Chapter 54: Promotion (Part 1)
When the meat tree closed, there was complete darkness, as a mass of soft flesh enveloped Ji Ma’s entire body, causing her to instinctively close her eyes.
She tried to relax her body, but in the next moment, she felt something like fleshy buds extending out from the surrounding meat, squeezing tightly against her body, scratching her, binding her, and burrowing in.
Ji Ma was startled; she closed her legs and thought of the inappropriate comics she had seen in her previous life.
The fleshy buds exerted more force, squeezing the air from her lungs as if trying to strangle her alive.
Something was wrong; this might be a conspiracy.
Ji Ma struggled with all her might, her hands pushing forward to tear the flesh apart.
But a brute force tightened her limbs, and as she opened her mouth, streams of fleshy buds pushed into her oral cavity.
No, don’t panic; I need to accept it, accept the power.
A wave of nausea surged up, but Ji Ma couldn’t help but struggle, gradually losing consciousness in the darkness.
…
…
More than four hours later.
On the wooden walls of the stockade.
The soldiers who had finished their tasks, fully armed, were yawning on the wooden walls. Their morale was high, and they spoke optimistically about the upcoming battle.
Several soldiers were chatting.
“Do you think those beastmen will come?”
“Are you afraid? Just a thousand of them; all we need to do is repeat the earlier battle five times, charge in, and block them at the alley, slaughtering them one by one.”
“No, I’m worried they won’t attack.”
“That depends on whether the flag bearer is putting in enough effort,” a soldier shouted to the flag bearer at the stockade gate, “Hey! Tie that rope tighter; don’t lose your head, and remember to wave the flag with more vigor.”
The head of the beastman shaman, along with the sheep-skull he wore, hung under the flag.
The flag bearer shouted, “If you think it’s not tied well, then come over here and do it yourself.”
“I’m not afraid those beasts won’t dare to come.”
Before he finished speaking, a roar from the beasts erupted not far away, shaking the branches, with leaves rustling, and causing the flags of the sanctuary on the wooden wall to flutter.
All the soldiers stopped joking around, quickly took up their shields, tightened their bowstrings, and aimed their arrows towards the wisp of smoke rising in the distance. Eve Frostleaf raised a hand, calling for a strong wind, which blew away the smoke, revealing shadowy figures that appeared endlessly, their enraged roars emanating from those figures.
A shining light sphere rose slowly, illuminating the figures. A dense forest of horns stood upright, and a large number of beastmen filled every space on the hillside where they could perch. Many of them held inferior longbows, but they were not a large proportion.
Among them were several charge beasts wielding heavy axes or dual axes, along with even stronger, more robust, armored large horned beasts, numbering close to a hundred. Many of the large horned beasts bore wounds, and one even had a broken arm wrapped roughly in a yellow-red bandage.
However, these injuries made the large horned beasts even more ferocious as they opened their mouths wide and roared at the humans on the wooden wall.
Atop a scorched mound, the leading beast with white patches was surrounded by the large horned beasts. He was blind in one eye and wore a four-leaf clover necklace around his neck. Spotting George standing at the stockade gate, he raised his axe and roared in anger once more.
The wind direction immediately changed; the strong wind summoned by Eve Frostleaf was neutralized, and the banner of the sanctuary fluttered backward.
The number of beasts was overwhelming. A thousand sounded insubstantial in theory, but when faced with the reality, it often exceeded expectations. That seemingly light figure of a thousand crowded the mountain roads and slopes, piled up to the point that those standing on the wooden wall could not even see the end.
Now, even the most optimistic of people became conservative, and the cautious ones glanced around to see their pitifully few companions, becoming pessimistic.
All the soldiers fell silent. The flag bearer was stunned, momentarily forgetting to wave the flag.
George calmly ordered the flag bearer, “Sound the horn and wave the provocation flag.”
With that, he donned his helmet and hefted the blessed golden greatsword, recently anointed with sacred oil, with both hands.
The flag bearer came to his senses and hurriedly shook the pole in his hands, causing the head of the minotaur shaman tied to it to sway back and forth.
The beastmen were infuriated, stomping the ground with their hooves and shouting loudly at the humans.
The leading beast with white patches took a white flag and raised it high. The flag unfurled in the wind, bearing a line of ugly and vicious words: “Creatures that mimic humans walking upright… come at us if you dare.”
“Beasts!” The white patch bellowed at the people on the wooden wall, “I will plant this flag in the bones you leave behind.”
With that, he hurled the white flag forward.
This seemed to signal something; all the sanctuary soldiers instinctively drew their swords and took up their shields, their hearts pounding.
George awaited the beastmen’s attack on the wooden wall. At this moment, an attack would be greatly advantageous to the sanctuary. Although the large horned beasts far surpassed humans in both stamina and strength, they had no siege equipment— not even a wooden ladder— and would inevitably face death crashing against the wooden wall.
The light sphere descended, and everything returned to darkness.
The sergeant’s tone was tense: “Are they attacking? O God of Dawn, let them charge us soon.”
George’s gaze pierced through the darkness, “Soon, the white patch is issuing orders; the beast horde looks furious. It must be Ji Ma’s doing… Wait, fast! Sergeant, prepare to defend against arrows.”
“What?”
“Defend against arrows!”
As the sergeant grabbed a shield, he shouted, “Watch out for arrows! Raise your shields!”
Before he finished speaking, a flurry of arrows whistled through the air, striking the shields. George remained still as arrows rattled against his armor, producing a clanging sound, with arrows occasionally snapping.
