Chapter 10: Chapter Nine: Ancient God Barracks

Dig, dig, dig……

The soil on the ground was extremely soft on the surface; Wu Tie dug it up with relative ease.

After digging down two feet, the sand and stone content in the soil increased rapidly, the ground became harder and harder, and Wu Tie's fingers were soon rubbed raw, all ten fingernails worn to a bloody mess, with drops of blood continuously falling onto the ground.

His arms trembled, his fingers spasmed, and Wu Tie grimaced at the bloodstains on the ground.

In a circle two meters in diameter, he had only dug two feet deep in a two-foot-square area, and his ten fingers were already suffering excruciating pain; he could no longer continue digging.

"Stupid..." a cold snort, a bolt of electricity as thick as a soybean struck Wu Tie hard.

Wu Tie screamed in pain, his whole body twitching as he collapsed to the ground. His hair stood on end, strand by strand, with tiny electric sparks crackling violently between them.

"The difference between intelligent beings and animals is that intelligent beings use tools." Lao Tie lashed Wu Tie with a bolt of electricity, making him twitch and wail, saying word by word: "That tooth hanging on your chest—don't you feel it's sturdier than your fingers?"

Wu Tie's face suddenly stiffened; he endured the pain, lifted his head, and asked Lao Tie: "Why didn't you warn me earlier?"

"Grandfather, I want to see just how stupid you can get." Lao Tie sneered: "As expected, you're indeed the stupidest kind."

With a weird laugh, Lao Tie said: "Sorry, Grandfather I am just this frank and honest fellow... I just love speaking the blunt truth."

Wu Tie gritted his teeth, stayed silent, stood up, untied the necklace bearing Chiyou's Tooth, wrapped the beast-sinew cord around his wrist, and gripped Chiyou's Tooth, stabbing it hard into the ground.

As he exerted force with Chiyou's Tooth, a faint current seemed to surge from within the tooth. Wu Tie's palm felt a tingling, numb sensation, somewhat like being shocked by Lao Tie.

The tingling sensation spread through his body, and his fatigued physique began to regain strength.

With a "pa" sound, Chiyou's Tooth slammed heavily onto the ground.

A large chunk of earth and stone was shattered into powder; Wu Tie casually pried with Chiyou's Tooth, and a basin-sized pit appeared on the ground.

Wu Tie stared blankly, astonished at the Chiyou's Tooth in his hand; he gave a "gehe" laugh, gripped it tighter, and worked even harder.

Lao Tie had been staring at Wu Tie the whole time. Seeing Wu Tie smile, Lao Tie's eyeballs darted around quickly, and he muttered in a voice barely audible: "Still able to laugh, it seems you haven't gone completely insane; you won't become a murderous demon king utterly blinded by hatred..."

"But even if you become a murderous demon king, what of it?" Lao Tie gave a few meaningless chuckles.

A flash of red light; in a mushroom patch a hundred meters away, dozens of thumb-sized poisonous spiders crawling swiftly toward Wu Tie let out a "chi" and instantly turned into wisps of black smoke.

"Xiao Tie, speed up a bit." Lao Tie's voice grew somewhat weak: "Grandfather I have exerted myself all this way; if you don't hurry, I truly won't have the strength to keep accompanying you in your tossing about."

Wu Tie's body stiffened; he clenched his teeth tightly, and Chiyou's Tooth stabbed faster and faster into the ground, mud and sand flying, dust swirling. The thin muscles on Wu Tie's body quivered rapidly; soon he was drenched in sweat, sand and dirt sprinkling onto him, forming a thick layer of mud.

Chiyou's Tooth is terrifyingly sharp; any stone struck lightly explodes into stone powder, giving Wu Tie great convenience.

Wu Tie dug energetically, and a large pit two meters in diameter gradually grew deeper.

When too exhausted to move, he would stop, take a nap, eat something, practice some Foundation Establishment exercises to loosen his body, quickly regain energy, then resume digging.

One day... two days... three days... ten days later, Wu Tie had already dug a pit over five meters deep at the original spot.

Fortunately, the soil layers here were very stable; the surrounding walls of the pit showed no signs of collapse.

That day, Wu Tie swung Chiyou's Tooth, just splitting a stone the size of a human head, when Chiyou's Tooth suddenly struck a hard object. With a crisp clang, sparks flew; despite having cut earth and split stone with ease these past days, Chiyou's Tooth could not break the hard object, and Wu Tie's palm was shaken with excruciating pain.

"Did you hit it?" Lao Tie's voice came from above the pit.

Wu Tie scraped away the dirt on the ground with Chiyou's Tooth; beneath the soil lay a pallid metal plate.

The ghastly white metal resembled Lao Tie's material.

