Chapter 1054: Absolute Crime (1)

Ha!

Ha!

Ha!

A mighty battle roar exuding a surge of heaven‑toppling anger rang out.

The illusory apparition of Fuxi hovering in mid‑air flickered slightly, and several dozen blood‑colored war smokes shot up from the rift valley to great height.

Sturdy warriors in heavy armor, wielding great swords and axes, shouldering spears and strong crossbows, leapt out of the rift valley in droves and quickly formed neat battle arrays in mid‑air.

The first batch numbered a dozen or so sturdy men, the second batch several thousand, and the third batch now charging out of the rift valley totaled a full thirty‑six thousand.

They formed units of six thousand, arranging themselves in a flower‑like circular array that closed in on Wu Tie.

Wu Tie narrowed his eyes: "Friends, I bear no malice; I merely seek a fragment of the Haotian Mirror.... If you are willing, we can negotiate a fair exchange."

Wu Tie recalled the scene he had seen in the mirror's surface.

Such a large fragment was suppressed by layer upon layer of divine formations, seemingly serving as an energy hub for a grand formation. To obtain it without paying any price, one must inevitably clash with these elite armored soldiers.

But Wu Tie really did not want to pick a fight with them for no reason.

If those men had not just attacked like assassins, Wu Tie would not have beaten them until they vomited blood.

Therefore, in Wu Tie's view, peacefully obtaining that fragment through fair trade is the most suitable means.

"Enemy attack, kill!" The thirty‑six‑thousand‑strong battle array, divided into units of six thousand, had each unit's supreme commander clad in blood‑colored armor, a stark contrast to the jet‑black armor of the troops behind him.

The six supreme commanders each held a heavy sword nearly as tall as themselves, with a surge of blood energy rising above their heads; instantly the chaotic grand dao resonance in the void fluctuated rapidly, and sinuous dao patterns like evil dragons and poisonous serpents streamed down, dragging countless blinding lightning bolts.

What erupted was the foreign grand dao of the myriad divine clans.

The aura emitted by these six supreme commanders was the pure resonance of Mu Dalu's primordial grand dao.

Yet their aura was overwhelmingly strong; they had clearly condensed dao seals, each a bona fide venerable being.

Although their rank was not high—having only just condensed dao seals—they had indeed condensed dao seals.

Those foreign grand daos, like poisonous insects and beasts scenting blood, greedily lunged forward.

"Quick battle, quick decision!" A blood‑clad sturdy man swung his heavy sword, a flash of cold light arcing toward Wu Tie's neck. Though he himself had only just condensed a dao seal, he received magical support from six thousand high‑level divine manifestation warriors, and the sword's flash carried power rivaling that of a second‑heaven venerable.

Wu Tie raised his right hand; with a booming "Bang!" he firmly gripped the heavy sword that the sturdy man had just sliced down at him.

The sword's light frenetically carved into Wu Tie's palm, spraying countless sparks. His palm remained unblemished, not even the calloused skin harmed. With a casual twist he heard continual cracking, and the sturdy man's sword was crushed to powder by Wu Tie's grip.

Then a punch.

The dragon‑head heart‑protection mirror embossed on the sturdy man's chest shattered instantly, his upper‑body blood‑colored armor exploding into countless fragments; his chest caved in and his body shot backward like a meteor, blasting a straight passage through the dense ranks behind him.

Hundreds of black‑armored elite warriors had their armor shattered by the yin‑soft latent force attached to Wu Tie's punch, their ribs broken and blood spilling from their mouths as they collapsed alongside their leader.

Dark clouds roiled in the high sky, the agitated foreign grand dao's resonance twisting them into tornado‑like black clouds filled with countless eerily gleaming lightning bolts; five black clouds howled toward the remaining five blood‑clad sturdy men who were emanating their aura at full strength.

The scene was as if they had provoked heaven itself, and the celestial thunder tribulation descended to annihilate them!

Of course, Wu Tie clearly saw that the pattern of Mu Dalu's primordial grand dao remained utterly still.

The attacking force came entirely from the gods‑blessed foreign grand dao that had invaded Mu Dalu's heavenly‑earthly dao system. The lightning attached to those black clouds was terrifyingly lethal; each bolt packed the full‑power strike of a first‑ or second‑heaven venerable.

Wu Tie, evidently, had not suffered any attack from those foreign grand daos.

"A sacrifice?" Wu Tie muttered to himself: "Because I obtained the foreign grand dao's permission through sacrifice, I was able to condense a dao seal. Thus I gained the right of free passage, while they… they are opposed by those foreign grand daos."

