Chapter 3: Hunt

False Sun lit up.

Under the warm red light, a group of dwarves busied themselves at the distant stone wall.

That was a vast tract of fertile land, with neat plots where several strange crops grew quite luxuriantly.

From the deeper mine shafts came a constant clinking sound.

On the training ground, Wu Zhan's body steamed with heat, turning into a great white mist that rose over a meter high. His muscles throbbed violently as he held aloft a stone ball nearly his height; beneath his bronzed skin, flashes of light flickered intermittently along the raised meridians.

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong also toiled on the training ground, swinging various heavy implements up and down; they often dropped the implements, producing huge noises.

In Shibao, Wu Tie sat at the side of a square table; through the window he could just see the scene on the training ground.

On the square table, in the sand tray, Grey Master drew line after line of characters with a stone rod, frowning as he looked at the scrolls that Wu Zhan and the others had brought back from the Bear Clan a few days earlier.

"Hard, hard, hard… Is this… the method for making bows and crossbows?" Grey Master slammed the stone rod hard against his own forehead.

"Bows and crossbows… using ox horn?"

"Ox horn?"

Grey Master gazed thoughtfully at a few Ox Clan warriors on the training ground, who were swinging wooden-made great axes and loudly shouting as they happily practiced.

"Ox Clan… ox horn… could the horns on their heads be used?"

"Well, what is this fish glue?"

Grey Master, vexed, knocked his head hard against the square table.

"Profound and unfathomable… this is the knowledge left by our ancient ancestors… peace!"

Grey Master lifted his head, rubbed his aching brow, and looked solemnly at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie withdrew his gaze and his wandering thoughts—just moments ago he had been daydreaming that he had become a powerful cultivator, effortlessly toying with the heaviest implements on the training ground.

Gazing at the complex characters on the sand tray, his scattered focus steadied, and Wu Tie let out a soft sigh.

"The knowledge left by our ancestors… Master, you said wisdom is not merely blind memorization and inheritance, but learning to question!" Wu Tie stared earnestly at Grey Master: "Therefore, ox horn and fish glue do not exist."

Grey Master stared blankly.

Wu Tie said more earnestly: "Just like the sun, moon, and stars in the books, just like rivers, lakes, and seas—they do not exist!"

Without waiting for Grey Master to speak, Wu Tie continued: "Just like the apricot blossoms sold by the apricot-blossom vendor in the deep alley of the Ming dynasty, they do not exist…"

Grey Master raised the stone rod and slammed it hard onto Wu Tie's forehead, glaring angrily: "You learned to question—is this how you question?"

Wu Tie spread his hands: "Nobody has ever seen it!"

Grey Master stared blankly.

He slowly lowered the stone rod, stirred the characters in the sand tray into a mess with both hands, and sighed heavily in vexation.

Grey Master's gaze grew sorrowful.

He reached out to touch Wu Tie's forehead, and Grey Master whispered: "The prerequisite for questioning is having sufficient wisdom… Peace, you and I both lack the wisdom to question what our ancestors left behind…"

Wu Tie also sighed.

Grey Master rose to his feet, walked to the window, and looked toward Wu Zhan and the others on the training ground.

"My master once told me…" After a long silence, Grey Master muttered softly: "We must not be extinguished in darkness, we must not become beasts… violence and slaughter cannot conceal the light of our ancestors' wisdom."

"Look at your father!" Grey Master pointed at Wu Zhan, drenched in sweat, with a faint strong light shimmering beneath his bronzed skin: "He is the strongest warrior among the nearby fortress clans… but twenty years ago, after he saved me… he also learned to respect knowledge, to respect heritage."

"Him?" Wu Tie looked astonished at Wu Zhan.

He then looked at Grey Master: "I thought you had always been… one of our family!"

Grey Master smiled, took out another scroll, and carefully unfurled it.

"The contents here are even more interesting…" Grey Master whispered: "Come, let us ponder together… Oh, look, how beautiful the phrasing is… I truly do not know what kind of great figure the Bear Clan's ancestors were, to have left such a legacy…"

"Your blue collar, my heart longs…"

Grey Master sighed heavily again: "Truly beautiful… but how shall we explain it?"

"Uh…" Wu Tie spread his hands and unconsciously glanced toward the training ground.

On the training ground, Wu Tong stood aside drinking water, while Wu Jin and Wu Yin stood several meters apart; they locked gazes for a moment, then their long swords suddenly flew from their hands, turning into two streaks of black qi that shot straight ahead and slammed together violently.

