Chapter 196 – Talk

“It’s so peaceful…” the young man lightly exclaimed while walking on the streets and looking around .

Even though there were not as many people walking about, everyone on the streets looked quite calm and did not look panicked at all.

Even though the marketplace was not as lively and bustling, the shops still operated as normal. This meant that order was being kept in this town.

This was completely different from the other places they had passed by on the way.

“It is very peaceful indeed,” the middle-aged man said in amazement, “To stay so peaceful in such times, what a fortunate place.”

“It’s not just fortune,” the soldier leading the way said, “It’s because there is someone protecting this town.”

“Oh?”

The young man and middle-aged man looked quite surprised.

Following this, the soldier began to tell them about this town.

Similar things had happened to this town as other places.

Refugees had flooded in, and the internal conflict as well as danger from outside caused a large number of refugees to die.

However, at the most important moment, someone stepped up.

It was Ed Doyle.

When the refugees were suffering the most, he scattered the mayor’s factions and protected the refugees. He selflessly took out food from his own storehouses and shared them with the refugees.

Hearing about this Mr. Doyle, the two people felt great admiration towards him.

On the way, they had seen many tragic things.

In most of the places, there were evil people oppressing the common people; there were very few places like this.

Moreover, there had been someone who had protected the refugees and shared his own food with them so that they could live on.

They could not help but feel touched.

As such, they became interested in Mr. Doyle and began to ask about him.

After hearing more about him, they felt even more respect towards him.

“Taking in those abandoned orphans and selflessly helping those refugees,” the young man had a look of awe on his face, “Mr. Doyle is truly a good person.”

“Not only is he a good person, he is very capable,” the middle-aged man said after looking around.

As they walked, they noticed that refugees would go to certain stalls to receive food.

However, the price that they had to pay was that they had to follow instructions and do all kinds of work.

However, to the refugees who just wanted to stay alive, this was incredibly good for them.

Even though there was some rubbish and stains on the streets, they were overall quite clean, and order was maintained quite well.

Putting aside the demon beast catastrophe, even before the catastrophe, it was rare to see such orderly scenes even in big cities.

To be able to maintain such a state in this situation, Mr. Doyle’s abilities were quite great and surpassed the two of them.

In the past, they had helped some towns; they would help the weak and defend refugees against tyrants.

However, that was all they could do.

Often, they were surprised to find that after they helped the weak overthrow the tyrants, their situations did not become much better. In fact, some people were worse off because of their intervention.

In the past, they had felt incredibly confused about this.

They had gotten rid of those tyrants, so why were these people’s lives not getting better and instead getting worse?

In fact, after they got rid of some tyrants, the people who replaced them were even worse.

Before, they had also been innocent victims and clearly understood the pain of the refugees, so why were they just like the previous tyrants?

This made the two of them feel incredibly confused and frustrated.

However, they did not see this problem here.

In this town, the previous tyrant had been disposed of, but order had not been destroyed and everything had gotten better.

This made the two of them feel quite surprised, and they felt quite curious about Mr. Doyle.

As such, they followed behind the soldier and prepared to meet Mr. Doyle.’

Soon, they came to a residence.

This was where Chen Heng had been living, and after taking over this town, it had become his headquarters.

After walking in, they were greeted by a dense smell of medicine.

The young man looked about and found that there were injured people lying all over the ground, some of them with serious injuries.

The two of them could tell at a glance that those injuries were from demon beasts.

Within the residence, there was a young man hurrying about.

He was only in his early twenties and wore an ordinary black robe. His facial features were quite handsome and charming, but his face looked somewhat pale.

When the two people walked in, that young man was half-kneeling as he treated a child.

After doing some examinations, Chen Heng put the girl’s hand down and said softly and gently, “Everything will be fine, but be careful in the future.”

He stroked the girl’s head.

The little girl nodded earnestly before being led away by her parents.

Chen Heng then turned to the next person.

There were some people who had already been treated looking at Chen Heng with looks of respect and gratitude.

Seeing this, the two people began to ask about what was going on.

Following this, they found out that the young man was Mr. Doyle.

After the demon beast disaster, many refugees had fallen ill, and there had also been many who had been injured by demon beasts.

In order to help them and settle them down, Mr Doyle would take them into his own residence and treat them himself.

What was surprising was that not only was Mr. Doyle very capable, but he was also an outstanding physician.

No matter what illness it was, he could quickly heal his patients. Even those who were seriously injured would quickly stop feeling the pain and get better.

“In order to treat these people, Mr Doyle has not rested for two days and two nights,” a person lightly said as he looked at Chen Heng with a gaze filled with respect and gratitude.

Hearing this, the two people felt even more respect for Chen Heng.

As they looked at him, they began to notice his features more.

They could see that there was a heavy look of fatigue on his face. Evidently, after not resting for two days, he was incredibly weary.

His face was incredibly pale and seemed to have no color to it. It was said that in order to treat as many people as possible, he barely even ate.

Seeing him like this, the two people inwardly sighed and felt great admiration towards him.

During their travels, they had seen many people.

There were cunning ones, sly ones, ambitious ones, and kind ones.

However, it was the first time they had met such a powerful and capable, yet selfless and kind, person.

Ordinarily speaking, the more powerful one was, the more realistic and selfish they were. They would not do anything that they did not feel would benefit themselves.

Even they could not help but feel much respect toward him.

They did not disturb Chen Heng and just stood by the side, preparing to talk with him after he was not busy.

Only after a long time did Chen Heng finally stop.

Chen Heng got up and looked at the two people with a weary and apologetic smile as he said, “Apologies. There are simply too many injured and sick people here, so I couldn’t receive you properly; I hope you don’t mind.”

