Chapter 463: Wu and Yao

'Swish!'

Zhu Chun rushed out of the great hall, her face brimming with killing intent.

Standing at the great hall's gate and looking around for a moment, Zhu Chun suddenly gazed at Wu Tie, who was hanging midair.

She blinked, a mischievous smile flickered on her face, then she pointed fiercely at Wu Tie: "Elder sister, let him down, make him our vanguard to go against those demons."

Obviously, Zhu Chun is not a broad‑minded girl.

"Just now this scoundrel said he is a loyal subject of the Great Jin Divine State, while we are rebellious ministers and traitorous sons… ha."

Zhu Chun lifted her chin, her eyes blinking rapidly: "I want to see this iron‑boned loyal minister being driven by us rebellious ministers and traitorous sons."

Wu Tie stared, then exclaimed helplessly: "Zhu Chun, you can't bully people like this. First you seize me, then beat me, then burn me, then strike me with lightning, and now you want me to do forced labor for you!"

Zhu Chun pointed at Wu Tie: "Behave and obey, or you'll be chopped on the Dragon‑Slaying Platform for three days and three nights—figure it out yourself."

Inside the hall, Bai He's voice drifted in softly: "General Huo Xiong's cultivation isn't high, but his battle prowess is formidable; his Nine Revolutions Mysterious Skill is a top‑tier Slaughter Divine Ability. Sent here by the Great Jin, his battlefield experience must be extremely rich."

"If that's the case, then General Huo Xiong will lead the way for my Eastern Palace." Bai He's tone was calm, clearly not considering commanding Wu Tie as vanguard or forced labor a big deal: "Hmm, if General Huo Xiong can earn merit for my Eastern Palace, many things can be easily discussed."

Zhu Chun smiled, her eyes narrowing to slits: "Exactly, exactly. If you can earn merit, when we blood‑sacrifice our father's tomb, we'll let you live."

Zhu Chun squinted and smiled, her eyeballs rolling under her lids; it was obvious she was plotting some unsavory scheme in her mind.

The Bronze Punishment Platform and Dragon‑Slaying Platform, together with the two Bronze Divine Pillars, burst forth with ten‑zhang rays of rosy light, accompanied by a dull clamor; the bronze chains binding Wu Tie's limbs swiftly shrank, becoming four thin bean‑thick manacles clamped around his wrists and ankles.

Light flashed; Wu Tie fell from the air, his whole body's qi flow suddenly smoothed, and the crushing pressure, like countless mountains stacked, vanished.

A faint tearing sound came; Wu Tie backhanded and caught the wristband and three storage rings Zhu Chun had snatched, which she tossed back. Obviously, the soul seal he'd left on them had been broken—Zhu Chun had clearly rummaged through their contents.

After putting on the wristband and rings, Wu Tie took out a set of backup spiritual‑weapon armor and donned it neatly.

Zhu Chun curled her lip and snorted contemptuously: "The Great Jin is getting more and more decrepit; I thought you'd have something good on you, but it's just a pile of scrap metal. Hey, you're a sixth‑rank marquis—how can you wear this?"

Wu Tie was speechless.

He had once owned a set of Nine‑Refined Immortal‑Weapon‑grade Linked Mountain Pattern armor…

"If those demons saw our Eastern Palace vanguard wearing this junk, they'd laugh their teeth off!" Zhu Chun shook her head, sighed heavily, then casually tossed out a full set of armor—dark gold all over, antiquated and heavy, its surface etched with an extremely intricate Zhou Tian star chart.

From helmet to cuirass, from war skirt to greaves, from vambraces to war boots, this armor glimmered with a subtle flow; streaks, lines, and bands of varying stellar power drifted across its surface nonstop, like the primeval starry sky—eternal and distant—giving an inexplicable mental shock.

This armor's aura is wrong.

Very wrong.

Not only is its shape antiquated; many recently forged armors of the Great Jin Divine State have craftsmen whose aesthetics lean ancient, so their products look very antiquated.

But this armor is clearly not just antiquated in appearance; it is genuinely ancient inside and out, from temperament to substance, extraordinarily old.

Moreover, its qi is immensely grand and powerful, yet exceptionally inwardly restrained and deep.

"An Acquired Spirit Treasure?" Wu Tie sucked in a cold breath.

Besides the Yin‑Yang Two Qi Vessel he'd obtained by chance, and the Rebirth Pagoda, Tree of Abundance, and Water‑Fire Gourd already ruined by that vessel, this is the highest‑grade, strongest treasure Wu Tie has ever truly seen.

This set of stellar battle armor has an aura and might that even faintly surpasses the Rebirth Pagoda.

