Dragon Slaying

"Wow, what formidable strength!"

Wu Tie stood atop a small hill, forcefully kneading the flesh of his left hand as he gazed at the large force more than a dozen li away.

After the Crystal Ball's treatment, his left hand had completely recovered.

Still, Wu Tie found it somewhat hard to accept psychologically.

That day, under Old Tie's threats and coercion, he had devoured both dragon horns completely.

He had watched helplessly as all the flesh on his palm was burned away, leaving only palm bones glowing with a faint black light. He had even smelled the pungent, charred scent of roasted meat in the air...

"It always feels like this isn't my hand..."

Frowning, Wu Tie reached out and grabbed a rock beside him.

Without a sound, his five fingers sank deep into the grayish-brown stone as if it were tofu. Stone crumbled into powder, yet the breaking rock made no sound. Wu Tie's left hand had become a terrifying weapon.

He planted his long spear into the ground and clasped his hands together tightly.

His right hand erupted with unbearable pain, as if it were about to be crushed. Just like his attempt in the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp, his left hand was far stronger and sturdier than his right. When his hands gripped each other, his right hand was utterly no match.

"An entire Flood Dragon's skeleton?" Thinking of the pain he had endured while devouring those two dragon horns, Wu Tie shivered all over.

But then he looked closely at his left hand. It was almost identical to his right, except its skin was slightly darker.

Wu Tie blinked a few times and decided the trade had been worth it.

Strength—this was strength. If all the bones in his body could be tempered as hard as his left palm, harder than stone...

"I hope they can handle that big fellow... Hmm, Old Tie, the problem is, even if they win, how are we supposed to snatch that big fellow?" Wu Tie humbly asked Old Tie for advice.

"When the snipe and clam fight, the fisherman reaps the profit!" Old Tie crisply tossed out those eight words.

Wu Tie nodded as if he understood, then looked toward that distant force again.

Twelve Stone Giants, each ten meters tall, marched at the front. Clad in specially made heavy iron armor and wielding specially made two-handed greatswords, they were like twelve moving walls of bronze and iron, their booming strides carrying them forward.

Behind the Stone Giants came two hundred Ox Tribe warriors clad in fully enclosed iron armor.

They wore distinctive horned helmets and carried identical poisoned spiked maces.

Behind the Ox Tribe warriors were Lizardmen archers dressed in soft armor and carrying longbows. Their steps were swift and agile, yet they moved through the formation without a sound.

Great numbers of Wolf Tribe warriors and Mist Blades assassins patrolled along both flanks of the force.

The Wolf Tribe warriors wore lightweight chainmail and carried poisoned curved blades and longswords, darting everywhere like gusts of wind.

The Mist Blades assassins moved far more mysteriously. Using mushroom clusters and fern groves as cover, and taking advantage of the thick fog around them, they left behind one afterimage after another, appearing and vanishing like ghosts.

At the rear of this massive, formidable force, a group of elite Mist Blades assassins surrounded more than a dozen Mist Blades higher-ups draped in black cloaks.

These Mist Blades assassins were clearly much stronger than their companions darting about everywhere. From more than a dozen li away, Wu Tie could feel the icy killing intent on them, as though it had frozen solid.

As his gaze swept across those figures at the rear, the cloaked people at the center, their faces entirely concealed by their hoods, suddenly stopped. A tall, burly man in the middle raised his head and looked in Wu Tie's direction from afar.

Wu Tie grabbed his spear and stared straight at the man.

Old Tie stood beside Wu Tie, opened his mouth, and threw back his head to bark twice, "Woof! Woof!" with the arrogant swagger of a dog flaunting its master's power.

For some reason, ever since he had acquired the Howling Celestial Dog's body and joined his own head to it, Old Tie had taken to barking now and then for no reason at all.

"I am Mist Blades... Mist Blades' Grand Commander." The man's voice easily crossed more than a dozen li. "You are the... 'masters' of this secret realm?"

When he said "masters," Mist Blades' tone became flippant, carrying a hint of dismissive provocation.

Clearly, he did not acknowledge Wu Tie and Old Tie's ownership of this blessed land of fine winds and waters.

Wu Tie raised his spear high, drew a circle through the air, then chopped it down heavily.

Mist Blades chuckled. In a deep voice, he said, "A few days ago, that beast attacked. Whatever your reasons, you saved my people... So I'll give you a chance. Join Mist Blades, and I'll reserve a place for you as my personal disciple."