Sparks flew everywhere, and the clashing sound was deafening.

The two swords clashed violently thirteen times in the air before finally separating and falling heavily to the ground.

Wu Jin and Wu Yin exhaled simultaneously, and large sheets of sweat broke out on their bronzed skin, pouring down like rain.

Following the cave that Wu Zhan and the others had returned from a few days earlier, passing through a winding tunnel full of side paths, traveling along the correct route for nearly a hundred li, bypassing many perilous sinkholes, then crossing a natural stone bridge over a scorching lava river, they arrived at the Bear Clan's territory.

In a dark side passage, a fist-sized luminous mushroom emitted a dim blue light, illuminating a stone dwarf covered in scars from head to toe.

When the Bear Clan fell, this stone dwarf fortunately escaped the Wu Clan warriors' manhunt, but today he has fallen into even more terrifying hands.

In the darkness, a curved dagger flashing with a faint blue light slit the stone dwarf's throat.

A great spray of blood poured out, and the stone dwarf convulsed as he collapsed to the ground.

The stone dwarf's blood naturally bore a hint of grayish white, but soon the plasma turned almost the same pale blue as the dagger, the dwarf's body also took on a faint blue tint, and began to corrode and rot rapidly.

Deadly poison, an extremely terrifying poison.

"Chiyou's Tooth!" the luminous mushroom was crushed in a fist, and a gentle voice sounded in the darkness.

"Even in these remote backwaters, there are good things?" another voice sounded.

"I've said before, the more remote the place, the better the treasures." a voice laughed.

"One strike and Chiyou's Tooth can shatter an iron shield!" the original gentle voice sounded, he laughed: "Too bad, it was snatched away."

Meaningless laughter echoed in the darkness, then the darkness fell silent again, with no further sound.

False Sun lit up, red light bathing the Wu Valley.

In the great hall of Shibao, beside the wide stone table, Wu Zhan was dealing with a slab of glossy, juicy roasted meat while mumbling orders to Wu Tie.

"Eat well, eat your fill, then follow me to the mine."

Wu Zhan gulped down a large chunk of roasted meat, lifted a big jug of clear water and drank deeply, then exhaled contentedly.

Those little dwarfs yesterday used mountain-splitting thunder to crush stones while searching for ore veins, and they seem to have dug into another cavern.

Wu Zhan stroked his thick beard thoughtfully, then laughed like a jungle tiger king after a full meal: "I really hope that side leads to an inhabited region… opponents, the more the better!"

Wu Tie lowered his head, struggling with a huge boiled beast bone.

The beast bone had been chopped apart; he finally managed to dig out a large chunk of tender marrow, stuffing a big mouthful.

Hearing Wu Zhan's words, Wu Tie couldn't help but roll his eyes.

Wu Zhan instantly felt a bit embarrassed.

He rubbed his head, giving a dry laugh: "You mean three years ago? Hahaha, who would have thought that behind the exploded mine shaft lay a poisonous spider nest? Damn it, those beasts don't even know what they eat to grow that big, yet they spawned so many baby spiders!"

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong sitting nearby all shivered at once.

"Dad, we won't be this unlucky again, will we?" Wu Jin looked earnestly at Wu Zhan.

Wu Zhan stood up, glared fiercely at his three sons, then grabbed Wu Tie's shoulder and hauled him out.

"You three, stay put at home."

"Well, the earth-rice mushrooms over there are almost ripe; you take people and apply the final fertilizer… if you don't, what will you eat?"

"Remember! Earth-rice mushrooms love rock python dung! Though it's smelly… if you don't, what will you eat?"

The faces of the three Wu brothers stiffened simultaneously.

In the winding, deep mine, the stone dwarves had deliberately planted large quantities of luminous moss.

No torches needed; the luminous moss alone suffices to illuminate the mine.

Many small lizards and spiders crawl along the mine's rock walls; occasionally a few poisonous snakes dart out from somewhere, but before they can hunt those small lizards, the nearby stone dwarves, quick-eyed and swift-handed, smash them dead.

Within a single breath, those poisonous snakes are eaten down to not a scale left.

Riding a gray rock lizard, moving swiftly through the mine, whispers of the stone dwarves come from the surrounding side passages.

In the 'hush-hush' whispering sound filled with fear, under the faint glow of the luminous moss, many stone dwarves can be seen kneeling in terror on the ground.

These beings, under a meter tall with slender arms and legs, are the lowest rung of the food chain in this cruel world.

