Gluttony Drinks Blood

The darkness before dawn is the most grueling.

The wind had stopped, the snow had stopped, and only one sound remained between heaven and earth—the heavy panting of the guards on the city wall, and the suppressed groans of the wounded in their throats.

Ji Ye sat in the lee of the watchtower, an iron pot for marching placed in front of him. The water in the pot had long since boiled dry, leaving only large chunks of half-cooked horse meat sizzling and spitting oil. This was from a dead horse dragged back from below the city last night; the meat was sour and as hard as firewood.

But he ate quickly.

There was no elegance of chewing slowly; it was more like a beast feeding. He tore into the scorching hot meat, crushing the sinews and cartilage along with it, the sound of swallowing echoing clearly in the deathly quiet of the city wall.

"Gulp... gulp..."

As a large amount of blood food entered his belly, the nearly depleted Blood Essence within Ji Ye began to slowly recover. His stomach acted like a giant millstone, frantically extracting every trace of energy from the food and sending it to every part of his body.

The bruises on his body faded at a visible rate, and the torn muscle fibers writhed and reassembled.

This was the terrifying aspect of this body, modified by Triple Brute Force—as long as there was enough energy, it could survive as tenaciously as a cockroach.

"Boss..."

Pockmarked came over with a bowl of cloudy wine, his eyes a little unfocused. "Just did a headcount. Of our three hundred brothers, eighty were lost. The Local Militia... over a hundred dead, dozens ran."

In one night, casualties were more than half.

And this was even with the aid of Fierce Fire Oil and Golden Juice.

"Don't chase after those who ran."

Ji Ye swallowed the last bite of meat, grabbed the bowl of wine, and drank it down in one gulp. The spicy liquor washed away the greasy and bloody taste in his mouth.

"Chasing them would just be sending them to their deaths. Collect the swords of the fallen brothers and distribute them to those who can still move."

He stood up and stretched his stiff neck, his joints cracking loudly.

At this moment, a streak of fish-belly white appeared on the eastern horizon.

The faint light illuminated the scene below the city, making everyone on the wall gasp.

There were no bodies.

The hundreds of corpses that had been piled below the city last night, whether Barbarian or Da Liang civilians, were gone.

In their place stood several earth mounds, erected about two hundred paces away.

And on those earth mounds were mounted over a dozen crude but enormous wooden contraptions. Long levers pointed to the sky, with millstone-sized stones in leather slings at their ends.

"Trebuchets..."

Ji Ye's pupils contracted sharply.

Though the Barbarians were savage, they were not foolish. They knew how to learn and how to utilize craftsmen. These trebuchets had clearly been hastily made overnight; though rough, they were sufficient to smash the rammed earth and brick walls of this county town.

"This is their backup plan."

Ji Ye gripped his iron spear, his knuckles turning white.

If last night's surprise attack was a bayonet charge, then now, the enemy was going to flatten their position with heavy artillery.

"That's... that's Old Zhang's millstone!"

A militiaman pointed at a pile of stone projectiles near a trebuchet in the distance and cried out in despair, "That's what our village used to grind flour!"

The Barbarians had plundered all the nearby villages, dismantling roof beams for supports and using millstones as projectiles.

This was using Da Liang's bones to smash Da Liang's flesh.

"Dong! Dong! Dong!"

The muffled sound of war drums echoed again.

This time, there were no shouts, no charges.

Flags waved in the Barbarian camp.

"Fire!"

Accompanied by the grating sound of twisting wood, over a dozen millstone-sized giant stones whistled through the air, tracing parabolic lines of death across the sky.

"Dodge! Find cover!!"

Ji Ye's desperate roar echoed across the city wall.

But he knew there was nowhere to hide.

The city wall was only so wide; where could they possibly hide?

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The giant stones fell.

The city wall trembled violently, as if an earthquake had struck.

One giant stone hit the watchtower, and amidst flying wood chips, two archers were smashed into bloody pulp.

Another struck the battlements; the hard bluestone bricks exploded like tofu, and fragments of stone shot out, bloodying the heads of several nearby militiamen.

Another landed beside the large pot that had been boiling Golden Juice.

Scalding sewage splashed everywhere, followed by screams.

This isn't war, it's a one-sided demolition.

"Ji Ye!!"

A roar like thunder came from the Barbarian camp.

The giant commander stood on a tall war chariot, holding his iron-rimmed bow. From hundreds of paces away, his voice was still clearly audible.

"I am Hulei, chieftain of the Wulu Tribe!"

"Hand over the head and surrender the city! I will grant you the position of my slave centurion!"

"Otherwise, when the city falls, not a chicken or dog will be spared!!"

Hulei's voice echoed across the battlefield, carrying a penetrating power unique to the Organ Tempering realm, making the defenders' eardrums ache.

Surrender?

Slave centurion?

Ji Ye wiped the dirt from his face, looking at the defenders around him scrambling for cover from the giant stones, their eyes filled with despair.

Morale was about to collapse.

Under such absolute power and overwhelming siege weapons, human courage was as fragile as a soap bubble.

He had to do something.

Ji Ye bent down and pulled a curved saber from a Barbarian soldier's corpse.

He walked to the city wall, took a deep breath, and gathered his strength. He roared down at the enemy:

"Hulei!!"

His voice wasn't as loud as the other's, but amplified by the Triple Brute Force in his lungs, it still carried far.

"Your grandpa only eats meat, he doesn't be a dog!"

"If you have the guts, stop hiding behind there and playing with rocks! Get over here! Grandpa will teach you how to die!"

Provocation.

Blatant provocation.

He was gambling, gambling on the pride of the Barbarian chieftain, gambling on the self-esteem of the strong man.

Hulei heard him.

He narrowed his eyes, the rage within them almost becoming tangible. An ant in the Bone Forging Realm dared to humiliate him in front of his entire army?

"Seeking death."

Hulei snorted coldly, but he didn't charge forward for a one-on-one fight as Ji Ye had expected.

He was a commander, not a brute.

"Keep smashing."

Hulei coldly ordered, "Smash until he kneels."

"Also..."

He beckoned, and several personal guards pushed a prisoner cart forward.

Inside the cart was a disheveled woman wearing Da Liang official robes. Though tattered, it was still recognizable as... the County Magistrate's robes?

No, that was Zhou Dexing's most beloved concubine. She had been sent out of the city a few days ago trying to escape, but had still fallen into the Barbarians' hands.

"Hang her on the trebuchet."

Hulei smiled cruelly, "Since he's so stubborn, I'll give him a big gift."

"No! Don't!"

The woman's shrill screams rang out, but she was quickly tied to the end of the trebuchet's long arm.

"Fire!"

"Thwack!"

As the mechanism released, the living woman was flung into the air like a stone.

She traced a desperate arc across the sky, accompanied by a long scream.

"Splat."

A chilling thud.

She fell onto the city wall, not far from Ji Ye's feet.

A bloody mess, her form unrecognizable.

The entire battlefield fell silent.

Only the sound of the trebuchet's winch continued.

"This is your fate!"

Hulei roared with laughter.

Ji Ye looked down at the mass of flesh and blood, his face devoid of expression.

But the hand gripping the iron spear was so tight that his fingernails dug deep into his palm, blood dripping down the shaft.

"Pockmarked."

Ji Ye's voice was terrifyingly calm.

"Move all the remaining Fierce Fire Oil to the city gate."

"Boss? What are you planning to do?"

"Since they refuse to come to us..."

Ji Ye raised his head, a bottomless madness in his eyes.

"Then we'll go out to them."

"We can't win this battle by defending."

"We'll have to trade lives."