Chapter 266

There are many things inside Triple Link City that cannot be explained.

For example, this vast region with a radius of tens of thousands of li surprisingly has no effect on the surrounding large and small caves.

It's as if this enormous space of tens of thousands of li radius does not even exist in the same spacetime as those large and small caves, exerting no pressure on the surrounding strata.

This involves a rather profound use of space; Wu Tie is temporarily unable to touch it and also lazy to think about this problem.

Moreover, what is relatively difficult to explain is that, in this enormous space, those sealed creatures.

Flood dragons, phoenixes, great pengs, black tortoises, and various rare birds and beasts exist in huge numbers; the inland sea also contains gigantic blue whales, orcas, humpback whales, and so on, and even Lao Tie dragged back a tens-of-meter-long giant squid for a barbecue.

Not to mention these rare birds and beasts; there are also those expansive forests.

In the newly appeared space, there are primeval forests stretching thousands of li, inside which are giant trees so thick that several people can encircle them.

The quality of these giant trees' wood is excellent, their branches fine and smooth, their hardness comparable to refined iron, and with such a huge quantity……thus, at the edge of the circular inland sea, neat rows of wooden houses sprang up after just a few days.

The citizens of Triple Link City cut down trees to build houses, clearing vast tracts of forest.

What is astonishing is that, after one night, the logged forest recovered its lushness; each new giant tree grew overnight, and the wood quality was excellent, with no signs of the looseness that rapid growth usually causes.

By the sea, on a cliff, in a newly built wooden pavilion, Wu Tie sat in a large chair, gazing at the muddled Taotie Duck sealed within thick ice.

Lao Bai stood aside with a few newly recruited wandering ratfolk, earnestly reporting matters to Wu Tie, while the few ratfolk who had just been conscripted from wanderers into the Triple Link City Defense Army poked their heads out, looking around at the decorations.

This wooden pavilion of Wu Tie's was built by his own hands.

With divine powers, building houses is merely a matter of a thought; each wooden pile is polished to mirror smoothness, and the natural grain on the planks flows like clouds and water, piecing together into a vast landscape of mountains and rivers in misty rain.

Such a sight left the ratfolk who had wandered their whole lives utterly dumbfounded.

"The news has already been spread through the Dark Guild. The Taotie Clan should have gotten wind of it; letting them trade Taotie bones for the Taotie Duck, they are surely going to play tricks." Lao Bai earnestly looked at Wu Tie.

"I spent some gold coins to buy some information about the Taotie Clan from the Dark Guild."

"That's not a pushover; those guys truly eat people and don't spit out the bones… they really are man‑eaters." Lao Bai's face twitched, involuntarily showing a hint of tension and fear.

Wu Tie nodded.

The Taotie Clan, of course, is no pushover.

Just by looking at the Taotie Duck's performance earlier in the Great Dragon Cave, one knows this clan can devour others' blood essence and qi to gain their innate divine powers. In other words, the more blood essence and qi they devour, the equivalent to the number of heavenly shackles they have broken in the Heavenly Lock Tower.

Thus, each member of the Taotie Clan possesses extraordinary strength; the older they are and the more they devour, the more terrifying their power becomes.

Wu Tie kidnapped the Taotie Duck and sent word to the Taotie Clan to trade a large quantity of Taotie bones for it—this is undoubtedly like poking a tiger's butt.

"Playing tricks, naturally we must play tricks." Wu Tie chuckled, pointing to the three pyramids visible in the distance hanging in the air outside the gate: "But, Lao Bai, we are now in Triple Link City—what is there to worry about?"

Lao Bai also laughed, turned around, and looking at those three pyramids stacked and floating in the air, he sincerely sighed: "Yeah, we're in Triple Link City now—what is there to worry about? This really is a great place!"

Wu Tie also laughed and nodded.

Two days ago, Tie Da Jian had already returned alone to the Great Dragon Region; his cultivation was extremely high, and flying all the way he could arrive within a few months.

The Demon Chapter King had already opened a secret vault in Triple Linked City, which contained a ready-made ultra-long-distance giant teleportation array.

Tie Da Jian carried a teleportation array with him; once set up in the Great Dragon Cave, the disciples of the Six Dao Palace and his subjects could continuously teleport to Triple Linked City via the giant array.

Everything was developing in a good direction; Wu Tie was merely waiting for news from the Taotie clan.

Five or six days' journey from Triple Linked City lies a pitch-black chasm tens of thousands of li deep, constantly spewing sulfurous fumes outward.

