Chapter 125

Hiss~~~!

The giant wolf spider suddenly raised its head, opened its mouthparts, and let out an unrestrained long howl.

An extremely fat rock rat lay limp on the ground, its whole body reduced to just a skin, its flesh and organs turned into liquid, sucked completely dry by this giant wolf spider.

Wu Tie gave a soft shout, the giant wolf spider strode on its long legs, carrying Wu Tie a few steps to the edge of a narrow ditch; amid Wu Tie's rebukes, it plunged its head into the water and swirled it around, washing the blood from its face completely clean.

With a "crack", Stone Fei, holding a small chisel, chiseled off a huge chunk of tartar from the big tooth of his mount, the gray-rock lizard, and disdainfully tossed it into the ditch tens of meters downstream.

"These damned slave embryos deserve a good whipping. Such a huge piece of filth—tsk, the teeth are about to rot." Stone Fei put down the chisel, took out a large brush, dabbed it with some mineral salt, and vigorously scrubbed the big tooth of the lizard.

The big lizard enjoyed opening its mouth, continuously emitting a "hoo-hoo" sound from its throat, and the hot wind made Stone Fei's hair flutter wildly.

Lu Ji's mechanical spider stood to one side, its several long legs lowered to form a small enclosed space. Lu Ji hid within the space surrounded by the metal spider's legs, furrowing his brow as he polished several delicate metal components.

From time to time, a puff of pale-white flame spurted from Lu Ji's palm, the flame only a few inches high but astonishingly hot, quickly softening and melting those metal parts, then re-casting them into shape before he continued polishing them carefully.

Soon, a double-barreled short-barreled hunting gun took shape in Lu Ji's hands.

The design drawings for this gun came from Wu Tie; it is a trivial item in Old Iron's chaotic knowledge base, marked as belonging to extremely backward technology.

Lu Ji engraved extremely fine patterns on the gun barrel; he carefully melted a soybean-sized piece of highly conductive silver-isotope metal, drew it into fine wires, and filled the barrel's patterns bit by bit.

This is a magic-circuit pattern, utterly different from the rune-array knowledge belonging to the Lu family's secret casting tradition; it is knowledge of another system for utilizing heavenly and earthly primal energy. This too was transmitted by Wu Tie, an ancient technique from Old Iron's knowledge base.

Magic-circuit patterns constitute an extremely powerful power system, especially possessing marvelous applications on mechanical components.

Everyone had already left the Cangyan Realm three days ago; during those three days, the group proceeded forward along this small ditch, and whenever they stopped to rest, Wu Tie imparted the scattered knowledge he could retrieve, according to everyone's interests.

When Wu Tie was imparting this knowledge, he seemed to hear Grey Master's approving voice.

Do not cling to your own broken broom; do not be closed-minded and conservative. Let knowledge spread, let the flowers of wisdom bloom across the world, let the light of wisdom shine in everyone's hearts. When everyone is bathed in the light of knowledge, this world will surely become better.

"Even if it's using knowledge to create weapons for killing?" Wu Tie lightly patted the giant wolf spider's head, using this method to deepen his emotional bond with this mount. He turned his head to look at Lu Ji, wholly immersed in the double-barreled hunting gun, and curiously asked himself this question.

What exactly will knowledge and wisdom bring…? This is a double-edged sword, perhaps?

Wu Tie has already learned to analyze problems comprehensively and thoroughly; his mind and wisdom are rapidly maturing, transforming at a speed surpassing ordinary people.

With a "bang", Old Bai's laughter came from farther away.

He raised a medicine bottle high and loudly laughed to Wu Tie and the others: "Success! The stamina potion, success! Hahaha, as long as one bottle of this potion is consumed, even a whole day of rapid walking will leave one with abundant stamina."

"Wu Tie, I succeeded; this is the first potion I have truly prepared."

"It's not by luck, not by experience; rather, as I was putting these ingredients in, I just knew it would definitely succeed."

"I have finally become a qualified alchemist."

Old Bai trembled with excitement; overexcited, he lifted the bottle that could be divided into three doses of stamina potion and gulped it down in one go.

Wu Tie slapped his forehead, speechlessly shaking his head.

Good, it looks like for the next several days Old Bai won't need to sleep or rest. Once the medicine's effect wears off, will this old guy's body hold up? We need to prepare a stamina potion for him in advance; otherwise, after he overdrafts his strength, given his age, he could even die suddenly.

Old Bai was already so excited he started running around everywhere.

