Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1412 - 1405: The Concept of Equality

Chapter 1412: Chapter 1405: The Concept of Equality

"Yichuan Ying..." Cheng Ziang muttered this name and wondered why, whenever he heard the pronunciation "Ying," he could immediately associate it with the girl’s appearance, thinking of the wonderful word Ying represents.

But the issue was that whether it was Yichuan Ying or Yichuan Yong, it was essentially just their Chinese pronunciation. In fact, in the language of Kyushu, there’s no difference between Ying and Yong.

Cheng Ziang’s curiosity was piqued because the name clearly shared the same intonation as Yichuan Yong’s, which could only mean that perhaps the tradition in Kyushu was such that the family’s girls were allowed to have names that sounded the same as the names of the family’s eldest sons.

In reality, many cultural traditions from the East Prosperity Nine States were quite discordant with those of other regions. For example, their written language consisted of ideograms, and the same pronunciation could be represented by several different characters. This was also the reason why Cheng Ziang and his group had only learned the Kyushu language and not its written script.

Nonetheless, to be on the safe side, Cheng Ziang still thought it best to be cautious, so he asked curiously, "Your name is Yichuan Ying?"

"Yes, what’s up?" the girl replied, looking up as she was eating.

"Your brother seems to be called Yichuan Yong, you two have the same pronunciation, huh?" Cheng Ziang asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Different characters," Yichuan Ying explained tersely.

"Is that allowed, I mean, your name having the same sound as the Yichuan Clan’s son?" Cheng Ziang still displayed an attitude of disbelief.

"Do you not believe me?" Hearing his words, Yichuan Ying put down her skewer of meat and wiped her greasy little mouth. Her gaze dropped, and she said with a hint of grievance, "If you don’t believe me, why bother asking me to talk?"

"OK, OK, I believe, I believe you," Cheng Ziang waved his hands and said, "Yichuan Ying, right? Why do you push yourself so hard for your family..."

"This is my only use; I am worthless. Keeping me at home serves no purpose; even getting married, I am constantly looked down upon. I, I..." Yichuan Ying spoke, but suddenly her nose tingled, and tears started to fall drop by drop again.

"Looking at you, with all limbs intact, you don’t seem useless. Or is it that your standard for being useless is... cultivation?" Cheng Ziang asked hesitantly.

"Do I need to say more?" Provoked by his words, Yichuan Ying felt even more wronged and began to wipe her tears continuously.

"Alright, I think I understand now." Cheng Ziang nodded.

Upon hearing his words, Yichuan Ying seemed very aggrieved. She glared at him fiercely with red eyes, sniffed, and continued to eat her skewer of meat. Despite this, her tears kept falling drop by drop, even dripping onto the skewer.

"Yichuan Ying, have you thought about the consequences of us capturing you?" Cheng Ziang leaned back slightly, adopting a more comfortable posture, and asked with outspread hands.

"Nothing but death," Yichuan Ying said, looking down.

"So, about the outcome of the abduction, you’re only aware of death as the method. Have you ever considered that you might wish you were dead?" Cheng Ziang tilted his head and asked.

"What do you mean?" Yichuan Ying wiped her tears and asked warily, looking up.

"Let me hypothesize a situation for you," Cheng Ziang took a deep breath, his face bearing a faint smile, "Suppose I and that old fellow over there had sexual needs, and since that little girl is one of our companions, naturally we can’t touch her, so that leaves only you. This way, you’d be mine on odd days, his on even days, and we’d play with you endlessly, night and day. When we grow tired of you, we’d lock you up in a dark, damp pigsty, where you’d eat, drink, and relieve yourself all in one place."

"If you get pregnant," Feng began, her voice dropping to a sinister whisper, "we’ll fatten you up nice and plump, have you constantly pregnant and birthing, giving us more and more offspring. Of course, giving birth is like passing through Ghost Gate. It would best if you made it, but if not, we can’t be bothered about your life or death. If one day we run out of food, then your plump self would become the ideal... food..."

