Chapter 215

"Looks like, we don't need to do it; the commission of that little Sa snake will be completed."

Looking at the image in the faint light within the vortex, Lao Tie smiled contentedly.

"Not necessarily… Dasha Yi and his forces were completely annihilated, but the Bodhi Clan's scrutiny of the Black Snake Domain remains." Wu Tie narrowed his eyes, his gaze sharp as a blade: "We must make the Bodhi Clan lose the inclination to act outward."

"Shall we go to their lair?" Lao Tie gave Wu Tie a sensitive glance.

"We will go to their lair." Wu Tie straightened his body, lifted his waist, gripped the White Tiger Split firmly, and lightly thrust it into the ground.

A muffled thud, and the ground within a radius of several li swayed slightly.

Wu Tie's bones were still emitting high heat.

His skull, cervical vertebrae, and most of his ribs had completed their mutation, becoming the same texture as his left arm, and thus the same as that small piece of residual bone.

Dark and deep, there lurked an ancient, mystical aura that was hard to describe.

The essence transformed from Taotie Nie's Taotie divine weapons, half of it still not absorbed; Wu Tie felt that if he could seize a few more Taotie divine weapons from Taotie Nie, his bones throughout his body would surely become uniform.

Completely, thoroughly, becoming the same texture as that fragment of residual bone.

Truly, I don't know what changes Wu Tie will undergo then.

"It's time for us to act." Wu Tie coldly smiled, turned his body, and performed a respectful salute to the Eighteen Palace-Guarding Heavenly Kings: "Thank you for your trouble, seniors."

"No, no, the palace master has orders; we follow only the command of Master Fang." The Great Heavenly Kings and others hastily returned the salute, looking at Wu Tie with solemn respect.

Wu Tie transmitted the scriptures to the Six Paths Palace; the Six Paths Palace master ordered them to treat Wu Tie with the courtesy due to a master, and the Great Heavenly Kings also felt grateful, daring not to show the slightest negligence or disrespect.

Especially, Wu Tie genuinely inherited the Six Paths Palace's lineage and strengthened its foundation.

Such kindness… the vast majority of disciples of the Six Paths Palace are upright and honest; they don't have all those scheming thoughts. Treat them well, and they will sacrifice their heads and spill their hot blood to repay you.

"Well, then no more talk. Later, when we act, I ask the Six Paths Palace to exert all their strength to suppress Taotie Nie and company." Wu Tie had seen in the Great Snake Den how the Great Heavenly Kings displayed the Vajra Sumeru Throne, the sight of a great mountain pressing down from above, its mighty force leaving him in awe.

"A bunch… little baldies." Lao Tie narrowed his eyes, sizing up the Great Heavenly Kings from head to toe.

After a while, Lao Tie turned his head and muttered softly: "However, baldies come in good and bad… these little fellows are good baldies… back then, the White Tiger Regiment also had good baldies…"

Wu Tie was about to have everyone set out when, amidst the wind-sand vortex, there was another unusual disturbance.

Taotie Nie and his gang surrounded Dashé Yi and a group of Black Snake youths, Taotie Nie behaving like a worldly glutton who had found the ultimate delicacy, almost completely lying atop Dashé Yi's body, ignoring the flashing lightning on his body, his ten fingertips gently stroking Dashé Yi's flesh.

From head to tail, Taotie Nie's fingertips stroked each of Dashé Yi's scales bit by bit, piece by piece.

Dashé Yi let out an uneasy roar, he struggled with all his might, but could not move at all.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, I'll be very gentle." Taotie Nie murmured while stroking Dashé Yi: "I will gently, bit by bit, drain your essence blood and meridians; our Taotie clan, as long as we devour your meridians, can possess your power…"

"You will cause my cultivation to surge greatly, you will cause my strength to leap forward…" Taotie Nie's eyes glazed as he smiled: "At that time, I will surely give that brat called Wu Tie a good lesson."

Before the vortex formed by wind and sand, Wu Tie curled his lip.

Teach myself?

Taotie Nie, you probably still don't know just how strong your pure physical strength has become now, do you?

Wu Tie sneered contemptuously.

The long sword, planted in the riverbank and formed from countless thin ice sheets, slowly rose into the air; it did not fly back to the firmament, but flew straight to Taotie Nie's face, circling him once.

Taotie Nie's face suddenly stiffened; he stared up in shock at the long sword.

A wisp of ice crystal sprayed from the long sword; the fine ice crystals wove a circle in the air, then the cold light flashed and condensed into a three-foot ice mirror.