"Heretical demons, die!" Five blood‑clad leaders gripped their heavy swords, turned their units into streams of light, and shot toward Wu Tie at breakneck speed.

Wu Tie cleanly unleashed five punches.

Five heavy swords shattered, the five blood‑clad leaders vomited blood and collapsed, their auras vanishing instantly; then the black‑cloud tornadoes hesitated a moment before exploding into chaotic primordial energy torrents that surged wildly through the high sky.

"Everyone, let's talk." Wu Tie said with hands behind his back, voice low: "I came for a fragment of the Haotian Mirror; I mean no hostility toward you."

On the ground lay thousands of armored soldiers, strewn haphazardly and vomiting blood.

In the air, over thirty thousand armored soldiers were unharmed, yet upon seeing Wu Tie with his hands behind his back and their fallen comrades on the ground, more than thirty thousand soldiers roared in unison, quickly forming a simple pure conical assault conduit, channeling the mana of over thirty thousand into a single soldier of the tenth‑heaven divine manifestation, who struck Wu Tie with all his might.

Wu Tie lifted his foot and stepped down.

That soldier, having received the mana of all his comrades, delivered a blow that truly reached the venerable level.

A spear‑light tore through the void, crashing hard into Wu Tie's chest.

Wu Tie brought his other foot down, shattering the spear‑light and the steel tip, a blast of gang wind slamming into the assault conduit and sending more than thirty thousand soldiers spitting blood, their mana disrupted, as they howled and cursed while plummeting from the sky.

"Heretical demons, dare to invade our human holy land—die without mercy!" From the distant rift valley came a towering figure eight to nine feet tall, his physique as robust as a mountain‑gorilla king of war, his arms thicker than Wu Tie's waist by more than double, and nearly as long as his own height—a burly giant who lunged forward.

The giant's aura was even more overbearing and terrifying, clearly reaching the level of a fourth‑heaven venerable.

In the high sky, the tornado of lightning condensed from the foreign grand dao swooped down, bolt after bolt slamming into him, scorching his skin with patches of blackened char and sheathing his body in countless tiny electric arcs—yet it could not truly wound him.

The lightning tornado raged, and the primordial energy tide over the entire landmass went berserk.

The dizzying tornado expanded rapidly, its internal lightning power surging, while the sturdy man's stature ballooned from eight to nine feet up to twenty‑odd feet.

One enormously thick arm swelled, its fist—many times larger than a water barrel—whipping up a vicious wind that cleaved straight toward Wu Tie's head.

"Ultimate force—kill!" The burly man exhaled unbelievably violent blood‑qi, his punch carving a vacuum tunnel in the air; the surrounding space twisted and ruptured, forming a black fist‑gang that slammed into Wu Tie's chest.

Wu Tie thrust out his chest and took the blow head‑on.

With a tremendous boom, Wu Tie hovered unmoving in the air, his chest slightly depressed, a bell‑like roar echoing from within his thorax; the burly man's punch was ferociously violent, shaking every one of Wu Tie's ribs and eliciting a massive roar.

Yet he suffered only the shaking, no actual injury.

On the contrary, Wu Tie's ribs vibrated at high frequency, the violent recoil blasting into the man's fist; a chorus of bone‑cracking rang out as the bones in his fist shattered piece by piece, and the bones of his entire arm were pulverized together.

The tremendous recoil shattered large swaths of flesh on the man's right shoulder, dozens of bone fragments of varying size shooting outward like shrapnel with a piercing whistle.

The burly man bellowed, his body jerking violently; the spurting bone and flesh that had flown backward suddenly congealed, then with a "Splash!" returned to his physique. A surge of immense essence‑blood qi caused his bones to spontaneously re‑assemble, instantly healing his injuries.

"What hard bones!" the burly man exclaimed, staring at the unscathed Wu Tie, and roared: "The mightier the demon, the more it deserves death!"

Wu Tie narrowed his eyes; countless lightning dragons in the high sky slammed into the man like a torrent, bursting his skin open—yet his wounds swiftly healed. The man stubbornly endured the foreign grand dao's frenzied assault, his eyes locked on Wu Tie, poised to slay him on the spot.

"Human, holy land?" Wu Tie muttered: "I only know that Qi Island is the human holy land!"

"This is Xi Valley, also called Holy Valley!" the burly man laughed, baring his teeth: "The strongest, truly mighty warriors of humanity are all gathered here… apart from Xi Valley, every other human male is a soft‑egg, a woman!"

