Lin Ming smiled, his pupils still filled with black spiral patterns that were slowly rotating, looking nothing like human eyes.

  When he saw these eyes, the commander felt a tremble from the depths of his soul. Lin Ming said that the soul would be annihilated and not reincarnated, but the commander said it was false to say he wasn't afraid. He wasn't afraid of death because he believed that after dying, one could be reborn, and eighteen years later, he would be a good man again.

  But forever annihilated, without entering reincarnation, he was afraid.

  That is truly and utterly extinction, the highest punishment that even devils would fear.

  He thought that Lin Ming said was mostly false, but thinking back to the pain that seemed to tear his soul apart earlier, it really did feel like a part of his soul had been extracted.

  Also combining what I saw before about reincarnation and transmigration, the commander of the soldiers didn't dare to gamble, what if what he said was true...

  Moreover, he has lost all his martial arts skills and is doomed to die no matter what. Even if nothing is said, what good can come of it?

  At this thought, the commander of the soldiers hesitated.

  "How about it? Have you thought it over?" Lin Ming asked with a smile.

  The commander took a deep breath, his mouth twitching slightly, closed his eyes and said: "Ask away, I'll answer your questions."

  He also wants to open it up, reincarnated in the next life and doesn't know where he will be reincarnated, maybe still an enemy of the Huo Chi tribe. What's the use of guarding this so-called military loyalty?

  "Uh-huh, okay."

  ……

  Lin Ming quickly finished asking his questions and got the answers he wanted. He had basically confirmed that the Undying Saint Fire was indeed a fire essence spirit.

  The Palm of the Undying Sacred Flame, cultivation reached the middle stage of the Post-Heaven.

  As for attacking Heishui Swamp, there are two purposes. The first purpose is to destroy the Heizong tribe located on the edge of Heishui Swamp.

  The Black Mire tribe was just a small tribe. Originally, the tribe had more than 20,000 people, ten years ago, the Black Mire tribe discovered a vein of mystical iron ore and quickly became rich, in recent years, due to the influx of many outsiders, the Black Mire tribe has grown to around 40,000-50,000 people.

  Originally, the Nuo tribe and the Huoqi tribe were two major tribes that balanced each other out, neither of whom wanted to see the other become powerful. The Heizang tribe survived in this gap. As long as they offered some spiritual iron to both sides every year, they could seek peace.

  But a year ago, the Na clan was destroyed and the balance was broken. Some small and medium-sized tribes nearby have become the fat meat at the mouth of the Huo Chi tribe, thinking that they can be eaten whenever they want.

  The Black Mire tribe, which owns the Xuan Tie mine, is obviously the fattest piece of meat. The Huo Chi tribe plans to annex the Black Mire tribe, use the people of the Black Mire tribe as slaves, and mine the Xuan Tie mine. Transport it back to the Huo Chi tribe, forge a large number of weapons, and lay the foundation for their future dominance.

  The first purpose of Lin Ming's trip to Hei Shui Marsh was not unexpected, but the second purpose left him greatly surprised.

  The Chi Gu's trip this time, in addition to annexing the Black Swamp tribe, also wanted to take the opportunity to search for a Vermilion Bird.

  The Vermilion Bird is a sacred beast second only to the divine beast and has a great relationship with the Phoenix.

  There are legendary creatures such as true dragons, true phoenixes, qilins and golden-winged giant pengs in this world.

  The number of divine beasts is extremely rare, let alone in the Tianyuan Continent, it's also hard to come by even in the Divine Realm. The great being who created the "Golden Peng Breaking Void" body technique was just a chance encounter at first. Witnessing the battle between the True Dragon and the Golden Winged Peng, he gained some insight, then closed himself off for sixty years of contemplation before completing it.

  The power of the divine beast is unimaginable for mortals, and even the great powers of the divine realm cannot reach it.

  Under the divine beast is the sacred beast.

  The dragon, phoenix and tortoise all belong to this category.

