Chapter 301: Fighters Won’t be Easily Humiliated!

The Investigation Captain continued as he laughed: "Even if you destroy all of our alchemy devices, it is useless!"

"The mage tower at the port already has a copy of the magic video."

"What's ironclad evidence? This is ironclad evidence! "Unless you destroy the mage tower, you can't destroy the evidence."

"Attack the mage tower if you have the guts."

"Do you dare? Do you guys dare?"

The water pigmen all showed expressions of uncertainty and fear on their faces.

Zong Ge shook his head as he replied as calmly as ever: "Of course we won't attack the mage tower."

"You might have misunderstood my words."

"The slap I gave you earlier was merely to uncover the truth."

"I took your alchemy button simply because…I felt that the filming angle was not too good."

"I wanted to help you, but you misunderstood my kind intention."

"How about this, let's film it again!"

"What do you mean?" The Investigation Captain felt something amiss.

"Gang Lie, stand here." Zong Ge waved.

Gang Lie quickly got to the designated location, and in the next moment, Zong Ge passed him the alchemy button.

Zong Ge commanded: "Raise this button and point it at us. Yes, that's it."

After Gang Lie got into position, Zong Ge walked to the Investigation Captain again.

He bent down and grabbed the Investigation Captain's collar.

After exerting slightly, he easily lifted the lightweighted Investigation Captain.

"Wh-what do you want?" The Investigation Captain panicked.

"Calm down," Zong Ge helped him up and kindly patted the dust off his clothes.

Next, he took a step back and waved his palm again.

Slap!

This time, the sound was much louder than before.

The pitiful Investigation Captain not only flew in the air from the impact, but he even turned one whole round before falling on the ground.

The intense feeling of dizziness even made him forget to cough out the blood in his throat.

"Gang Lie, did he slap him like this?" Zong Ge asked loudly.

The Investigation Captain was dizzy, and his vision blurred as if the sky was spinning around him.

He could not hear what Zong Ge was asking, so he nodded subconsciously.

Gang Lie shook his head subtly. Zong Ge's slap was far harsher than what he had experienced.

Seeing the Investigation Captain's response, Zong Ge couldn't help but laugh.

"Since that's not it, let's try to remember the scene again."

He hoisted the Investigation Captain again.

At this point, the latter was already unable to stand up on his own.

Zong Ge could only grab his collar "caringly" with one hand and slap at his face with his other hand.

Slap, slap, slap!

A series of slaps rained down quickly, forming after shadows in the eyes of the others.

The Investigation Captain's head shook left and right as he moved vigorously along with the slaps.

He opened his mouth and blood spewed out endlessly, along with his teeth at times. 

His neck cracked along as if it was about to break at any time.

The Investigation Captain was merely at the iron level while Zong Ge was at the silver level.

To protect himself, the Investigation Captain, urged his iron level battle qi instinctively.

It was useless.

He was not a fighter like Xiong Ju, so the intense pain and humiliation made him unable to use any of his battle skills.

Soon, both his eyes rolled till they turned white, and his mouth opened wide. He had fainted.

Zong Ge stopped slapping after seeing this.

He let go of his left hand and the Investigation Captain fell on the ground motionlessly.

The surroundings went quiet.

The calmer Zong Ge looked, the more intimidated they were.

"Are you done filming?"

"Did you get the angle correct this time?"

Under everyone's dumbfounded gaze, Zong Ge slowly walked to Gang Lie's side.

Gang Lie had been holding the alchemy button the entire time, being still as a statue.

He looked at Zong Ge with admiration in his eyes.

Zong Ge took back the alchemy button and flicked it towards the body of the Investigation Captain.

Next, he looked at the surrounding investigation team members who didn't dare to move and said: "Aren't you going to wake your captain up?"

"It's not responsible to fall asleep while doing your job."

The members jolted awake at his words and quickly gathered at the Investigation Captain's side.

"Captain!"

"Captain, captain, how are you?"

"Captain, wake up."

They shook his body vigorously as some took out potions and poured the contents into his mouth.

There was even a bronze level magician who used healing magic on the spot.

After some time, the Investigation Captain slowly opened his eyes.

"Wh-what happened to me?"

"I'm so dizzy."

"Ouch, my face hurts!"

As the members helped him to get up, his eyes regained clarity as he recalled what had happened earlier.

His body shook as he turned to look at Zong Ge.

The Investigation Captain was filled with fear and anger towards this man.

"What did you do? Were you trying to kill me?"

"I was almost killed by you!"

Zong Ge shook his head and replied in his usual calm tone: "You're the great Investigation Captain, how could I kill you? If I did that, it'd be seen as resisting the law with violence."   

