Chapter 697: Desperate Human Flood, Reinforcements from Hell

The sounds converged, forming a low, rumbling wave that was more intimidating than war drums and more chilling than thunder.

And that nauseatingly strong odor…

"Ugh…"

A bodyguard standing beside Ku Di Gan suddenly covered his mouth and dry‑vomited.

It was a stench of Chen Jiu's feces, rotting wounds, congealed blood, and the sour odor of despair and fear fermented together! It was not sweat, not ordinary corpse odor, but a smell only detectable in a thousand‑person pit deep in Hell.

"What… what is this smell?"

Yunhe Ti wrinkled his nose, and the beastly instinct made the hairs on his body stand on end.

A chill stronger than the one he felt when he heard his hometown being robbed surged instantly up his Heavenly Spirit Cover.

Ku Di Gan's smile on his face gradually solidified, like a cracked frozen mask hanging on his face, looking absurdly comical.

He clutched the rough wooden railing tightly, his knuckles whitened from strain, his eyes bulging as if to split his sockets, staring fixedly at the crowd drawing ever nearer.

Closer.

Even closer.

Finally, bathed in the last grim afterglow of the setting sun, they saw clearly that so‑called Reinforcements.

What victorious iron‑clad legion could that be?

What elite of the Prince of Qi could that be?

It was clearly a horde of lone souls and wild ghosts that stepped out of a nightmare!

The last afterglow of the setting sun, like the grimy eyelid of Death, slowly closed.

At the instant the final sliver of light between heaven and earth was about to be devoured by darkness, the "tens of thousands of elite Reinforcements" that Ku Di Gan and Yunhe Ti had placed great hopes on finally surged to the Camp Gate before the Qi army camp.

There were no thunderous war drums, no orderly commands, not even a single intact banner in sight.

Only thousands of scantily clothed, disheveled humanoids, like an ant swarm washed away by flood, like evil spirits fleeing from Huangquan Lu, bearing a suffocating stench of rot and despair, crashed chaotically into their own camp's sharp anti‑horse spikes and antlers.

"Open the gate! Open it quickly!"

"Let us in! We want to go home! We want to go home!"

"Devil! There's a devil behind! The man‑eating devil is chasing us!"

Roars, cries, and curses intertwined, forming a wave colder than winter wind, instantly breaching the Qi soldiers' psychological defense at the gate.

A Qi army Colonel standing at the Camp Gate, gripping a Chang Qiang, stared pale‑faced at the scene before him.

What did he see?

He saw former comrades, now with Red Eyes, bulging eyeballs, frothy mouths, who, to scale the one‑meter‑high anti‑horse spikes, disregarded the sharp wooden spikes piercing thigh and abdomen, scrambling forward like mad dogs.

Someone was hung on the antlers, intestines torn, yet still stretched both hands toward the camp, screaming "Save me" in a pitiful wail.

Those behind trampled the bodies in front, even stepping on the wounded's heads, pushing crazily inward as if a single inch delay would be devoured by an invisible beast.

"Hold! This is a vital camp, trespassers die! Retreat! Everyone retreat!" The Colonel waved his Chang Qiang, trying to push back the madmen, his voice trembling like leaves in the wind.

"Damned orders! I don't want to die!" A broken soldier lunged, opened his mouth and fiercely bit the shaft of the Chang Qiang, his hands like iron pliers gripping the Colonel's throat, nails digging deep into flesh, "Let me in! Behind me is Chen Yan! The living Yan King! Everyone will die!"

This hysterical terror spread faster than a virulent Plague.

The previously tightly defended Qi army forward camp instantly descended into chaos.

The guards dared not kill their own, yet these broken soldiers, desperate to survive, used teeth, nails, and anything at hand to frantically assault every obstacle blocking them.

Standing on the Gaotai, Ku Di Gan watched the scene, feeling the world spin and his vision darken.

What Reinforcements are those?

It was clearly a pot of poison wine called "Bomb Camp", poured directly to his lips!

If those three thousand already terror‑driven broken soldiers were let into the central camp, the despair would spread through the army; tonight, not even an assault on Licheng, but perhaps even Ku Di Gan's own head would be hacked off by the raging soldiers!

"Grand Marshal! Grand Marshal! The forward camp can't hold! They… they're like mad!" Pi He staggered up the Gaotai, his voice trembling with sobs.

Ku Di Gan snapped back to his senses, and a flash of fierce resolve crossed his Dark Hawk face.

He drew his waist‑sheathed sword in one swift motion, the blade gleaming with a chilling cold light in the sunset, and let out a heart‑rending roar toward the hesitant command squad below:

"What are you standing still for! These people are no longer soldiers of Great Qi! They are a chaotic mob terrified by Chen Yan!"

"Relay my orders! Anyone who charges the camp, regardless of rank, shall be deemed treason! Kill without mercy!"

"Archers, prepare! Release the arrows! Shoot them dead! They must not break through!"

The command was so cold‑hearted it made everyone shiver.

The commanders of the command squad below froze for a moment, but none dared defy Ku Di Gan's blood‑red, predatory eyes.

"Fire arrows—!!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A grating twang of bowstrings rang out, and a dense rain of arrows, like Death's scythe, mercilessly reaped lives before the Camp Gate.

"Puff! Puff! Puff!"

The thud of arrows piercing flesh was dull and brief.

Hundreds of broken soldiers at the front fell instantly like wheat being cut, blood gushing and staining the already muddy ground a dark crimson.

"Ah—! Why are you killing us! We're our own!"

"Duke Ku Di! I am Zhang Meng of the Vanguard Camp! Stop shooting! Stop shooting!"

The wailing echoed to the heavens, yet it did not halt the madmen.

The threat of death only further spurred their nerves, making them scream more desperately and shove even more wildly.

Those behind could not see the arrow rain ahead, or simply did not care.

In their subconscious, dying from their own comrades' arrows seemed far more satisfying than falling into the hands of the devil named Chen Yan.

Corpses piled like a mountain before the Camp Gate, and the following broken soldiers trampled the warm bodies of their comrades, continuing to batter the trembling camp gate.

The entire Qi army forward camp was transformed into a battlefield of carnage.

Own people kill own people, cries shake the heavens, blood flows like a drifting pestle.

Ku Di Gan's both hands clutched the railing of the Gaotai so tightly that his knuckles whitened from overexertion, his body trembling violently, and blood tears even burst from the corners of his eyes.

He is killing his own soldiers, he is cutting off his own arms, yet he has no other choice.

It was at the moment when the melee was at its most brutal and chaotic.

The deputy commander Pi He, who had been crouching on the railing with a pallid complexion, suddenly seemed to have discovered something incredible.

He thrust out his hand abruptly, pointing at a figure amid the corpses who was clutching a half‑severed Horse leg, trembling, his whole body smeared with foul black mud, and let out a distorted shout:

"Grand Marshal! You... you look quickly! Who is that?!"

"That person... that person seems to be Crown Prince His Highness!!"