Howling Celestial Dog

The palm-sized metal spider leaped and bounded, reaching the subordinates of Shi Lingqing in just a few hops.

The man lying among the rocks was craning his neck to look outside, completely unaware of the tiny metal spider descending rapidly. Its six slender metal limbs clamped down hard on the tendons at the back of his neck.

A flash of extremely bright electricity exploded. With crackling sounds, six arcs of electricity shot out from the metal spider, all of them sinking into the man's body.

The man's body convulsed violently, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted, foaming at the mouth.

Wu Tie gasped, put on his helmet, and quickly darted into the crevice. An invisible force field spread out. Only this man was hidden near this crevice; Shi Lingqing and the others were not here.

For some reason, Wu Tie felt several gazes directed at him from a distance.

He abruptly turned around and looked into the distance. Several miles away, under the dim, faint glow of a few night-blooming vines, several figures stood quietly.

Seeing Wu Tie look over, the faint glow immediately extinguished, and the figures melted into the darkness.

Wu Tie's eyes were sharp; he had already made out Shi Lingqing's curvaceous figure. Standing beside her were clearly Qiao and Shi Dian.

"An ambush?" Wu Tie looked at the man lying on the ground, whose fingers were still twitching slightly.

The crevice, the guards hidden at its entrance, the 'dog thing' thirty-odd meters inside, and the deep, long, narrow passage within – Wu Tie immediately understood Shi Lingqing and the others' plan. They intended to lure the three of Luolin into the crevice and use the narrow terrain to their advantage.

The small metal spider jumped up and landed on Wu Tie's shoulder.

The electric current from earlier seemed to have drained too much of its strength. The voice of Old Tie, coming from its belly, had become much weaker: "Don't worry about their business, just hurry up and bring that dog thing back."

Wu Tie nodded, strode into the crevice, and seriously examined the 'dog thing' on the ground.

This fellow was about five to six meters long from head to tail and about three meters high. Its entire body was a ghastly white, and its form was a very smooth, streamlined shape, exuding a strange sense of beauty.

"This is a big one." Wu Tie grabbed the 'dog thing's' head and tried to drag it with all his might. The ground around the 'dog thing' let out dull cracking sounds, and a few rocks stuck to the 'dog thing' shattered. Wu Tie felt his hands lighten, and he stumbled back several steps.

"I'm so stupid," Wu Tie cursed himself.

The 'dog thing's' body appeared to be cast from the same material as Old Tie. Old Tie's weight was unexpectedly light, and the 'dog thing' weighed only a few thousand catties. Relative to Wu Tie's current strength, this weight was nothing.

Instead, he had exerted too much force, dragging the 'dog thing' back more than ten steps and nearly losing his balance and falling to the ground.

Shouldering the 'dog thing's' two front paws on his left and right shoulders, Wu Tie dragged it and strode out of the crevice. An invisible force field enveloped his body, and Wu Tie leaped up abruptly. His feet lightly tapped against the rock wall, and with a few bursts of leverage, he shot out of the large sunken pit.

He ran at full speed, and the journey of several hundred li didn't take much time.

The floor of the wooden shed had already been lifted, revealing the entrance to the Ancient Divine Weapon camp. Wu Tie jumped down, carrying the 'dog thing,' and fifteen minutes later, he met Old Tie in the metal hall.

Dropping the 'dog thing' on the ground, Wu Tie panted, hands on his hips, and looked at Old Tie: "Didn't you say these auxiliary energy puppets could only operate within ten li of the Ancient Divine Weapon camp?"

Pointing at the palm-sized metal spider on his shoulder, Wu Tie asked, "What's going on with this?"

Old Tie unceremoniously blamed Big Iron: "It's this idiot's fault. I taught him a couple of tricks, so these small energy puppets can now operate within a thousand li of the Ancient Divine Weapon camp... Isn't that normal?"

Wu Tie stared blankly at Old Tie.

Old Tie stared blankly back at him.

They stared at each other for a full half-hour before Wu Tie's eyeballs finally ached unbearably. Wiping away tears, he turned his head: "I always feel like you're trying to trick me."

Big Iron made a few gurgling sounds.

He still couldn't speak normally like Old Tie, only uttering some vague, indistinct sounds and quickly spinning around three times in place.

Old Tie snorted coldly. He directed four metal spiders to carry him in front of the 'dog thing.' Dozens of extremely fine red beams of light shot out from his eyes, scanning the body of the 'dog thing' repeatedly.

