Chapter 462: The Emotionless Ascetic
The aftermath of the Barnes coalition's defeat was still brewing, but Brother Lowell, who was at the center of the vortex, didn't care about it at all.
For Lowell, who had witnessed the Tarantan Undead creating countless battlefield miracles, it was no big deal for the Undead army to defeat tens of thousands of regular troops overnight - if it weren't for the fact that these Undead always couldn't help but fight among themselves and fought for more than seven hours before the battle, there would be no need to wait overnight to repel the Barnes coalition.
After two days of traveling day and night to bring more than 8,000 prisoners back to his own viscountry, Lowell was busy like a spinning top...
As the first step in managing his own territory, Brother Lowell decided to start with "storing up food."
First, the eight thousand captives were dispersed and reorganized into ten reclamation teams, and then led by the priests who were also divided into ten groups to open up wasteland and cultivate farms. There was a lot of idle land in the territories along the western border of the Principality, and the Viscountship of the Lowell family was no exception.
When Yang Qiu returned the space bracelet, he also gave Lowell a set of experience in organizing farm reclamation (provided by the new town of Adler Territory) and rules and regulations for managing prisoners of war for labor reform (provided by Hal Tuttle and Pansy). The priests just need to copy the homework...
Lowell directly handed over the logistical responsibility of providing for these ten labor reform and reclamation teams to Joyce Andre. In order to prevent his subordinates from being rebellious by prisoners of war due to lack of food and supplies, Joyce Andre, the paladin, had to fight for his life and learn from the experience accumulated by Ms. Mia during her time as the butler of Westham.
After arranging the prisoners of war as tools for storing food, Brother Lowell immediately began to prepare to imitate Yang's operation in the Rhine Kingdom and launched a vigorous campaign to crack down on gangs, evil, pornography and illegal publications in his own viscountry. Regardless of whether this method was a bit cruel and extreme, it was indeed a shortcut to quickly obtain labor (criminals and rescued civilians) and obtain funds for reform (confiscation of illegal assets).
There is a small city with a population of 100,000, six towns with a permanent population of more than 3,000, and a micro-town with a permanent population of less than 3,000 in the Viscount's territory.
The Lowell family's mansion is in the city, so the first target of attack is naturally the city with the highest population density in the Viscount's territory.
He recalled all his direct descendants and the private soldiers they raised (yes, the Lowell family also raised private soldiers), and found an excuse to invite the city's governors, sheriffs, affairs officers, and all the small nobles in the territory to his mansion. Lowell silently sealed off the entire lord's mansion.
After confining these people who were not only unable to help but were more likely to cause trouble, or even the target of the attack, in the lord's mansion, Lowell sent out the undead who were happily running to accept the mission to clean up... no, to eliminate evil.
Because the battlefield activity on the Shiga map ended, and a lucky player in Tachia found the last wandering BOSS and advanced the "main line of the entire server", and could continue to attack northward, there were only a dozen teams of players left in Shiga, with a total of more than a thousand people.
This amount of undead would probably be destroyed if they were sent to fight in the battlefield, but it is more than enough to wipe out the evil forces in a small city.
Soon, the industrious little undead overturned several casinos, brothels, bars, and strip shows in the city, and tied up countless hooligans; various letters, papers, contract lists and other evidence seized from these gray industries were also actively sent to the lord's mansion by the little undead in exchange for rewards.
Lowell, who was guarding the front door of his house, received the evidence collected by the undead. The more he looked at it, the more veins appeared on his forehead, and his face became more and more gloomy...
The parishes of the Prosperous Church generally have better morals than the Gold Coin Parish.
The gentlemen of Camor town seized the land and property of the villagers, but they had to hype it up, come up with excuses, and arrange jobs for the landless farmers... In the end, they had to leave some way for the common people to make a living, just to save face.
But as for the fiefdom that Brother Lowell earned for his descendants...the Church of Prosperity and Grand Duke Shida had to turn a blind eye, which led to the descendants of the Lowell family being quite unscrupulous.
For example, the nobles of the Rhine Kingdom knew to be vague and leave as little evidence as possible when it came to written evidence that could easily be used as evidence. However, Lowell's filial son and grandson had no such awareness at all - Alfred Lowell, the glorious ancestor, was still alive! How could the Prosperous Holy Land and the Grand Duke of Shiga go against his descendants!
