The Wu Family.
Behind the stone fort, on the rock wall, a large cave, the rock python lazily coiled up.
Four grey dwarves held scrub brushes and carried buckets, busy scrubbing the thick grey scales of the rock python. Occasionally, the rock python would open its mouth and exhale a stench, its three-meter long forked tongue flicking weakly.
As it opened its mouth, a fist-sized black metal pellet suddenly shot into its mouth, penetrating deep into its body.
With a muffled bang, the rock python's body, as thick as a water barrel, exploded into two segments near its centre.
Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere, and the four grey dwarves were blown away. Before they could even land, a cold light flashed through the air, cutting them in half at their waists.
Before they could even scream in agony, the cold light flashed again, and their heads flew high into the air.
A few miles away from the stone fort, under the rock wall, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong, the three Wu brothers, stood by a field, wearing worried expressions. They supervised the rock dwarves as they carried buckets of diluted rock python dung and poured it onto the thick roots of large greyish-white mushrooms on the ground.
These mushrooms had a nearly translucent skin, and inside each mushroom cap were neatly arranged thumb-sized seeds.
"I hate eating porridge made from 'ground rice mushrooms'!" Wu Jin smacked his lips in disgust and said, "Especially when I think that they're grown using the dung from the Great Grey... ugh..."
Wu Jin spat on the ground vehemently!
"I was thinking that when half a year after peace arrived, Dad brought back that kind of 'rice' made porridge... it was really delicious!" Wu Yin also smacked his lips and said sincerely, "Although I only had a taste!"
"It was delicious! But our 'Void Sun' is too small. To grow that kind of 'rice,' we need a 'Void Sun' with a diameter of at least one kilometer!" Wu Tong looked up at the 'Void Sun' above their family stone fort, which was only thirty meters in diameter, and curled his lip, "That rice porridge was really delicious... although I only had a taste..."
"Back then, Taiping was weak... couldn't eat anything and would even vomit when we gave him beast milk..." Wu Jin laughed, "At that time, we were already 'grown-ups,' so we couldn't snatch food away from Taiping!"
Clenching his fist and waving it, Wu Jin's eyes flickered as he muttered, "Dad said that as long as we save up enough good stuff, we can return to our ancestral home and pay respects to our elders... the 'Void Sun' in our ancestral home has a diameter of one kilometer, and we can grow that 'rice'..."
"As long as Dad takes us back to our ancestral home to perform the ancestral rites, we will be eligible to trade for all kinds of good things from our family!" Wu Jin grinned, "By then..."
The rock python's body exploded, and the dull explosion rumbled between the rock walls, quickly reaching their location.
A sharp tooth-shaped spear violently pierced the rock python's head, pinning it firmly to the ground. The rock python opened its mouth wide and let out a hissing roar, followed by an explosion of sharp roars.
"Big Grey!" Wu Tong leaped up suddenly, about to dash towards the cave where the rock python was.
"Enemy attack!" Wu Yin grabbed Wu Tong by his belt and pulled him back, causing him to stumble a few steps backward, almost falling to the ground.
Wu Jin had already drawn his long knife from his waist and let out three rapid whistles.
Amidst the whistles, the rock dwarves in the field dropped their tools and scurried towards several small caves beneath the distant rock wall.
Urgent whistles came from the several mine outlets in the distance that led to the outside world. These were the warriors of the Wu Family responding to Wu Jin's warning.
But suddenly, those whistles from those places abruptly stopped, and other than the rock dwarves taking shelter in the caves, there was no sound. What was even more unsettling was that there was no sound coming from the stone fort of the Wu Family either.
"Who is it? Show yourself!" Wu Jin raised his long knife and shouted towards the direction of the stone fort, "Is it those bastards from the Black Wind Valley? How dare you provoke the Wu Family?"
A cry of pain came from the direction of the stone fort. Grey Master was thrown out from the sentry tower above the gate.
Grey Master was about to fall to the ground, but a rope tied around his waist suddenly tightened. The feeble Grey Master's body trembled, and he let out a painful groan.
"Master!" This time, both Wu Yin and Wu Tong stepped forward a few steps.
A shrill sound of breaking through the air came, and a black figure flew out of the sentry tower, instantly gliding through the air, and landing heavily seven or eight meters away from the three Wu brothers.
It was a black wooden staff about two meters long, with a coiled black snake carved on top.
Wu Jin shouted loudly and took a step forward, slashing the staff with his knife.
The coiled black snake carved on the staff suddenly exhaled a gust of black gas.
