Chapter 2: Wu Family

Night.

The false sun directly above the dome had already gone out.

Under a huge stone pillar, a stone wall enclosed a courtyard of about seven or eight mu. A black fortress stood close against the stone pillar,

Vast patches of luminous moss and clinging vines covered the fortress's outer walls, their faint blue and green glow lighting the whole courtyard, adding an air of ancient antiquity and weatheredness to this small stone stronghold.

Behind the courtyard's main gate, two ox‑people on night watch lay sprawled on the ground, snoring loudly, two roughly forged iron wheel‑axes tossed haphazardly beside them.

Two gray rock lizards crept slowly along the wall base, and each time they passed the ox‑people, their amber eyes would glare at them fiercely, impatiently flicking their long tongues.

The fortress's main gate opened silently.

The slender Wu Tie stepped out, and the two gray rock lizards hurried over, affectionately licking his palms and the backs of his feet with their tongues before continuing to circle the wall base.

Glancing at the two snoring ox‑people, Wu Tie smirked and took a quick pace around to the rear of the fortress.

Here lay a training ground of about one mu, its sandy‑stone floor littered with various coarse, heavy implements—stone locks, stone cauldrons, and huge stone balls trailed by long chains; the largest of those balls stood a good head taller than Wu Tie.

After carefully removing his fine‑hemp undershirt, Wu Tie stood bare‑chested in the center of the field, gritted his teeth, and slowly swung his arms and legs, performing a set of stiff, slow punches and kicks.

After a short quarter‑hour, the sweat‑soaked Wu Tie collapsed, panting; veins bulged beneath his pale skin, some throbbing violently, his muscles spasmed, agonizing pain darkened his vision, yet he clenched his teeth and made no sound.

The spasms lingered for a while; several times Wu Tie nearly passed out from the pain, but he gritted his teeth and endured.

When the sharp pain finally eased, Wu Tie struggled to his feet, picked up the smallest stone lock on the field, and clutched it tightly.

He closed his eyes, clenched his teeth, tensed every muscle, wringing out the last shred of strength, his whole body shaking violently, yet the stone lock—almost half his size—did not budge an inch.

After struggling for a long time, his strength finally spent, Wu Tie flung himself onto the ground, his arms limp, his forehead striking the stone lock with a heavy thud.

"Some things don't yield results just because you work hard," a slightly hoarse, exceptionally gentle voice came from the edge of the field.

About five feet tall, with a wolf's head on a human body, clad in a loose fine‑hemp robe, his gray fur neatly combed, Grey Master stood with hands behind his back, holding a leather‑bound scroll, and stepped slowly to Wu Tie's side.

In his deep eyes gleamed wisdom; Grey Master reached out to touch Wu Tie's sweat‑slicked forehead and said in a low voice, "Peace… I remember telling you this. In this world, every person possesses a unique, irreplaceable value."

Wu Tie lifted his head and muttered, "But we must find the right path to realize our worth!"

"Exactly, the right path!" Grey Master smiled. "All I've seen is you wasting energy on the wrong road."

"I…" Wu Tie opened his mouth to speak, but held back a breath, angrily lowered his head, and slammed a fist hard into the stone lock.

His fist ached; Wu Tie gritted his teeth, straining not to show any pain.

"Believe me, martial strength isn't the only power." Grey Master lifted his gaze; far above, hundreds of meters up, the black dome pressed down oppressively, and the time until the false sun would rise was still a long, long way off…

"Since your spirit is so strong," Grey Master chuckled, sat beside Wu Tie, and traced a long string of characters in the sand‑stone: "Long night, endless, sleepless, solving a few arithmetic problems is also good."

"Also, this poem—I find it utterly beautiful. After you finish the problems, recite it with me."

Amid the blue‑green gloom, a fuzzy‑haired wolf head bobbed and swayed, gently shaking the scroll in its paws while a handsome young boy softly recited—'A small tower hears spring rain all night; in a deep lane, apricot blossoms sell at dawn'—

"But, Master… what are apricot blossoms? I've never seen them! Nobody has!" In the quiet night, the boy's irritated complaint rang out.

"But, Peace… apricot blossoms do exist!" Grey Master's warm, slightly hoarse voice echoed softly. He murmured wistfully, "What a lovely scene… apricot blossoms certainly exist!"

A few 'crack, crack' sounds came from the dome.

The false sun, about thirty meters in diameter, first glowed with a red point at its center; the light gradually spread outward, and after an hour the entire false sun blazed fully, its warm red light illuminating the Wu Valley for miles around.

Last night, moisture blown from the surrounding mines and tunnels had soaked the ground.

The false sun's red light caused the temperature in Wu Valley to rise swiftly; water vapor evaporated, leaving a white mist several meters high hanging over the ground.

