My lord, spare his life!

Puyang Kui was astonished by Zhang Yang's extreme bloodlust.

"You mean...kill them all?"

Looking at her face alone, you really can't tell.

"If we don't kill them, are we supposed to keep them as offerings for ancestral sacrifices next year?" Zhang Yang said this in a flat tone, her expression unwavering. She was simply stating a matter of course. "The observation samples say that the problem isn't scarcity but inequality. If the existence of some people causes 'inequality,' shouldn't they be dealt with?"

Fairness is paramount in games, especially in PvP.

If things become unfair, the games are destined to lose their bread and butter. Zhang Yang didn't understand what Fan You and the other person meant by taxes and levies, and how they had anything to do with ordinary people going hungry, but she vaguely understood that they affected fairness and disrupted the balance.

For games, this is more fatal than a bug.

Puyang Kui tried to explain to Zhang Yang, "What you said... is indeed a way to cure the problem completely, but it's impossible to achieve."

Zhang Yang: "Why? Because of the food?"

Fan You: "..."

Puyang Kui: "What does this have to do with the food?"

Fan You: "I'm saying you're not good enough."

Puyang Kui: "..."

Fan You lowered his eyelids. Despite his exhaustion, he mustered his strength to deal with Zhang Yang: "To subdue people by force is like holding a knife to their neck. The enemy submits to force, not to their hearts. Resentment builds up internally, like a dam holding back water, and it will eventually burst. When superiors treat their subordinates with benevolence, and subordinates repay their superiors with loyalty, the people's hearts are at peace, the foundation of the nation is solid, and this is the way to long-term stability..."

A foundation built by violence is ultimately unstable.

Conquering the world is easy, maintaining it is difficult, and governing it is even more difficult.

Zhang Yang had a headache, but she knew that Fan You was babbling on and on with a bunch of convoluted phrases while also rejecting her suggestion.

Hmph, I won't listen!

He patted Zhang Dami, who was sitting on his bottom, and said, "Let's go."

Fan You: "..."

Puyang Kui could tell from Zhang Yang's clear eyes that the other party hadn't listened at all, but this didn't stop her from adding the phrase "wise in appearance" to her assessment of Zhang Yang. In the past, when she saw the suffering of the people, her first hatred was directed at the corrupt officials in the court who only knew how to scheme and plot, followed by the treacherous officials who deliberately misinterpreted government orders to extort money from the people, and finally the wicked gentry and bandits who disregarded human life...

Zhang Yang immediately pointed out the core of the problem as soon as he opened his mouth.

After Zhang Dami carried Zhang Yang away, Puyang Kui asked Fan You curiously, "Where did you find such a lord? His personality is... quite interesting, like a piece of unpolished jade."

Fan You closed his eyes heavily, a bitter smile creeping across his face.

"A rough gem..."

It was clearly a pill-making furnace out of control by a hermit sorcerer, ready to explode at any moment.

He had to admit that some of Zhang Yang's words did indeed touch him, but reason told him that unfounded fantasies are nothing but illusions.

The first problem Zhang Yang encountered when raising pets was food.

She couldn't let Zhang Dami fill her stomach with Puyang Kui's guards, nor could she allow Zhang Dami to forage for food in human settlements.

Here, eat.

A handful of grass was offered to Zhang Dami's mouth.

Zhang Dami kept her head down, stubbornly refusing to open her mouth.

Zhang Yang's patience was already limited, and after Zhang Dami refused to eat dried food, tree leaves, and wild grass, her remaining patience instantly ran out. She lightly slapped Zhang Dami's head: "You won't eat this, you won't eat that, are you so picky?"

Zhang Dami sobbed and lay prostrate on the ground.

Fan You and the others felt some sympathy for the giant worm.

"This beast eats meat."

Fan You offered some beef jerky to Zhang Dami.

Zhang Yang pointed to several warhorses: "How do they eat grass?"

Zhang Dami is indeed very picky about food. The exotic pets kept by the observation group all eat premium grass biscuits, and she will not refuse any of them.