"Found it?" Wu Tie stroked the cold metal plate, just like Lao Tie, this metal plate had been buried under dirt for who knows how long; Wu Tie brushed his palm over it, and not a speck of dust could adhere, leaving the metal plate exceptionally clean.

"Bring Grandfather me down; this gate, you cannot open it." Lao Tie said eagerly.

"Gate?" Wu Tie examined the metal plate under his feet carefully; it didn't look like a gate at all.

Climbing up via the small niche carved into the pit wall, Wu Tie picked up Lao Tie, stood at the edge of the pit, thought for a moment, then threw Lao Tie directly down into the deep pit.

"Xiao Tie, you little brat!" Lao Tie thudded onto the metal plate with a "dong", lying face down, furious, he let out a loud roar.

"This time I'm not stupid... holding you, I couldn't possibly climb down anyway." Wu Tie climbed back to the pit bottom via the small niche, speaking solemnly to Lao Tie: "So I threw you down; after all, you won't be harmed by the fall."

Lao Tie remained silent for a long while.

After a long time, Lao Tie said dryly: "Grandfather I truly have the talent to be a teacher... such a stupid child, in just these few days, has been taught to be this clever... you little brat..."

Lao Tie's eye sockets suddenly shot out two streaks of red light; thick red beams fell onto the white metal plate.

The metal plate, extremely hard, even Chiyou's Tooth could not scratch it in the slightest, rippled like water; Wu Tie felt the ground vanish beneath his feet, let out a strange cry, and he and Lao Tie plunged through the metal plate together.

Strangely, Wu Tie and Lao Tie fell down, yet not a single grain of sand managed to pass through this metal plate.

"Ah~~~"!

His body kept falling downward; all around was pitch black, Wu Tie was terrified to the extreme, and instinctively let out a sharp cry.

After an unknown amount of time, the body plummeting downward suddenly came to a halt.

There was no sensation of touching solid ground beneath his feet; he remained suspended between heaven and earth, but his body had indeed stopped.

"Light." In the darkness, Lao Tie's voice sounded.

An extremely soft voice echoed from all directions; icy white light blazed up, illuminating the surroundings.

Wu Tie widened his eyes.

This is an enormous square space, at least the size of ten Wu Family Shibaos. The floor is mirror-smooth, made of the same pallid white metal material.

Wu Tie hovered about three inches above the floor; he strained slightly, and the force supporting his body vanished, allowing him to land lightly on the ground.

With a "dong", Lao Tie likewise landed.

Wu Tie raised his head; the ceiling was nearly a hundred meters above the floor, seamless like the floor, with no visible seams, and Wu Tie could not fathom where he and Lao Tie had fallen from.

The floor, ceiling, and surrounding walls are all made of pallid white metal.

The white light emanates from the floor, ceiling, and surrounding walls; these metal plates, whose thickness is unknown, actually transmit light?

"Lift Grandfather up and move forward." Lao Tie's icy voice carried a hint of urgency: "Xiao Tie, you little brat, see how your luck fares."

"Luck?" Wu Tie reached out to embrace Lao Tie, hearing Lao Tie's words, his motion suddenly stiffened: "What do you mean by seeing my luck?"

Lao Tie's eyeballs shifted: "I mean, there is something here that can greatly increase your cultivation efficiency. But whether it remains, and how much remains, depends on your luck."

"You..." Wu Tie almost lost his breath, he clenched his fists and shook them at Lao Tie, thought it over, then gripped Chiyou's Tooth in his hand and gestured fiercely at Lao Tie.

"You've grown clever, learned to use tools... congratulations on advancing an infinitesimal step on the path of evolution, from primitive savage to human." Lao Tie said dryly: "But first, lift Grandfather me up and move forward; don't waste time."

"I…" Wu Tie felt a stifling sensation.

He had no way against Lao Tie. After hanging up Chiyou's Tooth properly, Wu Tie picked up Lao Tie and walked toward the wall he had mentioned: "Lao Tie, you deceived me…"

"So remember this lesson; from now on, don't easily believe others' words." Lao Tie said dryly: "If that thing is gone, didn't you just suffer for nothing these past few days, right?"

Wu Tie gritted his teeth in anger, holding Lao Tie as he approached the smooth wall.

"What place is this?" Although angry, Wu Tie couldn't suppress his curiosity and couldn't help asking Lao Tie.

"Grandpa I am the ninth-generation medical-protection type ancient divine weapon… Ancient divine weapon, you haven't heard of it?" Lao Tie's eyes shot out two red beams that fell on the seamless, smooth wall: "Grandpa I am an ancient divine weapon; this place is Grandpa I's lair, naturally it's the ancient divine weapon camp!"

Blue electric light flowed like water, continuously welling up from the pallid white wall.

The electric light spread outward; the pallid white metal wall writhed, and a gateway twenty meters wide and fifty meters high silently opened in the wall.

