Bone Crusher

Basin, great river.

Electric currents flashed rapidly through the river. An electric eel nearly thirty meters long was madly discharging electricity, while a Giant Hippopotamus on the shallow bank let out a shrill wail, convulsed, and collapsed into the water.

Two black, spindle-shaped objects were blocked by the dead beast's bones and came to a crooked stop on the riverbank.

Within a crack in the rocks in the distance, a waterfall thundered down. Something seemed to burst out from the thick mist of water.

About a quarter of an hour later, a huge black fish with a single horn on its head suddenly shot out from the stretch of river where Shi Lingqing, Luolin, and the others had landed that day.

Black smoke coiled around the fish's entire body. Its enormous eyes were ash-gray, radiating dense deathly air, and its movements were exceptionally stiff. It abruptly opened its mouth, and several figures rushed out. One of them reached back with a grab, and the more-than-ten-meter-long fish suddenly shrank, turning into a streak of black light that vanished into his palm.

They wore tight black leather armor, fully enclosed hoods over their heads, straight blades on their backs, and leather pouches at their waists. Their attire was exactly the same as Luolin's group.

Yet compared to Luolin and the others, the seven people who had rushed from the fish's mouth possessed auras several times stronger. The moment they appeared, an inexplicable icy Killing Intent swept over the surroundings. Even the electric eel, which had been releasing electricity at full force, instinctively concealed its aura and swiftly sank into the depths of the river to hide.

The place where the group emerged from the fish's mouth was more than twenty li from the shore. They merely tapped lightly upon the river's surface, then soared straight across that stretch of water and landed easily on the bank.

One of them swayed, leaving several faint afterimages as he pounced into a fern grove dozens of meters away. After searching briefly, he cut down a slender branch from the grove and returned.

He also brought back an iron token the size of a palm. Extremely fine blood-red lines upon it outlined a bloodstained straight blade. From time to time, the token trembled faintly, continuously sending subtle ripples in all directions.

"Nine Palm Commander... it's the secret message Nail left behind." Holding up the branch carved with dozens of strange patterns in both hands, the man presented it to the burly man standing in the center, whose aura surpassed all the others.

Nine Palm Commander accepted the branch and narrowed his eyes as he carefully examined the markings left upon it. Then he shook his head and laughed. "A pack of little brats who think their wings have hardened... What is the meaning of this? Have they thrown all the rules of Mist Blade to the wind? Acting without authorization and failing to return on time... Hmph!"

Nine Palm Commander said in a low voice, "Acting without authorization would have been one thing, but they didn't even finish the job cleanly. They dragged mud and water behind them and actually let a little girl escape... If word of this gets out, how will the Commanders of Mist Blade's other branch altars view me?"

"Do they take me, their Commander, for decoration?" Strands of black vapor emerged from Nine Palm Commander's fingertips and swiftly wrapped around the tender branch.

The branch shriveled and withered. Within a few breaths, it turned into specks of black ash that drifted down.

Without saying a word, the group turned into afterimages, then melted into the wind.

After another while, roughly two quarters of an hour later, a black shadow flashed through the waterfall pouring down from the rock crevice. Before long, wisps of blood-red mist began rising from this stretch of river.

The river churned, and a black wooden ship more than twenty meters long emerged. A mast over ten meters high stood in the center of the ship. Upon its black sail, two bloody characters were written in fluorescent crimson paint—"Longevity"!

An old woman in a blood-red robe stood upright at the bow. Her face was youthful, her hair white as a crane's feathers, her complexion rosy, and her skin tender and smooth like a child's. She narrowed her eyes and surveyed the surroundings for a while, then smiled with delight.

"That girl Lingqing found herself a fine place. This secret realm is enough to establish a hidden branch hall. Good, good, good." The old woman suddenly let out a strange laugh. "I would like to see what kind of heroes and champions dared slaughter a branch hall of my Longevity Cult."

More than a dozen young men and women stood behind the old woman.

Whether male or female, they all wore black robes with blood-red belts at their waists. The men were handsome and dashing, the women youthful and beautiful. Every one of them brimmed with vigor, far more flourishing than ordinary people.

These young people gave off the impression of bean sprouts fed too much fertilizer, their vitality so abundant it seemed ready to burst from their bodies.

Hearing the old woman's words, the youths all laughed softly at once.

The old woman also chuckled and stamped her foot. The black wooden ship rose from the water and flew to shore on a wild gale. After searching the area within a li or so, she pointed. A clump of mud on the ground split apart, and a tiny bead emitting faint flashes of bloody light rose into the air and fell into her hand.

