Great Wilderness Demon Lord

Inside the main tent, Xiao Yunlan summoned Zhao Meng, Tieshan, Shi Biao, and more than thirty convicts who had performed bravely in the previous battles and had been pardoned for their meritorious service.

"More than 1,400 jackal prisoners, 800 of them young men and 600 of them women and children." Xiao Yunlan got straight to the point. "With the Wolf Rong army about to invade, keeping these prisoners in the city is both a hidden danger and a source of fighting power."

He looked around at the crowd, his gaze finally settling on the thirty-odd convicts: "You have atoned for your sins and regained your freedom. Now there is something I need you to do."

The prisoners listened with bated breath.

"Eight hundred able-bodied jackals will be given rudimentary weapons—wooden spears, bone knives, and stone axes. They will be driven onto the city walls to help defend the city." Xiao Yunlan's tone was calm, yet it caused the temperature inside the tent to drop sharply. "Your task is to guard these jackals and force them to fight."

If there are those who shrink back, desert in the face of battle, or even turn against their own side...

He paused, then said, word by word, "His family members, women and children, regardless of age, shall all be executed."

The tent was deathly silent.

Even seasoned veterans like Zhao Meng and Tieshan showed slight changes in expression upon hearing this. Shi Biao opened his mouth, but hesitated to speak.

Several convicts showed expressions of pity. One of them whispered, "Captain, those women and children... in the end..."

"What is it in the end?" Xiao Yunlan looked up at him, her gaze as cold as the ice of the North Wind Plain. "It is a foreign race, a jackal, the relatives of the enemy who participated in the attack and killing of my comrades."

When you were slaughtering jackal warriors on the battlefield, did you ever think about the women and children in their families?

He stood up, walked into the tent, and spoke in a low voice, yet each word struck a chord in everyone's heart: "If we lose this battle, everyone in Ice City, whether soldiers, craftsmen, or even you newly freed convicts, will become victims of the Wolf Rong's blade."

Your wives, children, and parents, far away within the pass or in other lands, may live a few more days, but when the Rong barbarians break through the pass and march south, they too will not escape death.

"Today's mercy to women and children of other races is tomorrow's cruelty to one's own kind." Xiao Yunlan gripped the hilt of his sword, his eyes unwavering. "I will defend this city, I will ensure your survival, and I will give the people within three hundred miles of the pass a better chance of life. For this, I will stop at nothing."

He looked at the convicts: "If you feel this is against your conscience, you may withdraw now. But those who withdraw will be immediately reassigned to the convict camp and will serve as the first wave of suicide guards during wartime. The choice is yours."

A long silence followed inside the tent.

Finally, a convict with a scarred face gritted his teeth and stepped forward: "My life was given to me by the captain. Whoever the captain orders me to kill, I will kill."

The remaining prisoners looked at each other for a moment, and then successively expressed their willingness to comply.

Xiao Yunlan nodded: "Alright. You are in full charge of this matter. Zhao Meng will allocate fifty soldiers to assist you in guarding the prisoner camp."

Remember—how hard the jackals fight determines whether the city walls can be defended.

If the walls can't be held, everyone will die. You know what to do.

Everyone solemnly agreed.

That night, at the prisoner-of-war camp.

Eight hundred able-bodied jackals were gathered together, and each was given a simple bone spear or stone axe.

The jackal captives were initially bewildered, but once they understood the meaning of the words, they burst into angry roars and a commotion.

Several strong jackal men, their eyes bloodshot, pounced on the convict.

"kill."

The scarred prisoner uttered only one word.

The fifty guards around them unleashed a volley of arrows, turning the jackals into pincushions. Their bodies fell to the ground, and blood spread across the frozen earth.

However, this was not the end.

The scarred convict walked expressionlessly to the still convulsing corpse of a jackal, knelt down, and tore a necklace of animal teeth from its neck—a jackal's symbol of family and bloodline. He stood up, his gaze sweeping over the trembling prisoners, and brandished the necklace: "Does anyone recognize this?"

A deathly silence rippled through the group of prisoners. Several jackals, their faces ashen, instinctively retreated.

The scarred convict gestured to the guards beside him: "Go to the women and children's camp and search according to this pattern. Bring out all the family members corresponding to the necklace."

