Chapter 216
Chapter 216
‘Smells good, smells so good. Hahahaha!’
Qiu Xiao laughed out loud, anticipating the pleasure tonight would bring.
“Shen Lang, you have until this incense stick burns out. Refuse, and you die!”
Qiu Xiao said coldly, then reached out and began to molest the woman beside him. Only then did Shen Lang feel a sense of relief. Qiu Xiao was finally going to die. No matter how cunning he was, he could not outwit Shen Lang.
Tonight, Shen Lang had prepared half a dozen ways to deal with Qiu Xiao. If one method didn't work, he would simply use another; one of his preparations was bound to succeed. But unexpectedly, the vulgar method of tampering with the woman's bodice and undergarments had worked. Qiu Xiao had brought disaster to countless women, so it was only fitting that he would die because of one.
Shen Lang had laced the woman's bodice and undergarments with LSD, the world's most potent hallucinogen. It was a method that had proven effective time and again. Only a short moment had passed before Qiu Xiao began to feel something was wrong. His reason was slipping away, and his body felt as if it were fluttering. Not only that, but his eyelids began to grow heavy, and he lost control of his mind and body. It was a strange sensation, as if he had opened the door to a new world. Even in this state, Qiu Xiao remained true to his base instincts.
“No. I've changed my mind. I'll take Jin Jianniang, and I'll take Jin Mulan too. And I'll defile them right in front of you, Shen Lang. I'll make your wife wish she were dead! Hahahaha!”
At that moment, Count Xuanwu, Jin Zhuo, struck him with lightning speed.
Thwack.
The Count's attack went straight for Qiu Xiao's cervical vertebrae, and Qiu Xiao instinctively tried to resist. Under normal circumstances, he could have blocked the attack, but now his body was limp and completely unresponsive.
Crack.
The Count's palm struck the back of Qiu Xiao's neck with great force, completely shattering his cervical vertebrae. Instantly, everything below his neck went numb, devoid of sensation. Shen Lang stepped forward, drew a dagger, aimed for Qiu Xiao's groin, and sliced down with all his might. It all happened so fast, from start to finish, that Qiu Xiao had no time to react.
“Aargh!”
Qiu Xiao's eyes widened as he watched his own lifeline, his very essence, being severed from his body. There was no pain, but the horrific sight was more than he could bear, and he couldn't stop himself from screaming.
In truth, Qiu Xiao felt no pain at all. His body was numb; the scream was purely instinctual. That was his true lifeline, his other self. That thing had brought him endless pleasure, allowing him to conquer countless women. And now that lifeline was cut. Overwhelmed by a fear and emptiness he couldn't suppress, Qiu Xiao let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Shen Lang looked down at the object and furrowed his brow.
‘Damn, it's as big as a donkey's. For that alone, it deserved to be cut off. What are you trying to do? Raise the average for all men?’
Qiu Xiao's wretched scream was like a signal. Outside, the elite pirate warriors Qiu Xiao had brought with him drew their swords with a flourish, ready to storm in. Without needing a command from Shen Lang, Count Xuanwu immediately pressed his sword to Qiu Xiao's throat. Shen Lang quickly pulled the nearby woman's clothes over Qiu Xiao to cover the castration wound below his waist.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
A moment later, the door was slammed open, and Qiu Xiao's pirate experts poured into the room.
Count Xuanwu said to them,
“Your young master is in my hands. Make one false move, and Qiu Xiao's head will roll.”
Shen Lang whispered in Qiu Xiao's ear,
“Tell all your men to stand down.”
The hallucinogen had already spread throughout Qiu Xiao's body, and he seemed so out of his mind that he could barely hear Shen Lang's words.
Shen Lang spoke into his ear,
“Withdraw.”
Qiu Xiao also shouted,
“Withdraw!”
Shen Lang spoke again.
“Withdraw from the room.”
Qiu Xiao repeated his words again.
“Withdraw from the room.”
The pirate experts glanced at each other a few times before slowly backing out of the room, but they remained close to the door.
‘How could our young master, so skilled in martial arts, have been taken hostage?’
But this was not the time for rash actions. If the young master died at the hands of the Jin Clan, the Pirate King Qiu Tianwei would never spare them, and the rest of the pirates would undoubtedly die as well.
“Release our young master immediately. Otherwise, the Great King's pirate army will slaughter every last one of you.”
One of the pirates noticed blood flowing from Qiu Xiao's legs and asked in alarm,
“You bastards, what have you done to our young master?”
After waiting for all the pirate experts to retreat outside the room, the main door was shut once more.
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
Jin Shiying had already led a group of experts into the main hall, forming a protective barrier in front of Shen Lang and Count Jin Zhuo.
“Fire!”
At the command, thousands of archers in the darkness outside let their arrows fly.
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish.
Arrows shot by three thousand men rained down. There was no need to aim, nor any fear of hitting their own men. The experts from the Count of Xuanwu's Estate were already inside the house.
“Ah, ah, aargh!”
The pirates screamed wretchedly. Some of them desperately pounded on the door, trying to get inside. Others tried to break through the encirclement and charge into the darkness. But while they were elite soldiers trained in martial arts, they were not exceptional masters. How could a hundred men possibly defeat three thousand? In a very short time, the hundred soldiers were wiped out.
* * *
In the camp at the foot of the mountain, the remaining two thousand pirates were still eating meat, drinking wine, and mocking Shen Lang.
“I wonder if Shen Lang has offered up his ass by now?”
“The young master must be enjoying himself right now.”
“Listen. I hear screams from the mountain.”
