Chapter 65: The Slaughterhouse

The two opposing armies stood across the river from one another. Scouts swarmed the riverbanks, yet no one anticipated that just as midnight struck, a troop smeared with human blood and wrapped in leather, disguised as members of the demon clan, would secretly slip across. After countless perilous moments, just as they were about to reach the opposite bank, they were detected by the demons. Surrounded from front and back, a brief and brutal skirmish broke out.

With the situation critical, Zhu Shijiu had no choice but to split his force in two. Four or five men carried the supplies back, while he himself led the remaining dozen or so cavalrymen to hold the rear and block the enemy. Fighting fiercely and charging through the ranks, he finally bought enough time for the others to reach the ice bridge. In the end, he and his rear-guard personal guards were all slaughtered by the arriving demons, leaving not a single survivor.

Ji Yu arrived by the riverside. By the dim glow of distant fires, he saw several dark, shadowy figures hanging from tall poles on the opposite bank. Though indistinct and unrecognizable, he knew from the triumphant, jeering shouts of the demons below that these must be the severed heads of the personal guards, and Zhu Shijiu's head was among them.

Suddenly, Ji Yu raised his head and caught sight of a figure standing not far away. The man gazed coldly at the commotion and audacity of the demons across the river. His eyes were chillingly cold, and his body was as rigid as a wooden statue, devoid of any sign of life...

That was Lie Gang.

Neither Ji Yu nor Lie Gang uttered a sound, but within that frigid gaze, Ji Yu discerned a burning intensity. Although Zhu Shijiu had perished, his life had reignited Lie Gang's fighting spirit, driving him to rise again!

Ji Yu let out a long, lingering sigh, then returned to the commander's tent. The parcel brought back at the cost of his dozens of guards' blood sat squarely on the table. The bloodstains were still fresh and trickling, and inside the tightly wrapped bundle lay forty *hu* of crimson blood.

This crimson blood was Lie Gang's solution. During his escape, he had fortuitously encountered a Tianshan escaping marquis engaged in a mortal battle with a demon drill-wind scout, ultimately perishing without the strength to carry the treasure. Lie Gang had hidden it in a dry well, initially just wishing to prevent it from falling into demon hands, never expecting it would find a vital use the moment he reached the Cang River.

The greatest utility of the crimson blood was that it rendered men fearless of death and blades, multiplying their physical strength severalfold. Ji Yu had recruited numerous routed soldiers, but had been plagued by their shattered morale and cowardice. Administering the crimson blood was precisely what was needed at this moment!

The forty *hu* of crimson blood were diluted with water and distributed among the routed soldiers, trading lives for time until reinforcements arrived!

Ji Yu stared at the crimson blood on the table, recalling Zhu Shijiu once more, only to find that his voice and countenance had already grown somewhat hazy...

"Ten men die, a thousand men live..." Ji Yu murmured repeatedly, suddenly understanding the meaning behind those words his father so often kept on his lips. Deep in the night, chanting softly to himself over and over, he wondered what frame of mind his father had truly harbored when saying them.

At daybreak, a personal guard came to report that someone outside sought an audience. When the visitor entered, it proved to be Lie Gang. Though his face remained haggard, his eyes bloodshot, and his chin covered in stubble, his eyes had become exceptionally bright, and a gaze of indescribable tenacity shone within them once more!

At that moment, the General of the Flying Eagle seemed to have straightened his spine once again.

Seeing Ji Yu before him, Lie Gang immediately dropped to one knee, stiff and deliberate, and said, "Adjutant Zhu Ganglie pays his respects to the Young General."

"What?" Ji Yu was somewhat bewildered by this unprompted name. Staring at him in confusion, he blurted out, "What did you say your name is?"

"Surname Zhu, given name Ganglie, and I am the Young General's adjutant," Zhu Ganglie said, pronouncing each word clearly and distinctly. "I hope the Young General will remember this and never address me wrongly when calling upon me."

A tremor ran through Ji Yu's heart as he finally grasped the man's intent. He strode over to Zhu Ganglie's side, patted his shoulder warmly, and rejoiced, "For Mister Zhu to have arrived at this realization is Ji Yu's great fortune, and the great fortune of the human race! From this day forth, I must trouble you greatly!"

