Chapter 221: The Clan

A group of rough men lashed out violently, instantly shattering the rock layers within a radius of several hundred li.

Fortunately, no tribes lived nearby—actually there were a few small family settlements, but they had already been wiped out by Xuan Zhu and his men.

In the boiling magma, destructive energies such as lightning, gravity, yuan-magnetic force, and gale winds darted about like dragons; an ordinary Life Pond Realm cultivator would likely be reduced to dust before even taking a single breath in this environment.

Taotie Ya and his four Life Pond Realm subordinates were no exception.

Clad in armor forged from mystic ice, they thought they could escape, but a burly man came flying at them, swinging a heavy iron rod and beating them senseless until they fainted.

Several dozen li away, Lao Tie was leading Shi Fei, Tie Da Jian, and others as they crept toward this spot.

The surrounding rock layers suddenly shattered, then towering flames surged forward, instantly turning the area into a sea of magma; Lao Tie cursed with the most colorful profanity he knew, and his body abruptly swelled up.

Lao Tie's usual werewolf-like form writhed, quickly shifting into a roughly five-meter-tall, pitch-black humanoid wolf with faint golden stripes flickering across its skin.

Holding a scepter shaped like a sickle, Lao Tie heaved it upward; instantly a wild wind howled, countless black sands spewed from around him, forming a huge black vortex that sheltered everyone inside.

The surrounding magma battered violently; after all, this body was not Lao Tie's original one, and he could only control a small fraction of its power.

The black sand hurricane was nearly shattered by the magma onslaught, and Lao Tie's face darkened instantly.

A beam of dark emerald light shot from Lao Tie's crown, and a three-foot-tall black pyramid phantom slowly emerged. Golden archaic characters continually surfaced on its ebony faces, while visions of sandstorms, hurricanes, scorching suns, full moons, floods, and mountains flickered one after another.

The power of Lao Tie's black sand barrier surged, steadily holding back the frenzied scouring magma and other destructive energies around him.

Wu Tie likewise struggled in the magma, relying on the astonishing defensive power of the armor gifted by Osiris; he tumbled and rolled dozens of times, his whole body shrouded in a layer of black divine light, suffering little harm.

Just after Xuan Zhu and Cang You detonated their skulls, Wu Tie was painfully struggling out of a magma vortex where a gravity field and yuan-magnetic aurora overlapped; before he could catch his breath, four burly men suddenly sprang up from all sides.

"There's still a little thing!" a burly man with slightly reddish hair laughed "hahaha" and lunged to grab Wu Tie's neck.

Wu Tie did not unleash the White Tiger Split.

Seeing these burly men's behavior, though they were a bit rough and savage, Wu Tie felt they were not bad.

Moreover, Wu Tie inexplicably felt a sense of closeness toward them; from them he always sensed the same aura as Wu Zhan.

Equally stalwart, equally savage, equally crude, yet equally imparting an inexplicable sense of solidity and weight.

Therefore, Wu Tie did not use the White Tiger Split.

The burly man swung a palm down, and Wu Tie met it with a reverse palm.

The burly man's eyes widened in surprise, then he burst out laughing: "Hahaha, kid, you've got guts…… but you're still weak……"

"Bang!"

Wu Tie's and the burly man's palms slammed together; the surrounding viscous magma roiled violently, the magma within a hundred-zhang radius suddenly recoiling outward, blasting out a huge spherical void.

The burly man's face suddenly flushed crimson as blood.

As the words "still weak" left his mouth, a tremendous force surged into Wu Tie's palm like a flood striking a dam; the burly man's body jerked, he staggered half a step back, nearly being toppled by Wu Tie's palm.

"Good!" the burly man roared, his five fingers slamming into a vast expanse of flame, and a ferocious power far beyond Wu Tie's imagination came crashing down.

The other three burly men had already burst into hysterical laughter, pointing at that man and laughing out loud; though they said nothing, Wu Tie could clearly hear the teasing tone hidden in their laughter.

They seemed to think that the reddish-haired man being nearly overturned by Wu Tie was utterly unacceptable and unbelievable.

Wu Tie drew a deep breath; the burly man's palm blazed like a furnace, the force upon it terrifying to the extreme, evoking in Wu Tie the childhood memory of playing with Wu Zhan—being pressed down by a single finger of Wu Zhan on his shoulder, crying and struggling on the ground, unable to rise.

