March 29, 2022 Author: Blood Red
Familiar recipe, familiar taste.
Wu Tie soaked in the translucent white liquid, while the neighbor Yang Jian slightly squinted his eyes and quietly watched him through the two layers of crystal walls.
Wu Tie had already grown accustomed to Yang Jian's presence. He glanced at the hole left on Yang Jian's forehead, a result of his disappearance, and then moved his limbs a bit.
The numbness and weakness were gradually fading away, bit by bit. Strength was slowly returning, and Wu Tie could feel fresh blood gradually surging inside him, filling every inch of his body.
Elder Tie stood on the ground, his eyes shining with bloodthirst. The figures of his compatriots, two palm commanders, Mr. Gu, and Mr. Lan, were all clearly reflected in the blood-colored light barrier.
Silently watching the light barrier, Wu Tie couldn't help but marvel at the power of those small metal spiders.
With them, the Eternal Life Sect and the Mist Blades held no secrets for Wu Tie, did they?
"Tell me, what are they planning to do?" Elder Tie lifted a claw in confusion, pointing at the light barrier. "Hmm, I'm quite skilled at killing. As for gathering intelligence and tactical analysis... well, grandpa finds that boring..."
Wu Tie blew a few small bubbles from his mouth.
"This guy... he always says he's a medical and support-type ancient divine weapon.
But looking at his words and actions, and the meaning he sometimes reveals in his words, he's clearly an embryo killer who excels at killing and pillaging. What does he have to do with 'medical and support'?"
Of course, if soaking Wu Tie in a crystal ball counts as 'medical and support', then he has nothing to say.
Blowing a few bubbles, Wu Tie shook his head.
He couldn't guess what Mr. Gu, Mr. Lan, and the two palm commanders were planning to do. He was just startled by Elder Tie's earth-shattering attack. Even when he was running for his life, he couldn't help but turn around and look back. The momentum was truly terrifying.
If that strike had been used in the Wu Family Fortress... the entire Wu Family, with over a thousand members, along with the entire fortress and the entire Wu Valley, would have been completely flattened, right?
"They were scared away... or maybe they went to find experts to help?" Wu Tie's injuries from the Broken Origin Blood Blade had healed, and he slid out of the crystal ball. He cleaned his body, put on his tight armor, and furrowed his brow as he spoke to Elder Tie.
This was just his guess, he didn't know if it was correct.
If unfortunately his guess turned out to be correct, then this secret realm would soon witness an even larger-scale war. Especially if experts from the Eternal Life Sect and the Mist Blades were to arrive here, even the Ancient Divine Weapons Camp would not be safe.
"Elder Tie, how many times can you unleash such an attack?" Wu Tie pondered a serious question.
Elder Tie sighed heavily, laid down on the ground, and scratched his own head with his front paw.
"This dog, Xiong Tiantian, didn't know what she did before she died. Although her body looked uninjured on the outside, her insides were quite damaged." Elder Tie shook his head. "Big Iron is a waste. We don't have the tools to repair Xiong Tiantian here..."
"Probably... once every six months?" Elder Tie looked at Wu Tie, and the blood in his eyes flickered a few times. "You were too lenient with those Mist Blades assassins... you shouldn't have just injured them, you should have tried to kill them with all your might."
Elder Tie gave Wu Tie a stern lesson. "Inflicting significant and unacceptable losses on the enemy in a short period of time is an effective means of ending the battle and achieving tactical objectives. You only injured those assassins... it was equivalent to wasting your effort."
Wu Tie sat in front of Elder Tie without saying a word.
He overcame his hesitation and fear and confronted the Mist Blades and the Eternal Life Sect.
But when it came to killing those Mist Blades assassins...
Wu Tie couldn't do it.
After all, his age played a role here. Growing up in the Wu Family, he also received the teachings of Master Graybeard since childhood. Unlike his father and three elder brothers, he had not become accustomed to fighting and killing for territory and benefits.
Elder Tie looked deeply at Wu Tie. After a long pause, he nodded. "Alright, it's not something that can be solved in a short while... grandpa has seen rookies wet their pants the first time they stepped onto the battlefield... killing more people will turn them into skilled warriors eventually, it's just a matter of time."
"Now, let's start a new lesson."
"Intelligence, or useful information, is an essential part of any war."
"Whether it's the Eternal Life Sect or the Mist Blades, we know almost nothing about them."
"And they exist in the Cang Yan Domain?"
"What kind of place is the Cang Yan Domain? Where did the Eternal Life Sect come from? How strong is the influence of the Mist Blades in the Cang Yan Domain? What's the relationship between them? We must figure out these questions... especially because we have limited resources now, and war is not a fun game."
"Tell me, how can we obtain the information we need?" Elder Tie stared earnestly at Wu Tie.
