TPWBI Chapter 36

Warning!!! This chapter contains graphic and violent content!!! Read at your own risk!!!

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In a corner of the Black Forest, a bonfire is blazing, and a group of people is gathered here.

Shrill screams and maniacal laughter filled the air. For some, this place was heaven; for others, it was hell on earth.

“Chief, this is the thigh meat of a Level Three warrior. It will make you even stronger!”

A towering, muscular man with a rough voice handed over a bloodied human thigh to a figure who stood out unmistakably as the leader among the crowd.

He was none other than the chief of the Fang Tribe—Ba Lie.

Ba Lie wore a necklace strung with dried eyeballs, its centerpiece a human palm. Around his waist hung a skirt made from dried hands and feet. On his head sat a hat crafted from a skull and human skin. The hollow eye sockets of the skull exuded a chilling aura.

Other parts of his body were adorned with ornaments made from various human body parts—trophies of his conquests, symbols of his dominance. He had clawed his way to power through brutal force and ruthless methods, stepping over countless corpses to reach the top.

Now, he enjoyed the best of everything the tribe had to offer. The finest food, the most beautiful people, and the fiercest weapons.

Several attractive boys and girls knelt beside him, trembling as they served him, their eyes filled with terror. One boy crawled toward the man holding the severed leg, fighting back tears as he took it, then crawled back and raised the limb to Ba Lie’s mouth.

Ba Lie lowered his head and took a savage bite without hesitation. His brow furrowed slightly in disgust. “Too old!”

“Chief, that was our last piece of Level Three meat. We’ll reach the outskirts of the Black Forest tomorrow. Soon, we’ll have fresh, high-grade meat again.”

Although Ba Lie disliked it, he still felt that the meat of a level three warrior seemed to let him sense power.

As the act of swallowing sent a rush surging through his entire body, he became exhilarated. He casually pulled over a girl beside him and entered her without the slightest politeness.

The girl’s tears immediately streamed down from the pain, yet she merely bit her lower lip, not daring to make a sound, silently enduring the torment.

Wu Gou—the man who had handed over the human leg—remained indifferent to such a scene, not sparing it even a glance, already long accustomed to sights like this.

Throughout the entire encampment, scenes like this could be seen everywhere. Brutality was rampant.

Some, while releasing their own desires, would at the same time bite off a piece of the other person’s flesh to fill their own stomachs.

Miserable screams rang out one after another, mingling with unrestrained, arrogant laughter.

“I’ve never eaten the meat of a level four warrior before. I can’t wait to taste him,” Ba Lie said as he moved, the corners of his mouth smeared with fresh blood, his narrow, slitted eyes glinting with a bloodthirsty light as he revealed a sinister smile.

“He will definitely give me endless power, allowing me to become a level five warrior! When that time comes, no one will be able to stop me!”

Wu Gou grew excited as well. “There are hardly any warriors’ meat left for us now. Chief Blackstone is too stingy. With so many warriors in his hands, he only gave us these few.”

“That cunning old bastard! Sooner or later, all those warriors will end up in our stomachs,” Ba Lie sneered, giving a sharp kick to the unconscious girl beneath him. “Useless thing! Fainting after only such a short while.”

The unconscious girl was immediately dragged away, the blood she left behind forming a long trail on the ground.

The other boys and girls serving them trembled even more violently, pressing their heads tightly against the ground, not daring to lift them at all.

In their hearts, they knew very well that the next time they saw that girl, she would likely have already become some ornament belonging to one of these beasts.

Each one of them would meet the same fate. First tortured, then eaten as food, their bones or some part of their body turned into ornaments. The only difference lay in whether it happened sooner or later.

Fortunately, Ba Lie had lost interest at this moment and did not seize any of them to satisfy his most primal desires, focusing instead on gnawing at the human leg.

“That is because of your valiance, Chief,” Wu Gou chuckled, revealing his sharp, dark teeth. “This time, we can find you someone new so you can change your taste.”

“He took away quite a few warriors. When the time comes, we’ll all get to eat something good!” Ba Lie’s eyes gleamed with greed, and the meat in his mouth tasted all the more delicious.

The people of the Fang Tribe believed that eating a stronger person would grant them greater strength.

Although they already knew how to use fire, they still preferred drinking blood and eating raw meat, especially when eating powerful warriors, which had to be “original and unspoiled”.

A warrior voiced his concern. “That man is formidable in combat, and he has taken many warriors with him, as well as quite a few Blackstone weapons. I’m afraid he won’t be easy to deal with.”

“We have so many brave and battle-hardened warriors. He’s leading a bunch of useless commoners and even took away the crippled wastes. Those people will only slow him down.”

Wu Gou let out a disdainful snort, utterly dismissing such worries, his voice loud and full of confidence.

“If you’re afraid, then today you can serve as my food and pass your strength to me. Watch how I wipe them out!”

The warrior immediately fell silent, continuing to gnaw on the chunk of meat in his hand from some unknown part of a human body.

“Coward!” Wu Gou spat. “We also have Blackstone weapons and a massive number of ‘meat shields’. They’re nothing more than a bunch of exiles, only fit to serve as food for our Fang Tribe!”