A continuous stream of power surged from within his body; he felt no fatigue, his movements became much more agile, his reactions much quicker, and even his strength increased considerably. Old Bai turned into a black dart, dashing up and down, playing to an extent unknown how happy he was.

He finally became a true qualified alchemist, no longer a bumbling concocter who relied on heaven for meals and random experience.

Wu Tie compiled an introductory potions manual for Old Bai, containing twenty-four miraculous potions; this is the first stamina potion, with another twenty-three potions awaiting Old Bai to study and prepare.

The knowledge of these potions, in this era, is sufficient to serve as a long-term foundation for a great family's prosperity.

Just the knowledge of these twenty-four potions is enough to support a great family like the Lu, Shi, or Yan families, becoming their foundation.

Therefore Old Bai was excessively excited, excessively happy.

Yan Hanlu sat not far from Wu Tie; she slowly opened her eyes and gave Old Bai a cold glance.

The "Formless Bone Demon Classic"; Yan Hanlu is currently cultivating the Formless Bone Demon Classic.

Since Wu Tie discerned from the formless relic that the essence of the Formless Bone Demon Classic is "evil skin, holy bone—externally evil, internally holy," his perception of this practice has completely changed… Of course, this also has to do with the witch maiden.

The witch maiden is so obedient and cute; how could the Formless Bone Demon Classic possibly be an evil demonic practice?

Therefore Wu Tie transmitted the Formless Bone Demon Classic to these few companions on the journey; Yan Hanlu was the most attentive, her aptitude seemingly also the finest; in just two or three days she had already entered the inner sanctum, and her aura became much more ethereal.

"Summon!" Yan Hanlu suddenly gave a soft shout.

She took out two shining ox horns and threw them heavily onto the ground.

With two "cracks", the ox horns sank deep into the riverside mud. After a while, the soil churned, and two black ox-skeleton soldiers about three zhang tall swayed their bodies, slowly emerging from the mud.

In their deep eye sockets burned two clusters of white flame; the two skeleton soldiers gazed at Yan Hanlu in silence, deep and solemn.

Having just finished brushing the big lizard's teeth, Stone Fei happened to see this scene; he cheerfully shouted, grabbed two large axes from the weapon rack on the lizard's back, and threw them over.

Yan Hanlu gave a soft shout, her hands forming seals; the two ox-skeleton soldiers, retaining a hint of instinct before them, reached out and steadily caught the two large axes, then they swung the axes in a wild chop before them, yet it still had some order, the axes splitting the air with continual "whoosh" sounds.

Wu Tie picked up a stone and hurled it over.

The ox-skeleton soldier brought down an axe, cleaving the stone Wu Tie had thrown into two pieces.

Wu Tie clapped approvingly: "The precision is pretty high, and their strength is probably twenty to thirty thousand catties—stronger than ordinary Foundation Establishment realm ox warriors. Looks like we'll need to find more bones containing essence and blood along the way; these skeleton soldiers are quite useful."

Such skeleton soldiers are naturally weak as can be for Wu Tie now.

But placed in the Cangyan Realm, such a skeleton soldier could absolutely suppress and beat a small squad of elite warriors; there's no problem with that.

"Depart!" Wu Tie patted the giant wolf spider, which had rested well and recovered its strength, and loudly said: "Alright, hurry up and pack up, let's keep moving. From here to the outer region, there's still a long way to go."

Old Bai, brimming with energy, leapt onto the snakeskin lizard, driving it to run ahead as a scout sentinel. Beside Old Bai, a group of small rock rats appeared; these little creatures, controlled by Old Bai using the rat-people's secret technique, could well provide early-warning information for this small squad.

Wu Tie followed closely behind Old Bai, then came Yan Hanlu and Lu Ji, while Stone Fei rode the huge gray-rock lizard bringing up the rear—this is the marching formation of this squad.

The Cangyan Realm, relative to the known outer regions, is purely a poor and remote backwater.

The Shi family inadvertently opened a passage leading to the outer region, and just happened to encounter a passing caravan, which thereby allowed the Cangyan Realm and the outer region to interact.

Over these past few years, the Changsheng Sect has become increasingly rampant in the Cangyan Realm; the trade route from the Cangyan Realm to the outer region has basically been monopolized by the Changsheng Sect's forces, and for a long time no outer-region caravans have come to the Cangyan Realm to do business.

Wu Tie and company continued forward along the small ditch for thirty-two days, detouring past a gorge ahead that was pinched by a row of stone pillars, before a passage several hundred meters wide appeared ahead.

