Chapter 1455: Leaving the Mountains (Part 1) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]

"you--"

The commander clutched his chest, which was throbbing with pain.

His face was visibly turning bluish-purple, and he felt dizzy and disoriented.

Seeing this, Yang Ying slapped him on the shoulder. With a "plop," he coughed up all the blood in his chest, relieving the intense feeling of suffocation. The commander, his face deathly pale, spat out words dripping with blood: "You've gone too far."

Shen Tang completely ignored him.

He reminded Yang Ying, "Shengmei, you don't need to go so fast next time."

I never expected this person to live. If the old man couldn't catch his breath, his blood vessels burst, and he died of anger, that would be much easier. Yang Ying said, "This person holds a high position in the Central Allied Army. We should torture him severely and make him confess what he knows."

This person must know a lot of Allied operational secrets.

Even if you don't know these things, you should at least know who the high-ranking officials in the Allied forces are.

If used properly, it can also benefit our side.

Upon hearing this, the commander broke out in a cold sweat. He knew Shen Tang wanted him dead, but he hadn't expected the other party to hate him to this extent. He retorted defiantly, "Ha! Bring on whatever despicable tricks you have. Even if I'm shattered to pieces, I won't utter a single word. Shen Youli, your perverse actions will not end well!"

"Going against the tide?" Shen Tang pointed at herself in astonishment, almost laughing at the old man. "Are you talking about me?"

I never dreamed that this word would be used on her.

She spoke as if she were the villain in the novel, and the old man was just an unfortunate cannon fodder tormented by the main antagonist: "Tsk, take him away. Since you're so confident, I'll respect your integrity. I want to see if you're truly fearless even if you're crushed to pieces!"

Shen Tang used the scabbard to lift the commander's chin, her smile icy.

She had no intention of letting this person live, nor did she intend for him to walk openly through the Kangguo camp alive. Shen Tang didn't want to add another entry to the Juju Records about her bloodthirstiness. She would complete all the procedures secretly here, and then return with the corpses to report back.

"Yes, sir!"

How tough can a commander be if he's capable of fleeing at night?

Shen Tang called on the others to continue grilling, watching intently as the lamb skewers sizzled and dripped oil over the fire. When they were almost done, she enthusiastically sprinkled on the seasonings: "Don't eat them all, leave a few for Ji Shou."

With the Minister of Justice personally taking action, not only would a spineless living person speak, but even a dead man would! Accompanied by a shrill and chilling scream, Shen Tang gently blew on the lamb skewers to cool them down. In just a quarter of an hour, Kang Shi returned, frowning, dragging the person back with one hand.

"Didn't get any answers?"

Kang Shi said, "It went too smoothly."

Looking at the disheveled commander, she sneered, "That's normal. He's not the imposing martial arts master he used to be."

Once a martial artist's dantian is sealed, they lose their martial energy and essentially become an ordinary person with a more resilient physical body.

If one's mind is not firm, one simply cannot withstand the torture of verbal abuse.

Shen Tang glanced down at the Allied commander, who was on the verge of a mental breakdown and begging for mercy, and asked with amusement, "Do you want to live?"

The commander, enduring the excruciating pain that tore at his soul, declared: "Yes!"

Shen Tang leaned forward: "Crawl over here."

The words "young lord" silenced the air.

Qin Li silently closed his eyes.

She secretly rejoiced that the court attendant was no longer there, which was a good thing.

The commander, his face smeared with snot, tears, and blood, didn't hesitate and actually crawled forward on all fours. Qin Li and the others watched him warily, fearing he might suddenly attack Shen Tang. As it turned out, their vigilance was well-founded.

Just as this man crawled to Shen Tang's feet and lowered his head to lightly touch Shen Tang's instep with his forehead, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes!

He burned his core and fought desperately!

Since death is inevitable anyway, begging loses its meaning!

But he never expected that a sword would pierce through his dantian without hesitation. The moment his dantian and martial arts core were pierced, his face was filled with disbelief. Shen Tang's voice came into his ears from above: "I hate self-righteous idiots the most. I hope you don't make it onto the list of gods, otherwise I'll have to curse the heavens twice in the middle of the night."

With a slight effort, she pulled the longsword from his body.

Shen Tang took a bite of the perfectly cooked lamb skewer: "Sever the head of this person, and eliminate the rest, leaving no one alive!"

This mountain valley isn't close to Kangguo, but the commotion just now was so great that it alerted the night patrol. Shen Tang looked regretfully at the still-roasted lamb skewers: "Don't waste good stuff, send it to the logistics department."

When the military officer on duty led his troops over, he was terrified.

"This humble general has arrived too late to save Your Majesty."

He initially thought it was an enemy night raid, but unexpectedly, he ran into his own people, including his lord. Fortunately, his lord and the others were unharmed; if anything had happened to them, even suicide wouldn't have been enough to atone for his sins.

Shen Tang said, "You've arrived just in time."

What she really meant was that she didn't have to come so quickly.

