The night was torn into fragments by the firelight.
The wall of Fierce Fire Oil flames gradually died out in the end, leaving behind charred wreckage and corpses still smoking. Yet the Barbarians' assault did not cease because of it. Instead, it grew even crazier and stranger.
They no longer swarmed the walls like ants as they had before, but broke their forces into smaller groups.
Several hundred agile Wolf Cavalry used grappling hooks and clawed ropes to climb upward along the shadows of the city walls like geckos. Their movements were light, making not even the faintest sound.
"Watch the shadows!"
Ji Ye roared and thrust his iron spear fiercely toward a patch of darkness on his left.
"Pfft!"
The spearhead pierced flesh. A barbarian soldier who had just poked half his head up was stabbed straight through the face and fell without even managing a scream.
But the defensive line was too long.
Although Black Stone County's walls had been raised, they simply did not have enough men. Three hundred private soldiers and several hundred Local Militia, scattered across all four sides of the walls, were like sand cast into the sea.
"Ah!"
A scream came from the right.
Two Wolf Cavalry soldiers flipped onto the battlements, their curved blades whistling like the wind as they instantly cut down three Local Militia men. They did not linger to fight, instead rushing straight for the winch in an attempt to lower the drawbridge.
"Stop them!"
Pockmarked charged forward with several brothers, but these Wolf Cavalry soldiers were clearly elites among elites. They moved nimbly and struck viciously, forcing Pockmarked and the others into peril within only a few exchanges.
"Get lost!"
Ji Ye had no choice but to abandon his command position and charge into the battle, dragging his iron spear behind him.
He used no exquisite spear techniques, only simple horizontal sweeps and vertical chops.
Under the boost of Triple Brute Force, the eighty-pound iron spear generated shrieking gusts of pressure with every blow. Though the two Wolf Cavalry soldiers were nimble, they had nowhere to evade beneath such sweeping heavy strikes.
"Clang!"
One Wolf Cavalry soldier tried to block with his curved blade.
The blade shattered, and the iron spear smashed into his shoulder, instantly caving in half his body.
The other saw that things had gone badly and tried to flee, only for Ji Ye to sweep the spear's butt into his lower back. His spine snapped, and he crumpled onto the ground like a dead dog.
But in the instant Ji Ye dealt with those two, more Wolf Cavalry climbed up.
Ten, twenty, fifty...
The battlements instantly became a hellish battlefield of chaotic melee.
The original formation was shattered, bows and crossbows lost their use, and all that remained was the most primitive hand-to-hand slaughter.
"Hold the line! Don't fall back!"
Ji Ye was drenched in blood. His iron spear had long since been coated with the blood and gore of who knew how many men, making it so slick that he could barely grip it. He simply tore off his shirt hem and tightly wrapped it around the spear shaft and his hand.
He was like a firefighter, rushing wherever the situation was most dire.
Beneath his iron spear, none could withstand a single exchange.
But human strength eventually ran dry.
His breathing grew heavy, his lungs seeming to burn with fire. The Bone Forging Realm granted formidable stamina, but even that could not endure such continuous high-intensity bursts.
"Pfft!"
A cold arrow shot from the darkness grazed Ji Ye's cheek, taking a strip of flesh with it.
Alarm bells blared in Ji Ye's heart.
A master archer!
Though that Organ Tempering Realm commander had not personally stormed the walls, he had sent his master archers to mingle among the Wolf Cavalry and pick off targets.
That was the truly deadly threat.
"Boss! The eastern side is about to give way!"
A private soldier covered in blood ran over, crying out, "A centurion got up there! He's too fierce—the brothers can't stop him!"
Ji Ye turned and looked.
On the eastern stretch of wall, a burly barbarian clad in heavy armor and wielding twin axes was slaughtering men at will. Each swing of his axes raised a storm of blood and carnage. More than ten brothers had already fallen at his feet.
Another Bone Forging Realm fighter!
The Barbarians' foundations were simply too deep. A master of this level was rarely seen even in a Great Liang county town, yet within the barbarian army, he was merely a centurion.
"I'll go."
Ji Ye spat out a mouthful of bloody froth, his eyes cold and sharp.
He could not retreat. He was the soul of these battlements. If he retreated even one step, the entire line would collapse.
Spear in hand, Ji Ye strode toward the eastern section.
The barbarian centurion saw Ji Ye as well, and a bloodthirsty glint flashed through his eyes. He licked his lips and smashed his twin axes together, producing a piercing metallic clang, as if provoking him.
The two charged at each other through heaps of corpses.
There was no pointless talk.
"Kill!"
The centurion leaped high into the air, his twin axes chopping down like Mount Tai bearing down from above. The blow was powerful and heavy enough to split ripples through the air.
Ji Ye did not take it head-on.
His stamina was too depleted. Meeting that blow directly would only leave him stiff and vulnerable.
The instant the twin axes descended, Ji Ye suddenly slipped beneath his feet and toppled sideways as though he had lost his footing.
Joy appeared in the centurion's eyes. His axes continued their downward momentum, hacking viciously into the wall bricks. Sparks flew in all directions, and shattered stones sprayed outward.
In that instant.
Ji Ye, who had "slipped," used his fallen posture to launch the iron spear in his hand upward along the ground like a venomous dragon emerging from its lair!
This thrust was incomparably sinister, incomparably tricky.
It went straight for the lower route.
"Pfft!"
The spearhead met no resistance as it stabbed into the centurion's crotch and plunged deep into his abdomen.
"Argh—!!!"
The centurion let out an incomparably miserable scream. His entire face instantly turned the color of pig liver, his eyes bulging from their sockets.
Such agony was enough to make any hardened man collapse.
Ji Ye showed not the slightest mercy. Both hands gripping the spear shaft, he violently jerked it upward.
"Up!"
Triple Brute Force erupted.
That brawny man weighing over two hundred pounds was actually lifted bodily by that single thrust, impaled upon the spearpoint, flailing wildly as blood poured down like a waterfall.
The sight was too shocking.
The barbarian soldiers and defenders fighting around them involuntarily halted their movements.
Ji Ye braced himself on his spear, allowing the centurion's corpse to hang from it. His gaze flashed like lightning as he swept it across the battlefield.
"Who else wants to try?"
His voice was hoarse, yet it carried a mad demonic ferocity that chilled people to the bone.
The barbarian soldiers were afraid.
They did not fear death, but they feared dying like that.
"Retreat... retreat!"
No one knew who shouted it, but the remaining Wolf Cavalry began to withdraw, sliding down the city walls along their ropes.
This wave of assault had been beaten back once more.
Ji Ye released his grip and let the corpse slide down.
He dropped onto his backside in a pool of blood, gasping harshly. His fingers trembled so badly that he could not even hold the spear.
They had won?
He raised his head and looked toward the distant barbarian camp.
The torches there still burned brightly, and the war drums had yet to stop.
This was only the appetizer.
The true despair still lay ahead.
And his strength was already nearly spent.
"System..."
Ji Ye murmured inwardly.
"If this is your trial, then I..."
"I'll see it through to the end."
Before you continue