The thirty-two-day journey was dull and uneventful; everyone simply marched, rested, and cultivated in order. Especially Wu Tie and Yan Hanlu, the two were single-minded—one busily consuming various primal herbs to solidify his foundation, the other busily cultivating the Formless Bone Demon Classic.

In just a month's time, the group all felt they had gained a great deal.

The passage was obviously used for a long time, with traces of various mounts all over the ground, and deep wheel ruts.

This passage leads left to the Changsheng Sect's main base, the Azure Wood Realm, and several great realms bordering it; to the right it leads to the Great Dragon Realm, directly controlled by the Six Paths Palace, another major power of the outer realms.

Near the Great Dragon Realm, there are also several outer realm territories larger than the Cangyan Realm.

This is the outer realm world that, compared to the Cangyan Realm, is richer, more vast, and has more mixed powers.

"I want to go to Nüwa Valley." Wu Tie looked toward the passage to the right: "Nüwa Valley, near the Great Dragon Realm."

Wu Tie's face flushed slightly, his emotions surging, and he almost shouted out loud.

He wants to go to Nüwa Valley, he wants to find Wu Jin, he wants to find his birth mother. He has many questions he wants to ask them, such as how Wu Jin escaped from those enemies.

Wu Tie had always thought that Wu Jin, like Wu Zhan, had been struck by a bolt of lightning and reduced to ashes.

Because the Changsheng Sect had blocked the exit passages, Wu Tie could only risk attacking Zhu Zixi, which had already delayed him a lot, and he could no longer hold back from wanting to see Wu Jin and his mother.

"We will go with you to the Great Dragon Realm." Lao Bai, whose whole body emitted a faint herbal scent and who had begun to resemble an apothecary, looked earnestly at Wu Tie: "Anyway, wherever you go, we will follow you."

After traveling for over a month, Wu Tie generously imparted various knowledge to the group.

For example, Wu Tie taught the Vajra Subduing Demon Fist to everyone, and Shi Fei turned out to be exceptionally suited to its grand, open, mighty and domineering style, actually performing the set of techniques several times more impressively than Wu Tie.

For some unknown reason, it seemed that after practicing the Vajra Subduing Demon Fist, Shi Fei's physique kept shrinking; along the way he constantly complained that his armor seemed ill-fitting, with too much gap between it and his body.

In this era, no one had ever been as generous as Wu Tie in imparting various knowledge.

So, wherever Wu Tie goes, they will surely follow him. Only fools would not follow, only fools would not.

Wu Tie laughed and gave a firm nod, then slapped the giant wolf spider, injecting a thread of extremely fine magical power into its strength; this huge creature, five to six meters long, immediately hissed in joy, spread its long legs and silently charged toward the passage on the right.

Shi Fei and the others also hurriedly urged their mounts to catch up.

Wu Tie was truly excited; previously on this stretch of road, he had done his utmost to control the giant wolf spider's speed, letting it rest after traveling three to five hundred li a day.

But this time, he used magical power to boost the giant wolf spider's stamina, and the huge creature instantly ran at an astonishing speed, its average speed reaching about three to five hundred li per hour.

Fortunately this passage was relatively wide and smooth; the giant wolf spider frothed at the mouth as it galloped forward thirty-odd li, yet it did not crash into the rock walls or stone pillars.

The giant wolf spider suddenly swept around a huge rock corner; a hundred meters ahead lay a very spacious stone cavern, on which dozens of massive stone pillars were entwined with copious luminous vines that emitted strong light, illuminating the entire cavern.

In the cavern, five detachments were clearly present, distinct from one another.

They were separated from each other by over a hundred meters, using each stone pillar as a natural defensive facility, maintaining a state of mutual vigilance without interference.

Wu Tie spurred his mount and galloped over; in the detachment nearest to him, a dozen or so lizard‑people archers, small in stature and clinging to the luminous vines, simultaneously let out a sharp cry, and a few arrows swooshed over with a 'swish swish'.

With a few 'ding ding' sounds, the arrows landed less than three feet in front of Wu Tie, their threatening meaning extremely strong.

Inside the cavern, the five detachments all moved at once; each sent out a guard detail of varying numbers from their own camp, standing ready and looking toward the direction where Wu Tie was.

Before Wu Tie could decide what to say, Shi Fei, riding a gray‑rock lizard and galloping over, had already shouted from afar.

"Brothers of the past, we are merely a few struggling, pitiful travelers on this long journey; we are few in number and pose no threat to you. We only need a place to rest, a little clean water, and a little warmth from a campfire."