After leaving the secret passage, there was a complex cave at the exit. Guided by two Grey Dwarves, Wu Tie and the others had traveled through the cave for several hours, and finally arrived at the exit of the cave.
This cave entrance was located halfway up a rock wall, hundreds of meters above the ground.
Standing at the entrance and looking into the distance, there was a square space that stretched for over 400 li in length and over 200 li in width. On the huge stone cave's dome, three suns were arranged in a row and each had a diameter exceeding 300 meters. The warm red light illuminated the entire cave.
Among the eight largest stone caves in the Cang Yan territory, the Shi Family occupied three, and the Yan Family also occupied three.
This stone cave under Wu Tie's feet ranked second among the three stone caves occupied by the Yan Family. However, according to the information obtained through Stone Meng's severe interrogation, this stone cave held the most important position in the hearts of the high-ranking members of the Yan Family.
What made it important was the raging lava river beneath this stone cave, as well as the enormous elemental aperture nurtured by the river.
Under the red light, Wu Tie stood on tiptoe and gazed at a gigantic stone fortress in the distance.
The Yan Family named this stone fortress 'Warblade City.' It always stored a large number of elite soldiers and was filled with numerous hidden mechanisms. It was an armed fortress with the highest level of preparation.
Outside Warblade City, there was a large circular stone fortress.
The circular castle, made of pitch-black enormous stones, stood dozens of meters high and covered an area of hundreds of acres. From afar, this black stone fortress exuded a chilling aura.
This circular fortress should be the notorious 'Bloody Arena' of the Yan Family, a place that devoured countless lives every year.
Wu Tie raised his head and looked at the three suns on the dome, touched the Wind and Cloud Banner at his waist, and waved his hand backward.
"After the suns go dark, let Lao Bai's clan members scout ahead, and we will sneak past Warblade City." Wu Tie recalled the information given to him by Stone Meng. After leaving this cave, they must cross this stone cave where Warblade City was located in order to reach the entrance of the elemental aperture.
Undoubtedly, this operation carried great risk, but once successful, the benefits would be immense.
Risk and reward went hand in hand... Wu Tie looked at the five stone giants standing beside him, as well as the heavily armed warriors, and felt somewhat confident.
The group returned to the cave and took out their rations to eat silently.
Dozens of Ratman scouts had already been sent out. They slid down the gentle slope of the mountain and quietly made their way towards Warblade City.
The group waited quietly in the cave. Wu Tie and several leaders in the group returned to the cave entrance, hiding behind several stone stalagmites as they gazed at the movements in Warblade City.
After three or four hours, the suns gradually dimmed.
Apparently, the Yan Family did not take care of the suns as well as the Shi Family did. The three suns of the same size actually went dark at different rates. Two of the suns extinguished faster, while the third sun took another two quarters of an hour to completely fade away.
"These clowns from the Yan Family," Stone Hu, a trusted warrior leader under Stone Meng, sneered and shook his head disdainfully.
Wu Tie also laughed.
Along the way, he had learned about the Yan Family's style of operations from Stone Hu and the others.
This was a violent family that valued strength and preferred to solve everything through force. They never paid attention to various forms of business or production.
Looking at the large tracts of land outside Warblade City, it was obvious that the crops there did not grow as well as those outside the Shi Family's Great Stone City. There were even many weeds among the edible mushroom clusters, showing that they had not been well taken care of.
Of course, the Yan Family did not rely on these lands they occupied for their own expenses.
Nearly half of the medium and small families in the Cang Yan territory were vassals of the Yan Family... The Yan Family forcefully coerced these families into becoming their vassals through their formidable power. Every year, the Yan Family took half of the income from these medium and small families.
"They don't care about the quality of things..." Stone Hu snorted disdainfully, "Their usual approach is to go and snatch... including these suns. Luo Family can forge suns, and the suns of the Shi Family are purchased from the Luo Family at a very low discount."
Wu Tie silently laughed.
Among the three most powerful families in the Cang Yan territory, there were indeed many stories. "It seems that the existence of Misty Blade is actually a great boon for your three families," Wu Tie began to analyze based on the knowledge imparted to him by Lao Tie. "If it weren't for this formidable enemy, Misty Blade, I guess your three families would have done their own things long ago."
