Betraying One Another (Part 1-Fourth Update 3)

Where are today's recommendation votes? This is already the third chapter I've updated today!

The sun was barely hanging on the western horizon, and the light across the plains had dimmed considerably.

The bloody sunset densely blanketed the entire sky, answering the broad stains of blood across the plains from afar. The sight was painfully glaring.

Yin Xuege sat cross-legged inside Farnburg's carriage. Four beautiful young Blood Demon girls knelt respectfully in the corners of the carriage, staring at Yin Xuege without blinking. All four girls looked no more than fifteen or sixteen, yet each was devastatingly beautiful, and faint, secluded fragrances drifted from their bodies. They were maidservants Farnburg had given Yin Xuege—the sort of gift he had no choice but to accept.

The vital blood of three Thousand-Year Dukes slowly unfurled within his body. Yin Xuege spread his Natal Bat Wings and gently fanned them, concentrating all his energy on absorbing the power within that vital blood. He could not use all of it to increase his demonic power. Most of its strength had to be used to temper his body, expand his life origin, strengthen his soul, and enhance the abilities of his Natal Bat Wings.

Blood-qi energy churned through his body like a rising tide. Every strand of Yin Xuege's hair stood straight up, and the black hair had faintly taken on a dark-red sheen under the impact of the surging blood-qi energy.

His body constantly crackled like a pan of beans popping. His muscles, bones, tendons, blood vessels, internal organs, and everything else were continuously strengthening. His bones grew tougher, his muscles stronger and more elastic, and his tendons as supple yet resilient as steel cables. His blood vessels widened and became sturdier, while the life energy hidden within his internal organs increased dozens of times over!

His tongue, nose, eyes, ears, and even the tactile senses in his skin were all growing stronger and becoming inhumanly powerful. When Yin Xuege had still been a Juvenile, he could already smell a drop of fresh blood dozens of miles away. Now, with only a slight flare of his nostrils, he could detect the aura of every living thing within a radius of hundreds of miles.

His soul power was gradually strengthening as well. Originally, Yin Xuege's soul power had been as feeble as a candle flame, but as energy from the vital blood of the three Thousand-Year Dukes continued pouring into him, his soul became as hot and bright as a torch. His soul had grown more than a hundredfold stronger; its strength had clearly reached the level that a veteran duke should possess!

Large numbers of Blood Demon secret techniques quietly sprouted within his soul. Countless Archaic Demonic Script characters and Demon Talisman transformed into blood-colored seals and merged into his body. He could run faster, wield greater strength, and react more sharply. The powerful innate talents hidden in his bloodline were awakening, and an almost bestial instinct was quietly bursting into life.

Everything happening outside had nothing to do with Yin Xuege. This carriage was one of the Stuttgart Family's most famous demonic artifacts, with a history of more than ten thousand years. Forged from legendary flying-dragon bones mixed with large quantities of rare materials from before the Era of Dharma Decline, it had been personally crafted by a peerless great demon said to be capable of shattering the void. Even dozens of experts as powerful as Farnburg would be unable to break it.

Yin Xuege was absolutely safe inside the carriage. Not to mention that eight Thousand-Year Dukes of the Stuttgart Family were maintaining a strict defensive cordon around it! With such a lineup, even if the Grand Arbiter of the Great Berlin City-State attacked, he would end up battered and disgraced.

The plains outside had already descended into utter chaos. Under the frenzied assault of the Blood Servant army led by Wumu and the rampage of a hundred Hell Three-Headed Dragon Eagles, the elite army of the Great Berlin City-State led by Bright had collapsed across the entire front in less than two hours. Bright was ambushed from behind by a marquis of the Yin Clan, who tore away several pounds of flesh from his back. He fled in a sorry state, but was ultimately captured alive.

Among the other captives were thirty-five young men and women whose status was comparable to that of Bright, Sander, and Fennice, and who wielded all sorts of strange natural powers. Experts from the Yin Clan and the Stuttgart Family had placed various restraints on all of them and imprisoned them in a heavily guarded arcane carriage.

The Yin Clan's army was now, with the aid of many Stuttgart Family experts, hunting down the fleeing soldiers and civilians from Fanlu'er City across the plains. More than five hundred thousand residents of Fanlu'er City had already been bound in long lines and were being prepared for transport back to the Yin Clan. But hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians had scattered and escaped, and the Yin Clan army was combing the land to capture them.

Fanlu'er City was an important source of fresh fish and metal for the Great Berlin City-State. Once the Yin Clan broke through Fanlu'er City, they also seized its storehouses. Tens of thousands of tons of lake fish and shrimp that had not been transported away in time, more than a million tons of various metal ingots, over fifty tons of newly refined gold ingots, hundreds of tons of silver ingots, and countless other treasures all became spoils of war for the Yin Clan.

What pleased the Yin Clan even more was that they discovered a rich crystal mine in a secret cavern outside Fanlu'er City. A captured administrator of Fanlu'er City betrayed his own people and offered the mine to the Yin Clan in exchange for the safety of himself and his family, as well as future glory and wealth.

