"This is truly the worst luck, life rarely goes as planned, others have ups and downs, but mine are ups and downs, downs, downs, downs."
"Damn it!"
The innkeeper of the Jinmen City inn fled in disarray. He looked at the skyward flames in the distance, his myriad thoughts condensed into a single expletive.
The young waiter beside him had his shirt collar slashed into strips of cloth. Through the tears in his clothes, a faint crimson bloodstain was visible. His face was darker than the night itself. He grabbed the chattering innkeeper and pulled him along to continue their escape.
Behind them followed a dwarf, less than five feet tall, carrying a boning knife on his shoulder.
"Don't run, keep playing~"
Two figures chased the innkeeper and his two companions at an unhurried pace, like cats playing with mice, watching the mice flee in panic.
"Damn it!"
The innkeeper's scalp prickled. If he had known that the man and woman who arrived by carriage that morning were Mei Sha and Chi Sha from the Ghost Sha Sect, he would have never served them raw meat, not even if he were beaten to death.
Just thinking of how Mei Sha, that vicious woman, had eaten the raw meat with such relish, knowing it was human flesh, made the innkeeper's scalp crawl.
Although he ran a black-hearted inn and sold human flesh, he only loved money and wasn't a pervert at heart.
Raw meat, only a fool would eat that!
A faint aroma wafted through the air, entering their noses and stirring the primal instincts of human desire. The innkeeper, the waiter, and the chef felt as if they had drunk the strongest wine in the world, with fiery heat and deep longing surging within them.
"Damn, damn, damn!"
The innkeeper cursed as he fled, as if only by doing so could he suppress the roaring voices in his mind and the incessant, seductive whispers in his ears.
"Rumble~ Rumble~"
Just then, the thundering sound of hooves striking the ground echoed from afar, causing the very ground to tremble slightly.
Mei Sha and Chi Sha stopped, leaped into the dense forest, and blended with the night.
From the end of the road, a cloud of dust billowed upwards. Through the swirling dust, a troop of cavalry emerged, clad in dark armor, mounted on warhorses, charging towards the inn.
"Demon Hunter Army?"
Mei Sha and Chi Sha exchanged glances.
Why was the Demon Hunter Army here? And why were they heading towards the inn?
Could it be that the inn was one of Ji Jinmo's hidden networks?
"Stop playing, let's go!"
Chi Sha said in a low voice. Those people at the inn were expendable; there was no need to confront the Demon Hunter Army just to kill them.
"If the roots aren't removed, the spring breeze will bring them back!"
A malevolent glint flashed in Mei Sha's eyes. Since they had already entered Ji Jinmo's line of sight, they might as well kill them all.
This madman!
Even though they were both among the Ten Sha of the Ghost Sha Sect, Chi Sha still harbored a sense of caution towards Mei Sha, viewing her as an incomprehensible lunatic!
If she truly went mad, she could even kill her own people!
Chi Sha distanced himself from Mei Sha and uttered a threat, "Don't forget the purpose of our mission!"
Mei Sha let out a soft laugh. She puffed out her chest, the thin pieces of cloth on her front unable to contain her full and proud bosoms. Her snow-white flesh seemed on the verge of breaking free, with glimpses of purple grapes.
Chi Sha's expression stiffened. Among the Ten Sha, besides the Sect Master, Chi Sha least wished to interact with Mei Sha. This woman seemed to be smeared with an alluring aphrodisiac from head to toe; with every smile, every gesture, she could stir up humanity's most primal desires.
His throat bobbed, but he retreated again.
"You're so dull, not as interesting as the innkeeper." Mei Sha playfully chided Chi Sha with a coquettish look, then deliberately took a step closer to him.
Chi Sha's face instantly turned grim, and layers of killing intent surged from within him.
As the two stood in confrontation, the sound of earth-shattering footsteps echoed from afar again.
It was the infantry, not mounted.
The infantry battalion of the Demon Hunter Army!
"Go!"
Mei Sha's expression changed. She no longer lingered, vanishing from her spot in an instant.
Chi Sha followed closely behind.
...
The cavalry of the Demon Hunter Army reined in their horses. They looked at the inn burning fiercely in the flames, turned their mounts, and galloped towards the direction of Hu Jian.
The main army of the Demon Hunter Army followed closely, heading for Hu Jian.
...
Just as Ji Jinmo had predicted, Bi Chongwen and Wen Zhong joined forces and led a hundred thousand troops to attack the city of Huai City in two prongs.
The Jiyang Army was split in two.
Qin Qiancheng held the East City Gate, while Deputy General Huan Heng held the North City Gate, each leading ten thousand Jiyang Army troops to defend their respective gates.
"Charge!"
War drums sounded, and the Great Li Army banners fluttered in the wind with a rustling sound.
Fire arrows, giant stones, firearms.
Trebuchets, siege engines, scaling ladders!
The Jiyang Army fortified the city to resist, while the Great Li Army pressed in.
The sounds of battle, a hundred times more brutal than the previous night, startled the moon hidden in the clouds, and the ground trembled with the charging horns.
The hundred thousand troops, though they did not break through the city gates with overwhelming force, under the endless wave of soldiers falling and charging, the siege engines approached the city gates, and scaling ladders were mounted onto the city walls.
"Dong~"
"Dong dong!"
The giant battering rams on the siege engines slammed against the city gates, one after another. Behind the gates, the Huai City border guards desperately held their ground, refusing to budge even if the massive battering rams would send their bodies flying and shattering after the gates were breached.
They defended the city gates with their lives, defending Huai City!
...
"Fire arrows, fire arrows!"
"Archers, stone throwers!"
"Shoot them down!!"
Hoarse shouts came from the city walls. When the fire arrows ran out, the Jiyang Army raised their long sabers, crouched down, and chopped down the Great Li Army soldiers climbing the scaling ladders.
As their bodies were exposed outside the city walls, the Great Li Army drew their bows and shot arrows, a sky-covering volley of sharp arrows flew towards them.
Some fell from the city walls, landing heavily on the ground.
Their flesh and blood splattered.
"Wooo~~"
Seeing that neither the North nor the East City Gate could be held, a retreat horn sounded from Wei City, and with the horn came flames soaring into the sky.
A cavalry unit appeared out of nowhere in the dense forest outside Wei City and Changming Slope. Yuan Yong led the Demon Hunter Army around the flank, silently infiltrating the Great Li Army's encampment situated between Changming Slope and Wei City.
"Kill!"
With Yuan Yong's command, the Demon Hunter Army charged like jackals into a sheep pen.
Before the soldiers left in the camp could react, the Demon Hunter Army, with overwhelming force, slaughtered thousands of Great Li soldiers. The Great Li Army scattered, fleeing towards Wei City.
When Wen Zhong and Bi Chongwen mobilized together, leading a hundred thousand troops to attack Huai City, the Demon Hunter Army seized the opportunity to attack Wei City.
Zhang Yizhi, leading forty thousand soldiers, was no match for the thirty thousand Demon Hunter Army.
The city gates of Huai City had not yet been breached, but the city gates of Wei City were about to be blasted open by the Demon Hunter Army. Wen Zhong abandoned the attack on the North City Gate and retreated, attempting to sandwich Yuan Yong from the front and back.
Yuan Yong calculated the timing perfectly. The moment Wen Zhong retreated, he decisively led his troops to withdraw, passed through the dense forest, emerged from another side, crossed the Zi Wu River, and appeared behind the Great Li Army attacking the East City Gate.