With faint crackling sounds of electricity, several transparent soft tubes extended from beneath Old Tie's neck, moving like serpents. The tubes gradually lengthened, extending towards the transparent wound in the center of the 'dog thing's' forehead.

Wu Tie's eyes widened in horror. He murmured, "Old Tie... you're... who is he?"

The transparent tubes extending from Old Tie's neck flickered with electricity, slowly burrowing into the wound on the 'dog thing's' forehead.

He did not answer Wu Tie's question. It wasn't until a full hour later, when the 'dog thing's' entire body was shimmering with wave-like electric light, that he grumbled in a low voice, "Since there's the Lesser Manifested Sage True Lord Yang Jian... of course, there should be the Howling Celestial Dog."

"This dog thing, of course, is the Howling Celestial Dog... Grandpa was even planning to stew him into a five-spice dry pot after he grew flesh and blood... It seems there's no chance now." Old Tie's voice was filled with inexplicable emotion. "But, it's not wrong. Where Yang Jian is, the Howling Celestial Dog will surely be nearby."

"It's not those crudely made imitations. As expected, it's the Howling Celestial Dog's true form," Old Tie said heavily. "This guy... is the most arrogant and bullying, picking on the weak and fearing the strong... I never thought he would fight to the death... die here?"

Wu Tie had already sat down on the ground, staring blankly at the Howling Celestial Dog. "Howling Celestial Dog? What a name..."

With a few cracking sounds, extremely dazzling electric light rapidly flickered and flowed near the Howling Celestial Dog's neck. Several extremely fine cracks suddenly appeared on his smooth, unblemished neck, and wisps of incredibly gorgeous white light poured out from the cracks, spreading outwards like ripples.

With a thud, the Howling Celestial Dog's damaged head fell to the ground.

Old Tie said in a deep voice, "Big Iron, take him to accompany Yang Jian. They being together... should make them very happy, right?"

In Old Tie's stiff, cold metallic voice, there was an inexplicable sadness. The blood-red light in his eyes also became extremely chaotic. "What a pity. Yang Jian dreamed of making this dog thing grow flesh and blood back then. It's just that this dog thing was disappointing... In the end... he was only half a step away from having flesh and blood."

"What a waste of the treasures Yang Jian saved from between his teeth... If it were given to Grandpa..." Old Tie sighed heavily. "But, I won't settle old scores with you, you dog thing... You must be very happy to be with Yang Jian, right?"

Four metal spiders lifted Old Tie, bringing his neck close to the Howling Celestial Dog's body.

Old Tie's neck writhed like flowing water, adjusting its size to match the thickness of the Howling Celestial Dog's neck.

Dozens of soft tubes of varying thickness and streams of light emerged from the Howling Celestial Dog's neck. Similarly, dozens of soft tubes of varying thickness and streams of light, as if tangible, emerged from Old Tie's neck.

The tubes connected, and the streams of light merged.

Wu Tie watched, dumbfounded, as Old Tie's large head was fitted onto the Howling Celestial Dog's body, quickly becoming seamless. Streams of electric light rapidly coursed through Old Tie's entire body, and his neck became as smooth as a mirror, leaving no trace.

"Old... Old Tie?" Wu Tie was stunned.

A human head, though cast in metal, was now fitted onto the body of the Howling Celestial Dog?

Old Tie shook his head, the blood-red light in his eyes suddenly intensified. Two beams of crimson light surged fiercely, illuminating the entire metal hall.

With a 'crackling' sound, the limbs that originally belonged to the Howling Celestial Dog slowly began to move.

Soon, this body slowly stood up and walked stiffly through the metal hall. After a few steps, Old Tie glanced back at Big Iron. Blood-red light flickered in Big Iron's eyes, and several Metal Spiders quickly gathered together.

The bodies of the Metal Spiders melted, turning into a pale white liquid metal ball about a meter in diameter.

Old Tie opened his mouth and sucked the liquid metal ball in fiercely. The ball rapidly entered his body. Electricity flowed over his body, and the sound of dense metal impacts came from within him. Old Tie continuously spat out some twisted metal fragments from his mouth.

"I'm really badly injured," Old Tie snorted coldly. "What a bunch of bastards. Killing the dog is one thing, but they have to desecrate the corpse after death? Don't they know it's me, your grandpa, who's in control of this body now?"

The sacrifice of the Metal Spiders was effective. About two hours later, Old Tie could already run back and forth rapidly in the metal hall, and his speed was clearly much faster than Wu Tie's.

