Discovery

The Wu Family stone fortress kept Gray Rock Lizards as mounts.

Domesticated Gray Rock Lizards were gentle, loyal, and powerful fighters.

When Wu Tie was little, he often played with several of the family's Gray Rock Lizards. Those big fellows had been fine companions throughout his childhood.

But the one ahead was a genuine wild Gray Rock Lizard.

Its murky eyes gave off a dim grayish-yellow glow. Its rough skin resembled gray stone, densely covered in countless tiny bumps. Its long tongue flicked in and out as it crawled down from a huge boulder and charged at Wu Tie in quick little steps.

The ground trembled faintly, thudding with thump, thump.

Each of the Gray Rock Lizard's four legs was as thick as Wu Tie's waist. It charged straight at him, and Wu Tie's entire body went stiff, his legs inexplicably turning weak.

A chill shrouded his heart, and Wu Tie forgot everything.

All the knowledge Old Tie had taught him vanished beyond the nine heavens.

The hunting habits of Gray Rock Lizards, their weaknesses, their fatal vulnerable points—he forgot all of it.

His mind was completely blank.

A white Metal Spider suddenly leaped out from behind Wu Tie. Its eyes flickered with a scarlet glow as Old Tie's low, rigid voice came over: "Turn sideways, stab!"

The Gray Rock Lizard was still over five meters away. Its two-meter-long body suddenly rose up, and its front claws came crashing down one after the other at Wu Tie while its entire body smashed down after them.

It pounced so quickly that both its hind legs actually lifted slightly off the ground, exposing its huge belly completely before Wu Tie.

Wu Tie instinctively raised the long spear in his hand. Following the motions he had practiced tens of thousands of times over the past days, he viciously thrust it forward.

With a squelch, the spear pierced through the Gray Rock Lizard's soft belly armor, plunged into its stomach, and burst out through its back.

The Gray Rock Lizard cried out in pain. Its massive body slid down the spear, and its two claws slammed hard into Wu Tie.

Wu Tie let out a miserable howl and lost his grip on the spear.

His left shoulder was smashed inward, his shoulder blade shattered to pieces. A large patch of flesh on his chest ruptured, seven or eight ribs were pulverized, and broken bone plunged deep into his lungs.

Blood surged up through his windpipe. Wu Tie coughed up mouthful after mouthful of blood and crashed heavily to the ground.

With the spear still stuck through its body, the Gray Rock Lizard staggered toward Wu Tie and heavily pinned him beneath it. It opened its mouth and bit for his neck. Clearly, despite not being fully grown by its size, this Gray Rock Lizard already had considerable hunting experience.

Two Metal Spiders behind Wu Tie pounced over, their sharp metal limbs gleaming with a faint chill.

Wu Tie gripped Chi You's Fang in his right hand and viciously stabbed it into the Gray Rock Lizard's fist-sized eye.

With an explosive crack, the Gray Rock Lizard's eyeball burst apart. Chi You's Fang plunged deeply into its head, churning its brains into a mess.

The two-meter-long Gray Rock Lizard rolled violently across the ground. The tenacious vitality unique to crawling creatures kept it rolling for a full quarter of an hour before it finally stiffened completely.

The two Metal Spiders pounced over and, just as before, clamped Wu Tie's long hair from either side and dragged him back to the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp.

Soaking in the translucent milky-white liquid inside the Crystal Ball, Wu Tie endured the itch from his wounds as Old Tie cursed him until he was drenched in verbal filth.

He had lost his nerve at the critical moment.

He had thrown all order to the winds in battle.

When the Gray Rock Lizard had pounced, all he had needed to do was angle his spear three inches upward to pierce straight through its heart. If he had only shifted his body slightly aside, he could have avoided its pounce and killed the big fellow flawlessly without a scratch.

Wu Tie had neither attacked a vital point nor dodged sideways. Instead, he had taken the stance of fighting the Gray Rock Lizard to mutual destruction, meeting force with force.

If Old Tie had not transmitted instructions through the Metal Spider, Wu Tie would not even have made that direct thrust. He would have been severely wounded by the Gray Rock Lizard, and once the uninjured beast pinned him beneath its body, he would likely have been finished.

The light screen lit up.

Old Tie continued to curse loudly. No one knew where he had learned so many bizarre insults that contained not a single swearword, yet still cursed people through twists and turns.

Wu Tie's "battle process" with the Gray Rock Lizard replayed across the light screen.

Old Tie began analyzing Wu Tie's mistakes and explaining what he should have done for the most correct choice.

The image of Wu Tie on the light screen moved as Old Tie spoke. He darted nimbly through mushroom thickets and fern groves, his long spear moving with equal agility. In only a quarter of an hour, the Wu Tie on the screen used six entirely different methods to perfectly kill the Gray Rock Lizard.