  The number of sacred beasts is much more than that of divine beasts, but it's only relatively speaking in the realm of gods. In the Tianyuan continent, sacred beasts are also very rare.

  So the commander of the army said that a Vermilion Bird had appeared in Nanjiang, which was why Lin Ming was so shocked. After all, Nanjiang was just a small place on the entire Sky Spill Continent.

  A phoenix, its value is unimaginable. Chi Gu didn't have the audacity to think of capturing the phoenix, he just wanted to search for its tracks and see if he could collect some of the phoenix's flames. Legend has it that the phoenix likes to perch on thousand-year-old tung trees, where they leave behind flames when they land. These flames are the phoenix's flames.

  Collecting the flames of Zhuque to smelt the undying sacred fire, if luck is good. Collecting Zhuque's feathers would be even more profitable.

  As for the Vermilion Bird's flames, Lin Ming was also moved, but he didn't have to get it. What he really wanted to get was the Undying Sacred Fire, that was the true fire essence. As for the Vermilion Bird's flames, no matter how powerful they were, they were just flames after all.

  Lin Ming stroked his chin, "Why did a Vermilion Bird appear in the Southern Border? Is the appearance of this sacred beast related to some kind of heavenly omen?"

  The Black Swamp stretches for nearly a thousand miles, and the deeper you go into the swamp, the more treacherous it becomes.

  On the other side of the swamp is the famous Thunder Mountain, with its main peak reaching a height of 10,000 zhang, piercing straight into the clouds. It's said that the main peak of Thunder Mountain has surpassed the height of the clouds, so it never rains or snows on the main peak all year round.

  Five days later, the search operation in Heishui Marsh was fully launched. The Huoqi tribe attached great importance to this search and mobilized 200,000 soldiers. At the same time, the Huoqi Sect also sent out many masters, whose cultivation levels were generally above the Condensing Pulse stage, and some even reached the later stage of Condensing Pulse, only slightly inferior to Qi Bone Punch.

  The search operation lasted for ten days, but the final result was utterly disappointing. The Huǒ Chī army didn't even find a single feather or spark, and instead lost several hundred soldiers in the Blackwater Swamp.

  The Huo bone made a big fuss, and it was expected that he couldn't find the Vermilion Bird, but not even finding a single flame made him very unhappy. He had originally hoped to make a great contribution in this matter and gain the appreciation of the sect leader, allowing him to become the next Huo Bone Chieftain, but now the possibility is not great.

  His heart was filled with discontent and anger, three days later, he led his army to attack the Black Mire tribe, venting his rage.

  The Hei Miao tribe has a total population of only 40,000 to 50,000 people. The military force in the tribe is less than 5,000, and many of them are militia. How can they stop the two armies of Huo Zhe with 20,000 soldiers?

  The war was a foregone conclusion, and the Black Mire tribe retreated in disarray. The surrendered troops were captured by Huo Chi, and all of them became slaves.

  The elite troops of the Huo Chi tribe have killed all the way to the Chieftain's Mansion!

  He rode a crimson stallion, holding an eighteen-foot spear. All the way charging and killing, wherever he passed, fresh blood splashed, heads flew up, he enjoyed this process of charging and killing, unstoppable crushing forward, killing people like cutting grass.

  "Boom!"

  A loud crash was heard, and the gate of the tribal chief's mansion was smashed open by a wooden stake. Chi Gu burst in on horseback, being the first to rush into the mansion. The tribal chief's mansion was the place where the tribe's wealth was most abundant, and it also gathered a large number of beauties, which was equivalent to the royal palace of Middle-earth.

  The Huo Chi soldiers' favorite pastime was plundering the tribal chieftain's palace, which brought them endless pleasure and ample opportunities to indulge their lust with the chieftain's concubines and wives. Those women who were once high above had now become playthings for them to humiliate at will.

  When the Huo Chi army broke in, the tribal chief's mansion was already in a state of disarray. Many people had anticipated that the Hei Zhuang tribe would be defeated and had fled ahead of time.

