The Jinyang Army seemed not to hear him shouting. They continued advancing without the slightest pause, obeying orders with absolute discipline.
Jiang Jin looked at the civilians being forced to stand at the front, trembling with fear, and shouted, “We are the Jinyang Army, and we’re about to attack the city. Remember this: in a moment, hide behind the battlements and pretend to be dead.”
Everyone: “…”
Even the trembling civilians looked at her with bafflement and utter despair. Pretend to be dead? They were about to die for real! There was no need to pretend.
Luo Zha’s eyes turned vicious. He grabbed one of the civilians and held a knife to his throat. “Don’t think I’m joking. In the eyes of us Quzhao people, you Han Chinese are nothing but two-legged sheep. Hahaha!”
Jiang Jin’s gaze went cold. She pointed forward with one hand. “Fire!”
The stake arrows shot out in an instant, falling like rain.
Han Ning’s heart sank. He had never expected the Jinyang Army to truly disregard the Han civilians entirely!
Yet the bloody scene he had imagined, with arrows piercing through the civilians, never happened.
The arrows flew over their heads and struck the wall of the city tower behind them.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The glass bottles hanging from the stake arrows shattered from the violent impact. The liquid inside, along with the shards of glass, splashed across the city wall and the Quzhao soldiers standing behind it.
At almost the same moment, the crossbowmen fired flaming arrows. These too struck the city tower and fell onto the wall.
Fire erupted with a roar!
Wretched screams rang throughout the city.
Since the Quzhao soldiers were standing behind the civilians, all the oil splashed onto them. The flames roaring along the wall immediately spread over their bodies.
Amid the sea of fire, the Quzhao soldiers’ defensive formation instantly collapsed into chaos!
Some threw themselves to the ground and rolled, others ran wildly, while still others tore off their clothes in an attempt to put out the flames…
At almost the same time, the crossbowmen raised the repeating crossbows in their hands and shouted in unison, “Get down!”
The Han civilians were dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events, but when they heard that thunderous command, they instinctively crouched and hid behind the battlements.
Arrows shot out. The Quzhao soldiers, their formation thrown into disarray, fell in great numbers.
Han Ning, standing in front of the city tower, had not been splashed with oil. Unfortunately, Qu Liu beside him had caught fire. Han Ning hurriedly kicked him, sending him flying more than three meters away.
“Ah, you…” Qu Liu had been trying to put out the flames and never imagined that Han Ning would kick him away.
Han Ning was not truly so heartless. He chased after Qu Liu and kicked him several more times, finally extinguishing the fire.
“Are you all right?” He went over and helped Qu Liu to his feet.
He had no choice. The section of wall where they had been standing had been splashed with a great deal of oil. If he had not kicked Qu Liu away, the entire area would inevitably have caught fire.
Qu Liu understood what had happened and knew that Han Ning had meant well, but he still felt terribly aggrieved. There had barely been any flames on him, and he had almost put them out himself.
Now he had not been burned—he had been kicked hard enough to get injured by Han Ning instead. Who was he supposed to argue with about that?
What an utterly undeserved calamity!
Han Ning no longer had time to worry about him. Under the Jinyang Army’s dense rain of arrows, he could not even get up to assess the situation.
“Shield bearers, prepare! Archers, support them and fire!” he roared.
His voice was completely drowned out by the soldiers’ screams. He could not organize another defense or counterattack.
The fire on the city tower showed no sign of weakening. Instead, as the burning soldiers rolled about, sparks flew everywhere, and the sea of flames continued to spread.
Meanwhile, the stake arrows carrying glass bottles kept shooting in from the Jinyang Army. With every crack of shattering glass, the fire blazed higher, spreading toward both sides of the city wall…
Taking advantage of the chaos, the civilians hiding beneath the battlements quietly moved away from the flames.
Some of them did exactly as Jiang Jin had instructed. They found the corpses of Quzhao soldiers who had not caught fire, smeared blood across their faces, piled the corpses over themselves, and played dead in earnest.
Zhou Sui watched the Dragon Feather Crossbows firing nonstop and felt a pang of pain. Now that they were wealthy, they could afford to use weapons like this so extravagantly. Otherwise, they could never have endured such waste.
Fortunately, the drawbridge had now been pushed across the moat. Very soon—very soon—they would be able to storm into the city.
