Heads Hanging Over the Lonely City

Seven heads.

Their braids had been brutally knotted together, strung into a line, and hung from the weathered gate tower of Black Stone County.

Whenever the wind blew, those heads that had once been so arrogantly untamed upon the grasslands knocked against one another with dull thuds, like a death knell for this lifeless border city—and like war drums sounding.

Beneath the city gate, the common folk had gathered in droves.

Most of them were sallow and emaciated, their eyes numb. In their minds, the Barbarians were evil ghosts with fangs, impervious to blades and spears, calamities sent down by Heaven.

But now, the heads of those evil ghosts hung right there.

Their blood had long since drained away, and the paint on their faces had dried, cracked, and peeled away, revealing skin as gray and lifeless as their own.

"So... they can die too."

Someone in the crowd murmured softly.

Those words were like a spark falling into a heap of dry grass. The deathly still crowd began to stir. Someone gathered his courage, picked up a stone, and hurled it viciously at one of the heads.

Bang.

The stone smashed into the collapsed bridge of the Barbarian soldier's nose.

"You slaughtering beasts!" the man wailed as he picked up another stone.

More and more stones flew upward, accompanied by curses and sobs that had been suppressed for far too long. It was an outpouring born from fear pushed to its limit, and a sliver of viciousness bred from despair.

Ji Ye stood atop the gate tower, watching coldly.

He wore that bloodstained black sable cloak, idly turning the curved saber seized from the Barbarian commander in his hand. The blade had an uncanny curve and had been forged from superb hundredfold-refined steel, three parts sharper than Great Liang's standard Wild Goose Feather Saber.

"Boss, the people are all gathering here. Some have even sharpened the kitchen knives from their homes."

Pockmarked stood behind him, his tone somewhat excited. "Can we fight this battle?"

"Can we fight?"

Ji Ye gave a derisive laugh and casually drove the curved saber into a crack between the wall bricks, burying it three inches deep.

"That was seven men, not seven thousand. The Barbarian main force is still behind them. When those thousands of cavalry charge over, half of these people who were throwing stones just now will piss themselves in terror, and the other half will kneel and beg for mercy."

Pockmarked's face turned pale. "Then we..."

"That is why we do not need them to fight."

Ji Ye turned, his gaze crossing the city wall toward the county yamen. "They only need to do two things: obey, or die."

The county yamen's main hall.

"Rebellion! Rebellion!"

County Magistrate Zhou Dexing paced back and forth through the hall, cold sweat covering his fat face, his official hat sitting crookedly on his head. "Killing Barbarian soldiers? Hanging their heads at the city gate? This is provocation! This is forcing the Barbarians to massacre the city!"

He pointed at Advisor Qian, who sat below drinking tea, spittle flying everywhere. "You! Go summon that Ji Ye! Tell him to take down those heads! Then... then give those Barbarian soldiers a proper burial! Send someone to bring gifts to the Barbarian army and say... say it was a misunderstanding! That bandits did it!"

Advisor Qian hunched his neck, his face miserable. "My lord, Constable Ji has soldiers in his hands now. Those three hundred men recognize only him, not the official seal. And... those letters from the Black Tiger Gang..."

At the mention of those letters, Zhou Dexing went silent at once, like a fat goose whose throat had been seized.

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded outside the hall.

Iron boots striking bluestone slabs.

"No need to summon me. I'm here."

Ji Ye strode into the hall. He had not removed his armor, nor did he offer a salute. The bloody, baleful aura of a man who had just crawled out of a mountain of corpses forced Zhou Dexing to drop onto his chair.

"Ji... Ji Ye, what do you want?" Zhou Dexing asked tremulously.

"I need to borrow your official seal."

Ji Ye walked to the magistrate's desk and, before Zhou Dexing could react, snatched up the bronze seal that symbolized imperial authority.

"You! This is treason!" Zhou Dexing shrieked.

"Treason?"

Ji Ye weighed the official seal in his hand. "My lord, the Barbarians will arrive in three days. When the city falls, this seal will be scrap bronze, and your head will be a piss pot. I am saving your life."

