The beacon fires flared to life.
Although Da Qing Village had prepared long ago, the village militia still couldn't help drawing a sharp breath when they saw the enemy.
People!
People as far as the eye could see!
The Hu people had driven in all the villagers from the surrounding area, men and women, young and old, the frail and the sick alike, and sent them forward in an ant-like assault.
The villagers all came from the same area. Chances were, they knew someone up and down the line. Now, seeing relatives and friends approaching with wooden clubs and stones, their faces numb, the people on Da Qing Village's walls immediately fell into an uproar.
"The Hu people are truly mad with cruelty!"
Wang Qiao and his son Wang Yin were both so furious their eyes nearly split. They cursed wildly, while the gazes they cast toward Wu Ming also held a trace of admiration.
"If anyone tries to climb up, kill them! Remember, you're not just fighting for yourselves. You're fighting for your parents, your wives, and your children..."
Wu Ming, meanwhile, had brought Qin Hu and several fierce-looking young men to serve as the Supervisory Team.
Earlier, he had plainly warned the Village Chief that the Hu people might drive the surrounding villagers forward in an ant-like assault. He had advised imposing strict control across the entire village at once, gathering the elderly, women, and children together, enrolling every able-bodied man in the village militia, and forming a Supervisory Team to suppress any unrest.
Since Wang Qiao had declined the thankless job—one that would make enemies of people—it had naturally fallen to Wu Ming.
"Don't... Uncle!"
"Erniu..."
"It's me, Little Stone..."
Under the Hu people's urging, more than a hundred villagers, nearly all unarmed, slowly came forward. Both the attackers and defenders were overcome with tears.
"Loose!"
Wu Ming's expression remained cold. He suddenly shouted, "If the village falls, will any of us be left alive?"
"Loose!"
A sparse rain of arrows fell from the earthen rampart. Cries of pain immediately rang out below, and many people fled in all directions.
"Kill!"
Amid the sound of hoofbeats, dozens of Hu cavalry finally appeared before Wu Ming.
The Hu people wore leather coats and carried quivers on their backs. They galloped on horseback, longbows and curved sabers at their sides.
When the leader saw the refugees fleeing, he shouted an order, nocked an arrow on horseback, drew his longbow into a full moon, then released.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Bone arrows flew through the air, and the fleeing people were shot down at once.
The rest were forced back together and made ready for the next wave of attack.
"Haha... Kill them! Kill them! They're not our people of the grasslands, after all. The more of the others who die, the better..."
Amid the Hu people's wild laughter, beacon smoke rose in the distance. More Hu cavalry—groups of several, then a dozen riders—arrived with wave after wave of captives.
The Hu people shouted and laughed, even wantonly slaughtering the men and abusing the women, without the slightest concern.
"Beasts!"
The sight made Wang Qiao and the others grind their teeth in fury.
As the second wave of villagers surged forward in an ant-like assault, the people on both sides of the earthen wall could only stare through tears, choked into silence.
"I... I can't! My Third Uncle is down there!"
A boy who was barely grown held a stone in his hand, but couldn't bring himself to throw it. He wept aloud.
Smack!
A whip lashed down hard, leaving a bloody welt across his back.
Wu Ming's furious roar rang out. "What are you waiting for? Throw it!"
The boy's hand trembled, and the stone fell.
The villagers around him gritted their teeth and began killing. At the same time, many resentful gazes gathered on Wu Ming.
"Do you see now? Do you know why I wouldn't let you take this on?"
Wang Qiao whispered to Wang Yin. "Otherwise... we'd be the ones in the eye of the storm right now!"
Wu Ming naturally knew he was making plenty of enemies.
But he only had to hold out for seven days before he could leave. That was enough to make him fearless, whatever people thought.
The attack lasted until nightfall. By then, corpses littered the area around Da Qing Village, a sight too horrible to look at.
Even the village's reserves of arrows, battering logs, and bricks had been greatly depleted. More harrowing still was the toll on the village militia's strength and morale.
The moon still shone overhead, but quiet sobbing drifted from inside the village below.
"Young Master Wuming, I've brought you something to eat!"
On the earthen rampart, Wu Ming was closely watching the surroundings. Seeing Huang Ying, a mere woman, dare to come to this Shura Field, he couldn't help feeling surprised.
"I... I thought you hadn't eaten or drunk anything all day, Young Master Wuming, so I came to bring you..."
Huang Ying's cheeks reddened slightly as she lifted the food box in her hand.
"Thank you..."
Inside the food box were a few steamed buns, some dried meat, and a flask of wine. Wu Ming didn't stand on ceremony. He took them out at once and wolfed them down.
As for Huang Ying, she had boldly climbed up before, but now that she stood on the wall and saw the ground strewn with corpses, she felt dizzy again. Her eyes reddened slightly. "These people have suffered so terribly!"
"Life in this world is like a dream. Who's to say we aren't dreaming too..."
Wu Ming had eaten his fill and drunk his wine when he suddenly spoke.
"Then I hope this nightmare ends as soon as possible!"
Huang Ying suddenly asked, "Young Master Wuming, do you have any way to save the innocent people outside?"
"When you lack the power, what can you do but cry out in despair?"
Wu Ming shook his head. "I know you may be heartbroken, Miss Huang Ying, but remember this: even if you have a kind heart, you should only do what's within your power. Otherwise, you'll bring disaster upon yourself and those around you..."
Huang Ying seemed thoughtful. "Like when you saved me yesterday, Young Master?"