Or he could continuously wear down the Gray Rock Lizard's strength in a moving battle.

Or he could erase it directly with a thunderous strike in a frontal battle.

Or he could use the terrain to lure the Gray Rock Lizard into a trap, restrict its movements, and then easily pierce through its skull.

Wu Tie lay quietly soaking in the Crystal Ball, his eyes wide as he carefully watched every movement of that "Wu Tie" on the light screen.

Once again, he had narrowly escaped death.

Death was the finest catalyst, tempering combat experience bit by bit into Wu Tie's bones and fusing it into his soul.

Three days later, after gnawing through nearly half a Gray Rock Lizard's tail, Wu Tie left the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp once more.

Two Metal Spiders openly followed behind him. Old Tie clearly told Wu Tie that these spider-shaped "errand Energy Puppets" had no Energy Cores within them. All their power relied on transmissions from the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp across the air.

Thus, these Metal Spiders could only roam within ten miles of the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp.

In other words, if Wu Tie were severely injured too far from the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp and could not return on his own, he would be dead for certain.

This time, Wu Tie successfully ambushed and killed nine plump Earth Rats. Every Earth Rat weighed around thirty pounds, so this single outing gained him over two hundred pounds of meat.

As the delighted Wu Tie returned to the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp with his prey, an Iron-toothed Poison Rat silently approached from diagonally behind him. It successfully ambushed him, biting his calf and injecting a large amount of venom into his body.

Wu Tie's body went numb. He staggered two steps forward, his vision went black, and he collapsed.

When he woke again, Wu Tie was once more soaking in the Crystal Ball, with Old Tie's familiar furious cursing still ringing in his ears.

After cursing for a full quarter of an hour, the enormous skull formed by the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp suddenly nudged Old Tie. Old Tie's tirade stopped abruptly. The large and small metal skulls stared eye to eye, their gazes flickering for a while, before Old Tie's voice suddenly became extraordinarily strange.

"That's right, I... forgot to get him a set of armor."

"Is that my fault? When did I ever need armor? Didn't you fail to remind me too?"

"This... can't be blamed on me."

"I'm only a medical Ancient Divine Weapon... hahaha, a medical type. Who could possibly have considered such problems?" Old Tie's tone rose and fell dramatically, the blood-red glow in his eyes flashing so rapidly that even Wu Tie found it dazzling.

The Iron-toothed Poison Rat's venom was not very potent, and the wound from its bite was only tiny. After soaking in the Crystal Ball for a while, Wu Tie slid out of it.

Electric arcs flickered across the ceiling as a whirlpool appeared in the metal ceiling like ripples across water.

With a thud, a set of white clothing fell from the whirlpool in the ceiling.

"Put it on... Look at what a state you're in. A grown man can't go running around bare-assed." Four Metal Spiders carried Old Tie over to Wu Tie's side, and Old Tie gave the order as if nothing had happened.

Wu Tie, who had relied only on fern leaves for modesty these past days, hurriedly grabbed the clothes and clumsily pulled them on.

The clothing was soft and cool to the touch, yet pleasantly warm once worn. More importantly, Wu Tie could not tell what material it was made from. It was not any plant fiber he recognized; instead, it was seamless, as though it had been molded in a single piece.

Once on his body, the clothing adjusted its size by itself and clung tightly to Wu Tie, like a second layer of skin.

"Good. Weapons, armor, and basic combat skills." Old Tie said with satisfaction, "Now you are a qualified little rookie warrior. So go on, continue striving outside. Fight bravely and hot-bloodedly, boy!"

"So... just like the spear technique before, you also forgot that you were supposed to give me armor?" Wu Tie glared at Old Tie in annoyance.

This fellow did not seem very reliable.

What did he mean by saying that Wu Tie was only now "a qualified little rookie"? Who had sent the "unqualified" Wu Tie out hunting before this?

Old Tie fell silent, the blood glow in his eyes flickering wildly.

The next instant, he erupted.

"Don't forget, Old Tie's gaze is watching you at every moment! If you let this little trash ambush you successfully again, I'll show you what hellish cultivation truly means!" Old Tie roared, several times louder than usual.

Pale-blue bolts of electricity continuously shot from Old Tie's huge teeth, striking Wu Tie's unprotected head hard.

Every strand of Wu Tie's long hair stood on end, sparks flying between them. He screamed hoarsely and stumbled out of the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp.

This time, Wu Tie successfully hunted a small Rock Python.

The Rock Python was over five meters long and weighed about a hundred pounds. Wu Tie happily carried it back toward the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp. On the way, he killed two attacking Iron-toothed Poison Rats, but while dealing with their bodies, a highly venomous Black Widow spider dropped onto his shoulder.

