Chapter 220

The horse-type beastmen weren’t blindly charging forward. They were like the string of a kite, disrupting and stretching out the Sanghuo Tribe’s formation.

It was because of this tactic that when the two main forces finally clashed, only a few dozen horned beastmen managed to keep up with Zhu Qi’s speed.

In stark contrast to the Sanghuo Tribe, the Heishan Tribe’s temporary force had already formed a tight formation.

A massive white wolf led the charge, accompanied by the largest yak and rhinoceros-type horned beastmen, engaging the enemy head-on.

The most offensively capable wolf beastmen flanked at high speed, targeting the enemy’s weakest defensive sides.

Behind Qiu Bai, nearly 600 horned beastmen who had just arrived on the battlefield looked at the Heishan force of only about 200, yet their presence felt like an army of thousands. Their chests swelled with uncontrollable fervor.

Charge!

They must not fear. They must fight bravely. Heishan wasn’t just the land of the Heishan people—it had become home to them, the beastmen who had no future.

The horse-type beastmen also circled back and changed direction.

Now, the sub-beastmen on their backs had slung their now-empty horn bows across their backs and raised gleaming white bone knives high. They had clearly shifted from ranged to melee combat.

The giant boar beastmen weren’t afraid of the bone knives. Unlike the sleek-skinned horse beastmen, the boars’ ugly hides were tough—bone knives couldn’t even scratch them.

However, when the bone knives glowing with red light struck down, the boars’ pride—their thick hides—proved worthless.

Every slash drew bright red blood.

“Ahhh!” Amidst screams, the giant boar beastmen finally realized—

These weren’t ordinary bone knives.

They were Fei Niao bone knives. All of them!

At that moment, the sub-beastmen wielding bone knives from atop the tall horses looked more terrifying than wild beasts in the eyes of the boars.

Fei Niao bone knives! Even the Sanghuo Tribe’s chieftain and elders only had a few short daggers. Yet the Heishan Tribe casually brought out dozens—long bone sabers at that!

First, they had flying wooden arrows. Now, they had Fei Niao bone weapons. What kind of terrifying place was the Heishan Tribe?

At this moment, Yan Lu became even more certain: such a powerful tribe couldn’t possibly have only this many warriors. What they encountered today must be only a probing force.

There had to be a larger force backing Heishan.

Yan Lu halted all of his Yan Mang warriors from advancing, choosing instead to follow behind the boars and guard against a Heishan counterattack.

The humiliation they suffered on trading day had already cost Da Yan and Liang Shi their reputations. Yan Lu wanted nothing more than to crush the Heishan people himself.

But he was not like the recklessly charging Zhu Qi. He wouldn’t risk his warriors’ lives. Let that pig-headed fool lead the charge.

Just as Yan Lu was preparing to retreat with the Yan Mang, the Heishan beastmen did something completely baffling.

“Woooo~ woooo~”

A deep horn blared again.

At the sound, She Li and Hu Xue quickly pulled their bone knives from the boars, not even bothering to wipe the blood from their faces. They grabbed smaller horns from their waists and blew with all their might.

“Woooo~ woooo~” “Woooo~ woooo~”

Horn calls echoed across the battlefield.

All Heishan warriors immediately reacted.

Those horned beastmen who were about to strike pulled back, and those entangled with the boars quickly broke away.

Because this time, the horn didn’t signal a warning—it was the two-note retreat signal.

Even the laborers on the battlefield turned and fled with the warriors without hesitation.

Neither the boars nor the Yan Mang could be faced by these weak workers. Before battle began, they had been tasked with staying close to Heishan warriors for joint strikes.

Even though they hadn’t encountered any Yan Mang beastmen during this long battle…

…facing a force more than twice their number, fighting the boars had been brutal. Most were injured.

It was only thanks to the warriors’ protection that mass casualties were avoided.

They didn’t know what the horn meant—but they weren’t fools. If the warriors were retreating, why stay behind? To die?

The last person to notice the shift was surprisingly the Sanghuo chieftain, Zhu Qi.

As a pig-type beastman, Zhu Qi’s beast form was larger than most horned beastmen. Combined with his brute strength, there were few in the northern wastes whose form rivaled his.

But now he faced a white giant wolf nearly his size—and despite all his strength, he couldn’t land a single blow.

His massive body became the wolf’s target.

Though the wolf’s attacks only caused minor injuries, they distracted Zhu Qi so much that he couldn’t assess the broader battlefield.

This had never happened to him—not in all his years of leading attacks on countless small tribes.

Only when the white wolf began to retreat did Zhu Qi finally notice—half the battlefield was empty. A gap had formed between his people and the Heishan warriors.

At that moment, fire rained down from the sky like a torrential downpour.

“Ruuuh!” Retreat! Retreat!

