The mist rose and rolled in the air, and droplets fell from the clouds, landing on the charred fields.
Groups of dwarven rock gnomes, carrying crude tools, carefully turned over the dried and hardened soil, breaking it apart bit by bit.
They dug deep into the thick soil, burying the scorched top layer deep into the fields, then shaping neat ridges in the newly cultivated land.
The bodies of the Flame Gold Ants, their shells removed and their flesh crushed into a fine mixture with various ashes, were buried deep in the fields.
They had destroyed half of the crops outside the Stone Fortress. Their flesh would serve as fertilizer, nourishing the wounded fields.
Dozens of Elementalist Mages from the Stone Fortress walked slowly through the fields as they manipulated the clouds and conjured droplets of water. Together with the rock gnomes, they meticulously repaired the burnt farmlands.
"This is terrible!" A grey dwarf wearing leather armor squatted by the earth, holding an axe in his hand. He knocked his head with a piece of hardened clay, tears streaming down his face.
This was a calamity caused by the Flame Gold ants of the Yan Clan.
In this cruel world, in this accursed era, every small piece of land was incredibly valuable.
A small plot of land measuring about 10 meters square could support a rock gnome or two or feed a couple of rat people. A field measuring 40 to 50 meters square could sustain a tremendously large and powerful elite warrior of the Ox Tribe.
In the case of the former Wu family stone fortress, the small plots of land there could only support a limited number of rock gnomes through mushroom cultivation. Those rock gnomes who were born in excess of the quota would go hungry and eventually die of starvation.
That was why the young Wu Tie used to secretly share his food with those little fellows, allowing them to survive.
Even the just-grown-up Wu Tie understood the value of farmland and the preciousness of food.
Each piece of land was not just a field, but a life that struggled to survive based on the yield from the land.
To strike at the Stone Fortress, the Yan Clan had actually deployed Flame Gold Ants, directly burning down half of the farmlands outside the Stone Fortress.
Insane. This was truly insane.
Wu Tie stood far away, watching the grey dwarf shedding tears in secret.
He remembered this dwarf with a full beard. On the day of the Yan Clan's attack, when the Flame Gold Ants rushed up the city walls, this burly dwarf held two large axes and fearlessly stood at the front line.
Although he was completely burnt and mangled, he held his ground until Wu Tie used the Ice Wind Tornado to repel the Flame Gold Ant swarm. No Flame Gold Ant could breach his defense on the small section of the city wall he guarded.
He was a fearless stalwart.
And now he squatted alone by the field, holding a piece of hardened clay in his hand, silently shedding tears.
And he was not alone...
Many warriors of the Stone Fortress crouched or stood in the fields, quietly crying. They avoided their comrades' gaze, not wanting them to see their tearful countenances.
Faint cries could be heard in the distance—cries from the rock gnomes.
The large group of gnomes had gathered near the burned-down huts.
These huts were built to facilitate the farming in the fields, and many rock gnomes lived in them on ordinary days.
When the Flame Gold Ant swarm attacked, thousands of rock gnomes were unable to escape. As the fire raged, they were burnt to charcoal.
Rock gnomes were originally small in stature. Once burnt, some turned to ashes, while others were fortunate enough to survive as fist-sized lumps of charcoal.
The rock gnomes who were cultivating the fields wept softly as they dug deep pits in the fields, burying all remnants from the burned down huts.
These slave gnomes of the Stone Fortress married among themselves, forming a massive gnome tribe. Many of the gnomes who died were their relatives, friends, and brothers...
Even slaves had the right to be saddened and shed tears...
In this aspect, whether they were elite warriors of the Stone Fortress or lowly slaves, their rights were equal.
Wu Tie, wearing a set of python-skin armor that looked like scales, with the Wind and Cloud Banner hanging from his waist and a large cloak draped over him, stood silently by the edge of the farmland, observing these grieving warriors and slaves.
Lao Bai led six hundred carefully selected ratmen warriors. Blackskin and Cyclops led a hundred Wolf Tribe warriors and a hundred Lizardman archers respectively. Tie Ba Ba led fifty strong Ox Tribe men, and the two trusted leaders of Shi Meng each led two hundred elite Stone Fortress warriors.