The accompanying lich Enwei took a few glances and looked at Lowell with a rather strange look in his eyes.
"Don't mind it so much, monk. After all, they are descendants of several generations. It is inevitable that they are not properly disciplined." Enwei suppressed his smile and comforted in a friendly manner.
Ms. Karina, who was standing next to him, came over curiously. At first glance, she saw the back of the letter in Lowell's hand that the undead had confiscated was covered with the Lowell family crest...
Ms. Karina stepped back silently, pretending she saw nothing.
Brother Lowell frowned and put the evidence into his space bracelet.
After all, having watched the entire process of the Undead regime's crackdown on the evil forces in the Innadli Territory and the Adler Territory, Lowell is no longer the ascetic monk who knew nothing and only knew how to run around "for the orders of his superiors."
He knew that in addition to "conventional" industries such as casinos and brothels, there were also so-called trade unions and business organizations that monopolized transportation channels, monopolized pricing in the grain market, monopolized alcohol and other highly profitable industries, and they also had gang attributes.
He also knew that these evil forces, whether overt or covert, usually had close ties with the local upper class, that is, the feudal nobles.
In other words, if we trace the source of these underground black industries upwards, we will most likely find the largest feudal noble in the viscount's territory, Lowell's tenth-generation great-grandson, the current viscount of the Lowell family, and other unworthy descendants.
Lowell was mentally prepared for all these, but when he really saw the concrete evidence... he couldn't hold back his anger.
"Envy, I'll trouble you to look after the City Hall and watch the Public Security Department receive the suspects on my behalf." Lowell said as calmly as possible.
"No problem." Envy, who had been looking after Lowell's house for half a month, was very familiar with the local environment. He summoned an undead horse and rushed to the city hall.
"Ms. Karina." Lowell looked at the black magician who had volunteered to provide services for him in exchange for his freedom. "Could you please watch the city gate for me? If anyone tries to leave the city, please intercept them."
"Leave it to me." Ms. Karina agreed readily and summoned an undead horse to set off. This small town only had two gates for city defense safety. Blocking the two gates would be much easier than stopping those irregularly scattered undead.
After sending the outsiders away, Lowell turned around angrily and entered the lord's mansion.
The tenth generation great-grandson ran away and became king. Lowell couldn't do anything about it for the time being, but there was no escape for the others!
Entering the family courtyard that had been renovated and expanded several times, Brother Lowell, with a murderous look on his face, took out the nylon cable tie that Yang had thoughtfully prepared for him from his space bracelet...
While more than a thousand undead were wreaking havoc in the city, scaring the citizens into fleeing for their lives, a decadent and luxurious "upper class" cocktail party was being held in the lord's mansion that Lowell had sealed himself off - an excuse to gather his own descendants, private soldiers, city bureaucrats, and local petty nobles to celebrate the great victory on the battlefield in the west.
At the atrium cocktail party carefully arranged by the servants, gentlemen in well-dressed suits and ladies in luxurious long dresses were laughing and chatting happily.
Still wearing a simple black robe, Lowell strode into the crowd, ignoring the petty nobles who tried to come up to him and fawn on him, he pushed aside the waiters and servants who were blocking his way, and walked straight to the side of Master Lance, the eleventh-generation great-grandson, who was standing at the long table enjoying the company of ladies, and extended his hand expressionlessly.
"Great-grandfather, you - ah!" Master Lance, with a confident smile on his face, was about to show off his famous ancestor to the ladies of the city, when he suddenly felt a huge force coming from his arm. The pain made him scream and he half squatted down involuntarily.
The angry Brother Lowell awkwardly lifted his grandson's arms behind his back, put on nylon ties and tightened them.
"Great, great-grandfather?!" Master Lance, who was caught off guard and tied up with his hands tied behind his back, was dumbfounded.
Brother Lowell said nothing, raised his foot and kicked down his grandson, who was still half-squatting, then bent down and put nylon ties on Master Lance's feet.
"ah--!"
The ladies who were surrounding Master Lance to try to please him were frightened and scattered with screams.
Brother Lowell had no one else in his eyes. After taking down Master Lance, the great-grandson who looked most like him and whom he had secretly hoped for, he turned to his other descendants...
In addition to the current viscount, several other tenth-generation great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, all those whose names were on the evidence confiscated by the undead, were dragged out from the crowd and from the greenhouse near the atrium by Brother Lowell.