Fan You: "..."

That little bit of jerky wasn't enough to fill Zhang Dami's belly.

Looking at Zhang Dami, Zhang Yang felt a pang of regret for not heeding Puyang Kui's suggestion—if you can't put it in your bag, you can put it in your stomach.

Fan You patted Zhang Dami on the back of the neck: "If you're still hungry, go find some food yourself. Remember not to hurt innocent people."

Zhang Dami's tiger eyes brightened a few degrees.

When his gaze fell upon Zhang Yang, he sobbed and lowered his head, not daring to move an inch.

Zhang Yang tapped the pattern on Zhang Dami's forehead: "Fine, listen to Uncle Yan, but don't run away. If you dare to run, you'd better be confident you can escape my grasp, otherwise—"

Zhang Dami obediently agreed.

When they went out to forage, they didn't forget to offer Zhang Yang a few pheasants.

"This beast is always arrogant and difficult to tame, but I never expected it to submit to Lord Boyuan so easily." Puyang Kui clicked her tongue in amazement. She could actually see the fawning emotion in the mountain lord's eyes.

"It's smart, and it calls itself Da Mi, not 'beast'." Zhang Yang didn't take credit for herself. According to her observation, the pets caught by the animal-catching rope all obeyed the players and seemed to have no tendency to betray them.

Zhang Dami is docile, which is naturally due to this.

Puyang Kui: "Okay, Da Mi."

During the few days she spent recuperating and traveling with him, she discovered that Zhang Yang was an oddball.

While one might think this person knew nothing, she was exceptionally skilled in pharmacology. Even while traveling at a brisk pace, she didn't forget to gather herbs. When the group rested, she became even busier, digging up even the most common medicinal plants with a shovel. Puyang Kui quickly calculated that over several days, she had accumulated at least two hundred catties (approximately 100 kg) of herbs, all of which she stored in her spatial storage, letting these worthless items occupy precious space…

Does this person understand?

Her performance these past few days has been no better than that of a novice learner. Puyang Kui has seen Fan You clutching his chest and panting more than once, his lips turning white with anger—Fan You tried to teach Zhang Yang, and his first move was to assess her abilities, only to find that she barely knew any characters. That was bad enough, but to make matters worse, she was also very argumentative, always managing to infuriate Fan You.

She either completely forgot what she learned in the morning or completely misinterpreted it by the afternoon. I feel sorry for Fan You; he's got a real troublemaker on his hands.

"Is she really from the Zhang family of Jiukan?"

Fan You: "..."

"If that's true, they were probably expelled from the family, right?"

In other words, Fan You now regards Zhang Yang as the star lord, but cannot easily leave due to the issue of the stars descending in evil; otherwise, he would have been driven away.

Fan You clutched his chest and rubbed his chest to calm himself down.

"...She's hopeless!"

His mind was filled with nothing but killing, a kind of naive cruelty, like a meticulously sculpted but still hollow clay sculpture.

Puyang Kui comforted him, saying, "Teach him slowly."

If they flip the table now, how will they maintain their reputation later?

To cultivate a reputation and join the ranks of the elite, one must be trained to a presentable level: "How about buying an official position?"

It's much easier to buy an official position than to train Zhang Yang to become a famous scholar before she takes office. Otherwise, why should he make things difficult for himself?

Fan You: "...Buying an official position?"

"Selling official positions and titles happens everywhere."

She can help find connections.

Fan You turned his face away sharply and wheeled himself away.

Puyang Kui chuckled: "He's a proper guy, after all."

As they approached the vicinity of Tianyue, Fan You and his companion had essentially recovered.

The scabs faded, leaving only a faint pink scar in the original spot.

Considering that Qin Huang's rebel army couldn't pursue them that far, the group decided to take the official road. It wasn't until the sun was setting that they finally spotted the official road halfway down the steep, winding mountainside. In the distance, they saw figures moving slowly, resembling a small swarm of ants.

The governor of Puyang returned with a report.

"The 150 men below were mostly armed and well-equipped."

This group of people has an unusual background.