Chapter 172

"That damned bunch of ground rats..."

Sun Zuo looked left and right for a while, only feeling his eyes sore, and couldn't help but mutter a curse.

The Dark Guild warned the Golden Nether, informing them that a squad was planning to retaliate against the Golden Nether. But those damned double-dealing scumbags who took money from both sides actually refused to provide the Golden Nether with a portrait of the opposing side.

Although they provided the opposing side's numbers, species, men and women, etc.

But the Black Serpent Domain's Great Serpent Lair sees so many men and women coming and going every day, so many miscellaneous species, so many chaotic, sneaky individuals—if the other side isn't stupid, they just need to scatter their squad, infiltrate in groups of two or three, and who could find them?

Damned Dark Guild...

They've already taken money from both sides, yet they keep mouthing about principles and bottom lines...

"How shameless!" Sun Zuo heaved a heavy sigh, the black serpent finial on his wooden staff harshly scraping against his chin.

"However, we Golden Nether have accumulated so many enemies over the years; it's not like no one has ever come for revenge before. This time, are the leaders overreacting a bit?" Sun Zuo narrowed his eyes and quietly asked the few lazy scouts squatting nearby.

The few scouts shook their heads, saying nothing.

The so-called revenge squad, they didn't take it to heart. As Sun Zuo said, over the years, many people have come seeking revenge against the Golden Nether.

So what? Weren't they all wiped out by the Golden Nether? Not worth making a fuss over, really.

Following the passage where Sun Zuo and the others were keeping watch, after advancing over a li, outside the passage's entrance stood a chaotic jumble of stone pillars, with various tents, hovels, and earthen huts haphazardly mixed among them.

Many ratfolk, dwarves, and the like, each with a ferocious face, not a single one looking like a decent person, stood on their respective territories, loudly shouting at passing groups.

"Good liquor, selling only good liquor, not a drop of water mixed in." A ratfolk waved a stone ladle, inside which was a ladle of murky, greenish liquid.

"Meat, meat, fresh good meat, just-cut good meat!" A dwarf brandished a short knife, before him lay a large slice of lizard meat emitting a faint stench, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Gentlemen, women, women... hey, fresh and spirited women... hey, women sexy to the bone!" A dwarf laughed loudly, pointing to a row of women standing behind him, resembling mountain gorillas, their bodies immensely sturdy.

The dwarf remarked proudly, these women also strutted about, occasionally flexing their arms or turning their bodies, tightening their back muscles to show off their mighty physiques to passersby.

Passing groups merely snorted in disdain, with not a single person lingering in this chaotic shantytown area.

Everyone knows the Great Serpent Lair is an extremely chaotic place, and each entrance's messy shantytown area can be called the most lawless part of the Great Serpent Lair.

If anyone truly let their guard down here, perhaps the next day the merchandise before those stalls selling "fresh good meat" would be a limb of some unlucky soul.

In the direction nearest the passage's exit, inside several enormous hide tents, the Golden Nether's assembled assassination squad of one hundred and three sat silently, waiting quietly.

In the largest tent, the squad's captain and two vice-captains sat cross-legged in a triangular formation on the ground, their six eyes fixed intently on a hide laid out before them.

On the black hide, a crude map had been drawn in blood-colored pigment; its terrain matched the passage they were currently garrisoning.

"A white-furred ratman..." said the squad's captain, a senior leader of the Golden Nether, Blood Finger Lu Yan, who had reached half a step into the Life Pool realm, frowning as he stared fixedly at the hide: "You say that person is really that effective? Really able to know out of thin air where our enemies come from?"

"He also said those enemies are connected to Sun Zuo." said the squad's vice-captain, likewise a senior leader of the Golden Nether, Blood Fang Qin Yi, arms crossed, frowning at the hide: "Trouble caused by Sun Zuo? With that kid's strength, what trouble could he stir up... let alone require us to deal with it properly?"

The squad's other vice-captain, who was on the best terms with Lu Yan and Qin Yi and interacted most closely with the Golden Nether senior leader Blood Demon Luo He, shook his head: "What's the point of overthinking? Anyway, Sun Zuo has already been let out; the trouble he caused, let him bring people to keep watch..."

"Even if he missed them, failing to spot the target, a white-furred rat is so obvious that he'd surely catch it."

