Time waited for no one.
These two torrents, each capable of destroying everything, were like the upper and lower jaws of a colossal beast spread wide, closing in from north and south with a grim death intent that would grind all things to dust, preparing to bite down viciously upon the riddled, battered Black Blood Stockade.
At this juncture of life or death, there was not half a moment to spare for a long-winded elder council.
Below Black Blood Stockade's towering walls, smeared with dried blood gone black-brown, the low-rank Gu Masters had already assembled in full, packed shoulder to shoulder.
Many had only just pulled back from the first brutal meat grinder of the beast tide, exhaustion and terror interwoven upon every face.
However, when a figure as vigorous and imposing as an iron tower leapt onto the stockade wall, all the commotion and despair was forcibly pressed back down.
The Rank 4 Patriarch, Lin Cang.
He stood at the apex of Black Blood Stockade, not half a trace of dejection on that rock-hard face, and along with sound waves that thundered in every ear, his voice swept over the entire stockade without the slightest reservation!
"Sons of Black Blood Stockade, every last one of you, raise your heads for this old man!"
A single roar shook loose stones from the wall, sending them rattling down.
"What lies ahead? The beast tide!"
"What lies to the flank? White Bone's wild dogs!"
"Every one of them wants our lives, wants to tread over our corpses and bones to divide the spoils!"
Lin Cang's deep, domineering gaze swept like lightning across every kinsman below:
"But what place is this?!"
"This is Black Blood Stockade! The native soil that bore and raised you, the place where your parents, wives, and children dwell, the foundation that our Lin Clan carved out of these savage mountains with our lives, generation by generation, across decades!"
"Today, the inner treasury opens completely!"
Lin Cang abruptly swung his fist, pointing toward the firmament, and let out a piercing howl:
"Primeval Stones, Gu materials, medicinal herbs, battle Gu — anything that can be used to hold this stockade, take and use it freely, without accounting for the cost!"
"This old man has only one thing to say—"
"Hold Black Blood Stockade!"
"If I, Lin Cang, live, then I stand at the very front of you all; if I, Lin Cang, die, then I will most certainly die before all of you!"
"ROAR—!!"
After a brief dead silence, the entire mountain stockade erupted in a howl like mountains collapsing and seas rising!
The bottom-tier Gu Masters, worn to the point of near numbness, had in this moment had the blood in their very bones detonated by their Patriarch's ferocity.
There was nowhere left to retreat, so there was nothing left but death!
The heavy treasury doors were forced open by the guards with great effort. Mountains of Primeval Stones and healing Gu worms were transported to every defensive line; the war reserves poured out without the slightest reservation.
And Lin Cang did not withdraw into the great hall.
The instant his words fell, a dazzling burst of Rank 4 Primeval Essence erupted thunderously from his aperture!
His entire person became a meteor, hurling himself down from the stockade wall dozens of zhang high, crashing brazenly into the very forefront of that violently surging beast tide before them.
BOOM—!
A Hundred Beast King with a body vast as a hill, charging at full speed, took Lin Cang's iron-boned heavy fist straight to the face. The enormous savage beast's skull shattered on the spot, and the remaining carcass tumbled and smashed down a great swathe of the herd, forcibly snapping off the sharpest spearpoint of the beast tide right then and there!
The Patriarch did not retreat, so Black Blood did not retreat.
The broken defensive lines locked together once more amid blood and fire; the Rank 3 clan elders swiftly filled the gaps, and the whole of Black Blood Stockade was like a dying ferocious beast, baring every one of its bleeding fangs.
...
And deep within the mountain ridges of the flank, the White Bone Alliance's grand army likewise rolled forward like a rising tide.
Within the mountain forest, disturbed and rampaging savage beasts cut across the line of march from time to time. Several alliance assault squads positioned on the outer edge did not even manage a scream before being trampled into meat paste by crazed beasts that burst suddenly from among the trees.
Casualties spread without cease, and the patriarchs of several minor and mid-sized stockades subordinate to White Bone turned green in the face, their steps inevitably slowing with hesitation.
At the very center of the formation, White Bone Patriarch Li Mang leaned upon that Bone Spine Scepter, his cold, sinister eyes sweeping slowly over those vassal chiefs in whom thoughts of retreat had begun to sprout.
"Oh? Afraid?"
Li Mang's voice was hoarse and withered, yet it radiated a pressure that chilled men to the bone:
"Black Blood Stockade has just finished the first wave — their wounded are at their most numerous, their Gu worms at their most crippled, the greater part of their foundations hollowed out! They haven't even the chance to catch a single breath right now. This is precisely when they are at their weakest!"
He abruptly slammed the Bone Spine Scepter down hard against the ground, shattering the solid stone beneath his feet:
"All of you have followed this old man this far, and now you want to retreat?"
"Take Black Blood Stockade today, tear the Lin Clan to pieces, and across these several hundred li of territory around Black Wind Ridge, never again will there be anyone riding above your heads throwing their weight around! This vast expanse of mountains and rivers will be the domain of our White Bone Alliance!"
Greed once again overwhelmed fear.
