Outside the Iron Ox Tribe's temporary camp.
"Zhamu, take nine men and hold the left flank."
"Qingshi, take nine men and hold the right flank."
"Blind Man, take the archers and fire at will."
"Today, we're going to teach those little brats from the Black Hand Tribe a lesson."
Seeing the Black Armor Guard charge toward them in three groups, Iron Ox immediately gave his orders.
"Haha, good!"
"I've had enough of those bastards for a long time."
Several men who, like Iron Ox, had once served as guards for the Liu Clan laughed in reply.
Qingshi was a sturdy, middle-aged man. In the Iron Ox Tribe, his strength was second only to Iron Ox and Zhamu.
As for Blind Man, he was a little old fellow with tiny eyes who was always squinting at people.
Now, this skinny little old man held an Ironwood Bow taller than he was. His eyes were like an eagle's as he fixed them on the charging Black Armor Guard, as if sizing up a heap of prey.
"Iron Ox, I'll leave those brats coming down the middle to you," Blind Man called. "Don't disgrace the name of the Liu Clan's Nine-Fang Warriors."
"Are they even worthy?" Iron Ox scoffed. From the corner of his eye, he spotted Zhou Hao. "Young Brother Zhou, dare you charge their center with me?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Zhou Hao answered loudly.
"Now that's the spirit!" Iron Ox roared with laughter.
Compared to worrying over the whole tribe, he preferred fighting in the thick of battle.
"Let's go!"
Iron Ox strode forward, his two Giant Axes like a pair of small door panels. They weighed more than a thousand pounds, and he gathered strength with every step.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Iron Ox charged straight at the Black Armor Guard ahead like a Wild Ox weighing tens of thousands of pounds gone berserk.
Zhou Hao dug his toes into the ground, bent and straightened his legs, and drove his strength up from his waist and abdomen. He shot forward like an arrow.
"Die!" Iron Ox's great axe came chopping down from overhead.
The Black Armor Guard warrior at the front tried to use the momentum of the Black Sly Beast beneath him to meet the blow. Instead, man and beast were cleaved in two by Iron Ox.
"Good!"
"Nice work, Iron Ox!"
The stirring sight drew loud cheers from the warriors behind them.
Some of the warriors who had joined the Iron Ox Tribe only recently were facing a powerful enemy like the Black Hand Tribe for the first time. Their hands had been trembling around their spears, but now they steadied.
Zhou Hao was about to meet the enemy at the very front as well.
His opponent was a bald warrior wielding a spear. The savage scar across the bald man's face was already crystal clear in Zhou Hao's eyes.
"Whoosh!"
From three or four meters away, the bald warrior leaned sharply forward atop his Black Sly Beast. The spear in his hands shot out like a venomous snake.
The Black Sly Beast was swift, and in an instant, the spearhead was already in front of Zhou Hao.
Faced with the vicious thrust, Zhou Hao merely swayed. His feet skimmed the ground as if wading through mud, and he slipped to the side, letting the spear pierce empty air.
Whoosh!
A fierce gust swept through the air as Zhou Hao swung his Iron Mace, which became a streak of black light and whistled through the wind.
Thud!
The Black Sly Beast, charging with its head lowered, felt a tremendous force crash into its chest. Its two forelegs, still galloping wildly, were lifted off the ground.
Zhou Hao had actually knocked the Black Sly Beast's entire body into the air.
"Ah!"
The bald warrior had never imagined that a seemingly frail young man could possess such strength.
How much force did a charging Black Sly Beast carry?
Caught off guard, he nearly lost his balance and fell off its back.
But before the bald warrior could regain his footing, everything went black before his eyes.
Pfft!
His head burst like a watermelon struck by an iron rod, spraying red and white across the ground.
"Young Brother Zhou is mighty!"
"Incredible!"
After Iron Ox, Zhou Hao's display of strength drew loud cheers from the tribal warriors who had formed ranks in front of the camp.
They had to hold formation, waiting for the enemy to close in so they could fight with the strength of their ranks.
Only the strongest warriors could charge straight into the enemy lines like Iron Ox and Zhou Hao. Ordinary tribal warriors couldn't do that.
But the Black Sly Beasts were fast. After only a few breaths, Zhamu and Qingshi's groups had also clashed with the enemy.
"Young Brother Zhou, we're outnumbered. Let's charge over and capture their leader first."
Seeing Zhou Hao deal with his opponent so easily, Iron Ox felt a wave of relief.
Though Zhuzi had said Zhou Hao could throw a Wild Ox, fighting on a battlefield wasn't just about strength. It also took skill and courage. If your legs went weak in front of an enemy, you were as good as dead!
Iron Ox had been worried sick for Zhou Hao earlier.
"Good," Zhou Hao called back. "Capture the leader first!"
"Right, capture the leader first!" Iron Ox laughed as he spoke, never slowing his hands. Another two axe swings felled an enemy, and then he charged straight toward the young man watching the battle in the distance.
...Zhou Hao felt strange.
He had thought he would feel uneasy the first time he killed someone. But when his Iron Mace smashed an enemy's head, he found himself feeling excited instead.
From ancient times, fist techniques and martial arts had been methods of killing. Even in practice, one had to imagine an enemy fighting back.
In modern society, laws, morality, and all kinds of constraints had shackled the bloodlust innate to humanity.
But after Zhou Hao arrived in this backward Wilderness World, enemies had come knocking for no reason, intent on slaughtering and plundering.
At a time like this, laws and morality were useless. Only a hard fist and strength mattered!
With strength, you were the heavens. You could rule over your own life—and other people's!
"I don't want to die, and I refuse to let anyone else rule over my life. So you'll just have to die!"