Back at camp, Shen Tang had almost finished digesting her food, and a long-lost drowsiness washed over her. Instead of collapsing into bed, she rummaged through a corner and pulled out the so-called Investiture of the Gods list, her gaze falling directly to the end. Seeing that no new characters had appeared on the list, she felt relieved.

To be honest, she doesn't mind familiar faces appearing on the so-called Investiture of the Gods list. Even if there are huge grudges and affections, they were all sorted out before death. Once a person dies, the debt is settled, and you can't chase after a dead person.

However, she disliked certain malign elements within the Central Allied forces.

Shen Tang yawned, casually rolled up the Investiture of the Gods and stuffed it back into the corner, kicked off his wooden clogs twice, and fell asleep immediately.

Before long, soft snoring could be heard from inside the tent.

I slept soundly through the night until dawn.

Before dawn, the Kangguo army began beating drums and challenging the Shibao fortress to battle. A dense mass of heads hung before them, with the allied commander occupying the central position. Normally, if the commander-in-chief led a night retreat, the Shibao defenders should have collapsed in disarray, fleeing if they could. Strangely, the challengers shouted until their voices were hoarse, yet there was no response from the Shibao side. Su Shiyilu recalled Shen Tang's words from the previous night.

He thought to himself, "Could it be that everyone's dead?"

Were the deserters we encountered last night the only survivors?

He sent someone to consult with Shen Tang, hoping to launch a strong attack.

Shortly after, the central army replied with a single word—

【Can! 】

Su Shiyi Lumo was eager to fight.

He shouted at Chu Jie, "Let's go together!"

The army effortlessly breached the enemy's defenses, and only when they reached this side did Su Shiyilu see some living people still behind the enemy's defensive lines. These people fled at the first sign of trouble, abandoning their armor and weapons, offering no respect whatsoever. With a series of rapid explosions, the stone fortress gates were violently blasted open, and a stench assaulted the senses.

Upon seeing the scene inside the stone fortress, not only Su Shiyilu, but also the entire vanguard of soldiers stopped in their tracks. Although none of them vomited, their instantly pale faces showed how impactful the scene was!

Skulls piled up like mountains, bones piled up like the sea.

Human skin and hair were stuck to the ground with rotten flesh and excrement.

Not hundreds or thousands of corpses, but nearly ten thousand!

Upon receiving the news, Shen Tang rushed over, his motorcycle snorting uneasily, reluctant to take a step. Su Shiyilu had already ordered his men to clear the stone fortress; corpses, their flesh stripped away and only highly decomposed internal organs remaining, were being carried out…

The remaining survivors were all emaciated and had blank expressions.

Su Shiyilu also discovered a pile of corpses, over ten feet high, haphazardly stacked at the logistics station of the stone fortress, with earthenware jars filled with unprocessed dried meat and fat. The season was already hot and humid, and mosquitoes, flies, and maggots had crawled all over every brick and stone, making it impossible to walk.

"I've fought so many wars over the years..."

Su Shiyi felt as if his internal organs were rebelling.

In terms of ferocity, the Shiwu before being subdued by Kangguo were undoubtedly the epitome of barbarity. Even Su Shiyilu, not to mention others, frequently used wine vessels made from the heads of war trophies.

Even so, the sight of the stone fortress made me want to vomit.

Chu Jie remained expressionless towards him, then turned to Chu Yao with tenderness and concern, handing him a water pouch: "Drink some water to calm down."

Chu Yao suppressed his nausea: "No need."

Of the entire stone fortress, only a little over a thousand survived.

These more than a thousand people were all pale and emaciated, as thin as bones.

According to their confessions, before the stone fortress had truly run out of food, those in command began targeting ordinary soldiers. Initially, they slaughtered everything edible, and only then did they kill people. Some tried to resist, but were violently suppressed and killed to serve as rations.

Ordinary soldiers were forced to choose between deserting and becoming rations. Some were lucky enough to escape the infernal prison, while the unlucky ones were turned into rations. Martial arts warriors, on the other hand, had a much larger appetite than ordinary soldiers. Naturally, their rations were consumed much faster.

Apart from the few thousand who escaped, only these few survived.

Chu Jie probed Shen Tang's intentions: "My lord, what should be done with these prisoners? Should we do it the same way as last night, or..."

Kill it, or keep it?

Shen Tang rubbed her temples: "Are there any generals among them?"

“There is one.”

"Bring it over."

The man brought over was a middle-aged man with deeply sunken eyes. His physique, which should have been burly, was thin and frightening. In contrast, the group of deserters he had encountered last night were only disheveled in appearance, but their complexions were rosy.

He showed disgust when he saw Shen Tang.

It wasn't hatred, but disgust.

Shen Tang: "What grudge do I have against you?"

