Chapter 301: Wu Tie's Clansmen

Wu Shu grabbed the Nine Feather Blood Order and sprinted wildly through the passage.

Wu Tie and Lao Tie followed behind Wu Shu, curiously looking at the murals on both sides of the passage.

The passage, carved square and neat, was a hundred zhang wide and about three hundred zhang high; on the black passage walls, the Wu clan had carved huge murals, then filled them with luminous mineral powder.

One huge mural after another emitted bright light, vivid colors, lifelike.

There was Pangu separating heaven and earth, Nüwa creating humans, Da Yu taming the waters, Gonggong toppling Mount Buzhou with his head...

Wu Tie smiled as he looked at these murals.

One grand, ancient-style mural after another corresponded one by one with the knowledge in his mind.

His blood surged, his heartbeat inexplicably accelerated.

What Lao Tie passed down to him were merely stories.

Looking at these murals, in Wu Tie's bloodline, inexplicably, a series of strange images emerged—memories left by his ancestors who had experienced these true mythological tales.

They had witnessed these things with their own eyes.

These memories lay hidden in the bloodline, passed on to Wu Tie through the power of the bloodline.

Wu Tie's breathing became deep and slow, his aura also grew increasingly rich.

The three of them hurried along the passage; every few dozen li, a small stone fort guarded the passage. Wu Tie shouted loudly, and from the stone fort, Wu clan members poked their heads out, each looking at his Nine Feather Blood Order and cheering loudly.

Every Wu clan member waved their weapons, cheering and leaping, exuding a fervent, battle‑mad aura.

The Nine Feather Blood Order, unknown which nerve it struck, excited these rough men.

After racing along the straight passage for nearly a thousand li, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

A huge stone cavern several thousand li in radius appeared before Wu Tie's eyes; countless False Suns, each over a thousand zhang in diameter, hung from the lofty vault, their warm light bathing the land, waves of yellow grain rolling and dancing across the flat fields.

Golden light flickered in Wu Tie's pupils as he deployed the Fiery Eyes Golden Gaze to stare far into the distance; he saw that the towering rock walls around were riddled with many walkways and caves, countless figures moving along the walkways, truly bustling.

In the flat stone cavern, villages and towns were neatly distributed among the fields; many tall, sturdy women labored in the fields, children drove livestock herds across the grasslands, and large numbers of chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry frolicked in the waterways.

Heavy square rock blocks floated in the air.

These rock blocks were uniformly a hundred zhang long and wide; countless sturdy men gathered on them, bare‑bodied, swinging their fists and shouting loudly as they trained and fought.

Gusts of wind surged in the air, fist‑qi sweeping like mountains across the void; countless powerful auras made Wu Tie's face involuntarily change.

"This is Wu One Cave, where the Wu family's main line is stationed. The Wu family's main line controls eighteen such great stone caves, Wu One Cave ranks first, and the elders of the main line are also stationed here… uh… the Wu family's ancestral temple is also here."

Wu Tie stopped, Wu Shu briefly explained a few sentences, then he sucked in a deep breath and roared at the top of his lungs.

"Under the Fuxi Divine State's conscription order, the Nine Feather Blood Order summons our Wu family's youths to join the army… Which elder is on duty? Hurry up and take the Nine Feather Blood Order!"

Wu Tie roared, then with all his strength he hurled the blood‑red arrow over a zhang long forward.

Far away, at the foot of an earth mound, inside a row of stone houses, a mighty power tinged with a hint of decay shot up into the sky; a towering vapor giant, its face blurred, rose several thousand zhang high, glanced over this way from afar, then made a grasping motion toward this side.

The Nine Feather Blood Order vanished into thin air, and the next moment it appeared in the vapor giant's hand.

The vapor giant rapidly shrank back into the stone house; after a few breaths, a clear jade chime sounded from within the stone house.

From all directions, stone houses and stone towers, tall sturdy figures shot up into the sky, treading on void, accompanied by the sound of hurricanes and thunder, rapidly converging toward the small stone house at the foot of the earth mound.

A low, muffled laughter rang out.

"Go to war? Against whom? Against those demons and evils on the ground?"

"War, war, war… open war, open war, Wu family youths, we fear no battle."

"Haha, this time I will surely earn enough military merit to obtain the Radiant Sun Divine Armor personally forged by the Fuxi Clan Master Artisan—I've been eyeing it for ages."

"Bah, what's a set of armor worth? I want three vats of Dragon Blood Wine—hahaha, I've already set one foot into the Divine Realm; as long as I have three vats of Dragon Blood Wine, my divine fetus will transform instantly and I will ascend to divinity!"

