Pacifying Heaven

A thick layer of moss on the tunnel walls gave off a faint glow, enough for Wu Tie to see everything around him.

They advanced another seven or eight li, the tunnel continuing to slope downward.

The smell of blood grew ever stronger ahead. Wu Tie and Old Tie suddenly stopped. Before them, an Ox Tribe warrior leaned crookedly against a huge boulder, his body cold and devoid of breath.

The Ox Tribe warrior's limbs were covered in wounds so deep that bone showed through. His originally dark complexion had turned ghastly pale, and nearly all the blood in his body had drained away. Within a hundred meters, the ground was splattered with streaming blood.

His great wheel axe had snapped apart. He held a handle over a meter long in his left hand and gripped a broken blade in his right. Deep marks scarred the surrounding stone walls; Wu Tie could imagine him howling in rage as he fought bitterly, swinging his shattered weapon.

A broken straight saber had plunged deep into the back of the Ox Tribe warrior's head. That strike had clearly been the final blow that killed him.

"Ox Tribe warriors are the most loyal, most dependable fighters." Wu Tie walked to the warrior, placed his hand over his furiously widened eyes, and closed them for him. Looking at the fallen Ox Tribe warrior, he inexplicably thought of the simple, upright, loyal, and reliable Ox Tribe big fellows of the Wu Family.

"Old Tie, tell me... between Luolin and Shi Lingqing, who was right and who was wrong?" Wu Tie continued running forward at full speed as he questioned Old Tie.

In merely half a month, Wu Tie had seen so many people die with his own eyes. Shi Lingqing's collusion with Qiao in particular had overturned too much of what he believed. His young heart could not help but feel lost and confused.

Old Tie's body was so heavy, yet strangely, he made no sound when he ran, as ghostly as a phantom.

After a long while, Old Tie finally turned his head. Blood-red light flickered in his eyes as he asked Wu Tie in return, "Those people who killed your father and brothers—if you went to take revenge on them, which side would be right and which side wrong?"

Wu Tie fell silent and instinctively tightened his grip on his spear.

"There is no absolute right or wrong in this world." After another long silence, Old Tie said gravely, "It is nothing more than differing positions, nothing more than a struggle over interests... You told me that your Lineage had once slaughtered several neighboring small lineages as well. If surviving members of those lineages came to seek revenge on you, then what?"

Wu Tie opened his mouth.

"So don't dwell on whether something is right or wrong. Think too much, and you'll fall into madness... Who do you think you are? Some sage who has seen through the laws of heaven and earth, the ultimate truths of human morality?" Old Tie laughed mockingly. "Even sages—who among them has no selfish desires?"

"There is no right or wrong. Just follow your heart." Old Tie's tone became exceedingly stern. "If they are enemies, then they must be eliminated... Believe your grandpa here. Since I've lived this long, my words must hold some sense... at least far more sense than the wild thoughts filling that rookie head of yours!"

Wu Tie lowered his head and raced onward shoulder to shoulder with Old Tie.

Shi Lingqing, Luolin, and the others had already entered the depths of the tunnel. Yet this narrow, long passage carried sound exceptionally well; their fighting, even their faint shouts of fury, drifted out on the cold wind and could be heard clearly from far away.

Gradually, swaying silhouettes appeared ahead.

Wu Tie and Old Tie swiftly drew closer, and a scene of utter misery came into view.

Luolin's left arm had been blasted off at the elbow. The wound had clearly been struck by a powerful electric current, leaving the flesh charred black.

Both of Old Wu's legs had vanished from the roots of his thighs. With only his right arm remaining, he had tied himself to Ding's shoulder with a rope. Ding carried Old Wu on his back and staggered forward with difficulty beside Luolin.

Ding's right leg was so swollen that his trouser leg had split open. No one knew what terrible poison he had been struck with, but his right leg had become as thick as an ordinary man's waist. The entire limb was pitch-black, its skin swollen glossy, as though it might explode at any moment.

Threads of black blood seeped continuously from the pores of Ding's right leg, dripping to the ground.

Before them, Shi Lingqing's group was equally bedraggled.

Half of Shi Lingqing's lovely face had been ruined. Three triangular spikes were embedded deeply in her left cheek. Whatever strange substance coated them had caused her face to rot and ooze pus. Her features twisted hideously, she looked like a female ghost.

Of her guards, only Shi Dian remained.

Shi Dian's entire left shoulder was gone, and the left side of his chest had caved in, a bloody mess of torn flesh.

He followed close at Shi Lingqing's side, clutching a wooden staff in his right hand. With every step he took, bloody fluid seeped from his mouth.

Only Qiao was completely clean, seemingly unharmed. He stayed close beside Shi Lingqing, lightly whirling his chain saber in hand, producing faint whistles through the air.

