**Chapter 123: Slaughter**
As the heavy gate collapsed under the onslaught of orcs and traitorous private soldiers, Jie Ming stood at the villa’s entrance.
The orc vanguard, alongside human soldiers with frenzied, bloodthirsty eyes, charged in with roars, wielding blood-stained axes and curved blades, expecting an easy plunder of a wealthy merchant’s estate.
Seeing Jie Ming standing calmly in the courtyard, they froze for a moment, instinctively sensing a trap.
But detecting no magical fluctuations from him, their excitement surged again.
“Kill everything! Take everything!” roared the burliest orc, its brown fur covering a muscular frame, its massive axe glinting as it locked onto Jie Ming.
Behind it, seven or eight orc warriors on war boars and a dozen private soldiers swarmed in, filling the spacious courtyard.
A flicker of disdain passed through Jie Ming’s eyes as he shook his head. “Really… I’m hardly in a position to judge you. But from where I stand, letting you conquer this city so easily won’t do.”
He moved.
Jie Ming’s speed tore through the air, becoming a blur in the invaders’ eyes.Before the lead orc’s axe could fall, Jie Ming sidestepped, dodging the blade. His right hand clamped onto the orc’s thick wrist like iron.
The elite orc’s face twisted in sheer terror—not fear of a strong foe, but utter disbelief.
The grip on its wrist felt not like a living hand but an unbreakable chain…
No! With its strength, it could snap chains!
Yet this seemingly casual grasp left it utterly powerless, devoid of any will to resist.
“Impossible…”
*Crack!*
A bone-chilling snap echoed through the hall.
The orc’s wrist twisted at an unnatural angle, its axe slipping free, spinning through the air to crash into the wall.
The orc let out a pained wail, but before it could retract its arm, Jie Ming’s left fist shot out like a cannonball, striking its jaw with precision.
*Boom!*
With a muffled thud, the hulking orc reeled back like a scarecrow hit by a hammer, its neck snapping audibly.
Its pupils dilated, and its massive body collapsed backward, slamming into the floor with a heavy thud, motionless.
“Huh?”
Jie Ming’s expression showed surprise as he looked at the fallen orc. He hadn’t held back on that strike.
Yet this mere first-tier creature had withstood his punch without its head exploding.
“Though they’re all orcs, the feel of striking their bodies is completely different. Is it due to their faith?” Jie Ming flexed his hand, savoring the sensation of the attack.
It all happened in a flash. The other orcs and soldiers barely registered what occurred before their comrade became a corpse.
Fear, like an icy serpent, coiled around their hearts.
“Attack! He’s just one man!” a human soldier leader shouted hoarsely, trying to rally them.
But before he could finish, Jie Ming charged into the group like a leopard.
No dazzling magical glow—Jie Ming relied purely on physical strength.
He ducked low, dodging a sweeping curved blade, his right leg lashing out like a whip to strike an orc’s knee.
*Crack!*
The orc collapsed to one knee, howling in pain. Jie Ming didn’t pause, grabbing its hair with his left hand and yanking, delivering a brutal knee strike to its face.
Its nose caved in, blood spraying. The orc twitched a few times before collapsing.
A soldier lunged from the side, his dagger aimed at Jie Ming’s ribs.
Jie Ming tilted his body, letting the blade graze his leather armor with a grating screech.
In a flash, he seized the soldier’s wrist, twisting it outward like wringing a cloth.
“Ahh!” The soldier screamed in agony.
His wrist contorted unnaturally, the dagger clattering to the ground.
Jie Ming’s eyes were cold, devoid of mercy. A kick to the soldier’s chest sent him flying like a rag doll, crashing into the wall with a visibly caved-in chest as he slid down.
The cramped courtyard became Jie Ming’s stage.
Each strike was accompanied by the sickening crunch of breaking bones and desperate screams.
His movements were simple yet terrifyingly efficient and powerful, each contact spelling death.
Though not skilled in combat techniques, his superhuman reflexes and strength made him unstoppable.
“Monster! He’s a monster!” several human soldiers cried, their courage shattered.
They screamed in terror, trying to flee.