But the boar beastmen were already in chaos. And even if they retreated now, it was too late.

They were no longer facing ordinary wooden arrows.

These were blazing arrows soaked in fire oil, flying at speeds many times faster than before.

“Release!”

With Qi Bai’s loud command, a fresh wave of fire arrows soared into the sky.

Wasn’t it odd that in such a major battle, Qi Bai hadn’t shown up?

Anyone thinking Qi Bai hid out of fear couldn’t be more wrong.

The moment he heard the alarm, Qi Bai, who had been working at the threshing ground, formed a cavalry team—an unprecedented tactic among beastmen—and it bought them precious time.

Yes, whether it was cavalry or Lang Ze’s frontline unit, their primary goal was to delay.

During the over two hours bought with their lives, Qi Bai had led a team back to the tribe to load every ballista from the walls onto wagons.

As a modern Earthling, Qi Bai scoffed at close combat: We have weapons.

Now let’s show them the most advanced weapons on the entire Beastman Continent!

Across the open plains, more than a dozen wagons held half-human-tall ballistae.

Clearly, this transport method wasn’t perfect—each cart needed someone to hold the ballista steady—but that didn’t hinder their use. It even made repositioning easier.

Each wagon was also loaded with custom ballista bolts.

Sub-beastmen were dipping tree bark in tree oil, tying it to the arrows, setting them alight, and firing them from the ballistae.

Though this process seemed complex, the team was laser-focused—each shot took only a few breaths to prepare and release.

“Fire!” Qi Bai waved and shouted.

The arrows drew long arcs in the sky like a magnificent meteor shower.

But to the Sanghuo Tribe, this scene was hell.

Boars couldn’t outrun arrows.

With one piercing screech, a flaming arrow tore through a boar in mid-run. The next moment, the boar shifted back to human form and collapsed, never to rise again.

Some tried to flee in human form, but the flaming tree oil burned fast—turning them into human fireballs in moments, spreading the fire further.

The dry winter plains had little fuel to burn—but the fallen bodies of their comrades served as kindling.

“Bao Bai! The arrows can’t reach anymore!”

Qi Bai climbed atop a wagon and shouted concisely: “Pursue!”

At this moment, the tide had turned. What was once an assault from Sanghuo on Heishan had become a chase—Heishan warriors hunting Sanghuo beastmen.

As the Sanghuo forces tried to flee the plains, the vanguard Yan Mang beastmen ran straight into a group of giants.

The enormous Yan Mang looked like snakes compared to the giants. A Ju Feng tribesman casually bent down, scooped up one of them, and tore him apart with bare hands.

Qi Bai was stunned. Yes, he had sent word to the Ju Feng Tribe and planned this ambush. But there were over 200 Ju Feng warriors here—he never knew they had so many.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the Ju Feng Tribe had sent nearly all their forces to protect Heishan.

The Sanghuo beastmen didn’t have time to question where the giants came from. Their fighting spirit had been crushed. All they could think about now was escape.

Giants ahead, flaming arrows behind—when Zhu Qi finally fell, he wore an eerie, twisted smile.

Liang Shi… Liang Shi… in this battle with Heishan, your Yan Mang never showed up.

Fine. Let them all die.

If Da Yan’s warriors fall, then Liang Shi’s worms will die with us!

This battle raged from midday until sunset.

No more earth-shaking shouts. No more clashing weapons. Silence blanketed the plains. Even the trickling of blood from corpses could be heard.

“They got away.”

Wei, the Ju Feng hunting squad leader, strode up to Qi Bai, who was inspecting Zhu Qi’s corpse, and asked gravely, “Can your people catch them?”

This battle was a massive victory for Heishan. Both Heishan and Ju Feng casualties were far lower than expected.

But Sanghuo had too many people. They couldn’t stop all of them.

Qi Bai estimated that 600–700 managed to escape.

Especially the Yan Mang beastmen—their beast forms were agile and earth-colored. A moment of inattention and they’d slip away.

Qi Bai didn’t take Wei’s question as an insult. The Ju Feng Tribe was too special. They couldn’t reveal themselves to the wider Beastman Continent.

Qi Bai had even prepared for the possibility they wouldn’t show.

But they not only came, they cleared out most of the enemy. Clearly, the Ju Feng no longer viewed Heishan as just neighbors.

Still, regardless of their help, Heishan’s goal from the beginning was never just to win.

Sanghuo wasn’t like the cannibalistic A Mo Tribe—they were a true power in the north. And now, their entire raiding force had been wiped out, and their leader killed.

The two tribes were now mortal enemies. No reconciliation was possible.

So when the fleeing began, Lang Ze had already taken his team in pursuit.

Qi Bai promised Wei: “Don’t worry. Not one of them will leave the North alive.”