"Enough, Old Wu, Third Brother, and Ding... enough!" Qiao shouted sharply. "So many people have died. Do you really want to perish together? Third Brother, for your sister—for just one sister—is this truly worth it?"

Qiao shouted, "We should talk this out, talk it out properly. It isn't worth it, truly... Third Brother... Old Wu, and Ding, it really isn't worth it. Why must it come to this? Lingqing said she can give Third Brother sufficient compensation."

"Pah!" Old Wu, Luolin, and Ding spat on the ground at the same time.

Wu Tie and Old Tie ran over, swiftly closing in on both groups.

Old Wu, Luolin, and Ding hurriedly turned sideways and retreated several dozen meters, warily eyeing Wu Tie and the strangely shaped Old Tie.

Upon seeing Wu Tie, Luolin and the other two relaxed slightly. But at the sudden sight of Old Tie, their bodies all tensed. They were clearly deeply wary of Old Tie's dog-bodied, human-headed appearance.

Shi Lingqing was startled as well. She darted a glance at Old Tie, then smiled like a flower... no, smiled like a ghost, waving at Wu Tie and calling out, "Young master... Young master... please uphold justice for Lingqing. This is your territory, yet they actually killed Lingqing's guards!"

Luolin and the other two said nothing, merely staring coldly at Wu Tie and Old Tie.

Wu Tie gripped his spear tightly. He looked at Shi Lingqing, then at Luolin and the others. Though he had not witnessed the entire clash, he could imagine the brutality and savagery of their battle of wits and desperate slaughter while he had been carrying the Howling Celestial Dog back to the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp.

Qiao suddenly smiled. Holding his chain saber, he cautiously took two steps toward Wu Tie. "May I ask, young master, who is this?"

"I'm your grandpa!" Blood-red light flickered in Old Tie's eyes as he glared at Qiao without the slightest politeness. "Grandson, don't try to get familiar with me. A bastard like you, who stabs his own brothers in the back, wouldn't have lived half a day in grandpa's time."

Qiao's expression changed at once, and his pale, effeminate face twitched violently.

Old Tie impatiently slammed a forepaw down. With a Boom, he smashed a pit over a meter wide into the ground. "Grandpa has no time to care about the grudges and passions of you little brats. Move aside. Up ahead... there seems to be something."

With a cold snort, Old Tie slowly walked toward the end of the tunnel.

The cold wind blew in from the end of the passage, where vast swathes of luminous vines hung down from the top of the rock wall. The walls here were nearly a thousand meters high. Green, blue, and purple luminous vines cascaded down like waterfalls, some covered in tiny blossoms like little lamps.

The cold wind blew from behind the vines, sending countless vines dancing through the air like a rolling waterfall.

Several hair-thin red beams shot from Old Tie's eyes and swept wildly across the vines. Countless vines snapped and fell away, revealing an enormous opening hundreds of meters in both length and width behind them.

A hazy radiance poured from within the opening, illuminating the stone cavern several li wide where everyone stood.

Without a word, Old Tie headed toward the opening. Wu Tie followed tightly beside him, warily watching Shi Lingqing, Qiao, and Shi Dian.

Compared to them, Luolin's group put him more at ease. Shi Lingqing, who had once left him with a fairly favorable impression, now felt like a Black Widow spider in his heart—full of danger and stirring a faint sense of disgust within him.

Neither Shi Lingqing's side nor Luolin's side spoke. Their eyes flickered as they stared at the opening in the rock wall.

They had fought their way here with their lives on the line. None had had time to inspect the surroundings, and none had expected such a vast cave to lie within the rock wall.

"Young master came for this cave?" Shi Lingqing smiled as she spoke, apparently taking none of Old Tie's earlier rude scolding to heart. "Could young master tell Lingqing what lies inside?"

Wu Tie ignored her, and Old Tie was even less inclined to pay Shi Lingqing any mind.

The two entered the opening, turned through two right-angle bends, and walked several li before the world ahead suddenly opened up.

This was a cavern spanning a hundred li. It was astonishingly bright, and the sight within was even more astonishing.

The ground was perfectly flat. Dense clusters of crystals, ranging from several feet to over ten meters tall, grew everywhere. Red, purple, blue, green, yellow... crystals of every color emitted dazzling radiance, while an unknown and powerful force drifted through the air.

The cavern walls and ceiling were likewise covered with enormous numbers of crystalline, multicolored clusters. Countless crystal formations interlocked, some jutting straight out like spears or swords for more than a hundred meters.

The hazy crystal light converged, making the entire cavern so bright it could nearly blind a person.

At the center of this cavern, a hundred li across and several thousand meters high, a towering figure stood proudly. Even from dozens of li away, Wu Tie saw him at a glance.

