Training room.
Three thick steel door bolts securely locked the heavy stone door, and the high temperature emitted by the lava grass filled the room with scorching heat.
Wu Tie just consumed a stalk of lava grass. His naked body emanated hot steam, and he practiced the Foundation Establishment Form in a methodical manner.
Sweat constantly dripped from his body, falling onto the floor and quickly evaporating into vapor due to the scorching heat emitted by the lava grass.
A white egg from the Nether Demon Mine was tightly attached to Wu Tie's flesh, rolling around on his body mischievously no matter how he moved.
Wherever the white egg passed by, the heat emitted by Wu Tie's body dissipated, leaving a cool sensation in the area of a foot in diameter.
Not long ago, Lao Bai, in a secretive manner, came to find Wu Tie and eagerly told him about the recent events.
In fact, it was very simple.
The few trusted subordinates of Shi Meng opened the arsenal and armed all the soldiers from the External Recruitment Division. Led by them, thousands of External Recruitment Division soldiers easily swept through the entire Da Shi City.
Anyone associated with Shi Gui, those of sufficient status and position, were all hung on the city gate.
The ordinary soldiers of Shi Gui's faction were demoted to slaves, directly thrown into the most desolate and arduous mine pits to work as laborers.
The entire Da Shi City had fallen completely into Shi Meng's hands, and all the official positions and posts were now occupied by his people.
Lao Bai proudly boasted to Wu Tie about how his men had displayed bravery in combat and played a significant role in the purge.
What he said was true.
Over two thousand agile and short-statured rat people, capable of appearing from every corner, released an onslaught of more than two thousand arrows from all directions. This was a nightmare for anyone.
Especially in the city, the rat people warriors wielding bows and crossbows demonstrated exceptional fighting prowess.
To Lao Bai, this undoubtedly opened up new possibilities before him.
What made Lao Bai even happier was that because of their outstanding performance, his people were also appointed to the Da Shi City's garrison force. They could now legitimately receive wages as soldiers in Da Shi City.
With an excited mood, Lao Bai chatted with Wu Tie for a long time, and eventually they reached an understanding.
With three stalks of lava grass as compensation, Wu Tie could obtain various information from Lao Bai. If there were any important events that Lao Bai could pre-warn him about, then he would receive additional rewards.
In the following days, Wu Tie immersed himself in cultivation.
Every day, he consumed a leaf of lava grass and practiced the Foundation Establishment Form step by step without rushing or taking reckless leaps. Wu Tie steadily and methodically cultivated.
His body brimmed with elemental qi, filling every cell and permeating every corner of his body, as if his whole body was being cleansed and nurtured repeatedly by elemental qi.
The righteous energy and elemental qi cooperated, hammering and refining his entire body.
Purging impurities, strengthening his physique.
With the powerful energy supplied by the lava grass, Wu Tie's consumption of blood essence from the Nether Demon Mine was completely replenished in just three days. His body became robust and upright once again, continuously generating a large amount of vital blood qi.
The golden orb on his forehead was reduced by half in the Nether Demon Mine.
After days of cultivation, the golden orb recovered somewhat. With the continuous nourishment of the blood qi generated in his body, the golden orb became even stronger, constantly fluctuating with every move and gesture.
His soul power was rapidly growing, and golden light rain continuously poured down from the golden orb, sweeping across every inch of Wu Tie's body and penetrating every corner.
Wu Tie was even more aware that his brow and the central position of his cranial vault exuded heat on a daily basis. Various peculiar sensations, such as tingling, numbness, itching, and swelling, constantly assaulted his brow and cranial vault.
Various anomalies occurred throughout his body.
Especially when he reached a deep level of cultivation and his entire consciousness immersed inside his body, Wu Tie could hear a raging roar of blood qi throughout his body. Wave after wave, continuously rushing and rolling from head to toe.
This feeling was as if his entire body was "awakening."
Massive changes were occurring within his body.
Having cultivated in this manner for half a month, Wu Tie had barely left the training room.
In just half a month, Wu Tie's skin had become smooth and delicate like white jade, with a faint layer of precious radiance flickering beneath his skin.
His hair had also grown inexplicably long, reaching several feet in length. His thick black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, reaching all the way to his heels.
Hair grows from excess blood.
In just half a month, his hair grew over one meter long. It was evident how abundant and robust his blood and qi were.
Now, Wu Tie sat in the center of the training room, which stretched dozens of meters. With a casual breath, a fierce wind engulfed the entire room, and turbulent winds even formed small tornadoes several meters high that whirled and churned around him, creating an incredibly intimidating atmosphere.
One thousand and eighty moves...
One thousand one hundred and twenty moves…
One thousand four hundred and forty moves...
With an abundant supply of lava grass, Wu Tie's cultivation speed was exceptionally fast.
Especially the golden light cluster in his brow had expanded to the size of a fist after a month, becoming more powerful than ever before when he was at the peak in the Nether Demon Mine.
Breaking through from the Foundation Establishment stage to the Soul Refinement stage, the greatest challenge was fortifying the soul and condensing spiritual power.
However, Wu Tie had silently overcome this challenge when activating his bloodline talent.
