Chapter 110: Giant Beast Skeletons

After crossing the cliff and standing at the far end of the metal bridge, the Chief Steward looked back at Wu Tie with considerable surprise.

"I'm really curious—actually, I saved you on a whim; I never thought you'd actually be able to come with me."

He slapped his left arm hard with his right hand and laughed, "Do you still remember this arm? You cut it off. I thought, being so young, you'd surely hesitate and be afraid."

Wu Tie watched the Chief Steward's newly grown left arm.

"I have hesitated… been afraid, to be honest." The White Tiger Rend lay across his shoulder as Wu Tie gripped the spear shaft tightly: "But after seeing Zhu Zixi's power, I won't pass up any chance to increase my own strength."

"Even if it means cooperating with me, your former enemy?" The Chief Steward grinned, turned, and continued forward.

"Even if it means cooperating with you, my former enemy." Wu Tie nodded, glancing at the few Mist Blade assassins following behind him.

"Hey, you're not stupid enough to turn on me again before getting your revenge, are you?" Wu Tie shouldered his spear and followed the Chief Steward step by step.

He stared at the Chief Steward's back and said slowly, "An elder once told me that when facing a strong foe, former enemies can join forces—isn't that the principle?"

The Chief Steward chuckled.

After walking for a while, he finally spoke: "That makes sense, but why not consider my suggestion? Join the Mist Blade, and I'll take you as my personal disciple."

"Compared to the Changsheng Sect, our Mist Blade is just an insignificant little power in the Cangyan Realm… but I'm confident that as long as we return to our ancestral land, driving back the Changsheng Sect will be no problem."

"By then, the Mist Blade will have unified the Cangyan Realm and expanded outward—who knows, you might become the new Mist Blade Chief Steward."

All the way, the Chief Steward touted the Mist Blade's various benefits to Wu Tie, who remained silent.

On this side of the bridge lay a hundred-meter-wide square corridor, its four walls cast of metal, with extremely fine lines etched on the floor and walls; a soft glow spilled from the lines, marking the forward passage.

The group proceeded forward, encountering a heavy metal door roughly every five hundred meters.

On the metal doors, each a hundred meters wide and tall, intricate patterns were traced by countless fine lines, inlaid with tiny crystals that glittered with a cold light.

As they passed a half-open metal door, Wu Tie deliberately struck the ten-meter-thick door with his White Tiger Rend.

With a tremendous bang, the door shuddered slightly, and some dust fell from above.

The door's material was superb—extremely hard and extremely supple.

Despite the White Tiger Rend's great weight, Wu Tie's casual blow left no mark on the door.

The Chief Steward and a few Mist Blade assassins glanced at Wu Tie, and the Chief Steward said with a hint of pride, "Haven't you seen such a marvel? These doors are almost beyond human craftsmanship. Even the Lu family, the finest metalworkers in the Cangyan Realm, couldn't forge something this massive."

"The foundation of our Mist Blade ancestors is beyond ordinary imagination." The Chief Steward laughed brightly. "Won't you consider it? The Mist Blade needs talent for its revival."

"I get the feeling this place is either a prison or… a refuge." Wu Tie ignored the Chief Steward, muttering to himself.

The Chief Steward's expression shifted slightly.

The group halted, standing in the corridor and looking ahead and behind for a moment.

In the dim corridor, the faint light emanating from the fine glowing lines illuminated the whole passage—not as bright as the False Sun, but enough to make out the surroundings.

The straight, square corridor had a massive metal door, ten meters thick and about a hundred meters square, roughly every five hundred meters.

The heavy metal doors weren't fully opened; they were merely shifted aside by a dozen meters or so to let people pass.

This arrangement… just as Wu Tie said, it's either like a prison or like a refuge.

"I don't even know how many years this place has existed." Wu Tie stepped up to a door and carefully examined the deep incised patterns and the tiny crystals inlaid within them.

Unrecognizable.

Can't identify.

These patterns form complex designs, and those tiny crystals surely have their uses, but Wu Tie can't make sense of them now.

Though his mind holds a vast store of knowledge, most of it is inaccessible; after staring for a long time, Wu Tie remains utterly bewildered.