Wu Tie gripped a cooked giant mushroom, standing on the watchtower at the courtyard gate, scanning the surroundings.

Within Wu Valley, from the haphazard jumble of stone houses rose sharp cries, accompanied by the crack of whips.

Groups of gray dwarfs shouted loudly, swinging whips to drive crowds of stone dwarfs out of their stone huts. Led by two ox‑people, accompanied by seven or eight gray wolf warriors, they escorted a band of stone dwarfs, delivering basket after basket of cooked white mushrooms to outside the courtyard.

The stone dwarfs marched past, each taking a white mushroom, expressionlessly swallowing the bitter‑tasting fungi quickly.

Within half a quarter‑hour, over a thousand stone dwarfs belonging to the Wu family, laden with various tools and escorted by dozens of gray dwarfs, formed ranks and marched toward a mine outside Wu Valley.

Not long after, the wind carried the sound of 'ding‑ding‑dang‑dang' striking.

A gray rock lizard happily crawled up to Wu Tie, lifted its head, and eyed the giant mushroom in his hand.

Wu Tie glanced toward the mine, pursed his lips, and grunted at the two ox‑people standing by the door, clutching a large basket of food as they ate and drank: "You say, how many of those poor dwarf slaves will die today?"

The two ox‑people grinned, showing both reverence for their young master Wu Tie and a strange bloodlust—'meat'—as one clenched his fist and muttered indistinctly.

Wu Tie felt a wave of disgust.

He shoved the giant mushroom into the open maw of the gray rock lizard; this lizard, three times Wu Tie's size, wagged its tail gleefully, seized the mushroom, and leapt swiftly down the courtyard wall.

Grey Master, clutching his scroll, approached with a three‑step sway.

He watched the gray rock lizard disappear far off, sighed, shook his head, and said, "So you're not suited for cultivation! Your father and your three older brothers… they would never waste a scrap of food!"

"Including those poor dwarf slaves?" Wu Tie curled his lip, a sour surge rising in his throat.

"At least your father and brothers have never touched them," Grey Master spread his hands, stared sternly at Wu Tie, and shook his head firmly. "Peace… your father gave you this name, hoping you would live a lifetime of peace… that doesn't mean…"

Wu Tie turned his head toward the mine and said stubbornly, "Are you saying I'm weak? I'm not…"

"This is a cruel world; everyone must adapt to its harsh laws!" Wu Tie muttered like a tongue‑twister: "So I want to cultivate, yet you say I've taken the wrong path! Can memorizing texts really kill enemies?"

Directly opposite the gate, more than three li away, on a cliff face a hundred or so meters high, a cavern several meters wide erupted as a gray rock lizard four or five times Wu Tie's size shot out.

A blue‑wolf warrior nearly two meters tall sat on the lizard's back, raising a thick iron spear high with his right hand.

A skull was impaled on the spear; as the blue‑wolf warrior brandished it, the disheveled hair on the snarling skull tossed about, revealing a face bristling with rugged beard.

"Victory!" The gray rock lizard held steady on the ninety‑degree vertical cliff, the blue‑wolf warrior standing on its back and letting out a piercing, high‑pitched howl.

Then three more massive gray rock lizards burst from the cavern, their three blue‑wolf riders grinning and laughing loudly.

In the rush of footsteps, two‑dozen venomous hunting spiders surged out like a tide, each bearing a muscular gray dwarf warrior on its back, who excitedly swung great hammers, spattering sparks across the surrounding rock walls.

Four ox‑people warriors, each nearly a zhang tall, shouldered great axes and trudged slowly out of the cavern.

Spotting the Wu family's stone fortress in the distance, the four ox‑people warriors let out a loud snort, their huge pure‑gold nose rings swinging uncomfortably.

Behind the four ox‑people warriors, a rock python as thick as a water tank and over twenty meters long slithered out slowly. Wu Tie's father, Wu Zhan, arms crossed, sat cross‑legged on the python's head, his bearing exuding heroic vigor.

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong, Wu Tie's three older brothers—burly men almost as tall as Wu Zhan, over two meters—stood on the python's back and, despite the distance, laughed loudly at Wu Tie.

"Hahaha!" Wu Jin leapt up, kicking up a gust of wind from the cave mouth as he jumped down, his feet landing heavily on the ground, striding toward Wu Tie.

The distance was over three li, but Wu Jin covered it in just a dozen breaths, sprinting there; in one step he scaled the five‑meter‑high wall, opened his arms, and fiercely embraced Wu Tie.

"Hahaha, peace! The Xiong family, who have opposed us for years, have finally been wiped out by us!" Wu Jin laughed loudly, took down a large hide sack from his back, and pulled out several tattered, ancient beast‑skin scrolls.