The rain of arrows came in wave after wave. Although it posed no danger to the sanctuary soldiers clad in long chain mail, thick woolen cloaks, and shields, they couldn’t even raise their heads to retaliate against the archers.
George raised his hand, blocking the observation slit of his helmet, and saw that within the beast horde, several paths opened up, with strong horned beasts rushing over, carrying rough wooden ladders.
They did not seem to be the frantically returning beastmen everyone expected; they were already prepared.
“Sergeant! Get ready to engage; the enemy has siege ladders.”
“What? God!” The sergeant, with an arrow sticking out of his plate armor, raised his shield and yelled angrily to the side, trying to drown out the sounds of the arrows, “Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle! The enemy has siege ladders!”
Moreover, George noticed that many of the inferior horned beasts were wielding hay forks, hoes, or shovels— agricultural tools undoubtedly stolen from human villages. They were using these farming tools to fill in the trenches and remove the caltrops, behaving more like a human army than a beastmen army.
“This will be a tough battle.” George turned to Eve Frostleaf and shouted, “Let’s go down and see if we can take down the white patch.”
George had already collected some evidence against the white patch, preparing to pass judgment on him.
“These arrows, compared to my clan, are nothing but a drizzle,” Eve Frostleaf said, gracefully descending from the wooden wall in the face of the arrows.
George landed in front of her, leaving two deep footprints in the ground.
“Which direction is the white patch in?”
George raised his hand, and a red light shot from his fingertips, landing on the face of the white patch behind the beast horde.
Eve Frostleaf remarked, “This beast is as cowardly as a goblin.”
“He understands that our chance to turn the tide lies in taking down their commander.”
Eve Frostleaf raised her hand and shot a fireball, injuring a horned beast carrying a ladder. The wooden ladder caught fire, and as the beast fell, a group of beastmen surrounded it and used a collection of branches covered in leaves to extinguish the flames on the ladder.
She replied, “It’s worth a try.”
The two set off side by side, heading toward the direction of the white patch.
…
…
It felt as if Ji Ma had been ensnared in a dark and cramped environment for ten thousand years.
A ray of light fell on her eyelids, and she abruptly opened her eyes, raising her hand to shield herself from the glaring sunlight.
Once her eyes adjusted to the brightness, Ji Ma saw that it was a beam of light coming through the crack of the cave entrance, and behind the wooden door lay a dismembered corpse of a horned beast, its arm severed by some tremendous force.
Had her promotion really taken that long? What had happened? The enemy had momentarily attacked the cave’s entrance; it seemed she had missed a bloody battle.
Ji Ma sat up, naked, and felt below her; it was soft flesh. She turned her head and saw that the meat tree had wilted and collapsed, and the pile of corpses below had fused into a large lump of pink flesh, appearing less terrifying.
Softly sagging from the collapsed flesh tree, some fleshy buds dangled.
“It feels like I’ve been cycled through by the fleshy buds.”
Ji Ma didn’t feel any discomfort; she just felt as if she were a fully charged phone, bursting with energy, having not slept so soundly in a long time. She stood up suddenly, feeling something drop from between her legs. Her expression changed as she looked down, just in time to see a fleshy bud fall to the ground.
Ji Ma quickly touched her belly; it was flat, with no excess fat. She closed her eyes, meditating, and felt her body without finding any issues.
She opened her eyes and gave a self-deprecating smile: “The lewd see the lewd.”
In terms of weirdness, this scene did not even rank in the top ten of her past promotion ceremonies.
Ji Ma stepped down from the small meat mound, barefoot landing on the solid ground, disregarding her sticky body as she urgently examined herself. First, she stood straight and looked down at her toes.
Two tall peaks obscured her view. Ji Ma laughed, stretching out her hand. She now resembled a newborn baby; the callouses on her hands had disappeared. She touched her breasts, which could barely be considered a handful. Compared to the Holy Maiden’s peak, they were naturally lacking but at least she had developed, shedding her barren nature.
Tears of joy filled Ji Ma’s eyes, as she rubbed them with her hands, like a diligent farmer finally harvesting two fruits in a barren desert.
Finally, after a year and a half, she experienced the essential pleasure of becoming a woman—rubbing her own breasts.
“Better than average, perky; this is wonderful.” Ji Ma let go of her hands and lifted her proportionate long legs, “I must have grown a lot.”
After roughly admiring her body, Ji Ma had a general understanding; she had already grown into a college girl and was truly a woman now.
Once the initial excitement of her promotion subsided, Ji Ma realized that this was not a good place to be without clothing.
Ji Ma called for Lily to sleep, then opened the entrance to the Dream Realm. She found that the time it took had greatly reduced, now only needing a minute instead of the previous five. Ji Ma entered the Dream Palace, soaking in the bath, while Lily, who was naked, washed Ji Ma’s dark, shining hair.
Ji Ma opened her personal system and checked the information bar, which contained a line of joyous words:
“DM: Congratulations on your promotion to Platinum, now designated as the Pain Wraith.”
————
I recommend a book I’ve been reading recently, “Ultimate Devil.” It starts with a supernatural theme and features a decisive main character whose words and actions resemble a villain. Yet, the author knows how to grasp the reader’s psychology, often making the protagonist do despicable things that the readers dislike, while their villainous actions surprisingly provide a sense of satisfaction.
Interestingly, despite the main character being a villain, he maintains a good relationship with the true protagonist (referring to his orphanage backstory, being good-natured, and having a connection with girls, while other factions fight fiercely for treasures that all conveniently fall into his hands).
By the way, this book often likes to kill off a few girls for excitement.
You can stop reading after the first two hundred chapters; the later chapters are too filled with fluff, saving you money while still being enjoyable.
