Chapter 185: Judgment

Yellow sand everywhere.

Above his head, a vast azure sky had not a single cloud, a blazing sun hung high, its magma-like sunlight swirling as it poured down, scorching the endless desert as if it were on fire.

Wu Tie raised his head to look at the sky, his eyes wide open as he stared directly at the blazing sun.

Firelight flickered in his pupils; even staring straight at the sun only made the corners of his eyes feel slightly sore.

He greedily gazed at the blue sky, at the blazing sun within it. After a long, long time, he stared at that sun for a full hour before finally lowering his head and looking around.

"Old Tie said it right……the sky, the sunlight……truly the most beautiful scenery in the world." Wu Tie laughed brightly: "So, what I see now—is it an illusion, or the mustard-seed world that a legendary mighty one forcibly opened up?"

Yellow sand stretched in all directions, countless dunes undulating gently, like waves extending endlessly toward the horizon.

Wu Tie bent over, grabbed a handful of sand, and squeezed it hard.

Bang!

Countless grains of sand crumbled to powder, slipping through his fingers, and with a gust of wind they spun away, vanishing without a trace.

A gust swept over, lifting layers of gravel from the ground into visible sand vortices that howled off into the distance. The wind and sand struck his skin, causing a stinging, itchy pain that felt real to both touch and sensation.

Wu Tie could not tell whether this world was real or illusory; he looked around for a while, then arbitrarily chose a direction and walked on.

The blazing sun hung overhead, seeming as if it would never set.

Wu Tie walked through the desert for a long, long time—about a day and night—while the blazing sun remained high overhead. The scorching sunlight drenched him in sweat, and he had already taken several canisters of clear water from his bracelet and drunk them.

Step by step, after walking a long while, Wu Tie heard a faint sound coming from the dunes.

A uniformly gray‑yellow desert viper suddenly darted out of a sand pile, opened its mouth, and lunged to bite Wu Tie's calf.

Wu Tie flicked his finger, releasing a burst of force that smashed the seven‑to‑eight‑foot‑long creature to pieces, sending flesh and blood flying seven to eight feet away. Immediately, more faint sounds came from the dunes as a large swarm of desert scorpions rushed out.

The scorpions, palm‑sized with a dusky black carapace, skimmed lightly over the quicksand, pounced on the viper's flesh and blood, and feasted with their large pincers. Before long, the desert viper had vanished without a trace.

Wu Tie watched the desert scorpions feed for a while, then continued onward.

He had never been to a desert before, but according to Old Tie's combat experience, the presence of venomous snakes and scorpions proved there must be a water source nearby.

Thus, after cresting a row of dunes nearly a hundred meters high, Wu Tie's eyes lit up; he saw, seven or eight li ahead, a lake several li in diameter. Azure waters fringed with palm trees, jujube trees, and expansive green grass.

This was an oasis in the desert.

Ripples played across the water; white waterbirds frolicked on the surface, occasionally a bird flapped its wings and skimmed across the lake, casting a graceful shadow that resembled a pair of birds flying side‑by‑side, lightly tracing the surface and sending forth a ripple.

Having grown weary of the endless yellow sand, he suddenly caught sight of this fine water and instinctively broke into a smile.

A faint firelight glowed in his eyes, and the oasis scene became extraordinarily clear—even the veins on each slender blade of grass by the lake were distinctly visible.

Wu Tie saw that on the grass beside the lake, a sizable camel caravan had set up camp: thirty‑odd white‑topped tents encircled a large central round tent, a curtain was drawn at the lakeside, and several girls with flawless, delicate white skin were playing and bathing in the water.

Wu Tie's eyesight was excellent… so he inadvertently caught sight of those girls' bodies.

His face flushed slightly, and he hastily averted his gaze.

Just behind the camp, where a heap of camels had gathered, a column of yellow sand shot up from a dune, a low thud of hooves sounded, and shortly after a sharp whistle carried on the wind.

A contingent clad in black robes, wielding sabres, and radiating fierce killing intent—sturdy men on swift horses and camels—suddenly charged out from that line of dunes. They emitted sharp laughs, swooping down the steep sand slope, and within a few short breaths they had stormed into the camp.