A hazy figure, her whole body shrouded in heavy cold mist, faintly discernible as a woman's silhouette appearing in the ice mirror, a voice unusually clear yet unusually cold, each word sounding like ice chips, rang out.

"Taotie Nie, prove your devotion to the spirits… Offer your prey as a sacrifice to the spirits, and you will receive their blessing."

A thumb-sized hexagonal ice crystal drifted from the long sword, the ice crystal lightly revolving around Taotie Nie, continually scattering fine specks of light: "Follow the gods' signpost; it is near you, a three-day journey away, where a divine envoy is staying."

"She holds an altar for sacrificing to the spirits in her hand; go find her, then make an offering to the spirits."

The woman in the ice mirror said coldly: "Offer sacrifice to the spirits, please them, and you will receive their blessing… if you cannot do so, what use are you to the spirits?"

After a clear, cold chuckle, the ice sword shot up into the sky and instantly vanished into the firmament.

Taotie Nie stood up with a bewildered expression, he stared blankly at Wāyuè, and Wāyuè stared blankly back at him. Taotie Nie's eyes flickered as he turned his body, looking individually at the large retinue beside him.

Four experts of the Life Pond Realm… they are Taotie Nie's die-hard confidants.

Over a thousand Taotie clan warriors, all of whom grew up alongside Taotie Nie from childhood, cultivated as loyal death-warriors.

"The heavenly gods won't pay attention to such trifles… they won't care about this little matter." Taotie Nie murmured: "I have borrowed the power of the heavenly god artifact, but this level of power is still insufficient to draw the heavenly gods' direct attention."

"Why, why would the heavenly gods directly convey a divine edict for this ba snake?" Taotie Nie murmured: "The heavenly gods' bounty would not be more precious than a complete ba snake's bloodline… who has deprived me of the chance to become strong?"

No one spoke; all the Taotie clan people looked at Taotie Nie with an inexplicable gaze.

Only Gong Sun Cheng, he took pleasure in others' misfortune while looking at Gong Sun Cheng, his eyebrows and eyes full of undisguised amusement.

Taotie Nie took a deep breath, glanced at Gong Sun Cheng's smile, and suddenly broke into a grin: "Gong Sun Cheng, you truly are my good brother… I had underestimated you."

Gong Sun Cheng started awake, he shouted sternly: "Not me!"

Taotie Nie walked forward smiling, opened his arms, and gave Taotie Nie a strong hug: "I didn't say it was you, I said we are good brothers, isn't that so? Hmm? You don't want to be my brother?"

Taotie Nie suddenly let out a great roar, his whole body erupting with Blood Light and dark qi, he fiercely hoisted Gong Sun Cheng and smashed him hard against the rock face on the opposite bank of the Yin River.

Gong Sun Cheng had no strength to resist; he was no match for Taotie Nie, even if he possessed the power of Nine Dragons and Nine Elephants, he still would not be a match for Taotie Nie, who had devoured untold amounts of essence blood and meridians from living beings.

What's more, the Taotie clan's bloodline alone far surpasses the so-called power of Nine Dragons and Nine Elephants.

Gong Sun Cheng's body struck the opposite bank's rock wall with a tearing-through-air sound.

The rock wall trembled, Gong Sun Cheng forcibly carved out a pit several hundred meters deep in the rock wall, and before he could crawl out of the pit, Taotie Nie inhaled, and a gale sucked Gong Sun Cheng out of the pit.

Gong Sun Cheng, with how many bones broken all over his body, bellowed hoarsely: "Not me, not me, not me…"

Taotie Nie said nothing, seized Gong Sun Cheng's neck, and slammed him hard to the ground. He grabbed a Taotie divine spear, swung the shaft, and unleashed a frenzy of blows on Gong Sun Cheng, breaking every bone in his body, reducing him to a muddy mess.

"Take them, go find the heavenly gods' envoy… go find the altar for sacrificing to the heavenly gods."

After a hasty venting of his anger, Taotie Nie gritted his teeth and issued the order.

"Not me…" Gong Sun Cheng, with all his bones broken, barely managed to open his eyes and look at Taotie Nie, whispering.

Taotie Nie raised the Taotie divine spear, thrust it into Gong Sun Cheng's mouth, mangling his tongue and teeth into a pulp: "Not you? Who else could it be? You informed the heavenly gods that there is a ba snake here; besides you, who else could it be?"

Do you like me offering sacrifices to the Heavenly God? Good, you will also become a sacrifice.