On the ground, countless women working in the fields all lifted their heads to look toward the earth mound.

Countless children dropped the livestock they were tending and, delighted and encouraged, looked toward the earth mound.

On the floating rock blocks in the air, countless youths sweating profusely from training and combat also stopped, panting as they looked toward the earth mound.

The atmosphere of the whole Wu One Cave became hot and tense; everyone's breathing grew a little quicker.

Wu Tie shouted again, his voice booming like thunder across hundreds of li: "Brothers of the Seventh House, brothers of the Seventh House, hehe, you Seventh House Wu Wu's grandson, Wu Zhan's son Wu Tie has returned… the little brat outside has been bullied, heh."

Wu Tie's voice rang out, like thunder, spreading over several hundred li.

On a floating rock block a few hundred li away, a muscular man with a blood‑red painted ferocious tiger on his chest poked his head out, his eyes shining as he glanced this way and roared loudly: "Wu Zhan's son? Isn't that my own blood‑related nephew? Who is Wu Tie? I am your uncle Wu Zheng… haha, you're just a kid!"

Over three meters tall, his skin bluish‑transparent with a metallic sheen, his chest tattoo of a ferocious tiger dripping blood as if he had just eaten a person, Wu Zheng laughed and leapt up like a happy flea, each jump covering over ten li, landing in front of Wu Tie after just a few breaths.

Bang!

Wu Zheng slapped Wu Tie's chest with his palm.

Wu Tie's body didn't move a bit; Wu Zheng instead swayed, being thrown back two or three steps by the rebound force.

Wu Zheng stared at Wu Tie in astonishment and muttered: "I am in the Life Pool Realm…"

Wu Tie impatiently slapped Wu Zheng's forehead: "This kid is also in the Life Pool Realm, and who knows what weird stuff he ate—his bones are rock solid, I can't even budge him, you… hehe!"

Wu Tie excitedly gazed toward the distant earth mound, laughing loudly: "Can't be bothered to chat with you lot; I'll go gather some intel, see what the elders' plan is, and figure out how many youths we need to prepare this time."

Wu Zheng looked Wu Tie up and down for a long time, then shook his head: "Tsk, this kid is too handsome, not at all like that Wu Zhan kid who was mighty. Hmm, he must have found a pretty wife, otherwise how could he produce such a handsome son like you?"

Wu Zheng warmly grabbed Wu Tie's wrist: "Ha, I haven't seen your father in years… come on, how did you come back alone? Tsk, first go see your grandfather, then check whether those old geezers at home are still around."

Wu Tie followed Wu Zheng toward the village half‑hidden in the rice waves in the distance.

After a few steps, Wu Tie whispered: "My father's life or death is unknown… I returned to the Wu family to borrow its power to deal with the Demon‑Purging Hall of the Great Jin Divine State that's hunting me… I've stirred up trouble out there!"

Wu Zheng's body suddenly stiffened.

After taking a deep breath, Wu Zheng murmured: "Life or death unknown… heh…"

Wu Zheng lowered his head, grabbed Wu Tie, and quickened their pace.

In the center stood an earth mound shaped like a bamboo shoot; at its foot lay a small village, surrounded by a circle of twelve pitch‑black totem poles, each carved with twelve ferocious primordial gods and demons.

Inside the village, a spacious stone house had a fire pit dug in its center; a pile of smokeless coal burned red, flames shooting up over half a chi high.

Several burly men with stern auras, clad in python skin, lizard skin and various leathers, their faces eight‑ninths similar, sat cross‑legged by the fire pit, grim‑faced, puffing on large smoking pipes.

Blue smoke billowed, the smoke and haze choked people. Wu Zheng and Wu Zhan's father, Wu Wu, didn't utter a sound; Wu Wu's father, Wu Wei, also didn't utter a sound; Wei's father, Wu Quan, even more so didn't speak; Quan's father, Wu Dou, took a few puffs of smoke, finally striking the metal-made large pipe hard against the fire pit a few times.

"Xiao Tie said it clearly, Xiao Zhan and them still have a bit of hope." On his forehead were three obvious frown lines, the nasolabial folds extremely deep, looking obviously more aged than the surrounding children and grandchildren, Wu Dou gave a cold snort: "These matters, for now, let's not discuss."

"Our little brat has been bullied to the point of being on our heads; we can't tolerate it."

