Chapter 4: Sudden Assault

Wu Family.

Behind the wall of Shibao, on the cliff face, inside a huge cavern, a rock python lay lazily coiled into a ball.

Four grey dwarves held scrub brushes, carried buckets, and busily scrubbed the rock python's thick gray scales. The rock python occasionally opened its mouth to exhale a foul breath, its three-meter-long tongue weakly flicking in and out.

A black metal pellet the size of a fist was suddenly thrown into its mouth as the rock python opened its jaws, plunging deep into its body.

With a muffled "Boom!", the rock python's body, as thick as a water tank, exploded into two sections near its seventh inch.

Fresh blood and shredded flesh sprayed everywhere; the four grey dwarves were blown into the air, and before they could land, a cold light flashed across, cleaving them in half at the waist.

Before they could even scream, the cold light flashed again, and their heads shot high into the air.

Some distance outside Shibao, at the base of the cliff, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong stood by the fields, grimly overseeing stone dwarves as they carried bucket after bucket of diluted rock python dung, splashing it onto the roots of large gray-white fungi growing in clumps on the ground.

These fungi have almost translucent skins, their sacs filled with tightly packed, thumb-sized spores arranged in neat rows.

"I hate eating the 'congee' made from earth-rice fungi!" Wu Jin smacked his lips, disgusted: "Especially when I think they're irrigated with Great Grey's dung…… ugh……"

Wu Jin spat a mouthful of phlegm onto the ground with force.

"I was just thinking, when Tai Ping was six months old, Dad brought back that kind of 'rice' cooked into 'congee'… it was so fragrant!" Wu Yin also smacked his lips, sincerely: "Although I only tasted a single mouthful!"

"Fragrant! But our family's False Sun is too small; to grow that kind of 'rice' you need a False Sun at least a kilometer in diameter!" Wu Tong lifted his head, gazing at the False Sun above their Shibao, only thirty meters across, and curled his lip: "That rice congee is truly fragrant… I, too, have only had a single mouthful…"

"Tai Ping was weak back then… couldn't keep anything down, even animal milk would come back up…" Wu Jin chuckled: "Back then we were already 'adults', so we couldn't snatch food from Tai Ping!"

Clenching his fists and waving them hard, Wu Jin's eyes flickered as he murmured: "Dad said, as long as we store enough good things, we can return to the main house to pay respects to our elders… the main house's False Sun is a full kilometer wide, enough to grow that 'rice'…"

"If Dad takes us back to the main house once to honor our ancestors, we'll thereafter have the right to trade for all kinds of good things from the main house!" Wu Jin grinned: "Then…"

The rock python's body, blown apart, sent a dull explosion echoing back and forth between the cliffs, quickly reaching this spot.

A sharp, fang-like spear violently pierced the rock python's skull, pinning it firmly to the ground. The rock python jerked its mouth open, letting out a long "hiss", and a sharp cry followed close on the heels of the blast.

"Great Grey!" Wu Tong leapt up and was about to sprint toward the cavern where the rock python lay.

"Enemy attack!" Wu Yin grabbed Wu Tong's belt, yanking him backward a few steps, nearly making him fall.

Wu Jin had already drawn his waist sword, letting out three sharp whistles in succession.

Amid the whistles, the stone dwarves in the fields dropped their tools, flung open their short legs, and sprinted wildly toward the small caves at the base of the distant cliff.

Near the exits of several tunnels leading outward in the distance came urgent whistles—those were the Wu family warriors responding to Wu Jin's warning.

But the whistles at those locations suddenly cut off; aside from the stone dwarves fleeing to refuge caves, all else fell silent. Even more unsettling, not a sound came from within the Wu family's Shibao.

"Who is it? Get out!" Wu Jin brandished his sword and roared toward Shibao: "Are you the scum of Black Wind Valley? You dare provoke the Wu family?"

A pained cry came from the direction of Shibao; Grey Master was thrown from the watchtower above the gate.

Grey Master was about to hit the ground when a rope tied around his waist jerked taut; his feeble body shuddered, and he let out a painful groan.

"Master!" This time, Wu Yin and Wu Tong both stepped forward a few paces.

A sharp tearing-through-the-air sound came; a black shadow shot from the watchtower, instantly slicing the air and landing heavily seven or eight meters before the three Wu brothers.

It was a black wooden staff about two meters long, its top carved with a coiling black viper.

Wu Jin bellowed, stepped forward, and swung his blade down at the serpent staff.