Grey Master suddenly raised his head and stared with widened eyes as he roared, "Poison... Retreat! Find the Old Master!"
Wu Jin quickly stepped back, and at the same time, a faint red mist of light and fog burst out from Wu Jin and Wu Yin's bodies. The black gas from the staff clashed against the mist that burst forth from them, creating a piercing 'chirping' sound.
Wu Tong stood beside Wu Yin, and his muscles squirmed rapidly under his skin, but he did not emit the same mist as his brothers.
The black gas suddenly splashed on his body, sounding 'chi-la' before his face was sprayed by the black gas. It was as if it had been instantly corroded by concentrated acid, causing his facial skin, along with large pieces of flesh, to blister and decay, decomposing into viscous pus that fell off his face.
The distinct black and white eyes of Wu Tong were also hit by the poison gas. Both eyeballs 'pop pop' burst open, spraying pus and blood far away.
Wu Jin and Wu Yin shouted 'Third Brother' at the same time and fiercely raised their left hands, heavily slapping themselves in the face.
This slap was unnaturally heavy; the heads of Wu Jin and Wu Yin whipped violently, with both brothers spitting out two molars each, splattering blood all over. They grabbed Wu Tong's shoulders from the left and right, carrying him as they ran towards the mine explored by Wu Zhan and Wu Tie.
The two brothers ran at an extremely fast speed, covering more than a mile in just a few breaths.
A long whistle came from the side, and the sound of heavy footsteps resembled a galloping warhorse, causing a tingling sensation in their hearts as it approached.
More than a dozen men wearing metallic suits of armor with a large black emblem on their left chest, holding long knives, suddenly charged out of an extremely faint mist, like a pack of ferocious beasts dashing towards the three brothers.
Their armor was extremely thick, with the thickest part being more than an inch, which showed how heavy the armor was.
And yet, they ran as fast as the three brothers, even surpassing them by more than twice their speed.
Upon closer inspection, they appeared to have rapidly rotating winds beneath their feet, as if a gust of wind circled below their feet.
Wu Yin grumbled in astonishment, "Such thin mist... how is it possible for them to hide within the mist?"
Wu Jin let out a loud roar and took a vigorous step forward, chopping at the snake staff with his right hand.
The carved black snake on the staff suddenly opened its mouth wide and sprayed out a large amount of black gas.
Grey Master raised his head suddenly, stared at the staff in Wu Jin's hand, and shouted, "Poison... Retreat! Find the Old Master!"
Wu Jin quickly took a step back, and his long knife, transformed into a black light, rushed forward, emitting a sharp whistle. The hammer-wielding warrior who had unknowingly rushed behind him was thrust through the chest.
The warrior let out a low roar and gripped his war hammer with both hands, striking forward fiercely.
Wu Jin suddenly opened his right hand, then clenched it tightly. The speed of the black light's forward thrust suddenly doubled, and the war hammer almost brushed against it. The black light heavily collided with the warrior's chest, producing a dull impact sound.
Sparks flew as a crack about a foot long appeared in the warrior's thick armor, followed by a large piece of flesh being sliced open, with a large amount of blood spurting out through the chest armor.
The black light spun quickly and flew backward, and the warrior cried out in pain, "This brat... is already at the 'Foundation Building' stage! So weak!"
Wu Jin caught the returning long knife and stared at the armor on the warrior's body, muttering, "Such thick skin... this armor is good!"
Suddenly, several pieces of the thin mist in the distance flashed, and the mist disappeared. Dozens of blood-soaked figures simultaneously appeared. These figures varied in height and weight, male and female. Some wore heavy armor, while others wore tight leather armor. They all possessed a fierce aura.
Wu Jin shouted loudly while a bald-headed woman with scars all over her face laughed strangely. She suddenly tilted her body forward, and a snake tooth dagger about a foot long flew rapidly, bringing out a faint blue cold light silently.
Wu Jin had just retrieved his long knife, while Wu Yin rightly threw his own knife backward.
The black light, about a meter long, cut through the air and collided heavily with the nearly transparent snake tooth dagger.
With a crisp sound, the thin and light snake tooth dagger bounced up ten meters high, while Wu Yin's flying long knife heavily fell to the ground.
"This kid is only at the 'Foundation Building' stage and has 'Qi Condensation' cultivation! Haha, weak!" The bald-headed woman sneered. She casually pointed at the sky, and the dagger that flew ten meters high folded sharply downwards, turning into an extremely thin blue cold light and swiftly descending towards them.
The blue light rapidly approached the three Wu brothers.
