Chapter 25: Chapter Twenty‑Four: Heavenly Howl

The palm-sized metal spider leapt and flew, reaching behind Shi Lingqing's subordinate in just a few bounds.

The man lying among the rubble was craning his neck to look outward, completely unaware as the tiny metal spider dropped swiftly, its six slender metal wrists and ankles clamping hard onto the major tendon at the back of his neck.

A burst of extremely bright electricity crackled, and with a 'papapa' sound, six bolts of electricity shot from the spider's body, all entering the man.

The man's body jerked violently, his eyes rolled back and he foamed at the mouth before passing out.

Wu Tie sucked in a breath of cold air, put on his helmet, and quickly rushed into the stone crevice. An invisible force field spread outward; near this crevice only that man was hiding, Shi Lingqing and the others were not there.

Strangely, Wu Tie felt several gazes from afar fall upon him.

He abruptly turned and looked into the distance. Several li away, beneath the dim gloom emitted by a few points of night-glow vines, several figures stood silently.

Seeing Wu Tie looking over, the gloom instantly vanished and the figures slipped into the darkness.

Wu Tie's eyes were sharp; he had already distinguished Shi Lingqing's curvaceous figure, and standing beside her were clearly Qiao and Shidian.

"An ambush?" Wu Tie glanced at the man lying on the ground, his ten fingers still twitching slightly.

The stone crevice — the guard hidden at its entrance, the 'Dog Thing' thirty-odd meters inside, and the deep, long narrow passage within — made Wu Tie instantly understand Shi Lingqing and the others' plan: they wanted to lure the three Luo Lin into the crevice, using the narrow terrain to restrict them.

The tiny metal spider jumped up and landed on Wu Tie's shoulder.

The recent current seemed to have drained too much of its power; the voice of Old Iron coming from its belly had grown much fainter: "Don't worry about them, hurry and bring that Dog Thing back."

Wu Tie nodded, strode quickly into the stone crevice, and carefully examined the Dog Thing on the ground.

This creature was about five to six meters long from head to tail and roughly three meters tall, its whole body a pallid white, its form a very smooth streamline, giving off a strange beauty.

"This is a big one," Wu Tie said, grabbing the Dog Thing's head and pulling hard; the ground around it emitted a dull cracking sound, several rocks lodged in its body shattered, and Wu Tie felt his hands lighten as he staggered backward several steps.

"I'm really stupid," Wu Tie muttered to himself.

The Dog Thing's body appeared to be cast from the same material as Old Iron; Old Iron's weight was surprisingly light, and the Dog Thing weighed only a few thousand jin — insignificant compared to Wu Tie's current strength.

On the contrary, he had exerted too much force, holding the Dog Thing and stepping back over ten paces, nearly losing his balance and sitting down.

He hoisted the Dog Thing's two front claws onto his shoulders, dragged it out of the crevice with long strides, the invisible force field enveloping his whole body; Wu Tie leapt up, his feet quickly tapping the rock wall, and with a few pushes he sprang out of the sunken pit.

Kicking off his shoes and sprinting at full speed, he covered hundreds of li in hardly any time.

The wooden shed's floor had been lifted, revealing the entrance to the Ancient Divine Armory; Wu Tie, carrying the Dog Thing, jumped down, and a quarter of an hour later he met Old Iron in the Metal Hall.

He threw the Dog Thing to the ground, Wu Tie panted, hands on his hips, staring at Old Iron: "Didn't you say these menial yuan-energy puppets can only operate within ten li of the Ancient Divine Armory?"

He pointed to the palm-sized metal spider on his shoulder and asked, "What's going on with this?"

Old Iron bluntly gave Big Iron a pot: "It's because this guy is too stupid; Grandpa I taught him two tricks, so these small yuan-energy puppets can now operate within a thousand li of the Ancient Divine Armory… Isn't that perfectly normal?"

Wu Tie stared straight at Old Iron.

Old Iron also stared straight at him.

After locking eyes for a full half quarter-hour, Wu Tie finally could bear the soreness in his eyeballs no longer, wiped away tears and turned his head: "I always feel you're setting me up."

Big Iron let out two 'gu-gu' sounds.

He still couldn't speak normally like Old Iron, only uttering a few vague noises, and quickly spun three times on the spot.

Old Iron gave a cold snort, directing four metal spiders to lift him up to face the Dog Thing, his eyes spraying dozens of extremely fine red rays that swept repeatedly over the Dog Thing's body.