Time passed bit by bit. The Yin Clan army scoured the nearby plains and captured more than ninety percent of the fleeing soldiers and civilians. Over a million humans, caught between fear and panic, gathered together. Campfires burned everywhere across the plains, while the Yin Clan's Blood Servant army moved through the crowds, carefully looting the civilians' personal property according to the orders of the Yin Clan's higher-ups.

Necklaces and bracelets made of precious metals, rings set with all kinds of gemstones, and handicrafts left behind by famous artists of the Era of Dharma Decline—all of these became targets of the Yin Clan's plunder.

At the same time, they had to conduct an initial registration of the civilian captives. Once the old and feeble civilians were sent back to the Yin Clan, they would vanish from the world within a very short time. The young and strong men and women would be sent to various mines and farms to labor diligently for the Yin Clan.

The luckiest were the handsome and dashing youths and the pretty, beautiful girls. They were all precious wealth and would become the Yin Clan's highest-grade Blood Slaves. They would receive the most complete living conditions and might even be paired off to bear children. They could spend the rest of their lives free from worry. Their only duty was to offer a certain proportion of fresh blood to the Yin Clan every month!

The Yin Clan knew all too well how foolish it was to "drain the pond to catch the fish." Thus, even before the Era of Dharma Decline, the Yin Clan had begun constructing enormous blood nests to secretly raise Blood Slaves. As exceptional Blood Slaves were added to the blood nests year after year, the total number of Blood Slaves possessed by the Yin Clan had become astronomical!

Yet no one knew exactly where the Yin Clan's blood nests were located, how many Blood Slaves they contained, or how large they were. Aside from the Yin Clan's elders and a select portion of those elders, none of the other clan members had the slightest idea. Even powerful figures with real authority in the family, such as Yin Jihuang and Yin Jiwu, knew nothing at all about the blood nests.

In the Yin Clan, the blood nests were absolute forbidden grounds—the foundation of the Yin Clan's prosperity.

After a night of frantic work, a hundred arcane carriages of the Yin Clan dragged along huge numbers of captives. On average, each carriage dragged more than ten thousand people! When the sun rose, the Yin Clan's arcane carriages slowly rose into the air, preparing to send the captives back to the Yin Clan City-State.

According to the plan devised by Yin Tianjue and the others, the Yin Clan's army also had to slow down as much as possible on the return journey.

Thus, the Yin Clan's army mingled with the Stuttgart Family's people and leisurely followed the route they had taken on the way there, returning to the Yin Clan City-State. This time, because more than a million captives were marching with them, the army's advance was slowed to a crawl. They spent a full seven days on the road before finally returning to the outskirts of the Great Berlin City-State.

Furthermore, whether intentionally or not, the marching army drew as close to the Great Berlin City-State as possible, passing almost directly against its walls. At their nearest point, the Yin Clan's army was less than three thousand meters from the Great Berlin City-State's metal walls!

At this point, Yin Xuege also stopped absorbing the vital blood of the three Thousand-Year Dukes. He walked out of Farnburg's carriage and stood on the carriage shaft, gazing toward the Great Berlin City-State. He heard countless shouts and curses from the walls, and even large numbers of hoarse, desperate cries.

"Why haven't they reacted at all?" Yin Xuege frowned. "Could it be that the Grand Arbiters of the Great Berlin City-State are no longer in the city? If so, Yin Wufeng, launch a probing attack against the Great Berlin City-State!"

The mighty Yin Clan procession came to a halt. Amid a series of sharp commands, dozens of gigantic Mortar Cannons were dragged out by the Blood Servant army. They selected a suitable position and finished setting up the cannons. The uproar atop the Great Berlin City-State's walls grew louder and louder. Then, deep rumbles suddenly rang out, and dozens of streaks of red light howled toward the Yin Clan's Mortar Cannon position.

"Defensive barrier, rise!" Yin Xuege raised one hand.

On the thirteen arcane carriages surrounding the Mortar Cannons, Demonic Script Talismans lit up at high speed one after another. A faint blood-colored curtain of light enveloped the cannon position. The red streaks came howling in and struck the defensive barrier with pinpoint accuracy.

A tremendous explosion rang out. The earth trembled faintly, and the blood-colored curtain of light shook violently several times.

Farnburg abruptly appeared beside Yin Xuege. With his hands clasped behind his back, he narrowed his eyes at the distant walls of the Great Berlin City-State, then looked thoughtfully at Yin Xuege. "I found it strange a few days ago. This operation of the Yin Clan's seems to carry a deliberate air of provocation! You aren't trying to lure all the Grand Arbiters of the Great Berlin City-State out, are you?"

Yin Xuege smiled and shook his head at Farnburg. "That would only work if they were in the city! You should have realized much sooner that something was wrong. When we attacked Fanlu'er City, only Bright and the others led an army to reinforce it. That alone was unreasonable."

"A group of weak young people!" Farnburg furrowed his brows. "Where have the experts of the Great Berlin City-State gone? Apart from those Grand Arbiters, where are the true backbone of their forces? Why did they leave only these little fellows to keep up appearances?"