This burly man's strength…… is terrifyingly strong!

Compared to the burly man, Taotie Ya's power is like a tiny rabbit beside a tiger…… this burly man might be more than just a tiger.

Drawing a deep breath, the power at his brow flared violently; Great Strength God Magic, Ding Jia Divine Body, Five Ding Open Mountain, and other mighty godly abilities all erupted. Wu Tie's body swelled like an inflating balloon, his arms thickening to thigh size, his five fingers locked tight around the burly man's palm as he poured all his strength into a reverse push.

The burly man's face grew ever more flushed, faint sparks of fire flickering from the pores of his skin.

"Kid, what level of Chonglou Realm are you? Fifth? Sixth? Seventh? Your aura is overly clear and shallow; your realm isn't high!"

The burly man likewise swelled his arm, a ever greater force pressing down.

Wu Tie's arm trembled violently, his muscles tearing with the sound of overstrain, fibers continually tensing and snapping, the force his arm could unleash rapidly dwindling.

"Chonglou Realm…… first level!" Wu Tie stared fixedly at the burly man: "You…… rely purely on bodily strength?"

"A first-level youngster? This strength…… far surpasses the youngsters of our own clan!" the burly man likewise glared at Wu Tie: "No, no, your body is strange; pure body-tempering, at your realm you shouldn't possess such strength."

"Even with all kinds of mighty godly abilities, it's impossible…… don't even think about it."

"Our clan's body-tempering art has nearly reached the pinnacle achievable by mankind…… for any equal realm, our clan members' bodily strength must be the strongest among peers!" The burly man gradually pressed Wu Tie's arm back toward his chest.

"Your strength is…… a bit uncanny……" flames surged in the burly man's eyes, his eyeballs turning into twin vortices of fire, his invisible gaze searing Wu Tie's face with a faint ache.

"Your flesh and viscera are well honed—even more so than the flesh and viscera of our clan's first-level cultivators…… but that's all; body-tempering arts may differ in path yet converge in result, and the world is not lacking in secret techniques comparable to our clan's body-tempering methods."

"But your bones…… kid, you're a real piece of hard bone!"

The burly man and Wu Tie locked their five fingers; the flesh on Wu Tie's fingers had turned blue‑purple, crushed by the burly man's violence until it lost all vitality, becoming dead flesh.

Only the bones of their fingers rubbed and collided fiercely, emitting a piercing "ding-ding" sound, like two ingots hammering into each other.

"When I broke through to the Life Pond Realm, my bones only became this solid…… kid, did you swallow some elixir or obtain some strange treasure? Heh heh…… have you heard this saying?"

The burly man gave a weird laugh.

The burly man's three companions also gave a weird laugh at the same time.

"What saying?" Wu Tie gritted his teeth, frantically mobilizing all the strength and potential within his body.

His entire skeleton was frantically sucking up the last trace of Taotie bone essence, his bone strength and power still rapidly increasing.

But the burly man's strength was terrifyingly strong, exceeding Wu Tie's imagination.

Wu Tie had already exhausted all the mighty godly abilities he currently commanded, while this burly man was still relying solely on raw bodily strength.

The flames spurting from his palm were merely the natural overflow of energy when his bodily strength erupted; even now the burly man had not employed any auxiliary godly abilities or secret techniques.

"What saying? Heh heh, for you it's not a good one……" the burly man solemnly smiled at Wu Tie: "For example…… this thing is fated with me!"

Wu Tie's face froze stiff.

"This thing is fated with you? Do you know why my bones are so hard?" Wu Tie's arm had been pressed to his chest; the metallic wings on his back flapped desperately, and only by relying on his armor's power could he barely keep his stance.

"A treasure?" the burly man laughed, his eyes narrowing to slits: "If it's a treasure, then it's surely fated with us."

The other three burly men also laughed as they closed in, flexing their arms and legs proudly, showing off their developed muscles to Wu Tie.

If they stayed still it would be fine, but once they moved, the black leather armor hastily stuffed onto their bodies instantly tore with a 'hiss-hiss'.

"Little brat, frankly speaking, it's a robbery!" A burly man with deep blue water light surging in his pupils' skin said in a low voice: "Just a first-level Chonglou Realm cultivator to have this kind of strength, such a tough bone... hehe, taking this treasure back, how much benefit could it bring to our family's children?"

