Chapter 361
The tent flap was lifted. When Jia saw the Guard Commander walk in, his tightly clenched hand finally relaxed.
At this moment, he truly possessed the Sacred City’s Guard Corps.
Mu Jia rose to his feet. With his attendants’ help, he donned his bone armor.
“How is Hei Yao’s situation?”
The Guard Commander bowed.
“Hei Yao cannot withstand Red Chai and is fleeing north. Wang Shensi is pursuing them.”
“What about the other camps?”
“Ling Bao’s camp shows no movement, but Song Wu’s troops have followed from afar.”
Mu Jia took up his bone blade.
“No movement—that itself is suspicious.”
“It’s time we set out as well.”
The Song Wu troops did not march quickly. But their guide, Hu Ji, seemed intimately familiar with the forests here. Soon he led them to a gentle slope with a broad view.
Fu Shensi found the terrain ideal—easy to advance or retreat—but when he noticed the soldiers around them, his brow furrowed.
“Why have you brought so many ya shouren?”
On the outer edges of the Song Wu force trailed a thousand great-horned antelope beastmen. These antelopes were unusually sturdy for their kind, but the problem was: each one carried a ya shouren on its back.
Bringing such burdens into battle? Utter nonsense.
Ling Ping’s gaze skimmed lightly over Fu Shensi.
This man himself was a ya shouren, yet he looked down on fellow ya shouren warriors. If not for his status as a Shensi, she would have liked to teach him a lesson.
Hu Ji explained:
“They are beastmen of the Sheng Ling tribe. They are not Song Wu’s subordinates. They volunteered to join this battle.”
Fu Shensi’s frown eased. So, they were volunteers—that was acceptable.
He straightened his robe, feeling certain he was the Shensi most beloved by beastmen.
After all, Yong and Wang forced their vassals into war. But he was different. The beast tribes of Song Wu had long been captivated by his charm.
“The Sheng Ling tribe, is it? When we return, this Shensi shall make you—ahhh!”
Before he finished, a thunderous boom cut him off. He stumbled, nearly falling into the snow.
“Dong!”
Helped up by attendants, Fu Shensi clutched his bone crown in a panic.
“Wha—what sound is that?!”
“Dong! Dong!”
The heavy booming continued. Fu Shensi shoved aside his attendants, staggered up the slope, and what he saw nearly made his voice crack.
“Wh—what is that?!”
Across the snowy plain, an entire army had materialized from nowhere.
Their ranks were immaculate, wings of a great bird folded in formation, each tight array of soldiers a sharp feather. Layer upon layer linked seamlessly, exuding a terrifying aura just by standing still.
And at the very center—on a towering wagon—stood a drum as large as a beastman’s beast form. A horned warrior in bear form struck it with the leg bone of a beast.
Each strike seemed able to shatter the mountains.
But none of that was the point. What froze Fu Shensi’s breath was the man upon the high platform.
Lang Ze. He wasn’t dead.
The white wolf supposedly driven into flight by Red Chai now stood tall in human form, poised and unruffled—no sign of panic at all.
This… this was Hei Yao’s army.
How could this be possible? How could they suddenly have so many warriors overnight?!
And perhaps by coincidence, the very moment Fu Shensi looked at Lang Ze, Lang Ze’s gaze swept toward their direction.
Fu Shensi quickly averted his eyes. At that instant, a rumble thundered from the horizon. Snow flung high—Red Chai’s beastmen appeared.
“Hou! Hou!”
After being driven across the snowy plain by Hei Yao for half a day, the Red Chai were seething with rage. Seeing Hei Yao reform into ranks, they screamed and charged all the faster.
Fu Shensi’s body trembled uncontrollably.
Something was wrong—very wrong.
As if to prove his dread, Lang Ze raised his arm.
In an instant, the bright sky darkened—not with clouds, but with arrows unleashed from behind Hei Yao’s ranks.
“Ao! Aooo!”
The storm of arrows roared like an ocean, smashing apart the Red Chai vanguard in a blink.
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”
The sharp whistle of arrows cutting air carried clearly even across a thousand meters to Fu Shensi’s ears.
His throat tightened.
“So that… is Hei Yao’s weapon?”
No wonder Hei Yao had annihilated Chai Cang’s ten-thousand-strong army. No wonder both the Great Shensi and Red Chai coveted them. No wonder Ling Bao had forced its way into this struggle.
This was not a power beastmen should possess. Not something flesh and blood could resist.
Greed flickered in Fu Shensi’s eyes—then was swept away by terror.
No… they must not provoke them. Must not anger Hei Yao!
At the rear of Red Chai’s army, the hulking red-backed jackal roared in fury, crushing the skull of a fleeing beastman under his heel.
By now, Wang Shensi knew full well they had walked into Hei Yao’s trap. But so what? He was a High City Shensi. Could he fear a mere Hei Yao?