Wu Tie lightly chuckled. "This is called... um, 'forming alliances in the face of external pressure' or... uh, the internal... right?"
Wu Tie raised his head, carefully pondering the things Lao Tie had transmitted to his mind. There were some things he still couldn't comprehend, so when he spoke, it was somewhat fragmented.
Stone Hu opened his mouth but couldn't say anything for a while.
He scratched his head in a simple and honest manner, then chuckled. Stone Hu had obvious characteristics of a Giant Bloodline. He was robust and broad, with a rough and rugged appearance. He was skilled in wielding a blade and could also identify the quality of ores.
However, when it came to pondering such complicated questions, Stone Hu truly had no idea.
On the other hand, the one-eyed Wolfman glanced at Wu Tie in surprise. He softly said, "Well, you really are a scion from a family. The things you've learned since you were young are different from us... tsk, knowledgeable kid... rare."
The one-eyed Wolfman looked deeply at Wu Tie, then turned his head and looked at the tribe members who were resting in the shadows of the cave, shaking his head gently.
"Knowledge... is a good thing." After remaining silent for a while, the one-eyed Wolfman added with envy.
"When I have time, when there are little wolf cubs, I'll teach them," Wu Tie smiled brightly, extending a hand to the one-eyed Wolfman, while also looking at Lao Bai and the others. "If there are clever and smart cubs in your clan, have them find me. I'll teach them... literacy, reading, counting, arithmetic, and many other things... I know quite a bit."
Wu Tie smiled brilliantly.
Clearly, the one-eyed Wolfman was dumbfounded for quite a while. Then he quickly reached out his hand and firmly grasped Wu Tie's hand, shaking it vigorously a few times.
Lao Bai, Hei Pi, and Tie Ba Ba's eyes all lit up at the same time. They subconsciously moved closer to Wu Tie.
For some reason, the atmosphere among the group became more intimate and harmonious.
An inexplicable warmth lingered in the air.
In this era... knowledge was extremely precious, and any book could become a family heirloom.
Willingness to share knowledge with a group of "savages" made Wu Tie, in the eyes of Lao Bai and the others, simply radiant.
Suddenly, from a distance came heavy footsteps and cries of pain, accompanied by bloodthirsty laughter.
The group's hearts skipped a beat as they quickly peered into the distance.
Over a dozen burly figures were clad in crude and tattered leather armor, wielding various types of damaged swords and weapons, running towards them in disarray.
Dozens of Gray Rock Lizards followed them, running at a leisurely pace. Each lizard had a burly figure sitting on it, whether it was their skin, hair, nails, or eyeballs, at least one part of their body glowed with a red light, making them look like Yan Family warriors about to breathe fire.
These Yan Family warriors were laughing lowly. Holding specially-made riding spears, they occasionally urged their mounts to catch up to a fleeing man and violently stab them. Whenever the spear was prodded, the man would cry out in pain, while non-lethal parts of his body would be pierced and form a bloody hole.
These men had at least seven or eight bloody holes causing them to bleed profusely all over their bodies. Several of them had extremely pale faces, obviously having lost too much blood.
They stumbled as they ran, and their steps were so heavy that they could fall at any moment.
However, they continued to run towards this direction. Wu Tie glanced at the direction they were running to and saw a small passageway about a thousand five to six hundred meters away from the mountain cliff.
The target of these men was that passageway, but they didn't know where the passageway led to.
"So pitiful." Stone Hu muttered next to Wu Tie, "They should be gladiator slaves from the Bloody Arena... Yan Family slaves who were trained by warriors and specifically used to fight and increase the combat experience of young Yan Family members."
"Gladiator slaves?" Wu Tie looked at Stone Hu.
"They are like human livestock... or rather, they are even worse than livestock." Stone Hu spat on the ground and said coldly, "The male among them is slightly better. If it were a female..."
"The Yan Family believes that only offspring born from powerful warriors will become stronger," Stone Hu continued. "So, in the Bloody Arena, those powerful warriors are forcibly made to continuously... mate with those powerful female warriors... Those powerful female warriors not only need to constantly fight, but also constantly get pregnant and give birth..."
