"Don't cry, don't cry. Guard the Ancient Divine Armory well."
Wu Tie stood by the exit of the Ancient Divine Armory tunnel, gently tapping the big iron structure.
Standing three meters tall, the iron structure resembled a giant iron skull, emitting a low hum. Its big head lightly brushed against Wu Tie's chest.
A group of Mist Blade assassins, a thousand meters away on a small mound, eagerly watched the scene.
The imposing appearance of the iron structure was truly awe-inspiring. With such a large metal head, how big must its body be? Even the Stone Giants bred by the Mist Blade Sect, with the largest builds, didn't have heads this big!
"Alright, stop acting like a girl." Old Iron impatiently gave the iron structure a slap on its head.
"Guard this place well, we'll come back." Old Iron scolded, urging the iron structure to quickly leave.
The iron structure emitted a melancholic sound as it slowly sank into the tunnel of the Ancient Divine Armory. Then, the entrance of the tunnel began to ripple like water, with waves of silent blue electric currents surging. The entrance seemed to become a flow of mercury, quickly disappearing underground.
Mud churned on the ground, and the entrance of the tunnel disappeared, leaving only a deep pit of five to six meters.
"Let's go. Separation in life and death, men must experience such things." Old Iron raised its claw and patted Wu Tie's shoulder.
"Men, when they are born, are as tender as a sapling, not much different from young girls with flowers."
"Separation in life and death, bloody carnage, corpses strewn across the fields, one experiences such things often. It's like a thousand-year-old pine tree that has endured storms hanging on a cliff, that's when one starts to have a taste of a man."
Old Iron turned around and headed towards the upstream direction of the river.
Wu Tie nodded and followed behind Old Iron, walking while listening to Old Iron's musings.
"Setbacks are necessary for men." Old Iron chuckled, saying, "Have you ever seen the knotty branches on ancient trees? The injured trunk produces knots that are much harder than normal wood."
"The more injuries received, the stronger one becomes. That's what defines a man."
"Think about it, why did we separate from Big Iron? Why?"
"Because our strength is not enough. If we continue to stay here, you, kid, will be killed by them, and I might be torn apart and melted down... The Ancient Divine Armory may very well end up in their hands."
"We don't have enough power to protect what we want to protect, so we can only leave."
"That's why, power, kid... Power!"
Wu Tie wore tight-fitting armor and carried a spear made by Old Iron using materials from the Ancient Divine Armory's inventory.
White Tiger's fragmented shard was neatly worn on his arm, but such a divine weapon... shouldn't be used easily, and Wu Tie currently didn't have enough power to unleash its full potential.
Hearing Old Iron repeatedly emphasize the importance of 'power', Wu Tie subconsciously grasped the spear with his free hand, and then looked towards the Mist Blade assassins in the distance.
"They stole our territory and coveted our Ancient Divine Armory... And now, we have to leave because of them?" Wu Tie grumbled in annoyance. "I will make them pay."
Old Iron sneered, "Wait until we are truly safe and out of their control. If I calculated correctly, a great battle awaits us... but as long as we are fleeing, it should be fine."
"A great battle? Why?" Wu Tie looked at Old Iron, perplexed.
"You will understand when it starts," Old Iron said seriously, "It's human nature..."
Shaking his head, Old Iron turned to look at Wu Tie in confusion. "It's strange. In the past, I only knew how to fight and kill, never bothered with these mentally-taxing calculations..."
"Weird. How did I end up being assigned to the medical team by that guy, Yang Jian... During my punishment and imprisonment, did they implant something in my mind?"
Wu Tie took a couple of steps forward and knocked on the protruding streamlined back of Old Iron's head with his fist. "You don't even know what's in your own mind?"
Old Iron hummed, remaining silent.
His eyes flickered with a glint of blood, indicating that he couldn't answer that question.
Curious, Wu Tie looked at Old Iron... According to Old Iron's words, it was clear that Old Iron was a powerful weapon created by people in ancient times.
To be able to create such a miraculous weapon, one that was almost identical to a living being, was truly a remarkable feat.
'Wisdom'... The hair all over Wu Tie's body instinctively stood on end, as he remembered the legends he had heard from Greying Sage about 'wisdom.' Could wisdom truly be more powerful than pure strength?
Walking one after another, Wu Tie and Old Iron arrived outside the Mist Blade's stronghold.