That was why his cultivation speed was progressing so rapidly, to the point where he was even afraid to continue cultivating.
On this day, feeling the golden light cluster in his brow expand once again, the righteous energy repeatedly hammered it, continuously reinforcing and compacting it. Wu Tie slowly concluded his moves.
In a month and a half, his Foundation Establishment Form had unexpectedly broken through to one thousand one hundred and eighty moves.
He felt a bit overwhelmed.
Lao Tie had told him that cultivation of the Foundation Establishment Form is slow, unless there is a massive amount of cultivation resources.
Now Wu Tie had sufficient lava grass to assist his cultivation, but the progress was too fast.
"Could something be wrong?"
Wu Tie reviewed the Foundation Establishment Form that Lao Tie had taught him over and over again in his mind.
But there was nothing wrong, right? He had practiced it meticulously according to the most orthodox form. In just a short month and a half, he had broken through from one thousand and eighty moves to one thousand and eighty moves.
Only twenty more moves remained until his Foundation Establishment was complete.
Wu Tie stood up, wiped off the sweat on his body, and tidied himself. He secured the white egg, which had been rolling around on his body, with a chest protector. He then confidently walked out of the training room.
In the highest stone fortress in the center of Da Shi City, after a little over a month, Wu Tie once again saw Shi Meng.
Wearing heavy armor and holding a huge double-bladed axe in his left hand, with a large wine cup in his right hand, Shi Meng sat on the stone throne in the center of the hall, occasionally emitting strange laughter.
In Da Shi City, the heads of various departments gathered together, their faces gloomy as they coldly gazed at several burly men standing in the hall.
Wu Tie entered the hall and immediately "saw" Lao Bai hiding at the back of the crowd.
Together with Wu Tie, Black Skin, One-Eye, Iron Eighty-Eight, and a few others from the Shi family who were recruited with Wu Tie were standing beside Lao Bai. They huddled together and whispered something to each other.
Since being recruited together, they had obviously come to an understanding and naturally formed an alliance.
Wu Tie naturally joined them and greeted them warmly.
Wu Tie noticed that Black Skin's expression was quite unpleasant, his face drooping like a wolf's face, making it look as if he had been forced to swallow three pounds of bitter gall.
"What's going on?" Wu Tie pointed to the men standing in the hall who were giving sinister looks to each other and the officials of Da Shi City.
"Trouble has come knocking at our door," Lao Bai was always well-informed. Grinning widely, he showed his two big front teeth and smiled happily, "But it doesn't have much to do with us... it's... it's... trouble for Master Shi Meng."
Lao Bai quickly glanced at Black Skin and explained in a low voice who these men were. They were representatives of the Yan family, one of the three major families in the Ascendant Flame Domain. Their visit to Da Shi City was due to the fact that over a month ago, when Shi Meng had conducted the purge of Shi Gui's faction, he killed the great-grandson of Shi Gui.
Shi Yu, the one who had interrupted them in the arsenal while they were arming themselves.
Shi Meng, the leader of the Iron Dwarves, publicly killed Shi Yu with an axe.
This incident wasn't anything significant within the Shi family, and it did not warrant the Yan family's intervention.
The problem arose because Shi Yu's newlywed wife was in Da Shi City, and she came from the Yan family.
Even more troublesome, during that purge, in order to gain an absolute advantage, Shi Meng employed the outsiders he had recruited from Shi Fei. Many of these people had a mixed background, having come from bandit groups... for example, Black Skin and his wolf tribe subordinates were a group of well-known bandits.
Therefore, they couldn't escape robbing the city during this time.
In the end, it was Black Skin who personally hung Shi Yu's newlywed wife on the city gate.
Within a month and a half, the news was spread to the Yan family's territory, and it was enough time for the Yan family's leaders to respond.
After listening to Lao Bai's words, Wu Tie looked at Black Skin.
Black Skin's complexion became increasingly unpleasant, and he coldly stated, "See what I did? I merely... had some fun... Those times and opportunities, when such a beautiful young lady presented herself, why not take advantage? We're all going to die anyway... Can purity be used as food?"
Wu Tie fell silent.
He couldn't make a judgement on this matter.
In this damned era, everyone was doing such things.
Women, as weak individuals, could only become spoils of war for the victors unless they had sufficient strength.
That was how things were done by everyone.
There was no such thing as ethics or morality in this era.
Wu Tie even suspected whether the moral values and ethical principles that Hei Fu had described to him and the beautiful conduct and ethics that Lao Tie had mentioned were merely legends, or perhaps hallucinations.
So, what Black Skin said was not wrong.
From his perspective, who could say that he was wrong?
If someone had to be blamed, it would be Shi Meng, sitting drunk on that huge chair.
Bang!
Shi Meng slammed the wine cup in his hand onto the ground, shattering it and covering the floor. He pointed at the Yan family's representatives and menacingly stated, "Listen up, everyone. This is what happened."
He repeated what Lao Bai had just told Wu Tie.
Clap!
Shi Meng clapped his hands and smiled at Wu Tie and the others, "Did you hear that? Did you hear that? They want to kill all of you..."
(End of the chapter)