After hearing Ling’s words, the people of the Chimera Tribe were on the verge of collapse. They felt like they were going mad.
Shameless beyond belief!
Could there possibly be anyone in this world more shameless and despicable than Ling?
Not only was he stealing their food, gold, salt, cloth and everything else, he even refused to spare the clothes on their backs.
He wanted all twenty to thirty thousand of them to stand naked in the wind.
The people of the Barbarian World might not have been very civilised, but they still distinguished between men and women.
Many of them were husbands and wives. Did he expect them to let everyone see their wives’ bodies?
How could such scum, such a villain, such a bastard still be alive? Why had Heaven not struck him dead with a bolt of lightning?
Beside him, Gou Li ground her teeth in fury, remembering what she herself had once suffered.
Just then, Ling sighed.
“Fine. All women may keep their underwear, but no more than two pieces.”
Those words made many women breathe a huge sigh of relief. Their husbands were even more relieved.
Even so, no one made the first move to undress.
Ling’s expression darkened.
“So, you’re refusing my kindness. Cavalry, ride them down.”
Immediately, the seven hundred cavalrymen formed up in perfect ranks and slowly urged their horses forward.
The warhorses of the Barbarian World were enormous. Anyone trampled by them would almost certainly end up half dead.
As the cavalry advanced, the Chimera tribesmen kept retreating.
Further back.
Further back.
“Don’t move back… Aah!”
A scream suddenly rang out.
Someone had stepped off the edge of the cliff and plunged into the abyss, destined to be smashed into pulp.
Ling showed no intention of stopping.
The cavalry continued advancing.
The people at the front continued retreating.
“Ah…”
“Ah…”
Screams echoed one after another.
More and more people tumbled from the cliffs, crashing into pieces below.
Every scream and every cry chilled everyone who heard it.
At last, Ling raised his hand.
The seven hundred cavalrymen halted.
The terrified tribesmen finally stopped retreating and escaped the immediate threat of death.
The despair was unbearable.
Even if someone desperately tried to stand their ground, the pressure from those behind would still push them over the cliff.
Coldly, Ling said,
“The next time I order the cavalry forward, they will not stop. Your time to choose has come.”
Then…
The first person began removing his clothes.
Then the second.
Soon countless people were stripping themselves.
The most humiliating day in the entire history of the Chimera Tribe had arrived.
Their army had been completely destroyed.
All their wealth had been looted.
Even the clothes on their bodies had been taken away.
Their dignity had been utterly trampled.
Within only a few minutes, more than twenty thousand people had stripped themselves bare.
The women kept only their underwear.
Everyone else stood shivering in the cold wind on the mountaintop.
Why had Ling done this?
Did he really need another twenty thousand sets of clothes?
Yes.
And no.
The Flame Demon Tribe truly lacked everything.
In this cursed world, productivity was so poor that even with money there was nowhere to buy supplies. Plundering was the only option.
More importantly, however, Ling wanted to utterly crush the dignity of the Rakshasa people.
His feud with the Chimera Tribe had already reached the point of no return.
He had killed far too many of them.
The hatred between them was one of life and death, with no possibility of reconciliation.
So Ling simply abandoned all restraint.
He would slaughter them completely.
He would trample their dignity.
He would destroy the very foundation of their pride.
Perhaps shame and humiliation would eventually outweigh hatred.
Perhaps hatred would become fear.
This had happened countless times throughout history.
During China’s Mongol Yuan Dynasty and later the Qing Dynasty, especially under the Qing, slaughter and cultural oppression gradually transformed deep hatred into submission. Ling was now applying similar methods against this barbarian race.
Take these Chimera men as an example.
After stripping themselves naked, did they still have the courage to shout about killing Ling?
Did they still dare call him a bastard?
No.
Their dignity and courage had already been completely crushed.
From this day forward, whenever they thought of Ling, they would think only of humiliation and fear.
Even shouting battle cries required courage and pride.
Looking at the countless naked bodies covering the ground, Ling sighed.
Every race’s courage had its limits.
No matter how powerful, brave or proud they were, they could not withstand three or five devastating blows.
“Pass your clothes to the person in front of you. Throw them into a pile at the front.”
The crowd obeyed mechanically.
In the end, more than twenty thousand garments formed several enormous heaps.
Ling threw out dozens of giant leather sacks and ordered the Chimera people to fold the clothes neatly and pack them into the sacks themselves.
