Chapter 233: Harming Nature’s Balance

"Second, the heart-stabbing and root-digging strategy." His eyes swept across the bandits. "Find out which members of their stronghold are from nearby villages or have families there."

Send men to their villages. Don't kill anyone—just dig up all their ancestral graves.

Drag out the corpses, chop them up, mix them into pig feed, and feed it to the pigs they raise themselves.

Then tie up the most respected elder in their family, and in public, flay him alive and pull his tendons.

Make a war drum from his skin, set it up outside Blackwind Stockade's gate, and beat it day and night to break their morale.

The hall fell utterly silent. Even drinking stopped as everyone stared blankly at Cheng Ge.

"Third, the blood-kin hell strategy." His voice even held a trace of delight. "Capture a few of Blackwind Stockade's leaders. Don't kill them.

In front of them, take their sons and daughters... flay them alive, remove their bones, and dismember them.

Use the flesh and organs of their own flesh and blood to make a batch of 'human flesh dumplings' on the spot, and force them to eat it.

Then lock up the rest of their family in one place, and make those leaders watch them slaughter each other.

After that, release them back to the stockade. They'll tear each other apart like dogs, and we'll reap the benefits."

After laying out all three strategies, Cheng Ge gently placed his hand on Lei Biao's knee, looked up with wide, round eyes, and asked.

"Chief, are these three strategies acceptable? If not satisfied, I, your little brother, have over a hundred more..."

The entire Loyalty Hall fell into a deathly silence.

If it was quiet before, now it was an absolutely suffocating dead silence.

The crackling of the torches sounded unusually harsh.

All the bandits, including Lei Biao and White Brow, stood frozen as if struck by lightning.

What the hell was this? A reincarnated celestial scholar? No, this was a demon reborn, a devil incarnate! Even the King of Hell would only be fit to polish his shoes!

Xiong Meng opened his mouth but couldn't utter a single complete sentence for a long time, a chill creeping up his spine.

So in the end, I'm the only one who's actually human around here...

After a long pause, White Brow's eyelid gave a twitch, and he couldn't help speaking up. "These... strategies are good, but they might be a bit... against the natural order..."

White Brow considered himself ruthless, but compared to Cheng Ge, he was as innocent as a newborn baby.

Lei Biao looked at Cheng Ge in front of him, swallowed unconsciously, and remained speechless for a long time.

"Well... uh..." He cleared his throat, trying to regain some of his bandit chief's authority.

But the moment his eyes met Cheng Ge's sparkling, expectant ones, his confidence waned.

"You... you little brat... you really are... a talent..."

He paused, as if making a great decision, and finally raised his hand.

After a moment's hesitation, he gently placed it on Cheng Ge's shoulder. "Fine! I... I'll let you stay!"

Cheng Ge's face instantly lit up with an incredibly bright, joyful smile, as if he had received a great blessing.

He immediately bowed respectfully, his voice overflowing with gratitude.

"Thank you, Chief, for taking me in! Your little brother will serve you with all my heart until my dying day! I'll dedicate my life to the great cause of Axe Ridge!"

All the bandits: "..."

Lei Biao was a bit flustered by such enthusiasm and waved his hand. "Enough, enough, cut the nonsense..."

As the night wore on, the uproar in Loyalty Hall gradually died down, leaving the smell of wine and a mess of cups and plates.

---

Most of the bandits, drunk, had scattered to their huts or were sprawled across tables or snoring loudly in corners.

Lei Biao was also completely plastered, his face flushed red, his eyes glassy.

He staggered to his feet, but his legs gave way, and he stumbled sideways.

Just as he thought he was about to fall embarrassingly, he was suddenly yanked up by a strong arm.

Lei Biao: "???"

Dizzily, he turned his head and, through his drunken haze, he saw Cheng Ge's face full of concern.

"Chief, watch your step." Cheng Ge's voice dripped with flattery. "Let your little brother help you back to your room to rest, Chief?"

Lei Biao came from a poor background, had a rough-and-tumble childhood, and later lived a rough life as a bandit, always living on the edge of death. When had he ever been so meticulously cared for?

A warm sense of comfort washed over his muddled mind, and he slurred his praise.

"Good... good lad... you know how to be thoughtful, better... better than those idiots who just make me drink..."

Cheng Ge's smile grew even wider, as if he'd been given the greatest praise. "To serve the Chief is your little brother's honor. Watch your step, this way."

With that, he directly guided Lei Biao and headed for the staircase at the back of the Loyalty Hall.

The staircase was narrow and steep, leading up to the small loft that Lei Biao occupied alone.

Cheng Ge practically dragged Lei Biao up the stairs, step by step.

The loft was much quieter than below, and the air held a fainter smell of wine.

The room was small, with simple, crude furnishings with no style at all.

Yet it exuded a rough, bandit-like atmosphere, clearly a haphazard pile of all sorts of valuables looted from raids.

Underfoot was a brightly colored Persian carpet, utterly out of place in this rough mountain stockade, clearly looted from some unlucky merchant caravan.

In the center of the room stood a rosewood table with crudely carved legs, holding two plates of coarse pastries.

At the far end, against the wall, was a large, ornate wooden bed with bedposts intricately carved with auspicious beasts, spread with an eye-catching tiger-skin blanket.

The room was relatively clean and tidy, seemingly cleaned every day.

Lei Biao, his eyes blurry from drink, saw the tiger-skin-covered bed that looked imposing and, without thinking, staggered toward it, ready to fling himself onto it.

But just as his body was about to touch the edge of the bed, he felt a sudden yank at the back of his collar.

Before he could even react, he was already shoved down into a stiff wooden armchair.

Lei Biao: "???"

He lifted his head dizzily, looking totally bewildered at the culprit.

Cheng Ge grinned at him, his voice dripping with mock concern.

"Chief, don't be in a hurry! It's cold out here—let me, your humble junior, warm up the bed for you first!"

Without giving Lei Biao any chance to react or refuse, he kicked off his shoes in a flash and dove into the thick tiger-skin quilt with a whoosh.

He rolled back and forth a few times, pressing down the edges of the quilt until he was wrapped up tightly like a silkworm cocoon.

Only a small part of his face and a pair of eyes peeked out from the edge of the quilt, rapidly blinking at Lei Biao.