They left their barracks and looked up; screams were echoing from the mountain.
“What's going on? The young master is attending a banquet in the house up on the mountain.”
“Has Count Xuanwu gone mad? How dare he challenge our young master? Aren't they afraid the Great King will slaughter everyone in the Jin Clan?”
Soon, all two thousand pirates drew their weapons and charged toward the mountain peak.
“Rescue the young master, rescue the young master!”
“Kill them, kill them all! Slaughter every last one of the Count of Xuanwu's dogs!”
The pirates were heavily drunk, but they charged toward the mountain peak without hesitation or fear. Without a leader, they began to charge blindly. The house where Shen Lang had invited Qiu Xiao for the banquet was on the mountainside, and the terrain was relatively steep. There was only one path up from the foot of the mountain. Though the path was relatively wide, it was too narrow for two thousand men to ascend together, so the pirates were completely bunched up as they climbed.
“Form ranks!”
The pirate commanders shouted, and the two thousand pirates began to form a battle line.
Rumble.
Just then, numerous logs and large boulders came rolling down from above, instantly throwing their formation into chaos.
“Scatter, scatter!”
“Everyone spread out and climb the mountain. We'll regroup on the mountainside.”
The pirate commanders immediately changed their strategy. They were very experienced, and the rest of the pirates were just as valiant. Nearly a hundred men had been crushed to death by the rocks and logs, yet the surviving pirates showed no fear. Hearing their commanders' orders, the two thousand men immediately scattered, abandoning the main path and scrambling up the mountain itself.
They were undisciplined, free-spirited, and chaotic, but the individual combat strength of each pirate was formidable. As they were Qiu Xiao's personal troops, it seemed the subordinates took after their master. Just as Qiu Xiao was wild and unbound by rules, so were the pirates under his command. Had they been Qiu Tianwei's elite troops, they would have been braver than ordinary soldiers but would have moved with the discipline and control of a regular army.
These pirates were truly strong. They scaled the steep mountain cliffs as if they were walking on flat ground, swift as arrows. Seeing the pirates groping their way up the mountain in the darkness, Jin Shiying led his three thousand troops into battle.
“Roll the stones! Roll the logs! Fire the arrows! Don't let those pirates get through! Don't let them cause a disturbance in front of the Count!”
The warriors of the Count of Xuanwu's Estate immediately established a defensive line. It was the middle of the night and visibility was poor, but countless arrows flew through the sky.
Swish, swish, swish, swish.
Several volleys of arrows rained down, and countless rocks and logs fell like mad. In the darkness, numerous pirates died wretchedly. It was too dark to see the men, but their screams could be heard. Fighting a battle like this in the dead of night was truly a terrible affair.
Shen Lang had originally thought this battle would be over easily. The pirates were leaderless and heavily intoxicated. The army of the Count of Xuanwu's Estate was fighting with rested troops and held the high ground. But he had never imagined the pirates would be so brave, charging relentlessly, scaling the cliffs to climb the mountain, and throwing themselves into the Count's military formation to fight.
Their combat prowess was astonishingly greater than he had expected, and soon, the army of the Count of Xuanwu's Estate began to suffer casualties. The Count's face turned pale. It was difficult to stand by and watch his own troops getting hurt. During drills, he had been certain they were an elite army. Why was this happening in a real battle? The nearly two thousand pirates and the Jin Clan's three thousand soldiers fought fiercely, killing and being killed.
“Oof! My stomach hurts!”
“Aargh, I have to shit. Shit...”
Just then, the pirates suddenly began to scream in unison, clutching their stomachs and squatting down. Shen Lang had arranged for someone to put laxatives in their wine beforehand. Being very cautious, Shen Lang had not put laxatives in most of the wine. This was because he knew that when they seized the provisions and wine, they would surely test it for poison first. If he had poisoned it then, the plot would have been discovered prematurely, and the plan would have been ruined.
Shen Lang had predetermined the amount of wine the pirates would seize. He anticipated that after they had joyfully drunk all the wine they had taken, they would come back to the Count of Xuanwu's Estate to ask for more. That was when Jin Hui and his subordinates delivered the wine laced with laxatives. To prove the wine wasn't poisoned, they had even drunk some in front of them. By now, Jin Hui and his men were probably squatting over a latrine pit.
The laxative only began to take effect a quarter of an hour after the pirates had drunk all the wine. Once the effects kicked in, the pirates instantly lost all their combat capability. The twisting pain in their guts was simply unbearable. They squatted down in the middle of fighting, and some immediately sprayed diarrhea. In an instant, the battlefield was filled with the stench of shit, and the pirates were slaughtered.
Half a shichen later, the pirates had been killed to the last man, their heads severed one by one. Inside the house, Shen Lang pinched his nose with a perfumed silk handkerchief and frowned.
“Father-in-law, the pirates were incredibly brave.”
Count Xuanwu nodded. It wasn't that the Jin Clan's private soldiers were weak, but that their tactics were too conventional. Moreover, it was difficult to display the power of a military formation in the dark, and most of them were newly recruited soldiers. But even so, the pirates' combat strength had exceeded Shen Lang's imagination. These were only Qiu Xiao's personal troops. One could only imagine how much braver and stronger the personal troops of Qiu Yao'er and Qiu Tianwei must be.
Shen Lang said,
“It's a good thing we didn't have to face them in a direct confrontation. Otherwise, victory would not have been certain.”
However, the greater the combat prowess of Qiu Tianwei's pirate army, the more satisfying it would be to kill them. When that time comes, the world will be turned upside down. No matter how strong you are, you won't be able to withstand the power to blow everything up.