Amid the faint 'papa' of electric current, several transparent tubes beneath Old Iron's neck stirred like spirit snakes, gradually lengthening and extending toward the transparent wound at the center of the Dog Thing's forehead.

Wu Tie stared wide-eyed in shock, murmuring: "Old Iron… what are you… who is he?"

The transparent tube extending from Old Iron's neck flickered with electricity, slowly drilling into the wound on the Dog Thing's forehead.

He did not answer Wu Tie's question; after a full hour, the Dog Thing's whole body flickered with water‑like electric light, and he then lowly muttered: "Since there is the Minor Manifest Sage True Lord Yang Jian… naturally there should be a Heavenly Howl Dog."

"This Dog Thing is certainly the Heavenly Howl Dog… Grandpa I had even calculated that, once it grew flesh, I would stew it into a five‑spice dry pot… looks like there's no chance now." Old Iron's voice was filled with inexplicable emotion: "But it's also true — wherever Yang Jian is, the Heavenly Howl Dog will surely be nearby."

"Not those shoddy counterfeits; indeed, this is the true form of the Heavenly Howl Dog." Old Iron said solemnly: "This guy… is the sort who leans on the powerful, bullies the weak and fears the strong… I never imagined he would fight to the death… die here?"

Wu Tie had already sat on the ground, staring blankly at the Heavenly Howl Dog: "Heavenly Howl Dog? That name…"

With a few 'kakaka' sounds, intensely bright electricity flashed and flowed rapidly around the Heavenly Howl Dog's neck; its smooth, unblemished neck suddenly split into several extremely fine lines, from which threads of gorgeous white light welled out, spreading like water waves in all directions.

With a 'dong' sound, the Heavenly Howl Dog's damaged skull fell to the ground.

Old Iron said in a deep voice: "Big Iron, send him to keep Yang Jian company. They should be happy together, right?"

In Old Iron's stiff, icy metallic tone, inexplicably filled with sorrow, the blood light in his eyes became extremely chaotic: "It's truly a pity — Yang Jian once dreamed of letting this Dog Thing grow flesh and blood. But the Dog Thing was unworthy… in the end… it was only half a step away from flesh and blood."

"It's such a waste of the treasures Yang Jian saved from between his teeth… if only they were given to me…" Old Iron sighed deeply: "But then we wouldn't be settling old scores with this Dog Thing… you should be happy, being able to be with Yang Jian, right?"

Four metal spiders lifted Old Iron, bringing his neck toward the Heavenly Howl Dog's body.

Old Iron's neck writhed like water, adjusting its size to match the thickness of the Heavenly Howl Dog's neck.

From the Heavenly Howl Dog's neck surged dozens of tubes of varying thickness and streams of light; likewise, Old Iron's neck released dozens of tubes of uneven thickness and strands of light like solid flow.

The tubes connected, the streams of light merged.

Wu Tie stared, wide‑eyed, at Old Iron as his huge head and the Heavenly Howl Dog's body meshed together, soon becoming seamless; bolts of electricity raced across Old Iron's whole body, his neck instantly turning mirror‑smooth, without a trace.

"Old… Old Iron?" Wu Tie stood dumbfounded.

A human head, though cast of metal, was simply placed upon the Heavenly Howl Dog's body?

Old Iron shook his head; the blood light in his eyes suddenly became intensely fierce, two masses of blood light surging wildly, illuminating the entire Metal Hall with the light sprayed from his eyes.

With a 'kakaka' sound, the limbs originally belonging to the Heavenly Howl Dog began to move slowly.

Soon the body stood up slowly, its steps stiff as it began to walk across the Metal Hall. After a few steps, Old Iron turned his head to glance at Big Iron; Big Iron's eyes flashed with blood light, and several metal spiders quickly gathered together.

The metal spiders' bodies melted, forming a pallid white metal liquid ball about a meter in diameter.

Old Iron opened his mouth, bit the metal liquid ball and sucked hard; the ball rapidly entered his body. Electricity coursed over his frame, dense metallic impacts rang inside him, and his mouth continually spat out twisted metal fragments.

"The wounds are truly severe." Old Iron snorted coldly: "It's just a bunch of bastards — killing the Dog Thing was bad enough, but then they desecrated the corpse… they don't realize it's now me, Grandpa, who's taken over this body?"

The sacrifice of several metal spiders was effective; after about two hours, Old Iron could already sprint back and forth quickly in the Metal Hall, and his speed was clearly much greater than Wu Tie's.