Taotie Ya sneered at Gong Sun Sheng: "Although your bloodline definitely isn't as valuable as a Ba Snake's, nor as valuable as these Black Water Mystic Snakes, but as a small token, what will the divine spirit reward me with?"

"A high-grade divine fruit that increases cultivation? Oh, oh, that's all you're worth."

"Hurry up and move!" Taotie Ya roared hoarsely, warily watching the tiny ice crystal swirling and dancing beside him.

The so-called Heavenly God Dao marker is probably also the Heavenly God's eye used to monitor him, right?

The divine spirit's power is mysterious and unfathomable; Taotie Ya simply doesn't have the guts to challenge the divine spirit.

Not daring to challenge, he can only do as he wishes.

Da She Yi was also frozen stiff by that longsword descending from the sky; the Taotie Clan's warriors swiftly bound Da She Yi and the black snake youths tightly, then quickly led them away in formation.

Taotie Ya walked at the front of the troop; the tiny ice crystal continually emitted wisps of cold light, guiding his direction forward.

The three-day journey is not far, but not near either.

We must hurry; otherwise, delaying time and failing to meet the God's envoy will give Taotie Ya trouble.

"Old Iron?" Wu Tie eagerly looked at Lao Tie.

"Follow up... then... take out that so-called God's envoy." Lao Tie's eyes sprayed Blood Light three or four feet away; his body trembled slightly, and his black hair stood up straight all over.

"God's envoy? This damned... lowly trash." Lao Tie gritted his teeth and squeezed out an extremely foul curse from between his teeth.

Wu Tie's group set off, closely following Taotie Ya's group's footsteps, secretly trailing them by several dozen li.

With Lao Tie's surveillance divine ability, plus Lao Bai's tracking and searching skill, and the nature of the passage, Wu Tie's group also didn't worry about losing them.

Taotie Ya's group hurried day and night, while Wu Tie's group also didn't rest, constantly keeping close behind them.

Soon, three days passed.

Taotie Ya's group arrived at a small stone cave with exits on all sides.

This stone cave's area is about half again larger than the stone cave where the Wu Family Shibao once stood; in the cave's corner, relying on the thick rock wall, a modest stone fortress was built, capable of housing about three to five hundred people.

The stone fortress shows its age; on its black stone outer wall are countless marks of sword and axe cuts, as well as traces of blazing flames and corrosive venom.

Obviously, many battles and much slaughter have taken place around this stone fortress.

No one knows how many masters this stone fortress has seen, but its current master has lost his entire family.

A strong stench of blood filled the stone fortress; thousands of dwarves and gray dwarves lay dead in heaps before its gate. The gate had been violently broken open, and two huge poisonous spiders lay at the threshold, greedily gulping down the gray dwarves' corpses.

Inside the stone fortress, a small stream of congealed blood flowed out, while dozens of corpses in leather armor hung from the battlements.

Amidst sharp cries, two beautiful girls in white robes were shoved out by several ox-tribe warriors whose bodies glittered gold and whose golden horns shone brightly.

These fully golden ox-tribe warriors were tall and imposing, their aura oppressive; they wore golden armor, and golden halos several meters in diameter swirled beneath their feet, making the air they passed through sticky and heavy.

On the small plain before the stone fortress gate, a magnificent creature lay prone.

Shaped like a jiao dragon, its body was covered in silvery-white scales, nearly transparent, with a light-blue dorsal fin growing on its back; the long dorsal fin floated like kelp in the air, continually spraying out large sheets of ice crystals in all directions.

This huge creature was nearly a hundred meters long; on its massive head grew two sharp right angles, and a right angle several meters high was fixed in the center, to which a crystal-carved throne was attached.

A girl in a light-blue dress, surrounded by countless ice crystals, sat silently on the throne; beside her, a beautiful maiden like a nebula swirled and danced, wearing a strange smile as she watched the two girls who had been brought out crying from the stone fortress.

"What exquisite, delicate people... a perfect work." The girl suddenly clapped and laughed: "Oh, oh, you qualify to be my private collection. Or, if you're sold, someone will like you... someone likes twins, passionately likes twins."

Several Golden Ox Tribe warriors shoved the two girls before the huge creature, roughly forcing them to kneel on the ground.

"Pay respects to the noble God's envoy, you lowly wretch!" a Golden Ox Tribe warrior bellowed in a deep, muffled voice.

"Gently, gently..." the girl on the throne smiled sweetly and whispered: "They should not be treated like inferior prey."

Amid the sound of footsteps, Taotie Ya led a large troop in through a passage of the stone cave; from afar he instantly spotted that girl.