"Everyone, stop fighting!"

Because they were at the estate of the Blackthorn family, the other family heads couldn't act out on the spot. Besides, they wanted to give Edmund Blackthorn a chance to explain and prove that his family wasn't colluding with the bandits. So, they suppressed their anger and followed Edmund Blackthorn to the outskirts of the estate.

Ethan Thompson saw Edmund Blackthorn coming out with the family heads and didn't waste any words. He pointed directly at the grain he had brought and said, "Chief Edmund Blackthorn, as agreed, I have returned all the grain to your family."

"What's this? I, Pépino, have brought you grain, and you shut the gates tight and don't even invite me in for a drink. Are you looking down on me?"

From atop the wall, Edmund Blackthorn looked at Ethan Thompson, who was wearing a strange mask, and shouted in despair, "Dear Mr. Pépino! This is our first meeting. When have we ever made such an agreement? Please don't ruin me!"

Ethan Thompson pretended to be furious and said, "Alright, alright, Chief Edmund Blackthorn, you're noble, you're impressive, and now you look down on me!"

"Anyway, I've delivered the grain. The grain for the Hawthorne Family and the Ravenswood Family has also been returned to your families. We'll meet again."

With that, Ethan Thompson turned his horse and rode off with his men.

Before leaving, Ethan Thompson, seemingly angry about Edmund Blackthorn's denial, deliberately slashed a bag of grain.

The white rice poured out from the slit in the sack, spilling all over the ground.

All the family heads present were heartbroken to see the grain wasted like this.

Finnian, who had an arrow in his knee, noticed that the grain returned by the bandits was much more than what they had previously given out, so he immediately reported this to his family head.

With the evidence clear, the heads of the smaller families no longer believed Edmund Blackthorn's lies.

Now, they only trusted their own eyes and firmly believed that their grain had been stolen because the Blackthorn, Ravenswood, and Hawthorne families were colluding with the bandits.

Otherwise, how could those bandits have delivered so much grain to the three major families?

"Gentlemen, these three families are going too far. Let's join forces and fight them to get our grain back!" one family head said angrily.

"Yes, let's fight them. They still have a lot of grain in their granaries. We'll take it as compensation!" the other family heads responded one after another.

These family heads all left the Blackthorn estate, hurried back to their own estates to gather their men, and prepared to fight the three major families.

After the angry departure of the smaller family heads, Victor Blackthorn, who was covered in wounds, hobbled back.

Edmund Blackthorn hurried to ask Victor Blackthorn what had happened.

But Victor Blackthorn, with a face full of bruises and only three teeth left, couldn't speak clearly and just kept crying.

Edmund Blackthorn had no choice but to have someone take Victor Blackthorn back for treatment.

"Chief, what should we do with the grain outside?" a servant asked.

Edmund Blackthorn looked at Victor Blackthorn, then at the large amount of grain delivered by the "bandits," gritted his teeth, and said, "Quickly send people to bring all that grain inside."

There was no way to explain it now. If the smaller families came back to rob them, Edmund Blackthorn couldn't afford to let his family's reputation and grain suffer, so he decisively ordered the grain to be brought into the estate.

Edmund Blackthorn himself couldn't understand how the bandits knew exactly how much grain he had taken out and how they could have delivered even more grain so precisely.

While everyone in the estate was busy transporting the grain, the family heads who had just left returned with their clansmen.

Edmund Blackthorn and Walter Ravenswood were shocked: "How did they come back so quickly?"

What they didn't know was that as soon as they found out about the return of the grain, Magnus Valorion had sent soldiers infiltrated into each family to notify their own people in advance to bring weapons and demand an explanation from the Blackthorn family.

This was why the smaller family heads could return so quickly.

Seeing the Blackthorn family members moving the grain into the estate, the other family members were even more convinced that the Blackthorn, Ravenswood, and Hawthorne families had colluded with bandits to steal their grain.

"Brothers, they're moving our grain! We can't let them take it!" Finnian shouted angrily.

Even with an arrow in his knee, he was fast and ran to the front with a shoulder pole.

The Blackthorn family members were busy moving carts of grain into the estate and had no weapons at hand, so they were beaten and fled in all directions.

However, the Blackthorn family had the home advantage. Soon, the young men and servants who had been beaten up earlier fetched weapons from the estate and started fighting back.

Standing on the wall, Edmund Blackthorn shouted, "Stop fighting!"

"Stop fighting!"

"These are all misunderstandings, everyone stop fighting!"

However, in the midst of the heated battle, no one listened to Edmund Blackthorn.

Farmers might lack many things, but they didn't lack strength. These people fought with everything they had, and soon, more than a dozen people were lying on the ground.

Finnian, even with an arrow in his knee, managed to knock down four able-bodied Blackthorn men with his shoulder pole.

No wonder he was the first to stand against the bandits. Unfortunately, his teammates weren't strong enough, or Ethan Thompson and his men would have had to fight a tough battle to get the grain.

Despite his ferocity, Finnian was still injured and was soon pinned to a cart of grain by two young Blackthorn men with sticks.

The grain cart couldn't withstand the impact and toppled over.

A bag with a loose seal burst open, and its "grain" spilled out.

Finnian and the two young men were stunned. The sacks weren't filled with grain but with sand!

The three of them quickly shouted, "Stop fighting, everyone stop fighting!"

"These aren't grain, it's sand!"

Everyone looked at the three of them and stopped fighting.

Edmund Blackthorn and the other family heads rushed to the nearest grain cart to check and found that the sacks indeed contained sand, not grain.

The only bag with rice was the one that "Pépino" had slashed open.

Edmund Blackthorn grabbed a handful of sand and roared to the sky, "Sinbad! Sinbad! You bastard! I curse you to die horribly, to go to hell after death, and never to be reincarnated!"