The war drums were thunderous. The gates to the fortress in Cold Blood pass were wide open. The army was mobilised.
The dark clouds of war amassed in the sky like a monster brandishing its claws and teeth, lunging towards Black Cloud city in the distance.
Due to the existence of arcane treasures like sumeru rings, the army basically did not have to worry about logistics. The strange part of all this were the several tens of thousand cages that the demonic beasts dragged towards the frontlines.
At the boundary between the Demon domain and the Human realm, the soldiers dragged out the prisoners one by one, burying them up to their necks such that only their heads remained exposed.
There were all sorts of prisoners, male and female, old and young. Some sobbed away painfully, some cursed away loudly, and others remained silent. However, none of them begged for mercy. There was no such thing as sympathy in the Demon domain.
They were buried up to their necks as the army progressed, basically like planting trees, leaving behind a path of howls.
The territory of the Demon domain burst through the boundary. From above, it was like a huge arrow, plunging towards Black Cloud city.
These prisoners were all “criminals” of the Demon domain. They had either ended up there due to conspiracies, or it was because they were cowardly and useless, or perhaps they were just sacrifices for the war. However, all of them were labelled with a common name—good people.
As the demonic earth penetrated the Human realm, just being buried alive was no longer enough.
The shamans began to construct altars, leading the prisoners on there and torturing them to death under the watch of the soldiers.
Howls rose and fell, like they were tearing through the sky.
The shamans were skillful, making the prisoners experience the greatest amount of pain without killing them too quickly. The torture would often last for several days and nights and could only be completed with the assistance of a few apprentices.
The most brilliant shamans used different machinery and techniques to make the prisoner produce different kinds of howls, giving the spectators an extreme mental experience.
They were even divided into two different schools of thought, the school of experience and the school of performance.
The school of experienced believed they should focus on the tortures itself, so they gave these “criminals” the greatest experience of pain, instead of performing like a cloud to please these foolish spectators.
The school of performance believed that there was only one “criminal”, yet there were countless spectators, so who took priority was as clear as day. The school of experience was only a group of sadists without any sense of responsibility or duty in their eyes.
Oh right, there was also the school of methods that invented new tortures and tools. Because they placed too much emphasis on formalities, they were not particularly popular.
The demonfolk instead enjoyed these sights that could drive people mad with great interest. They were glued to them. Some of them were even enchanted, filled with amazement.
“Damn, that slice was absolutely perfect! This guy’s voice is not bad either. His howls rise and fall and vary with timbre, tsktsk!”
Suddenly, a demonfolk reported, “Sir shaman, I’ve noticed that Zhou Chu’s gaze constantly shifts away, like he refuses to watch. So he still does have some goodness left in him!”
“Ah, sir shaman, I have no goodness! I have no goodness! I got hungry from watching.”
The shaman glanced at him coldly and threw a burnt hand down from the altar.
Zhou Chu lunged over and wolfed away. “The flesh of good people is just delicious!”
“How dare you call the flesh of good people delicious! Are you saying that the flesh of us wicked people is disgusting?”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
“I have a request to make to the shaman. Sacrifice this fake scoundrel to the demonic heavens!”
“Sacrifice him! Sacrifice him! Sacrifice him!”
The demonfolk huddled in closer as they growled with faint smiles. It was very eerie and twisted.
“Argh!!!”
As a result, another “good person” hidden within the group of wicked people had been discovered and eliminated. Their morale surged.
With a hundred thousand “good people” as offerings, the army rapidly pushed closer to Black Cloud city.
Territory established through this method was only temporary, but as long as they made it to Black Cloud city, the demonfolk would be fighting in their own territory. It would give them a colossal geographic advantage, and they could avoid any enemy sneak attacks while travelling.
This battle tactic had always been publicly-known. One of the consequences of the constant years of war was everything was clear. All of the tactics and strategies had been used hundreds and thousands of times already. They did not even have to analyse the map. All of the possibilities had already occurred in the past.
If the Human realm possessed a hundred different methods to deal with this tactic, then the Demon domain possessed a hundred and one tactics as a counterplan. That was why a battle tactic like this remained and was still used.
Under these various restrictions from reality, the unexpected incidents that occurred on the battlefield were often even rarer than on the chessboard.
Once war began, there would not be any more room to use any strange tricks or schemes, nor were there heroes that could easily turn the tide of war. All that would remain would be a bloody meat grinder. It would boil down to which side could feed it more flesh and blood.
Li Liehuo was completely aware of all of this. The defensive system of Black Cloud city was built on the Formation of Black Clouds and Roaring Thunder and the two armies.
They established armies so they could organise their flesh and blood better before they fed it to the meat grinder.
Now that Chao Tianjiao was gone, the Xuanwu army was basically incapacitated.
It was not just because she was powerful. More importantly, the Xuanwu army had been founded under her name, and she had built up great prestige through countless battles.
Only with prestige was there unity, and only with unity was there strength. A random direct disciple could not replace her position.
The situation now was if they could not feed the meat grinder the flesh and blood of mortals, then they could only feed it the flesh and blood of cultivators.
But which cultivator was willing to do something like that? If regular cultivators refused, the direct disciples could still keep them in check. If the direct disciples refused, who could still force them into making sacrifices? Speaking of which, even he, the “first senior brother”, was reluctant to.
He even began to miss Chao Tianjiao slightly.
By now, he had reached the Scorching Fire hall.
The Scorching Fire hall was filled with whispers that gradually quietened with the sound of his footsteps.
The direct disciples all bowed, “Senior brother!”
Li Liehuo saw them gathered in groups of threes or fives, either standing or sitting. Some leaned against the wall while hugging a sword, while others just sat on the discussion table. Only Ge Xing sat properly. He could not help but furrow his brows, ordering, “Sit down properly!”
Everyone took their seats successively. Even the female disciples who were about to question Li Liehuo had been taken aback by his authority. The direct disciples that had not been to Black Cloud city also noticed how the atmosphere here was completely different from the Direct Disciple hall.
“The army of the Demon domain has probably set off already. They’re determined to uproot Black Cloud city this time, so the scale of their attack is unprecedented. If we want to protect Black Cloud city, please mentally prepare yourself for half of us here dying.”
“What!? Half of us dying? Senior brother, you’re not joking, are you?”
The direct disciples all responded differently. Some paled in fright, some were in disbelief, while others sank into their thoughts silently. They never expected Li Liehuo to actually be so pessimistic.
Le Tian played around with a pair of dice in interest. This was a fine opportunity to gamble. They could wager on whether they could protect Black Cloud city or not. However, he did not want to face the wrath of the “first senior brother”, so all he could do was add to what Li Liehuo said mentally.
Even if half of us die, we might not necessarily be able to protect the city. That’s just the largest loss you can mentally accept.
Pi Yangqiu seemed to read his thoughts. He communicated, “Hehe, this ‘first senior brother’ is still too inexperienced after all. He’s already overestimated their determination. I think we’ll be done as soon as we lose a third of us. It’s been far too peaceful over the recent years after all. There aren’t a lot of old guys remaining who have been through the large battles.”
“He’s afraid of frightening them out of their wits, clearly! Heh, do they really think they can’t die just because they’re Human Sovereigns?”