“Kill them all, take their Blackstone weapons, and then every one of us will have powerful Blackstone weapons! Warriors, we will have food that will make us even stronger!”

Ba Lie stood up and shouted loudly.

The people of the Fang Tribe were roused as well, all raising their voices in cheers, plunging once more into a fresh round of madness.

From every corner came the sounds of weeping and moaning, excited shouting, and bodies colliding, rising and falling in turns, endlessly overlapping.

Unlike the frenzied excitement of these cannibalistic demons, in a corner not far away, there was a group of people whose eyes were dull and lifeless, as if they were walking corpses, filled with despair.

They huddled together in a freshly dug pit, the cramped space forcing them to press tightly against one another, the air so foul that even breathing had become difficult.

“Lan Xue, can we really survive?” a weak voice sounded from the corner.

Those with sharp hearing caught it, their ears twitching slightly. But most people paid no attention.

They had heard such comforting words far too many times, yet what they saw was only the departure, the death of those around them.

From the day their tribe was destroyed by the Fang Tribe, they had become food for those demons. The only reason they were still alive now was because their captors feared their meat might spoil, so they were kept for the time being.

Some had once tried to resist, but the result was torture and death. The cruelty of those methods was something they would never wish to recall for the rest of their lives.

Death itself had become a mercy.

A few strong warriors chose to join those demons. Eating their closest kin was the initiation rite into the tribe. Once the rite was completed, those people became new demons themselves.

The elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled had all long since been eaten as food. Under such relentless cruelty, no one dared to rise and fight anymore. They numbly accepted the fact that their own deaths were inevitable.

They no longer prayed to the gods for survival, but for a swift death with a single strike.

They were about to reach their destination, which meant that before launching the attack, this group would certainly go on a killing spree to gorge themselves.

Even if they were fortunate enough not to be eaten, they would still be used as cannon fodder by these demons.

“We definitely can.”

The one who spoke was a boy with matted hair and a face so dirty that his original features could no longer be seen. Beneath the thick hair hid a pair of bright, piercing eyes, utterly different from the numb gazes around him.

“Zheng said that man is a fierce warrior with exceptional wisdom. With him, we will definitely be able to defeat these demons!”

The boy’s clear eyes turned slightly red, tears swirling within them but stubbornly held back, refusing to fall.

At the mention of Zheng, everyone’s mood became unusually heavy. If it weren’t for this brave man contending with the demons, they would have long since become food.

Even at the very last moment of his life, he had never given up hope.

Zheng had once been a level three warrior of the Blackstone Tribe. Though a little older, his combat strength was still formidable.

At first, he had thought leaving the tribe was a form of betrayal, so although he harbored some dissatisfaction toward the chieftain, he had not left together with Hei Lie.

He believed he could do something. One should not choose to leave when faced with difficulties. He had even been dissatisfied with Hei Lie’s actions, thinking of them as betrayal.

Gradually, however, he realized Hei Lie had been right. After Hei Lie’s departure, the chieftain no longer concealed his ambition.

The chieftain stopped following the long-standing rules of the tribe, keeping the best food, weapons, and women all for himself.

Those close to him enjoyed supreme power. Anyone who dared to question him would face severe punishment.

Everything in the tribe belonged to him. All the people were his slaves, who had to serve and offer tribute to him and his descendants. He also held the lifelong power of the chieftaincy.

The election of a successor was no longer decided through combat, but instead passed down to his descendants, and so on.

Many of these practices were unacceptable, harsh, and tyrannical. Zheng and several others openly opposed them.

The outcome was either death or severe injury, or being sold to the Fang Tribe to become their food.

This old warrior suffered immense torment along the way. Lan Xue had watched with his own eyes as Zheng’s body was cut apart bit by bit, becoming mangled beyond recognition, until death finally claimed him.

Even so, he never lost hope, telling Lan Xue that as long as they kept living, they would one day escape from the demons.

Another boy, Song Guo, still felt uneasy. “But these demons are so strong… and they’ve recruited so many others along the way…”

“What’s that?!” Lan Xue yanked Song Guo toward himself, away from the dirt wall behind him.

But there were simply too many people crammed together, making it impossible to move far.

The two of them stared as the dirt wall slowly thinned. Some soil fell away. First, a small hole appeared, then it grew larger and larger, until finally a human head emerged!

Song Guo wanted to scream, but was instantly silenced by Lan Xue’s quick hand clamping over his mouth.

The slight disturbance here caught the attention of a Fang Tribe warrior guarding the pit above. His gaze swept over them. The two boys lowered their heads, putting on numb expressions as if nothing had happened.

The warrior noticed nothing unusual and looked elsewhere.

Only when that warrior walked away did the two turn back toward the person who had emerged from the earth.

“Who are you?” Lan Xue suppressed the excitement in his heart, both wary and thrilled.

The small head that emerged belonged to a boy not much older than him, who beamed at them with a bright smile.

“I’m Hong Shu of the Spark Tribe. Do you want to escape from these demons? Or… do you want to see these demons torn to pieces?”

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