Chapter 1790: Human Hell

Xiao Yunfang and Zhang Wencai communicated the situation with the local garrison Leader.

The border situation showed no major changes; it was still the same as before.

Large battles between the two sides were rare; they were all small‑scale skirmishes.

Neither side intended to truly attack; they merely maintained the border status quo and occasionally drilled the troops.

"Do you want to go with us?

Or act alone?"

After leaving the garrison Leader, Xiao Yunfang asked Zhang Wencai.

"I'm also unfamiliar with this place; I'll first travel with you for a while, let them adjust, and then we'll split up!"

Zhang Wencai thought for a moment and said.

He had only heard about the situation here before and had never come.

"Alright then.

We set off overnight.

After a month and a half on a Flying Boat, Term (exclude) had all rested enough and needed no further rest."

Xiao Yunfang said.

"Okay.

I'll go call them right away!"

After Zhang Wencai returned, he immediately notified everyone to set out.

The Martial Cultivators promptly followed the spear regiment and left the camp.

Ye Liuyun had assumed this place was still like the previous city, where they could loot some resources.

Unexpectedly, there wasn't even a city here; it was all garrisons.

He inquired and found that the nearest city with a merchant guild was still four or five days away by Flying Boat.

"Once you get here, stop thinking about the merchant guild.

Just plunder freely; besides, there are cities and merchant guilds on the border battlefield.

But they're all unscrupulous merchants; whether you can tell a good deal determines if you get cheated!"

Pei Yong told Ye Liuyun.

However, this was all secondhand; he had never been here before.

Ye Liuyun thought the idea of plundering freely sounded good.

At least resources shouldn't be lacking.

But reality was far from their expectations.

They hadn't gone far before they encountered a few small villages.

Moreover, these people were so poor they had nothing; their clothes were tattered, leaving nothing worth looting.

The food they ate was also self‑grown grain.

The locals could no longer be called Martial Cultivators; they were merely ordinary civilians.

"Is this the 'plunder freely' you mentioned?"

Ye Liuyun retorted to Pei Yong.

"Well... I don't know if this is the case! Maybe we haven't reached the right place yet!"

Pei Yong was also a little stunned.

What could there be to loot from these ordinary civilians?

Ye Liuyun thought that too; they'd only just left the border for a short while.

It was said that the border here was so wide that it would take months to reach the other side on foot.

After passing these villages, Xiao Yunfang began deploying scouts earlier, clearly becoming more cautious, and the marching speed slowed a bit.

The spear regiment would come here for training at intervals, so aside from a few new recruits, most were familiar with the local conditions.

Ye Liuyun's Divine Sense also probed far ahead and detected traces of Martial Cultivator activity.

His Divine Sense could now reach a hundred li, and any information the scouts gathered he could see instantly.

These Martial Cultivators looked like bandits, but their clothing and weapons were very crude, their realms low, likely only robbing nearby civilians.

They also actively avoided Xiao Yunfang's group; Xiao Yunfang did not attack them, but swiftly passed through their midst.

"Aren't you going to help the civilians clear these bandits?"

Ye Liuyun even asked her specifically.

"We can't clear them; although these Martial Cultivators are weak, they occasionally loot the civilians.

But their presence also deters those ahead from approaching the locals easily, acting as a barrier."

Xiao Yunfang actually gave Ye Liuyun an explanation.

"Oh!"

Ye Liuyun had thought the area ahead was also full of bandits.

However, after they walked forward a bit more, Ye Liuyun was greatly shocked.

His Divine Sense detected that the villages ahead were even more terrifying.

The people there were all emaciated, dressed in more than tattered rags; some were barely clothed.

Moreover, Ye Liuyun's Divine Sense found a few villagers fighting over a corpse, pouncing on it like beasts and eating it raw!

"Is this still human?"

Ye Liuyun was deeply shocked by this.

Only now did he understand the purpose of those earlier bandits.

It's just blocking these cannibal 'people'.

Ye Liuyun had never imagined before that this place would be such a sight.

The houses in the village were all in ruins, no grass grew around the village, and everything edible had been eaten clean.

Only those people, like ghosts, wandered around with empty eyes.

At this moment, the scout also returned with a transmission talisman to report: 'Ahead, the village has discovered starving civilians! About sixty or seventy people!'

Seventh Squad, clear them out!

Xiao Yunfang immediately dispatched a hundred-person squad, accelerating forward to eliminate those cannibal starving civilians.

Ye Liuyun's divine sense witnessed the entire process of that spearmen squad fighting those starving civilians.

Those starving civilians, according to Ye Liuyun's understanding, could no longer be considered human.

Upon seeing these soldiers, they were not afraid at all; instead, their eyes glowed green as they swarmed together and lunged at them.

It was just like wolves seeing real meat.

Regardless of age or gender, they seemed unaware of pain.

As long as they weren't killed, they instinctively wanted to bite and grab.

But the strength of these starving civilians was indeed pitifully weak; before these soldiers, they were utterly unable to withstand a single blow.

They were quickly all killed by the soldiers of that squad.

Afterward, the soldiers gathered the corpses together and burned them directly.

By the time Ye Liuyun and the others arrived, the corpses had already been burned to ashes.

However, the firelight would still occasionally attract some scattered starving civilians.

The soldiers also, after killing them, would directly throw them into the fire.

"What is this?"

A martial cultivator, seeing these frenzied starving civilians, couldn't help but shout out.

A soldier beside him explained: 'We call them starving civilians! They have no food, so they roam eating people to fill their stomachs.'

Their minds are also abnormal; when they go mad, they feel no pain, leaving only the instinct to eat.

To be precise, they can no longer be considered human; they are almost like feral beasts!

Lei Ming and the others, upon seeing this, were also greatly shocked.

"This is hardly a battlefield; it's almost like hell on earth!"

Lei Ming sighed.

"Hell?"

"That's just the hell of these starving civilians."

"Later on, you'll see how the wealthy live their immortal-like days!"

A soldier sighed and said.

At this moment, Xiao Yunfang also reminded Ye Liuyun: 'Watch over your black panther.'

Because they have long been eating people, these starving civilians all contain toxins in their bodies.

Ye Liuyun nodded and looked at the black panther.

The black panther then sent him a transmission: 'I know; I can smell the odor.'

They indeed have a kind of toxin in their bodies.

Ye Liuyun immediately took Man Shu and the black panther back into the Xuan Kong Stone, found them a bit of poison source, and had his clone bring them to cultivate the Ten Thousand Poison Heart Sutra.

The two of them had never cultivated the Ten Thousand Poison Heart Sutra before, and Ye Liuyun worried they might be poisoned.

"Are you scared?"

A female soldier, seeing Ye Liuyun's behavior, laughed and asked him.

"That's not the case! I'm just having them make some preparations."

Ye Liuyun laughed and replied.