Dragon-Devouring Horns

Roar!

Amid a hearty, unrestrained roar, a Stone Giant roughly ten meters tall burst flying out of the waterfall.

The Stone Giant was completely hairless, his body gray and dull as though carved from granite. He wore nothing but a battle skirt made from python skin around his waist.

Dragging a chain as thick as a water vat in both hands, he traced a beautiful arc as he burst from the immense waterfall and plunged into the deep pool below it.

Half a quarter-hour later, accompanied by another roar, the Stone Giant gripped the chain in both hands and strode onto the riverbank.

He planted his feet firmly and pulled with all his might. Streams of light glowed across his gray, granite-like muscles, while a mass of intense gray light on his chest rapidly expanded and contracted. Dull heartbeats rang out without pause.

The ground around him trembled faintly as a powerful force field rose from beneath the earth and enveloped the entire Stone Giant.

The Stone Giant's body gradually swelled, swiftly growing to around fifteen meters tall. He hauled hard on the chain and walked step by step toward the Mist Blades stronghold.

Deep clanging sounds continually came from behind the waterfall, even drowning out the thunderous roar of the falling water.

Not long afterward, three more Stone Giants came darting out of the waterfall, panting heavily as they carried great hammers and massive iron spikes. Following the chain in the first Stone Giant's hands, they raced down it as though walking on level ground.

Only a little over a li from the Mist Blades stronghold, the four Stone Giants worked together to firmly anchor the chain to the ground.

Iron spikes seven or eight meters long secured enormous iron rings one after another. Dozens of such gigantic spikes were hammered firmly into the earth, pulling the chain taut, utterly taut.

Dazzling light flared from the chain. Amid dancing streams of light and dull impacts, a procession of strange "carriageships" charged out from the waterfall along the thick chain.

These so-called carriageships had strangely shaped gears below that meshed tightly with the chain, while the upper sections were cabins resembling submersible vessels.

Each carriageship was seven or eight meters wide, over twenty meters long, and seven or eight meters high. The carriageships were tightly linked one to another by great iron chains, forming a procession nearly a thousand meters long.

Runes lit up across every carriageship. Amid the flowing light, the long procession resembled a huge, glittering centipede as it came rumbling down the chain.

As they neared the Mist Blades camp, great bursts of flame spouted from the carriageships' gears and their speed gradually slowed. Numerous doors opened in the cabin walls on both sides, and agile figures sprang out one after another—all Mist Blades assassins clad in black tight-fitting garments, with straight blades on their backs.

A single such procession transported more than two thousand Mist Blades assassins, several thousand other warriors, and tens of thousands of slaves.

Atop the sole remaining watchtower on the walls of the Mist Blades stronghold, a human figure slowly emerged from thin air.

The Mist Blades Grand Commander wore a cloak, his face hidden in shadow. With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked down at the utterly chaotic camp below. Those Mist Blades assassins clearing rubble and treating their injured companions within the stronghold seemed to sense his presence. They looked over, then silently dropped to one knee in salute.

"What happened?" The Mist Blades Grand Commander's voice, cold and sharp as a blade, rang out across dozens of li. Even the Longevity Cult camp across the broad river heard his icy voice.

With several leaps, an assassin captain left a string of afterimages and arrived beneath the city wall. He recounted, from beginning to end, how a Flood Dragon had led several giant pythons in an attack.

He emphasized that if Wu Tie and Old Tie had not drawn the Flood Dragon's attention and even wounded it by some unknown method, every living creature in the entire Mist Blades stronghold would likely have been devoured by the Flood Dragon.

"A... Flood Dragon?" There was a hint of delight in the Mist Blades Grand Commander's voice. "What a treasure, what a fortuitous opportunity. I never expected such good luck the moment I arrived!"

"Gather every available hand. I, too, shall taste what dragon slaughter feels like."

"Though it is only a Flood Dragon, it still belongs to the dragonkind."

"Dragonkind... Even a single scale is treasure."

Having heard the Mist Blades Grand Commander's orders, the Mist Blades assassins already present, those who had newly arrived, and the servant warriors all sprang into action.

They swiftly reorganized their ranks, assembled the large number of long-range weapons they had brought, dipped every arrow in specially prepared poison, and prepared to follow the Mist Blades Grand Commander in the grand undertaking of "slaying the dragon."

Before him was endless darkness.

Within the boundless darkness, someone faintly chanted from a book.

That person's voice was gentle, yet filled with an upright, unbending strength that would rather break than yield.

The voice possessed an exceedingly wondrous power. Wu Tie felt as if his soul were soaking in warm water. It was comfortable, soothing, and he could clearly sense his soul growing stronger thread by thread.