Even if they possess considerable intelligence!

But as Grey Master says, they lack 'wisdom', so they lack 'strength'!

Without 'strength', they are merely the pitiful victims of the law of the jungle!

After advancing three or five li along a newly opened side passage, fist-sized golden specks are visible everywhere on the cavern walls.

This is a high-quality gold vein, and gold nuggets are undoubtedly top-tier hard currency!

Over a hundred stone dwarves wield small picks, striking countless sparks from the rock walls.

Seeing Wu Zhan and Wu Tie approach, the stone dwarves hastily stopped their work and hurriedly knelt on the ground.

Wu Zhan ignored the dwarves, pulling Wu Tie to the end of the tunnel where a black rock cavern several meters in diameter appeared; a chilly wind carrying damp cold blew out, and a faint 'rumbling' water sound could be heard.

A few gray dwarves stood to the side, respectfully watching Wu Zhan and Wu Tie.

Wu Zhan patted Wu Tie's head and said in a low voice: "I know what you're thinking..."

Wu Tie shrugged and looked at Wu Zhan: "But I can't!"

Wu Zhan narrowed his eyes at Wu Tie: "Perhaps your mother's side could let you… but it would require a great price… too greedy, far too greedy… I mean, your mother's mother, that is, your grandmother… that old…"

After uttering a splendid curse, Wu Zhan spat on the ground: "But you are my son, right?"

Shaking his head, Wu Zhan snorted, then fiercely flicked Wu Tie's nose with his finger: "These past two years, save up some good stuff; in two years I'll take you and Old Three to see your mother… but only those with guts are worth me paying such a price!"

The muscles on his face twitched violently; Wu Zhan gritted his teeth: "Greedy… too greedy… you little bastard, got the guts?"

A gray dwarf lit a huge torch and hurled it into the pitch-black cave mouth.

Wu Zhan laughed, drew a long sword, nodded at Wu Tie: "From today on, I'll often train your guts! Ha!"

After a big laugh, Wu Zhan waved to the warriors behind him and led the way into the cavern.

"Peace… if you don't dare come in, just go back…"

"Honestly, follow Grey Master's studies… studying is always good…"

"This is your grandfather; when he smashed my head with a bowl-thick stick back then, he personally told me!"

"That old coot's words always make sense!"

Two ox-tribe warriors, two blue-wolf warriors, and a dozen gray dwarves filed into the mouth.

Wu Tie stared, pondered a moment, then curled his lips: "Mother?"

He patted his gray rock lizard beneath him and drove it to crawl into the cavern.

A blast of damp cold hit his face; soon Wu Tie's hair and forehead were covered in droplets, the humidity behind this mouth astonishing.

The ground is even more pitted, with many spots holding shallow water; astonishingly, many tiny, wholly transparent, phosphorescent creatures dart about happily in the pools.

Many creatures Wu Tie has never seen nor heard of.

Among them are some thumb-sized, round, tentacled phosphorescent beings that glide elegantly through the water, their exquisite posture leaving Wu Tie in a daze.

Torch after torch flared up; stone dwarves rushed in armfuls of luminous moss, piling heaps in the distance, the fluorescence illuminating the darkest corners.

"Wahaha… hahaha!" Wu Zhan, brandishing a long sword, suddenly burst into laughter.

"This place is fun, a good spot! Truly a good place!" Wu Zhan laughed loudly: "Water source! An inexhaustible water source!"

Wu Zhan jumped for joy, his family warriors likewise leapt and shouted, especially the two blue-wolf warriors who went wild, dropping to all fours and romping away.

Wu Tie took a few steps forward; before him lay a vast expanse of black water.

He had never seen so much water in his life.

On the great water, waves surged; a muffled 'rumbling' sound rose constantly from below, the surface everywhere dotted with large and small whirlpools, the water perilous to the extreme.

Wu Tie felt dizzy; he stared blankly at the expanse of water, then instinctively stepped back a few paces.

"Is this, a river?"

"Is this, a river?"

Is this a lake?

Is this a sea?

I have never seen, never seen so much, so much water!

Outside the Wu family's Shibao, two ox tribesmen furtively hid behind a small stone shoot, lay comfortably on the ground, and contentedly gnawed on boiled white mushrooms.

Suddenly a blue eerie light flashed, and two fissures split open on their necks, blood spraying; two ox heads the size of wine jars rolled silently a few steps away.

"Shh…… the hunt has begun!"

From within the darkness, a gentle voice came.