These descendants, who had enjoyed the treatment of local emperors in the viscount's territory since birth, thought that their ancestors had gone crazy. Some screamed in fear, while others begged for mercy in panic.
The shocking incident in the courtyard frightened the guests and also attracted the Lowell family's private soldiers. When they discovered that the one who attacked their hosts was the Lowell family's greatest ancestor, these private soldiers, who had always relied on their status to run rampant in the Viscount's territory, were helpless.
Lowell still had no intention of explaining. As soon as the leader of the private soldiers showed up, he stepped forward and captured the man, tied him up... and he did not let go of the others who came with the leader of the private soldiers either.
Finally, some of the guests realized that something was wrong and took advantage of the chaos to flee in panic.
Then... the guests who were "invited" to the celebration party found that all the doors of the manor could not be opened, and they could not climb over the wall to get out...
The high-level priests who are best at defense, sealing and positional warfare took action. Even Yang Qiu, who had not yet been promoted, found it difficult to deal with. They had to use a powerful move like the Breath of Hell to force Lowell to give up the fight... let alone these ordinary people?
In a rage, Lowell personally tied up his own offspring and private soldiers, and then walked towards the pale-faced butler, the trembling butler, and Master Lance's personal valet...
As Lowell strode forward without saying a word to arrest people, Anthony consciously kept his mouth shut and followed behind to collect the people caught by Lowell, carrying them all to the atrium and placing them together.
After being left behind by Lowell, Anthony resigned himself to his fate and rode for a day and a half before running back to the Viscount's territory.
Upon hearing that Brother Lowell had taken Envy to the western frontier, this overly shrewd fellow guessed what Lowell was thinking, gave up the idea of chasing after them, and stayed quietly as a guest in the Viscount's mansion - anyway, the battle after summoning the undead would be resolved quickly, and if he followed them he would have to return immediately, so he might as well rest for a few days.
When Lowell ordered the servants to prepare for the cocktail party, Anthony, who never treated himself badly, used Lowell's name and asked the butler to prepare him a dress that would not embarrass him in front of the ladies.
And then... he had just started talking to a noble lady who was attending the cocktail party when Lowell rushed into the atrium to cause trouble.
He even attacked his most favored grandson, Master Lance, right away, which made Anthony's eyelids twitch - the monk had only been separated from him for four days, right? !
What happened in the past few days that made this indecisive priest suddenly become so tough?
Although Anthony was very smart, he obviously lacked a clear understanding of the impact of his actions and immediately became obedient .
Anyone who can be so ruthless as to deal with his own descendants can be even more rude when dealing with outsiders. He is now afraid of Lowell.
After cutting the Gordian knot and capturing more than 80% of his direct descendants, more than 60% of his private soldiers and nearly 50% of his servants on the spot, Lowell's stern face relaxed a little.
"Great, great-grandfather...what are you doing?" A great-great-granddaughter of the same generation as the current viscount only dared to cry out loud when she saw Lowell finally stop.
Lowell looked at the few remaining relatively clean descendants and sighed deeply.
"Over the years, I have neglected to discipline my family." Lowell said calmly with sadness in his tone, "It is my fault that Sabrina's descendants have fallen to this level."
When Master Lance, who had been roaring angrily, heard him mention the name of his great-great-grandmother who had passed away more than two hundred years ago, he paused and looked at Lowell in fear, as if he had realized that something extremely terrible was about to happen.
"I was very sad when Sabrina passed away." Lowell looked across the atrium that had been completely changed after several renovations and expansions, and said, "Our children have also grown old and died... I think it's time for everything about her and me to become the past. Her and my bloodline will be passed on to future generations, and these descendants should have their own lives, and I, an ancestor who has been separated for many generations, should not interfere."
"But this does not mean that I can allow someone to trample on the noble bloodline inherited from Sabrina."
Rowell's eyes fell on the descendants who were lying in a mess on the ground, and his eyes turned cold: "You are unworthy of Sabrina's trust and expectations for her descendants, and you are not worthy of having my last name."
Pointing at Master Lance and the others, the emotionless monk said coldly: "I, Alfred Lowell, hereby declare that the Lowell family name inherited by you will be stripped from you, including Senior Joseph who is now in the capital."
Master Lance, who was leaning his upper body back, rolled his eyes and fainted.
