Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

The night wind was biting. Wu Jingjing was tightly bound to a rough, withered tree trunk, stripped down to only a pair of tattered underwear. His skin, purple with cold, was covered in goosebumps. His teeth chattered wildly. Before him, Hu Yongqiang held a Ming Dynasty-style officer's sword, its blade tracing back and forth against Wu Jingjing's inner thigh.

Wu Jingjing shook his head frantically, making indistinct "woo-woo" sounds. He wanted to explain. He really wanted to recite the entire script he had in his head—"Chu Ze's rebellion, firearms blueprints, surrender to the Jin Dynasty"—word by word. But Hu Yongqiang didn't believe him at all.

With a slight twist of his wrist, Hu Yongqiang's cold blade sliced ​​through the skin of Wu Jingjing's thigh. Blood trickled down her calf. Hu Yongqiang's fair face was distorted and twisted in the light of the torches, revealing an extremely vicious and ruthless nature.

"They've got some tough bones." Hu Yongqiang's shrill voice cut through the cold wind, harsh and grating. "That little beast Chu Ze trained dogs that know how to bite. Sending you bunch of monsters to your deaths, who are you trying to disgust?"

Wu Jingjing was so anxious he was almost in tears. This cross-server chat was driving him crazy. He yelled at the top of his lungs, "Sir! Ancestor! I'm not a monster! My name is Wu Jingjing! I really came to join the Great Jin! Chu Ze, he..."

Snapped!

Hu Yongqiang swung his sword hilt and slammed it heavily into Wu Jingjing's chin. Wu Jingjing felt a buzzing in her head, her mouth filled with a metallic taste of blood, and half her face instantly swelled up. Hu Yongqiang simply couldn't believe it. In this desolate wilderness, they'd deliberately started a fire, loudly plotted, and even after being captured, they were spouting nonsense. This was clearly a suicide squad sent by Chu Ze to test the strength of the Great Jin!

Hu Yongqiang turned his head and looked at Turg, who was standing to the side. Turg's huge body blocked most of the firelight, his face was full of fat twisted into a knot, and thick white steam kept spewing out of his large nostrils.

"Master," Hu Yongqiang said, adopting a fawning expression and bowing slightly, "these fiends are incredibly stubborn. That little beast Chu Ze is always using tricks. This servant thinks we need to teach them a lesson. If we can't pry them open, we'll skin them alive and see if these unkillable ghost soldiers are made of iron!"

Turgh had been seething with anger for a long time. He had been terrified by the monsters outside Guangning City, and then he had been scared back five miles by these guys who were pretending to be dead. He needed to vent this frustration. He spat out a thick wad of phlegm and suddenly drew the sharp dagger he used for cutting flesh from his waist with his large, fan-like hand.

"Leave it to me!" Turgh strode forward, his heavy leather boots crunching on the frozen ground.

He didn't walk towards Wu Jingjing, but went straight to another withered tree nearby. There, another player from the [Reverse Scale] guild was tied up, with the ID "Wind Chaser" above his head. Wind Chaser was also stripped down to his underwear, shivering from the cold. When he saw Turg approaching with a dagger, he wasn't afraid at all; instead, he grinned.

Wind Chaser was a veteran player. He knew exactly what was going on. Although the game disabled the fear of death, the pain feedback was based on individual settings. He usually kept his pain sensitivity at 20% for a more realistic experience. At 20%, the worst that could happen was getting pinched hard. At worst, he'd lose a level and have to go back to town to revive. What was there to be afraid of!

What's more, although the guild channel is currently muted, the recording function is still enabled. This is absolutely the perfect opportunity to show off! As long as you act like you'd rather die than surrender, and then post the video on the forum with a title like "Hardcore Player Faces Manchu Torture Head-on, Showing National Integrity by Remaining Unyielding!", you'll definitely get a huge number of clicks and likes.

Thinking of this, Feng Zhongzhuifeng straightened his back and spat a mouthful of bloody saliva at Turg's fierce face.

"Come on, you grandson!" Wind Chaser yelled, his voice extremely arrogant. "If your grandfather even flinches, you're a Tartar son of a bitch! Bring on whatever tricks you have! Today, your grandfather will teach you how to write the word 'death'!"

Turgh wiped the spittle from his face, completely enraged. When had the warriors of the Manchu Eight Banners ever been insulted like this by a prisoner!

"You Han dog, you're asking for death!" Turgh roared, swinging his thick arm violently.

The sharp dagger, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound, plunged directly into the groin of Feng Zhongzhuifeng!

puff!

The sound of the blade piercing flesh was exceptionally clear in the still night. Turgh tightened his wrist, and the dagger twisted viciously into the muscle!

