The wicked female is extremely fierce, but she's pampered by her seven beast husbands.

Chapter 357 Extra Chapter: Hopeless City

"Were you transferred here to assist in defending the city, or to cooperate with me in attacking Sergin City?"

Su Weihua sat calmly opposite him, saying with an air of composure, "I'll do as you say."

"So, who exactly is that seventeenth-level person she transferred over?"

Ling Chengen did not mention this in the letter. Chang Tianchen had been guessing from the beginning who would take over, since all the level 17 warriors around her had missions to perform.

Although Yu Heng was the most idle, he was disorganized and undisciplined. Apart from defending the city and preparing for war, he did whatever he liked, making him very uncontrollable. In addition, he had no interest in leading troops into battle and hated managing administrative affairs to the extreme... which made him the first option that Chang Tianchen ruled out.

“It’s someone I know.” Su Weihua said with a smile, casually twirling the metal bracelet on his wrist. “You definitely know him.”

Chang Tianchen thought for a moment and tentatively asked, "A newly advanced level 17 warrior?"

"Ah."

Su Weihua stood up and said, "I brought the provisions and supplies with me. The new person in charge of Huangyan Beast City will be responsible for the subsequent resupply. Your task is to take Sergin City with minimal casualties."

"These are her exact words that she asked me to convey to you."

Chang Tianchen sat up straight, couldn't help but click his tongue, and said in a low voice, "She really has given me a difficult problem."

"If we want to take down Sergin, the casualties will likely be considerable."

He was born in Serginham and knows the city inside and out.

The defensive capabilities of Sergin City are far superior to those of Yellow Rock Beast City.

Huangyan Beast City is a natural fortress, but Serjin City is a man-made fortress of copper and iron.

Natural fortresses are rarely perfect; once a breakthrough is found, they can be taken even by force.

However, the city of Sergin was built with offensive and defensive considerations in mind.

This city is not limited to simply defending itself.

It is also a city with a strong ability to fight back.

Su Weihua stood at the entrance of the tent, glanced back at him, and said with a smile, "Didn't you start thinking about the plan to attack Sergin City a few years ago? Now is the time to put it to the test."

Chang Tianchen watched him leave, then casually tossed the stress-relieving toy in his hand onto the bed board behind the shelf, muttering unhappily, "He really doesn't understand the hierarchy at all!"

"Humph--"

Chang Tianchen left the camp, took a stroll around the city, and soon learned the accurate information.

The person assigned to manage Huangyan Beast City was Jingshan of the Firefeather Griffin Clan.

Chang Tianchen was not surprised by his advancement to the seventeenth level. Jing Shan's superpower was stronger than his before, but it had not improved for many years. It was only after consuming the Fire Feather Grass that he completed a second ancestral reversion, finally breaking through the previous limitations and greatly improving his strength.

Firefeather grass is a rare exotic plant that grows only in the extremely hot regions of the Southern Plains.

The Fire Feather Grass that Jingshan obtained was exchanged for all the military merits he had accumulated over the years.

This herb was discovered by chance by a female who went to the Red Land to collect plants.

Over the years, this is the only one we have found.

However, Jing Shan is currently the only living Firefeather Griffin Beastman in the Northern Wilderness.

Xuan Yan unexpectedly discovered this Fire Feather Grass at a street stall in Huangyan Beast City. He immediately offered a high price to buy it and carefully processed the medicinal material before sending it back to the Northern Wilderness.

The original intention was to give this medicinal herb to Jingshan.

However, after learning of the preciousness of this medicinal herb, Chongzhen decided to allocate it to the Military Merit Exchange Team and reimbursed Xuan Yan for all the expenses incurred in acquiring and processing the herb.

The military merit exchange system was conceived a few years ago, but because it had not yet reached a certain scale at the time, and many problems were encountered during the trial, its implementation was not very smooth.

However, a merit-based reward system is essential.

Because every warrior yearns for greater power.

Bloodline reversion is one of the most common methods to break through the bottleneck period.

However, the atavism of bloodline is often accompanied by chance. If one wants to enter the atavism state by external means, extremely precious medicinal materials are generally required.

Moreover, the medicinal materials required for the bloodline reversion to its ancestral form are different for each race.

If one were to search for and collect these medicinal herbs on one's own, even a lifetime of effort might not yield a single specimen.

However, the government can purchase medicinal herbs from various channels, offering fairer prices and providing certain guarantees for the suppliers.

Therefore, the government has far more precious medicinal materials in its hands than ordinary pharmacies.

These precious medicinal materials, which are related to the atavism of bloodlines, are given priority to soldiers in the army.

More than 80% of the medicinal materials available at the exchange point require military merits to exchange for.

If military merits are insufficient, 20% of the military merit value can be offset by currency.