By the time she reached this point, Yichuan Ying’s face had turned ashen, her large eyes staring blankly at Cheng Ziang. Her small mouth gaped open in horror, unable to close, and without realizing when, saliva had slowly trickled down her lips to her chin before dropping to the ground.

Not only that, but her tears also kept falling, leaving clear streaks on her small, pitiable face, drawing pity even from those who looked on.

"Have you ever considered such consequences?" Cheng Ziang tilted his head and asked unemotionally.

"No, please no..." Hearing his words, Yichuan Ying, as if jolted awake, dropped the skewer of meat in her hands, now dust-covered. Bound hand and foot, she retreated again and again, curling up in a corner.

Cheng Ziang smiled in satisfaction, then picked up the dust-covered skewer from the ground, waved it in front of her, and said word by word, "You should feel lucky that if I wanted to do as I just described, I would be forcing you to eat this skewer of meat right now!"

Having said that, he flung the skewer with a backhand toss directly into the fire, which let off the smell of burning protein.

Then, turning to look at Yichuan Ying, he leaned down, dusted off his hands, and said, "Alright, stop trembling. All that was just hypothetical. We wouldn’t do that to you. We are civilized bandits; when we say we rob, we only rob, and don’t cause extra trouble."

"Really? Is that true?" Upon hearing his words, a glimmer of hope appeared in Yichuan Ying’s large eyes.

"If we were the sort to indulge in evil without limit, do you think we’d spare that little girl over there?" Cheng Ziang said with a smirk.

In fact, Cheng Ziang wasn’t without reason. If they wanted to, they could bully Feng any time. Although she had astonishing combat abilities, she was very obedient to them, basically doing whatever they asked of her.

After a lengthy silence, Yichuan Ying finally lowered her guard against Cheng Ziang, slowly moving back to her original position, but her eyes stayed fixed on him.

Confronting her suspicions, Cheng Ziang sighed, then took another skewer of meat from Hu Daoke and offered it to Yichuan Ying. She stared at him, slowly taking the skewer. It was plain to see that at the moment she took the skewer, her hostility towards Cheng Ziang had significantly lessened.

"Listen well; we’re here to end this war. You should return to wherever you came from and give back West Outer Heaven to the Demon Clan," Cheng Ziang said solemnly.

"Why should we give it back? This is territory that our clan fought for," Yichuan Ying countered loudly, suddenly finding the courage.

"It’s the Dongsheng Empire that fought for this land, not you. You can’t defend it. Now, either retreat immediately to Kyushu or wait to be driven back to Kyushu by the Demon Clan," Cheng Ziang said seriously.

"We’ve finally taken root in West Outer Heaven; why should we go back? Have you thought about what we would face if we returned to Jiangzhou? We don’t want to continue living like this; we don’t want to live forever in the shadow of the Yichuan Clan of Yin State, do you understand?" Yichuan Ying raised her voice in argument with Cheng Ziang, seeming ready to risk even her life over her clan’s interests.

"I don’t understand," Cheng Ziang shook his head and said, "All I know is that by coming to West Outer Heaven, you’ve brought immense suffering to the Demon Clan. Now they are powerful. Either make a run for it or brace yourselves to be routed by them, then slink away with your tails between your legs!"

"The Demon Clan’s suffering? I don’t understand. What right do they have to be on par with us?" Yichuan Ying’s stance remained stubborn.

"Every life is equal, with no distinction between high or low, noble or base," Cheng Ziang suddenly erupted, pointing at her and reprimanding loudly, "Just because you can’t cultivate, you’re looked down upon by your family, and then you look down on the Demon Clan who also can’t cultivate. Why? What right do you have? You’ve been discriminated against, so you can discriminate against others? You are a victim, so you can victimize, is that how it goes?!"

It seemed that his vehemence had subdued her. Yichuan Ying’s body quivered, and she almost dropped the skewer in her hand again. Confronted by Cheng Ziang’s anger, she found herself momentarily speechless, only able to look at him blankly.