Old Tie

Black mist surrounded him.

A warm red glow streamed down from the 'Void Sun' overhead, shining upon the young Wu Tie.

With childish faces, Wu Jin and Wu Yin wiped the sweat from their brows and happily looked at the swing they had spent three whole days building between two stone pillars.

Wu Tong picked up Wu Tie and set him on the swing.

Smiling, Wu Jin gave the swing a push.

The swing soared high.

Wu Tie laughed, frightened yet delighted. His clear laughter carried far, far away...

Wu Tong stared wide-eyed at the swing, then forcefully turned his head aside and curled his lip. "There, that's all kid stuff... I, Wu Tong... no, I, Wu Changming, am a grown-up... I'm not playing with children's toys."

Wu Zhan carried a thick snake as wide as a bowl in from the black mist and into the warm red glow.

He smiled at his four harmonious sons and patted the still-wriggling snake on his shoulder. "Later, we'll have snake soup..."

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, Wu Tong, and Wu Tie all burst into loud laughter.

The laughter stopped abruptly. Countless deathly pale faces, swollen faces, and faces smeared with blood and twisted in savage ferocity suddenly emerged from the black mist around them.

Layer upon layer of faces pressed in toward Wu Tie.

Wu Zhan vanished.

Wu Jin vanished.

Wu Yin vanished.

Wu Tong vanished.

Wu Tie woke with a heart-rending cry, his entire body convulsing.

"Father... Brothers..." Wu Tie wailed hoarsely. An indescribable pain stabbed through him, grinding the fear in his heart to dust.

Still crying hoarsely, tears blurring his eyes, Wu Tie stared blankly at the thing that had just frightened him unconscious.

A skull, snowy white from end to end—so white it could nearly blind one's eyes—its ghastly pallor carrying a trace of ferocity. Ghostly blood-red light flickered in its eye sockets as it lay crookedly beside Wu Tie, staring straight at him.

Countless luminous gemstones embedded in the high rocky dome shed bright light.

The white skull's surface was exceptionally smooth. Wu Tie had just kicked it out of a mound of earth, yet not a speck of dust or grit clung to it. It was utterly spotless.

Yet such a smooth surface reflected no light at all.

The bright radiance of the luminous gemstones fell upon the white skull, but it seemed to swallow every ray. After staring at the ghastly white skull for a long while, Wu Tie actually began to feel as though it were pitch-black.

In this unfamiliar, bizarre realm, Wu Tie was exhausted in both body and mind. Catching sight of the skull without warning had frightened him unconscious.

His dream had replayed the agony of losing his father, his brothers, and his home. With grief twisting his heart, Wu Tie had now forgotten his fear.

Wu Tie cried, sobbing in hitching breaths.

The white skull lay crookedly on the ground, its dim red eyes rolling up and down as it carefully examined Wu Tie.

Wu Tie could not see it, but extremely fine rays of light shot from the white skull's eyes, densely scanning over his body again and again.

"Your father's dead?" the white skull suddenly asked in a stiff, icy voice.

"Mhm!" Wu Tie nodded through his sobs.

"Your brothers are dead too?" The white skull's jaw did not move in the slightest. No one knew how it made a sound.

"Mhm!" Wu Tie nodded again.

"Set this old man upright." The white skull's eyes suddenly lit up. The two points of bloodlight stung Wu Tie's eyes, and he hurriedly turned his face away.

"There, set this old man upright. Why are you crying?" The white skull snorted coldly. "If this old man isn't mistaken, you're a man... a man."

Wu Tie opened his mouth.

"Men can only bleed. Not a single tear is allowed." The white skull snorted. "Once you shed tears, your bones turn soft..."

Wu Tie stopped crying.

The figures of Wu Zhan and his three brothers seemed to appear before his eyes.

He seemed to hear Wu Zhan's roar after knocking Wu Jin into the dirt with one punch on the training ground.

Wu Jin had curled up in the sand, groaning in pain, while Wu Zhan bent over him and roared.

"Get up, Wu Jin... You're a man... Get up!"

"Get up! Stand straight for me!"

"Remember this: unless you're dead, even if your backbone is broken, you still have to stand straight!"

"No matter who your opponent is."

"Just remember it—any time, any place, stand straight for me!"

Wu Tie gritted his teeth and roughly wiped his face with his palm, wiping away his tear streaks.

Wu Jin, whom Wu Zhan had taught to stand straight at all times, had knelt before their enemy for the sake of his worthless little brother.

Wu Tie struggled to his feet. Wu Jin's kneeling figure flashed before his eyes, and he straightened his back with all his strength, gritting his teeth as he stared directly at the strange white skull.

