disposable and destructible at any time, equivalent to livestock.

The slaves you bought were no exception. From their fathers’ generation, or even their forefathers, they were slaves.

Looking at these people below, you revealed a faint smile on your face. In the next three to four months, you were going to forge them into a blade exclusively for your own use!

"You are five thousand people now, yet I only need five hundred. That means four thousand five hundred of you will die here." Your expression was cold and betraying no hint of deceit. It seemed they had already grown accustomed to such a harsh life, for the slaves showed little commotion—only a few looked at you with burning eyes.

"Those five hundred will become my personal guards, and at the same time, you will forever rid yourselves of the term ’slave.’ When you successfully step out of this Penglai Island, you will embrace a brand-new life!" Saying this, you suddenly jumped down from a height of over ten meters on the mountain rock, landing with a loud boom. Without giving the crowd a chance to react, you abruptly turned, throwing a fist at the enormous mountain rock!

"Boom!"

The ground shook violently!

Under the astonished and bewildered gazes of everyone, you, like a Heavenly God, smashed the enormous mountain rock into countless fragments. The cascading rocks, rather than harming you, were rebounded by your body, some even having their edges worn off by your physique.

At that moment, everyone was rendered speechless; this moment would be forever etched in their minds, never to be erased.

Looking at the people before you, you suddenly grinned and said, "I know what you’re thinking. I can tell you very clearly, if you are one of the final five hundred, you will possess at least two-tenths of my strength. At that time, I want the entire Nine Provinces to tremble beneath your feet!"

"Oh!"

"Oh——"

Countless people began to shout. Some of the women even tore off their wet clothes, baring their upper bodies, shaking their chests, and waving them continuously.

"However!"

That single word ’however’ brought the originally boiling scene back to silence.

"The spots for those five hundred are not simply given. From this moment, welcome to—hmph, Purgatory!"