A thick and sturdy chain, as wide as a water barrel, was firmly anchored outside the stronghold. A group of Mist Blade assassins commanded a team of stone dwarf slaves, busying themselves with unloading large amounts of supplies from the ships.
Seeing Wu Tie and Old Iron approach, the Mist Blade assassins instinctively gripped their swords.
The stone dwarf slaves did not dare to stop their work, but when they looked at Wu Tie and Old Iron, their eyes were filled with gratitude.
These small and weak fellows understood very well that when the Jiaolong, accompanied by several large Water Pythons, ravaged the camp, the Mist Blade assassins were the first to flee, and it was the 'stranger' Wu Tie who saved them.
The lives of the stone dwarf slaves were worth nothing.
Not only did their masters think so, but even the stone dwarf slaves themselves developed such a perception within their own community.
For Wu Tie to risk his life for a group of lowly stone dwarf slaves...
The stone dwarf slaves' eyes were misty, as they worked busily, occasionally turning their heads to firmly etch Wu Tie's appearance into their hearts.
A figure silently approached them and stood before Wu Tie.
More than thirty meters apart, this Mist Blade higher-up was shrouded in a cloak and had his face covered with a hood. He looked at Wu Tie and Old Iron and said in a deep voice, "Are you two leaving? Shall we provide a ship for your departure?"
Wu Tie and Old Iron exchanged glances and shook their heads.
The Mist Blade higher-up chuckled. "Alright, I wish you both a smooth journey... Also, our Grand Commander said that he hopes you two will never return... This place is now Mist Blade territory."
"Let's go, let's go!" Old Iron ignored the man's words. It crouched down slightly, then leaped up, jumping hundreds of meters away, gracefully landing on the thick chain.
Wu Tie also leaped up and landed lightly on the chain.
He looked around, and both sides of the river were dotted with figures. Countless slaves toiled busily, with Mist Blade warriors forming numerous exploration teams, advancing towards the entire secret realm. This basin of a radius of thousands of miles, and the vast stretches of barren desert around it, were enough for them to explore for a long time.
And far beyond a thousand miles away, the red light emitted by the volcanic fissure was faintly visible.
On the dome above their heads, the 'Virtual Sun,' painstakingly constructed by the Changsheng Sect, emitted a warm red light, filling the air with endless vitality. On the surface of the river below, a faint mist drifted.
"Let's go." Wu Tie waved his hand to the Mist Blade assassins not far away.
The Mist Blade assassins didn't move, while a few Mist Blade higher-ups standing among the crowd coldly watched Wu Tie and Old Iron.
Old Iron chuckled.
Wu Tie took out a thin iron chain from his bag made of beast skins, wrapped it around his waist, and tied the other end around Old Iron's neck. This chain, which was over twenty meters long, connected them together as one.
Old Iron started running along the chain as lightly as a cat.
Wu Tie quickly followed suit.
One end of the chain was fixed on the ground outside the Mist Blade stronghold, while the other end plunged directly into the gigantic waterfall several tens of miles high.
Without wasting any effort, Wu Tie and Old Iron arrived at the gigantic waterfall, one after the other.
Electric currents emitted a faint glow from Old Iron's four limbs as it clung tightly to the metal chain, biting into it, and comfortably barked twice, then dashed into the waterfall.
The terrifying water current crashed into Old Iron's body, and a faint electric light fluctuated on its surface. The water slid past its body without touching it. The impact of this huge waterfall on Old Iron was negligible, and it effortlessly stabilized its body.
Wu Tie also plunged into the waterfall.
Covered in tight-fitting armor, he emitted a faint electric current on the surface of his armor. The water current couldn't touch his body, and the face mask of his armor emitted a faint rumble. Airflows created by the water current were drawn into the mask, allowing him to breathe underwater.
This armor was not only powerful in defense.
The next moment, the bones in Wu Tie's left palm violently shook. A heavy dark light surged on his palm, and the water flow disappeared around him. A space with a diameter of about two meters appeared around him.
"Heh!" Old Iron turned back and happened to witness the scene of Wu Tie's palm dispersing the water flow.
He was amazed, "I finally understand why that guy, your pa, knows how you came here without being torn apart by the underwater current... It turns out that your palm inherited the characteristics of Chiyu Artifact Tooth flawlessly."