The power of the soul determined the strength of one's innate divine ability. Naturally, Wu Tie's innate divine ability, Control Heaven and Earth, was also growing stronger.

Though he did not know what exactly had happened, as he listened to that person's gentle recitation in the darkness, Wu Tie came to understand what kind of divine ability Vast Righteousness truly was.

Between Heaven and Earth, there was righteous energy.

It filled Heaven and Earth, knowing all, supremely firm and supremely strong, upright and vast.

Vast Righteousness could be used as an offensive divine ability, specially restraining all sinister and evil forces.

But its greatest use was tempering the soul, elevating its essence, leading directly to Heaven and Earth's original heart and reaching the supreme sacred realm at the very limit of Heaven and Earth. It was the ultimate method for cultivating the heart and nurturing virtue.

In his desperation to deal with that Flood Dragon, Wu Tie had emptied out the tiny foundation of Vast Righteousness he had only just formed... It was like using beautiful jade to strike a wild dog—entirely the wrong use for it.

That all-or-nothing strike had drained every shred of strength from his body.

Only the barest trace of soul power remained. More than half the blood in his body had burned away, leaving him hollow inside like an old slab of cured meat dried by the wind.

Yet without destruction, there could be no establishment. After his soul power had been depleted, the newly born soul power, tempered by Vast Righteousness, was several times purer and more condensed than before. This new soul power possessed even greater might.

More than half his blood had burned away, but the blood that remained shone with a faint golden light. It was condensed and heavy, containing greater power and stronger vitality than his original blood.

A familiar warm current flowed through his body.

Liquid continuously flowed into his mouth, then gently erupted within his abdomen.

Someone was continually feeding Wu Tie Foundation Establishment Potions.

His body nearly squeezed dry, Wu Tie breathed contentedly as energy continuously replenished him. His subtly altered marrow kept producing fresh blood to make up for the loss, and his depleted strength steadily recovered bit by bit.

In the darkness, that gentle voice gradually grew louder.

Then even more voices rose in the darkness. They echoed that voice, reciting scriptures that Wu Tie could not hear clearly, much less understand.

He could not hear them clearly, nor could he understand them...

Yet tears inexplicably rolled down Wu Tie's face.

It was a stirring from deep within his bloodline, an emotion that crossed time and space, traveled through the ages, and would never be severed so long as the bloodline continued to be passed down.

The flame passed on, life unceasing.

Whether it was that gentle voice or the mixed voices of men, women, old people, and children, every voice gave Wu Tie an inexplicable sense of profound closeness.

In the darkness, the golden mass of light between Wu Tie's brows gradually recovered. What had originally been a thumb-sized ball of golden light had now become as large as a goose egg, and the golden light was far denser than before. A trace of blood-red flickered faintly within it.

The darkness shattered, and Wu Tie opened his eyes.

Before him was a field of light. The pale white ceiling radiated bright illumination, and the ceiling, walls, and floor were all spotless.

Wu Tie lay sprawled in the center of the metal hall. Beside him stood the apparatus that produced Foundation Establishment Potions. More than two hundred empty potion bottles were piled in a disorderly heap around him, while several Energy Puppets busily carried bottles away in their mouths.

Big Iron was something of a clean freak. He could not stand any rubbish within the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp.

Old Tie stood before Wu Tie. There was no expression on his pale skull face, but blood-red light glimmered darkly in his eyes as he stared straight at Wu Tie.

Logically speaking, Wu Tie should not have been able to see any expression on Old Tie's face.

Yet Old Tie's flickering gaze was filled with intense emotion.

Wu Tie jumped in fright. He hurriedly sprang to his feet, grabbed the close-fitting armor that had shrunk into a ball beside him, and struck it with a stream of Origin Force. White metallic fluid spread over his entire body and swiftly formed armor that covered him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Wu Tie asked Old Tie somewhat blankly.

Old Tie's gaze flickered for a moment. Then he shook his head, barked "Woof, woof, woof" three times, and began to laugh.

He grinned broadly. Though his pale skull face was smiling, it did not look the slightest bit ferocious. Wu Tie could feel Old Tie's delight and joy.

"Nothing. It's just... I'm inexplicably in a very good mood... Though this old man has no heart..." Old Tie tilted his head and examined Wu Tie up and down. "Vast Righteousness? It really is Vast Righteousness?"

Without waiting for Wu Tie's answer, Old Tie muttered, "It seems one of your ancestors was a scholar... or came from a scholarly family..."

"Vast Righteousness is good, too." Old Tie chuckled, his bones clacking. "At the very least, you won't have to fear ghosts when walking at night from now on..."