Zhou Hao's eyes narrowed. His figure darted through the Black Armor Guard, his Iron Mace sweeping left and right, always aimed at the legs of their Black Sly Beasts.
Cut down the horse before the rider! He first smashed the legs of their Black Sly Beasts. As soon as the Black Armor Guard atop them lost their balance, a black blur swept past.
In no time, four or five men had died at Zhou Hao's hands.
One Black Armor Guard happened to wield an Iron Mace too. After Zhou Hao killed him, he snatched up the man's Iron Mace with his left hand.
With a mace in each hand, Zhou Hao became even more formidable. What was more, he secretly infused them with his divine sense, giving his weapons astonishing force. A mere graze could kill; a direct blow was certain death...
"Useless! You're all useless!"
In the distance, Motai Jie watched Zhou Hao and Iron Ox carve their way through the enemy. The group of more than thirty Black Armor Guard in the center was on the verge of being cut down by the two of them.
Meanwhile, on the other side, more than sixty Black Armor Guard had gained no advantage against the two spear formations and several archers at the Iron Ox Tribe's camp.
More than a dozen of his men had already died, while the Iron Ox Tribe had suffered only a few wounded.
"You're all so good at eating meat and playing with women, but now you can't even deal with a bunch of lowly peasants from a small tribe!" Motai Jie shouted furiously.
"Black Wind, go! Don't worry about those useless fools. Kill whoever you want and eat whoever you want. Do as you please."
"You said it." The Black Leopard, which had been dozing on the ground, perked up at once.
It was the great demon and spirit beast of Motai Xiao. Its master had been preparing for something important lately and hadn't taken it out for a long time.
It had followed Motai Jie this time partly to protect him. After all, he was the eldest of Motai Xiao's surviving sons, and barring any surprises, he would become the next chief of the Black Hand Tribe.
The other reason was so it could eat people!
Rumble~~~~
Countless currents of black demonic power suddenly surged over the Black Leopard's body. Its frame, which had looked no different from an ordinary leopard, swelled like a balloon being inflated. In the blink of an eye, it had become a giant beast more than ten zhang tall.
It was an enormous Black Leopard, its body marked with patterns like whirling gusts of wind. It was more than twenty zhang long...
The already quite sizable Wild Ox barely reached the thickness of one of the leopard's paws.
The currents of air bursting from the Black Leopard's nostrils sent sand and stones flying across the ground below.
"Only a little over a hundred people." The Black Leopard's yellow-glinting eyes swept over the area. "I'll deal with them first. There are women and children in the camp, too. Hmm... leaving Xiangcao for Motai Jie will be enough."
To a great demon, ordinary humans weren't divided into men and women. They were all delicious food.
Whoosh~~~~
A whirlwind suddenly sprang up out of nowhere on the plain.
Countless broken stones and clods of dirt spun along with it, forming a massive tornado in the blink of an eye.
"Go."
The Black Leopard swiped a paw, and the enormous tornado immediately swept toward the warriors locked in battle.
"Oh my god, what's that?!"
In front of the temporary camp, a young warrior stared blankly at the enormous Black Leopard that had suddenly appeared in the distance, as huge as a mountain.
"It's a great demon!" Blind Man's eyes bulged wide. His hands, which hadn't trembled even when a hundred Black Armor Guard attacked, now shook so badly he could barely hold his familiar Ironwood Bow.
"Oh my god, it's a great demon!"
The spear formations led by Zhamu and Qingshi fell into chaos as well.
Several young warriors who had never seen a great demon before turned to run, giving the Black Armor Guard a chance to cut them down.
"Don't panic. Without the spear formation, we'll die even faster." Zhamu thrust out his spear, filling the gap that had opened once more.
"Haha!" A bald Black Armor Guard laughed. "That's our chief's innate great-demon spirit beast! You lowly peasants of the Iron Ox Tribe, your time has come!"
Whoosh!
A spear pierced straight through the bald warrior's neck.
"With the Black Armor Guard holding us here, none of us can escape, and the women and children back home won't survive either." Zhamu's eyes were bloodshot as he shouted to the warriors around him. "Fight! Kill these bastards first. If we're going to die, we'll take someone down with us!"
Earlier, because they were outnumbered, they had formed a defensive formation. With support from Blind Man, Xiangcao, and the other archers, they had suffered only a few serious injuries so far.
But now, they had no choice but to fight!
"Kill!" Qingshi and the other warriors all saw red.
"Brother and Zhou Hao are still up front!" Xiangcao panicked. She leaped forward and sprinted toward Iron Ox and Zhou Hao.
They were in the rear, and the moment the great demon Black Leopard, more than ten zhang tall, appeared, they spotted it.
But Iron Ox and Zhou Hao were up ahead, surrounded by Black Armor Guard. They hadn't noticed the terrifying great demon that had appeared on the battlefield.
All the Black Armor Guard knew that Xiangcao was the woman their young lord wanted. Now that she was heading toward the Black Leopard, none of them tried to stop her. They let her run past.
"Zhou Hao! Brother! Watch out, there's a great demon!" After racing several hundred meters, Xiangcao screamed the warning.
By then, the enormous tornado was already sweeping countless broken stones and clods of dirt toward Iron Ox.
The stones and clods spun at high speed inside the tornado, easily slicing and tearing apart everyone in its path. Blood sprayed across the ground.
"No—"
Xiangcao despaired.
Iron Ox was now at the very edge of the tornado.
I have a meeting at noon, so I'm posting this early. The second chapter will be out at 6 p.m.!
To those who haven't invested yet, hurry up! If you missed the first wave, don't miss the bonus for signing a contract!
Before you continue