Wu Dou let out a deep grunt, his pair of leopard-like big round eyes rolled (gulgulg) as he glanced at his own descendants.

Wu Quan gave a vigorous nod: "We need to think of a way to kill them."

Wu Wei laughed: "Father is right, we need to think of a way to kill them. Hmm, Wu Mu and Wu Shu acted too rashly; the demon‑suppressing soul seal on Xiao Tie's body has been wiped out, those pursuers probably can't find the way."

Wu Tie took out the Fallen Soul Scattering Soul Banner; Sima Xiu's divine soul immediately let out a mournful wail, hysterical screaming: "Release me, let me out…… You lowly people, how dare you treat me like this?"

"I am Sima Xiu, third‑rank Demon‑suppressing General of the Demon‑suppressing Hall of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom; once the heavenly troops and generals of my Demon‑suppressing Hall descend, you will all die."

Wu Dou raised his eyebrows, gladly taking the long banner from Wu Tie's hand.

"This item, not bad, this kid, is the one you said, that foolish thing from the Demon‑suppressing Hall? Good, good." Wu Dou laughed: "Go invite the Xuanming family's people over; to deal with these stubborn fellows, we still need the Xuanming family's clansmen to act, they are more straightforward."

One day later.

In a poor stone cavern about ten li in size, beside the clear little river ditch, Wu Tie and Wu Zheng were together managing two large fish each over two meters long.

The old man with a tiger‑wolf head and human body raised a charcoal fire nearby, set up a grill, prepared the various sauces for the barbecue, and squatted by the fire waiting to smoke‑roast the large fish.

Wu Tie, while scraping off the large fish's scales with a stone knife, listened to Wu Zheng's narration.

"The Fuxi Divine Kingdom is the strongest human power in our region, and its inheritance is the most complete, preserving extremely precious wisdom and civilization. The Wu family, along with several other great clans, all arose as vassals of the Fuxi Divine Kingdom."

"However, the territory controlled by the Fuxi Divine Kingdom, as far as we know, is merely a grain of sand in the vast ocean compared to this boundless land."

"Therefore, the Wu family often has juniors go out to travel. Like dandelions… uh, have you seen a dandelion?"

Wu Zheng glanced at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie nodded.

"Those juniors who go out to travel are like dandelions, continuously spreading the Wu family's bloodline in all directions. They go to remote places, investigate the conditions of various regions, send this information back to the main family, and also take root in those places in preparation for the future."

"Wu Zhan, my brother, as far as I know, his destination is not that far—just a newly discovered and newly opened remote place. The Wu family's juniors, some of our clansmen had already gone, a thousand years ago, to a region a hundred times farther than your father's Cangyan Realm, and have already multiplied into a clan of over ten thousand."

Wu Tie listened quietly to Wu Zheng's narration.

"I just don't understand what trouble your father ran into?" Wu Zheng said foolishly: "His talent is better than mine, his mind more agile, so he was chosen to be sent to foreign lands."

"According to your words, he should have been able to obtain a treasure in the Nuwa ancestral land and marry your mother; he shouldn't be so low in cultivation."

"I am already at the peak of the Life Pond realm; your father should have reached this level long ago, and even if he lacks cultivation resources, entering the Life Pond realm would be no problem for him."

"Could it be that he encountered something else in the Nuwa ancestral land?"

"This guy……"

Wu Tie shook his head, not understanding.

In the corner of the stone cavern, a white‑haired elder of the Xuanming clan chuckled 'gekgek', holding a wooden figurine carved in his left hand and a long needle in his right, then suddenly stabbed the needle hard into the wooden figurine.

Inside the wooden figurine came Sima Xiu's sharp, anguished howl.

Waves of strange soul fluctuations rapidly spread outward, reverberating back and forth along the passages around the stone cavern, transmitting far away.

Around the white‑haired elder floated several pitch‑black crystals, emitting strange fluctuations that amplified Sima Xiu's soul fluctuations a hundredfold, enough to let his soul fluctuations travel a sufficient distance.

After several days, on this day, Wu Tie and Wu Zheng were grilling a giant salamander that had swum up from the river ditch; two towering black divine warriors, their eye sockets flickering with green flames, silently flew out.

The two divine warriors spotted Wu Tie and Wu Zheng at a glance.

The green flames in their eye sockets suddenly blazed fiercely, then their sharp whistles shook the whole stone cavern violently.

"Target, discovered!"

"Target…… attack!"

The two divine warriors let out a long roar together; the heavy armor on their chests sprang open, revealing a dense honeycomb‑like launch nest inside their chests.