The orcs, however, reacted oppositely. Facing such a formidable foe, their fighting spirit blazed fiercer.
“Kill! Kill him with me!”
Some tried to flee outward, others pressed inward, clogging the entrance in chaos.
“You can’t escape,” Jie Ming’s calm voice whispered like the Reaper’s call.
He leaped, his toes lightly tapping a soldier’s head, vaulting into the air and landing on the back of a fleeing berserk war boar.
The boar roared in fury, trying to shake him off.
But Jie Ming’s arms clamped onto its mane like roots.
With a twist, he channeled his strength into his knee, slamming it into the boar’s cervical spine.
*Crunch!*
The boar froze, letting out an unwilling groan before collapsing.
Its massive hooves twitched twice, then stilled.
The orc rider was flung off by inertia, but before it hit the ground, Jie Ming’s hand shot out like lightning, grabbing its ankle and swinging it like a sack, smashing it into another charging orc.
*Bang!*
The two orcs collided with muffled thuds, collapsing lifelessly.
In less than two minutes, the once-raucous hall had become a slaughterhouse.
Over a dozen orc and human soldier corpses lay scattered in pools of blood, the air thick with the stench of death and decay.
Jie Ming’s breathing remained steady, his body untainted by a single drop of blood.
He stepped out of the courtyard into the villa’s garden.
More orc warriors, drawn by the commotion, were climbing the walls or pouring through the breached side gate.
Their torches lit up the night, illuminating Jie Ming’s figure, like a specter from hell.
“You came too,” Jie Ming said flatly, his gaze sweeping over the savage, greedy orcs.
“Human! Think you can stop us?!” roared an especially tall orc officer wielding a massive warhammer, backed by dozens of elite orc warriors and several hulking boar riders.
Jie Ming didn’t reply, only glancing critically. “No shamans?”
For his divine faith network research, angels were out of reach, but shamans seemed like decent subjects.
Sadly, this orc invasion appeared to lack any.
“Of course, caster units like shamans probably didn’t even enter the city,” Jie Ming shook his head, his tone laced with disappointment.
“Fine, your commander looks strong enough to serve as a test subject. As for you…” He eyed the orc officer, shaking his head. “Too weak.”
“Kill him!” The orc officer roared in fury, swinging its warhammer and charging.
Its warriors followed, their thunderous roars shaking the ground as they rushed Jie Ming.
Jie Ming tapped his foot, soaring into the air, appearing above the orc officer like a phantom before it could react.
“You’re too slow.”
A downward leg strike, heavy as a mountain, aimed for the officer’s head.
The orc instinctively raised its warhammer to block, but it underestimated Jie Ming’s terrifying physical strength.
*Boom!*
With a deafening crash, the warhammer bent, and the officer’s massive body shuddered, its legs sinking into the ground as its knees shattered with a chilling crack.
Its eyes brimmed with disbelief and agony.
Jie Ming landed, giving it no chance to recover.
His right hand shot out, seizing the officer’s head and twisting sharply.
*Crack!*
Another crisp, fatal snap. The officer’s hulking body swayed before collapsing, its warhammer rolling away.
Its eyes bulged, unseeing in death.
The instant death of their commander shattered the orcs’ morale.
Their frenzied charge halted, replaced by fear and hesitation.
“He killed the captain!”
“Run!”
Chaos spread through the orc ranks.
But Jie Ming gave them no chance to escape.
Blood splattered across the garden, severed limbs flew, and screams rose and fell.
Orcs trying to flee managed only a few steps before Jie Ming caught them, killing with a single blow.
None survived. His figure blurred in the night, omnipresent like the Reaper.
When the last orc fell, its neck snapped in despair, no living invaders remained in or around the villa.
The air was thick with blood, mingling with the fragrance of soil and flowers in an eerie balance.
Jie Ming stood expressionless amid the carnage, his robe spotless, his gaze calm as still water.
He looked toward the city, where flames still soared and explosions echoed, but his area was now clear.
In the distance, more orcs, sensing the disturbance, were converging on his location.
“I hope there’s a test subject that can surprise me,” he muttered.