Wu Tie's tight-fitting armor blocked the Black Widow's attack. A Metal Spider easily killed the Black Widow, but when Wu Tie returned to the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp, Old Tie greeted him with another torrent of curses.

Immediately afterward, Wu Tie lived through several days worse than death.

Because the Black Widow spider had successfully ambushed him, Old Tie punished him by making him run madly around a metal hall until every day he was so exhausted that he could not even move a finger.

He would then be stuffed into the Crystal Ball. After recovering a tiny bit of strength, he had to follow the movements of the figure on the light screen and repeatedly perform the basic spear techniques.

Thrust, sweep...

Sweep, thrust...

A thousand times, ten thousand times... until he was exhausted once more, used up his last shred of strength, and collapsed to the ground.

After seven days of harsh punishment, Wu Tie left the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp again.

He ran headlong into a Gray Rock Lizard roughly four meters long, one that was nearly grown. Clearly, there should have been a sizable Gray Rock Lizard pack near the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp.

Two Metal Spiders bounced rapidly behind Wu Tie, while Old Tie's stern shouts continually came from within them.

Under Old Tie's frantic scolding, Wu Tie became considerably calmer.

He swung his long spear and nimbly circled the massive Gray Rock Lizard, striking at its weak points again and again.

After half an hour of circling combat, the Gray Rock Lizard, having lost too much blood, was pierced through the heart by Wu Tie's spear.

Wu Tie threw back his head and shouted in excitement. The convulsing Gray Rock Lizard suddenly sprang up and sent him flying more than ten meters with a savage slap.

The tight-fitting armor had formidable defenses. The Gray Rock Lizard's claws scraped over it in a shower of sparks, but did not even leave a trace.

Wu Tie, however, was unfortunate enough to smash headfirst into a huge rock. His neck bone snapped, and a large dent appeared in his skull.

Two Metal Spiders dragged Wu Tie back at full speed, and he was once again soaked in the Crystal Ball.

This time, Wu Tie was met with half a month of frenzied training, along with a fixed quarter-hour of electric shocks every day.

Half a month later, Wu Tie, whose aura had become much sharper, left the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp again.

He continuously went out hunting, continuously returned, and was continuously punished by Old Tie for all manner of mistakes.

A month and a half after arriving at the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp, Wu Tie finally accumulated a thousand pounds of prey meat. He impatiently stuffed all the meat into the pharmaceutical apparatus. After a short wait, he obtained his second Foundation Establishment Potion.

He removed his tight-fitting armor and swallowed the Foundation Establishment Potion in one gulp. The light screen lit up, and to the soft, sweet voice of a woman, Wu Tie began practicing the Foundation Establishment Form move by move.

Over the past month and a half, Wu Tie had also practiced the Foundation Establishment Form continuously every day.

But without the aid of the Foundation Establishment Potion, his training results were poor. After more than a month, he had only managed to perform one additional form.

After taking the Foundation Establishment Potion, Wu Tie felt as though his whole body were being baked in a furnace. He easily broke through the bottleneck of the previous days, and the Foundation Establishment Form smoothly advanced to the one hundred forty-ninth form.

Sweat poured down his entire body like rain, and even his breath carried a faint fishy stench.

The effects of the second Foundation Establishment Potion were much stronger than those of the first.

The first Foundation Establishment Potion had only supplemented Wu Tie's innate weakness and restored his physique to a normal state. The second Foundation Establishment Potion, combined with the Foundation Establishment Form, propelled Wu Tie in great strides toward the realm of the "extraordinary."

Several cracks rang out, and Wu Tie's calm face suddenly twisted.

The joints throughout his body wriggled rapidly. In only half an hour, his height abruptly increased by more than an inch.

The essence extracted from a full thousand pounds of flesh nourished his entire body. Combined with the Foundation Establishment Form, Wu Tie continuously breathed in a strange energy from the air, constantly tempering and remaking his body. With abundant nourishment to support him, his physique rapidly grew stronger.

A hazy beam of light poured down from the ceiling and shone over Wu Tie.

A blood-red light flashed in Old Tie's eyes as he looked toward the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp beside him.

A dim glow flickered in the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp's eyes as it communicated with Old Tie.

The light screen lit up. A translucent image of Wu Tie appeared upon it, his entire body filled with a hazy, balanced white radiance. Only his brain held a blinding mass of golden light.

The golden light was at least a hundred times brighter than the white radiance throughout Wu Tie's body.

"Talent... divine ability?" Old Tie opened his mouth, and the two rows of huge metal teeth gleamed with a faint ghostly light. "My luck... is this good?"