From the camp's tents, a force of guards wearing variously colored robes rushed out. Armed with sabres, spears, and some bearing bows and arrows, they quickly formed a rough defensive line relying on the camel caravan.

The men charging on their mounts let out sharp cries; some among them drew bows and loosed sparse but precise, deadly arrows that whistled through the air, striking several of the camp's guards.

Blood spattered across the sand as the guards and these attackers fell into a chaotic melee.

Yet these attackers were clearly far stronger than the guards; in just a few breaths, after a single charge, over half of the guards in the camp lay down.

The attackers split off half their force, stormed into the camp, hacked open the tents with their sabres, and many men and women screamed as they fled from the tents.

Sabres cleaved the air and came down on these people.

Men were cleaved to death by the sabres, while the women were brutally struck with the backs of the blades, staggering and collapsing onto the grass.

The attackers' horsemanship was superb; laughing, they bent down, scooped up the fallen women, and slung them sideways onto their mounts.

Wu Tie stared blankly, then suddenly sprang into the air, stepping on a mass of gale as he rushed toward the oasis. Gusts rolled, yellow sand tumbled, and Wu Tie's lone charge carried a force several times greater than that of the hundreds‑strong attacker band.

In the oasis, several attackers had already reached the lakeside, they slit open the curtain with their blades, and the lovely girls bathing there let out terrified screams, curling their bodies and slipping into the water.

The attackers laughed maniacally, shouting in a language Wu Tie could not understand, they leapt from their mounts and plunged into the lake, grabbing the nearly naked girls with clumsy hands, their dark palms roaming over the girls' fair skin.

Suddenly, the camp caught fire.

An attacker knocked over the campfire outside the tents; the burning wood ignited the canvas, and the flames quickly spread outward.

The dying men's anguished howls, the women's terrified screams, the 'crack' of sabres biting into bone, and the attackers' wild, maniacal laughter… the once peaceful and tranquil oasis instantly turned into a bloody hell.

Wu Tie rolled up a great sheet of yellow sand and surged forward.

The attackers also noticed the massive tumbling yellow sand rapidly approaching; they screamed in panic, abandoning their loot, scrambled onto their mounts, and quickly gathered together.

Wu Tie stepped onto a yellow‑sand vortex tens of meters high and a dozen meters in diameter, arriving at the oasis's edge; he hovered in the air, looking down upon everyone in the camp.

The people originally in the camp trembled, fell to their knees, and hysterically kowtowed to Wu Tie, loudly uttering words they themselves did not know.

The attackers likewise wore looks of panic; they stared at Wu Tie trembling, after a while they also dismounted, fell to their knees in awe, kowtowed to Wu Tie, and muttered incoherently, not knowing what they were saying.

"I don't understand……" Wu Tie looked at these people, feeling embarrassed.

"I don't understand……" but seeing the camp's ruined state, Wu Tie flipped his right hand; the surrounding air roiled rapidly, condensing into a cyan hand hundreds of meters across.

Bang!

The massive hand came down heavily upon the attackers' ranks.

All the attackers were smashed to pulp by that palm, flesh and blood flying everywhere. Their mounts—the fine horses and camels—suffered no injury, but they were evidently so frightened by Wu Tie's blow that they nearly collapsed, limbs limp as they lay prone on the ground, unable to move.

"These mounts shall be your compensation……" Wu Tie looked at the people in the camp, equally stunned and speechless, shook his head, turned, and rode the wind and sand away.

Unable to communicate, Wu Tie couldn't be bothered to waste time on them.

He had already slain those vicious attackers, and left their mounts as compensation; although the camp had lost some personnel, having these beasts… he imagined they would feel a bit better.

Wu Tie had just ridden the gale backward for several dozen meters when the surrounding light suddenly dimmed.

The desert vanished, the blue sky and blazing sun disappeared, and the oasis together with those people left no trace.

Wu Tie's body settled lightly to the ground; he found himself in a black, deep passageway nearly a hundred meters wide and almost a kilometer high, with a pitch‑black stone wall behind him, while the corridor ahead stretched endlessly, its far end unseen.

