DLERB -Chapter 144 The natives were laughing—then got crushed by iron monsters

The sea of fire was still burning.

The air was thick with the stench of burning flesh.

“Kill!”

Meng Tian’s roar tore through everyone’s eardrums.

Thousands of Qin elite soldiers in black heavy armor advanced like demons emerging from hell, stepping over the edge of the fire zone.

“ROAR!”

The remaining natives had been forced into a desperate corner.

A native leader, eyes blood-red, swung a massive stone axe and charged at the front-line Qin shield soldier.

CLANG!!

The axe struck the shield.

Sparks flew everywhere.

Only a faint white mark was left on the shield.

The Qin soldier didn’t even move.

He didn’t even look at the native.

He simply thrust his long saber forward mechanically.

Puchi.

The sharp blade pierced straight through the native leader’s chest.

Elsewhere.

More than a dozen natives, in a suicidal charge, stabbed bamboo spears at a lone Qin soldier.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

A series of grating, ear-piercing sounds rang out.

All the sharpened bamboo spears snapped the moment they touched the armor.

The Qin soldier looked down at the broken bamboo sticking out of his armor.

He seemed slightly amused.

Then he raised his long blade.

A flash of steel.

A burst of blood mist.

The dozen natives—together with their broken weapons—were cut in half at the waist.

Their upper bodies were still in the air as their lower halves collapsed to the ground.

This was not war.

This was slaughter.

“Woooo—”

A sharp bone whistle sounded.

The surviving natives, as if granted amnesty, turned and fled wildly into the dark green forest behind them.

“Trying to run?”

Meng Tian revealed a savage grin.

“Pursue them!”

The Qin elite soldiers marched forward with heavy steps, following closely.

At the edge of the forest.

A native leader glanced back.

The iron-clad monsters were terrifying, but slow and bulky.

Once they entered the forest, it would be their domain.

A proud smile appeared on his face.

“Quick! Traps!”

He shouted in his native tongue.

The fleeing natives instantly regained their composure.

They were monkeys of the forest.

This was their home ground.

Poisoned bamboo spikes were hidden in camouflaged traps.

Large net traps were quietly raised.

Native archers climbed into the tall treetops, aiming poisoned arrows at the pursuing soldiers below.

Meng Tian’s vanguard plunged into the forest.

Thud!

One soldier stepped into a trap and dropped halfway into a pit.

Sharp bamboo spikes scraped against his leg armor, producing a harsh grinding sound.

The black iron greaves blocked the penetration, but the force still caused him to stumble.

“General, be careful!”

Before the words finished—

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Dozens of poisoned arrows shot down from the treetops.

Most were deflected by the heavy armor.

But one arrow slipped through a gap and scratched a soldier’s neck, drawing blood.

The soldier grunted.

The wound quickly turned black.

“Antidote powder!”

The medical officer rushed forward.

Meng Tian’s expression darkened.

With a swing of his blade, he cut down a small tree as thick as a bowl.

“A bunch of monkeys hiding in the dark!”

He roared.

“Burn the forest down!”

“General, no!”

His deputy hurriedly stopped him.

“The forest is too damp. The fire won’t spread—only thick smoke will form and disrupt our own formation!”

Meng Tian slammed a fist into a tree in frustration.

……

On the deck of the Zulong Hao.

Ying Ziye observed everything happening at the forest edge through a brass spyglass.

He curled his lip in annoyance.

“So slow.”

He lowered the telescope and snapped his fingers at Qinglong beside him.

“Go.”

“Release those iron turtles in the cargo hold.”

Qinglong bowed.

“As you command.”

Moments later—

Rumble…

A massive crane on the side of the ship slowly rotated.

Three enormous objects suspended by chains were lifted out of the cargo hold.

They looked like giant iron boxes.

There were no wheels underneath.

Instead, there were wide tracks made of countless interlinked iron plates.

At the front was a slanted armored plate.

At the back, a small boiler continuously venting steam.

“What is that?”

The natives hiding in the forest poked their heads out curiously.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

The three “iron turtles” were heavily dropped onto the beach.

They smashed out three large craters.

The natives burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Iron lumps!”

“Have the Qin people gone mad? How is this thing supposed to move?”

“By the time they drag it in, we’ll already be gone!”

A figure jumped down from the landing ramp.

It was Gongshu Chou.

His face was full of reverence as he leapt straight into the cockpit of one of the iron beasts.

“My treasure! Show these uncivilized monkeys your power!”

He shoveled in coal—one scoop after another—into the boiler.

The pressure gauge needle began to spin wildly.

ROAR…

The rear chimney of the war machine spewed a pillar of black smoke.

The entire body began to tremble violently.

The natives laughed even harder.

Gongshu Chou grinned viciously.

He pulled down a control lever.

Creak… creak…

The twin tracks made of iron plates began to turn slowly.

Then faster… and faster!

The war machine roared and charged straight into the forest.

It did not try to go around.

Directly ahead stood a massive ancient tree that required two men to wrap their arms around.

The natives in the forest were laughing so hard they were crying.

They could already imagine the iron lump crashing into the tree and turning into scrap metal.

The next second—

CRACK!!!

A deafening explosion.

The centuries-old tree was snapped clean in half, as if it were rotten wood, directly crushed by the war machine.

Wood chips flew everywhere.

All laughter stopped instantly.

The natives’ mouths hung wide open, like chickens having their throats gripped.

But it didn’t end there.

VMMM—

At the front of the machine, a huge spinning roller covered in dense blades began rotating at high speed.

It was like a giant meat grinder.

Bushes in its path were instantly shredded into fragments.

Carefully hidden traps were flattened under the wide tracks, bamboo spikes crushed into powder.

A native hiding in waist-high grass, preparing to fire a sneak arrow—

didn’t even have time to scream.

He, along with the grass, was sucked into the spinning blade roller.

Puchi.

A burst of blood mist sprayed out through the gaps in the roller.

Red, green, and white splattered across the front armor of the machine.

One.

Two.

Three.

The three steam war machines advanced side by side.

They had become three tireless, moving meat grinders.

In the dense forest, they forcibly carved out three wide, straight “roads” of carnage.

Anything blocking their path—people, trees, rocks—

was crushed and shredded.

“Hahahahahaha!”

Meng Tian laughed loudly at the sight, as if witnessing a divine miracle.

His laughter was filled with exhilaration and fanaticism.

“Lads!”

He pointed his massive saber forward.

“Follow me!”

“Kill!!”

Countless Qin elite soldiers charged forward along those three blood-soaked paths.

……

Inside the mountain temple.

Xu Fu had just changed into clean clothes.

He raised a cup of murky rice wine to calm his nerves.

The forest was safe.

No matter how strong the Qin army was, they would be blind once they entered the woods.

He still had a chance.

At that moment—

creak… crack…

A strange sound echoed faintly from below the mountain.

Like trees being cut down continuously.

And not just one or two—

but entire stretches of forest.

Then came it—

countless inhuman, agonized screams.

The sound grew closer and closer.

Even the wooden floor beneath him began to tremble slightly.

Xu Fu’s smile froze on his face.

The coarse clay wine cup in his hand—

clack.

fell to the ground.

Shattering into pieces.