Behind the door was a smooth corridor, likewise cast from pallid white metal, with no seams on any wall, and cold white light shone from behind the metal walls.

"Go in." Lao Tie gave the order.

Wu Tie carefully carried Lao Tie into the corridor, gazing forward curiously.

The corridor sloped straight downward at a thirty-degree angle, and the huge corridor was spotless, not a speck of dust.

As Wu Tie walked, he constantly felt a chilling sensation behind him, as if countless invisible eyes were peeping at him from all directions.

"I don't feel good." Wu Tie shivered and whispered to himself: "It feels like many people are watching me."

Countless invisible ultrafine lines of light densely covered the floor, ceiling, and side walls of the corridor, sweeping rapidly over Wu Tie's body.

Lao Tie's eyes likewise emitted countless invisible fine light beams, which rapidly jumped and flickered, swiftly intertwining with the light emanating from the walls.

Hearing Wu Tie's muttering, Lao Tie said in a low voice: "Your perception… isn't weak, eh? A few days ago you didn't have such keen perception; it seems the Foundation Establishment method is working well on you."

"Is someone really watching me?" Wu Tie asked instinctively.

"Not a person… it's this ancient divine weapon camp watching you." Lao Tie chuckled: "Since the camp was completed, you're the first flesh-and-blood body to enter here, right? It's natural for it to be curious about you."

A thin beam of light swept over one of Lao Tie's eyes.

"Second?" Lao Tie's figure suddenly rose: "Who was the first?"

Another ultrafine thread of light swept over.

Lao Tie's voice became unusually urgent: "Listen to my command, Xiao Tie, run… uh, the floor's slippery, put Grandpa I on the ground and kick off. Ready, one-two-one, run!"

Wu Tie was more than happy to obey Lao Tie's command.

He threw Lao Tie onto the ground and then kicked him forward.

"Thud-thud-thud-thud," Lao Tie bounced and jumped down the thirty-degree sloping corridor, rolling forward, while Wu Tie sprinted hard on his heels.

After nearly a month of Foundation Establishment training, Wu Tie's physique had improved greatly, and after Lao Tie's deliberate coaching and constant electrical stimulation, he ran like a nimble rock rat, closely following Lao Tie.

Whenever Lao Tie was about to stop, Wu Tie would harshly kick him in the back.

"Thud-thud-thud-thud," "ding-ding-dang-dang," Wu Tie and Lao Tie raced through the corridor, eventually reaching its end, where they found a similarly square chamber, several times larger than the room at the corridor's entrance.

They had run at full speed for a full hour, Wu Tie drenched in sweat, his legs wobbling.

Lao Tie couldn't wait any longer and shouted; Wu Tie picked him up and brought him to the left wall.

Just as before, blue electric light flashed, and a huge doorway silently appeared on the wall; beyond it lay an enormous hall.

Square, with pallid white metal walls forming the hall.

Numerous transparent crystal balls, each several meters in diameter, hovered in the air, some filled with white liquid.

Only one crystal ball contained a patch of bright red, and only that ball held the silhouette of a stalwart figure.

"As expected, you're the second…" Blood Light flared in Lao Tie's eye sockets as he stared fixedly at the figure within that crystal ball.

Drawn by an inexplicable atmosphere, Wu Tie carried Lao Tie step by step to a point directly beneath that crystal ball.

The liquid inside the crystal ball should have been white, but too much blood had dyed it red; within the translucent red liquid, the stalwart figure was clearly visible.

He stood nearly three meters tall, with a mighty, perfect build, and his face was handsome, stern, and exuded a divine, awe-inspiring aura like a heavenly deity.

He wore a set of extraordinarily ornate white heavy armor; both its design and the elaborate, gorgeous patterns upon it reached the pinnacle of artistic craftsmanship—something Wu Tie had never seen before.

Unfortunately, this splendid armor had a basin‑sized hole torn in the chest, which likewise pierced the stalwart man's chest.

Wu Tie gazed at the man with reverence.

He was surely dead, yet he still emitted a terrifying aura that made Wu Tie almost unable to meet his gaze.

"Who is he? Why does he have three eyes?" Wu Tie asked Lao Tie reverently.

In the man's brow sat a vertical eye larger than his normal eyes; the wide‑open vertical eye faintly glowed with gold, solemn and sacred, filled with an overriding, domineering presence that loomed above all.

"Junior Manifest Sage True Lord… Yang Jian." Lao Tie said slowly: "A shameless fellow… docking Grandpa I's wages was bad enough… but he even changed his own name to Yang Jian."

"Do you really think having a third eye makes you the legendary Erlang True Lord? Pah!"

"Ha, he's dead… Grandpa I isn't the slightest bit sad!" Lao Tie burst out laughing: "Hahaha, Grandpa I am absolutely thrilled!"

His cold, stiff laughter echoed in the hall, and a buzzing reverberation rose all around.