"I never expected the Xiong family to have a written heritage!" Wu Jin stared wide‑eyed, handing the scrolls to Wu Tie: "You wouldn't think so? We know few characters, and in here are nothing but twisted, strange symbols—take a look, do you like them?"

Beside him, the Grey Master's eyes suddenly lit up, and a trickle of saliva appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Wu Tie stared at the books without saying a word.

This is not the gift he wanted.

This really isn't the gift he wanted.

Before his eyes still lingered the image of that head on the blue‑wolf warrior's spear.

He still remembered that three years ago, this bearded giant, the Xiong family chief Xiong Hu, had once led a band of warriors to raid the Wu family; Wu Zhan had taken Wu Jin and Wu Yin out hunting, leaving Wu Tong badly wounded at home, nearly killed.

"You brought back only these few people?" Wu Tie didn't look at the scrolls but turned his gaze to the family warriors that Wu Zhan and the others had brought back.

He recalled clearly that half a month ago, when they set out, the warriors Wu Zhan and the others had taken were many times more than those present now; the Wu family had mobilized everyone.

"Over there the Xiong family has more than a thousand mine slaves, plus a number of surrendered warriors to guard, and all those mines and farms." Wu Jin handed the scrolls to the beaming Grey Master, saying bluntly: "So we left some people there to look after things; everything needs proper upkeep."

Wu Zhan led his troop to the courtyard gate, smiling and waving at Wu Tie: "Peace, bring out all the good food and drink from the storeroom!"

Wu Zhan laughed triumphantly: "We've swallowed the Xiong family; with a bit of effort we'll merge their strength into ours—hey, I've been eyeing Black Wind Valley for years… hey, that's a fertile, oil‑rich piece of land!"

"Let's celebrate properly!" Wu Zhan slammed his fist forward and burst into laughter.

All the returning Wu family warriors laughed heartily; a few ox‑tribe warriors laughed so hard their muscles trembled, the freshly scabbed wounds on their bodies burst open, streams of blood flowed out, yet they acted as if nothing had happened.

The light of the "False Sun" gradually dimmed.

Several beast‑oil torches were planted on the courtyard wall, their water‑tank‑sized flames shedding bright light that outshone the glow of luminous moss and vines, bathing the courtyard in radiance.

Bitter potato‑root starch liquor was poured bowl after bowl, while big chunks of fatty roast meat kept arriving, and piles of boiled high‑starch tubers were cut into chunks and haphazardly stacked on the stone table.

The Wu family warriors enjoyed themselves to the fullest, while the stone dwarves serving on the side furtively snatched up fallen meat fragments and tuber bits from the ground, stuffing them quickly into their mouths.

Some bold dwarves simply sidled up to a few warriors; when liquor dripped onto the stone slab floor, they hurriedly lay down and licked every drop clean.

The entire Wu family Shibao was filled with joy.

Only Wu Tie was at the rear courtyard drill ground, beside a huge reservoir, where he filled a stone basin with clean water and meticulously washed the blood‑stained head of Xiong Hu.

Strand by strand he tidied the disheveled hair, Wu Tie expended great effort and finally cleaned up this ferocious trophy.

Heavy footsteps sounded, and Wu Zhan stepped forward one by one, standing silently behind Wu Tie.

After a moment, Wu Zhan spoke in a deep, resonant voice: "This is an ancestral custom… beheading the enemy leader and offering his head to the forefathers brings better fortune to the clan, letting the family thrive."

Wu Tie sat cross‑legged before Xiong Hu's head, his hands supporting his chin, silently gazing at the closed eyes.

"Father, one day will we also be beheaded and become trophies for others to show off their martial prowess?" Wu Tie asked seriously.

Wu Zhan stared, then shook his head and laughed loudly: "Impossible!"

Puffing with pride, Wu Zhan slipped off a beast‑sinew necklace from his neck, felt the white fang over a foot long on it, and placed the necklace around Wu Tie's neck.

"Hmph, hmph, our Wu family isn't easy to bully." Wu Zhan patted Wu Tie's head, almost knocking him flat with a slap.

"This thing, they say, is called 'Chiyou's Tooth,' the Xiong family's heirloom treasure!"

"When you come of age, I'll bring you back to the main house to meet the elders!" Wu Zhan raised his head and said: "Right… your elder and second brothers have already seen your mother… you and your third brother haven't yet met your birth mother and little sister… in a few years, after we've saved up more good things, Dad will take you to see her!"

Pointing at the "Chiyou's Tooth" hanging from Wu Tie's neck, Wu Zhan narrowed his eyes and muttered: "This thing, you'll wear it for two years, and then you'll surely have it snatched away by your birth mother!"

A strange flicker crossed his face as Wu Zhan vigorously rubbed his waist: "By then we must definitely add another brother… or a sister would be nice too!"

Wu Tie stared up at Wu Zhan in astonishment.