"Ghosts?" Wu Tie stared at Old Tie with wide eyes. "Master Hui told stories about 'ghosts,' but... I've never seen one. Are there really ghosts in this world?"

Old Tie shook his head and laughed loudly. "Better that you haven't seen them... Who would want to see such ghostly things?"

More than a dozen Metal Spiders slowly carried over two pointed horns over three meters long, then dropped them at Wu Tie's feet with two heavy thuds.

They were the two horns from the Flood Dragon's head.

The pitch-black horns were perfectly straight, covered in dense rings of spiral patterns. Their tips were exceedingly sharp, carrying a chilling gleam.

"What a tragedy. You brat, you really struck ruthlessly... And it was too perfect."

Old Tie bared his teeth and smiled happily.

"With that one punch, you happened to shatter the skull beneath both its horns, and the two horns just happened to fall off."

"At least thirty percent of a Flood Dragon's essence lies in its pair of horns... It must hate you to death."

Wu Tie also smiled smugly. Though he had no idea what the Vast Righteousness in that punch had been, nor where that divine ability had come from, he was very satisfied with its power.

Though the feeling of having all his essence, energy, and spirit drained at once before immediately fainting after throwing that punch had been somewhat unbearable.

"But that big fellow still couldn't withstand one punch from me." Wu Tie reached for the Flood Dragon horns at his feet and grinned at Old Tie. "How about we think of a way to... take care of that big fellow?"

Wu Tie glanced at the large apparatus beside him that manufactured potions.

His bare hands gripped the pointed horn over three meters long.

The first knucklebone of his left index finger violently trembled. The newly grown flesh around it burst into a cloud of blood mist with a pop, and that knucklebone, like a sharp blade slicing through tofu, abruptly pierced into the pitch-black, solid, sharp dragon horn.

With a crack, the violently trembling knucklebone shook the entire dragon horn.

The dragon horn, more than three meters long and as thick as a water bucket at its widest root, exploded apart. Great clouds of ash drifted away, while only specks of black essence light, like countless fireflies, rapidly circled and danced around Wu Tie's left hand. Within a few breaths, that knucklebone swallowed them all clean.

Wu Tie's eyes bulged wide, tears streamed wildly from their corners, and he cried out in hysterical agony.

The first knucklebone of his left index finger was burning, as if it had swallowed a tiny sun. The entire knucklebone was burning. A strange, terrifying torrent of energy boiled and fused within it. Visible to the naked eye, streams of black current flowed continuously from the first knucklebone to the second, then the third, before flowing into the corresponding metacarpal bone below.

Threads of fine black flame flew from the first knucklebone as well, boring into the neighboring thumb and middle finger.

The flesh on Wu Tie's left thumb and middle finger was burned into a mangled mess. Before long, the two knucklebones in his thumb and the three knucklebones in his middle finger were slowly changing color.

When all the black essence light formed from the dragon horn had been absorbed into the first knucklebone, Wu Tie's entire left palm began to burn.

The pain made him scream himself hoarse as he rolled about ceaselessly on the ground.

His vision blackened from the pain. He was in such agony that he was nearly losing his mind when he suddenly threw a random punch forward.

With a dull thud, the largest Energy Puppet happened to be hurrying past him with an empty bottle in its mouth, and Wu Tie's punch struck it squarely.

A clear fist imprint, half an inch deep, appeared on the Metal Spider's fat, massive belly.

The distinct fist imprint seemed exquisitely carved by a master craftsman, every detail of the knucklebones visible with perfect clarity.

Old Tie and Big Iron both sucked in a sharp breath. Big Iron rapidly spun in place three times, then urgently chattered "Gurgle gurgle" at Old Tie.

The blood-red light in Old Tie's eyes almost condensed into substance.

He muttered several words in an unknown language, then nodded fiercely. "One dragon horn alone is like this... Then what if it were the bones of the entire Flood Dragon?"

"Also, this old man remembers that day... This brat's finger seemed to have shattered that fellow's straight blade, and likewise swallowed the metal essence inside it."

"Kill that Flood Dragon..."

Old Tie smacked Big Iron's huge head with one claw. "Also, are there many mineral deposits here? Make these Energy Puppets speed up their mining!"

"You fellow, as the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp... It's time you put yourself to some use."

Wu Tie's left palm had been burned until it was split open and charred black. The pain had already made him pass out.

Old Tie grabbed him with one claw and dragged him toward the metal hall where Yang Jian was.

As he walked, he muttered to himself.

"This is both a good thing and a bad thing... Surely he won't spray flesh and blood everywhere every time he fights from now on? That would truly be... a feast for the eyes..."