The passage appeared extremely narrow and long, giving people an extremely heavy psychological pressure.

On the walls on both sides of the passage, a statue stood at regular intervals.

The statues had human bodies, but their heads were jackal, wolf, dog, eagle… or other beast and bird heads. Each statue was hundreds of meters tall, standing on high pedestals, slightly bowing their heads to look down over the passage.

The colossal statues were pitch black all over, yet wore gold-made armor; the gold armor generally covered their upper bodies, they also wore gold-made war skirts around their waists, and gold-made boots on their feet; besides this, large parts of their bodies were exposed.

On these gold armors were inlaid large chunks of emerald, ruby, and sapphire, multicolored and extraordinarily splendid.

From the vault of the passage, strange black light shone down.

These transparent black lights were extraordinarily mystical; under their illumination, the statues gained an elusive, sacred, untouchable mysterious aura, making people feel extremely oppressed.

A sound came from ahead.

Wu Tie then walked forward along the passage.

The Big Scorpion Desa said this was some kind of Path of the Dead; Wu Tie also didn't know how many mysteries this place held, but having come, he should make the best of it—since there was a passage, he might as well go forward along it.

Wu Tie suddenly understood what Old Tie had once said: "When you can't resist life, just lie down, close your eyes, and enjoy it!"

Walking along the passage, he went on and on for a great distance; just when Wu Tie thought he would never reach the end, the passage ahead suddenly vanished.

A pitch-black huge door stood before Wu Tie.

Outside the door, a man in a black robe with an eagle's head and a human body stood silently.

Wu Tie examined the figure closely; sure enough, although he had an eagle's head, he had an Adam's apple and a flat chest—this guy was a man.

"Finally, someone has come?" the eagle-headed man muttered in a low voice: "You chose to kill those bandits. Why?"

Wu Tie remained silent for a moment, then said: "They wanted to *** those girls. That's wrong."

The eagle-headed man laughed: "But in the desert, only the strong have the right to survive… You killed them for killing the weak, but have you considered what will happen to their families—the old, weak, women, and children left behind?"

Wu Tie curled his lip and sneered: "Don't play these word games. They did wrong, so they deserve to die."

"Perhaps, in your view, their actions were natural and just—survival of the fittest—but I think they were wrong, so I killed them; according to your theory, that's also fine."

"Because they are weaker than me, they have no right to live in my presence."

Wu Tie looked mockingly at the eagle-headed man: "Is this explanation satisfactory to you?"

The eagle-headed man stared, then nodded firmly: "That's actually reasonable; I hardly have anything to say… Well, okay, let's proceed directly to the formal procedure."

A balance scale made entirely of gold, but inlaid with black gems in many places, appeared before Wu Tie, looking mysterious and splendid.

The eagle-headed man smiled: "Then, if you pass my trial, you may proceed to the next leg of your journey… Let me weigh your sins…"

"You want to weigh my sins?" Wu Tie laughed: "What qualifications do you have to weigh my sins?"

The eagle-headed man fell silent for a moment, then laughed: "Because I'm stronger than you… a perfectly sound answer, isn't it? Since you can't beat me, you must obey my rules and the laws established by the great Osiris."

Wu Tie stared, then let out a long sigh.

Indeed, it was a perfectly sound answer; he couldn't find any rebuttal.

On the scale, a black light flashed; Wu Tie's body jolted, and he floated up to one end of the scale.

The eagle-headed man said calmly: "The guilty must be punished here. If you endure, you live; if you can't, you die here… Hmm, let me see what punishment you must endure… let me see your sins."

Strangely shaped black gemstone weights flew from the eagle-headed man's hand and landed lightly on the other end of the scale.

"You have killed people."

"You have gambled."

"You… well, only this much? You haven't drunk excessively, committed licentiousness, or incest… you have none of these sins?"

The eagle-headed man frowned, staring blankly at the two tiny weights on the scale.

And these two weights had already tipped the scale down, causing Wu Tie's end to rise high.

"I sentence you… to the oil cauldron and flogging…" the eagle-headed man looked helplessly at Wu Tie: "Because of your choice in the oasis, your punishment will be… light, light… really, too boring."