He spoke softly, looking incredibly sincere.

“There’s no need to be like that.”

The young man hurriedly waved his hand as he said, “Saving people’s lives is much more important. In comparison, us waiting is not a big deal.”

Following this, he told Chen Heng his goal, which was to join Chen Heng’s mercenaries to attack the demon beasts.

“I welcome anyone who is willing to join us,” Chen Heng said with a smile, “As for payment, my butler will discuss that with you later. Don’t worry, you will definitely be satisfied with the payment.”

“There’s no need,” the young man said, “To be able to join you is our glory; how could we dare to ask for payment?”

So selfless?

Looking at these two people, Chen Heng felt quite surprised.

For some reason, he felt those words were quite familiar, as if he had said that to someone before.

However, he had ulterior motives at that time, but these two people seemed to be completely pure.

Chen Heng felt quite surprised but he gave a slight smile and said, “You don’t have to refuse; it is what you deserve. Since you are giving up your efforts, you should be rewarded. This is not just about what you receive but also my duty.”

Looking at this young man, Chen Heng lightly spoke before he suddenly sensed something.

Faith energy?

Chen Heng felt quite surprised as he thought to himself.

After researching faith energy for so long, even though he still did not know too much about it, he could at least sense it.

Chen Heng could sense that this young man had powerful faith energy, and it was incredibly dense.

Chen Heng had saved a town and pulled tens of thousands of people out of despair. He had worked hard this entire time, and he had gained a lot of faith energy.

However, this young man had many times the faith energy that Chen Heng had.

What a good fellow.

Chen Heng felt quite surprised.

Faith energy was only produced when one felt incredibly positive emotions towards someone.

For example, Chen Heng saving this town from demon beasts and starvation caused him to receive immense gratitude from the people.

Chen Heng knew just how difficult it was to gain faith energy.

In order to obtain the faith energy he currently had, he had done many things.

Just what had this person done to obtain such immense faith energy?

Chen Heng felt quite surprised but his expression did not change. He then silently activated his Fortune Mark.

Activating the Fortune Mark used up much of Chen Heng’s power, so Chen Heng only rarely activated it.

As the Fortune Mark was activated, the things that Chen Heng could see changed.

The young man was still standing there—he had a tall figure and valiant looks and gave off a heroic aura, making one feel favorable towards him.

Above his head, there was a faint golden Fortune spiralling about.

Well, well, well.

This young man was someone with Fortune.

No wonder he could gather so much faith energy.

Chen Heng came to a realization but his expression did not change, and he continued to smile.

“Those who give will be rewarded…”

Hearing Chen Heng’s words, the young man seemed to realize something.

He stood there and thought for a while before asking, “Is there some kind of principle in this?”

“Not exactly,” Chen Heng smiled, “It’s just fairness.

“Let me give you an example: If you work for me but I don’t pay you, or give you extra pay, what will happen?”

“What will happen?”

The young man thought to himself, but Chen Heng directly gave out the answer.

“If I didn’t give you payment, others would think that it was unfair; if I gave you extra payment, others would expect the same. If I didn’t increase their pay, they would be dissatisfied; but if I did, where would that money come from? So you can see, fairness is important.”

As Chen Heng spoke, he led the two people to the side.

This was because the young man had Fortune.

If it was an ordinary person, Chen Heng would not talk with them so much. He would just hand them over to someone else to not waste time.

“Fairness… fairness…” the two people repeated those two words as if they understood something but still seemed somewhat confused.

“But it was us who asked not to receive payment.”

“The conclusion is the same,” Chen Heng said as he smiled and explained, “If you ask not to be paid, others will laugh at you, but deep down they will feel discontent. After all, you asking not to be paid will make them seem selfish.

“Moreover, even if you don’t need the money yourself, perhaps your family will need it.

“This kind of arrangement also is not fair for you. It might be fair in the short term, but as time goes on, you may begin to become discontent.

“Although, that is just the case for ordinary people.”

Chen Heng waved his hand, as if he was making a joke, “You look quite strong and don’t seem like an ordinary person.”

Those who were strong usually had decent living conditions and mental qualities, so they naturally would not become discontent so easily.

“艾德先生…”

However, this was not the case for ordinary people.

For now, Chen Heng did not want to be affected by any negative faith energy, so he had to get rid of any possibility for negative emotions.

The young man nodded thoughtfully before asking a question.

“Mr Doyle…” It was as if he had made up his mind and he looked at Chen Heng as he spoke seriously, “On the way here, I’ve seen many similar towns, and most of them have also been affected by the demon beast catastrophe.

“However, different from here, after those people resisted, they faced even greater troubles.

“Why is that?” the young man asked.

He simply could not understand it.

However, after hearing Chen Heng’s words, he had a feeling that perhaps Chen Heng could answer this question.

Chen Heng patiently listened before suddenly laughing.

“This is actually not a very difficult question,” Chen Heng said as he smiled.

“It’s like a poisoned well: Those who drink the water within will gradually become weaker, if not die.

“Everyone can see the danger of the poisoned well, but even so, they will drink the water. Even if they become poisoned, they will at least be able to keep living.

“Your method of acting is essentially smashing this poisoned well but not bringing them a new water source. You destroyed the old order but did not establish a new order.”

Looking at the young man, Chen Heng thought for a moment before continuing, “No matter how bad the old order was, it was at least better than no order.”

Hearing these words, the young man became stunned as he thought of the scenes from before.

After being freed from the oppression of the nobles, the commoners became even more desperate.

They destroyed, pillaged, and attacked each other… Those weak and innocent people did all kinds of evil things.

After losing order, those commoners became even more terrifying than the nobles from before.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep