Chapter 123: Slaughter

When the heavy gates collapsed with a thunderous crash under the assault of orcs and mutinous private soldiers, Gao Jie Ming was already standing at the villa's entrance.

The orc vanguard that burst through the gates, along with those uniformed human soldiers whose eyes flashed with fanatical bloodlust, roared as they charged inside.

Clutching blood-stained axes and curved blades, they believed they faced only a wealthy merchant's residence, a piece of fat meat ready for the taking.

Upon seeing Gao Jie Ming standing silently within the courtyard, everyone paused for an instant, instinctively suspecting a trap.

But upon detecting no magical fluctuation emanating from him, their excitement returned.

"Kill them all! Plunder everything!" roared an orc of the most towering stature.

Covered in brown fur with knotted muscles, it wielded a giant axe that gleamed with cold light, locking its gaze directly onto Gao Jie Ming.

Behind it, seven or eight orc warriors mounted on war boars and over a dozen private soldiers swarmed forward, instantly filling the villa's spacious courtyard.

A trace of imperceptible disgust flashed in Gao Jie Ming's eyes, and he could not help but shake his head:

"Truly... never mind, perhaps I am not in a position to judge you. However, from my standpoint, I cannot allow you to conquer this city so easily."

He moved.

Gao Jie Ming moved with such speed that he seemed to tear the air apart; to the invaders, he instantly became a blurred afterimage.

Before the leading orc could bring its giant axe down, Gao Jie Ming had already sidestepped the blade, his right hand seizing the orc's thick wrist like an iron clamp.

The face of the elite orc warrior instantly twisted with extreme terror, not the fear of meeting a powerful foe, but an incredulous horror.

He felt as though the hand clamping his wrist was not that of any living creature, but a solid iron chain...

No! With his strength, even an iron chain should have been snapped apart by sheer force!

Yet this fellow's seemingly light grip made it impossible for him to muster even a shred of resistance.

"Impossible..."

Crack!

A spine-chilling sound of breaking bones rang out clearly within the hall.

The orc's wrist twisted at a bizarre angle, the giant axe slipping from its grasp to spin through the air toward the wall.

The orc let out a painful howl, but before it could withdraw its arm, Gao Jie Ming's left fist shot out like a cannonball, striking its jaw with precision.

Boom!

With a dull thud, the burly orc resembled a scarecrow struck by a hammer; its head snapped backward, accompanied by a crisp cracking sound from its neck.

Its pupils dilated suddenly, and its massive body fell stiffly backward, crashing heavily onto the floor with a muffled boom, moving no more.

"Hm?"

Looking at the fallen orc, Gao Jie Ming's expression held some surprise; he had not held back much with that previous strike.

Yet this orc, merely a Level One Lifeform, had actually withstood his punch without its head exploding.

"Although they are all orcs, the tactile feedback from striking their flesh is completely different; could it be due to differing beliefs?" Gao Jie Ming repeated a gripping motion with his hand, savoring the sensation of the earlier attack.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye; the remaining orcs and private soldiers had not even seen what occurred before their companion had already become a corpse.

Fear, like an icy snake, instantly coiled around their hearts.

"Charge! He is only one man!" a private soldier commander shouted hoarsely, attempting to stabilize their formation.

However, before his words had fully left his mouth, Gao Jie Ming had already rushed into the crowd like a leopard.

There were no brilliant flashes of magical light; what Gao Jie Ming employed was the purest physical strength.

He lowered his stance to dodge a curved blade sweeping horizontally, then lashed out with his right foot like a whip, precisely striking an orc's knee.

Crack!

The orc dropped to a half-kneel, wailing in pain, but Gao Jie Ming did not stop; his left hand seized the fur on its head, yanking it violently forward to deliver a brutal knee strike to its face.

Its nasal bridge collapsed, blood spraying in all directions; the orc twitched a few times before collapsing limply.

Immediately after, a private soldier attacked from the side, thrusting a short dagger straight toward Gao Jie Ming's ribs.

Gao Jie Ming tilted his body slightly, allowing the dagger to graze the leather armor on his torso with a piercing screech.

Simultaneously, he reached out swiftly, grabbing the soldier's dagger-wielding wrist, then twisted it outward violently as if wringing a twisted dough twist!

"Ah!!" The soldier let out a shrill, miserable scream.

The wrist twisted into an unnatural shape, and the short dagger clattered to the ground.

With cold eyes and no trace of mercy, Gao Jie Ming kicked the soldier in the chest; the private soldier's body flew backward like a rag doll, crashing heavily against the wall before sliding down, his chest visibly caving inward.

The confined space within the courtyard had instead become Gao Jie Ming's stage.

Every strike he launched was accompanied by bone-cracking sounds that grated on the teeth and desperate screams of despair.

His movements appeared simple yet contained astonishing efficiency and power; every contact meant a death.

Although he was not skilled in any particular fighting techniques, relying on his extraordinary reaction speed and immense strength allowed Gao Jie Ming to move through them as if no one were there.

"Monster! He is a monster!" Several human soldiers were terrified out of their wits by Gao Jie Ming.

They let out frightened howls, attempting to flee backward.

The orcs, however, were exactly the opposite; facing such a powerful enemy as Gao Jie Ming, they instead erupted with even fiercer fighting spirit.

"Kill! Kill him with me!"

Thus, one side tried to run outward while the other tried to push inward, causing both groups to jam up at the entrance.

"You cannot escape," Gao Jie Ming said calmly, his voice like the whisper of the God of Death.

He leaped, lightly stepping on a soldier's head to launch himself into the air, landing on the back of a frenzied war boar that was attempting to turn and flee.

The frenzied war boar let out an angry snort, trying to shake Gao Jie Ming off.

However, Gao Jie Ming's arms seemed to take root, gripping its mane tightly.

He twisted his body sharply, concentrating his entire strength into his knee, and slammed it viciously into the war boar's cervical spine.

"Crunch!"

The war boar's massive body stiffened for an instant, then emitted a low, unwilling groan before crashing heavily to the ground.

The massive hoof twitched twice, then went completely still.

The orc rider on its back was flung off by the tremendous momentum; before he could even hit the ground, Gao Jie Ming's hand shot out like lightning, seizing his ankle, swinging him violently, and smashing him like a sandbag into another orc that was just about to pounce.

Bang!

The two orcs collided heavily, emitting two dull thuds, and both collapsed, motionless.

In less than two minutes, the once-noisy hall had transformed into a slaughterhouse.

More than a dozen corpses of orcs and human soldiers lay scattered in pools of blood, the air thick with the pungent scent of blood and the rotting stench of death.

Yet Gao Jie Ming's breathing remained perfectly steady, and not a single drop of blood stained his body.

He walked slowly out of the courtyard and into the garden beyond the villa.

In the garden, more orc warriors, alerted by the commotion, were attempting to scale the walls or surge in through the breached side gate.

The torches in their hands illuminated the night sky, also casting light upon Gao Jie Ming's figure, which seemed to have stepped straight out of hell.

"So you've come too," Gao Jie Ming said in a flat tone, his gaze sweeping over those barbaric and greedy orcs.

"Human! Do you think you can stop us?!" roared an orc officer, exceptionally tall and wielding a massive warhammer, followed by dozens of elite orc warriors and several huge boar riders.

Gao Jie Ming did not answer, merely casting a slightly critical glance: "No shamans?"

Regarding research into the divine power faith network, angels were temporarily out of the question, but shamans seemed like promising research material.

Unfortunately, this orc invasion appeared to have no shamans accompanying them.

"Figures. Magic-type units like shamans probably didn't even enter the city in the first place," Gao Jie Ming shook his head, his tone filled with disappointment.

"Never mind. Your main general looks capable enough; he should suffice as a test subject. As for you..." Gao Jie Ming shook his head at the orc officer, "too weak."

"Kill him!" The orc officer flew into a rage, brandishing his warhammer as he charged forward first.

The orc warriors behind him also let out earth-shaking roars, stomping the ground as they charged at Gao Jie Ming.

Gao Jie Ming lightly tapped the tip of his foot, his body instantly soaring into the air; before the orc officer could fully react, he had already appeared above his head like a phantom.

"You're too slow."

He delivered a downward axe kick with the force of a thousand pounds, striking directly at the orc officer's head.

The orc officer instinctively raised his warhammer to block, however, he had underestimated the terrifying power of Gao Jie Ming's physical body.

Boom!

With a tremendous crash, the warhammer instantly bent; the orc officer's massive body shuddered violently, his legs sinking straight into the ground, while the bones at his knees emitted a chilling sound of shattering.

His eyes were filled with unimaginable pain and terror.

Gao Jie Ming landed, giving him not even a moment to catch his breath.

His right hand shot out like lightning, grabbing the orc officer's head and violently twisting it to the side.

Crack!

Another crisp and fatal sound of breaking bones echoed; the orc officer's burly body swayed a few times before finally collapsing with a thunderous crash, his warhammer rolling away.

His eyes bulged wide, refusing to close even in death.

The instant killing of the leading commander completely shattered the psychological defenses of these orcs.

Their previously frenzied charge came to an abrupt halt, their eyes filled with fear and hesitation.

"He killed the captain!"

"Run!"

Chaos began to spread through the orc ranks.

However, Gao Jie Ming would not give them a chance to escape.

Blood splattered across the garden, severed limbs flew everywhere, and wails of agony rose one after another.

Those orcs who attempted to flee often managed only a few steps before Gao Jie Ming caught up and killed them with a single strike.

Not one survived. His figure was indistinct under the cover of night, yet omnipresent like the God of Death.

When the last orc, in despair, had his neck snapped by Gao Jie Ming and collapsed, there was not a single living invader left inside or outside the entire villa.

The air was thick with the rich scent of blood, mixed with the fragrance of soil and flowers, forming a strange balance.

Gao Jie Ming stood expressionless in the center of the chaotic carnage, not a trace of blood on his robes, his gaze calm as still water.

He raised his eyes to look into the distance; Golden Port was still ablaze, explosions ringing out one after another, but this area had already been cleansed by him.

Further away, sensing the changes here, an endless stream of orcs was rushing toward this location.

"I hope there are test subjects capable of surprising me."

(End of Chapter)