  However, most of the palace maids and concubines did not know martial arts. Even if they were allowed to escape from the Black Mire tribe, they would only end up being devoured by ferocious beasts. Therefore, they could only stay in the chieftain's mansion. In times of war, they were always the sacrificial lambs. At this time, no one paid attention to them.

  "Ha! Order the arrest of everyone, gather them in the main hall. Collect all the wealth and count it carefully, then bring it to the main hall as well!"

  "Here!" A big fellow stepped forward.

  "You led five thousand elite soldiers out of the Black Swamp tribe, and whoever was caught escaping would be buried alive if they were male, or sent to the army as a military prostitute if they were female!"

  "Got it!" The big man said, waving his hand and leading his troops out of the tribal chief's mansion. A defeated tribe, running away also requires courage, once caught back, the consequences would be even more dire. As for men, being buried alive is not worth mentioning, while women are often used as military prostitutes and brutally tortured to death by a group of tiger-wolf soldiers from the Huo Chi tribe.

  So many people would rather stay and be slaves than take the risk of running away.

  The troops dispersed in an instant. The wolf-like and tiger-like Huo Chi soldiers, upon hearing that they were going to plunder the tribal chief's mansion, had their eyes turn red with excitement, and at this moment, they were like sharks that had smelled blood.

  Before long, men's miserable cries and women's wailing screams were heard coming from all directions of the tribal leader's mansion.

  The corner of his mouth curled up into a sly smile, as if he was savoring the sound.

  "Go, hurry up!"

  "Come on, stop dawdling!"

  ……

  Half a time later, the Huǒchī soldiers herded the captives from all directions to gather in the main hall. These captives, most of the men were injured, some had even cracked their heads and were bleeding, while many of the women's clothes were disheveled, with bruises on their faces and necks. Regardless of whether they were male or female, their faces were all a picture of despair and deathly pallor.

  The soldiers carried boxes of gold and silver treasures, piling them up in the empty space of the main hall, soon forming a small mountain.

  The Huǒchī army allowed soldiers to secretly take some money and property when confiscating them, and also allowed them to arbitrarily occupy women. To maintain the ferocity of fierce beasts, it is not possible not to feed them meat.

  "Report to the great leader, this pair of siblings was found at the bottom of the well. According to the palace maid's testimony, they are the children of the Black Swamp Chieftain." A soldier pushed out a pair of 16 or 17-year-old young men and women, both wearing coarse cloth clothes, with grass ash on their faces, looking dirty and messy, just like kitchen servants. However, upon closer inspection of their hands, they were found to be delicate, smooth, and without any calluses, indicating that this pair of young people had never done any hard labor.

  "Not bad." A sly smile spread across the face of the older brother, both siblings had delicate skin and tender flesh. The male could be sold to the female-dominated tribe as a concubine for their leader, while the female would be kept for himself.

  Qī gǔ dǎ fān shēn xià mǎ, zǒu dào zhè duì xiōng jiě de miàn qián, qīng tiē de niē qǐ nà nǚ hái de xià bā, jiù zài zhè shí hòu, Qī gǔ dǎ lěng hēng yī shēng, yī bǎ zuā qǐ nà nǚ hái de gē bo, zài xiù zǐ lǐ miàn, hè rán cáng le yī gēn jī kuò fā shè de xiù jiàn, xiù jiàn tiān tou shàng lán wāng wāng de, xiǎn rán yǒu jù dú.

  "Looking for death!"

  The wooden ruler slapped against her palm with a loud crack, and the girl let out a blood-curdling scream. Her face was covered in cold sweat as she nearly fainted from the pain. The wrist bone of her right hand was almost crushed by the force of the ruler's impact.

  Just then, Ti Gou's face changed color and he suddenly jumped back. A faint "whooshing" sound was heard, and a white shadow stabbed into his waist at an unbelievable angle. He felt his body go numb, his internal organs churning, and almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

  "Who!?"

  （）