As the headless corpse fell, the world seemed to fall silent for an instant. Qiu Cheng's pupils contracted in shock, and he slammed a fist into the battlements.
He roared in fury.
"Infuriating!"
"Absolutely infuriating!"
Everyone fell silent, not daring to make a sound.
Anything they said now would only rub salt in Qiu Cheng's wound.
The outcome of a duel between generals depended on the circumstances.
Being beheaded before the two armies was undoubtedly the worst possible outcome. Their war drums faltered, and their morale sank. When Qiu Cheng heard the news, fury surged through him. He strode to the war drums and snatched the mallet from a soldier. He poured literary energy into both the mallet and the drumhead.
Boom, boom, boom, boom—
The drumbeat rang out, loud and urgent, brimming with fury.
He used literary energy to forcibly rally their flagging morale.
The tactic worked.
Holding the mallet, Qiu Cheng pointed at the spirited Lü Jue below and snarled, "Who will take that boy's head for me?"
"This general requests permission to fight!"
"This general requests permission to fight!"
"This general requests permission to fight!"
As soon as Qiu Cheng finished speaking, three or four generals stepped forward to volunteer.
They were all formidable generals.
In the past, even the weakest among them could have been a Captain commanding the garrison of a prefecture or county. Some had come for the prestige of the Qiu clan; some had been won over by Qiu Cheng's sincerity and generous rewards; others were close to him and had agreed to follow when he personally invited them.
Looking at his lineup of generals...
It was enough to make Shen Tang envious.
To the generals, having one of their comrades beheaded before the armies by an unknown nobody was a humiliation. Even