The Assault Camp's quarters lay in the shaded westernmost corner of the military camp, right beside the stables and dung pit. Before they even drew close, a stench blending sweat, athlete's foot, and blood hit them full in the face.
This place looked less like a military camp than a livestock shed.
Dozens of ragged men lay sprawled in all directions across the muddy ground, basking in the sun. Some were missing ears, some had the word "Prisoner" branded onto their faces, and others were sharpening grotesquely shaped weapons on whetstones.
Ji Ye carried the newly issued standard iron spear and led Pockmarked along with several dozen surviving private soldiers from Black Stone County inside.
The previously noisy camp fell silent for a moment. Dozens of icy eyes turned toward them in unison, as though assessing newly penned pigs and sheep.
"So this is the new centurion?"
A burly man with a bare torso and a body covered in black hair sat up from among the crowd. Tossing a bloodstained die in his hand, he gave Ji Ye's bandaged chest a sidelong look. "Why's he such a sickly wretch? Does Lieutenant Qin have no one else to use?"
A burst of mocking laughter erupted around them.
"A sickly wretch is good," another fellow, skinny as a monkey, said sinisterly. "Once he dies, it'll free up a spot. That black sable coat looks pretty good. Strip it off, and it can be traded for two jars of good wine."
Ji Ye said nothing. He did not even spare them a glance. He walked straight to the large cauldron in the center of the camp, used for cooking. Inside was a pot of watery bean porridge, with several flies floating on top.
"Pockmarked," Ji Ye said.
"Here."
"Smash the pot."
The entire camp went deathly silent.
The smile froze on the black-haired strongman's face. He shot to his feet, his nearly two-meter-tall frame casting a swath of shadow.
"Brat, you're looking to die?" The strongman casually grabbed a spiked mace from beside him, its spikes glinting with a dark sheen. "That pot is mine. The rules here are mine too."
He was the former leader of the Assault Camp, nicknamed Black Bear. It was said that before enlisting, he had been a bandit who murdered and robbed, with more than a dozen lives on his hands.
Ji Ye turned around to face Black Bear. The iron spear in his hand lowered slightly, its tip touching the ground.
"Rules?"
Ji Ye pushed off with his foot, exploding forward without warning.
No nonsense. No probing.
Black Bear reacted swiftly. His spiked mace swept across with a howling gust, aimed straight at Ji Ye's head. The blow was powerful and heavy; if it landed solidly, it could smash his brains out.
Ji Ye did not take it head-on.
In the middle of his charge, he suddenly lowered his center of gravity. His body slid close to the ground like a snake, the mace sweeping past his scalp. The force of the wind it carried scraped his cheeks painfully.
The instant he evaded the attack, Ji Ye's iron spear suddenly swept upward.
Not the spear tip, but the iron spike at its butt.
"Pfft!"
The spear butt struck Black Bear squarely beneath the chin.
"Crack!"
With a crisp snap, Black Bear's jaw shattered instantly. He was knocked backward, spraying a mist of blood mixed with broken teeth from his mouth.
But his skin was rough and his flesh thick, and that strike did not bring him down. Black Bear let out an incoherent roar, endured the pain, and drove a fierce kick at Ji Ye's chest.
Ji Ye sidestepped the blow and discarded his iron spear in one motion. His hands shot out like lightning and seized the ankle of Black Bear's extended leg.
[Talent: Brute Force x3]
The muscles in Ji Ye's arms bulged as he exerted strength through his waist and abdomen, as though swinging an enormous sack.
"Up!"
Black Bear, weighing over two hundred pounds, was forcibly swung into the air, carving a half-circle through the sky.
"Bang!"
Black Bear slammed heavily into the ground, splashing mud everywhere.
Before Black Bear could recover his senses, Ji Ye had already planted a foot on the wrist holding the spiked mace.
The sound of cracking bones rang out.
Black Bear screamed and released his grip.
Ji Ye bent down, picked up the spiked mace, and weighed it in his hand.
"Too light."
He casually tossed the spiked mace into the cauldron.
"Clang!"
The iron cauldron was smashed through, and scalding bean porridge spilled all over the ground.
Ji Ye clapped his hands and swept his gaze over the death row prisoners and army thugs who had been left dumbstruck.
"From today onward, there is only one rule here."
He pointed at himself.