Mist Blades extended his right hand, and a cloaked man handed him the White Tiger Blood Banner.

With a low laugh, Mist Blades suddenly swung his right arm and hurled the White Tiger Blood Banner's pole with all his strength.

Screeech—!

A piercing sound tore through the air as it rapidly approached. Trailing a long icy gleam, the White Tiger Blood Banner's pole ripped a visible white scar through the air, shattered ring after ring of white air bursts, and shot straight toward Wu Tie.

Clang!

The White Tiger Blood Banner's pole embedded itself precisely into a huge rock at Wu Tie's feet.

The pole sank six feet into the stone and vibrated violently. The White Tiger Blood Banner flapped wildly from the trembling, stirring up a chaotic gust of wind.

Wu Tie swallowed with difficulty.

He had casually thrown the White Tiger Blood Banner's pole more than a dozen li...

Especially when he had struck, a burly phantom more than ten meters tall had faintly appeared behind the Mist Blades Grand Commander.

Even from more than a dozen li away, that phantom radiated a terrifying presence like a mountain collapsing onto one's head. It weighed heavily upon Wu Tie's chest, making it hard for him to breathe.

"Impressive!" Wu Tie gripped his spear tightly and watched the Mist Blades Grand Commander warily.

"It's only Hercules Magic!" Old Tie snorted. "It's nothing worth calling an impressive divine ability... Of course, if Hercules Magic is cultivated to its limit, one can pluck stars and seize the moon... But these days, where are there stars and moon for him to toy with?"

Old Tie cackled as though he had told an extremely amusing joke.

Wu Tie looked at Old Tie as if he were an idiot. "Hercules Magic... plucking stars and seizing the moon? Have you ever seen... stars, or the moon?"

Light flickered in Wu Tie's eyes.

He remembered the things Master Hui had told him.

Rivers, lakes, seas, flowers, birds, insects, fish... and the sun, moon, and stars... It was said that on clear nights, a silver river would appear in the sky, and that "Milky Way" was made from countless stars...

"I've never seen stars," Wu Tie said softly.

"You will..." Old Tie raised a paw and gently patted Wu Tie's shoulder. The bloody light in his eyes became remarkably gentle. "You will... I swear it to you, Grandfather... Hmm, they truly are very, very beautiful things..."

Suddenly, Old Tie looked up at the sky and sighed in a somewhat rambling manner, "Young man, your journey is the Sea of Stars... So strive... fight... use your enemies' blood and flesh... to pave a stairway to the heavens... Oh, oh... Woof!"

After the Mist Blades Grand Commander had flaunted his formidable divine ability, the huge force continued toward the river's lower reaches.

Wu Tie and Old Tie watched them leave swiftly, then followed openly behind them.

They advanced along the river toward the Lava Fissure ahead.

During each period when the Void Sun was lit, the force could travel roughly two hundred li.

The moss along the riverbanks was extremely thick, vegetation flourished everywhere, and all kinds of strange biological communities filled the area. The road was not easy to traverse.

The Mist Blades Grand Commander was in no hurry to succeed. He steadily ordered the force to maintain its formation as it advanced, causing their pace to slow even further.

After traveling like this for more than three days, the Mist Blades assassins scouting ahead returned one after another.

As expected of a professional assassin organization, these Mist Blades assassins had already found the Flood Dragon's nest.

At the Mist Blades Grand Commander's command, the force accelerated.

Wu Tie and Old Tie sped up as well. Mist Blades' people had long known they were following behind, yet no one remained behind to stop them.

"We're being underestimated, little fellow."

Old Tie sounded extremely unhappy. "We're being underestimated... Sigh, when a tiger falls to the plains, even dogs can bully it... bullied by dogs!"

Wu Tie was speechless. He tapped Old Tie's body with the shaft of his spear.

Old Tie opened his mouth, then snapped it shut hard. His two rows of massive teeth collided, sending a shower of sparks flying.

After a while, Old Tie suddenly laughed. "Not bad, not bad. When a tiger falls to the plains, even dogs can bully it... Heh, being bullied by a human-headed dog like your grandfather—that's a fine omen!"

The force advanced rapidly. They were only three or four hundred li from the Lava Fissure. Scorched by the blazing heat emanating from the Lava Waterfall, the surrounding temperature was extremely high and the humidity immense. The vegetation here was ten times denser than in the basin where the Ancient Divine Weapon Camp stood.