In the past two years, Chongzhen has finally been able to free up his time to work on the military merit exchange system. He is very determined this time, and he is carrying out sweeping reforms and promoting them throughout the entire army. He has also made extremely detailed plans and overcome one difficulty and pain point after another, all in order to make this system officially operational.

……

Chang Tianchen didn't hesitate for long. Before attacking Serkin City, he went to see Chang Yinbo.

When Chang Yinbo learned that the army was going to attack Serkin City, he was stunned for a moment, mechanically sorting through the bottles and jars in his hands. After pondering for a long time, he said, "I have no suggestions."

“You know Sergin City, why ask me?”

"Don't you want to go back to Sergin City?"

Chang Tianchen tapped the tabletop with his fingertips, gazing at his still thin back, and couldn't help but sigh softly in his heart.

After tidying up the bottles and jars on the table, Chang Yinbo looked up and said, "You don't have a good impression of Sergin City, do you think I would?"

He was forcibly stripped of his supernatural abilities by his mother in Sergin City and then sent to Yellow Rock Beast City as a hostage. No matter when he thinks about it, it causes him immense pain.

He became a person who was powerless, weaker than an ordinary person without superpowers, and even had to take medicine to recuperate frequently.

If Xuan Yan hadn't suggested that he stay in the medical area to learn about nursing, he might have ended up on the streets long ago, unable to even earn money to buy his own medicine.

Seeing that Chang Tianchen remained silent for a while and was about to turn around and leave, he suddenly said, "You must be careful of your mother; my special ability is on her."

Chang Tianchen froze, staring at him in shock: "She stole your superpower?"

Ling Chengen often said, "Parents who love their children plan far ahead for them."

But some people really don't deserve to be parents.

The key point is... that woman has superpowers.

"Can dual-type abilities really coexist?" Chang Tianchen asked, puzzled.

Chang Yinbo took a deep breath, slowly sat down while holding onto the table, his expression somber, but his tone calm: "I'm not quite sure either. She awakened a fire-type ability. When I was sent out of Sergin City, her single-type ability was already at level thirteen."

"My ability was at level 12 at the time, but while I was unconscious, I vaguely heard people say that after the ability was removed from my body, the level was rapidly decreasing. So after she implanted the metal-type ability, I don't know the specifics of what happened."

"Haven't you sent people to Sergin City to gather information over the past few years?"

"We haven't found out anything about her?"

Chang Tianchen shook his head and said, "Many of the spies we sent in didn't come back."

"And the news that came back was very little related to the nobles of Sergin City."

Chang Yinbo was not surprised. He raised his eyes and said, "The management of Sergin City is even stricter than that of Beast King City. Once a stranger is discovered, their identity will be checked multiple times. Orcs with identity documents from other Beast Cities will be released, but their activities within the city will be subject to various restrictions. Orcs with ambiguous identity information will basically be sent directly to mines to work for those nobles for the rest of their lives."

"My superpower being taken away is not unprecedented."

“There were people in Sergin City who were researching this project a long time ago.”

“In the early years, it was very secretive, and they mostly captured slaves who were not long for life to experiment on. In recent years, it seems that they have made some progress. In addition, my talent is better than hers. She is afraid that after my level surpasses hers, I will no longer be under her control, just like you…” Chang Tianchen said with a stern face and a chilling coldness in his eyes: “She is really crazy!”

"The city of Sergin is turning its back on things by approving even this kind of thing. It's really getting worse and worse."

Chang Yinbo said, "Therefore, when you fight, you'd better be wary of your opponent."

"They are likely dual-elemental ability warriors."

Even if the other superpower is not strong, the combined effect of the two superpowers is definitely more than just one plus one equals more than two.

"Furthermore, there are no barriers outside Sergin City, and the city's long-range attack capabilities are extremely strong."

"If you can't withstand their heavy arrows, you'd better not launch an attack rashly."

"Because Sergin City may not have much else, but it never lacks weapons."

Chang Tianchen took something out of his sleeve and casually tossed it into his arms: "A thank you gift."

After saying that, without waiting for Chang Yinbo's reaction, he turned and walked out of the nursing area tent.

……

On the third day, Su Weihua set off with the departing army, and after several days, finally arrived outside Serkin City.

However, the area around Sergin was very open and had no cover, so the army was stationed thirty miles outside Sergin.

Compared to Chang Tianchen, who was extremely familiar with Sergin City, many warriors from the Northern Wilderness were seeing Sergin City for the first time.

Previously, it was all hearsay, and it was difficult to imagine the true appearance of Sergin City in my mind.

When they saw it with their own eyes, the group of adorable creatures from the Northern Wilderness exclaimed in amazement, looking utterly astonished.

But when Su Weihua saw Serjin City, her mood sank to the bottom.

There is almost no vegetation around Sergin.

There are mining areas everywhere here.

Even soil is scarce; the exposed ground is entirely silver, black, gunmetal gray, and reddish brown.