The three brothers had already dashed into the mine entrance, and several grey dwarves guarding the entrance had just heard the commotion and rushed out.
Wu Yin grabbed two gray dwarves and threw them into the air.
The pale blue cold light swept through the bodies of the two gray dwarves, who had no idea what had happened, before their bodies were cut open by the cold light.
Amidst the wails, the snake tooth dagger was momentarily blocked by the two gray dwarves, and the three Wu brothers had already escaped into the mine.
"Enemy... face the enemy! Fight to the death!" Wu Jin shouted loudly in the mine.
Different from the rock dwarves in the field who fled upon discovering the enemy's strength, Wu Jin issued a death order upon encountering a formidable enemy.
Both the rock dwarves and the rock pygmies in the mine were momentarily stunned, before there was an uproar of screaming and shouting from thousands of grey dwarves and rock pygmies. They rushed out of the various mine entrances like water flowing from multiple sources.
The three Wu brothers ran past, and several supervisor rock dwarves swung their hands, sending out dozens of iron marbles the size of chicken eggs with a whistling sound.
These were blasting stones used to open rocks and search for ore veins, and they had considerable power. Even stone blocks several meters in diameter could easily be blasted into powder.
"Shield!" A tall man with heavy armor that reached two meters in height, with no weapons in his hands but a heavy shield on his back, took a few steps forward.
The heavy shield was slammed into the ground.
Several twisted light patterns flickered on the surface of the heavy shield as it trembled heavily. Waves of yellow light resembling water ripples spread out from the shield's surface, forming a protective wall with a diameter of more than ten meters and shielding dozens of people behind the tall man.
More than ten blasting stones exploded at the same time.
Amidst the deafening roar, the yellow light waves on the surface of the heavy shield violently distorted and eventually exploded into fragments.
The man who held the heavy shield groaned lightly, his body trembled violently, and it took considerable effort to stabilize himself.
"Kill!" A gentle voice spoke lightly from outside the mine.
More than twenty men and women wearing light armor and with agile bodies drew large crossbows from behind them, accompanied by piercing sounds as a burst of air, a steel crossbow bolt drew a faint black smoke, creating a black storm that swept through the mine.
The steel bolts, with terrifying penetrating power, crazily pierced through the bodies of grey dwarves and rock pygmies one after another.
The grey dwarves were about a meter and twenty centimeters tall, while the rock pygmies were just under a meter tall. Their bodies were not strong, and they only wore body coverings made of coarse linen. These steel bolts, strengthened by an unknown force, easily penetrated their bodies.
With the piercing sound cutting through the air, the steel bolts, aimed from hundreds of steps away, flew in the air, circled and rapidly returned in the same manner as a flying bird returning to its nest, dragging a wisp of black smoke as they swiftly re-entered the crossbow magazines.
Of the thousands of grey dwarves and rock pygmies, only two to three hundred were left.
Laughter resounded from the men and women, who excitedly chatted with each other while quickly chasing after the fleeing grey dwarves and rock pygmies. Slashing and cutting, they mercilessly slaughtered all the grey dwarves and rock pygmies.
The mild voice sounded from within the mine, "Grey dwarves... rock pygmies... no market value!"
Wu Tie stared in shock at the broad expanse of water in front of him.
With his insight, he couldn't accurately estimate the size of this body of water.
But he could roughly tell that it was extremely vast and could probably hold three to fifty thousand Wu Valley settlements.
Such a large body of water!
The waves were surging, with countless whirlpools.
Water, in this world of rocky layers everywhere, was the true source of life!
Previously, the Wu Family stone fort could only rely on a few pitiful water sources for water. With only up to two thousand people, water was scarce for daily use.
Shortage of water meant that they couldn't reclaim more land, breed more powerful Grey Rock Lizards and Venomous Hunting Spiders!
But this water before his eyes, this boiling water!
Even more water than he had seen!
"So much water!" Wu Tie laughed.
Thoughts of those tiny, weak rock pygmies flashed in his mind.
With so much water, they could grow many more white mushrooms, right?
Those pitiful little pygmies, they could eat their fill more often, right?
Wu Tie curled his lips; he didn't need to secretly share his food with those crying and hungry pygmies anymore!
Wu Tie threw back his head and guffawed. He had no idea how much more water there was compared to the little he could see.
Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded, and Wu Jin and his two brothers rushed in.
"Dad! Enemies!" Wu Jin shouted loudly.
A heavy battle axe swung out from behind him, causing Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong to be blown off the ground. Blood sprayed out from behind them.
(End of Chapter 4)