The Investigation Captain's eyes turned wide as he felt that his intelligence was being mocked.

He shouted shrilly: "Do you think I'm a fool? Looking at how you treated me earlier, can that not be considered violence?"

Upon hearing this, Zong Ge moved towards the Investigation Captain.

The surrounding members flustered and scattered away.

The Investigation Captain who was held up by them lost his support in an instant and plopped to the ground.

He ignored the pain on his butt and held the ground with his hand as he shuffled back, shouting: "D-don't come towards me!"

Zong Ge looked down and asked: "So, Sir Investigation Captain, was I resisting with violence earlier?"

The Investigation Captain took a deep breath as his expression turned livid.

In this situation, he had no choice but to give in. He relented: "No, that was not considered violent resistance."

"So, is it a misunderstanding? Am I right to say that?" Zong Ge asked softly.

The Investigation Captain nodded and lowered his head to hide his shameful and furious gaze: "Yes, this is all a misunderstanding!"

He felt that Zong Ge was too unreasonable.

There was no need to argue with him.

After all, a wise man would not fight when the odds were against him.

"Since the investigation is done, you can all leave," Zong Ge concluded.

After the investigation team members heard this, they ran towards the ship door like they had just been spared.

The Investigation Captain quickly climbed up and rushed out before his group members in a short period of time.

They no longer talked about capturing the water pigmen.

"Lord Shi Qi. After this confrontation..." Seeing Zong Ge deal with the situation in such a direct manner, the leader of the water pigmen felt very worried.

"Just you wait, just you wait!" The Investigation Captain screamed loudly in his mind.

"Even if I failed to capture these water pigmen, as the auxiliary commander of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, you dared to beat me! I have ironclad evidence now!"

"I will settle the score with you soon."

"If I can't take your Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps down a notch, I'll no longer call myself a snow elf!"

"Hold it." Zong Ge looked at the investigation team members who rushed out and spoke.

All of them jolted like they were hit by lightning and froze on the spot, not daring to move.

The Investigation Captain gritted his teeth and turned around to look at Zong Ge with a stiff posture.

His face showed obvious fear, but his tone also sounded aggrieved, "What else do you want?"

Zong Ge pointed at the floor.

"You left this behind. Take it with you."

The Investigation Captain looked at where Zong Ge pointed and found that it was the alchemy button from his shirt.

This was the alchemy device that recorded the process of his investigation.

The video was not only stored in the alchemy device but also transmitted to the mage tower as a copy.

Because of the copy's existence, the Investigation Captain did not think too much of this button.

Zong Ge said: "I helped you a lot."

"Earlier, when I gave you the first slap, the filming angle was unsatisfactory."

"But later, after I adjusted the angle, it could be seen clearly in the video."

The Investigation Captain shook from anger after hearing these words, and his eyes were burning like fire.

He had never seen a more arrogant outsider in his career.

"Arrogant! Reckless! Far too arrogant!"

"I've seen it all today!"

"I must report this! Let's see how long you can remain arrogant in the Ice Sculpture Kingdom!" 

The Investigation Captain restrained his anger and lowered his head. He quickly took back the alchemy button he lost.

The moment he straightened his back, Zong Ge's palm landed on his shoulder.

The Investigation Captain's body turned stiff as a rock as if he had been paralyzed.

At the next moment, he heard Zong Ge's calm words: "Look, I helped you so much, but you still haven't thanked me. It isn't too much to ask for a word of gratitude, is it?"

"You humiliated me, but you still want my gratitude?" The Investigation Captain was so upset he could feel his organs hurting inside. He wished he could bite this muscular human to death.

In the end, the other party was stronger, so he had no choice but to give in...

"Thank you."

"Hahaha!" This time, it was Zong Ge who laughed out loud.

As he laughed, the Investigation Captain brought his men away shamefully.

After the group left the cabin, they reached the deck.

They approached the ship's rail, intending to follow the deck planks and leave the vessel.

At that moment, a group of alchemists approached them.  

Upon seeing the alchemists, the Investigation Captain froze in place, his face betraying disbelief.  

He recognized the identities of the alchemists.  

They were officials from the city government palace, trusted subordinates of the city Lord of Snow Bird Harbor, and the leader among them was one of the city Lord's closest confidants.

Zi Di walked alongside the group of alchemists, leading the way for them.

The two sides met at the ship's rail.

The Investigation Captain hurriedly led his team members to greet the group of alchemists.

The leader of the alchemists noticed that these people were wearing the investigation team's uniforms and couldn't help but feel curious. He asked, “Why is there an investigation team at the dock?”

