Intervention

The Blood-Scarred Fang-Breaking Snake, skinned and gutted, roasted over the bonfire until fat dripped from it.

Wu Tie sat atop a small mound, roasting snake meat while gazing at another little hill several miles away.

Several of Shi Lingqing's subordinates had chopped down a great many fern branches and erected a crooked, lopsided wooden shelter on the hill, one that looked highly unreliable.

They had temporarily hunted down a large Gray Rock Lizard, skinned it, smoked and dried the hide, then spread it over a thick heap of branches.

Shi Lingqing lay sprawled on the Gray Rock Lizard hide, her body twitching now and then, her little face deathly pale. She looked pitiably frail and delicate.

She had already taken an antidote, and the broken venom fangs left inside her body had been extracted.

Perhaps out of embarrassment, Shi Lingqing had not allowed her eight Human Race subordinates to do it. Instead, she had chosen a huge, brawny Ox Tribe guard with clumsy hands to pull out the broken fangs for her.

As Wu Tie roasted the snake meat, he clearly heard screams coming from the wooden shelter.

The cries were shrill and piercing, clear enough to be heard from several miles away.

Ox Tribe people were simple, loyal, plain, and honest. Unfortunately, they were also coarse and careless, with no sense of proper force. Fine, delicate work was beyond them.

Wu Tie imagined a burly Ox Tribe warrior gripping the broken fang and using all his strength to wrench it out, barbs and all... He could not help shuddering.

"Pretty pitiful." Wu Tie sighed and tore off a strip of snake meat, chewing it slowly.

Two Metal Spiders crouched amid the mushrooms behind him. Hearing his words, Old Tie's stiff voice drifted over. "Pitiful? Pah! Cut the nonsense. If you really fancy her, then if you're a man, rush over there."

The stiff voice suddenly grew rather excited. "Now that her family has been destroyed and everyone is dead, when she is at her weakest, most helpless, and has no one to rely on—this is precisely when a real man should take advantage of the opening! Launch the fiercest offensive and completely possess everything she has, from her body to her soul..."

Wu Tie understood only half of it, but based on the deep understanding he had gained of Old Tie these past few days, he knew it definitely was not anything good.

He coughed heavily several times, took the section of snake from the fire, and began gnawing it in huge bites.

Blood-red light flickered in the Metal Spider's scarlet eye organs. Old Tie gave a "Heh heh" laugh. "No guts? Then just watch from afar."

In the distance, several miles away, bonfires rose, wisps of blue smoke curling lazily into the air.

Wu Tie rose to his feet and saw Luolin and his two companions lighting bonfires several miles away as well. They had hunted a large white fish about two meters long, chopped it into chunks, skewered the pieces on branches, and were smoking them over the flames.

As they worked, they vigilantly looked around in all directions, like three marmots standing watch.

After a while, Shi Lingqing's subordinates had roasted that unfortunate Gray Rock Lizard. The man in a black robe, who could make his wooden staff spray great sheets of lightning, respectfully carried a piece of roasted meat into the wooden shelter.

Four Ox Tribe warriors and several Human Race guards each took roasted meat and sat by the bonfire, wolfing it down.

They remained silent, eating while repeatedly raising their heads to look toward Luolin and his companions.

About half a quarter-hour later, the black-robed man emerged from the shelter. He took a beast bone and carelessly gnawed at it twice, wiped his hands clean, then carried a wooden staff as he strode toward Wu Tie.

Visible rings of green wind swirled around the man's feet. He moved incredibly quickly; even his casual walk matched Wu Jin and Wu Yin running at full speed.

Wu Tie stood up and gripped his long spear, watching him warily.

The man stopped below the small mound. He looked up at Wu Tie standing above him, then bowed deeply and respectfully.

"Honored Lord, we did not intend to trespass into your territory. We were merely being pursued by cruel enemies... We had no intention of offending you."

"Please forgive us. Due to certain sudden circumstances, my young lady is unable to apologize to you in person."

Wu Tie stared at the man without saying a word.

The man straightened and glanced at Wu Tie. In a deep voice, he said, "I am Shi Dian, deputy commander of the Thousand Fish City guards. We know full well that we should not have used force within your territory..."

Wu Tie nodded. Shi Dian's words pleased him. Being respected and feared like this felt good.

"But our enemies have entered this place as well." Shi Dian looked at Wu Tie gravely. "What if they use violence against us?"

Wu Tie looked toward the wooden shelter. He vaguely saw Shi Lingqing lying upon the Gray Rock Lizard hide. He thought seriously for a while, then slammed his spear hard against the ground. "If Luolin and the others dare hurt you, then I will teach them a lesson and protect you."