Giant Ferns grew thick as towering ancient trees. Snakes of every size coiled around their thick branches, and hissing sounds could be heard both near and far.

Large numbers of reptiles crawled slowly across the ground, while swarms of rodents came and went.

Wu Tie also saw many strange winged creatures gliding and weaving among the Giant Ferns. After the red light in Old Tie's eyes swept over these little creatures, he told Wu Tie with some surprise that some were birds, while others were insects...

Birds—this was the first time Wu Tie had seen flying birds.

Insects—this was also the first time he had seen insects capable of flight...

And the insects here were enormous. For example, Wu Tie had just speared to death a Mutated Black Centipede over two meters long and as thick as an arm.

Strange ripples came from the fern grove ahead.

About every dozen breaths, the air trembled faintly.

It was an unusual, bizarre fluctuation, like the beating of a heart, carrying an exceedingly dim and obscure aura of life.

Mist Blades' force spread out into a skirmish line and began to encircle the area ahead. The Mist Blades Grand Commander and the other dozen or so cloaked Mist Blades higher-ups also blended into the ranks.

Light shone from the fern grove ahead.

Through the dense fern leaves, they could see a Wetland spanning several hundred mu in the grove ahead.

The Wetland was filled with all kinds of glowing aquatic plants, densely tangled together. Small luminous insects occasionally rose from those plants, their dim ghostly lights flickering from time to time.

The glow of each tiny insect was faint, but with hundreds of thousands gathered together, the brightness here became considerable.

Yet the main light source illuminating this Wetland came from a huge crystal at its center.

It was a roughly diamond-shaped crystal, crookedly embedded in the middle of the Wetland. It stood more than ten meters tall and measured five or six meters across, its entire body flowing with seven-colored light. It was crystal-clear and exquisitely beautiful.

The Flood Dragon coiled beneath the crystal, occasionally extending its tongue to lick threads of viscous fluid trickling down its surface.

In just a few days, the Flood Dragon's shattered scales had completely regrown, its broken skull had fully regenerated, and two dragon horns half a foot long had emerged from its newly grown skull.

Its injuries had healed so quickly; clearly, it was all thanks to this crystal.

Wu Tie and Old Tie circled around Mist Blades' force and approached the Wetland from another direction.

Old Tie suddenly stopped. He stared wide-eyed at the crystal, muttering to Wu Tie in an extremely strange tone, "Grandfather's arms... both arms... Heh, I thought I would never find them again in this lifetime..."

Wu Tie froze for a moment, then hurriedly focused his eyes on it.

Within the crystal more than ten meters tall, two ghastly white metal arms were locked in an extraordinarily bizarre pose. One hand gripped an enormous head, while the other had entered through that head's open mouth, pierced straight through its skull, and emerged from the crown of its head...

Wu Tie involuntarily shuddered from head to toe.

What a savage killing move... forcing an arm into the enemy's mouth, then piercing through their skull...

Had Old Tie done this?

Old Tie's head was three times the size of an ordinary person's, and his arms were naturally much larger as well. His arms were especially long in proportion, each at least four times the length of a normal person's arm.

Opening his mouth, Wu Tie murmured, "That fellow's head was really big. Otherwise, how could your two arms, as huge as they are, fit inside?"

Old Tie laughed silently and muttered in a low voice, "I almost couldn't beat him... So your grandfather... self-destructed his entire body... Looks like the result was pretty good..."

Gritting his teeth, Old Tie ground his two rows of teeth together, continuously spitting out fine sparks.

"These are your grandfather's arms... No one is taking them away." Old Tie bared his teeth in a cold laugh. "And this little grass snake must be killed... I was wondering how this place could support such a huge Flood Dragon..."

"So it evolved by devouring the Life Essence leaking from this dead bastard... Its Life Seed has been contaminated. It must be killed..." Old Tie's tone carried unquestionable resolve and determination. "Everything contaminated... must be eliminated."

Wu Tie said nothing, because Mist Blades and his people had already begun to move.

Two heavy ballistae Wu Tie had never seen before were pushed out by several Ox Tribe warriors.

With two thunderous booms, two specially made pure steel bolts howled through the air and slammed viciously into the Flood Dragon's body.

Scales shattered, and the bolts, their arrowheads gleaming with faint light, sank more than a foot deep into the Flood Dragon's flesh.