The old woman swallowed the bead in one gulp. An unnatural surge of blood energy rolled across her face, and she suddenly gave several strange laughs.

"Oh, it's those killer spawn who love stabbing people in the back... Lingqing merely killed a little girl doomed to die young. Was there really any need to make such a great fuss?" The old woman smiled kindly. "Poor thing, Lingqing was only... diligently laboring for the Longevity Cult. Her whole clan was wiped out—this is a provocation against my Longevity Cult..."

The wooden ship's blood-red sail moved without wind. With a tremendous whoosh, the ship rode a gale and swiftly flew toward the distant sinkhole.

Judging by its speed, the wooden ship was much faster than Nine Palm Commander's group.

Crystal clusters of varying heights surrounded them in every direction. These clusters emitted a peculiar aura that made Wu Tie feel extremely uncomfortable. It was like throwing a person into water, or hauling a fish onto land.

These crystal clusters controlled this enormous stone cavern. Under their influence, the environment within seemed unsuited for human survival.

It had been manageable while standing at the cavern entrance, but after Wu Tie reached Ox Hero's side, the temperature here became extremely high and the humidity tremendously heavy. Wu Tie felt as if his body had become more than ten times heavier, while the air exerted immense pressure upon him.

High temperature, high pressure, high gravity—and there even seemed to be a lack of oxygen.

Wu Tie looked around in confusion, unable to understand how the environment had changed so drastically over a distance of merely a few dozen li.

Old Tie stood beneath Ox Hero's feet. He raised his head and stared blankly at Ox Hero for a while, muttered a few vague words, then walked around Ox Hero's enormous body toward the ruins behind him.

"Do you know where the title 'Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven' came from?" Old Tie asked Wu Tie, who followed beside him.

Wu Tie looked blankly at Old Tie and shook his head.

"That's why you need to read more. Great Sage Who Pacifies Heaven, Bull Devil King... that was a figure from myth and legend." Old Tie spoke as he walked. "Ox Hero probably doesn't even have one-tenth of Bull Devil King's ability, yet he insisted on giving himself such a nickname..."

Wu Tie shuddered and instinctively looked back at Ox Hero's majestic thousand-meter-tall body.

Even like this, he did not possess one-tenth of that Bull Devil King's ability? Then how powerful would the real Bull Devil King be?

"Hey, who is Bull Devil King?" Wu Tie asked Old Tie with great seriousness.

"I'll tell you when your grandpa here has time and is in a good mood." Old Tie whetted Wu Tie's appetite, then irresponsibly tossed the question aside. "Still, it's a very interesting story. It involves a monkey."

Wu Tie's teeth itched with hatred. A monkey? What was a monkey? He had never seen one... How did this story involve a monkey again?

He and Old Tie entered the utterly ruined remains of the buildings. Broken walls and collapsed ruins lay everywhere, but through the remaining architectural details, Wu Tie could imagine the exquisite splendor and magnificence this complex had once possessed.

Strangely, this stone cavern spanning a hundred li was dominated by countless crystal clusters of every size, yet this patch of building ruins was completely clean, without the slightest trace of any crystal cluster.

The ground was exceptionally clean as well, with blue-green floor tiles laid in neat rows.

After following the road paved with blue bricks for a while, they came upon a large pond roughly a hundred meters across.

There was actually a pool of clear water within it, along with several clusters of large leaves moving without wind. Several long flower stalks held up white blossoms as large as washbasins. A faint fragrance wafted toward him, a scent Wu Tie had never smelled before.

Neither the mushrooms Wu Tie had commonly seen since childhood nor the luminous vines had possessed any fragrance.

The fragrance refreshed his heart and spirit, leaving Wu Tie standing stiffly in place.

An unprecedented, beautiful emotion washed over him without warning. He stared blankly at those flowers and leaves. Such beauty did not belong in this sunless world.

"What are you staring at? They're just some worthless lotus flowers." Old Tie's dry voice swiftly shattered Wu Tie's emotion. "These things are everywhere... They aren't even some rare variety. What's there to stare at?"

Wu Tie opened his mouth and glared at Old Tie in irritation.

He seemed to suddenly understand some of Master Hui's anger from back then.

Circling around the pond, crossing a short stretch of blue-brick path, and ascending several steps, they arrived at a largely intact great hall.

Red walls, red pillars, golden-yellow tiles gleaming with faint light—the entire hall was enveloped in a thin layer of white radiance. It was not especially large, yet it exuded an ancient, weighty aura that calmed the heart.

It seemed as though someone was softly chanting in his ears.

From far away, it sounded as if bells were ringing.