The figure stood roughly a thousand meters tall, naked all over and covered in black fur. Muscles knotted across his incredibly brawny body like enormous Water Pythons coiling around him, brimming with a suffocating sense of power.

Even from dozens of li away, Wu Tie felt as though the figure were a mountain, pressing heavily upon his heart until he could barely breathe.

He had a bull's head and a human body. Two curved horns rose from his enormous bull head like crescent blades, seeming ready to pierce the ceiling above.

He held both hands high, as if supporting some immense weight, as if resisting an attack descending from the heavens.

Dozens of crystal-forged spears had pierced his body. Embedded in his flesh, they flashed with dazzling light.

This figure looked exactly like the Ox Tribe warriors Wu Tie knew, except ordinary Ox Tribe warriors could only grow a little over two meters tall. This one, dozens of li away—even excluding the pair of enormous horns atop his head—stood over a thousand meters tall.

Surging, billowing power poured from that huge and terrifying body, continuously stirring the air in the cavern and turning it into gust after gust of cold wind rushing in all directions.

"Who is he? How did he grow so enormous?" Wu Tie stared blankly at the gigantic, unbelievable figure. "What did he eat to grow this big? In one meal, he could probably eat my family's entire harvest for a year!"

A thousand meters tall, so massive and powerful.

Dead for who knew how many years, yet immense tides of power still flowed endlessly from his body, stirring the air into an unceasing cold wind that blew in all directions. Such heaven-shaking might made Wu Tie's scalp prickle again and again.

Such an unbelievably powerful being had actually been killed.

The killing intent emanating from those dozens of crystal spears was as tangible as substance. Even from dozens of li away, Wu Tie did not dare look directly at them.

"It's him." Old Tie's voice became exceedingly strange.

"Since there is Lesser Manifested Sage True Lord Yang Jian, naturally there must also be the Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven... Ox Hero." Old Tie said dryly. "This fellow fancied himself an unparalleled great hero throughout all ages, so he simply changed his name to Ox Hero."

Old Tie turned around, blood-red light suddenly flaring in his eyes as he gave Wu Tie a deeply meaningful look. "Little Tie, don't ever be as shameless as those two. One outright plagiarized someone else's name... the other simply threw his face away altogether."

After three strange, dry chuckles, Old Tie muttered, "So what if he was a hero who held up heaven and stood upon earth? He still died, didn't he?"

The blood-red light in his eye sockets flashed rapidly, and Old Tie's tone became extremely hurried. "No, why would Yang Jian have come here? Why would that dog bastard have fought to the death here? Ox Hero... if I remember correctly, he shouldn't have appeared here."

Old Tie suddenly broke into a run toward Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven Ox Hero, shouting at the same time, "Kid, follow me... Keep an eye on those two groups. If anyone dares approach... kill without mercy!"

Old Tie had always given Wu Tie the impression of being a somewhat unreliable old hand, but at this moment, his tone was filled with a decisive murderousness utterly unfamiliar to Wu Tie. An aura of marshaling troops on a battlefield, of blood flowing until pestles floated upon it, rushed toward him, making Wu Tie shudder violently.

"Don't come any closer!" Wu Tie abruptly turned around and sternly warned Shi Lingqing's and Luolin's groups, who had followed them here. "Whoever dares approach, don't blame me for showing no mercy!"

He fiercely pointed his spear at Shi Lingqing, then leaped into the air. His invisible force field activated at full power, sending his body flying through the air in pursuit of Old Tie, trailing a fierce gale behind him.

Shi Lingqing's eyes flickered as she quickly exchanged a look with Qiao.

The two nodded faintly and took a step toward Ox Hero at the same time. From a hundred meters away, Luolin had already laughed sharply. "Our business isn't finished yet... Qiao, and Shi Lingqing, where do you think you're going?"

Holding his straight saber, Luolin advanced step by step toward Shi Lingqing and the other two.

Shi Lingqing's face twitched. Qiao spoke rapidly in a low voice, "Fools, Old Wu, Third Brother, haven't you understood yet? That fellow, that huge fellow... he may well be one of the legendary Ancient Sages!"

"An Ancient Sage who died in battle countless years ago, whose body has not decayed... Do you understand how many benefits he might hold?" Qiao roared in a low voice. "If we can..."

Luolin said nothing. His straight saber swept out a fierce blade gleam, whistling as it slashed toward Qiao's waist.

Old Tie and Wu Tie had already reached Ox Hero's feet. At the same time, they noticed that behind Ox Hero, surrounded by countless crystal clusters, lay the ruins of a building that had almost been completely destroyed.

Within the complex, which covered roughly a li, only a great hall at its center remained intact.

A layer of hazy white light flickered faintly outside the great hall.

Judging by Ox Hero's posture... he seemed to have been desperately resisting an attack from high above, using all his strength to protect that great hall.