New and dark light years

Chapter 311 Red Tentacles
People in this world are more or less superstitious.

You can't help but be superstitious. There are even ghosts and true gods. Everyone knows that in this world with souls, there might even be an afterlife.

Yu Youqing was just joking, but he felt that Li Lin was very suitable to be a member of his Yu family.

Master the Yu family spear technique!

He has a dashing and debonair appearance, which is also the 'face' that a prestigious family needs.

Li Lin possesses all the qualities that a scion of a prominent family should have.

All of them.

Regardless of whether Li Lin was a reincarnation of an ancestor of the Yu family, Yu Youqing felt better at this moment.

The enemy's surprise attack tactic has already been thwarted once.

So, all we need to do next is prevent similar tactics from being used.

Yu Youqing was still puzzled as to how the enemy's more than 10,000 men had crossed the turbulent river and suddenly appeared on the right flank of their own position.

Just as he couldn't understand how this army of about 100,000 Southern Barbarians had managed to evade the central army's reconnaissance and suddenly appear here.

"The enemy has attacked our positions several times without success and has temporarily retreated. Governor Yu, you should also go and rest for a while. You haven't slept for a day and a night."

Yu Youqing's official title was 'Pacifying Envoy'.

He nodded: "Okay, remember to wake me up in half an hour."

Both strategists were members of the Yu family, so they are credible.

Both strategists nodded.

Yu Youqing left the command tent, went to a small tent a few steps away, and then fell asleep immediately.

A dozen or so guards immediately protected the tent.

The temporary retreat of the southern barbarians gave both sides a chance to catch their breath.

……

On the other side, in a grove of trees three miles from the imperial army's expedition to the south, a large number of southern barbarians sat on the ground.

They remained silent, drinking water in silence and then taking a bite of the greenish-blue, paste-like substance in their hands.

Some people vomited while eating, and green goo spurted out of their mouths.

These people just looked at it, then stuffed the paste they had spat out onto the ground back into their mouths.

For a time, the entire forest reeked of a foul stench.

Qin Zhong sat on a high platform in the distance, looking at the Southern Barbarian soldiers in front of him with a solemn expression.

As a man of the Great Qi, he didn't think much of these southern barbarian soldiers.

They were relatively short and thin, with flat noses and large nostrils, which were not characteristics of the Daqi people.

Uncivilized.

But... Qin Zhong felt fear now.

These southern barbarians have a problem, a very big problem.

How many people died in the past day and night?
It must be at least 20,000, if not 30,000.

But these southern barbarians didn't even let out a single scream.

The food they are eating now, though it fills their stomachs, is bitter and smelly, and even dogs wouldn't eat it, yet they are eating it desperately.

Even if you throw up, you still have to eat.

Qin Zhong looked around and made up his mind.

These southern barbarians are definitely no longer human.

They're just monsters in human skin.

How did his father manage to acquire such an army?

He couldn't help but frown.

He then returned to the tent and saw a man with skin as black as charcoal, yet so thin he was almost a skeleton, sitting cross-legged inside.

He only wore a gray belt around his waist, which barely covered his vital parts.

The man was also eating that disgusting stuff. When he saw Qin Zhong coming over, he held up the green paste and said with a smile, "Want a bite?" Qin Zhong shook his head vigorously.

His personal guards carried dry rations and did not need to eat such things.

"Master Ruan, why don't you stop eating this stuff? I have some edible dry rations here," Qin Zhong advised.

"Being able to have something to eat is already a great blessing for us Yue people," Ruan Rengu grinned.

Qin Zhong's heart skipped a beat. He sat opposite Ruan Rengu, enduring the outrageously foul smell, and asked, "Master Ruan, are you people from the Southern Yue region really in such a terrible state?"

“Yes.” Ruan Rengu smiled at the lush green trees around him and sighed, “I really envy you people of Da Liu. Perhaps you really are blessed with destiny. Our land has all turned into quicksand, and millions of our people have no food to eat and no clothes to wear. The people we have now are our last remaining possessions.”

"But how could the world have suddenly changed like this!"

Ruan Rengu shook his head: "I don't know."

"Don't you have the ability to communicate with the gods? Didn't your gods tell you that?"

Ruan Rengu said bitterly, “All the gods have gone mad. They went mad before our land turned into a desert.”

Qin Zhong sighed.

He didn't think much of the southern barbarians.

But... he witnessed the misery of the southern barbarians.

These southern barbarian soldiers still had some food, but the southern barbarian women and children wandering near the border of Yue County were all skin and bones, almost indistinguishable from skeletons.

They sit densely packed, lifeless near the border; a single glance from them would fill any normal person with dread.

Qin Zhong also remembered the 'white elephant' meat, which he had eaten several times. It tasted very good and was extremely aphrodisiac.

It's a pity... that the meat was later monopolized by the Tang family army and was no longer sold to outsiders.

It's a bit of a shame that I haven't received the goods recently.

“Master Ruan…I have a question,” Qin Zhong suddenly said.

Ruan Rengu nodded slightly: "Please speak."

"Why are your soldiers not afraid of death? They don't even... make a sound."

Ruan Rengu laughed and said, "Because they are already dead."

Qin Zhong's eyes widened.

His previous belief that these people were not normal was merely an unreasonable conjecture born of fear.

But now, Nguyen Ren Gou says... they are really dead.

That sounds a bit weird.

“Look,” Ruan Rengu pointed to a dark-skinned man not far away.

The man looked over, and two long red whiskers emerged from his nose, swaying incessantly.

It looks like an insect's antennae.

Qin Zhong felt a chill run down his spine.

Soon, the two tentacles retracted.

Qin Zhong's heart was pounding: "Master Ruan, what is that?"

"Life-extending Gu!" Ruan Rengu laughed. "When a person is about to die, Gu is used to prolong their life. Although they are still flesh and blood, only a remnant soul remains. Their actions and eating are just instincts. Now that they have no feelings, they naturally won't cry out."

"With such an army, it should be very easy for you Southern Yue people to conquer the world."

"They only live for one month. After that, the insects will die and their bodies will rot."

Qin Zhong breathed a sigh of relief.

"But the Gu techniques and control over 100,000 people!" Qin Zhong looked at Ruan Rengu: "You should be the number one Gu master in the world!"

Ruan Rengu smiled but did not speak.

Qin Zhong felt dizzy from the stench and said, "I'll go into the tent to rest first, and I'll find you when the battle starts."

"General Qin, please take care."

As Ruan Rengu watched Qin Zhong's retreating figure, two larger, longer, and more vibrant red tentacles emerged from his nose!

(End of this chapter)