124: execution

Blade Claw did not give Stone Fang a quick death; it dragged this impudent fellow back to the royal capital like a dead dog.

The royal capital square, usually a place for beastmen to trade goods and chat, was now filled with a sickening, sweet, fishy stench.

On the high stone platform, dozens of bloodied and mangled figures were tied up; they were captives from the Insurgent Army.

Below the platform, a dense crowd of beastmen packed the area, stretching their necks with complex expressions in their eyes.

"Pah! Traitors!"

"Damn things, they deserve to be sliced into a thousand pieces!"

There were also beastmen who lowered their heads, not daring to look, and even secretly wiped away tears.

The executioners were Blade Claw's personal guards, each one burly and fierce-looking. They held not blades, but bone whips tipped with barbs.

"Execute!"

At the command, the bone whips whistled through the air and lashed fiercely onto the captives.

Skin split and flesh tore, blood splattering everywhere.

Screams echoed over the square, heart-wrenching and desperate.

There was no mercy of a swift death, only torture akin to slow slicing.

Each lash took away a piece of flesh, revealing ghastly white bone.

Among the watching beastmen, some were howling with excitement, some were pale with fear, and others silently clenched their fists.

Stone Fang was imprisoned separately; Blade Claw did not let him appear.

A special "viewing platform" had been erected.

"High Priest, please." Blade Claw's subordinate made a "please" gesture with a fake, insincere smile.

Jonnison, disguised as the High Priest, gave a cold snort and slowly walked onto the "viewing platform."

From here, one could clearly see the miserable state of every captive and hear every desperate wail.

Jonnison understood in his heart that this was Blade Claw's warning and also a test of him.

The first batch to be executed were those who served as "minor leaders" in the Insurgent Army.

They had been stripped of their beast hides, leaving only raw, blood-red flesh; with the help of some Visualization Diagrams, they endured the torment in boundless pain.

The bone whips lashed against them, emitting "pop-pop" thuds, like firecrackers exploding by the ear.

Blood flowed along the whip marks, staining the stone platform red, gathering into small streams, and dripping onto the ground.

One captive gritted his teeth, refusing to make a sound.

The executioner took an interest and focused his attention specifically on him.

After a few lashes, the captive's back was unrecognizable, a mess of blood and flesh with bones exposed.

He finally couldn't hold back and let out a shrill scream, his voice hoarse like an injured beast.

"Hahahaha..." The executioner laughed triumphantly, "Scream! Scream louder!"

Jonnison watched with cold eyes, as if none of it had anything to do with him.

He even had the mood to converse with that subordinate of Blade Claw.

...

The execution lasted for an entire day.

The stench of blood in the square was thick and unyielding.

At nightfall, Blade Claw ordered a massive manhunt to be launched within the Empire.

Any beastman with ties to the Insurgent Army was to be killed without exception.

For a time, the entire Empire was in a state of panic, filled with terror and bloodshed.

The Empire's army swept through everywhere like a gale, searching house by house, leaving chaos in their wake.

Their goal was clear—any suspicious clues related to the "Enlightener." These fellows, who usually threw their weight around, were now like a pack of well-trained hounds, sniffing out every trace of rebellion.

"My lord, please have mercy, my family really doesn't have those things!" An old beastman knelt on the ground, hugging the leg of the personal guard captain, crying with snot and tears streaming down.

The captain kicked the old beastman away and spat, "Old Thing, whether you have them or not, we'll only know after searching!"

He gave a look, and several personal guards immediately rushed into the house, creating a clattering mess faster than tearing down the house itself.

"My lord, look, what are these pieces of junk!" A personal guard held up a few tattered scraps of paper, offering them to the captain as if presenting a treasure.

The captain flipped through a few pages; they were drawn with strange symbols, and he couldn't understand a single word.

"Burn them!" the captain waved his hand.

The search continued, and whenever anything suspicious was discovered, such as a piece of paper with strange writing or a wood carving with unknown patterns, the beastmen in the house would be immediately dragged out.

"I'm innocent! My lord, this was drawn by my son, he's only three!" A female beastman hugged her child, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Three years old?" The captain sneered, "Three years old and he can already draw rebellious patterns? I think your whole family are rebels!"

He didn't listen to any explanations at all; with a swing of his blade, the mother and child instantly fell into a pool of blood.

"Pah, bad luck!" The captain spat at the corpses and led his team away.

On the streets, corpses lay scattered everywhere, and blood flowed like a river.

Some beastmen kept their doors and windows tightly shut, hiding in their homes shivering; others peeked out through door cracks, their eyes filled with fear and anger.

"Damn it, these animals!" A young beastman hid in the shadows, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his flesh. He had seen with his own eyes his neighbors, the whole family, brutally murdered by the personal guards.

"Shh, keep your voice down, do you want to die?" An older beastman beside him quickly covered his mouth.

"What are you afraid of? Let's fight them!" The young beastman struggled.

"Fight? With what? With your dull claws?" The older beastman patted his fleshy palm, "Only by staying alive is there hope..."

"These idiots, do they really think killing a few people will scare us?"

In a certain mine, Artemis sneered.

He had received the news sent by Jonnison and knew everything that had happened in the royal capital.

"It is time to let them witness what a true 'spark starting a prairie fire' is."

A cold light flashed in Artemis's eyes.

The army he had been training in secret had already taken shape.

Under the instigation of that fellow Kleid, these warriors already hated Blade Claw to the bone.

They had accepted the ideology of the "Enlightener" and craved freedom and equality.

Artemis broke this army down into small units and scattered them all over the world.

"Go." Artemis's voice was low and powerful, "Let the flames burn across the entire world!"

...

Following Jonnison's instructions, Artemis ordered his armies to rise up simultaneously at different times and in different places.

"For freedom!"

"Overthrow the tyranny!"

"Kill!"

Across the wasteland, slogans of uprising rang out almost simultaneously.

Small-scale insurgent groups sprang up like mushrooms after rain.

They attacked towns, seized weapons, released slaves, and turned Blade Claw's rule upside down.

...

Inside the royal palace, Blade Claw was overwhelmed.

It did not expect that just after suppressing one rebellion, an even greater storm would follow in its wake.

"Great King, rebel troops discovered in the east!"

"Great King, something has happened in the Terra Forest too!"

"Great King, the mines have been attacked again!"

Bad news came one after another, like a death warrant, making Blade Claw frantic.

It swung its "Sword Claw," slicing the soldier who came to report the news into two.

"Useless! All of you are useless!" Blade Claw roared, "Pass the order down, mobilize all armies, and kill... all these rebels!"

A new war had begun.

Only this time, what Blade Claw faced was no longer a small band of rebels, but the fury of all the oppressed across the entire wasteland.

The single spark had already become a prairie fire.