"This palace rewards you!" Zhu Chun tossed it over casually and said proudly: "This is the Zhou Tian Starry Armor. When our Great Jin Divine State established dominion over the world, the Twelve Star Phases shone with glorious battle feats; their Starry Legion under command conquered all, never defeated, expanding our Great Jin's territory with countless merits."

"This Zhou Tian Starry Armor is the armor of the second‑ranked Ox Star Phase among the Twelve Star Phases… Ox, Chou also, Chou Ox Chou Ox—it matches you perfectly!"

As Zhu Chun spoke, she couldn't help laughing.

When this girl doesn't laugh it's fine, but when she does, her slightly parted red lips are like a volcano erupting, filling the sky with brilliant red—quite shocking.

Wu Tie took the Zhou Tian Starry Armor without a word, roughly refined it with the simplest method, then took off his spiritual‑weapon armor. He ignored Zhu Chun's teasing.

Having lived underground for so many years, Wu Tie had long understood a truth—mockery means nothing; only real benefits are real. "Ugly Ox" or not—even if this armor were called "Ugly Freak," Wu Tie could wear it without hesitation.

Indeed, it lives up to being an Acquired Spirit Treasure–grade armor.

As soon as the armor was donned, threads of extremely pure and refined stellar power seeped out, swiftly coursing through his limbs, penetrating his five viscera and six bowels, then straight into his life pool, illuminating his soul, making Wu Tie's whole body inexplicably comfortable, his soul faintly condensing a thread.

This effect…

Wu Tie was shocked and moved.

This effect is practically like him constantly using star‑power essence to temper his body.

The star‑power essence he'd snatched from You Ruo and others that day was just that many bottles—use a little, lose a little. But this armor's effect is equivalent to having countless bottles of star‑power essence constantly taking effect.

Wu Tie stared in shock at Zhu Chun.

Zhu Chun looked at Wu Tie triumphantly: "This personal armor of the Twelve Star Phases is something only my Eastern Palace can produce."

Wu Tie's mouth twitched; he said nothing.

Indeed, when the former crown prince left An Yang, he packed up the entire imperial palace and took it with him.

Perhaps half of the Great Jin Divine State's treasury is in your hands.

Wu Tie once again understood why the Great Jin Divine Emperor still hasn't let off the Eastern Palace remnants, still posting a sky‑high bounty on the secret list.

"This armor is not bad." After a while, Wu Tie finally nodded.

"Then hurry up and do what a vanguard general should do…" Zhu Chun began issuing orders: "Perhaps if you perform well, this Ugly Ox armor could be granted to you—or maybe not."

Wu Tie lifted his head in astonishment, giving Zhu Chun a deep look.

Then he looked at Su He, who stood inside the hall's gate gazing outward, and couldn't help rolling his eyes.

Sly, sly—this Zhu Chun is a little fox, this Su He an old fox.

But… strange.

They merely shut the hall's doors; who knows what they discussed, yet it seems their attitude toward me has changed somehow.

Zhu Chun previously shouted about fighting and killing, but now she's actually scattering fish bait, trying to fish?

Wu Tie shook his head, his body turning into a gust of wind that instantly swept over bamboo groves, gliding past the heads of one rotund panda after another, flying toward the distant place where beacon smoke rose.

A resounding clang rang out, as if a treasure vault sealed for countless years had suddenly awakened; the dust‑caked gap in its door was violently pried open, and threads of sharp qi streamed through, suddenly drifting out.

On the chest of this Zhou Tian Starry Armor, a sun‑star's light and shadow swayed; a spear wholly entwined with starlight shot forth from it, which Wu Tie grasped in one hand.

In the solar star pattern of this armor lay unexpectedly a small cave-space, inside which endless starlight essence gathered into rivers and seas, soaking a full set of weapons—polearms, short arms, bows and arrows, ropes, even small throwing concealed weapons—above the whole set of dark-gold weapons faintly loomed a cow-head phantom, appearing and disappearing, its aura astonishing.

This Zhou Tian Star Core Armor is not just a set of armor; it is also a small armory.

This is a full set of 'military equipment.'

Wu Tie let out a long whistle to the heavens, holding a long spear entwined with starlight. He manipulated the innate yin-yang two qi to control the earth's primordial magnetic force, flying forward at a speed several times faster than the Vertical Earth Golden Light Escape Technique.

Gradually, Wu Tie grasped a fraction of the essence of the Great Peng Bright King's "Great Peng Transformation". In the clear wind he transformed into, a pair of huge Great Peng wings faintly appeared; with a single flap of the golden‑colored Great Peng wings, his body instantly shifted forward dozens of li.

Wu Tie recalled the extremely ancient tale of gods and demons stored in the knowledge base passed down by Old Tie.

In that story, the authentic, genuine Great Peng could fly 90,000 li with a single flap of its wings; flapping its wings dozens of times in succession meant drifting over millions of li. When such a Great Peng spread its wings and rose straight up, even the heavenly firmament could not stop its momentum, leaving Wu Tie longing in awe.