Standing on the rim of the chasm and looking down, one can see a dim red light.

The chasm, several li wide, is filled with scorching smoke and fire; in the distance, several waterfalls burst from the cliff face, howling as they turn into heavy rain pouring down. The magma river below the chasm mercilessly turns the water in the waterfalls into thick steam that rolls upward.

The chasm's cliff walls are lush with moss, and a considerable amount of low-grade spirit grass grows there.

Enterprising people have carved out small terraces on the cliff walls and planted some easy-to-mature, high-yield cheap mushrooms.

Relying on this chasm, several nearby small-to-medium stone caverns have hundreds of thousands of inhabitants living fairly well—not abundantly clothed and fed, but at least they can barely fill their stomachs.

Setting aside Triple Linked City's heaven-defying, irrational product, in this barren rocky world being able to fill one's stomach is already quite good.

But lately this chasm has become a forbidden zone for the several nearby small-to-medium stone caverns.

Teams coming to collect mushrooms and spirit grass keep disappearing.

People, camel beasts, cultivators and slaves—everyone vanishes without a trace.

Able rat-men scouts came to investigate, but they too failed to return, all disappearing around the chasm.

Inside Triple Linked City, continual dramatic changes unfold; several small-to-medium stone caverns normally have no standing to deal with its nobles, so they can only anxiously huddle in their own territories, silently awaiting judgment of fate.

As expected, they feel they are most likely doomed to die.

"Mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms… I hate mushrooms." A shiny golden-hoofed beast stomped and smashed a clump of large white mushrooms, splattering sticky mushroom juice all over his leg: "Mushrooms, I've been eating nothing but mushrooms; even my farts smell of mushrooms."

"Meat, I want meat." A golden bovine tribe member over six meters tall, clad in heavy armor and wielding a great axe, split a rock face with one swing and roared at a nearby silver wolf-man: "Meat… find me meat! Otherwise I'll gnaw you."

The silver wolf-man sat on a large stone, carefully polishing his silver longsword with a small whetstone.

The sword, without doubt, is a fine blade forged from an extremely high-grade alloy, its interior etched with empowering runes, making it a very good spirit weapon.

But after all, it is a mass-produced weapon.

Its length, weight, balance, and grip thickness do not suit the silver wolf-man's feel.

Having hidden here for so many days, the silver wolf-man has been meticulously polishing this longsword, striving to make it better suited to his usage habits.

This body possesses extremely strong muscle memory and instinctive memory.

The original template of this body was likely that of an extremely strong swordsman.

A swordsman naturally holds his weapon to exacting standards; the sword is fundamental, as for… meat?

"You're a bovine, why would you eat meat?" the silver wolf-man said mockingly.

"Can't a bovine eat meat?" the golden bovine tribe glared, its blood-red eyes fixed firmly on the silver wolf-man.

In the distance, two serpentine archers with bronze-scaled armor, holding longbows, watched coldly, occasionally flicking their long forked tongues.

"Hiss, you two fools… wanting meat, aren't all those people you've killed these days meat?"

"But this stupid bovine head insists on eating yellow bovine meat?"

"Fool… truly enough of a fool."

The two snake-people were over 300 meters away, their voices faint, but the Golden Bull Clan's strength was formidable; he managed to hear clearly the mocking words of the two snake-people.

Having waited here until irritated, the Golden Bull Clan, whose bull-headed temper was about to explode, roared, and from his nostrils burst two streams of hot air.

"You're saying I'm an idiot?"

"I'll smash your brains out…… Without brains, let's see who's smarter, you or me."

The Golden Bull Clan roared, he threw down his great axe, leapt up tracing an arc, and heavily landed before the two snake-people whose faces had turned ashen.

His fists like heavy hammers hammered left and right onto the faces of the two snake-people.

The snake-people's cheeks caved in, their mouths full of sharp fangs smashed to pieces, the two forked tongues scraped against the fangs and were bitten off, falling to the ground and desperately twitching.

The two snake-people were in so much pain they almost fainted; their ferocious, violent nature flared, they hissed, drew their longbows, and shot two arrows at the nearby Golden Bull Clan.

Forged from refined steel, the arrow bearing a flickering rune's spiritual light on its tip heavily struck the Golden Bull Clan's breastplate.

With two crisp sounds, the heavy breastplate was torn open in two half‑chi‑long marks; the arrow grazed the Golden Bull Clan's chest and slid past, opening two shallow wounds on his exposed left and right arms.