A scout came stumbling and tumbling up the earthen slope, shouting himself hoarse: "Report—! The mountain path ahead has been cut off by several hundred Red Fire Wolves. Requesting a halt to the march!"
Li Mang's face showed no expression; he did not so much as lift an eyelid, and only spat out a single cold sentence:
"If beasts block the road, then kill the beasts."
"If the Lin Clan blocks the road, then kill the men."
"There is only one direction — forward!"
The direct bloodline elites of White Bone Stockade proper were even placed at the very front of the line of march.
If one man died, the rear ranks filled his place; if one man was wounded, the man beside him stepped past him and charged on.
Li Mang threw White Bone Stockade's own reserves and bloodline into it without the slightest hesitation, and naturally, the other minor stockades were left without any excuse to shrink back.
The will of blood and fire was unified in this moment, and the alliance's grand army, like a giant python flicking a venomous tongue, went slaughtering madly toward the flanking heartland of Black Blood Stockade.
...
In an instant, the whole of Black Wind Ridge was utterly transformed into an asura's hell devoid of order.
Here, there were no longer any clear dividing lines.
Natural calamity and man-made disaster had become utterly entangled in mutual slaughter within the chaotic dense forest.
Black Blood Stockade's defenders were fighting desperately to block a frenzied herd of wild boars that had broken through the forward outposts, when the White Bone Alliance's elite assassins already came bursting out of the mountain woods on the flank like venomous serpents;
Black Blood Stockade was forced to hastily split its forces to hold them off, and cracks instantly appeared in the line they had been holding to the death, whereupon the frenzied beast herds barred outside came roaring through the gap and pouring in.
And the spearhead squads of the White Bone Alliance that thrust in too deep would, in the very next instant, run headlong into a Beast King with blood-red eyes that made no distinction between friend and foe.
The mountain forest burned; the streaming lights of all manner of Rank 1 and Rank 2 Gu worms danced wildly amid the thick smoke and poisonous miasma.
One man had just taken an enemy Gu Master's head with a single blade, and in the next moment was trampled into meat paste by an armored rhinoceros charging past;
two Rank 2 Gu Masters, mortal enemies to each other, were staking their lives against one another one second, and the next were forced to roll ignominiously aside to either side at the same time, dodging a rampaging giant ape that came crashing down from atop the canopy.
The colossal beast had barely charged past before the two of them, eyes red, locked into a grappling brawl again, every blade drawing blood!
The savage beasts tore and bit on nothing but the instinct for survival, while the humans strained with all their might to slaughter one another.
Natural calamity was the firewood, man-made disaster the flame, and together they burned the mountain ranges for dozens of li in every direction into one charred-black grinding mill of flesh and blood.
...
Whoosh—!
In midair, a streak of jade-green light tore through layer upon layer of thick smoke, diving at extreme speed toward the weak southeastern flank of Black Blood Stockade's defensive line.
The Green Wing Gu behind Lin Mu's back beat madly, his eyes cold as he looked down upon the battlefield below, which had already spun out of control.
On the mountain path directly beneath him, a five-man patrol squad of Black Blood Stockade had already been utterly scattered by a White Bone Alliance assault team.
Two Rank 2 Gu Masters stood back to back, drenched in blood, already at the end of their strength like spent crossbows under the encirclement of three enemies of the same rank; at their feet lay the mangled, incomplete corpses of three comrades.
"Die!"
A Rank 2 Gu Master of White Bone Stockade holding a bone blade raised his long blade with a savage grin, about to sever a defender's throat.
However, in the next instant.
A slender yet utterly swift dark golden gleam tore through the sky without the slightest warning!
Shhk—!
That long bone blade had not yet fallen before the head of the Gu Master wielding it flew high into the air along with a spray of scalding blood mist. The headless corpse stood rigid in place, then toppled with a heavy thud.
Rank 3 Vital Gu — the Metal Sever Leaf Gu!
One strike, one certain kill!
Immediately after, Lin Mu's thoughts turned like lightning in midair, and Primeval Essence poured from his aperture.
Rattle rattle rattle—!
The ink-black Iron Chain Gu shot out from midair like a life-seizing venomous dragon, coiling with precision around the ankle of the second enemy Gu Master.
Lin Mu's wings beat lightly and his Primeval Essence erupted; a surge of immense force rolled back along the iron chain, flipping that Rank 2 Gu Master who had tried to retreat straight onto the ground and dragging him several zhang through the mire.
The two dying Black Blood Stockade Gu Masters at last had their chance to breathe, and they threw themselves madly upon the fallen enemy, hacking him to pieces with wild blades.
However, Lin Mu, still in midair, had not even had time to land and clear the field.
"Which junior dares such insolence!"
A furious roar exploded from deep within the forest below.
The powerful aura belonging to a Rank 3 Gu Master surged up from among the trees in an instant.
An old, veteran Rank 3 clan elder with grey hair and beard slowly revealed his form from the shadows.
His gaze locked fixedly upon Lin Mu in midair.
Killing intent laid utterly bare.
Clearly, he had already made this young clan elder who had suddenly cut into the battlefield into a thorn in his eye that must be plucked out first.