Hunt

'Void Sun' lit up.

Under the warm red glow, a group of gnomes bustled about beneath the distant stone wall.

It was a broad stretch of fertile land. Strange crops grew luxuriantly in neat plots of farmland.

From the mine caves farther away came the ceaseless clanging of metal on stone.

On the training ground, heat steamed from Wu Zhan's entire body, turning into great swathes of white mist that rose more than a meter high. His muscles twitched violently. He held a stone ball nearly as tall as himself above his head, and streams of light occasionally flashed through the bulging veins beneath his bronze skin.

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong were also working hard to build their strength on the training ground. Heavy implements of every kind whirled up and down in their hands. From time to time, they hurled them to the ground with enormous crashes.

Inside the stone fortress, Wu Tie sat beside a square table. Through the window, he had a perfect view of the training ground.

On the sand table, Master Hui used a stone rod to write lines of characters. He stared gloomily at the scrolls Wu Zhan and the others had brought back from the Xiong Family some days ago.

"Difficult, difficult, difficult... This is... a method for making bows and crossbows?" Master Hui fiercely knocked his own forehead with the stone rod.

"Bows and crossbows... use ox horns?"

"Ox horns?"

Master Hui looked thoughtfully at several Ox Tribe warriors on the training ground. They swung great wooden axes and roared as they happily sparred.

"The Ox Tribe... ox horns... The horns on their heads should work, shouldn't they?"

"Then, what is this fish glue?"

Master Hui painfully slammed his head against the square table.

"Profound beyond measure... This is the knowledge left behind by our ancestors of old... Taiping!"

Master Hui raised his head, rubbed his aching skull, and looked gravely at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie withdrew his gaze, along with his wandering thoughts—just then, he had been imagining himself as a powerful cultivator, casually playing with the heaviest implements on the training ground.

Looking at the complicated characters on the sand table, his scattered gaze focused once more. Wu Tie sighed softly.

"The knowledge left behind by our ancestors... Master, you said that wisdom is not merely blind memorization and inheritance. More importantly, one must learn to question!" Wu Tie looked at Master Hui very seriously. "Therefore, ox horns and fish glue do not exist."

Master Hui blanked out.

Wu Tie spoke even more earnestly. "Just like the sun, moon, and stars in the books. Just like rivers, lakes, and seas. They do not exist!"

Without waiting for Master Hui to speak, Wu Tie continued, "Just like the apricot blossoms sold in deep alleys at dawn... they do not exist..."

Master Hui raised the stone rod and fiercely struck Wu Tie on the forehead. He glared at him furiously. "You call that learning to question?"

Wu Tie spread his hands. "No one has seen them!"

Master Hui froze.

Slowly, he lowered the stone rod and used both hands to stir the characters in the sand table into a complete mess. He sighed in distress.

Master Hui's gaze turned deeply sorrowful.

Reaching out to rub Wu Tie's forehead, Master Hui said softly, "The premise of questioning is possessing sufficient wisdom... Taiping, neither you nor I possesses enough wisdom to question what our ancestors left behind..."

Wu Tie sighed as well.

Master Hui rose to his feet, walked to the window, and looked at Wu Zhan and the others on the training ground.

"My master once told me..." After a long silence, Master Hui muttered softly, "We cannot vanish into the darkness. We cannot become beasts... Violence and slaughter cannot conceal the light of our ancestors' wisdom..."

"Look at your father!" Master Hui pointed at Wu Zhan, who was drenched in sweat, a powerful glow faintly shining beneath his skin. "He is the strongest warrior among the nearby fortress Lineages... But twenty years ago, after he saved me... he also came to understand respect for knowledge... respect for inheritance..."

"Him?" Wu Tie looked at Wu Zhan in surprise.

Then he looked at Master Hui. "I always thought, Master, that you had always... been part of our family!"

Master Hui smiled and took out another scroll, carefully spreading it open.

"What's inside this one is even more interesting..." Master Hui said softly. "Come, let us study it together... Oh, look, what elegant diction... I truly do not know what sort of great figure the Xiong Family's ancestor was, to have left behind such an inheritance..."

'Green, green, your collar; long, long, my heart...'

Master Hui sighed heavily again. "So beautiful... But how should it be interpreted?"

"Er..." Wu Tie spread his hands and subconsciously looked toward the training ground.

On the training ground, Wu Tong stood to one side drinking water. Wu Jin and Wu Yin stood more than ten meters apart. After staring at each other for a while, the long blades in their hands suddenly flew free, turning into two streaks of black vapor as they shot straight ahead and slammed violently together.

Sparks scattered everywhere, and the ringing clash was deafening.