The carved black viper's mouth on the staff suddenly gushed out a large plume of black vapor.

Grey Master jerked his head up, eyes wide, and bellowed: "Poison… retreat! Find Old Wu!"

Wu Jin took a sudden step back; he and Wu Yin simultaneously expelled thin strands of dark-red, light-like mist qi. The black vapor from the staff struck their qi, instantly producing a piercing "hiss".

Wu Tong stood beside Wu Yin; his muscles under the skin twitched rapidly, but he did not emit the same qi.

The black vapor sprayed onto him with a "splat"; Wu Tong's face was drenched, as if strong acid had instantly corroded it—his facial skin and large patches of flesh blistered and rotted, turning into sticky pus that slid off his face.

Wu Tong's clear black-and-white eyes, full of spirit, were also hit squarely by the poison; his eyeballs popped with a "bang-bang", turning into two streams of pus and blood that spurted far away.

Wu Jin and Wu Yin simultaneously cried out "Old Three!", then raised their left hands and slapped their own faces hard.

That slap was unusually heavy; Wu Jin and Wu Yin's heads jerked, and the two brothers each spat out a big tooth, blood spraying all over them. They each grabbed one of Wu Tong's shoulders and rushed him toward the mine shaft that Wu Zhan and Wu Tie were exploring.

The two brothers moved with extreme speed; within a few breaths they had run more than a li away.

From the diagonal came a long whistle, and heavy footsteps like warhorses galloping, shaking the marrow and howling toward them.

A dozen or so men clad in heavy metal armor, each bearing a large black emblem on the left chest, wielding longswords, burst forth from a thin mist like a pack of ferocious beasts charging at the three brothers.

Their armor was extremely thick; the thickest parts exceeded an inch, showing how heavy the armor was.

Yet they ran like the wind, their speed more than double that of the three brothers.

Looking closely, faint vortices of mist swirled rapidly under each man's feet, as if winds were spiraling beneath them.

Wu Yin snarled hoarsely: "Such a thin veil of mist… how could they possibly hide within it?"

Wu Jin let out a sudden roar, sweeping his right-hand sword backward. The blade turned into a black light that shot out, whistling shrilly, and thrust at a sturdy man who had somehow rushed behind him.

The sturdy man gave a low growl, gripped a ram‑horn war hammer with both hands, and slammed it down forward.

Wu Jin's right hand flung open its fingers, then clenched into a fist. The black light's forward thrust speed suddenly doubled, the war hammer barely grazing the black light as it struck the man's chest with a heavy thud.

Sparks flew; the man's thick chest armor was split open a chi‑long gash, his chest flesh was cut a large piece, and copious blood poured out along the armor.

The black light spun backward at high speed; the man cried out in pain as he retreated: "This little brat… has already reached half‑step Perceiving the Profound!"

Wu Jin snatched back the rebounding sword, glared fiercely at the man's armor: "Such thick hide… this armor is excellent!"

Behind the dozen sturdy men, patches of sheer mist flickered and then vanished; dozens of blood‑stained figures appeared at once. They varied in height and build, male and female, some in heavy armor, others in tight leather garb, all fit and radiating a fierce killer aura.

As Wu Jin bellowed, a woman wearing a half‑soft armor, her long legs encased in tight black leather pants, her face a lattice of scars, a bald-headed woman gave a grim laugh, lunged forward, and flung a chi‑long snake‑fang dagger that sliced the air with a silent, icy blue gleam.

Wu Jin had just sheathed his sword when Wu Yin unleashed a perfectly timed backward strike.

A chi‑long black light sliced the air and slammed hard against the nearly transparent snake‑fang dagger.

With a crisp "ding", the light, thin snake‑fang dagger bounced ten‑odd meters high, while Wu Yin's flying sword crashed heavily to the ground.

"This kid is only a Foundation Establishment 'Gang Yuan Body Infusion'! Hah, weak!" the bald woman laughed triumphantly, pointed at the sky, and the snake‑fang dagger that had bounced ten‑odd meters aloft turned into a thread‑fine blue gleam that snapped downward.

The blue light rushed toward the three Wu brothers.

The three brothers had already sprinted to the mine entrance, where a few grey dwarves guarding the opening had just heard the commotion and darted out.

Wu Yin grabbed two gray dwarves in one hand and casually threw them into the air.

Azure-colored cold light whirled and sliced through the two gray dwarves; before they knew what was happening, their bodies were split by the cold light.