Solemn and dignified, set against the ruined buildings around it, the sight filled Wu Tie with inexplicable sorrow. Two streams of tears rolled down his face for no reason.

Old Tie gave a soft snort. He lifted a front claw and slapped it against the tightly shut hall doors.

With a light sound, the doors opened. The white glow enveloping the hall shattered like a soap bubble, bursting into countless white motes that drifted away in all directions.

A dense scent of incense poured from the open doors. The hall was brightly lit, and hundreds of ever-burning lamps as thick as arms flickered atop several large lampstands flowing with gold and radiant colors, illuminating the entire hall as brightly as day.

Behind the offering table facing the hall doors, three dim shadows silently exploded the instant the doors opened. Countless specks of golden powder scattered down, and when those infinitesimal motes struck the ground, they actually produced exceptionally clear ringing sounds of "ding ding."

Eighteen prayer cushions had been placed on the floor before the offering table.

On each cushion sat a person cross-legged, facing the doors of the hall.

At the same moment the three shadows behind the offering table exploded, the eighteen figures also burst apart with a boom. Dots of blood-red light rose, then gently fell to the ground, likewise producing faint "ding ding" sounds.

As the flesh and blood of those figures exploded, eighteen glittering golden skeletons remained on the cushions. They still sat cross-legged, their bones marked by faint patterns similar to the lotus flowers in the pond outside.

The golden bones were smooth and bare, without a shred of flesh, yet they did not appear savage. Instead, an aura of peace greeted him head-on.

After the countless golden and blood-red motes landed, cracking sounds rang out. Cracks of varying thickness spread across all eighteen golden skeletons at once. Every skeleton and every bone bore fractures. Several skeletons were covered in cracks, their entire bodies shattered into fragments even smaller than soybeans.

Even shattered to such a degree, a resilient force still enveloped the skeletons, allowing them to remain more or less intact.

Wu Tie stared at the scene in the hall in horror.

At the instant the three dim shadows exploded, Wu Tie clearly saw that they had been three statues several meters tall. Their forms were strange, but their faces were dignified and gentle, carrying an indescribable warmth and benevolence.

As for the eighteen figures, Wu Tie had also clearly seen their faces before their flesh exploded and vanished.

Their expressions had been almost identical to those of the three statues—dignified, gentle, and filled with warmth and kindness.

"Old Tie, who were they? And those... big fellows inside the three balls of light?" Wu Tie patted Old Tie's hind leg.

"A group who constantly claimed to uphold neutrality... yet could never resist meddling." Old Tie's tone was complicated. "Among them were our allies, but some of them also held very unfriendly attitudes toward us."

"But such matters are too distant from you... Little fellow, rookies have no right to know too much." Old Tie snorted coldly. His eyes suddenly shot out two beams of bloody light, enveloping an object in the center of the eighteen seated golden skeletons.

It was a golden lotus over a meter in diameter.

The golden lotus was also covered in cracks. Threads of extremely faint golden light continuously emerged from its petals, barely forming a thin curtain of light around the lotus.

At the center of that light curtain floated a grayish bone fragment the size of a thumb.

The fragment's edges were uneven and extremely rough. It looked like a small piece of broken bone violently torn from some larger bone.

Old Tie's body trembled violently. His enormous eyeballs abruptly protruded more than three inches from their deep sockets. "This... Yang Jian, Ox Hero, and that dog bastard Howling Celestial Dog... They were here for this?"

"This, this..." Old Tie suddenly raised his head and looked toward the place where the three exploding statue-shadows had originally stood.

"Heh, heh, heh..." Old Tie gave several laughs whose meaning could not be discerned. Then he abruptly stood upright, grabbed Wu Tie between his two front claws, and hurled him heavily toward the golden lotus.

Wu Tie's tight armor flowed off his body like water. He smashed through the extremely faint golden light curtain, and his forehead struck the gray bone fragment floating in the air. The fragment sliced open the flesh of his forehead and clung tightly to the wound.

The blood throughout his body surged wildly, rushing toward the wound.

Like a vampire, the bone fragment frantically sucked Wu Tie's blood. Wu Tie convulsed violently, crashed hard onto the ground, and let out a cry of agony.

In the blink of an eye, half the blood in his body had been drained away. Darkness flooded Wu Tie's vision, and he nearly fainted.

As though it had drunk its fill, the bone fragment slowly rose. Faint bloody light radiated from it as it circled the hall once, then it slowly drifted toward the hall entrance.

Old Tie's eyeballs protruded another half foot. "Leaving once you're full? Bastard... Have you no shame?"

Heavy footsteps sounded outside the hall, followed by a low voice. "Ancient Treasure? This treasure should belong to Mist Blade."