Stone Hu muttered, "We also have many slaves in the Shi Family, but at least, our slaves can eat and dress warmly... at least, our slaves form families according to their own preferences..."
Shaking his head, Stone Hu sighed, "But those Yan Family gladiator slaves... they are truly nothing more than human livestock... even worse."
Listening to this, Wu Tie's scalp felt numb.
The Bloody Arena of the Yan Family had a notorious reputation, and the Yan Family had become infamous because of the Bloody Arena.
Originally, Wu Tie thought that the Bloody Arena was just a bloody slaughterhouse, a place for the Yan Family to cultivate formidable warriors. But after listening to Stone Hu's words, he learned of the truly terrifying and dark side inside the Bloody Arena.
Suddenly, a cry of despair sounded.
A big man who had lost too much blood finally couldn't run anymore. He fell to the ground and crawled forward with great difficulty, scratching the ground with his hands.
A Gray Rock Lizard came charging over, and the warrior on top of it fiercely stabbed his spear, then lifted it.
This big man screamed in agony as he was lifted into the air. With a shake of the spear, he was thrown nearly a hundred meters away and crashed into a large rock, where his brain splattered.
"Enough playing... Take the rest back... Feed them to the battle beasts in front of those scumbags." A seemingly leading Yan Family warrior raised his riding spear and shook it.
The horde of Gray Rock Lizards suddenly accelerated, and the Yan Family warriors let out shrill whistles as they threw out ropes made of tendons, which coiled around the necks of the fleeing men.
The Gray Rock Lizards swiftly spun around on the spot, their sharp claws raising clouds of dust. With a low roar, they dashed towards the direction of Warblade City.
The ropes tightened, and the fleeing men clutched their necks tightly, howling in pain, as they were forcibly dragged to the ground. They rolled on the sandy ground, leaving behind deep bloody marks.
The group led by Wu Tie, on top of a mountain cliff hundreds of meters high, stared blankly at the scene that unfolded several hundred li away.
They didn't have time to rescue them.
Moreover, even if they did, if the troops inside Warblade City swarmed out, their small group might perish here.
"The Yan Family." Wu Tie once again bore witness to the bloodshed and cruelty of this cruel world.
Compared to the Flame Gold Ants that burned down the Great Stone City along with its crops, this scene, which exposed blood and violence more nakedly, had a far greater impact on him.
Certain "people" could commit such cruel acts against their own kind.
Wu Tie clearly heard the words of that Yan Family warrior leader, 'Enough playing'...
These fleeing men were only being "played with" by him, they were just tools for his amusement.
Over two hours had passed since the suns were extinguished, when several shadows flitted up from below the hillside. The Ratman scouts sent by Lao Bai had returned.
They whispered the information they had gathered to Wu Tie.
Wu Tie and the others felt a slight sinking feeling in their hearts.
The Ratman scouts had actually seen the Church of Longevity's banner at the gate of Warblade City.
A large black flag hung on both sides of the gate of Warblade City, with blood-drenched characters in the center that spelled out "Longevity".
As scouts, these Ratman warriors recognized a few characters, especially the characters "Longevity". They firmly engraved it in their hearts and dare not forget.
"The people of the Church of Longevity are stationed inside Warblade City?" Wu Tie muttered to himself, "I wonder who the people stationed here are."
"Regardless, we will do our own thing." Wu Tie took out the Wind and Cloud Banner. Faint streams of smoke and clouds surged out of the banner, quickly enveloping an area several hundred meters in radius.
"Everyone gather together and walk carefully. Don't make too much noise," Wu Tie reminded in a low voice. "With the suns extinguished, we can safely move along the side of the mountain wall."
Wu Tie led the large group of people, slowly walking out of the cave and carefully made their way down the slope to the plain below.
In the most majestic stone fortress in the center of Warblade City, in a spacious hall, Jia Zhengfeng sat on a large chair with a gloomy expression. He looked down from a high place at the group of handsome young men and beautiful women kneeling down in front of him.
"So you've only arrived now after such a long time... let me guess, among you, is there someone working with Po Xi's faction?" Jia Zhengfeng lightly tapped the armrest of the chair and sneered coldly.
The group of young men and women bowed their heads even more humbly, not daring to make a sound.
(The end of this chapter)