Everything was completed in silence.
Perhaps this was a kind of experiment in human nature.
Once a person’s dignity had been completely destroyed, the limits governing their behaviour disappeared.
Meanwhile, below the mountain, Duolong and three hundred cavalrymen were still looting frantically, taking everything of value.
The looting continued for two full hours.
By the time it ended, daylight had completely broken.
This was no longer merely returning with full loads.
It was a staggering fortune.
A thousand cavalrymen and fifteen hundred warhorses were loaded to capacity.
Leather, cloth, grain, gold, weapons and countless other supplies.
In short, every important resource of the Chimera Tribe had been completely stripped away.
Not only that, every ox cart and horse cart in the tribe had also been seized to transport the loot.
Hundreds of carts were filled to overflowing.
Ling ordered Duolong to lead five hundred cavalrymen in escorting the carts back to the Flame Demon Tribe.
Finally, he looked once more at the more than twenty thousand trembling Chimera tribesmen gathered in the castle square.
A trace of pity flickered across his eyes.
For a moment, he hesitated.
But in the end, he still gave the order.
“Set fire to it. Burn the entire Chimera Tribe.”
The moment those words were spoken, hundreds of cavalrymen lit their torches and began setting every building in the tribe ablaze.
The expressions of the people in the square changed dramatically.
Ling had already stolen everything they owned.
He had crushed their dignity.
He had slaughtered their people.
Now he was burning their homes as well.
He intended to leave them with no way to survive.
He wanted to destroy them completely.
“Fight them! Fight them!”
Someone roared and charged forward.
But standing there completely naked, with nothing to hide their shame, all courage had vanished.
Humiliation overwhelmed everything else.
After running only halfway, seeing that almost no one followed him, his voice gradually weakened.
Eventually, he stopped.
After all, they were not primitive savages.
They had been civilised.
Sometimes civilisation brought disadvantages as well.
Ling’s gaze shifted towards the castle.
Inside, Tie Ji and the refugee Near-Human clan were hiding.
They had not been robbed.
Nor had they been forced to strip.
When Tie Ji met Ling’s eyes, his entire body stiffened and his face twitched.
He was genuinely afraid.
Although his martial arts were formidable, Ling could kill him with ease.
Yet Ling merely smiled coldly without saying a word.
Below, the fires continued spreading.
Hundreds of cavalrymen carried torches from house to house.
Unlike the Flame Demon Tribe, most Chimera houses were built from wood.
They ignited almost instantly.
Within moments, thick smoke billowed into the sky as towering flames consumed the settlement.
Ling cast one final glance at the tens of thousands of Chimera tribesmen.
“Take care of yourselves. If fate allows, we’ll meet again.”
Then he waved his hand.
Hundreds of cavalrymen thundered down the tribal road and rode out through the gates.
Ling mounted his golden griffin and soared into the sky.
Looking back, he saw that the entire Chimera Tribe had become a sea of flames.
The cries of the tribespeople echoed across the mountain.
From this day onward, the Chimera Tribe was finished.
Completely finished.
Its army had been annihilated.
Its population had fallen from nearly forty thousand to fewer than thirty thousand.
Its supplies had all been looted.
Its homes had all been reduced to ashes.
…
The story returned to more than two years earlier.
At this point, Suo Lun had already been killed by Zhi Yan.
The Dragon Temple’s aerial army had completely surrounded Tianshui City.
The massacre had begun.
Ling’s family, his wives and his children had all become prisoners of the Dragon Temple.
Meanwhile, Princess Zhi Ning and A Shi Li Ren, who were still in the royal capital, knew nothing of what had happened.
At that moment, Zhi Ning was feeling a mixture of slight annoyance and overwhelming happiness.
The old saying really was true.
There was no conflict between a man and a woman that sleeping together could not solve.
If once was not enough, then twice certainly would be.
Originally, Zhi Ning had been full of resentment and suspicion towards Suo Lun.
She had even believed that the icy barrier between them could never disappear.
After all, Suo Lun had slept with her only because he wanted to use her.
After she became pregnant and gave birth, he had ignored both her and their son for a very long time.
Yet in the end, that cold barrier in her heart proved no stronger than the symbol of a woman’s purity.
It shattered just as easily.
After Suo Lun slept with her twice more, all her resentment vanished.
Later, she came to one conclusion.