The ground is uneven, with many very deep craters, resembling the surface of the moon.

The shallower pits are only a dozen meters deep, while the deeper ones are hundreds of meters deep.

At the bottom of the pit, many small black holes can be seen.

No one can be seen through these openings.

Standing before a hemispherical crater over four hundred meters deep, Chang Tianchen said to Su Weihua, whose eyes showed astonishment, "Surprised?"

"These large pits... are they all traces left from mining?"

Chang Tianchen nodded calmly and sighed softly, "These mines in front of us are traces of mining from at least eight hundred years ago. The giant patterned ore in this area has long been mined out, leaving only some scraps."

"Fifty years ago, Sergin City opened a new mine in the northwest. The reserves of giant vein ore in that place are astonishing. With Sergin City's current mining capacity, it can mine for at least another seventy years."

"There aren't even any plants around Sergin City, how are the people in the city supposed to live?"

“Every place has its own unique creatures.”

"The city of Sergin is no exception."

"In the northern wilderness there are gold-devouring pigs that feed on minerals, and naturally there are similar prey in the southern plains."

"Because Sergin City is full of traces of human mining and construction, ordinary prey will not come to this area, so Sergin City's animal husbandry industry is very developed."

"After the giant vein ore is mined and refined into thorium, some other waste and metals will be produced. The waste is used to feed some prey that survive by eating ore, so the animal husbandry industry in Sergin City is very developed."

"Can slaves eat these things too?"

"Of course they can't eat these carefully raised animals."

Chang Tianchen spoke calmly about the miserable lives of the lower-class beastmen: "In the eyes of the nobles of Sergin City, feeding them insects is a luxury."

"Not all of those hollowed-out mines will be abandoned; some will be preserved."

"The people of Sergin City raise rats and insects that eat waste rock in these hollowed-out mines. These are the main food source for the slaves."

"Moreover, these animals were all mixed with water, crushed and ground into a paste, and then distributed to the slaves for consumption."

Su Weihua's pupils dilated in shock as she stared blankly at Chang Tianchen's profile. It took her a long while to find her voice again.

"Can you really survive eating this kind of food?"

Chang Tianchen, with his hands in his pockets, chuckled and said, "What do you think?"

Su Weihua lowered her eyes and said, "The poorest orcs in the Northern Wilderness only encounter hunger and cold during the cold season. But as long as they belong to a tribe, the chieftain will take care of them to some extent."

"But here..."

Chang Tianchen's lips curled up slightly, but there was not a trace of a smile in his eyes.

When Su Weihua looked up, she glanced at his face and found that he was staring intently in the direction of Sergin City.

It was already evening, and from their position, they couldn't see that far away at all.

Moreover, there are no plants around Sergin City, so the environment is extremely harsh. The air seems to be filled with a light dust, and everything is gray. Just standing by the mine for a while, you can feel a lot of dust on your body.

Chang Tianchen withdrew his gaze and said, "Do you know why our branch was exiled to the Northern Wilderness?"

Su Weihua didn't quite understand why he would bring this up, but she still went along with it and said, "I'm all ears."

"Because for us, exile to the northern wilderness is an easier way to survive than being sent to the mines of Sergin City."

Chang Tianchen tilted his head, his eyes full of sarcasm: "In the past thousand years, Sergin City... has never sentenced a single person to death."

"But this is not the mercy of the nobility!"

"Because without noble status, living in Sergin City is worse than death."

“The slaves living in Sergin City were nothing but walking corpses.”

"Their lifespan is very short, less than half the average lifespan of the Southern Plains Orcs."

"The child of a slave is a slave, and the child of a slave's child is still a slave..."

"Under these circumstances, would slaves still be able to have children?" Su Weihua asked, shocked and puzzled.

Chang Tianchen chuckled and said, "Why wouldn't they? In the eyes of the nobles, they are just pigs kept in captivity. Every year, they are regularly given drugs to make the slaves unable to control their reproductive instincts. If a female deliberately miscarries after having a child, her family will also be implicated and exiled to the dark mines to work."

"In a mine without any light, let alone a month, even ten days would drive you crazy."

"After the children are born, they will be raised in separate enclosures and given whatever work they can find in the lower rungs of Sergin City. Once they reach a certain age, they will be sent to the mines..."

"Has no one fled?"

Su Weihua was deeply shocked after hearing this.

This beast city, though so magnificent on the outside, is rotten and stinking inside.

Chang Tianchen pointed to Sergin City in the southwest and suddenly asked loudly, "How are they going to escape?"

Those people never saw the scenery outside the Sergin City mine in their entire lives.

They were unaware that countless arrows were hidden in the holes in the walls of Serginham...

Once you escape Sergin, you'll be riddled with bullets.

Many slaves never knew that there were other cities in the world.

Their lives are like a bottomless mine.