Shi Dian had gotten the answer he wanted. He bowed deeply to Wu Tie, then took a small leather pouch from his sleeve and placed it at his feet.

"Though they are merely worldly possessions, they represent our insignificant gratitude. Please accept them. This is the tribute of people in distress to their lord."

Shi Dian backed away several steps, then swiftly returned on the wind rings beneath his feet.

Because his chest had earlier been pierced by an arrow, even though medicine had been applied and he had taken potions, Shi Dian could move without issue. Yet after speaking so much, he could not avoid coughing violently as he walked.

Wu Tie watched Shi Dian's departing back, waved his left hand, and the tiny leather pouch flew up, landing in his hand with a series of clinks.

Undoing the thin leather cord around the pouch, Wu Tie poured out several thumb-sized Gold Coins, exquisitely minted.

Fine serrations lined the edges of the Gold Coins. One side bore the smooth yet vigorous character for "Shi," while the other was carved with two large fish chasing and playing with each other.

The Gold Coins had been crafted with superb skill. They faintly glowed red, clearly of high purity, and when weighed in his palm, they felt satisfyingly heavy.

"Good stuff."

The Wu Family had gold mines too, and their own mine slaves refined gold ingots.

But the gold ingots refined by the Wu Family were greenish-yellow and impure. Because of their molds and workmanship, the ingots were also pitted and uneven, ugly to behold.

There were fully twenty Gold Coins in the pouch. They were finely minted, beautifully polished, and exceptionally pure. Clearly, the Shi Family represented by the "Thousand Fish City" Shi Dian spoke of was a Lineage far more powerful, wealthy, and prosperous than the Wu Family.

Wu Tie put the Gold Coins back into the leather pouch and casually tossed it into the mushroom patch.

One Metal Spider nimbly stretched out a foreleg and hooked the leather pouch onto itself. Old Tie's voice came softly. "Gold Coins? Shiny, tempting Gold Coins... But what use are Gold Coins in this rotten place?"

Old Tie snorted. "Kid, trust your grandpa here. This bunch has no sincerity at all... Rather than giving you Gold Coins, they might as well give you that Primal Energy Staff in Shi Dian's hand. Honestly."

Wu Tie said nothing, because Luolin and his two companions had already eaten their fill. After resting briefly, they moved in a one-front, two-rear formation, dozens of meters apart, quickly approaching Shi Lingqing's location with vigorous strides.

Before Wu Tie had decided whether to intervene, Luolin had already left an afterimage behind as he rushed to the front of Shi Lingqing's wooden shelter.

With a loud shout, two Ox Tribe warriors raised their great axes and met Luolin head-on.

The young man holding a longbow behind Luolin suddenly drew the bow. An arrow-shadow, accompanied by a piercing whistle, shot toward the Ox Tribe warriors.

Shi Dian snorted coldly. He gripped his wooden staff in both hands and rammed it fiercely into the ground. A violent wind rose from flat ground, and a wind wall several meters high howled forward from behind the two Ox Tribe warriors, crashing heavily into the arrow-shadow.

Amid a piercing sound of shattering, the wind wall was pierced by the arrow, but the arrow was knocked crooked by the wall as well. It grazed one Ox Tribe warrior's neck, leaving behind a shallow streak of blood.

Sharp impacts rang out without pause as the two Ox Tribe warriors swung their great axes and tangled with Luolin in battle.

The straight saber and great axes collided violently. With each impact, Luolin and the Ox Tribe warriors' bodies shuddered fiercely. Clearly, the Ox Tribe warriors had a natural advantage in physical strength, while Luolin surpassed the two warriors in cultivation level.

Two more Ox Tribe warriors pounced forward, and four of them surrounded Luolin in a tight ring.

Luolin suddenly roared. The air around him shook violently, and a thick leather pouch hanging at his waist let out a ripping creak. Two streaks of black blade-light shot from the pouch, agile as snakes as they slashed fiercely across two Ox Tribe warriors' waists and hips.

The two Ox Tribe warriors grunted. Their already dark skin abruptly turned coal-black, even taking on a faint metallic chill.

Within the black blade-light, two small straight knives over a foot long, without hilts, tore through the Soft Armor at the warriors' waists and hacked heavily into their flesh.

Sparks flew from the Ox Tribe warriors' skin. The two small straight knives were actually sent flying back by their dark skin.

Luolin froze for an instant. One of the black-skinned Ox Tribe warriors suddenly swung his great axe and chopped heavily into his chest.

The young man behind Luolin, who had been circling more than ten meters away and had never joined the attack, suddenly shouted. Light flashed beneath his left hand, and the air around Luolin abruptly converged before his chest. A two-foot-square shield of air, overflowing with green light, instantly condensed there.