Amidst the shrill wails, the snake-fang dagger was blocked by the two gray dwarves, and the three Wu Jin brothers had already fled into the mine.

"Enemies... resist! Fight to the death!" Wu Jin let out a loud roar in the mine.

Unlike just notifying the stone dwarves in the fields to flee, upon discovering the enemy's strength, Wu Jin issued a death order.

The gray dwarves and stone dwarves in the mine were stunned for a moment, then over a thousand gray dwarves and stone dwarves raised a clamorous shriek, surging out of the mine entrances like a flood.

The three Wu Jin brothers sprinted past; several overseer gray dwarves waved their hands, and a dozen iron pellets the size of chicken eggs shot out with a whistling sound.

This was the mountain-splitting thunder used to blast rock and find veins; its power was considerable, easily shattering stone blocks several meters across.

"Shield!" A big man over two meters tall, clad head to toe in heavy armor, weaponless in hand but bearing a heavy shield over two meters high and over a foot thick on his back, strode forward a few steps.

The heavy shield slammed heavily onto the ground.

Faint twisted light patterns flickered on the shield's surface; the heavy shield shuddered, and yellow light waves like ripples spread across its face, forming a protective wall several meters across that shielded the dozens of people behind the big man.

Several mountain-splitting thunders detonated simultaneously.

Amidst the deafening roar, the yellow light waves on the shield's surface twisted violently and finally shattered into fragments.

The man holding the heavy shield grunted, his body jolted violently, and after great effort he steadied himself.

"Kill!" A gentle voice came softly from outside the mine.

Over twenty men and women in soft armor, agile in build, simultaneously drew heavy crossbows with large bolt cases from behind; accompanied by a piercing whistling, a barrage of fine steel crossbow bolts trailed thin black smoke, sweeping through the mine like a black storm.

The piercingly powerful crossbow bolts frenziedly pierced through the bodies of gray dwarves and stone dwarves one after another.

Gray dwarves stood about 1.2 meters tall, stone dwarves about under 1 meter; their bodies were not strong, they wore only coarse linen garments, and the crossbow bolts, imbued with unknown deadly force by the black smoke, easily pierced through their bodies.

The gray dwarves and stone dwarves were packed so tightly that a single bolt could pierce through a dozen bodies in succession.

Accompanied by the piercing whistling, the crossbow bolts shot hundreds of paces away, spinning in the air like a 'dili li' and, like birds returning to their nests, swiftly flew back with thin black smoke, neatly reloading into the bolt cases.

In the blink of an eye, over a thousand gray dwarves and stone dwarves were reduced to only two or three hundred.

Blood flowed on the ground; the remaining gray dwarves and stone dwarves, terrified by the slaughter, dropped their weapons and tools and fled in disarray into the surrounding mines.

Dozens of men and women laughed loudly, excitedly chatting, quickly caught up with the fleeing gray dwarves and stone dwarves, hacked them down with swords and blades, and left not a single gray dwarf or stone dwarf alive.

The gentle voice sounded from within the mine: "Gray dwarves... stone dwarves... can't you fetch a price?"

Wu Tie stared in shock at the expansive water before him.

With his experience, he could not precisely estimate the size of this body of water.

But he could roughly see that this water was extremely vast, large enough to fill three or five... no, thirty or fifty Wu Valleys.

Such a vast expanse of water!

Waves surged, whirlpools countless.

Water, in this world of rock strata everywhere, is the true source of life!

Before, the Wu family Shibao could only draw water from a few pitiful sources; over a thousand people, less than two thousand in total, daily water was already scarce.

Lacking water, they could not expand farmland or raise more powerful gray rock lizards or fierce poison hunting spiders!

But before him lay this water, this boiling water!

Wu Tie recalled what Grey Master had said: such turbulent water must be living water with a source, not dead water!

In other words, the water here was far more abundant than what he had seen!

"So much water!" Wu Tie laughed.

In his mind flashed the puny, timid stone dwarves.

With so much water, could he grow more white mushrooms?

Those poor little fellows, could they finally eat their fill?

Wu Tie pursed his lips, humph; from now on, when he saw those little dwarves crying from hunger, he wouldn't need to secretly share his own food with them!

Urgent footsteps sounded, and the three Wu Jin brothers burst in running.

"Father! Enemies!" Wu Jin shouted loudly.

A heavy axe swung from behind, cleaving Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong off the ground and spraying a great amount of blood behind them.