"If I let you eat meat, then you get meat to eat. If I tell you to die, then you die."
No one dared speak. Black Bear lay on the ground twitching, his jaw hanging crookedly to one side, his eyes filled with terror.
Just then, the sound of hoofbeats came from the camp entrance.
Qin Wuji's adjutant reined in his horse outside the fence. He held a command arrow in hand, his expression cold.
"Centurion Ji Ye of the Assault Camp, receive your orders!"
Ji Ye turned and cupped his fists.
"A force of Barbarian remnants has been discovered at Black Wind Pass, approximately one hundred men carrying supplies. Lieutenant Qin orders the Assault Camp to depart at once. You are to annihilate the enemy completely and bring back the supplies."
The adjutant tossed down a command token, then turned his horse around and left.
"If you have not returned by sunset, you will be treated as deserters and executed on the spot."
Black Wind Pass.
It was a strategically vital gorge, easy to defend and hard to attack. A hundred Barbarian remnants, if they held the terrain, would be enough to make even the hundred-odd rabble of the Assault Camp break several teeth—let alone face a regular army.
"They're sending us to our deaths..." Pockmarked picked up the command token, his face going pale.
"Sending us to our deaths?"
Ji Ye picked up his iron spear and wiped the mud from it.
"That applies to other people."
He looked at the death row prisoners on the ground.
"You all heard it. Those who want to live, grab your weapons and come with me. Those who want to stay here and drink the northwest wind, I won't stop you."
With that, he headed out of camp without looking back.
The private soldiers from Black Stone County immediately followed behind him.
The death row prisoners exchanged glances. Black Bear clutched his jaw as he struggled to his feet, picked up a broken blade, and staggered after them.
With someone taking the lead, the rest gradually picked up their weapons as well.
In the Assault Camp, refusing to fight was a capital offense. Fighting might still leave them a chance to live. They could calculate that account clearly enough.
Black Wind Pass lived up to its name. The cliffs on both sides were like black fangs, with only a narrow mountain path between them. Wind passed through the gorge, making a ghostly wailing sound.
Ji Ye lay behind a boulder, watching the camp below.
The Barbarian remnants were not "fleeing with supplies" as the intelligence had claimed. Instead, they had set up camp here.
Several large carts formed a ring, with a bonfire burning in the middle.
"Something's wrong."
Ji Ye narrowed his eyes.
Though those Barbarian soldiers looked bedraggled, their curved blades had been polished bright as snow. And their mounts were not ordinary warhorses, but uniformly Black Mane Wolf Riders.
They were Hulei's personal guard!
A hundred personal guard wolf riders possessed combat strength comparable to five hundred ordinary cavalrymen. Qin Wuji's intelligence had been false—or deliberately so.
"Boss, how are these remnants? They're elites!" Pockmarked lowered his voice, his teeth chattering. "If our little group charges down there, we won't even be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth."
"Who said we were charging down?"
Ji Ye pulled the empty bottle that had held the Dragon Tiger Great Pill from his clothes. It was now filled with knockout powder he had swiped from the military physician.
He pointed toward the wind gap above the gorge.
"Today's wind is blowing south."
"Go mix this powder into dried horse dung. Light it, then throw it down from the upwind gap."
"Poisoning them?" Black Bear moved closer, his jaw swollen like a steamed bun as he spoke indistinctly. "These Barbarians have sharp noses. They'll smell it."
"That's why we add something else."
Ji Ye pointed at several dead pine trees nearby.
"Chop them down and burn them. Pine smoke has a strong smell. It'll cover the scent of the medicine."
"Also..."
Ji Ye drew the Wild Goose Feather Saber from his waist and looked at the wolf riders resting below.
"Prepare rolling stones. Once the smoke rises, crush half of them to death first. Then we'll go down and collect the corpses."
Half an hour later.
A thick cloud of pine smoke rolled down with the wind through the gorge, instantly engulfing the Barbarian camp.
Coughing and curses came from within the smoke.
"Release!"
Ji Ye gave the order.
Dozens of millstone-sized boulders came roaring down from the cliffs.
"Rumble—"
The gorge instantly became hell.
Screams and the shrill neighing of warhorses mingled together.
"Kill!"
Ji Ye was the first to leap out from cover, sliding down the steep slope. His iron spear scraped against the rocks, throwing out a trail of sparks.
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