The arrogant smile on Feng Zhongzhuifeng's face instantly froze. An indescribable pain surged through his thigh nerves and rushed wildly towards his cerebral cortex!

No! This pain isn't right!

Feng Zhongzhui's eyes bulged out, and the veins on his forehead instantly stood on end. This wasn't just 20% pain! This was 100% real pain! He'd forgotten that in the hidden setting of "Iron-Blooded Jiangshan," when subjected to malicious torture by NPCs, the system would instantly exceed the player's pain threshold to force them offline or to experience the true cruelty!

"Ah—!" A heart-wrenching scream erupted from Wind Chaser's throat, so piercing that even the owls in the surrounding withered trees were startled and took flight. His body convulsed violently, and the hemp rope binding his wrists instantly dug into his flesh, leaving deep bloody marks.

"Ouch! Holy crap! It hurts like hell!" Wind Chaser writhed wildly, tears and snot instantly streaming down his face. He screamed, "You damn game designer! You son of a bitch! Why can't I adjust the pain level?! Let me go! I'm logging off! I'm going to complain!"

Turg didn't understand anything about "dog planner" or "offline." He only heard this stubborn Han dog barking wildly, thinking the other party was insulting the Great Jin Kingdom. Turg grinned maliciously, pulled out his dagger, drawing a string of blood beads. Then, he plunged the dagger into Feng Zhongzhuifeng's other thigh!

"Scream! Keep screaming!" Turgh's rough voice was filled with bloodthirsty excitement as his dagger flashed between flesh and blood, tearing away chunks of flesh with each withdrawal. "I want to see just how many blows Chu Ze's ghost soldiers can withstand!"

Chasing the Wind could no longer utter a complete sentence. The intense pain nearly drove him mad. He felt as if his soul was being torn apart by a dull saw. He desperately opened his mouth, his throat emitting a hissing sound like a broken bellows. This game is too cruel! This isn't a game; it's like being taken to an execution!

Wu Jingjing, standing nearby, was dumbfounded. He watched helplessly as Feng Zhongzhuifeng was sliced ​​to death by Turg, piece by piece. The piercing screams, the gushing blood, the distorted facial expressions—it wasn't an act! Every hair on Wu Jingjing's body stood on end, a chill running down his spine to the top of his head. These NPCs were for real! They really would torture someone to death!

The ordeal lasted a full incense stick's time. Wind Chaser's health bar finally emptied. His entire body was covered in wounds, blood staining the frozen ground beneath his feet. His head lolled to the side, and he fell silent. The forced logout protection mechanism had finally triggered, kicking his consciousness out of the game pod.

Turgh was panting heavily, his hands covered in blood. He looked at the dead Wind Chaser hanging from the tree and spat disdainfully on the ground.

"Bah! What unkillable ghost soldiers! They're just bloody holes in people with a single slash!" Turg turned to Hu Yongqiang, his tone full of sarcasm. "You coward, you Han dog! That little beast Chu Ze is just bluffing!"

As Turgh spoke, he raised his dagger, preparing to cut off Feng Zhongzhuifeng's head to claim his reward. In Manchu custom, heads were military merit. However, just as his dagger was about to touch Feng Zhongzhuifeng's neck...

A sudden change has occurred!

The mangled corpse hanging from the tree suddenly burst forth with a blinding white light! This light was extremely pure, without a trace of impurity, instantly illuminating an area of ​​several dozen feet around it. The intense light caused Turgh to instinctively close his eyes, his massive body jerking back two steps.

Then, a chilling scene unfolded.

The corpse, chasing the wind, along with his tattered underwear, rapidly disintegrated in the white light! Flesh, bones, and hair all differentiated into countless tiny white specks of light. These specks swirled in the cold wind, then were drawn by some invisible force, shooting straight into the sky and vanishing without a trace in an instant!

On the withered tree, only a few broken hemp ropes swayed in the wind. On the ground, nothing was left except a pool of dark red blood that hadn't yet seeped into the frozen soil.

No body. No bones. Not even a scrap of cloth remained. A living person had simply vanished into thin air!

Dead silence.

The entire forest fell into a deathly silence. Only the crackling of burning pine torches echoed in the night wind.

Clang!

The blood-stained dagger in Turgh's hand fell straight onto the stone with a crisp sound. His massive body trembled violently, his bloodshot bull-like eyes fixed on the empty, withered tree, his mouth agape, yet no sound came out.

Wang Mazi's knees buckled, and he collapsed to his knees in the mud with a thud. A stench instantly wafted from his crotch. He clutched his head tightly with both hands, burying his face in the mud, and frantically kowtowed, his voice trembling with rage: "Sorcery! It really is sorcery! The heavenly soldiers have appeared! The heavenly soldiers have appeared!"