Only after standing upright did Wu Tie realize that the white skull he had kicked from the mound, the one not stained by the slightest dirt, was three times the size of an ordinary person's head.

Its shape was strange as well. The back of its skull bulged far outward, and its streamlined form possessed an indescribably eerie beauty.

"Not crying anymore?" The white skull snorted. "Set this old man upright!"

Wu Tie swallowed. He bent down and carefully grasped the white skull.

It was icy to the touch.

This white skull was entirely cast from metal.

"Uh?" Wu Tie stared at it in alarm.

"Making a fuss over nothing." The white skull continued to snort.

Wu Tie shut his mouth. Holding the white skull in both hands, he suddenly exerted force—this skull was made entirely of metal and three times the size of a normal head. Wu Tie doubted whether he could even lift it.

Unexpectedly, the white skull was extremely light. Wu Tie lifted it without much effort.

Having used too much strength, Wu Tie even leaned backward and nearly strained his waist. He staggered back two steps, then stepped onto a slick patch of moss and nearly cracked his head on the ground. He barely managed to steady himself.

"Ha." The white skull gave a stiff laugh. "Should I praise you for being incomparably strong and nimble as a swallow?"

Wu Tie's face heated for no reason. Holding the white skull, he found a small dirt mound and placed it squarely on top.

Standing straight-backed before the white skull, Wu Tie gritted his teeth and said, "I won't cry."

In this vast, strange realm, Wu Tie inexplicably felt a tiny bit of closeness toward this bizarre white skull.

After all, Wu Tie had the nerve to wash human heads.

No matter what, this white skull looked better than a blood-smeared dead man's head.

And dead heads could not talk. This white skull could not only speak—it could even lecture people.

For a while, one boy and one strange white metal skull stared each other down. Then the white skull suddenly spoke. "You cried so hard just now. Did your whole family die?"

Pain twisted through Wu Tie's heart, and heat welled up in his eyes again.

Forcing back the urge to cry, Wu Tie inexplicably recalled something Wu Zhan had once said.

"No, they didn't... My mother and little sister... I don't know where they are, but they must still be alive..."

"There, but your father and brothers are dead. Is that any different from your whole family dying?" The white skull stiffly drove a knife into Wu Tie's heart.

Wu Tie's body went rigid. He was exhausted to the extreme, and his stomach felt hollow again. Hunger surged over him, making his whole body go weak in waves. The white skull's words snuffed out the last faint spark of life in his heart.

Every corner of his body was filled with sorrow and fear. Weariness had nearly wrung dry every cell within him.

His mind was blank. Wu Tie's eyes rolled back, and his body toppled backward.

If he fell now... Wu Tie might never wake again, never rise again.

"Revenge." The white skull's two dim red eyes suddenly blazed. Its stiff, icy metallic voice was like a sharp blade stabbing fiercely into his heart.

"The hatred of a murdered father cannot exist beneath the same sky. A man must be clear about gratitude and grudges."

"He killed your father and brothers, so you should kill his whole family."

"You haven't avenged your father yet, boy. You don't even have the right to die!"

For no reason, a feverish, frenzied heat surged through his heart. His utterly exhausted body suddenly filled with fanatical strength.

"Revenge!"

Wu Tie screamed himself hoarse.

The words 'revenge' were not unfamiliar to him.

"I want revenge!"

"But..."

Two streaks of pale red bloody tears flowed from the corners of his eyes. Wu Tie stared at the white skull and roared, "I can't cultivate... How can I get revenge?"

The white skull's blood-red eyes flickered. It looked Wu Tie over from top to bottom, and only after a long while did it say softly, "I can let you cultivate... You can't cultivate? Heh, all things can become saints; it is only a matter of sooner or later, fast or slow..."

"You can't cultivate?"

"The person who said that must be an idiot, right?"

Wu Tie suddenly stretched out his left hand and pinned down the white skull, then smashed his right fist fiercely into its face.

With a dull thud, the skin of Wu Tie's right fist split open. A few drops of blood slid down the white skull's smooth surface, unable to leave the slightest mark on its face.

"Idiot." The white skull sneered. "I'm cast from metal, while you're flesh and blood... Why use your fist? Couldn't you find a rock?"

Wu Tie suddenly came to his senses. He bent down, picked up a fist-sized stone by his feet, and smashed it down on the white skull without a word.

"The one who said I can't cultivate... was my father!" Wu Tie roared hysterically as he struck it again and again.

"This old man truly has a foul mouth..." The white skull's eyes flickered. "Still, you'll get used to it... I got used to it long ago."

