Chapter 18

That patch of fern forest extends tens of meters in radius.

The thickest fern in the center had a trunk as thick as a person's waist and stood seven or eight meters tall.

The flying stones whistled sharply as they smashed into the fern patch; the central fern was easily pierced by two stones, sending large fragments flying seven or eight meters away, and more than ten lush ferns were snapped at the waist.

The stones landed, then flew up again, like mad hornets, fiercely striking the remaining ferns.

Land, take off, land again, take off again.

A clump of ferns was beaten to pieces, broken branches scattered within a hundred-meter radius, everywhere.

"Here, this is my territory—no fighting!" Wu Tie loosened his left fist and pointed firmly at the three of Luo Lin.

For some reason, Wu Tie tended to protect Shi Lingqing and her companions. Perhaps because Shi Lingqing and he had both seen their families slaughtered at a glance, or perhaps because Luo Lin trio's overbearing attitude annoyed Wu Tie, or perhaps there were other reasons…

Who knows?

Shi Lingqing smiled, her dislocated sole lightly touching the ground as she gave Wu Tie a radiant smile.

When she saw dozens of stones repeatedly flying up and down, striking the sturdy fern branches and leaves to fly sideways, her smile became even more radiant like spring blossoms, her beautiful face making people intoxicated.

Luo Lin's complexion suddenly changed; he let out a loud shout.

The youth beside him, holding a long bow, shouted loudly, striding toward Wu Tie in steps of seven or eight meters, closing a hundred meters in just a few breaths.

The bow was drawn to a full circle, a muffled sound, an arrow shadow tore through the air, the arrow pointing straight at Wu Tie's vital chest.

Wu Tie took a deep breath, clenched his left fist, and an invisible force field within a hundred meters before him violently surged, layers of invisible power rushing toward the arrow, which suddenly slowed, visibly slowing.

With a hiss, a faint milky-white aura could be seen spewing from the arrowhead; finally, when the arrowhead reached three feet before Wu Tie's chest, the arrow slowly halted, suspended in midair.

Wu Tie lifted his head and glared at the youth holding the long bow.

The youth shouted, the long bow suddenly erupted in continuous rumbling, seven or eight arrow shadows burst forth, shooting straight at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie frantically drove the force field to intercept; he had never faced such a fierce strike, and off guard, two arrows hidden behind the two arrow shadows traced a small arc and heavily struck the tail of the first arrow.

The first arrow, only three feet from Wu Tie, suddenly accelerated, emitting a piercing explosion, tearing through the force field and slamming hard into Wu Tie's chest.

On his pallid tight armor a spark flared, the arrow's pure steel head shattered, leaving no trace on the gleaming armor.

Luo Lin and his two companions' pupils shrank sharply; they simultaneously let out a sharp whistle and turned to leave without a word. Their retreat was extremely fast; after a few leaps they vanished into a tall mushroom grove, disappearing from sight.

Wu Tie was frightened, sweat beading his forehead; he gasped sharply, gritted his teeth, and turned to leave as well.

He had already sensed his tragic fate.

Having been shot point‑blank, if not for his armor he would have been pierced through the heart.

This place is some distance from the Ancient God Army camp; metal spiders cannot approach here, and if he were wounded he could not return to the camp.

In other words, if not for his armor, he would already be dead!

Heaven only knows how Old Tie will deal with him this time.

Shi Lingqing softly called from behind: "Sir, this…"

Wu Tie didn't hear Shi Lingqing's call; he simply lowered his head and sprinted forward, his body occasionally leaping high and gliding ahead, once gliding over a hundred meters, soon he fled back into the metal spiders' activity range.

He glanced back; the rolling mounds and fern forest blocked his view, so he could not see what lay beyond.

Wu Tie exhaled, his face grim, and walked toward the Ancient God Army camp.

Still several hundred meters from the camp's entrance, Wu Tie stopped in surprise.

On the original pit, a neatly built wooden shed had appeared.

The frame was made of large fern branches, the four walls coated with a thick layer of earth, the mud smoothed and baked hard by high heat; the roof was covered with a thick layer of fern foliage, looking quite sturdy.

When was this shed built?

Wu Tie had only been out for a few hours; how did this shed appear?

A dozen metal spiders scurried from the surroundings, quietly gathering beside Wu Tie, then streamed into the shed.

Wu Tie stared, then hurriedly followed the metal spiders into the shed. He discovered that the original pit was covered with a thick layer of fern branches, then a thick layer of earth, and finally a thick layer of hippopotamus hide, looking quite comfortable.