The dozen or so elite soldiers of the Plain Yellow Banner surrounding them were utterly terrified. They had spent years battling wild beasts and fighting Ming troops in the harsh environment of Northeast China, and had never feared death. But this scene of someone turning into white light and ascending to heaven after death completely shattered their understanding! This was the power of ghosts and gods! This was an evil technique that mortals could not possibly resist! Several soldiers even lost their grip on their weapons, retreating repeatedly. Judging from the expressions of Wu Jingjing and the others, they were looking at demons crawling out of hell.

Hu Yongqiang stood frozen in place, as stiff as a stone. He stared intently at the spot where Feng Zhongzhuifeng had disappeared, his chest heaving violently, his breathing rapid and labored. Shock, fear, disbelief—a multitude of emotions swirled wildly across his face. But soon, this extreme fear was completely consumed by an even more twisted, more fanatical emotion!

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Hu Yongqiang suddenly burst into a shrill, manic laugh. The laughter was particularly jarring in the deathly silent forest. He abruptly turned around and strode up to Wu Jingjing. His thin, bony fingers gripped Wu Jingjing's chin tightly, his nails almost digging into her flesh.

"I understand! I understand everything!" Hu Yongqiang's eyes were bloodshot, radiating an extremely morbid fanaticism. He stared intently at Wu Jingjing's pale face, spitting as he spoke. "You really are unkillable ghost soldiers! Chu Ze didn't send you here to die! He just wanted to use this method to intimidate the warriors of the Great Jin! He wanted us to see that you monsters are invincible!"

Hu Yongqiang suddenly drew his sword, the tip pointing straight to the sky, and he was in a state of extreme excitement.

"But that little bastard Chu Ze miscalculated! He's too arrogant!" Hu Yongqiang's shrill voice reached its limit. "He thought this illusion would scare everyone away! But he didn't expect that I'd captured you alive! As long as I bring you few living ghost soldiers back to the Great Khan's court! As long as the Great Khan witnesses your sorcery of vanishing in a flash! The shaman priests of the Great Jin Kingdom will surely find a way to break this evil spell!"

Hu Yongqiang was now 100% certain. This was an absolutely monumental achievement, worthy of being ennobled and appointed prime minister! Living samples of "heavenly soldiers"! This was something the entire Great Jin Kingdom dreamed of! With these few survivors, he, Butcher Hu, would no longer have to be beholden to the Manchu nobles like Turge! He could truly become a favorite of Huang Taiji!

Wu Jingjing was tied to a tree, looking at Hu Yongqiang's almost insane face and listening to his logically rigorous analysis, she was completely numb.

It's over. Everything's fucking over.

This NPC's imagination has reached a fever pitch. He's not some Ming army rout surrendering at all. His identity has been firmly locked onto—a living, unkillable ghost soldier sent by Chu Ze to intimidate the Later Jin!

Wu Jingjing turned his head and looked at the empty, withered tree beside him. The image of Feng Zhongzhuifeng disappearing in a flash of light was still playing in his mind. He knew that Feng Zhongzhuifeng had simply been resurrected. But in the eyes of the natives of this world, this was the most irrefutable proof!

An unprecedented despair shot through Wu Jingjing's body. He knew all too well what this meant. If he were killed as an ordinary defeated soldier, he would at worst lose a level and respawn in the city. But now, Hu Yongqiang considered them extremely valuable "living samples." This meant that these Tartars would definitely not kill them easily!

They will be escorted to the Later Jin camp. They will be presented to Huang Taiji. They will be subjected to all sorts of cruel methods by those barbaric shaman priests! The dismemberment method Turg just used was merely an appetizer. What awaits them is endless torture, dissection, and bloodletting! Moreover, to ensure the survival of the "samples," these NPCs will even use the best wound medicine to keep them alive, making them wish they were dead!

Am I a tough guy? No! I'm not a tough guy! I'm a traitor!

Wu Jingjing roared inwardly. He wanted to surrender! He wanted to lead the way! He wanted to expose Chu Ze's true colors to Huang Taiji! But the other side wouldn't give him that chance! In the eyes of these NPCs, he didn't even qualify to be a traitor; he was just a wicked little lab rat!

"Sir...Master Hu..." Wu Jingjing's chapped lips trembled violently, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face. He completely broke down, abandoning all dignity and pretense. "Please...just cut me with your knife! I'm really not some heavenly soldier! I'm in pain...I'm afraid of pain! Just kill me!"

For die-hard fans of Uesugi Ryuka, the latest chapter of "Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning Players from Liaodong to Support the Ming Dynasty" has been released!