The Chief Steward fell silent for a long while, then snorted coldly: "Come on—this corridor is rife with danger. If I weren't leading the way, and if we didn't have the Mist Blade ancestors' secret passage arts, we'd have died countless times here."

Continuing down the corridor, they passed twelve ten-meter-thick metal doors before entering a metallic cavern.

Before them lay a square cavern roughly a li in width and length, with a height nearing a thousand meters.

Metal catwalks extended from the floor upward; the cavern walls were pierced with many doorways, some faintly glowing, all linked by those catwalks.

High above, layers of catwalks were joined by skybridges spanning the entire space.

The dense network of metal catwalks and skybridges made the huge metallic cavern feel cramped.

Perhaps long ago, many people walked these catwalks and skybridges, and the rooms behind those doorways were their living quarters.

Wu Tie stepped into the nearest doorway and looked around; inside were some metal furnishings—a bunk, a table and chairs—with each doorway's space divided into ten standard cubicles, their fittings nearly identical.

"Living in here probably isn't comfortable." Wu Tie quickly retreated.

The cubicles behind the doors were cramped, barely enough for one person to lie down; with so many of them, they could accommodate at least tens of thousands.

Tens of thousands crowded together in this ant‑nest‑like space.

Wu Tie's scalp tingled; he grew more convinced that this place was either a prison or a refuge.

The ancestors of the Mist Blade clearly came from humble origins.

After passing through this metallic cavern, a short corridor led to another similar metallic cavern.

After traversing twelve such metallic caverns, ahead lay a yawning chasm, nearly a hundred meters wide and unfathomably deep.

This time, the Chief Steward and his few subordinates were much more cautious; Wu Tie also noticed crimson bloodstains and shattered metal fragments near the cliff's edge—evidently they had suffered a loss here before.

Still, the Chief Steward leapt off the cliff, performed something in a recessed stone crevice, and a metal bridge extended from the opposite side; the group crossed the bridge, and on the far side lay only a small platform roughly a hundred meters in diameter.

"Wu Tie, now that we're here, it's up to you." The Chief Steward looked at him solemnly. "This should be the final gate to enter the Mist Blade ancestral grounds…… but……"

Wu Tie nodded solemnly, gripping his spear with both hands; a point of golden light flickered at his brow, and an invisible field enveloped the entire platform.

He remained on guard against any possible mishap, especially any sudden move by the Chief Steward and his few subordinates.

The Chief Steward's expression turned odd as he muttered, "Our ancestors… actually lost the most important token needed to return to the ancestral land. It forces us juniors to endure such hardship……"

He shook his head, pulled a palm‑sized blood‑colored crystal from his chest, and set it into a depression at the platform's center.

The octagonal crystal and the depression were perfectly black.

Countless fine threads of blood light shot out from the depression in all directions, spreading rapidly across the platform as intricate crimson patterns; then dense beams of light shot skyward, enveloping the platform completely.

The surrounding light swirled, making his body feel as if it were floating, weightless.

Wu Tie nervously looked around; after about a quarter of an hour, the ground beneath them suddenly sank, and everyone found themselves in a huge sandstone gobi cavern.

The cavern is round, with a radius of perhaps two to three hundred li, and its vaulted ceiling is several thousand meters above the floor.

Black gravel covers the ground.

Wu Tie bent over and grabbed a handful of fine gravel; he frowned—this was not ordinary sand, but black vitreous sand formed when sandstone was melted by high heat.

A distant 'rumbling' sound came from afar; several li away, huge round metal automatons seven or eight meters tall strolled slowly around the area.

At a glance, there were at least a thousand of these huge metal automatons.

Their left hand held a metal ball studded with sharp spikes, while their right hand gripped an oversized weapon—swords, axes, clubs, hammers, you name it.

These giants wandered across the black sand plain; wherever Wu Tie could see, the pitch‑black sandstone gobi was littered with piles of enormous white bones.

Each bone was often a hundred meters long, stuck in the sandstone like arches; the automatons moved between them, occasionally slamming into a bone and letting out a tremendous boom.

"We need to go over there!" the Chief Steward bent down, picked up the octagonal Blood-Colored Crystal from the ground, and tucked it into his lapel.

Wu Tie's pupils contracted slightly.

Just moments ago they had been on a small platform; after the Chief Steward set the crystal in its center, they were transported here, and the crystal came with them.