The gaunt Luo He gave a thin smile: "Besides... even if he couldn't block them at the entrance, it would merely prove that person's words are unreliable... his words being unreliable makes it easier for the leaders to decide... as for those foolish folks coming for revenge..."

Lu Yan gave an easy smile: "In the Black Serpent Domain, do we Golden Nether still fear retaliation?"

He sneered contemptuously, Lu Yan said calmly: "Just a few people, and they dare to cause trouble for the Golden Nether?"

Lu Yan, Qin Yi, and Luo He laughed together, their laughter brimming with confidence verging on arrogance.

As they laughed, Wu Tie alone carried a ceremonial big sword, wearing a tattered leather armor, slowly trailing a merchant caravan, heading toward the position where Sun Zuo was stationed.

Shi Fei and the others were waiting in a very hidden stone valley in a side path over ten li away.

Wu Tie dared not just let a bunch of people blindly charge into the Great Serpent Lair; he didn't trust the Dark Guild, so he chose one person to come scout the route.

Whether buying information from the Dark Guild or borrowing their teleportation array, it was done out of necessity; if he didn't, Wu Tie wanted to rely on his own strength to rush from Nüwa Valley to the Black Serpent Domain, which would take too long on the road.

Wu Tie couldn't wait to seek revenge on the Golden Nether; hatred burned like poisonous fire, searing his heart with pain, and he couldn't endure such a long wait.

But the Dark Guild's methods... were utterly without scruples.

Wu Tie would not be so foolish as to entrust his own party's life and death to others; he absolutely did not trust that pack of scoundrels in the Dark Guild.

On the uneven passage, Wu Tie walked step by step, three or four hundred meters behind the merchant caravan ahead, whose guards didn't notice this lone solitary figure.

As he drew nearer to the Great Serpent Lair, Wu Tie's form underwent subtle changes.

The faint five-colored light at his brow shimmered, his height gradually increased to about 2.3–2.4 meters, his shoulders broadened and thickened, muscles bulging, making him broad-shouldered and thick-waisted.

Thick, stiff whiskers sprouted from his fair face, soon giving him a full beard.

On his forehead, left and right, two half-cubit-high bumps resembling bull horns quietly protruded; combined with his current physique and full beard, he looked like an impure-blooded ox-kin hybrid.

He let out a low grunt, Wu Tie threw his shoulders back and quickened his pace.

Having received a blessing from the Nüwa clan's ancestral spirits, Wu Tie gained great benefits: besides his magical power and cultivation increasing greatly, myriad threads of light broke open in the Heavenly Lock Pagoda, and he also obtained a highly practical bodily transformation divine ability.

Compared to the legendary Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang and Seventy-Two Earthly Sha transformations, Wu Tie's obtained ability can only crudely alter his physical appearance, but for him now it is already quite practical.

As his physique grew stout, Wu Tie's weight increased considerably; he took heavy strides forward, his heavy steps making the ground resound with "thud-thud".

Ahead, two guards of the merchant caravan halted, warily sizing up the swiftly approaching Wu Tie.

Wu Tie ignored them, walking straight past.

The two guards watched him for a while, seeing he made no other moves, so they didn't bother him, merely keeping a loose distance nearby, on guard against any ill intent toward the caravan.

On the cliff face, Sun Zuo, who had been crouched in a rock crevice for several days keeping watch, heard the footsteps and poked half his body out to look downward.

Wu Tie's sharp hearing picked up the movement on the cliff; he raised his head and gave Sun Zuo a deep look.

Wu Tie's steps halted—how could he forget Sun Zuo's appearance?

He never imagined that, right outside the Great Serpent Lair, by such a coincidence, he would actually encounter the culprit behind the slaughter of the Wu family's stone fortress.

No, it wouldn't be a coincidence.

Wu Tie's heart sank slightly; it seemed the Golden Nether already knew his main target for revenge was Sun Zuo?

Sun Zuo's presence here isn't a coincidental arrangement, but the Golden Nether deliberately placing him here... if Wu Tie were to strike now and assassinate Sun Zuo...

Wu Tie fell silent for a moment, his large bull eyes glaring fiercely at Sun Zuo, then he continued striding into the Great Stone Cavern.

Sun Zuo also glared fiercely at Wu Tie, then muttered lowly: "Half-breed mongrel, if it weren't for Ren being with you, you'd dare act so arrogantly—I'd have you scrubbed clean and sold into the slave market."