The metal spiders went to a corner of the shed and nimbly lifted a cover about a meter square.

From beneath the cover came Old Tie's voice: "An outsider has come in; neither side are easy to deal with, and I, Grandpa, am too lazy to deal with them… So I quickly built a shed to cover this entrance. How's my building skill, Grandpa?"

Wu Tie let out a sigh of relief, stepped up to the entrance of the Ancient God Army camp, lowered his head to look at Old Tie being held up by four metal spiders, and snorted: "It wasn't you who built it, was it? You have no arms or legs—how could you build a house?"

Old Tie fell silent, and a blinding electric light flashed across his rows of big teeth.

Wu Tie hastily raised both hands: "I was wrong, this house is built superbly, Old Tie you are truly wise and mighty, extraordinarily capable!"

Before Old Tie could speak, Wu Tie proactively lowered his head to admit his mistake: "I was wrong; I should have dodged those arrows instead of blocking them head‑on… I never imagined that guy's arrows could curve."

"Not just swords—people can be crooked too, have you seen that?" The electric glow on Old Tie's big teeth faded, and he gave a cold snort: "You've stockpiled plenty of foundation‑building elixirs these days; you don't need to come down for a while—just cultivate on your own each day…"

Old Tie's tone turned strangely: "Besides, you should properly interact with them. Some things you only know by personal experience… especially, the little tricks between men and women, ha ha ha ha…"

A flash of electric light flickered in the passage to the Ancient God Army camp; the silvery‑white metal cover writhed, and Old Tie together with the four metal spiders sank into the passageway below.

Wu Tie's face flushed; he muttered to himself: "Men and women… tricks? What kind of tricks?"

Old Tie's words made Wu Tie feel a little uneasy, excited, hopeful, and longing…

He instinctively recalled the night at the Wu family's Shibao, when Wu Jin and Wu Yin whispered secretly about some topics.

They had been very careful, speaking softly aside, but Wu Tie hid well and still managed to overhear some of their words.

"Old Tie, what are you saying?" Wu Tie blushed, his heart racing inexplicably.

He inexplicably thought of Shi Lingqing's beautiful face, especially her delicately dyed pale‑purple lips… Wu Tie felt his lips dry.

Two fit figures stealthily approached the shed, stopping two hundred meters away, hiding behind a small mound and peeking over. The lone shed looked so out of place that the two guards attached to Shi Lingqing stared at it in surprise.

"Check the surroundings for traces." One figure muttered softly: "Just one person?"

"One person is fine; he seems able to block those three brats of Luo Lin." The other figure drew a deep breath: "Look at his age—he's not old, yet he has such strength; a person like that… is really good."

The two figures silently retreated.

They had been extremely cautious, yet they failed to notice that in the distant mushroom patch, two metal spiders with scarlet ocular organs were fixedly staring at them, countless invisible red beams scanning over them.

Wu Tie sat alone in the shed, lost in thought, not knowing what to do now.

He stared for a good while, shook his head, pulled out from the corner of the wooden shed a hind leg of a grey rock lizard, a choice chunk of meat from a black-ringed snake, a large piece of fat from a hippopotamus's belly, drew his long blade, and began busying himself outside the shed.

After busying for a while, he cut the meats into strips, hung them on a wooden pole outside the shed, Wu Tie took a snake segment, lit a fire with dried mushroom roots and stems, and roasted the snake segment until it was charred yellow all over, exuding oily fragrance.

He produced a fist-sized lump of rock salt, scraped a bit of salt powder with his long blade and sprinkled it on the meat, Wu Tie took a big bite of snake meat, and immediately hummed in satisfaction.

His mouth full of meat fragrance, the fragrant snake meat swallowed into his belly, his powerful body swiftly digested the snake meat, a heat current named "Satisfaction" spread outward, and Wu Tie felt so comfortable his whole body shivered.

"This young master!" Shi Lingqing's soft, gentle voice came from afar.

She wore a black long dress, cleaned by some unknown means, her originally mud‑soaked long hair now washed clean and hanging smooth and glossy behind her.

Her delicate face was also clean, her light‑purple lips returned to their natural faint flesh color, the glossy lips showed no lines, plump and tender as freshly opened flower buds.

Compared to when her lips were light‑purple, Shi Lingqing now appeared elegant and plain, like a night‑blooming cereus just opened, filled with an enchanting beauty.