A woman’s grievances only continued to exist if they were allowed to accumulate.
The moment Zhi Yan pierced Ling’s heart, Zhi Ning felt no sudden pain.
She merely thought the weather had become unusually gloomy.
When the Dragon Temple’s aerial army flew towards the capital to capture Zhi Ning and little Yu, the mother and son were still sulking with each other.
Little Yu refused to eat anything.
Normally at mealtimes, his father would hold him while feeding him.
His father often secretly gave him food that adults ate.
It tasted wonderful.
His bad mother only fed him bland food with no flavour.
So little Yu tightly shut his mouth.
No matter how Fang Qingzhuo and Zhi Ning coaxed him, he refused to eat.
After being scolded by his mother, little Yu pouted and burst into tears.
“Daddy! Daddy! I want Daddy! I don’t want Mummy anymore!”
Zhi Ning’s chest heaved with anger.
This heartless little rascal was exactly like his shameless father.
His mother had carried him for nine months.
She had given birth to him.
She had fed him with her own milk.
She held him every day, taught him to speak and lulled him to sleep.
How many times had Suo Lun even carried him?
He simply cheated.
He ignored all the rules just to win the child’s affection.
Young children were not supposed to eat heavily flavoured food.
Yet Suo Lun insisted on feeding it to him.
As a result, little Yu thought Daddy’s food tasted much better, while Mummy’s food was awful.
It was completely unfair.
Zhi Ning had worked so hard to train the child’s palate, only for Suo Lun to ruin everything.
“Suo Lun, just wait until you come back. I’ll never forgive you,” Zhi Ning said through gritted teeth.
Beside her, Fang Qingzhuo laughed.
“Do you really expect me to believe that? Every single time, he’s the one who ends up dealing with you.”
Zhi Ning’s face instantly flushed red.
When it came to shamelessness, who could possibly compete with Suo Lun?
At that moment, the air suddenly turned cold.
Several dark figures slowly walked inside.
Former High Priest Ge Li of the Zhidu Temple.
Grand Inquisitor Luo Ge.
And one more person.
Someone who had not appeared for a very long time.
Fang Qingshu.
Compared with the incomparably handsome man he once was, Fang Qingshu looked like an entirely different person.
Thin.
Cold.
Dark.
He looked as though he had spent years soaking in hell itself.
Previously, while attempting to capture Yan Nai’er, he had fallen into Suo Lun’s trap and destroyed the protective token given by his teacher, Huai Bingyi, and the Sky Priest Gu Ban.
Afterwards, Ge Li and Luo Ge had betrayed him.
His family abandoned him.
He lost his position as Young Master of Hidden Continent and was imprisoned in the Holy Temple of Yan Capital.
He remained imprisoned for more than a year.
For Fang Qingshu, it had truly been hell.
The imprisonment itself was not the worst part.
The worst part was being abandoned and forgotten.
His cousin Fang Qingyi had replaced him as Young Master.
That blow had completely shattered him.
Many times he had wanted to end his own life.
Each time, however, he stopped himself.
He had never imagined he would one day rise again.
Suo Lun was actually the World-Destroying Demon Emperor.
As a result, everyone who opposed Suo Lun instantly became heroes of absolute justice.
Fang Qingshu had lost everything because he opposed Suo Lun.
He had been stripped of his position and imprisoned.
Such an enormous sacrifice was an opportunity Hidden Continent could not ignore.
Then Fang Qingyi conveniently died.
With that, Fang Qingshu became the tragic hero who had fought against Suo Lun and uncovered his conspiracy.
He regained his position as Young Master of Hidden Continent.
Not only that, one of the Sky Priests from the Evil Faction publicly declared that he would accept Fang Qingshu as his disciple.
Everything Fang Qingshu had lost returned to him.
And even more than before.
He wanted revenge.
He wanted Suo Lun to repay him tenfold.
A hundredfold.
The Dragon Temple’s Four Successors had already gone to capture the World-Destroying Demon Emperor.
That achievement would not belong to him.
But Suo Lun’s women…
And Suo Lun’s only biological son…
Fang Qingshu would never let them go.
His cold, sinister eyes fixed on Zhi Ning’s full chest before shifting to little Yu’s fair face.
Coldly, he declared,
“Zhi Ning, from this moment on, you and your son belong to me. Everything Suo Lun did to me, I will repay a hundredfold through the two of you.”