Boiling Beast Bloodline
Chapter 1222 - 332

Chapter 1222: 332

Liu Zhenhan almost died laughing. He was all too familiar with the "Torrential Pear Blossom Crossbow" invented by dwarves—it was the most ludicrous personal defense weapon in the history of the Aegean Continent!

The concept and design of this hand crossbow created by the dwarves were absolutely top-notch. Powered by steam, it could shoot thirty-six bolts at once, capable of piercing rhinoceros hide within 150 yards—undeniably fierce.

However, due to the steam mechanism, the body of the crossbow would vibrate intensely, causing the barrel to kick up violently-----------and there’s this joke that says a dwarf warrior aimed the crossbow at a giant’s thigh, and when he pulled the trigger, the first thirty-five bolts ended up hitting the giant’s nose, eyes, and forehead, while the last bolt shot down a bird that happened to fly by.

This joke might be somewhat exaggerated, but as a personal defense weapon, the "Torrential Pear Blossom Crossbow" was undoubtedly a massive failure. At the time, the dwarves were so frustrated with their own design that they had no choice but to order a "gear shock absorber" from goblin craftsmen. Unfortunately, before the "gear shock absorber" could be invented by the goblins, the War of Gods and Demons had already erupted.

"Stop laughing, I really didn’t snag any treasures. The ’Steam Siege Engine’ is not bad, but there are only two of them. The rest is all ’Zeppelin Flyers,’ ’Torrential Pear Blossom Crossbows,’ and ’Water Spraying Fire Extinguishers,’ all of which are of no strategic use." Rommel’s face turned green with the incessant laughing of Liu Zhenhan.

Liu Zhenhan laughed even harder. The "Zeppelin Flyer" was specially designed for dwarves to escape, and once its propeller got hit, it would crash immediately—it was indeed useless.

Rommel turned his head away, no longer wanting to deal with him.

Liu Zhenhan laughed even louder, though a subtle glint briefly flashed in his eyes.

After running out of stuff to brag about, Liu Zhenhan started learning to play tarot cards with Rommel. There are a total of 108 cards, which can be used for divination or gambling; Liu Zhenhan only learned the gambling part.

As with anything used for gambling, the rules were not complicated. Liu Zhenhan learned quickly and naturally wanted to try it out.

One can’t gamble alone, and it’s no fun gambling with two without any stakes. At the strong insistence of the seasoned hustler, Rommel started playing, and laughter filled the air.

The old rogue wagered his "Dazzling Heart" ring priced at five hundred Gold Coins and lost it all on the first round. On the second round, he staked his crystal ring, valued at a thousand Gold Coins, in an all-in bet. This time Rommel lost, and following that, Liu Zhenhan cleaned him out, not only getting the rings back but also winning an additional two thousand Gold Coins.

Rommel clearly had a lot of confidence in his gambling skills and tightened up, betting big against the old rogue. As a result, he ended up giving Liu Zhenhan twelve thousand Gold Coins. Liu Zhenhan bet all-in every round and won each time. Even though Rommel had some wealth, he dared not continue gambling and almost laughed himself to death.

"You are a born gambler, seizing any opportunity to stake your fortune and your life, and you’re also exceedingly greedy," Rommel gave the old rogue a meaningful assessment, "With that personality, you’re bound to learn your lesson sooner or later."

"Ninety percent of gambling is cheating; you saying this just proves you don’t understand what gambling is," Liu Zhenhan chuckled internally. The mountains once sobbed at my departure; me, a gambling god of such caliber, couldn’t possibly lose to someone like you who can’t even cheat properly.

"Back to talking non-sense," Rommel also laughed, "A little gambling is fun, but you’ve really turned it into a career, huh?"

"Don’t you know? Clergy are all lunatics, and as a Shaman, I’m no exception." Liu Zhenhan scoffed disdainfully while Guoguo next to him vigorously waved the IOU that Rommel had signed.

"I’m also clergy; how come I’m not crazy?"

"Then you must definitely be neurotic."

Chaotic clouds flew across the sky, and the days passed by in monotonous succession.

Liu Zhenhan still adhered to the Beamon tradition of not consuming the food of their enemies. From the first day he arrived at the Mulan camp, he had never touched a drop of water or a bit of food from the Mulanese. He drank only the honey juice of the ant cows; there were eighty-one ant cows in total, with the extra one prepared by Liu Zhenhan himself. Occasionally, he would eat small animals like the mice, snakes, and lizards that Guoguo caught—sometimes roasted, sometimes, when too lazy to cook, he’d just peel them raw. Whenever he smacked his lips and relished licking the blood on his fingers with his tongue extended, even the tough men of the desert felt an urge to vomit.

"Actually, we Beamons are similar to you. Few of us eat like I do," Liu Zhenhan explained, but not a single Mulanese believed him.

Before long, a rumor began circulating in the camp that these remnants of the Beamon army had managed to endure for so long in Hu Ye Ancient City by consuming corpses.

Rommel shared this rumor with Liu Zhenhan, and both of them laughed heartily together.

Rommel’s dietary habits were peculiar too—he was vegetarian.

This did surprise Liu Zhenhan for a while; he had not expected such a seemingly kind-hearted side to the iron-blooded commander who could send a thousand heads rolling with a wave of his military banner.

The Mulanese aerial cavalry closely followed the Mulan army until the fifth day before disappearing. Likewise, the vulture knights lingered near the ancient city ruins and returned after five days since the Beamon army also set out.

When both sides’ aerial scouts crossed paths in the blue sky, they saluted each other, like two top stars passing by in an opera house, seemingly sharing a mutual admiration.

Liu Zhenhan never quite understood why, in Hu Ye Ancient City, those ants listened to Rommel so obediently, appearing and dispersing at his command.

Rommel candidly told him that these ants were one of the three great plagues of the desert, known as Gold Ants. Their formic acid could melt steel. Apart from stone and sand, they consumed almost anything, being sharks of the desert that went completely mad at the smell of blood. To draw all these killers out of their anthills, Rommel had used the fresh blood of fifty thousand camels and had also prepared a large amount of camel urine beforehand to drive them away since the stench of camel urine and anteaters were the only things Gold Ants feared.

"Fifty thousand camels?" Liu Zhenhan’s jaw dropped. Any army’s trained mounts were exceedingly costly, and even for an army of flying camels, where one man had three camels, this sacrifice was enormous.

"What do you think?" Rommel said with a cold laugh, "War is not entirely about wisdom. First and foremost, it burns money."

Rommel then detailed further how to execute the plan, including how to handle camel blood, which had to be prepared far in advance; otherwise, the overpowering smell of blood near Hu Ye Ancient City might inadvertently lure out the Gold Ants first. The same principle applied to the camel urine.

The sniper brigade led by Tal Tulu had two objectives: to lure the enemy deeper and to buy preparation time for the main army.

As a commander, not only did he have to coordinate the entire army well but also utilize the wind direction, set up disguises in front of ravines, prepare the deployment of troops to snipe Beamon aerial scouts, measure the best points for impact, and notify the allied forces to bring a large amount of timber. All of these had to be meticulously planned.

When Liu Zhenhan learned that this guy had no staff or strategists and that all military planning was done by himself, his initial reaction was admiration, followed by the belief that this guy was not human.

Rommel asked Liu Zhenhan how the ant queen was dealt with. Liu Zhenhan said it had been cleanly stripped and taken back to soak in alcohol; supposedly, ant-infused alcohol could boost virility.