"You overpraise me, Young General!" Zhu Ganglie paused slightly, then continued, "Ganglie has a stratagem to offer, which will help the General defeat the enemy!"

"Oh?" Ji Yu urged eagerly, "Please speak!"

"The crimson blood can only fortify our army's resolve and hold the enemy at bay. If we wish to crush them, this plan is the only way..."

***

On this day, the two sides did not engage in combat, maintaining their standoff across the river. The demons dispatched more small scouting squads out, while Ji Yu seized the time to excavate the low-lying areas along the riverbank, channeling water into them to create a half-man-deep mud marsh. The true forms of the demons possessed speed, strength, and leaping capabilities far surpassing those of humans, yet their statures were considerably shorter. By doing this, he forced the demons to transform into human shapes and engage in melee combat with weapons, minimizing the demons' physical advantages to the greatest extent possible and achieving the objective of grinding them down with human lives.

At noon, the demons launched a wave of attacks. The attackers consisted of dozens of water-adapted demons who transformed and plunged directly across the river from the opposite bank. Under Ji Yu's coordination, the human soldiers retreated in unison, ceding the entire mudflat marsh to the demons. Waiting until they arrived, the humans suddenly launched a counterattack. When the demons attempted to tear and pounce upon them, they discovered that this marshland was somewhat too shallow, making movement difficult after transformation and turning them into sitting ducks!

By the time the demons converted back into human shapes, it was already too late. Human arrows rained down like a downpour, and the demons were struck one after another. In the end, aside from three or five minor demons who managed a difficult escape back into the river, the rest were riddled with arrows like honeycombs during their retreat and perished on the spot.

Cheers erupted thunderously among the humans. Soldiers waded into the water, dragged the demon corpses out from the mud marsh, gutted them right before the eyes of the demons, hacked them into pieces of meat, and hauled them back to be cooked. Within a single day, the atrocities committed by the demons yesterday were visited right back upon them.

Baimu stood on the heights of the western bank, watching the entire battle impassively before glancing around and blurering out unprompted, "Have they returned?"

One of the major drill-wind scouts shook his head and reported, "They have not yet returned."

"Good, then continue," General Baimu thought for a moment and instructed, "Both by day and by night, without stopping."

"Understood."

The major drill-wind scout immediately complied.

The two sides clashed for several days running. The demons launched offensives from various different river sections—sometimes riding boats, sometimes constructing bridges, or having giant aquatic demons ferry them across. Ji Yu proved himself to be a renowned general of his generation, organizing the riverbanks like an iron fortress. No matter how fiercely the demons attacked, they were repelled entirely, with no danger of the battle line being breached.

All Ji Yu needed to do now was stall. Aside from the thirty thousand elite troops marching up from the rear with siege equipment, there were also hundreds of thousands of soldiers being mobilized from the eastern border. Once the human army arrived, let alone invading the heartland, the demons would find it difficult even to make a clean retreat. After all, the human race in the Southern Jambu Continent had long been unified, whereas the demon clan remained fractured. Though individual soldiers were ferocious, their overall numbers fell vastly short.

Even so, the demons still refrained from launching a full-scale offensive, instead unhurriedly dispatching waves of dozens or a hundred demons to attack in rotation every day, leaving the humans completely baffled.

Yet he did not panic, because news from Zhu Ganglie had already been sent back, and the plan he proposed was proceeding methodically, ready to be deployed at any moment...

Until the dawn of the third day, when the demons' massive offensive finally began.

An inexplicable heavy fog shrouded both banks of the Cang River, hazy and indistinct, blotting out the skies. Figures vanished from sight at a distance of barely a dozen paces. Urgently mobilized human troops lined both banks of the river, standing in waist-high water and maintaining a tense, vigilant watch.

Like a dark cloud descending, massive shadowy figures began to emerge within the fog. As the mist gradually dissipated, allowing the humans to see clearly, those dark shadows were about to reach the riverbank mudflats. They were gigantic golden turtles, arranged one after another, spanning the surface of the river and forming a floating bridge several paces wide that ran straight from north to south!

At that very moment, the floating bridge was continuously extending toward the shore, about to be completed.