“Prepare the catapults! Smash them!” Zhou Sui pointed toward the city wall and issued the order loudly.
The Quzhao soldiers on the wall recovered from their initial panic. Reinforcements poured in continuously, and they began forming up to fight back.
Boom!
A huge stone crashed down in the middle of their formation. Blood sprayed through the air, followed by screams.
Yun Chengxuan was charging at the front and was just about to cross the drawbridge when a thunderous boom sounded. The newly erected drawbridge was smashed to pieces.
Yun Chengxuan let out a great roar and jumped into the moat, preparing to swim across. Then, in the blink of an eye, he spotted Golden Rice Bowl floating in the moat, trying to escape.
“Golden Rice Bowl! You can swim? Hurry over here and carry me across!” he shouted. He reached forward and grabbed Golden Rice Bowl by the tail.
Golden Rice Bowl: “…”
It really was so hard to stay alive.
Yun Chengxuan paid no attention to what it thought. After dodging an arrow, he plopped himself onto Golden Rice Bowl’s back, pointed forward with great confidence, and declared, “Forward!”
Then Golden Rice Bowl sank beneath the water, trailing a string of bubbles.
Yun Chengxuan: “…”
Zhou Sui narrowed his eyes slightly. “Catapults, take out their catapults!”
With a series of thunderous crashes, the several catapults atop Dan City’s southern gate were smashed to pieces.
Another drawbridge was raised by the Jinyang Army. Jiang Jin led the Dragon Shadow Guards across it and charged toward the city wall, while the crossbowmen behind them cleared out the Quzhao soldiers on the battlements.
Jiang Jin crossed the drawbridge, dodged the stones hurled down from the wall, and quickly climbed up a siege ladder.
Yun Chengxuan finally swam to the city wall. Seeing Jiang Jin begin her ascent, he panicked. He shook the water from his body, gripped the Buddha Heart Saber, and charged forward in great strides.
As Jiang Jin climbed onto the battlements, the Jinyang Army’s arrow support nearly ceased, since they were afraid of hitting their own people.
She was just about to jump down from the wall when an arrow flew past her side. She twisted aside to avoid it and turned to look.
In the distance, Luo Zha was holding a bow aimed directly at her.
His first shot had missed, but Luo Zha drew the bow again and fired.
Jiang Jin leaped down from the city wall. The Great Demon King stepped in front of her and knocked the arrow away with a sharp crack.
“Kill him!”
The two Dragon Shadow Guards behind her raised their Dragon Feather Crossbows and fired at Luo Zha almost simultaneously.
Luo Zha was horrified. He swung his bow up to block with one hand while drawing the saber at his waist with the other.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast he moved, he could not outrun the crossbow bolts. One arrow pierced the left side of his neck. Before he could react, another arrow drove straight into his eye…
“You dared attack my aunt? I’ll split the shit right out of you!” Yun Chengxuan had just climbed onto the wall when he saw two Quzhao soldiers hacking at Jiang Jin.
He strode forward and swept his saber out. The two Quzhao soldiers were sent tumbling from the city tower like leaves before an autumn wind.
“Lower the drawbridge! Open the city gates!” Jiang Jin shouted.
Yun Chengxuan let out a roar and led a squad of Dragon Shadow Guards toward the city tower, cutting down everything in their path.
As more and more Jinyang soldiers climbed onto the wall, the catapults finally fell silent. Zhou Sui waved his hand.
“Kill!”
The Jinyang Army charged toward the wall. Several lucky pigs that had survived the bombardment bolted in terror, one after another leaping into the moat and paddling away with loud splashes.
With several soldiers protecting him, Qu Liu ran toward the ramp leading down from the wall. He knew that Dan City could no longer be defended!
Just then, an arrow pierced the neck of a soldier beside him, spraying blood across Qu Liu’s face. He suppressed the urge to scream and kept running.
He did not dare look back. He could see the ramp just ahead, and his face lit up with joy.
Once he got down from the wall, he would be safe.
With a wet splutter, pain tore through his chest. He staggered forward two more steps before coming to a halt. His mouth opened and closed, but no words came out—only blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
Thud. His body collapsed to the ground.
The soldiers protecting Qu Liu were horrified. They turned and charged at the Jinyang army. “We’ll fight you to the death!”
The slaughter began anew, blood splattering through the air.