Obviously, this crystal is the pass that allows entry and exit from this sandstone gobi cavern.

Wu Tie stared intently at Chief Steward Lin's chest.

The Chief Steward noticed Wu Tie's gaze, smiled, and pointed ahead: "We have to cross this plain… these giants are indestructible, with endless brute strength… we've charged several times, suffered heavy losses, yet couldn't break through."

Wu Tie frowned, smashed a nearby boulder with a thrust of his spear, lifted the shaft, and, combining immense strength with an invisible force, hurled a water‑jar‑sized stone outward.

The stone whistled, breaking through the air for several li.

A metal automaton on the ground suddenly raised its left arm; the spiked metal ball the size of a water jar on its arm flew out with a 'bang', slammed heavily into the stone, and shattered it into countless fragments.

The metal ball hung in the air for a breath, then spun rapidly in place hundreds of times, swooshed back, and reattached itself to the automaton's left arm.

"Indestructible, with endless brute strength, and those metal balls raining down nonstop." The Chief Steward's face twitched violently; he looked at Wu Tie and said in a low voice, "Several of my loyal death‑warriors were smashed straight into mincemeat by those balls."

"So I need someone with enough brute force and strong enough personal defense to hold these guys off." The Chief Steward stared earnestly at Wu Tie: "I don't even know if you're up to it."

Wu Tie's face twitched as well; looking at those huge metal automatons, he imagined the frenzy of metal balls raining down from the sky and couldn't help but shudder.

"Let's try." Wu Tie told the Chief Steward frankly.

"Don't push yourself." The Chief Steward also looked at Wu Tie earnestly: "Although I really want to see the ancestral land and find out what treasures lie within… according to our forebears, those treasures can turn the heavens and earth upside down…"

A flicker of shock crossed his eyes; the Chief Steward said in a low voice, "Perhaps it could even leave me without a corpse. But we still have to go see, don't we?"

Shaking his head, the Chief Steward looked at the metal automatons: "These fellows were originally the guardians of the ancestral land… but our ancestors lost the identity token that controls them, so we're barred from returning to the ancestral land by them."

Wu Tie took a deep breath.

The mirror‑like heart‑guard on his front and back quivered violently, quickly forming a set of pallid, tight‑fitting armor that encased his whole body.

The Chief Steward's eyes lit up… he had seen this armor on Wu Tie before and knew how strong its defense was.

Wu Tie gripped the White Tiger Split and strode forward.

The White Tiger Split was extraordinarily heavy, Wu Tie's footsteps unusually dull and loud; the metal automatons nearby and far away turned toward him, broke into a run, and then simultaneously swung their left arms.

Water‑jar‑sized metal balls shot out at extreme speed, drawing clear white trails in the air.

Wu Tie swung the White Tiger Split.

The spear traced perfect arcs, its spearhead—shaped like a short dagger—flashing quickly; in the astonished eyes of the Chief Steward and several Mist‑Blade assassins, the metal balls that had baffled them for ages were effortlessly cleaved by Wu Tie.

Sparks sprayed from the metal balls; once cleaved, they could no longer fly back.

In just a few breaths, over a thousand metal automatons simultaneously lost their ranged weapons.

Wu Tie laughed loudly, hoisted the White Tiger Split on his shoulder, and sprinted forward.

The Chief Steward also burst out laughing, hastily bringing a few subordinates to follow close behind Wu Tie.

Without those heavy ranged weapons, the metal automatons' movement speed was sluggish; they could hardly keep up with Wu Tie and his companions.

After running for a long time, a sheer black cliff loomed ahead.

On the cliff, a huge black cave mouth stood out prominently.

Outside that black cave mouth, a gigantic skeleton nearly a kilometer long clung to the rock.

It was the skeletal remains of a fearsome nine‑headed snake, its black bones still exhaling a faint dark aura in all directions.

"A nine‑headed snake?" the Chief Steward shuddered involuntarily, his blood surging, a black pattern flashing beneath his skin.

"This is… the demon beast Xiangliu." Wu Tie was equally shocked.

"It's not a nine‑headed snake, but an ancient giant demon—or you could call it an ancient demon god… the monstrous entity Xiangliu."