At a glance, it was clear that this was a small mercenary group, otherwise, it wouldn't be staying in such a small alley. And as for what kind of mercenary group it was, it was probably quite self-promotional. This didn't seem like a proper group, at most, it could be considered a mercenary squad!!
In theory, Anna's mercenary group wouldn't be this small, and it wouldn't be in such a place. Plus, this mercenary group was predominantly male, while Anna's group was all female. Anyone could discern these differences. However, Yelang couldn't distinguish them, he thought Anna's group now had male members, making it easier to take on tasks, and in his eyes, the size didn't matter much.
He was confused and mistaken. Furthermore, there happened to be a person missing in this mercenary group, and everyone was waiting for that person... "Why are you so late? Do you not want to go anymore? Hurry up, we don't have time!!" one of the mercenaries said, mistaking Yelang for the missing person.
In fact, they had only just formed this small mercenary group, previously they were solo mercenaries from all corners. "Where did you get those clothes? Change them, they're distracting." Yelang's clothes stood out, but none of the group found this suspicious, being as confused as Yelang.
Perhaps it should be said, the members of this mercenary group did not think much of themselves, believing that no one would be interested in them. "Change into something more like what we're wearing." one person replied. "Oh..." Yelang looked at the others, nodded, and went in to change into the standard mercenary attire, which was relatively old, less likely to attract attention.
As for why he had these clothes, it was simple, he had bought them before, ostensibly out of extravagance as if it was a very famous mercenary's leather armor. At least, this should be the case, but he himself didn't remember anymore.
"Alright, today is the most important task since our mercenary group was formed, everyone needs to be on alert, we're setting out now!!" Under the leader's address, many people responded excitedly. Of course, more people thought to themselves, it's the most important task only because it's the first one!!
Yelang also joined in the excitement, as if he found it very amusing, and even if he realized something was wrong now, he might not leave, especially as he hadn't found out yet.
He had been substituting his own affairs into the situation, and in such a fortuitous way, everything seemed to fit, a very confused kind of substitution. And so, Yelang followed this newly formed small mercenary group and left Yecheng, heading south...
That's right, south, the opposite direction from where he was supposed to go, and at this point, he was so confused that he wouldn't be able to distinguish between east and west, following wherever others went. When Yelan's friends, including Yelan's sister Yelang, found out about this later, they pinched Yelang's face and asked how he could be so confused, how he could follow the wrong person and head in a completely different direction. And after learning about the situation, they became even more reluctant to let Yelang go alone, fearing that if one day, he wandered off in a daze to another continent, what would he do!
However, they couldn't stop him, no one could stop him! Shortly after Yelang and the others left, a mercenary with some disheveled clothing ran over, looking anxious, and when he saw the empty house, he stood there dumbfounded for a while. Then he said, "Gone? Looks like I'll have to find another place to make a living!" Since they had already left, it meant his presence wasn't needed, he had always been an expendable minor character!
In order to prevent Ye Lang from causing more trouble, everyone unanimously decided to let him do nothing and serve as a young master. This made Ye Lang feel very normal, as he was originally a young master. This made him even less suspicious of these people, thinking that they felt it was not good for him to do things, after all, he was their employer.
In this way, Ye Lang followed these mercenaries through a number of kingdoms, getting closer and closer to the Southern Vermilion Bird Empire. Fortunately, the mercenary group was heading south. If they were going to the north, to the Sky Emperor Empire, it would be like sending a sheep into a tiger's den!
If he entered the Sky Emperor Empire, Zhao Yarou would definitely be very busy again, and this time she would not let Ye Lang escape so easily. She would not use a large army to chase him, but would employ the empire's sword saints instead.
Facing the pursuit of the empire's sword saints, Ye Lang would not be as relaxed as before. It would be very troublesome, and he could easily be caught.
Just a hundred miles from the border of the Vermilion Bird Empire, the footsteps of this mercenary group stopped, not for a break, but because they had reached their destination.
This time, they were delivering a shipment to this place, a small box. No one knew what was inside, at least no one in this mercenary group did.
It was just a box, and the price they were offered was high, so no one would ask about it.
As mercenaries, they would not open the box. It was a rule. If they broke the rule, they would disappear from the mercenary world and would not be able to continue.
Of course, the rule was not to open it, but one could also choose not to accept the job. So, such matters were voluntary, and many people did them. It was just a normal occurrence.
"Why have we stopped here?" After resting for a few days, Ye Lang asked in confusion. According to reason, the team escorting him should not have arbitrarily stopped without his request.
"We have reached the destination, so where else do you want to go?" a mercenary asked, equally puzzled as they looked at Ye Lang, not understanding why the confused Frank was behaving this way.
"The destination? This doesn't look anything like the Tiger Tribe's territory." Even in his confusion, Ye Lang could still distinguish between the orcs and ordinary people.
"Tiger Tribe? What are you talking about? This is the city of Am, on the edge of the Vermilion Bird Empire. We came here to deliver something. Are you still half asleep?" The mercenary looked at Ye Lang, thinking he was just being absent-minded, and didn't think much of it.
For him, working with Ye Lang would be the last time, and he would not meet Ye Lang again in the future, so he did not think about anything else.
"..." Ye Lang fell silent, and he seemed to realize that he might have followed the wrong people.
Nonsense, he couldn't have followed the wrong people. How else would he have ended up in the Vermilion Bird Empire? Anna and the others wouldn't have made the same mistake, they wouldn't have gone to the wrong place.
Speaking of which, Anna and the others seemed to be women, and these people...
At this point, Ye Lang finally noticed this, but it was already too late, far too late!!
"Um, it seems I made a mistake. Can I leave?" After realizing the mistake, Ye Lang straightforwardly stated his intention to leave.