The Golden Bull Clan's hide is thick and tough; the cowhide on his arms is over an inch thick; as the arrow slid past, cow hair flew, the mark on the hide was painless yet it completely enraged this Golden Bull Clan.

"Die!" the Golden Bull Clan shouted, grabbing with both hands the snake-people's heads, which were only one‑third his height, and was about to crush their skulls.

From all directions, at least three thousand snake‑people archers silently emerged.

They one after another drew their longbows, locking onto the Golden Bull Clan's body.

Moreover, a hideous‑looking snake‑person opened his mouth; a drop of viscous poison oozed from his large fangs, accurately landing on the arrowheads of his companions nearby, like glue, the poison clung to the arrowheads, making the arrows gleam with a faint cold light, appearing especially terrifying.

"Release the two lords…… otherwise, it'll be a fight to the death."

A snake‑person hissed loudly.

A dull thud of hooves sounded; thousands of stalwart Golden Bull Clan warriors, wielding various heavy weapons, panted as they emerged from the shadows, they turned to encircle these snake‑people archers, and several bull‑clan leaders muttered lowly.

"Fish die, net torn? No, it's snake die, bull live!"

"Just look at the color on yourselves, you should know your rank…… you bunch of stinky snakes, do you want to rebel?"

"Lord Bull Chief, don't be afraid, kill those two fools…… if they dare to shoot arrows, we'll avenge you."

His palm pinched the heads of the two snake‑people leaders; the Golden Bull Clan's Bull Chief was so angry his eyes turned green.

A volley of ten thousand arrows, also poisoned, made him feel a bit creeped out.

Although these snake‑people archers' cultivation is inferior to his, a few of their leaders have firmly entered the Life Pool realm; their arrows are enough to threaten the Bull Chief.

Take revenge for himself?

These damned bull‑heads, they can't wait to plot to take his position, right?

The Bull Chief took a low, deep breath, slowly released his grip on the two snake‑people leaders' heads: "Next time, if you crack jokes behind my back again, I'll definitely smash your heads…… if there's no beef, snake meat will do as a test."

In mid‑air, a long whip condensed from deep‑blue Cold Qi lashed down heavily.

Just that one lash, the Bull Chief's armor cracked open, a deep‑to‑the‑bone welt appeared instantly. Large amounts of blood turned to ice shards spraying from within the Bull Chief; the Bull Chief was whipped into a hoarse, anguished howl, his massive body collapsing to the ground, rolling and twitching, nearly toppling into the nearby ravine.

The gloomy voice of Profound Spider came from high above: "Heh, after days without restraint, you all want to rebel?"

Her visage cold and composed, the unharmed Profound Spider stepped on Cangyou's head and slowly descended from the air.

Beside Profound Spider followed a handsome young man whose whole body emanated intense Cold Qi; looking at his appearance, he was clearly the serene and elegant brother Youcang, who dwells on glaciers and aboard great ships.

The surrounding bull‑folk, wolf‑folk, and snake‑people all knelt on the ground, each lying prone, too fearful to make a sound.

The Bull Chief, twitching wildly, struggled a bit, then shakily rose, prostrated himself on the ground, performing a full‑body kowtow to Profound Spider and Youcang: "Respected Profound Spider Sir, you have returned…… we were just playing around."

"I don't care what you're doing…… anyway, you're just a bunch of lowly beasts." Profound Spider said in a sinister, snide tone: "Now, quickly clear out a place, I want to receive honored guests. Hmm, where is the nearest castle? Slaughter them, clean it up."

Two hours later, in a small castle that had been blood‑washed clean, Profound Spider walked out of the castle gates smiling, and elegantly bowed to a burly, scar‑covered middle‑aged man.

"Lord Heiluo, you've finally arrived."

"Ah, I'm also grieved by the death of Lord Heijiao…… his killer is now inside Triple‑Link City."

"Yeah, right, let's go inside and talk… hehe, do you have any recent news about Triple‑Link City?"

Heiluo looked at Profound Spider with a dark, sullen gaze, his aggressive eyes unabashedly sweeping over her curvaceous figure.

"Profound Spider, don't rush, I still have several honored guests to introduce to you…… this is the current head of the Taotie clan, Taotie Tu……"

"They also happen to be heading to Triple‑Link City to settle scores."

"So I brought them here together."

Beside Heiluo, a sinister‑looking middle‑aged man with skin as white as snow, his black hair faintly glowing with Blood Light, slowly extended his right hand to Profound Spider: "Little lady, we can… get closer… get closer."

Taotie Tu grasped Profound Spider's hand and did not let go for a long time.