"Exactly!"
Wu Ming paused, then said, "Yesterday, I was sure I could save you, so naturally I acted as a chivalrous hero. Just as today, if I could face a hundred opponents alone, or even ride out by myself and kill the Shaman Witch, I would have done so already. But my strength falls short. What else can I do?"
"I understand..."
Huang Ying bowed to Wu Ming, then suddenly said, "The Hu cavalry are still completely unharmed, while our morale has suffered a heavy blow. In my opinion, we may not last three days..."
"And... that Qin Hu seems to have plans of his own..."
"Let him be..."
Wu Ming fell silent for a moment, then said, "Miss Huang Ying, have you ever wondered what our Main Quest is? And why the word 'choice' is emphasized?"
"Could it be..."
Huang Ying cried out in surprise.
"Exactly. Our mission is only to survive... Nothing more!"
A faint smile touched Wu Ming's lips. "It seems the Hu people won't launch another surprise attack tonight. I wonder if you could fetch Qin Hu to relieve me—and do me another favor while you're at it?"
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
The Hu cavalry continued driving every villager they could find in the surrounding area toward the village in ant-like assaults, exhausting the defenders in large numbers.
By the time the people nearby had all been killed, nearly a thousand corpses lay beneath Da Qing Village, and the dozens of villages within tens of miles had been emptied.
Compared to that, Da Qing Village's original trenches and barriers, and even its stored weapons and supplies, had been depleted by more than half. The village militia had also suffered casualties. More crucially, the blow to their morale had been devastating.
The real test had only just begun.
"Loose!"
Arrows fell like rain!
After the refugees had all been killed, the Hu cavalry had no choice but to enter the fight themselves, however unwilling they were.
Wave after wave of arrows fell upon the top of the earthen rampart, only to be stopped by wooden shields. Dozens of riders dismounted and charged, climbing up the wall.
"Kill!"
At that moment, Wu Ming, Qin Hu, and several village militia captains wore leather armor and wielded Hundred Refinements Steel Sabers, leading the other militia members in the front lines.
Only skilled fighters like them, at the third or fourth level of the Body Refinement Realm, could just barely rely on the terrain to withstand the attacks of the Hu people's Tulu Warriors.
"Take this!"
Wu Ming's expression was resolute. He faced a Hu warrior's charging slash without flinching, thrusting his shoulder forward to meet the blade. The strike left a deep mark in his leather armor, the pain driving straight into his bones. But the steel saber in his hand shot out like a venomous dragon emerging from its lair, piercing straight through a Hu squad leader in front of him.
The Hu people were poor. Some of them even had bone arrowheads, so few had decent armor.
Wu Ming, meanwhile, wore the finest armor Da Qing Village had kept in reserve, the hard-won fortune Wang Qiao had painstakingly built up little by little. Combined with his position above the enemy and the advantage of the terrain, he naturally had the upper hand.
[You killed one Tulu Warrior. You gained one hundred minor merit!]
The Main God Hall's notification echoed faintly in his ears, but Wu Ming could no longer be bothered with it.
If he couldn't survive, what use was it to accumulate merit?
"All of you, move aside! Watch me!"
Suddenly, a loud shout rang out. Wu Ming looked over and saw Wang Yin advance, clad in armor and wielding an Eighteen-foot Serpent Spear. He even wore a suit of iron armor, sweeping through the Hu people like a heavenly god descending to earth. Wu Ming's heart gave a jolt.
That suit of iron armor was the real treasure in reserve from Wang Qiao's armory!
In ancient times, iron was expensive, and making a full suit of armor consumed a terrifying amount of material. The craftsmanship required was even more astonishing.
It might not be quite true to say that a single suit of armor was worth all of Da Qing Village, but it was certainly worth half of it.
With Wang Yin's True Qi Realm cultivation and that iron armor, he was practically a human killing machine!
With gods in his way, he killed gods; with Buddhas in his way, he killed Buddhas. At last, the Hu people left several bodies behind and retreated like a receding tide. The village militia on the wall burst into cheers, looking upon Wang Yin as a hero.
"Look!"
But then a cry of alarm shattered the mood.
A village militiaman pointed into the distance, his face filled with horror.
"Hmm?"
Wu Ming narrowed his eyes slightly. In the Hu ranks, a suspicious figure had suddenly appeared, wearing a mask and carrying a red drum at his waist.
"The Wolf God Heaven grants us strength!"
The Hu man in the Antler Mask roared and struck the Dharma Drum at his waist.
Boom! Boom!
The deep drumbeats seemed to echo in everyone's hearts. Wu Ming felt a slight tightness in his chest, while the Hu people cheered loudly. The bleeding from their wounds began to stop. Some of those with minor injuries simply tore off a bloodied strip of skin from their bodies, revealing new, tender skin beneath. Their wounds had actually healed without medicine!
Damn! Group healing for minor injuries?
Wu Ming mentally named the enemy's skill. Wang Qiao, however, screamed as if someone had grabbed him by the throat. "It's the Shaman Witch! The Hu people's Shaman Witch! What a calamity... How many sins did we commit to deserve this?"
"Charge! The Wolf God Heaven's people will never fear!"
The Shaman Witch's blank eyes stirred. He took the Dharma Drum in his hands and struck it again and again, and a faint blood-red light appeared, spreading over the surrounding area.
The Hu people shrouded in the light shouted out, full of energy and high in morale as they charged forward. In contrast, the people atop the earthen rampart were utterly horrified, their morale sinking to rock bottom.
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