Several scouts also poked their heads out and glanced at the retreating Wu Tie.

They laughed: "Captain Sun, we're looking for a white-furred ratperson… this guy is a mixed-blood oxperson, not who we're after."

Sun Zuo let out an annoyed snort: "Not only a white-furred ratperson, but also a pretty little lass… Hmm, you say, could it be this woman?"

Sun Zuo pointed to a beautiful woman sitting on a wagon in the passing caravan below, wearing tight-fitting armor.

Several scouts immediately gave a strange laugh.

"Perhaps, right?" a scout muttered.

"Better to kill by mistake than let them go…… we've been idle here for days." Another scout looked at Sun Zuo: "Captain Sun, why not… greet Chief Lu and the others, pull a job?"

Sun Zuo's gaze grew distant, he licked his lips and laughed softly: "So, let's pull a job? I was originally going to take the brothers out to find some profit… now we're stuck here, and the brothers at home can only eat bran and vegetables."

As Sun Zuo spoke, he simply pulled out a fist-sized stone ball and crushed it in his hand.

At the passage's end, inside the chaotic shanty area, a crisp 'click' came from Lu Yan's waist—the stone ball in his beast‑skin pouch had already shattered. Lu Yan, Qin Yi, and Luo He sprang up, let out a low shout, and the one hundred three assassination squad members inside the tent rushed out at once.

With a swishing sound, the one hundred three assassination squad members of the Golden Nether Spirit whose cultivation was Chonglou Realm or above each displayed their signature divine abilities—turning into streaming light, mist, whirlwind, or shadow—and swiftly darted into the passage amid countless gasps from the surroundings.

Inside the shanty area, many people cried out in alarm: "Are those the Golden Nether Spirit's people? Who have they taken a fancy to now?"

In the span of two or three breaths, just as the assassination squad had darted into the passage, large crowds of figures suddenly appeared everywhere in the shanty area.

They wore ragged, featureless clothes of all sorts, their heads wrapped in thick headscarves revealing only a pair of vicious eyes, and they likewise unleashed divine abilities, swiftly darting into the passage.

"Hey, hey, interesting, hey!" many in the shanty area clapped and laughed at once.

Someone has taken aim at the Golden Nether Spirit's people?

Is this… about to start fighting?

Countless short figures darted about, everywhere seeking people to sell news to, while many more, in groups of three or five, eagerly rushed into the passage.

Wu Tie was still several hundred meters from the passage exit when he suddenly halted.

Several figures flashed past him at high speed, heading straight for the caravan behind him.

Sun Zuo and a few scouts scrambled down from the cliff, Sun Zuo pointed at the caravan and shouted loudly: "Chief Lu, look at that woman in the caravan—does she resemble the vengeful woman from the intelligence?"

Sun Zuo shouted excitedly: "I suspect this caravan is our enemies' organization… look, there are ratpeople, a fat person, a woman, hey hey… it matches the intelligence perfectly."

Wu Tie's eye corner twitched violently.

Damned Dark Guild, they really leaked our intelligence to the Golden Nether Spirit… and they even sold those distinctive traits—ratpeople, fat person, woman.

They truly are a bunch of damned bastards.

And this bunch of villains from the Golden Nether Spirit can actually spout nonsense in plain speech, outright framing a caravan as their enemy?

Figures flickered, people constantly rushed past Wu Tie; the assassination squad members were extremely fast—covering a distance of one or two li in just a few moments, they swooped in and formed a semicircle around the caravan.

Lu Yan eyed the sizable caravan, grinning with a crooked smile: "Captain Sun, what you said… isn't wrong, they are indeed suspicious… in that case, take them down, interrogate them thoroughly, and see if they really are……."

Before his words finished, a blood‑colored blade light flew from behind, howling as it slashed toward Lu Yan's back.

Lu Yan let out a sharp hiss; the blade light was still over ten meters from his back, yet he had already turned, his engorged five fingers swelling as thick as carrots, raising a pungent smell of blood as he fiercely slapped at that blade light.

Before Lu Yan's fingers and the blade light could meet, from the direction of the passage exit, countless black arrow shadows silently descended upon them.

Along with them, even Wu Tie was covered.

Wu Tie suddenly had a flash of insight: "Damned, these are assassins sent by the Blood Curved Blade School… Is this counting as me spending a lot of money to trap myself?"