Chapter 1177: Flame Fist Hassan
The refugee group that was originally heading towards Paradise City is still heading towards Paradise City, but the speed is much faster than before.
These slave knights lowered the sand cages in the team.
It was a metal cage that looked like a land boat, like a large pumpkin. It was made of numerous metal rods of varying lengths. They carried these rods like long weapons for protection. When they were interlocked, they formed a crude yet sturdy cage.
The parts that touched the sand were long sticks, so it could slide quickly across the sand like ice skates, eliminating the need to spend too much time in the sand driving a bunch of slaves, which would lead to insufficient supplies. Because it was completely hollow, it didn't have to withstand storms.
If they lay on the ground, they might choke on the sand and suffocate or become blinded. If the slaves didn't want to get stuck in the quicksand and have their legs broken by the twisting force, they had to step carefully on the iron bars.
Even so, they might miss a step and accidentally hit the ground, hurting themselves. Therefore, the slaves had to be doubly careful to manage themselves and do their best to maintain their balance, so no one had the leisure to think about how to escape from here.
The Parthians called this kind of sand cage "cage", but it was pronounced in the Parthian language.
Foreigners call this simple sand cage made of iron rods a "resting cage."
On the one hand, this kind of cage that is convenient for dragging on the sand is only available in the Parthians; on the other hand, some Parthian caravans also carry iron rods for self-defense, and when the opportunity is right, they kidnap passengers and travelers, using iron rods to temporarily combine them into cages of different sizes to hold people, and act as slave traders on the side.
Besides this, there is another reason.
That's how this cage is made, just like the society of the ancient Parthian Empire—
If they disperse, each of them will become an iron rod to protect their loved ones and themselves.
But if they were combined, they would form a cage to capture slaves. After the slaves were escorted, they would each remove their own iron bars and return to their daily lives as if nothing had happened.
Dimly glowing chains slithered through the cracks, wrapping around the slaves, some intact and some injured. While some were transcendents among them, their power levels were low. Regardless of whether they were transcendents or not, their strength was drained by the chains, leaving them powerless.
These slave knights are extremely cruel and ruthless.
Regardless of age or gender, anyone who dared to resist them—even if they simply raised their weapons, without even striking them—would be punished by having a hand, a finger, or even an ear chopped off. Only those who remained motionless and bound remained intact.
This is also a common tactic of intimidation used by slave knights.
If these would-be slaves realized that their imperfections diminished their value, thus making the slave knights hesitant to harm them, then capturing them would be even more costly. Therefore, they would show no mercy, even if the slaves merely struggled violently, they would be dealt a savage blow. Conversely, if these slaves realized that any resistance, regardless of success, would incur a price, they would be even more hesitant to resist, thus missing the best opportunity to strike back.
But they also had some clever tricks - just like the middle-aged woman they killed first, they would first kill or seriously injure those slaves who could not be sold at a high price, in order to intimidate those slaves with higher value.
Generally speaking, the most valuable slaves in the desert are the most beautiful and noble young men and women—regardless of race. There are also Transcendents above the third level, and those of beautiful, rare, and powerful alien races... These are treasures that can fetch high prices at auctions. Capturing one is enough to provide a dozen slave knights with food and clothing for several years.
Next in line were healthy, strong adult men and men of other races. These were valuable assets for protection and labor, difficult to capture intact, and highly sought after. Next came young boys, valuable for investment, and girls, who had a higher upper limit but were more difficult to raise. Then came middle-aged women, frail men, and children of other races who were unsalable... and finally, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled, who were the least valuable.
Therefore, when they take action, they will prioritize attacking and executing the latter two types of people, using this cruel method of execution to deter the more expensive former, so as not to be forced to retaliate and injure them, thereby reducing their value.
That kind of "ferocity" itself is also a kind of improvisation.
Jabir is one of the few people who knows these rules.
Because his father had done this kind of business before, and that was when their family was doing well.
And then, his father died silently in the desert. Perhaps he had offended the wrong people, perhaps he was killed by the Dry Water Army or the rebels, perhaps he was attacked by the phantom demons in the sand... Or perhaps he was defeated and enslaved by another wave of slave knights, or perhaps something went wrong during the capture process - who knows? In any case, this was their fate.
Jabir was not unaware of his future fate.