He did not want to waste words. He slapped a notice onto the desk—the Order to Defend the City he had drafted long ago.

"Seal it."

Ji Ye's voice was quiet, yet it carried an icy chill that allowed no question.

Zhou Dexing looked at Ji Ye's hand resting on his sword hilt, then at the expressionless armed guards outside the door. In the end, trembling, he took the seal and stamped it down.

"From today onward, the entire city is under martial law."

Ji Ye put away the notice and turned toward the people outside the hall.

"First, seal all four gates. Entry is allowed; exit is forbidden. Anyone who dares open a gate without permission will be beheaded."

"Second, requisition every blacksmith and carpenter in the city. All iron pots and iron plows are to be confiscated and used to forge arrows and rolling logs."

"Third, tear down houses. All civilian homes within fifty paces inside the city walls are to be demolished. The timber will be made into rolling logs, and the stone into boulders."

"Fourth..."

Ji Ye paused, his gaze sweeping over the pale-faced clerks.

"Bring out all the death-row prisoners from the cells. Those who do not wish to die can go boil Golden Juice. The fouler they boil it, the longer they live."

Each order was cold, efficient, and utterly devoid of human sentiment.

He was turning this city into a meat grinder.

"My lord... this... people will die..." Advisor Qian said with a trembling voice. "If we tear down the people's homes, where will they live?"

"Where will they live?"

Ji Ye walked over to Advisor Qian and reached out to straighten his collar, his movements as gentle as though he were treating an old friend.

"As long as the city holds, they can sleep in the streets and still be alive. If it does not, their entire families can sleep nice and neatly in the mass graveyard. Advisor Qian, which do you think is better?"

Looking into those utterly unruffled eyes, Advisor Qian felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head.

"Constable... Constable Ji is right."

Three days later.

Black Stone County had changed beyond recognition.

The city walls had been raised three feet, then doused with water that froze into a hard shell of ice, slick beyond measure. Beneath the walls, the densely packed homes had become a field of ruins. Mountains of rolling logs and boulders, along with buckets of filth, gave off a suffocating stench.

Ji Ye stood at the highest point of the gate tower, gazing north.

A black line appeared on the horizon.

Then came hoofbeats like rolling thunder.

The earth trembled, and even the snow piled atop the walls shook loose.

The black line rapidly spread, becoming a black sea. It was not water, but thousands upon thousands of cavalrymen, banners that blotted out the sky, and countless curved sabers flashing coldly beneath the sun.

The Barbarian army had arrived.

At the very front of the army stood a massive wolf-head banner. Beneath it sat a hulking man built like an Iron Pagoda. He was not riding a horse, but seated in a chariot drawn by eight warhorses.

Even from so far away, Ji Ye could feel the terrifying aura radiating from the giant.

It was the oppressive force of surging blood and vital energy.

"Organ Tempering..."

Ji Ye clenched the iron spear in his hand until his knuckles turned white.

He could sense that the other man's gaze seemed to pierce through several miles of distance, locking firmly onto him.

It was the look in a hunter's eyes when he saw prey.

"Boss..." Pockmarked stood beside him, his teeth chattering. "Th-there are too many..."

"Too many?"

Ji Ye drew a deep breath and expelled all the foul air from his lungs.

He looked back at the three hundred private soldiers behind him, who, though afraid, still gripped their weapons tightly. Then he looked at the people below the walls, carrying stones.

In this life, he sought neither immortality nor wealth and honor.

He only sought to carve a bloody path through this doomed game and seize that SSS which could change everything.

"Light the fires."

Ji Ye raised his iron spear and pointed it toward the boundless enemy army.

"Hoist those seven heads higher."

"Tell them that Ji Ye of Black Stone County awaits their instruction here!"

Boom!

The beacon tower atop the wall ignited in an instant, black smoke shooting straight into the heavens.

Those seven shriveled heads swayed amid the flames and smoke, as if mocking the thousands-strong army below.

On the chariot, the giant slowly rose to his feet.

He let out a long howl, his voice like thunder, shaking the warhorses of both armies into shrill neighing.

"Attack the city!"