Chapter 125: Rescue Mission 1

In the deep of the night, the clansmen gathered on the mountainside. Having successfully escaped the Qin capital, the crowd wept—some with joy, some with grief, and all with a sense of relief.

Exhausted, they drifted into sleep on the hillside, but were suddenly startled awake by screams and the thunder of hooves rising from the main road below. The adults awoke and hurriedly covered their children’s mouths, whispering warnings. The children of the poor learn early how to survive; even the youngest two-year-old knew to stifle their cries in fear.

No one dared to peek, but Zhong Dalang and the clan elder crept forward to investigate. The sight before them was terrifying. The checkpoint was swarming with Hu barbarians clad in wolf skins, wielding broadswords. From atop their towering horses, they were slaughtering the soldiers and a group of merchants resting nearby with the ease of cutting vegetables. The torches illuminated everything with brutal clarity; the bright red blood reflecting the flames and the people’s screams created a scene that felt like hell itself.

Zhong Shitou, hiding in a nearby tree, watched the carnage below. He was paralyzed by the infernal sight. The clan elder, initially stunned, shook himself back to reality. With a look of desperate urgency, he pulled aside his nephew, Zhong Sanlang, and signaled the clansmen. Heartbeats pounding like drums, they moved as silently as possible, following the elder into the depths of the forest, terrified of being discovered by the barbarians.

At that moment, Zhong Shitou, still hidden in the tree, covered his mouth in horror. He had seen something else: the barbarians were dragging a large group of people they had captured from the opposite woods. Among them, he recognized a familiar figure—Second Grandpa Zhong, the clan elder’s own brother.

Stumbling and falling, Zhong Shitou found the clan elder and relayed what he had seen. Tears streaming down his face, the elder said, "Zhong Dalang, lead the others over this mountain to rest. If I have not returned by noon tomorrow, you are to take over as clan leader and guide our people toward the south."

"Grandpa Elder, what are you doing?" Zhong Dalang tried to grab him, but the elder turned and left, heading back the way they had come without a moment's hesitation. There, he had not only his only brother but a large group of his kin.

***

That night, the Hu barbarians seized every major road leading to the Qin capital, slaughtering every Qin soldier stationed there. Their force of fifty thousand iron-clad riders had officially set foot on land that once belonged to Great Qin. The Qin defenders had numbered only thirty thousand; when the Emperor fled, he had taken the twenty thousand most elite troops with him, leaving the rest behind merely to stall the barbarians and buy time for his own escape. The Qin capital had been thoroughly abandoned.

On the main road, blood flowed like a river. The barbarians bound their captives together in long rows. These people were to be used as human shields for future sieges or as slaves for food. Regardless of the outcome, they were walking toward certain death.

Beside the former Qin checkpoint, the barbarians began to cook. Zhong Shitou and a group of young men from the village watched from high in the trees as the barbarians cruelly dismembered the dead and wounded among the captives. Pale-faced, Zhong Shitou watched as the barbarians cooked human flesh, laughing and eating it as if it were a feast. He could bear it no longer; trembling, he tumbled from the tree, falling to the ground. "They... the barbarians... they are eating... eating people..."

Hidden at the foot of the mountain, only a few hundred meters from the barbarian army, the clan elder lay in the tall grass, watching as they killed, butchered, and boiled. His brother’s family was among the crowd, weeping and begging for mercy. Several young girls were dragged into nearby tents; their screams intermingled with the lewd laughter of the soldiers, while those outside continued to feast on human flesh.

Meanwhile, Wang Keyue’s spacecraft finally reached the territory of the Qin capital. Under the monitoring of the system, Xiaobao, she discovered the first group of barbarian soldiers cooking human flesh in massive cauldrons.

Wang Keyue’s eyes burned with rage. The people she valued most were being treated as livestock by these beasts. She and Xiao Hongyu descended like reapers from a dark hell. Standing on the craft's platform, they used crossbows and tranquilizer pistols to take out the patrolling perimeter guards from the air.

The two then quietly jumped from the ship. Wang Keyue stowed the craft and donned her stealth suit. "Brother Xiao, stay safe," she whispered before vanishing.

Xiao Hongyu smiled faintly, pulling a black mask over the lower half of his face. "You too. Contact me if anything happens."

With the plan in motion, Xiao Hongyu’s blade began to hum, as if craving the taste of blood.

***

Wherever he passed, it was as if he were in an empty land; his enemies died before they could even cry for help, sent straight to the underworld. Xiao Hongyu focused on eliminating the isolated guards on the periphery.

Wang Keyue, as planned, set out to neutralize the guards watching the captives to prevent them from being used as hostages. The barbarians guarding the prisoners were clearly sated and drowsy. With effortless precision, Wang Keyue slit their throats with her dagger. The heartless killers passed from sleep into death without ever waking up. From a distance, they simply appeared to be sound asleep.

However, Xiao Hongyu’s mission inside the tents hit a snag. The woman beneath a barbarian sub-leader screamed in terror upon seeing the barbarian’s head severed in a single stroke, then fainted.

This scream, distinct from the others, drew the attention of every barbarian in the camp. They scrambled for their weapons, and the entire unit fell into chaos. Only then did they realize that nearly half of their two-hundred-man squad was already dead, including their leader.

Realizing they were under ambush, the barbarians attempted to use the Qin captives as human shields. But then, a scene of pure terror unfolded: anyone who moved toward the captives was instantly struck down by small arrows, shot from nowhere, piercing their hearts or heads.

What finally broke the barbarians' spirits was the sight of a dozen men charging forward, only to be struck by bolts of purple lightning that tore their flesh to shreds and left them unrecognizable. One of them was charred to a cinder on the spot.