Chapter 309

The stars hang over the vast wilderness, the moon surges with the flowing great river.

What should have been a magnificent and grand scene was now turned into a human hell.

Severed limbs and broken bodies, human bodies wailing and rolling everywhere.

Blood-stained weapons scattered in the mud.

Crowds screaming in terror, fleeing in all directions like headless flies, avoiding the constantly ringing screams.

And Li Miao, carrying Qiu Wuying like a rubber toy, erasing these black dots of screaming, fleeing people smeared across the wilderness one by one.

The military formation lasted less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense before it collapsed. Facing Li Miao, even old veterans who had fought their way through life and death would be terrified, let alone these soldiers?

How could beasts who could join water bandits to rob and kill civilians and plunder wealth understand what "the will to storm the formation, death without life" meant?

Not to mention the weapon Li Miao was using... was a living, moving, screaming person.

There was a squad of soldiers fleeing together; they were the most elite part of this group of soldiers, the personal guards of that Water Transport Commander whom Li Miao had pinned to the stone, and the only squad that could still maintain formation while fleeing.

Leading them was the captain of the personal guards. He listened to the constantly ringing screams and, in the gaps between running, looked back, trying to find Li Miao's position.

This one look made the hair on his back stand up.

Not far behind him, Li Miao was carrying Qiu Wuying, smashing him down onto someone's head with a boom.

Time seemed to stand still; that person's face, pale with fear, the trembling hands instinctively raised to protect their head, and the slowly widening mouth, were all etched into his mind at this moment.

And then—bang!

Qiu Wuying's waist collided with that person's head, the neck instantly sinking into the chest cavity; in just an instant, fear and vitality vanished from that person's pupils simultaneously.

With a thud, the corpse fell.

"Argh!"

Qiu Wuying reached out and grabbed Li Miao's arm, tearing futilely, blood constantly gushing from his mouth, but he could only pull out handfuls of hair from his own head.

Li Miao's true Qi constantly poured into his body from the Baihui acupoint; for him, unconsciousness or death was a luxury. Qiu Wuying cast a desperate look forward, hoping the next person would stab him, letting him be released from Li Miao's hands.

The personal guard captain's gaze slowly shifted up from Qiu Wuying's face, finally meeting Li Miao's eyes.

Li Miao was also looking at him, and revealed a kind smile at him.

The upturned corners of his mouth, the white teeth, and the dots of blood on his face were shrouded in a cold, pale white by the moonlight.

An instinctive scream escaped halfway from his throat.

"Ah!!!"

The reason he had forcibly summoned was suppressed by fear; he turned his head and ran forward for his life.

Not far ahead was the churning river water; as long as he jumped into the water... as long as he reached that place!

Only ten zhang away!

Bang!

A loud noise came from behind, and mud splashed by the impact hit his back. A bizarre sound of flesh colliding rang out, and the moonlight projected shadows onto the ground in front of him; several incomplete human shapes flew up, landing without a sound.

Eight zhang!

Qiu Wuying's screams rang out again; the beginning was still somewhat distant, but by the end, it was already close at hand.

He felt as if he could even smell the rust-like scent of blood gushing from Qiu Wuying's mouth.

Five zhang!

On his left, the deputy who was fleeing toward the river with him couldn't help but look back, his face instantly turning deathly pale.

"He's catching up—"

Bang!

Halfway through his words, blood splashed onto his face.

The deputy's height was shortened by half, his torso above the waist turning into a blurry mess of flesh and blood. Qiu Wuying's legs were stuck in it, slowly lifted by Li Miao.

"Arghhhhh!"

He let out another scream and ran forward for his life.

Three zhang!

A series of muffled thuds, and the comrades who were running toward the river with him flew up like broken rags, falling heavily.

One of the corpses smashed into his back; he spat out a mouthful of blood, his whole body rolling forward like a tumbling gourd, falling to the ground.

The river in front of him was only one zhang away.

"Arghhhhh!"

He had lost all feeling below his waist; the impact from just now seemed to have broken his spine, his legs hanging limply behind him. He reached out and grabbed the withered grass in front of him, desperately moving his body to crawl forward.

In his current state, even if he reached the river, he would end up drowning. But he could no longer consider these things; there was only one thought in his mind—even if he died, he would not die in Li Miao's hands.

Nine feet!

Five feet!

Three feet!

The screaming had stopped at some point, and along with it, the sound of fleeing footsteps had also vanished; there was silence behind him.

He dared not think about what this meant, dragging his crippled body like a wriggling maggot, desperately crawling forward.

One foot!

Only one foot left!

He reached out toward the front, his palm feeling the dampness, and the droplets splashed by the churning river water landed on his face, bringing a touch of coolness.

He finally felt a trace of relief, reaching out to grab the mud on the riverbank, about to drag his body into the water.

A boot stepped on his hand.

"Where are you going?"

The mocking voice came from above his head.

He froze in place, looking up in despair.

Li Miao was looking down at him, blood dripping from his cuffs onto his face, still carrying a trace of residual warmth.

"Scared?"

The foot stepping on his hand slowly applied force, his hand bones emitting a short, mournful sound, and then they snapped.

A scream surged from his throat, about to escape his mouth.

A hand pressed onto his head, pushing down.

"Since you've acted like a beast, don't speak human words."

Li Miao crushed his chin, then grabbed his head and lifted it up, looking him in the eyes, and said softly.

"Don't be in such a hurry to die, the good show is still to come... I see that among these people, your bones are the strongest; just right, I'm still missing a handy weapon."

"You will be the one among these beasts to live the longest; do you feel lucky?"

A warm current poured from Li Miao's hand into the top of his head, wandering through his whole body, healing his injuries.

But in his eyes now, this warm current was far more piercing than ice water—because as his injuries recovered, his lower body, which had lost all feeling, began to gradually transmit the excruciating pain that could destroy his sanity to his brain.

And his chin, along with his tongue, had been crushed by Li Miao; he couldn't even let out a wail, and could only be held in Li Miao's hand, slowly approaching the crowd fleeing into the distance.

Li Miao's voice rang in his ears.

"I heard someone say earlier that you killed seventy-three people on this merchant ship, old and young, women and children, without exception, and you even stabbed each of them in the heart, right?"

"When you killed them, were they afraid?"

"It doesn't matter if you don't remember..."

"I will make you beasts, every single one of you, remember what it means to be afraid."