“Hou!”
Charge! Charge and engage them in close combat! Wang Shensi did not believe Hei Yao would dare fire those weapons at their own kin.
Just as he predicted, Hei Yao’s arrow barrage maintained a fixed distance. Fierce though it was, Red Chai’s numbers pressed forward. Soon, their vanguard broke through.
But stepping into the open ground before Hei Yao, they were met not with more arrows—but with lines of War Bear warriors, who suddenly pivoted aside, opening wide passageways.
And then, the shadow above grew darker.
This time it wasn’t arrows raining through gaps.
It was weighty, mountain-like shadows.
But there were no mountains on this snowy plain!
The Red Chai beastmen looked up—and saw a titan.
A giant, five or six times taller than their beast forms, stretching its arms as if waking from slumber.
“Try this.”
The giant’s voice boomed like thunder.
The pupils of the red-backed jackal shrank wide. He had no chance to cry out before an enormous boulder crushed him flat.
“Careful!”
Wei shouted the warning, yet in his arms he hefted a tree trunk nearly three meters thick.
With a short run, he swung and hurled it forward.
The trunk bounced like a ball, smashing through Red Chai lines, mowing them down like weeds—warriors who had just escaped the arrowstorm, crushed before they could breathe.
The Giant Wind Clan, towering nearly ten meters in beast form—their appearance froze every breath.
Mu Jia’s eyes flew wide, blood surging like fire in his veins.
The Giant Spirit Clan. Hei Yao was harboring a god-blooded lineage!
At the rear of Red Chai, Chai Qin spun in fury toward Yong Shensi.
“Yong Shensi! What are you waiting for!”
Red Chai was collapsing. Hei Yao had god-blooded aid. They had no more time!
Bao Yong’s nostrils flared. His heart stirred.
God-blood truly existed!
With god-blood revealed, Mu Jia could not remain idle. Chai Qin was right: now was the moment Ling Bao and Red Chai must unite.
Yet as Bao Yong prepared to order the attack, someone at his side moved first.
“Xi!” Bao Yong’s hand shook. “What are you doing?”
Bao Xi raised a bone token, voice flat.
“Xi acts under the Great Shensi’s command.”
He gave no explanation of the secret order. He simply turned and departed—taking forty thousand horned warriors with him. Fully half of Ling Bao’s strength.
Bao Tan roared with rage:
“Stop! I forbid you to move!”
But his cries could not halt the march. For Bao Xi had taken only Qi City’s warriors—beastmen who obeyed his command alone.
“Bao Xi!”
Bao Tan charged, transforming into beast form. He was a second-rank warrior; Bao Xi was only first-rank. He could not resist!
But Bao Xi’s gaze darkened. As Bao Tan drew near, he too shifted.
“Ao!”
A snow leopard, larger even than Bao Tan’s beast form, appeared.
In one day, Bao Xi had advanced from first-rank to second-rank—his power even greater than Bao Tan’s.
Shocked, Bao Tan froze. He could only stare as the snow leopard turned human again, striding toward the Sacred City’s forces.
“Rebellion! Treason!” Bao Tan ran back in panic.
“Grandfather! You are a Shensi, Ling Bao’s elder! Bao Xi defies your command, hiding his strength! He is rebelling!”
Bao Yong leaned on his staff, watching the blood-soaked snowfield. For the first time, blood looked unbearably harsh.
He was old. They were right—he was truly old.
He raised his hand.
Bao Tan looked up in desperate hope—only to hear two faint words, nearly lost to the wind.
“Let’s go.”
On the other side, before the Sacred City’s newly reinforced ranks, the air chilled to ice.
Bao Xi looked down at the pale-faced Mu Jia.
“As you wished.”
Watching Ling Bao’s forces split in two, then retreat, Chai Qin’s eyes bulged in fury.
“Bao Yong! You coward! You vile Ling Bao scum!”
Ai tilted his head, studying Chai Qin. Then he grabbed a massive boulder, brushed the dirt off, hefted it on his shoulder, and swung into a shot-put throw.
“Boom!”
The stone crashed down, exploding the ground into a pit.
The once-mighty Shensi and his followers were reduced to dust, indistinguishable from the common dead.
“Good!”
Pig-quan, hauling rocks, pumped his fist at Ai.
The giant scratched his head, bashful. He didn’t even know he had just crushed a Shensi—one whose stomp could shake the continent. He simply turned back to continue fighting.
On the hill, Fu Shensi’s legs buckled.
“Go… we must retreat now!”
Red Chai was nearly finished. Next would be Hei Yao against the Sacred City. There was no place for the Chi Hu here—they had already lost.
“Yes, we will go,” Zhao’s lovely eyes curved into a smile.
“But the path Song Wu takes… may not be the one Shensi expects.”
“Song Wu warriors!”
“Sheng Ling warriors!”
“Battle! Battle! Battle!”
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