Other than these, there were five stone golems standing in the distance, each over ten meters tall. They were clad in heavy metal armor and wielded specially crafted massive weapons. They stood there like iron towers. Ten iron dwarves and fifty grey dwarves stood beside them.
These square-shaped dwarves were also clad in heavy armor and carried various weapons on them.
The large group of men and beasts stood silently at a mine passageway that led to a distant mine.
Lao Bai murmured to himself, "Such a calamity... So much food... So much food... How many livestock can be raised? How much meat can be prepared..."
The expressions on the faces of the giants and dwarves were equally grim.
"So much food... so much drink..." one of the giants muttered, "The Yan Clan... hmph."
Wu Tie turned around and strode towards the distant mine.
Without experiencing it, one could never imagine what the destruction of so much farmland and food meant in this era.
Perhaps many elderly people would choose to end their own lives.
Or perhaps many children would be abandoned by their parents.
In any case, these were lives that would be snuffed out due to the lack of food.
The air was filled with a heavy melancholy, and what was the root of all this? It was truly ridiculous... all because several elders from the Stone Clan and Yan Clan had sided with the Church of Longevity.
Wu Tie could not judge whether Shi Fei and Shi Meng's actions were right or wrong, but he believed that those elders who collaborated with the Church of Longevity were wrong.
When you make a mistake, you must face punishment.
It was as simple as that.
Led by Wu Tie and pieced together by Shi Meng, this team that would launch a surprise attack on the Yan Clan's ancestral cave walked along the mine passageway, eventually arriving at the most remote mining area of the Stone Fortress.
This area produced ordinary iron ore, which had little value. Moreover, a small vein had been almost completely depleted, so there were usually few people here.
Only the high-level members of the Stone Clan knew that deep within this mining area, there was a secret passage that led to the Yan Clan's territory.
Near the Stone Fortress, there were actually three similar passages.
As the largest supplier of minerals in the Cang Yan Domain, the Stone Clan's mining teams loved to dig indiscriminately. After many years of uncontrolled excavation, they had indeed dug up quite a number of similar passages that led to various places.
Of the three passages, one had already been used by the Yan Clan to attack the Stone Fortress. Apparently, the secrets of this passage had been leaked to the Yan Clan by some high-level members of the Stone Clan.
However, Shi Meng did not believe that those Stone Clan elders would be foolish enough to divulge all the secrets to the Yan Clan.
That was why Wu Tie and the others entered this remote mining pit. They had been traversing the intricate mining tunnels, which were like spider webs, for hours, finally reaching the deepest part of the tunnel.
A stone golem strode to a nearby rock wall, pressing its hands against it. Its body radiated a faint yellow light as it solemnly recited a strange incantation.
Yellow light surged from the rock wall, and in the next instant, a stone slab over ten meters in diameter silently slid aside, revealing a massive opening. A bone-chilling wind rushed out from the opening, extinguishing more than half of the torches carried by the group.
Lao Bai let out a sharp cry.
A group of ratmen warriors scurried about in disarray, their timid nature fully exposed.
Wu Tie grunted heavily, repeatedly rubbing his hands together. White fireballs, each the size of a water barrel, soared into the air, illuminating an area of hundreds of meters around him.
"It's just the wind... just the wind..." Wu Tie shouted loudly at the shaggy Lao Bai.
"Haha, just the wind... of course, I know it's just a gust of wind. No big deal..." Lao Bai laughed dryly. He hurriedly put away the crossbow, short sword, blowgun in his mouth, and the poison-coated steel dart wrapped around his tail.
Speechless, Wu Tie looked at Lao Bai.
Blackskin, Cyclops, Tie Ba Ba, and the rest burst into laughter. Lao Bai grinned, took out a whip from somewhere, and pretended to lash several sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons beside him.
Finally, the ratman warriors, who had been scuttling about, lined up properly. Wu Tie and several stone golems led the way, followed closely by the elite warriors. The ratman warriors scurried around in small groups, delivering messages from the front to the back and vice versa. The large group entered the cave entrance.