The two long blades collided fiercely in midair thirteen times before they finally split apart and crashed heavily to the ground on either side.

Wu Jin and Wu Yin simultaneously let out long breaths. Great beads of sweat sprang from their bronze skin, falling ceaselessly to the ground like rain.

Following the cave passage through which Wu Zhan and the others had returned some days ago, one had to travel nearly a hundred li along the correct route through a twisting tunnel filled with forks and wrong paths, skirt numerous perilous sinkholes, then cross a scorching lava river by way of a natural stone bridge to reach the Xiong Family's territory.

Within a dark side passage, a fist-sized luminous mushroom gave off a dim blue light, illuminating a Rock Gnome covered in wounds.

When the Xiong Family had been destroyed, this Rock Gnome had luckily escaped the Wu Family warriors' search. But today, he had fallen into even more terrifying hands.

In the darkness, a curved dagger glimmering with faint blue light sliced across the Rock Gnome's throat.

Blood sprayed everywhere as the Rock Gnome convulsed and collapsed to the ground.

Rock Gnome blood was naturally tinged grayish-white, but the blood quickly turned almost the same pale blue as the dagger. The Rock Gnome's body also took on a faint blue hue as it began to corrode and rot at high speed.

Poison. Extremely terrifying poison.

"Chi You's Fang!" The luminous mushroom was crushed in a hand, and a gentle voice rang out from the darkness.

"Even this godforsaken backwater has good things?" Another voice spoke.

"I told you, the more remote and impoverished the place, the more likely it is to have good things." A voice laughed.

"Chi You's Fang, capable of shattering even a steel shield in one blow!" The first gentle voice spoke again, laughing. "A pity it was taken."

Meaningless laughter sounded from the darkness. Then the darkness returned to silence, and no further sound emerged.

'Void Sun' lit up, bathing Wu Valley in red light.

Within the great hall of the stone fortress, Wu Zhan sat beside a broad stone table. As he dealt with a glossy slab of roasted meat, he gave Wu Tie muffled instructions.

"Eat well, eat your fill, then come to the mine with me."

He swallowed a large chunk of roasted meat, lifted a huge jug of water, and took a hearty gulp. Wu Zhan exhaled in satisfaction.

"Yesterday, those little dwarves used Mountain Splitting Thunder to break rocks and search for veins. It seems they dug into another cavern."

Thoughtfully scratching the thick beard on his chin, Wu Zhan smiled like a king tiger of the jungle after a full meal. "I truly hope that side leads to a region where people live... You can never have too many opponents!"

Wu Tie lowered his head and diligently worked on an enormous boiled beast bone.

The bone had already been chopped open. With great difficulty, he dug out a large lump of tender white marrow and stuffed a mouthful into his mouth.

Hearing Wu Zhan's words, Wu Tie could not help rolling his eyes.

Wu Zhan immediately became a little awkward.

Rubbing his head, he gave a dry laugh. "You mean what happened three years ago? Hahaha, who knew that behind that blasted-open mine passage was a nest of venomous spiders? Damn it, who knows what those beasts ate to grow so large—and they even spawned so many little spiders!"

The three brothers, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong, all shuddered at once.

"Father, we won't be that unlucky again this time, will we?" Wu Jin looked at Wu Zhan very seriously.

Wu Zhan stood up and glared viciously at his three sons. Then he grabbed Wu Tie by the shoulder and carried him outside.

"You three, stay home properly."

"Mm, those Earth Rice Mushrooms over there are about to ripen. Take some people and give them their last round of fertilizer... If you don't work, where will food come from?"

"Remember! Earth Rice Mushrooms like Rock Python droppings! Though they stink a little... If you don't work, where will food come from?"

The expressions of the three Wu Jin brothers stiffened at the same time.

The winding, deep mine tunnels had been specially planted with great quantities of luminous moss by the Rock Gnomes.

No torches were needed. The luminous moss alone was enough to light the mine tunnels.

Many little lizards and spiders crawled over the tunnel walls. From time to time, venomous snakes darted out from nowhere. Before they could hunt the little lizards, nearby Rock Gnomes had already swiftly smashed them to death.

Within a single breath, the venomous snakes were eaten so cleanly that not even a scale remained.

Riding a Gray Rock Lizard, Wu Tie sped through the mine tunnels. From the branching passages around them came the hushed whispers of Rock Gnomes.

Those rustling whispers were full of terror. In the ghostly glow of the luminous moss, many Rock Gnomes could be seen kneeling on the ground in fear.

These tiny creatures, barely a meter tall and thin of arm and leg, existed at the very bottom of the food chain in this cruel world.

Even though they possessed no small degree of intelligence!

But as Master Hui put it, they had no "wisdom," and thus they had no "strength"!