She stood timidly under a fern cluster dozens of meters away, her big watery eyes looking nervously at Wu Tie, her lips twitching slightly, as if she wanted to speak but dared not.

"Young master, I am Shi Lingqing, thank you for saving my life." Shi Lingqing's slender, delicate body trembled slightly, and like a flower stalk blown apart by the wind she suddenly knelt before Wu Tie.

Wu Tie stared blankly.

These days, Old Tie had taught him how to hunt and kill prey, how to sneak and ambush, how to dissect prey, and how to survive and escape.

Old Tie, however, had not taught him what to do when a girl only a few years older than him—beautiful, moving, and extremely frail—suddenly knelt before Wu Tie.

Wu Tie's face stiffened, his whole body tensed.

He was nervous to the extreme, yet because of his taut facial skin he appeared now so calm, so stern, so iron‑faced and unfeeling, as if the heavens could fall and he would not be startled.

He even instinctively raised the snake segment and took a fierce big bite.

Having completed the first layer of Foundation Establishment, Wu Tie's powerful physique made his mouthful of big teeth very strong, like two rows of millstones grinding the snake bones with a "gaga" sound, and he chewed the mouthful of snake bones to pieces and swallowed them.

Shi Lingqing's complexion shifted slightly.

She furtively glanced at Wu Tie's icy, unfeeling face, heard the cracking of snake bones from his mouth, and for a moment did not know what he was thinking.

In this situation and setting, Shi Lingqing had never prepared a contingency.

How could Wu Tie remain unmoved by her?

Her pure, delicate hands trembled slightly; Shi Lingqing gritted her teeth, pressed her hands onto the muddy ground slick with slime and moss, her delicate little hands sank three cun into the soil, and black fertile ooze seeped out between her fingers, completely covering her snow‑white hands.

Shi Lingqing's whole body trembled; paired with her pallid face and slender, frail figure, it truly made one's heart flutter and ache.

"This young master, the humble Shi Lingqing is stranded here; I beg the young master……"

Shi Lingqing's eye sockets reddened slightly, her voice trembled, and a glimmer of tears appeared at the corners of her eyes.

Wu Tie's entire attention was captured by Shi Lingqing, and he completely ignored any outside disturbance.

Therefore, Wu Tie naturally did not notice that behind Shi Lingqing, a pitch‑black creature whose back bore a blood‑red stripe from head to tail—a Bloodstain Broken Fang Snake—was sneaking up on her stealthily.

He also failed to notice that this venomous snake, which after biting its prey breaks off its fangs—mouth full of densely packed reverse‑spiked poison teeth—left inside the victim, was now opening its wide mouth and lunging to bite Shi Lingqing's uplifted buttocks as she knelt on the ground.

Wu Tie's mouth felt dry, his throat parched as if stuffed with sand.

He looked at Shi Lingqing kneeling on the ground, very much wanting her to rise, but he did not know how to speak.

Old Tie had taught him much knowledge of "survival" and "combat," but never how to handle interpersonal relations, how to socialize, especially how to interact with a woman who stirs the heart.

And yet……

Whether it was Wu Zhan, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, Wu Tong, or even the lifelong bachelor Grey Master, none had taught Wu Tie these things.

Wu Zhan only knew how to expand the family's territory, only knew how to use fists and blades to discipline the unruly neighbors around.

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, Wu Tong…… they had yet to interact with peers of the opposite sex.

As for Grey Master, aside from muttering "Listening to Spring Rain in a Small Tower All Night," when had he ever seen a real "spring rain"?

Wu Tie stared foolishly at Shi Lingqing, his mind filled with her pretty, delicate face.

Then came a shrill wail.

The Bloodstain Broken Fang Snake sank its fangs deep into Shi Lingqing's buttocks; its mouthful of poison teeth, each over an inch long and densely packed with fine reverse spikes, broke off at the root, together with a large amount of neurotoxic paralytic venom, remaining inside her body.

Shi Lingqing leapt up as if her buttocks were on fire, waving her arms and legs while shrieking shrilly.

After only two or three cries, the neurotoxic toxin took effect, and Shi Lingqing collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth and convulsing wildly.

Dozens of figures came sprinting like a gale from afar, they hurriedly helped Shi Lingqing up, then fled in disarray toward the distance.

Left behind on the spot was the dumbfounded Wu Tie.

Likewise dumbfounded was the Bloodstain Broken Fang Snake—its eyelids hadn't even twitched, yet its prey had vanished.