After smashing it over a hundred times, the white skull's smooth surface remained entirely unmarked, while the stone shattered apart.

Wu Tie dropped onto the ground, panting as he tore off a section of snake from his waist and began ripping into it with huge bites. After a few mouthfuls of snake meat entered his stomach, threads of warmth rose from within, and he gradually recovered a little strength.

While tearing at the snake meat, Wu Tie fixed the white skull with bloodshot, beastlike eyes. "You... can let me cultivate?"

"Listen to me, and I can let you cultivate..." the white skull said. "And let you take revenge..."

Wu Tie quickly gnawed through a section of snake meat. Gritting his teeth, he stood and stared fixedly at the white skull. "What do I do?"

The white skull's eyes lit up. "First, answer me... What year and month is it now?"

"What year, what month?" Wu Tie stared at the white skull blankly.

"Era? Calendar? Or something similar." The light in the white skull's eyes dimmed slightly. "This old man used to remember the time... But it has been too long since I encountered a living person... Little one, do you understand what despair is?"

Wu Tie opened his mouth. After a long silence, he nodded hard.

Despair?

Wasn't despair watching his father vanish into ashes amid thunder and fire?

Despair?

Wasn't despair watching his brothers be cut down by the enemy before his very eyes?

Despair?

Wasn't despair... watching his brother kneel before the enemy and beg them to spare him, while he himself had no power to resist?

"I do!" Wu Tie forced out the words with great difficulty.

"The despair this old man once knew was surely ten thousand times yours. It was a kind of... despair you simply cannot imagine." The white skull suddenly gave a dry sigh. "Still, how wonderful. Now, this old man is suddenly brimming with endless drive again."

"Honestly, why am I wasting so much breath on a little brat like you?" The white skull's voice suddenly became incomparably forceful and high-pitched, ringing like two sharp swords striking each other. "Come. Now, pick me up and follow my instructions!"

"But I really don't know... about eras or calendars... The teacher never taught us." Wu Tie walked behind the white skull and lifted it in both hands.

Several translucent tubes dangled from the white skull's broken neck, swaying back and forth and slapping against Wu Tie's wrist.

"Fix your eyes on that direction... the direction with that hint of red light. That's right. Come, move your legs and take big strides!"

The white skull's voice was filled with strength.

"Little fellow, get moving. Left, right, left... left, right, left... left, right, left..."

"Straighten your back, lift your head, keep your legs straight. Watch your breathing rhythm and walk to this old man's beat."

"Left, right, left, left, right, left, left, right, left..."

The white skull was three times the size of a normal person's head. Wu Tie was thin and weak, and at eleven years old he was not tall. Carrying the white skull was like a little mouse carrying a giant egg, and walking was difficult.

Though the white skull was not heavy, Wu Tie had little strength to begin with.

The ground was slick, overgrown with thick moss and tangled with all kinds of strange vines. Before he had gone far, Wu Tie had already fallen several times.

But the white skull's calls of 'left, right, left' held a strange power. Each time, Wu Tie gritted his teeth, climbed back up, and carried it onward in the direction it indicated.

Fortunately, the white skull's material was extraordinary. Wu Tie dropped it to the ground several times, but whenever he picked it up again, it remained spotless from end to end, untouched by the slightest filth.

"Left, right, left, left, right, left. Mm, boy, you're starting to look the part... What's your name?" Bloodlight flickered in the white skull's eyes. A thread of red light flashed, and dozens of steps away, where Wu Tie could not see, a venomous snake slithering swiftly toward them was instantly cut into dozens of pieces.

"Wu Tie." Wu Tie panted. "Wu Taiping... What about you?"

"Wu Tie? Not a bad name. A man should be hard as iron!" said the white skull. "But Wu Taiping? 'No peace'... Who gave you those characters? Unlucky..."

Wu Tie's face fell.

The white skull gave a dry laugh. "Ka, ka, this old man's mouth really is foul... You'll get used to it, get used to it..."

Bloodlight flickered in its eyes as countless fine webs of light, invisible to Wu Tie, swept in every direction and covered a radius of a hundred meters.

"Wu Tie, Wu Tie. From now on, this old man will call you Little Tie. It sounds close, affectionate!"

"As for this old man's name... You can call me... Old Tie!"

"Old Tie?" Wu Tie felt that name was rather perfunctory.

"Of course, Old Tie... Can't you see I'm covered in lumps of iron? The name fits perfectly!"

After a few dry laughs, Old Tie said, "Keep going. Left, right, left, left, right, left... Walk another two thousand meters, then rest."

"At the same time, begin cultivating!"