Wu Tie furrowed his brows and pondered for a while before suddenly smiling. "Catch someone and interrogate them?"
Elder Tie grinned and let out a dry laugh. "That's right, catch a tongue... hmm, in that case, we must choose the right target to capture. You can't defeat the palm commanders of the Mist Blades, and I don't have the strength to do anything to them now... as for the slaves, what could they possibly know?"
"Therefore, choosing the right target for capture is crucial."
Choosing the right target for capture is important, so two days later, after the "Virtual Day" descended and the "Nighttime" arrived, Wu Tie stole all the rafts belonging to the Mist Blades, crossed the downstream of the river, and stealthily approached the perimeter of the Eternal Life Sect's stronghold.
Without expending too much effort and with Elder Tie's guidance, Wu Tie used a slender needle coated with a special concocted plant paralysis toxin to easily capture a young man standing behind Mr. Gu.
The captive was not a valiant warrior or a hardened resistance fighter. Perhaps it was the intimidating appearance of Elder Tie, who looked like a "human-headed dog", that frightened the young man. This youth, with his oily hair and somewhat good looks, was willing to reveal everything he knew and answered every question in detail.
In the eyes of the Eternal Life Sect, the Cang Yan Domain was considered a remote, barren, and undeveloped region.
The main domain of the Cang Yan Domain consisted of eight large geokarsts of varying sizes. The largest geokarst was only two-thirds the size of the current secret realm, while the smallest one had a diameter of only a hundred miles.
Among these eight geokarsts were three powerful clans that reigned supreme. In these eight geokarsts, there were hundreds of passages of varying sizes leading to thousands of small and large rock caves, with varying numbers of family settlements in each one...
Countless small and large rock caves were either stacked on top, bottom, or in close proximity to each other, separated by hundreds of miles...
In addition to the countless intertwined and disorderly mine tunnels, passages, galleries, secret passages, and so on, there were also large and small stone fortresses, small and large settlements, as well as the mine slaves living in the tunnels and mines, and the native inhabitants...
There were also organizations like the Mist Blades and other strange and exotic groups...
All these elements comprised the Cang Yan Domain.
And the reason the Cang Yan Domain was named as such was because the largest of these eight geokarsts had a lava river that flowed through it, with the extraordinary fire of heaven and earth called "Cang Yan" within.
Cang Yan had a blue-white color and an extremely high temperature, containing an extremely mysterious power.
Weapons forged with Cang Yan, under the same material, would be twice as sharp and tough. In the hands of Foundation Building stage cultivators, they were passable, but in the hands of Qi Sensing and especially Heavy Tower realm cultivators, they could display a formidable killing power.
For example, the nine weapons carried by the Mist Blades' nine palm commanders were all fine products made by the Lu Clan.
The Cang Yan Domain was named after the lava river in the largest geokarst.
Among the three most powerful clans in the Cang Yan Domain, the Lu Clan ranked first because they monopolized this lava river. As a result, their clan's military arsenal was exceptionally well-equipped, which allowed them to surpass the Red Clan and the Stone Clan among the three most powerful clans.
As for the Eternal Life Sect, they were not a native power of the Cang Yan Domain.
Decades ago, an affiliated small clan of the Stone Clan in the Cang Yan Domain had a mining team that accidentally opened up a new passage by blasting it with mining thunder.
This passage, which extended for over a thousand li, allowed the Cang Yan Domain to establish contact with outside domains for the first time.
Exploration teams formed by the three major families of the Cang Yan Domain encountered a foreign merchant caravan at the end of this passage.
And in that merchant caravan happened to be the scouts of the Eternal Life Sect. The gaze of the Eternal Life Sect fell on the Cang Yan Domain and they began their erosion of the Cang Yan Domain.
Due to the overall strength of the Cang Yan Domain, the Eternal Life Sect only sent Chi Nanny, Red Nanny, Mr. Gu, and Mr. Lan, four high-level experts to oversee the division halls in the Cang Yan Domain.
The captive youth was a native of the Cang Yan Domain who had been captured and trained by the Eternal Life Sect since he was young. He only knew about the Cang Yan Domain and some basic information about the Eternal Life Sect's division hall there. As for how strong the Eternal Life Sect's influence really was and what the situation was like among the high-ranking members of the sect, that was not something he, a disciple at his level, could have any contact with.
After all... although he was a servant close to Mr. Gu, the Eternal Life Sect was strange and evil. These "close disciples" of theirs were often just auxiliary supplies for when Mr. Gu and the others cultivated or even temporary tonics to boost their strength and replenish their consumption during battles.
Their status was awkward, and they wouldn't be given the opportunity to access any real secrets.
However, although he didn't know how strong the Eternal Life Sect's hidden power was, this youth revealed quite a bit of information about the Mist Blades.