"Old Tie? You can move!" Wu Tie exclaimed, surprised and delighted, looking at Old Tie.

"I can move, but... it's not my own body, after all. It feels strange to use," Old Tie bared his teeth fiercely, grinding his large molars and creating a shower of sparks. "But after being a living corpse for so many years, it's good to be able to move."

Old Tie suddenly rushed in front of Wu Tie, his massive head leaning in as he laughed loudly. "Surprised? A new species, a human head on a dog... bah, a lion's body with a human face... bah, a dog's body... alright, 'human-head dog' is a good name."

Electricity flowed all over him. Old Tie gritted his teeth, muttering something unintelligible, and ran wildly through the metal hall with his four legs kicking up wind.

As he ran, Old Tie suddenly leaped up and began to run rapidly on the vertical wall.

He was like a phantom, circling the metal hall on the vertical wall for dozens of laps before suddenly stopping.

"Big Iron, give grandpa a target!" Old Tie roared loudly.

Electricity flickered on the ceiling, and a metal plate, one meter square and a foot thick, smashed down heavily.

Old Tie suddenly opened his mouth. A fist-sized, deep blue electric ball silently flew out and smashed fiercely into the center of the metal plate.

With a 'screeching' roar, the electric ball exploded, and thick, arm-like bolts of electricity shot out over ten meters, hitting the ground with a piercing crackle. Old Tie grinned and laughed three times, then his four legs suddenly went weak, and he fell to the ground with a 'thud'.

"This dog... it's only been a short while..." Old Tie's forehead was pressed against the ground. After a long, long time, he slowly raised his head and slowly stood upright. "As expected, you can't get carried away when you're successful, or you'll surely face misfortune... but, it's good to be able to move."

Wu Tie looked at Old Tie with concern. "Is there something wrong with your body?"

Old Tie grumbled unhappily, "There are big problems, but... they're not really problems... Now I have a very interesting question... Why did Yang Jian die here? And why didn't this dog follow its dying master, but instead died in battle hundreds of miles away?"

Old Tie muttered to himself in a low voice, "That crack in the stone... Little guy, follow me. What's behind that crack?"

With his four legs like the wind, Old Tie quickly ran towards the exit of the Ancient Divine Weapon camp.

Wu Tie, carrying his spear, hurriedly followed behind Old Tie. "Old Tie, you don't know what happened here?"

Old Tie muttered as he ran, "Your grandpa is just the ninth-generation medical-type Ancient Divine Weapon of Bian Que... How could I possibly know about the affairs of these bloodthirsty killers?"

Big Iron followed behind Old Tie and Wu Tie, but after Old Tie and Wu Tie left the Ancient Divine Weapon camp, he could only 'gurgle' and was helplessly left behind.

Wu Tie closely followed Old Tie towards the direction of the collapsed great pit.

Old Tie's running speed was astonishingly fast. Driven by Old Tie, Wu Tie took even less time than returning to reach the edge of the collapsed great pit again.

Without a word, Old Tie, using the momentum of his sprint, leaped up, drawing a beautiful arc, and rapidly descended towards the bottom of the pit.

Wu Tie's eyes widened in astonishment. "Old Tie, you can fly?"

Before he finished speaking, Old Tie had already heavily smashed onto the ground, shattering a stalagmite. He himself bounced several times on the ground, rolling for over a hundred meters before stopping.

"It's obvious this was just a mistake..." Old Tie's muffled voice drifted from afar. "A mistake... this guy is too heavily injured."

Old Tie stood up crookedly and let out a sharp whistle towards Wu Tie.

Wu Tie leaped up, also drawing a beautiful arc, and then lightly landed beside Old Tie.

Old Tie spread his four legs and ran rapidly towards the stone crack from before. Wu Tie followed closely behind him. Their landing spot was only a few miles from the crack, and they soon reached it.

Muffled explosions could be heard from within the stone crack, along with the constant, piercing sound of weapons clashing.

A cold wind howled out from the crack, and wisps of black smoke drifted out with the wind, along with a faint smell of blood.

"They've already started fighting," Old Tie said in a deep voice. "Let's go and see... Perhaps there's something truly extraordinary here."

Wu Tie nodded and followed Old Tie into the stone crack.

They ran forward for more than ten miles along the narrow tunnel behind the stone crack. The tunnel went downwards, and gradually, a large amount of blood appeared on the ground.