However, at this point, the mercenaries did not let Ye Lang go, because the task was not yet complete. Even if they wanted to drive Ye Lang away, they would have to wait for the task to be completed first, and the commission settled.
In the mercenary world, no one could cheat another out of their commission, whether they were the employer or the hired mercenary. If they did, the consequences would be very severe.
"You can't leave now. Once this task is completed, you can go wherever you want!" the mercenary said.
"Why? I am not..." Ye Lang was puzzled and wanted to explain that he was not a mercenary, just that he had made a mistake.
"There's no 'why'. Even if you think you are useless, what's yours is still yours. We won't withhold anything from you. You can leave after the task is completed!" the mercenary said sternly.
Ye Lang looked at the mercenary in confusion and then nodded. Although he didn't understand the situation, since the other party was being so serious, he decided to stay until the task was completed. After all, being a few days late wouldn't make a big difference now.
But at this moment, Ye Lang was thinking that coming here had made his time very tight. How did such a misunderstanding happen? He couldn't understand how they mistook him for Frank.
Blaming these people, Ye Lang seemed to have not considered that he was the main character. If he couldn't even understand himself, how could others understand him? How could such a misunderstanding occur?
I wonder if Anna and the others will scold me when they find out about this situation...
Forget it, I won't inform them. It's just as well to go alone. At most, I'll hire a cart and the coachman should know the way.
Also, since I'm at the doorstep of the Vermilion Bird Empire, should I go in to find my cousin? Maybe not, finding her wouldn't be a problem, but I'm afraid I'd end up wasting time again. I'll come back when I have the time.
From what Ye Lang knew about his cousin, if he were caught by her, it would take at least a month or so to get away!
The leader of the mercenary group and some important figures took that box inside to meet with the employer!
At first, the employer was in a somewhat dark place, making it difficult for the mercenaries to see clearly, only to later walk out and enter the mercenaries' line of sight.
However, the mercenaries found that the employer was wearing a black mask covering the upper half of the face, wearing a black cloak with what appeared to be a number thirteen mark on it.
This appearance seemed a bit strange and raised suspicion!
In fact, not only was this questionable, but there was also something even stranger. If this was the employer's territory, then why did they have to wait for several days before letting them in? Why couldn't they come before?
Just as Ye Lang said, could it be that there was some secret business to be done?
If Ye Lang were here and not in a daze, he would have noticed that something was amiss, the employer seemed not to care about the mercenaries' opinions.
Either he wasn't afraid of being known, or it didn't matter if the mercenaries knew...
"Have you seen what's inside?" the employer asked, not concerned with anything else.
"Boss, do you not trust us? We are rule-abiding mercenaries and wouldn't do such things," the mercenaries said, somewhat displeased.
"Alright, I trust you. Place the goods on the table, and your remuneration for this mission is on top of it!" the employer pointed to the table in the room, addressing the mercenaries.
The mercenaries did not suspect anything else, and directly put down the items, then opened the money pouch on the table...
"Puff!"
As the money pouch was opened, it suddenly exploded, spraying a lot of dust. In an instant, this dust entered the mouths and noses of the mercenaries, so quickly that they didn't even have time to hold their breath.
"You..."
After inhaling the dust, the mercenaries immediately started bleeding from all orifices and fell to the ground, some pointing accusingly at the employer.
"Don't blame me, blame yourselves for being so foolish that you couldn't even see through such a simple setup, small mercenaries are just small mercenaries!" the employer said coldly.
As the employer said, if this group of mercenaries had more experience and were more astute, they wouldn't have died. Many aspects of this incident were telling them that there was a problem.
This group of mercenaries were all those who were not at the top of their group; the employer specifically targeted this, knowing that they were easy to deal with and wouldn't arouse suspicion.
These low-level mercenaries were entrusted with something, so it must be something unimportant. No one would trust them with anything important.
"Do you know why I didn't seal the goods? It's because it doesn't matter if you know, you will all be dead, and even if I showed you, you wouldn't know what it is!" The employer smirked confidently.
This was also why he was so confident; he believed that in this world, no one else besides himself would understand the contents.
"Darling, you've finally returned! It's all that Gaofei's fault, actually surrendering his kingdom to the thirteenth young master of the Ye family, causing my plans to change and not being able to continue over there!!" The employer touched the things inside the box, as if they were the most precious in the world.
From his words, it was evident that he had intended to use Tianji City's peculiarity for some affair, but because Ye Lang had won Tianji City and the Ye family had moved in on a large scale, his plans were suddenly thwarted, and he had to transport the unfinished business somewhere else to continue.
He savored it slowly, unconcerned about the mercenaries outside, as he had already put fatal poison in their food. He believed that when he left later, everyone outside would be dead.
Dead people, what's there to fear? He didn't need to care how long they waited outside, because they were dead!!
After enjoying himself, he planned to leave and burn down the estate, leaving no trace!
No one would notice the situation here; the estate was isolated, and even if it burned down, no one would know.
However, this group of mercenaries, these low-level mercenaries, died; who would care?
Mercenaries were a high-risk profession; they had a sense of resignation, knowing they could die at any time and leave this world at any moment.
Even they themselves had this kind of thinking, so others didn't need to care and wouldn't take notice of their life or death!!
The employer did not doubt whether the mercenaries outside would discover the food was tainted, as he believed in the poison he had concocted was colorless and tasteless. After ingestion, it would take some time to take effect. This kind of poison was perfect for such a situation; it wouldn't be preempted by those who hadn't eaten it.
This was also the reason he was waiting; waiting for the poison to take effect!!
"The time is almost here; it's time to do proper business, darling, I'll see you in a bit!" The employer packed the box's contents into a backpack carefully and left.