The great axe struck the air shield. With a humming boom, several cracks split across it, and the startled Luolin hurriedly retreated dozens of steps.

"You people!" Luolin looked uncertainly at the two Ox Tribe warriors.

The two Ox Tribe warriors gasped in huge breaths, streams of white heat constantly blasting from their nostrils. Veins bulged beneath their skin, and amid faint sounds of sinews and bones stretching, their bodies gradually swelled until they stood around five meters tall.

Luolin suddenly roared, "Shi Lingqing, you have guards this powerful... and you just watched as your clansmen were killed?"

As he shouted, Luolin darted a glance toward Wu Tie.

Shi Lingqing's weak voice came from the wooden shelter. "Luolin, if they had not gone out on business earlier, how could I possibly have tolerated you killing my clansmen?"

Shi Lingqing walked out of the wooden shelter.

Her buttocks had suffered grave injury. Though she had taken the antidote, her body still seemed somewhat numb. She walked one stiff step at a time, as if she might collapse at any moment.

She came to stand behind several guards and gritted her teeth. "Not to mention that you shamelessly poisoned the water source in the castle!"

She spoke rapidly. "If Jin Three and Jin Seven had not been poisoned some days ago, how could you possibly... how could you?"

Shi Lingqing and Luolin's sides confronted one another.

Wu Tie stood on the distant mound, giving him an excellent view.

By chance, he saw figures moving in the distance. They appeared to be coming from the riverbank where Shi Lingqing and Luolin had previously come ashore.

They were several young men dressed like Luolin and likewise carrying straight sabers. They ran swiftly this way, and sharp, long whistles had already carried over from afar.

Luolin and his two companions were overjoyed. They simultaneously let out long whistles, then rapidly withdrew backward.

Shi Lingqing's expression abruptly changed. She pointed at Luolin's group and shouted, "Surround them! Kill them! Otherwise, once their companions arrive..."

The four Ox Tribe warriors strode after Luolin's group. Just as the other Human Race guards were about to pursue them, the bow-wielding young man suddenly ran dozens of steps to one side. Shi Dian immediately shouted, ordering the Human Race guards to remain where they were.

One side retreated at full speed while the other did not dare pursue. In only a short while, five more young men clad in fitted clothing, black Soft Armor over their garments, and straight sabers in hand joined up with Luolin.

The four Ox Tribe warriors held their great axes and confronted Luolin's group for a while. Then Luolin and his eight men suddenly surged forward, and the four Ox Tribe warriors immediately withdrew at full speed.

After a brief chase, the four Ox Tribe warriors reunited with Shi Lingqing's group. Shi Dian suddenly threw out three wooden staffs, and great sheets of lightning came roaring forth.

Luolin and his men immediately retreated, while only the bow-wielding young man fired three arrows this way.

Two arrows were blasted to pieces by the lightning. Only one arrow, forged entirely of metal, flashed through the air. A Human Race guard beside Shi Lingqing suddenly shrieked miserably as the arrow pierced through his lower abdomen and flew out from his back.

After piercing the enemy's body, the fully metal-forged arrow erupted with a ball of light. It traced an arc and flew fiercely back into the young man's hand.

Shi Lingqing's expression became extremely ugly.

Shi Dian shouted sternly, "Young Lady, be careful... Protect the young lady even unto death... She is the Shi Family's... only direct bloodline left!"

Great winds surged beneath Shi Dian's feet as sheets of lightning sprayed from his hands.

Among the five young men who had arrived later, one with a shaved head and a black scorpion tattooed on his scalp laughed. "The only direct bloodline? Wrong. She is the Shi Family's only bloodline left... The reason we took so long is that we caught up with those Shi Family members who fled and killed them all!"

Shi Lingqing's body swayed sharply. She let out a hysterical scream and abruptly flung both hands forward.

The vast fern forest around the eight young men suddenly writhed violently. Many branches grew and stretched in strange ways, lashing down at them like whips.

The eight young men seemed to have anticipated this move. They leaped into the air, leaving the ferns' attack range, then charged at Shi Lingqing's group again under Luolin's lead.

The lightning spraying from Shi Dian's three wooden staffs gradually weakened. Luolin and his men were about to break into Shi Lingqing's formation.

At last, Wu Tie could no longer suppress the inexplicable emotion in his heart. He drew his spear and leaped into the air, his body gliding like a bird as he swiftly swept toward Shi Lingqing.

With dozens of meters still between them, Wu Tie waved his left hand. Great swathes of stones rose from the ground and rained down upon Luolin and his men.

"This is my territory... You are not allowed to fight here!"