"Old Iron? You can move!" Wu Tie looked at him, both startled and delighted.

"I can move, but… after all it's not my own body, using it feels weird." Old Iron grit his teeth hard, his upper and lower rows of big teeth scraping out large sparks: "Still, after all these years as a living corpse, being able to move is good."

Old Iron suddenly bolted up to Wu Tie, his huge head thrust forward as he laughed loudly: "Isn't this rare? A new breed — human‑head dog… pah, lion‑body human face… pah, dog body… well, the name 'human‑head dog' is not bad."

Electric light flowed over his whole body; Lao Tie gritted his teeth, muttering unknown curses, and with wind at his four legs he began to run wildly through the metal hall.

As he ran, Lao Tie suddenly leapt up and began to run swiftly along the vertical wall.

He was like a wisp of a ghost, circling the metal hall on the vertical wall dozens of times before he abruptly stopped.

"Da Tie, give grandfather a target!" Lao Tie shouted loudly.

Electric light flickered on the ceiling, and a metal plate one meter square and a foot thick came crashing down heavily.

Lao Tie suddenly opened his mouth, and a fist-sized orb of dark-blue electricity flew out silently, slamming hard into the center of the metal plate.

With a 'sizzle' boom, the orb exploded, sending out arm-thick bolts of electricity that sprayed over ten meters, striking the ground with a piercing crack. Lao Tie grinned and laughed three times, then his four legs suddenly went limp and he fell to the ground with a 'thud'.

"This damned thing… how long have we been at it…" Lao Tie pressed his forehead to the ground; after a long while he slowly lifted his head and straightened his body leisurely: "Indeed, pride must not forget vigilance, or misfortune will surely follow… but as long as I can move, it's fine."

Wu Tie looked worriedly at Lao Tie: "Is something wrong with your body?"

Lao Tie grumbled dissatisfied: "The problem is big, but it's not really a problem… now I have an interesting question: why did Yang Jian die here, while this damned thing didn't follow its dying master but instead died in battle hundreds of li away?"

Lao Tie murmured to himself: "That stone fissure… little guy, come with me, what lies beyond that stone fissure?"

With legs like the wind, Lao Tie hurried toward the exit of the Ancient Divine Soldier Camp.

Wu Tie grabbed his spear and hurriedly followed behind Lao Tie: "Lao Tie, you don't know what actually happened here?"

While running wildly, Lao Tie muttered: "Grandfather, I'm merely a ninth-generation medical-type ancient divine soldier of Bian Que's line… how could I possibly know about those killers who just fight and slaughter?"

Da Tie followed behind Lao Tie and Wu Tie, but after Lao Tie and Wu Tie left the Ancient Divine Soldier Camp, he could only mutter "gu-gu" helplessly, remaining in the camp.

Wu Tie closely followed Lao Tie toward the direction of the great sinkhole.

Lao Tie's running speed was astonishing; with his lead, Wu Tie took even less time than the return trip to reach the edge of the great sinkhole again.

Without a word, Lao Tie seized the momentum of his sprint, leapt up in a graceful arc, and swiftly descended to the bottom of the pit.

Wu Tie stared wide-eyed in astonishment: "Lao Tie, can you fly?"

Before his words finished, Lao Tie came crashing down heavily, shattering a stone stalagmite; he himself bounced several times on the ground, tumbling outward over a hundred meters before stopping.

"Obviously, this was just a mistake…" Lao Tie's muffled voice came from afar: "A mistake… this guy is injured too badly."

Lao Tie staggered to his feet and let out a sharp whistle at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie leapt up, traced the same graceful arc, and then drifted down lightly beside Lao Tie.

Lao Tie spread his four legs and sprinted wildly toward that stone fissure; Wu Tie closely followed behind him, their landing spot only a few li from the fissure, and soon they arrived before it.

From within the fissure came muffled explosions, accompanied by incessant piercing clashes of weapons.

A cold wind howled out of the fissure, drifting strands of black smoke on its wake, followed by a faint scent of blood.

"They've already gotten into it." Lao Tie said in a deep voice: "Come, let's go see… perhaps there really is something extraordinary here."

Wu Tie nodded and followed Lao Tie as they charged into the fissure.

All the way along the narrow passage behind the fissure they sprinted forward over ten li, the passage sloping downward, and gradually large pools of blood appeared on the ground.