Without "strength," they were the tragic prey of the law of the jungle!

After advancing three to five li along a newly opened side passage, fist-sized golden specks could be seen everywhere across the cave walls.

This was a gold vein of quite good quality, and gold nuggets were undoubtedly top-tier hard currency!

More than a hundred Rock Gnomes swung small mining shovels, striking countless sparks from the cave walls.

When they saw Wu Zhan and Wu Tie approaching, the Rock Gnomes hurriedly stopped working and hastily knelt to the ground.

Wu Zhan ignored the gnomes. He pulled Wu Tie to the end of the mine passage, where a black cave opening several meters across had appeared in the rock wall. A cold wind, carrying damp chill, blasted out from within, along with the faint rumble of water.

Several Gray Dwarves stood nearby, watching Wu Zhan and Wu Tie with utmost respect.

Wu Zhan patted Wu Tie's head and said in a deep voice, "I know what you're thinking..."

Wu Tie shrugged and looked at Wu Zhan. "But I can't do it!"

Wu Zhan narrowed his eyes at Wu Tie. "Perhaps your birth mother's side can make it possible for you... But it may require paying a great price... Greedy, far too greedy... I mean, your birth mother's mother, your grandmother... That old..."

After cursing with a particularly colorful obscenity, Wu Zhan spat on the ground. "Still, you're my son, right?"

Shaking his head, Wu Zhan snorted and fiercely scraped Wu Tie's nose with a finger. "Save up some good things over the next two years. In another couple of years, I'll take you and Third to see your birth mother... But only men with guts are worth their old man paying such a huge price for!"

The muscles in Wu Zhan's face twitched violently as he gritted his teeth. "Greedy... far too greedy... Boy, do you have the guts?"

A Gray Dwarf lit an enormous torch and hurled it with all his strength into that pitch-black opening.

Wu Zhan laughed as he drew a long blade and nodded at Wu Tie. "Starting today, I'm going to train your courage often! Ha!"

With a loud laugh, Wu Zhan beckoned to the group of warriors following behind him and took the lead in entering the cave.

"Taiping... If you don't dare come in, go back..."

"Be good and study with Master Hui... Studying is always a good thing..."

"That's what your grandfather personally told me when he smashed my head with a club as thick as a bowl!"

"The old fellow's words always make sense!"

Two Ox Tribe warriors, two Azure Wolf warriors, and more than a dozen Gray Dwarves filed into the entrance.

Wu Tie froze for a moment, pondered for a while, then bared his teeth. "Mother?"

Patting the Gray Rock Lizard beneath him, Wu Tie urged it to crawl into the cave.

A wave of damp chill struck him head-on. Before long, his hair and face were covered in droplets. The moisture beyond this entrance was astonishingly thick.

The ground was pitted and uneven, with fairly deep water collected in many places. What was surprising was that many tiny, completely transparent creatures with phosphorescent glimmers swam joyfully in the puddles.

Wu Tie had never seen or even heard of many of these creatures.

Some were thumb-sized, round phosphorescent organisms with tentacles that swam through the water with remarkable elegance. Their exquisite forms left Wu Tie staring blankly.

One torch after another lit up. Rock Gnomes ran in carrying great masses of luminous moss, piling it in heaps farther away. The fluorescence illuminated the darkest corners.

"Wahaha... hahaha!" Wu Zhan, long blade in hand, suddenly burst into laughter.

"This place is interesting, a good place! Truly a good place!" Wu Zhan laughed loudly. "A water source! A water source that will never run dry!"

Wu Zhan was so excited that he danced with joy. The Lineage warriors around him also jumped and shouted in excitement. The two Azure Wolf warriors in particular gave in to their wild instincts and simply dropped to all fours, racing about in sheer delight.

Wu Tie stepped forward a few paces. Before him lay a vast expanse of black water.

He had never seen so much water in his life.

Waves surged over the vast water. Dull rumbles continuously sounded from beneath its surface, which was filled with whirlpools of all sizes. The currents were dangerous to the extreme.

Wu Tie felt dizzy. He stared blankly at the great waters and unconsciously retreated several steps.

"Is this... a river?"

"Is this... a stream?"

"Is this... a lake?"

"Is this... a sea?"

"I've never seen, never seen so much, so much water!"

Outside the Wu Family stone fortress, two Ox Tribe men were sneakily huddled behind a small stalagmite. They lay comfortably on the ground, contentedly chewing boiled white mushrooms.

Suddenly, blue ghostly light flashed. Two gashes opened across their necks, blood sprayed out, and two ox heads the size of wine jars silently rolled several steps away.

"Shh... The hunt has begun!"

A gentle voice came from the shadows.