That night, the families of over 20 other administrative personnel began packing their belongings, preparing to leave the Territory for Nord City.
At the same time, the news of the impending Demon Invasion quickly spread throughout the entire Territory.
Within the Territory, any family with the means began preparing for evacuation.
However, those who chose to leave and Fleeing the Territory were ultimately only a minority among the Domain Residents; the majority chose to remain.
After all, fleeing disaster requires capital.
Against the backdrop of the Demon Invasion, if they chose to flee, it would mean abandoning the land where they had lived for generations and moving to a completely unfamiliar place.
And on that journey of Fleeing, Grain consumption was required daily, which the vast majority of ordinary Commoners could not afford.
Not to mention how to take their large families and belongings with them while Fleeing; even if they abandoned most of their property and only took necessities for the journey, what would they do once they reached a safe place?
Their land and houses were here; without land, what would they live on?
Unless one had vast amounts of money, even if they left here and escaped to a safe place, they probably wouldn't live well afterward.
For the vast majority of ordinary families, did they have money? Yes, but not much.
Although Yang Zhiwen had exempted all Domain Residents from Taxes for two years, Yang Zhiwen had only been a Lord for just over two months.
For the ordinary people of the Territory, although their living conditions had improved compared to before, the improvement was not significant, so they naturally had no surplus money.
Moreover, the Demon Invasion is different from fleeing famine caused by natural disasters. During a natural disaster, one flees to a place with Grain, and returns when the disaster ends; the land can still be cultivated afterward. But a Demon Invasion means this land will no longer belong to them.
Of course, besides lacking the capital to Flee, there was another, more important reason why most people chose not to evacuate: in the eyes of many Domain Residents, the Demon Race occupying this land didn't seem to make much difference.
Although it was rumored that the Demon Race were beings who would eat people without spitting out the bones, in reality, there wasn't excessive man-eating by the Demon Race.
For instance, the humans remaining from the several nations annihilated by the Demon Race west of the Jialan Empire were not completely wiped out by the Demon Race.
The Demon Race occupying land wasn't for eating people; on the contrary, the Demon Race occupying land seemed more for mining some kind of mineral.
There were always rumors circulating that the lives of humans under Demon Race occupation were even better than those in human-controlled nations.
In the Demon Controlled Area, humans only needed to complete the mining tasks assigned by the Demon Race; they didn't collect extra Grain Taxes from humans, only requiring periodic contributions of livestock.
Whereas under human rule in the Empire, the Commoners here bore heavy Taxes.
Every year they had to pay a head tax, Grain, and various other miscellaneous Taxes.
The burden was heavy, as those who couldn't afford the Taxes and became Slaves were everywhere.
Of course, this rumor that living conditions were better in the Demon Controlled Area was never 100% confirmed, but for these ordinary people, if the rumor was true, then whether living under human rule or Demon Race rule, the difference in farming life wasn't very large for them.
It was precisely because of this persistent rumor that when faced with the Demon Invasion, most Commoners chose not to embark on the path of Fleeing, but rather chose to stay here.
Against the backdrop of the Demon Invasion, Yang Zhiwen naturally thought of returning to Blue Star to seek national assistance, wanting the nation to believe him; simply becoming a Transcendent on his own wasn't enough.
Yang Zhiwen needed the nation to take the matter seriously immediately.
Therefore, Yang Zhiwen needed to wait a while. He sent Jike back to Nord City to request money, Grain, and weapons from the City Lord, but that was only one aspect; what Yang Zhiwen truly wanted Jike to bring back were those Awakening Crystals.
Although he didn't know if Awakening Crystals would have the same effect on Blue Star, he figured that even if the Awakening Crystals couldn't make people Transcendent on Blue Star, the contents contained within would be enough to draw the nation's attention.
So Yang Zhiwen planned to wait for Jike to return from Nord City, then take the Awakening Crystals back to Blue Star and hand them directly over to the nation.
As long as he attracted the nation's attention, preserving the Territory wouldn't be too difficult a problem.
The following evening.
Jike returned to the Territory from Nord City.
"Lord, something has happened."
"What is it?"
"Lord, I have failed your trust; I couldn't bring back Grain and weapons from Nord City."
"What happened? Since I expressed my intent to defend the Territory, even if Carnes was reluctant to part with money, he should have provided the Grain!"
"Wouldn't refusing make the other Lords lose heart?"
"Lord, we were all deceived. When I arrived outside Nord City, I found that the Lords of other Territories had already retreated into Nord City. Currently, you are the only Territory west of Nord City that was not permitted to retreat."
"The Nord City side said that all Territories to the west have been abandoned, and the Empire has decided to use Nord City as the Core to construct a new defensive line against the Demon Race."
"And all the people in those abandoned Territories are merely delaying the Demon Race's advance."
"Therefore, I couldn't even meet the City Lord. The official who received me merely said that all Lords had already withdrawn, and Nord City would no longer dispatch any surplus Military Strength or supplies westward."
"Then who tampered with the City Lord's orders?"
"Viscount Kane."
"That bastard Kane!"
Kane Shudman, a Viscount in Nord City, had a major conflict with Yang Zhiwen.
The source of their conflict dated back to when Yang Zhiwen first became a Lord.
Two months ago, a Slave Catching Squad appeared in the Territory.
Originally, this Slave Catching Squad was meant to capture Fleeing Slaves, but when passing through Yang Zhiwen's Territory, they actually captured Xiao Bai, claiming she was a Fleeing Slave.
In the Jialan Empire, Beast-eared Girls were indeed equivalent to Slaves, but the problem was that Xiao Bai was someone Yang Zhiwen favored, so he immediately led the Territory's soldiers in pursuit.
Upon seeing Yang Zhiwen, this Slave Catching Squad not only refused to return Xiao Bai but also revealed their backer, who turned out to be Kane Shudman.
However, what the Slave Catching Squad didn't expect was that after revealing their backer, Yang Zhiwen still ordered his soldiers to capture them on the spot.
The Slave Catching Squad tried to resist, but under the deterrence of Rebar, they were quickly dealt with.
After dealing with the Slave Catching Squad, Yang Zhiwen discovered that not only Xiao Bai had been taken from his Territory, but over a dozen children from the Territory had also been seized by them in the chaos.
Considering this behavior was no different from human traffickers, Yang Zhiwen chose zero tolerance. He executed everyone in the Slave Catching Squad immediately, hung their Corpses by the main road, and clearly wrote down their crimes.
Although directly plundering Imperial Commoners to become Slaves was explicitly forbidden, in reality, Slave Catching Squads often raided villages for children and women to become Slaves; it was an unwritten tacit rule.
As long as the matter wasn't exposed, there wasn't much of a problem.
Of course, the Slave Catching Squads usually picked on the weak; they naturally wouldn't target a relatively powerful Territory.
But because Yang Zhiwen had just become a Lord and the Territory was small, the Slave Catching Squad thought Yang Zhiwen was a soft target, which is why they acted recklessly in his Territory.
Unexpectedly, this time they didn't just fail to find a soft target; they kicked an iron plate instead.
And for Kane, having his subordinate Slave Catching Squad executed, their Corpses hung by the main road with their crimes clearly stated, was equivalent to being slapped in the face.
However, at that time, Yang Zhiwen had just resolved the Cholera problem in Nord City and had quite a reputation among the Nobles there, so Kane chose to endure.
Now, his revenge had arrived.