At the end of the queue, a stone golem stomped heavily after everyone entered the secret passage. The massive stone, which had a diameter of over ten meters and was nearly a hundred meters thick, silently slid back into place, sealing the entrance of the secret tunnel.
"What a spacious passageway." Walking along the secret passage, Wu Tie and the others marveled at their surroundings. They were filled with admiration at the narrowest part of the passageway, which reached a height of 30 to 50 meters and was dozens of meters wide. It was spacious and deep, and anyone could effortlessly walk in it.
Not only was there ease in the movement of Wu Tie and his group, but even the four-wheeled carts pulled by the grey rock lizards moved steadily.
Clearly, the Stone Clan had done an excellent job in managing this secret passage. They had specifically widened and flattened the passage; otherwise, how could it have such effects?
"Did you accidentally discover this secret passage... Are you prepared to go to war with the Yan Clan at any time? Otherwise, why would you have worked so hard to maintain and upgrade this secret passage? What are you seeking exactly?" Wu Tie curiously asked the stone giant 'Ambling Pace,' who walked beside him with small and slow steps.
Several stone giants blinked their eyes and thought very seriously for a while. Then one of the stone giants solemnly said, "This is a kind of... piety..."
"These caves and passageways are the veins and arteries of the world..."
"Clearing them can bring good luck to us giants and dwarves..."
The stone giant looked at Wu Tie with great seriousness. "This is the natural duty of us giants and dwarves... making the whole world interconnected, making the world's veins and arteries smooth and unobstructed. This is our duty..."
"Giants and dwarves who fulfill their duties can merge their spirits with the spirits of the stone after death..."
Wu Tie looked at them in astonishment.
Was this religious belief?
"Religious belief," Wu Tie had a hard time finding this term in Old Iron's knowledge.
For giants and dwarves, this was their belief. They were clearing the veins and arteries of the world...
Well, this was their understanding.
But Wu Tie always felt that those fellows from the Stone Clan were definitely not clearing these passages for this purpose.
He always felt that the existence of these secret passages had a suspicious meaning.
Elders like Shi Hui were not good people, so their intention behind creating these secret passages... was praiseworthy.
He lightly tapped the calf of the giant beside him and asked, "This secret passage..."
The stone giant raised two fingers, comparing the length, "Two thousand three hundred miles... It will take about half a month to reach... if these little mice can hold on."
The stone giant looked down at the scurrying ratman warriors, disdainfully shaking his head.
Lao Bai jumped up as if his tail had been stepped on. He sprang over from the shadow beside him and stood beside Wu Tie, waving his fist and shouting, "You big guys shouldn't think you're the only powerful ones... Not one of Lao Bai's descendants is a weakling!"
The stone giants grinned, laughing sincerely.
"Strength? You can't compare to us," said the stone giants, flexing their arms. Their swollen muscles stretched the sturdy steel bracers with a creaking sound, proudly showcasing their developed muscles and fearsome strength.
Lao Bai's face drooped, and he shook his head powerlessly.
Compare strength with giants?
Ha, he wasn't foolish enough to do that.
The Stone Clan managed this secret passage very well. Within the passageway, they specially planted many phosphorescent plants.
Clusters of luminous mushrooms, twisting vines, and luminous ferns grew in clusters, and in many places, large pieces of fluorescent minerals were embedded.
So the passageway was quite bright, and there was no need for torches or Wu Tie's fireballs. Everyone could easily and freely move in the secret passageway.
The Stone Clan even released many small creatures inside.
Lizards, rats, nonvenomous snakes, nonvenomous spiders, and bats, among others.
Under natural regulation, a small, self-sufficient ecological circle had formed in this secret passage, which was over two thousand miles long.
The ratmen hunted and ate these small creatures, greatly reducing the need for supplies.
What surprised Wu Tie even more was that every two to three hundred miles along this secret passage, the Stone Clan had set up small outposts to monitor any movement in the passage.
Along the way, Wu Tie and the others also took on the task of replenishing fresh food supplies for these outposts...
In this way, half a month later, they reached the end of the secret passage.
(End of this chapter)