The ten guards obeyed and left. Not long after, cries and tugging sounds came from the darkness on the other side of the camp.

Seven or eight jackal women and children were dragged along—an elderly female jackal, three adult female jackals, and four half-grown children.

They were pushed down onto the open ground in front of the group of prisoners, just a few steps away from the male corpses.

"Look carefully." The scarred convict's voice was exceptionally clear in the cold wind. "Those who resist, die. Their families, punished equally."

He drew his sword and walked up to the old female jackal.

The old jackal cowered, emitting mournful whimpers.

The blade flashed.

The head rolled on the ground, and dark red blood splattered on the snow, a horrifying sight.

Suppressed gasps and groans rose from the group of prisoners. Several jackal women covered their mouths, trembling all over.

The scarred convict didn't stop and moved on to the next one.

A female adult jackal screamed and tried to crawl away, but was kicked to the ground by the guard. The blade pierced her back, she twitched twice, and then lay still.

The third one, the fourth one...

As the last half-grown child—a jackal cub who looked no more than ten years old in human form—was pinned to the ground, a heart-wrenching scream finally erupted from the group of captives: "No—!"

A thin, jackal-like male rushed out of the crowd, knelt on the ground, and desperately kowtowed, wailing in a broken northern dialect mixed with jackal slang: "That's my son! Please! Please! I'll obey! I'll do anything! Don't kill him! Don't—"

The scarred convict's knife stopped in mid-air.

He turned to look at Xiao Yunlan in the shadows. Xiao Yunlan nodded slightly.

The blade moved away, and the guard released the trembling jackal cub.

The cub scrambled into its father's arms, and the two embraced tightly, their cries suppressed and desperate.

The scarred convict flicked the blood from his knife, his icy gaze sweeping across the room: "You all understand now?"

The unrest was completely suppressed.

The jackal captives looked at the corpses of their comrades, at the women and children lying in pools of blood, at the gleaming arrows and blades all around them, and their anger was completely replaced by fear and despair.

It was a deep-seated fear that froze even hatred.

They looked back at the other side of the camp—where their remaining women and children were imprisoned, and from the darkness came suppressed sobs, but now those sobs were filled with the same despair.

Finally, the first jackal lowered his head and gripped the bone spear in his hand tightly.

Then came the second, the third...

Xiao Yunlan stood in the shadows, quietly watching this scene.

Deep within his dantian, the crimson-gold flames of the Extreme Emotion Demon Yu Qingwu flickered slightly, conveying a complex and difficult-to-understand emotion—an acknowledgment of his "extreme obsession" in achieving his goal without hesitating to trample on all bottom lines, or perhaps a sigh?

Almost simultaneously, another burst of pink light quietly awoke.

That was the lustful demon An Luxian.

It did not directly participate in the killing or scheming, but rather spread out like invisible water, quietly seeping into the emotions of every living being present.

The unease and resentment in the hearts of the guards and convicts caused by the necessity to slaughter women and children were quietly soothed and transformed into numbness to "carrying orders" and even a secret pleasure in "controlling the life and death of others".

The fear and hatred in the hearts of the jackal captives were twisted and amplified into an extreme obsession with "protecting their relatives"—they were willing to do anything, including fight with their own kind, as long as it saved the lives of women and children.

Even Xiao Yunlan himself felt a cold, all-encompassing "pleasure".

This feeling of treating human lives as pawns, emotions as tools, and morality as utterly trampled underfoot is as intoxicating as fine wine.

The power of the lustful demon and the obsession of the extreme passion demon resonated subtly at this moment.

Two demonic thoughts, symbolizing the "Heavenly Venerable of Blissful Desires," spread out an invisible yet real "field," enveloping the entire Ice City.

The fear and unease that had arisen among the defenders on the city wall due to the approaching battle were quietly transformed into an almost fanatical determination—they were absolutely certain of victory, certain that every order from the captain was correct, and certain that every drop of their blood would be worthwhile.

Even the jackal captives became unusually "obedient".

They silently gripped their crude weapons, their eyes devoid of the hatred and resistance they once held, replaced by an empty, fear-driven obedience.