"Robbery, huh... hand over all the good stuff on you obediently." Another burly man laughed: "We Wu Clan fellows say that the treasure that makes your bones hard, which we're robbing you of, will absolutely not cost you a single copper coin."

"One spit, one nail... the Wu Clan gentlemen never do those despicable things... but, how does that saying go?" The last burly man furrowed his brow, thought carefully for a while, then muttered: "What treasure... virtuous person... uh... what?"

The four burly men rolled their eyes; it was obvious none of them could finish that saying properly.

After a dry cough, the four men simultaneously burst into an embarrassed laugh.

They aggressively said to Wu Tie: "Anyway, it's a robbery..."

Wu Tie also raised his left hand, he used both hands to support the red-haired burly man's pressing hands, gritted his teeth and coldly snorted: "Wu Clan? Which Wu?"

The four burly men simultaneously let out a loud howl, shouting in unison: "Between heaven and earth, stand tall and proud, heads may be cut, blood may flow, but a common man's aspiration must not be lost—the 'Wu'!"

Wu Tie let out a fierce shout.

The skin and flesh on his right hand, entangled with the burly man's, exploded; he jerked it free from the astonished man's grip, his left hand gripping the White Tiger Rend, the metal wings on his back flapped hard, and his figure flashed to seven or eight zhang away.

The red-haired burly man's face flushed crimson, he angrily shouted at Wu Tie: "Kid, you're slippery as hell!"

Wu Tie pulled out a handful of primordial grass and stuffed it into his mouth; faint flesh began to grow on his right hand. Seeing the four burly men about to join forces and rush at him, he said coldly: "Wu? I also bear the surname Wu..."

The four burly men's movements suddenly stiffened; they looked at each other, then all turned their gaze to Wu Tie.

After a moment of silence, the red-haired burly man plucked a piece of flesh left from Wu Tie's struggle from his own palm, flicked it toward the distance, and said: "Old Ghost Uncle... this kid bears the Wu surname!"

The flesh had just flown over a zhang away when the white-haired old ghost, whose hair was withered white, sprang out of the lava like a phantom, seizing the small piece of flesh the burly man had thrown.

He brought the flesh stained with a trace of blood to his nose and inhaled deeply; a wisp of vital energy rose on the white-haired old ghost's face, a few sesame‑sized white‑light runes condensed at his fingertips flickered briefly, and he widened his eyes in astonishment as he stared at Wu Tie.

"Surely you are a direct descendant of my Wu Clan... and your bloodline is extremely close to the main line... child, who is your father?"

"Wu Zhan!" Wu Tie looked at these men who inexplicably gave him a sense of kinship, and solemnly announced his father's name.

"Wu Zhan..." The white-haired old ghost rummaged in his sleeve with his right hand, producing a black tortoise shell about a foot square, bit his tongue, spat a drop of blood onto the shell, and rubbed it vigorously with both hands.

Strands of black mist sprayed from the tortoise shell, and countless obscure ancient oracle‑bone characters emerged from the black mist.

The white-haired old ghost murmured: "Wu Zhan, Wu Zhan, Wu Zhan... there are twenty‑seven elders and youngsters named Wu Zhan in our clan... looking at this youngster's age, his father must be under fifty... so among those under fifty named Wu Zhan, there is only one..."

Within the black mist rose the figure of a vigorous, burly man.

Wu Tie's eye sockets suddenly reddened.

That man's face was youthful and inexperienced, appearing about fifteen or sixteen, yet his features were unmistakably those of Wu Zhan.

"Our clan, Seventh Branch, Wu Zhan, the eighteenth son of Wu Wu... due to poor talent, he could not enter the family's ancestral lands... he voluntarily left home to train, seeking a breakthrough..." The white-haired old ghost watched the words continually appearing on the tortoise shell and murmured: "Let me calculate, let me calculate... our Seventh Branch's Wu Wu boy is my..."

"Well, Wu Wu's father Wu Wei is my grandnephew... then Wu Wu is my great‑grandson, Wu Zhan is my... you little brat are my..."

The white-haired old ghost sighed, looking at Wu Tie, a hint of warmth appearing in his pallid eyes.

"Forget all this nonsense, just call me Old Ghost Ancestor... these four bullies who pick on the weak... you can call them Uncle."

Wu Tie's heart churned with countless feelings.

The lava behind him suddenly split apart; Old Tie, in a wolf‑headed human form, grasped his scepter, swirling a sky‑filling black sand whirlwind, and strode forward.