The Investigation Captain bowed and scraped, hurriedly explaining a few words.

The alchemist leader immediately let out a disdainful cold laugh.

The Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps' ship had already entered the dock, yet they were still conducting an investigation at this time.

He immediately saw through the underlying scheme.

The Investigation Captain before him had undoubtedly become a lackey of the Bayonet Gang.

As the city Lord's confidant, he despised such people from the bottom of his heart.

Zi Di spoke up at the right moment, “I don't know why, but today has been particularly busy. From early morning, people began arriving one after another."

“The investigation team is one thing.”

"The dock workers are also demanding payment of mooring fees. The reason is that our ship is in a damaged state, so when it is moored at the dock, the dock bears a higher risk, and we need to pay several times the mooring fee. They also informed us that our ships are polluting the environment and must be repaired immediately; otherwise, we will face additional fines."

The alchemist leader paused for a moment before breaking into a cold smile: "Those are some pretty good excuses."

"However, please don't worry, Magician Hong Teng. We are here on the orders of the city Lord to first investigate the damage to the ships, cannons, and other equipment."

"Your group's gold level cannons and all your vessels will receive the best repairs."

"The city Lord has explicitly stated that we should use all available resources, and repair fees will only be charged at half the market rate. Additionally, he's made his private shipyard available to you. If any issues arise during repairs, your group's vessels may directly enter his private shipyard. There are large-scale repair facilities there, and no mooring fees will be charged. I can guarantee this last point!"

After saying this, the alchemist leader looked at the Investigation Captain again.  

What met his eyes was the Investigation Captain's wide-eyed, pale-faced expression of panic.

The alchemist leader was satisfied.

He sneered at the Investigation Captain with disdain, then walked past him with his head held high.

The investigation team members instinctively lowered their heads to avoid the alchemists' icy stares.

The Investigation Captain felt as though he had fallen into an ice cave, his heart growing cold.

The Snow Bird Harbor City Lord had actually aided the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps, openly displaying such an attitude. Could they still cause trouble for the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps?

After all, the one who managed them was the Snow Bird Harbor City Lord, not the Bayonet Gang.

The Bayonet Gang had bribed them precisely because of their work and positions.

All of that had been granted to them by the Snow Bird Harbor City Lord.

The Investigation Captain suddenly realized: his slap had been endured in vain, and he understood why Shi Qi was so brazen and arrogant.

“But how could this be?”

“Why is the city Lord so close to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps?”

The Investigation Captain felt like his world was collapsing.

"Hurry up, let's leave!" He lowered his head and dared not linger any longer.

Having lost his greatest support, the Investigation Captain now felt that the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps' ships were like a den of tigers and dragons.

The hatred that had filled his heart was now completely replaced by panic.

Zong Ge led the water pigmen onto the deck as well.

Seeing the investigation team fleeing in disarray, the water pigmen couldn't help but erupt into cheers and applause.

The water pigmen had also heard the alchemists' words.

He sighed in relief, his gaze toward Zong Ge filled with admiration.

"Gang Lie," Zong Ge turned sideways and suddenly spoke.

The water pigmen's cheers came to an abrupt halt.

Gang Lie immediately knelt down: "Lord Shi Qi, I was wrong! I couldn't hold back; I was too impulsive..."

Some water pigmen wanted to speak up for him, but Zong Ge's authority was too great, and they ultimately remained silent.  

Zong Ge's training had been highly effective; this group of water pigmen had been thoroughly disciplined by him.

“Well done,” Zong Ge interrupted the explanation.

"What?" Gang Lie looked up abruptly.

Remember, you are fighters, members of the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps. You're no longer slaves.”

"I don't care if you're beastmen. Once you join the Mercenary Corps, you are my people. You are one of us."

"In the future, in such situations, don't hesitate. Just hit them hard."

“A fighter may die on the battlefield but must never endure humiliation lightly.”  

The water pigmen trembled at these words, some with reddened eyes, others choked with emotion.

"Gang Lie," Zong Ge walked over and placed his left hand on the top of his head.

Zong Ge rubbed his head twice and left a faint remark: "Keep it up." 

After saying this, he left.  

He had to go to the training room to continue sparring with the dragonman youngster.

“Yes, Lord Shi Qi.” Gang Lie did not stand up; he kept his head bowed, his tiger-like eyes brimming with tears.  

He was easily embarrassed and did not want others to see him crying.  

For a moment, he could only maintain his half-kneeling posture, remaining motionless for a long time.  

The deck directly below him was already covered with a tiny puddle of tears.