Thinking back to when he fell into the mine in Wu Manor and safely appeared in the secret realm, Wu Tie instantly understood that Chiyu Artifact Tooth had protected him throughout the journey.
Unexpectedly, after fusing the fragment of the tooth with his finger, it completely inherited the effect of not being immersed in water.
"What a good treasure!" Wu Tie raised his slightly heavy left hand and injected a strand of elemental vigor into his palm. The space around him instantly expanded to a diameter of ten meters.
"Your... Yeye won't need to exert so much effort." Old Iron retreated a few steps joyfully and brought out a bottle of Foundation Formation Elixir from his mouth, "Let's progress like this... When Yuan Crystal is not enough, just drink the elixir."
These days, Wu Tie had hunted various giant beasts extensively, amassing nearly ten thousand bottles of Foundation Formation Elixir. Old Iron's stomach had a great capacity, and it stored all the elixirs it swallowed.
Accepting the potion bottle, which Old Iron spit out onto his tongue, Wu Tie smiled. The two of them, one in front and one behind, proceeded against the flow using the long chain.
The chain was as thick as a water barrel but extremely long.
Wu Tie wondered where Mist Blade had acquired such a chain as he followed its length and traveled more than a hundred miles in a short time.
In the Yin River, they made turns at a number of intersecting river channels. At these junctions, large iron nails were deeply driven into the rock layers to firmly secure the chain, allowing it to withstand the surging water, unmoving.
Traveling against the current this way, they progressed another two hundred miles, and a faint light could be seen ahead.
Qianyu City.
This was a quite famous city in the Azure Flame Domain, originally owned by the Shi family.
Qianyu City derived its name from its reliance on a hundred-mile-wide lake. The lake was abundant in aquatic resources; aside from various fish and shrimp, even clams spawned colorful pearls.
Qianyu City thrived on this vast lake, with abundant aquatic resources and fertile land along the lake, enabling plenty of farmland and well-grown mushrooms. Because of this, the Shi family in Qianyu City had a strong bloodline and possessed a large number of family warriors, as well as tens of thousands of slaves of various colors.
In the Azure Flame Domain, Qianyu City was considered to be a well-known middle-ranking clan. Even the dining tables of the Lu, Yan, and Shi families, the largest families in the Azure Flame Domain, were never without the aquatic produce from Qianyu City.
But because they had offended Luo Lin, who hails from Mist Blade, Qianyu City was annihilated within a few days. Now, the 'Black Mist Straight Sword Flag' of Mist Blade fluttered atop the main tower of Qianyu City.
Radiant light illuminated the large expanse of land from the hundred-and-fifty-meter-wide Virtual Sun high above the dome. Qianyu City sat in the background, while deep within the heart of the lake behind Qianyu City was a nearly hundred-meter wide entrance to Yin River.
When Shi Lingqing was being chased by Luo Lin and others, with no way out, she recklessly crashed into Yin River using a small underwater boat she usually used to retrieve pearls.
Now, a huge chain slantingly penetrated the enormous entrance of Yin River, running through the lake bed, eventually tethering to the pier behind Qianyu City.
Several seven to eight-meter-tall Stone Giants, wearing armor, sat beside the chain, gnawing on roasted meat.
Dozens of Bull Clan warriors carrying large broadaxes were vigilant, patrolling the surroundings.
Except for them, Qianyu City remained quiet, with no sound or movement. Even the flag on top of the castle tower drooped lifelessly from the pole, devoid of any activity.
Wu Tie and Old Iron walked out of the water, and they shook their bodies vigorously, flinging away the mud and water droplets.
Several conspicuous tunnel openings could be seen on the rocks a dozen or so miles away. These tunnels were clean, without anyone guarding them. They were the passages leading from Qianyu City to other territories.
Wu Tie and Old Iron walked towards the nearest tunnel entrance, gradually moving away from the large lake.
After walking for about seven to eight miles, Old Iron suddenly stopped in his tracks, "If you don't show yourselves now, we'll leave for real, alright?"
In response, the Mist Blade Grand Commander appeared gradually, as if a ghost, gradually materializing from the air about two hundred meters ahead of them.
On the lake bank behind them, a large group of Mist Blade assassins and servant warriors appeared silently, cutting off their return path.
"Only the dead won't leak the existence of that secret realm." The Mist Blade Grand Commander looked at Wu Tie and Old Iron, speaking very gently.
(End of the chapter)