For instance, the Mist Blades were the most powerful underground force in the Cang Yan Domain. They were the fourth largest force beside the Lu, Red, and Stone clans. The Mist Blades thrived on bloodshed and assassination. They had a poor relationship with the three major families, but those families often couldn't do without the Mist Blades' help...
In terms of the number of elite warriors alone, in terms of absolute strength, any of the three major families in the Cang Yan Domain wouldn't be a match for the Mist Blades if they fought alone...
The entire Cang Yan Domain consisted mainly of the three major native families standing side by side, while the three families joined forces to contain the Mist Blades. At the same time, the three major families also joined forces with the Mist Blades to guard against the encroachment of the Eternal Life Sect...
While Wu Tie was capturing a tongue and interrogating for information in the secret realm, a surprise attack had just ended in the passage leading from the Cang Yan Domain to the outside domains.
Ever since establishing contact with the outside domains, the three major families of the Cang Yan Domain had joined forces to build a fortress in the passage where they stationed a large number of elite warriors year-round, tightly guarding against large-scale invasions by outside forces.
In the passage outside the fortress, countless bright glowing plants emitted bright light, creating a light that was as bright as the "Virtual Day". A two-mile-wide giant stone wall blocked the entire passage. Several generals from the three major families were dressed in armor, standing behind the battlements of the wall, pointing outward with contented smiles.
Dozens of tall, ox-like warriors wielding steel axes were stationed on the wall, grinning and laughing.
Over a hundred tall and lean lizard warriors, known for their astonishing archery skills, held longbows. The amber eyes of the lizards rolled around, staring unwaveringly at the assassins in black combat costumes in the blood pools outside the fortress.
This was a small-scale merchant caravan. Over a dozen gray rock lizards hauled four-wheeled carts, quietly parked at the edge of the passage.
The over twenty guards of the merchant caravan were covered in arrows, lying dead in the blood pools. Many of them hadn't even drawn their weapons before being shot full of arrows.
Mr. Gu and Mr. Lan lay on the ground, blood soaking their clothes.
Mr. Gu lay on the ground with his throat cut, almost completely decapitating him. He stared with wide eyes, the lifeless pupils of his ash-gray eyes staring straight at the dome thousands of meters high above him.
Mr. Lan was gasping for breath.
His chest was split apart with a direct thrust of the blade, and countless blood bubbles continued to seep out from the wound. Bubble after bubble of blood-colored foam sprayed out from his mouth and nose as he gasped for breath. His hands twitched and trembled, crawling step by step toward the fortress a few hundred meters away.
A man dressed in a tight black soft armor and still draped in a black cloak appeared beside Mr. Lan soundlessly. Extending his right foot, he stepped heavily on Mr. Lan's back.
"You can try, shout loudly here and see if you can say what you want to say... shout it for them to hear," the man squatted down, lightly wiggled his slender and powerful fingers, and softly tapped Mr. Lan's head, suddenly laughing, "That was close... Although Old Six, Old Seven, and Old Eight were a little greedy, fortunately, they came to their senses..."
"Those three can't possibly swallow that place. Unless it's the entire Mist Blades, they can't swallow it."
"But it's easier to quietly swallow that treasure than to compete with your Eternal Life Sect and those three families..."
Mr. Lan struggled to lift his head, bitterly looking at the man in black.
The Mist Blades had nine palm commanders, ranked from first to ninth. Each one of them was a Heavy Tower realm expert.
According to legend, the Mist Blades also had a supreme palm commander, whose nickname happened to be "Mist Blade". Rumor had it that this supreme palm commander's strength surpassed the combined strength of the other nine palm commanders.
Mr. Lan originally thought this was just a rumor.
But he never expected that the rumors were true... when he and Mr. Gu joined forces, they were unable to even receive one of the Mist Blade supreme palm commander's attacks.
If they had known that the Mist Blade supreme palm commander was so terrifying, they should have reported the news about the secret realm back to the main hall of the Eternal Life Sect in advance...
With a 'crack,' the supreme palm commander broke Mr. Lan's neck and chuckled as he stood up.
He casually waved his palm and looked towards the direction of the fortress with an unhurried shout, "Three families, come out and collect your dead... drenched in blood, scared the hell out of the passing merchant caravans. Who would still do business with our Cang Yan Domain?"
"I'll give your three family heads a message... the Mist Blades have helped the Cang Yan Domain get rid of the division halls of the Eternal Life Sect. You must pay us for this contribution. If you don't pay, I'll personally go to their door to settle the matter."
With a laugh, the supreme palm commander gradually became transparent, melting directly into the air.
"Now, it's time to meet that legendary expert... a single strike can destroy several li? Huh... could this guy be insane?"
(End of the chapter)