In this way, in an extremely short time, Wu Tie passed over layer after layer of mountains.

In the mountains below, Wu Tie saw many huge wooden buildings constructed from giant timber. Each building covered a vast area, with large courtyards front and back. On each extremely sturdy wooden post, huge amounts of beast meat were drying.

These wooden buildings formed their own system, creating villages of various sizes in the mountains.

At the center of each village stood the largest wooden house, inside and out covered with ancient seals. Faint illusions of snakes, insects, birds, and beasts flickered on the house. Some houses bore strange seals; outside them appeared illusions of various plants, and occasionally of medicinal cauldrons, human figures, even rocks and great rivers.

Longying and the others were undoubtedly of Wu tribe blood.

Only the Wu tribe's methods could produce a defensive formation that draws all spirits of heaven and earth into the formation.

The Wu tribe's Dao is the worship of the cosmos and nature; a snowflake, a drop of water contains their most primitive natural Dao. Thus, the seals set up by the Grand Witch Priests of the tribe can manifest any kind of portent.

Sharp bugle calls echoed in the mountains, and wolf smoke rose on every hilltop.

In the villages, countless children ran toward the central wooden house under the protection of sturdy women.

Many youths who were not yet adults but far more stalwart than Wu Tie gathered, weapons in hand, full of vigor. Beside them stood all kinds of strange war beasts and war birds, assembled at the village entrance, ready to meet the enemy at any moment.

So many strange and powerful war beasts and war birds.

Wu Tie felt a little covetous.

In the underground world, within the Wu family's ancestral land, there also existed a secret tradition of forming battle contracts through souls, raising war beasts and war birds.

But the underground world is barren; where could one find powerful war beasts and war birds? Moreover, land is scarce there; the grain produced mainly feeds the tribespeople, leaving little surplus to raise mature war beasts and birds.

This secret art could greatly increase the tribe's combat power, yet for many years it has been left neglected, with hardly any tribe members studying it.

Wu Tie couldn't help but recall the mission given to him by Wu Prison and Xi Bubai.

Besides completing their mission, with Wu Tie's current status and position, he should be able to let a small portion of the tribe…

Wu Tie quickly stopped his wandering thoughts, transforming into a flowing wind and rushing deep into the mountains. Ahead, a vast sound of wind and thunder echoed; far off he saw a group of bird‑headed, human‑bodied creatures with double wings on their backs, entirely bluish‑green, over ten zhang tall, screaming shrilly and constantly blasting thunderbolts downward at a village below.

These monsters numbered at least several thousand; most of them were attacking the village, but nearly a thousand held children and adolescents in their arms, male and female, laughing loudly as they hovered high in the sky.

In the low air, Longying together with dozens of burly men clad in thick animal hides stepped on the gale, left and right blocking the assault of hundreds of enemies.

Wu Tie could clearly see that Longying could have broken the monsters' encirclement several times and killed a few of them, but immediately monsters would unleash wind‑and‑thunder blasts at the village below, directly striking the large wooden house at the village center.

Each time this happened, Longying was forced to turn back, using his body to block the enemies' furious thunder and protect the large wooden house below.

After several such occasions, Longying suddenly flared up in anger and shouted: "Golden Python Uncle, where are your village's warriors?"

A sturdy man wrapped in a gold‑colored python skin, beard bristling, lifted a heavy steel spear and drove back dozens of monsters, shouting angrily: "I said that Mountain Grape Kid is still too green to command the village's warriors."

"Who knows where he took his hunting party? The alarm has been blaring for so long—who knows why he hasn't returned yet?"

Longying sighed, then ripped a hundred‑zhang‑tall giant tree from the ground and hurled it at the tightly packed monster formation.

With a tremendous bang, more than a dozen monsters couldn't dodge in time; struck by the tree Longying threw, they were shattered to pieces.

A monster leader let out a long howl: "Children, bring the harvest back to the nest… prepare fine wine; today we will drink freely and feast on blood."

The monster leader then laughed at Longying: "Barbarian lass, the hunting parties of the dozens of nearby villages have all been drawn away by other divisions of my clan. Heh heh, not only this village, but my clan's youths are also looting in dozens of other villages."

"Hahaha, my clan has hundreds of infants about to hatch; with this blood food, their talent will at least reach the Yaowang Realm. When they grow up, each of you will become a delicacy in my clan's mouth."

For some reason, upon seeing these monsters, Wu Tie felt his blood surge inexplicably.

A sudden hatred rushed to his head; Wu Tie couldn't be bothered with words. The star‑core long spear in his hand instantly turned into a streak of light and shot out—swish, swish—spear light like rain, instantly piercing the hearts of dozens of monsters.