Right behind those golden turtles, countless demonic figures in human shapes, saliva dripping from their lips and eyes gleaming, crouched in silence, waiting for the moment of closure!

Witnessing this terrifying sight, the humans standing in the front row had their voices warped by terror, screaming hoarsely, "The... the demons are coming! The demons are charging across!"

Countless soldiers began drawing their bows. Fear and panic made them forget to wait for military orders, and they impatiently launched their attacks at the very first moment, attempting to strike down the enemy.

Ji Yu, who now clearly saw the situation on the river, also understood the demons' objective: they had been waiting for these golden turtles coming via the water route, having arranged them long in advance along the path of approach. The demons had begun studying the geography of mountains and rivers in human territory and making preparations—living proof that the demons were learning from humankind.

In other words, this battle felt much more like a war between humans and humans, nations and nations, rather than a slaughter between humans and demons, men and beasts!

Low-ranking military officers in the water began ordering their soldiers to drink the crimson blood. Meanwhile, as the reserve force, the twenty thousand Eastern army soldiers brought by Ji Yu also lined up in formation from their camps, stationing themselves at the rear of the entire mudflat, ready to plunge into the battlefield at any second. The atmosphere instantly grew intensely taut.

An ear-piercing whistle cut through the air overhead. Everyone raised their heads in unison as a massive fireball swept across the heads of the human troops, flying straight toward the demon golden turtles. This was when the rear-line Qi practitioners began to move. Following that, more fireballs and ice lightning arrived back-to-back like raindrops, striking out at the demons first.

A howl resembling that of an ox resounded. Dozens of golden turtles simultaneously raised their heads, and massive columns of water erupted from their mouths, heading straight for the fireballs. With deafening explosions, the fireballs collided with the water columns and extinguished. Countless streams of water formed a colossal net that intercepted the Qi practitioners' attacks.

Only a sliver of ice lightning pierced through the interception of the water columns, but before they could land, a swishing sound filled the air as numerous minor demons unleashed their demonic arts to shoot them down.

"Prepare for battle!" Ji Yu finally issued his command, shouting aloud, "Immovable as a mountain!"

Hold! Engage!

Cascading shouts echoed through the human ranks. Soon, Ji Yu's orders were relayed to every corner, and the soldiers standing in the water, having partaken of the crimson blood, let out crazed roars. Their burning bodies craved the baptism of blood and combat, and facing the ferocious demons, thoughts of life and death were cast to the winds!

Woooo—

The golden turtles pulled up against the mudflats. No sooner had they stopped than massive waves of demons leaped off their backs and charged straight into the human formations, while more minor demons in the rear stood up and began charging along the backs of the golden turtles, surging toward the mudflats in a continuous stream.

"Fight to the death!"

On the battlefield, low-ranking officers roared, drew their blades, and accompanied their comrades as they charged forward to meet the claws and fangs of the demons!

The two sides quickly plunged into a fierce melee. True to expectation, the demons were unaccustomed to such water depth, while the human soldiers, owing to the effects of the crimson blood, brimmed with reckless courage, fighting the vanguard demon forces to a complete standstill. Countless human and demon soldiers tumbled into the water, staining the mudflats a brilliant scarlet.

There were no formations left, no clever tricks—the two sides simply hacked away at one another, trading injuries for lives, defending with their very deaths!

Before long, the human soldiers in the front suffered heavy casualties, and the number of demons continued to swell. Yet the human soldiers behind were likewise driven endlessly down into the water. Some soldiers, upon witnessing the horrific scenes in the river, shook in their legs, but someone would immediately force the crimson blood down their throats. In a mere instant, those soldiers' eyes would blaze with fire, transforming them from puny chicks into fierce tigers as they threw themselves into the fray.

As for the occasional soldier who stubbornly refused to open his mouth, no words were wasted: someone would immediately decapitate him and toss his body aside!

Both sides struggled, thrashed, and waded desperately in waist-deep water, closing in on their opponents, hacking with sabers, thrusting spears with all their might, or simply flinging themselves forward to roll in the water with their enemies, tearing and biting at one another in a tangled mass!

Both sides continuously drove their troops forward, herding them into this slaughterhouse barely a thousand paces square!

Human and demon alike, all were lambs to the slaughter, and all were butchers!