"The victor is king, the loser is villain; it's not a matter of enmity. It's just that I never expected the so-called benevolent ruler praised by everyone in the Northwest to be a demon in human skin. It's disappointing." The middle-aged man spoke weakly, his lips dry and cracked, clearly from not eating for a long time. He was barely keeping his body running thanks to the martial energy in his dantian. Su Shiyilu held a knife to his neck, a silent threat. The middle-aged man straightened his back, panting heavily, his voice hoarse, "No matter how much you threaten me, I won't change my mind!"

"I'm not the one who eats people, and you shouldn't hate me either."

"But dare you say you're completely innocent?" the middle-aged man retorted, "Do you dare say you didn't deliberately trap us to death, didn't deliberately force us to kill each other? King Shen, you know perfectly well what's going on!"

Refusing to accept surrender is a form of coercion.

In his view, the conflict could have ended sooner. If it had ended even half a month earlier, so many people wouldn't have lost their lives to their own kind!

Shen Tang: "I know, but I have a clear conscience."

The middle-aged man's pupils trembled, as if his worldview was collapsing.

He exhaled a deep breath and closed his eyes, awaiting death.

Judging from Shen Youli's actions, he intended to wipe them out completely. He wasn't a novice on the battlefield; he knew that once an enemy had the will to kill, it couldn't be changed by a few words of begging. Rather than making a fool of himself and becoming a laughingstock, he preferred a quick death.

Kangguo was unusually ruthless towards the Allied forces in the Central Region!

"Send these prisoners of war to mining, and they will not be allowed to redeem themselves for ten years." In the end, Shen Tang took pity on them and let them go.

The middle-aged man was astonished: "You're not going to kill him?"

He was still somewhat dazed even as he was being led away.

I can't believe I escaped death.

Su Shiyilu was somewhat displeased: "If you don't nip the problem in the bud, there will be endless trouble later. If this person holds a grudge, then in the future..."

Shen Tang: "He'll have no reason to hold a grudge from now on."

She added, "After all, they are old and frail."

Apart from the middle-aged man who had some strength, the other prisoners were all ordinary soldiers. It was purely by luck that they were not slaughtered and made into military rations, and not for any other reason.

Su Shiyilu merely snorted upon hearing this.

It would be a huge joke if Shen Youli didn't target the old and weak. If she couldn't do that, what about the dozen or so tribes she wiped out back then? She wiped out every single one of them! However, there's no point in bringing up those old grievances now.

He would only do a cleaner job if placed in the same spot.

He also complained that Shen Youli was too soft-hearted.

Shen Tang: "..."

That's the downside of having old rivals as ruler and subject; they know everything about each other's past, and who knows when they'll start bringing up old grievances.

Chu Jie, who had been watching the two's movements, was speechless.

Damn it! Tens of thousands of elite troops sent by the Central Allied Forces to the Yudi Mountains were either dead or dead. Including deserters and over a thousand prisoners, fewer than ten thousand remained alive. Chu Jie couldn't understand how such a death rate could be associated with being soft-hearted.

It took the Kangguo army three days to tidy up the stone fortress.

However, the rotten flesh had long since seeped into the soil and bricks, and simple cleaning was completely ineffective; the stench of decay persisted for years.

"That damned Shen Youli!"

No matter how complex and rugged the mountain terrain was, some lucky ones managed to escape and deliver the message to the main Allied forces in the central region.

The Allied forces received bad news one moment and bad news the next – despite the fact that they had ambushed and killed the negotiators on their way and destroyed the evidence, the negotiators did not return at the agreed time, and the contact person knew with his toes that something was wrong.

Why is she always going against us?

In a fit of rage, someone swept everything off the table with a single sweep of their sleeve.

The things hit the ground with a loud crackling sound.

“That woman from the Yuan family is dead, and the top experts we sent have either been killed or surrendered… To deal with her now, it seems that even those below the rank of Marquis of Guannei are useless…” The atmosphere in the tent was deathly silent, but some hotheads liked to face the challenge head-on and exposed the truth that everyone was most anxious about, “But the Marquis of Guannei and the Marquis of Che are not people you can hire by emptying your pockets…”

No one present hesitated to kill Shen Tang, even if it meant going bankrupt.

They'd tried everything—calling in reinforcements, forming alliances—but nothing worked. They didn't know what kind of spell Shen Youli had cast on Zhai Xiaofang, that such a beneficial cooperation with Qu Guo wouldn't work.

"Did the things given to Kangguo's water veins work?" Those were "treasures" sealed away by the inner society, which disturbed the energy of heaven and earth.

"It didn't work either."

This devastating news left everyone speechless.

They were eager to know where Kangguo's weaknesses lay.

At this moment, someone in the corner sneered: "Mortals are all susceptible to illness. I've heard that the inner community has ancient diseases?"

Lin Su, who had been silent all along, suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze murderous. The others reacted differently, but not with opposition, but with hesitation: "Once these diseases you mentioned spread, they are beyond our control, and it will likely result in mutual destruction."

"It's better for both of us to be badly hurt than for her to win and me to lose, right?"

Uェ*U

Keyboards are starting to grow everywhere in my house again. Ugh, can these retailers please slow down their new product releases? My wallet just can't take it anymore.