But he was relieved.
Even if I become a slave...it is better than dying silently in the desert.
He always felt that those people looked at him with a strange look. Although they were all accomplices, they looked down on him. If they hadn't arrived in Paradise City at the right time, he would have died tonight if it had been just one day later.
Because of this, he was the first to surrender, and his chains were the loosest, giving him the best position in the cage. In the entire caravan, the only ones who received better treatment than him were the two camels.
After all, a camel can buy two young male slaves. Its value is higher than mine, Jabir thought self-deprecatingly.
He was at the front, so the chain around his neck was loose, and he didn't have to sway back and forth trying to find a foothold - his body could lean against the cage for leverage, thus reducing a lot of collisions with other people. The only downside was that this position probably had to eat some sand.
At this moment, Jabir suddenly opened his eyes wide.
He had the best vision, and because of that... he was the first to see the visitor from afar.
That's another group of cavalry -
But they do not seem to be slave cavalry.
They wore uniform black robes that covered their faces. Even though it was daytime, they held torches. From a great distance away, black smoke and flames could be seen drifting towards them.
This group of cavalry did not rush out from the City of Paradise, but from another direction opposite to them.
The slave knights of Paradise City, upon seeing this, changed their expressions and became anxious: "What should we do?"
"Where did the rebels come from!"
"Just throw them away and run, Boss!"
"But the cage..."
The slave knights were immediately thrown into chaos.
And the one in the lead, the man in exquisite leather armor, took back the chain.
"You damned bunch..."
The middle-aged woman immediately regained the ability to move and speak, and she cursed loudly.
But before she could finish her words, the man grabbed her hair and pulled her out of the cage.
He stabbed the woman's chin with the scimitar in his hand, and it penetrated directly into her brain. Like slaughtering livestock, he killed her instantly.
"Engage in battle! Prepare for a blood sacrifice! Leave them behind!"
The leader, who was wearing exquisite leather armor, was unwilling to retreat directly, but planned to engage in a fight with the newcomers.
He called out, "Use the cheap stuff first!"
"good!"
"Okay!"
People were shouting fiercely, so no one wanted to escape.
As the chains tightened, the "cheapest" people in the convoy - thin men, women over 30 years old, the sick, the elderly, and those who had been disabled in previous arrests - were all dragged over.
A total of seventeen people died amid exclamations, screams and wails.
The cage suddenly became much emptier, with only half of the people left.
The remaining slave knights also removed their soul chains and put them back into their bodies to restore their magic power and prepare for battle.
The blood from the seventeen corpses gathered into a strange river in the sand.
Several of the slave knights muttered incantations in low voices, while the blood-soaked sand slowly rose from the ground like twisted snakes, swaying and shaking.
An ominous black mist emerged from the corpses, forming a gloomy curtain that enveloped them.
The distorted face of the evil spirit slowly condensed from the mist.
——But at this moment.
Suddenly, a very bright light appeared from the opposite side!
At that moment, Jabir thought he was going to go blind and he couldn't help but scream.
It was a fire that was even more intense and dazzling than looking directly at the midday sun!
A beam of high-temperature laser formed by flames was like an extremely long and thin sword, reaching them in the blink of an eye.
The curse ritual that killed seventeen people was as fragile as a piece of paper - it was easily cut by the flames without any hindrance.
And those slave knights, without exception, were cut into two pieces by this blow!
The flames severed their bodies from the chest up, while the camels beneath them remained unscathed.
Just one strike! It was so powerful that it was like a god!
Those extremely powerful extraordinary people were destroyed as if in a miracle!
Jabir's brain trembled. He felt the cage in front of him was so hot that he quickly moved his body away, but he was still burned.
It turned out that the flames had also sliced off the top of the cage. Metal, being a strong conductor of heat, burned him directly.
Among the group opposite, the only leading man who was not holding a torch rushed over on a camel.
His hands burned with flames like the blazing sun, and he raised his hands high as if holding up the sun.
"I'm Hassan! Hassan the Flame Fist!"
The man shouted to them: "I'm back! You are saved!"
——Hassan the Flame Fist!
It’s the legendary Hassan the Flaming Fist!
The crowd was boiling.
Update completed!
My blood pressure is high again today, so I'll update chapter 1.5 first and then take a break.
(End of this chapter)
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