Both hands raised high, he swung his huge fist, shattering more than half of the black-cloud thunder scroll that had swollen to a thousand-li diameter. The burly man hoarsely roared: "Only a true man who dares to face the heavenly tribulation and slay the enemy is a true warrior of humanity!"

The burly man opened his mouth, a scarlet tongue vibrating rapidly inside his mouth, accompanied by a strong smell of blood, he shouted hoarsely at Wu Tie: "Kill!"

A towering battle intent surged forward, shaking Wu Tie so much that his pupils involuntarily shrank.

This battle intent, this killing intent, this terrifying hatred condensed into near-substance—under Wu Tie's command, not even the most frenzied war-loving demon supremes could match the burly man before him.

He is one who, in his heart, already regards himself as dead; in every battle he either kills the enemy or perishes with them, never considering his own life, death, honor, or disgrace—a thug!

Pure thug!

Hit by his killing intent and killing thoughts, Wu Tie gritted his teeth and retreated dozens of steps, each step retreating a hundred li, instantly withdrawing several thousand li away.

Such a thug, yet such a hero—Wu Tie felt… unable to act.

"Tell your superiors: humanity, Wuguo, Martial King Wu Tie, visiting with boundless human-path merit!" Wu Tie waved his hand; behind him, a golden merit disc over thirty thousand li in diameter, bright enough to blind eyes, appeared.

Golden light stretched ten thousand li, purple qi rose, the rich and thick human-path merit power swept across the sky, and the surrounding yuan-energy tides suddenly became gentler and more compliant.

The burly man, about to go all-out against Wu Tie, suddenly froze; he vigorously rubbed his wine-barrel-sized eyes, stared in shock at Wu Tie, and shouted: "Where did this bastard come from, teasing your grandpa here? Boundless human-path merit… you, you, you… what do I fight you for? What do I fight you for? Wait, just wait!"

The burly man gritted his teeth, pointed fiercely at Wu Tie, then lowered his head to look at the tens of thousands of soldiers lying haphazardly across the desert, and roared in frustration: "Who the hell messed up the hair alert? Who did this? Later I'll go get the baton… embarrassing ourselves, are you ashamed? It's fine if you're ashamed, but you've dragged grandpa into shame with you…"

"For the remaining half of this year, everyone's daily training will be tripled!"

"If you don't train to death, you lot of bastards, you're all arrogant and reckless to the heavens!"

The burly man turned into a stream of light, flew toward the great rift valley, and vanished without a trace in a flash.

Wu Tie bore a huge golden disc, floating ostentatiously in the air, waiting silently.

From the great rift valley another tens of thousands of sturdy men flew out, helping those lying on the desert back to their feet. Everyone bore a hint of shame and curiosity, staring at Wu Tie again and again; ninety-nine percent wore dissatisfied expressions, each one unruly, pointing and commenting at Wu Tie, ready to provoke again at any moment.

Soon the desert was spotless, not a single fragment of broken armor left.

Wu Tie waited silently.

Thus, after a full hour, the burly man whose punch had been terrifyingly powerful finally dragged his two arms, almost as long as his height, and strode out of the rift valley into the air.

"Martial King Wu Tie? Come on, the elders want to see you." The burly man hooked his finger at Wu Tie from afar: "This is Xi Valley, under the control of the Xi lineage, the gathering place of humanity's strongest warriors and greatest martial power."

"This is humanity's holy land; several elders hold exalted positions, having lived countless ages. You kid may have some skills, but before the elders you're probably not enough. So go in, behave, and don't cause trouble."

After the burly man waited for Wu Tie to fly to his side, he lowered his voice: "You can withstand my punch head-on; I most admire capable heroes… therefore, I warn you: don't think that having a few tricks makes you something remarkable."

"Which elder in Xi Valley lacks the power to move heaven and earth? Suppressing us juniors is just a flick of a finger!"

"Go in, behave, be polite, listen, don't spout nonsense or stir trouble, otherwise you'll invite disaster… even the old ladies of Wa Island won't be able to save you!"

The burly man glanced askance at the treasure mirror hanging behind Wu Tie's head and muttered: "Heavenly Mirror, wasn't it taken by that little girl from Wa Island a few days ago? How is it in your hands? Did you snatch it?"

"Hey, hey, that little girl still has some charm; if she didn't have a child, I'd really want to hook up with her!"

Wu Tie gave a dry cough and said nothing.

The two, both immensely powerful, soon arrived inside Xi Valley.

Xi Valley extends deep underground; on both sides of the rock walls, palaces and pavilions are built layer upon layer against the cliffs, each hall containing countless soldiers with fists clasped, a hint of murderous aura, glaring fiercely at Wu Tie.