Chapter 6: Entering Water

Wu Jin knelt on the ground.

Both hands clenched into fists, his whole body covered in blood.

He lifted his head, looked at the middle-aged man, and squeezed out a faint smile with all his strength.

"This is my brother, my youngest brother. He's only eleven, eleven years old!"

"He cannot cultivate; he was born frail."

"He poses no threat to you, there will be no threat……"

He exhaled heavily, two streams of blood spurted from Wu Jin's nostrils; he planted both fists on the ground, bent his waist, and slammed his forehead hard against the hard floor.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

Wu Jin kowtowed, one, two, three……

While kowtowing with effort, Wu Jin gave a bitter smile: "He has no ability to retaliate against you, he simply has no ability to retaliate…… He can read, he knows many characters…… He also knows arithmetic, he understands bookkeeping……"

Wu Jin lifted his head, smiling at the middle-aged man; his twisted smile looked very ugly.

The flesh on his forehead split, fresh blood streamed down his cheeks; he licked the blood at the corner of his mouth and gave a dry laugh: "I'm useless…… I killed the third brother…… and also killed the second brother……"

"You want to vent your anger, kill me!" Wu Jin's body trembled violently, his young face twisted to the extreme, he could no longer maintain that ugly smile.

He, too, fears death!

He is still young; Wu Tie is only eleven, but Wu Jin is also under twenty!

In the prime of youth, he had not yet enjoyed life's beauty…… Especially Wu Zhan, after drinking too much cheap liquor, secretly and improperly described the beauty of women to the grown eldest and second sons…… Wu Jin had always been full of longing!

He truly does not want to die!

He is afraid!

His fingers trembling, he tore open the tattered coarse hemp clothes on his body, revealing his knotted upper-body muscles. Wu Jin lifted his head to look at the middle-aged man, tears streaming, trembling, with a twisted smile he pleaded.

"To vent your anger, kill me…… being torn apart by five horses would also be fine…… but, the fourth brother is still young…… still young……"

The middle-aged man tilted his head, sizing up the blood-soaked Wu Jin from head to toe.

"How old…… are you?" the middle-aged man asked gently.

"Twenty…… almost twenty!" Wu Jin's body twitched slightly.

From thirty-odd meters away, the enemies formed a semicircle surrounding the two brothers. A shadow of death shrouded Wu Jin's heart; fear clenched his heart, his vision darkened, he could barely breathe—Wu Jin was truly afraid.

He wrapped one arm around Wu Tie's thin, cold body; Wu Tie was shaking violently. Wu Jin forcibly suppressed the fear in his heart, smiling at the middle-aged man, forcing a smile as hard as he could.

"My family consists only of my father and my four brothers…… spare the fourth brother, kill me, and there will be no threat to you……"

Wu Jin coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"The fourth brother can read and keep accounts…… selling him as a slave would also be good; a slave who can read and do accounts is very valuable!"

Wu Jin gazed at the large emblem on the middle-aged man's chest……

Black mist roiled; a white skeletal hand reached out from the mist, a few blood-stained gold coins lay in its palm.

"Money…… gold coins…… the fourth brother is worth a lot of money!"

The middle-aged man lightly tapped the ground with the viper-snake-headed wooden staff in his hand, tilted his head, gave Wu Jin a serious look, then shook his head with a grim expression.

"What enviable brotherly love…… many years ago……"

He lifted his head, the middle-aged man smiled.

"Heh, how many years ago was that…… well, it seems someone once protected me like this!"

"Such brotherly devotion! I'm almost moved by you!"

He shook his head, the middle-aged man firmly shook his head: "But, to cut the grass you must remove the roots!"

"A half-step Sensing the Profound at nearly twenty…… and your father, unexpectedly, is a proper Chonglou Realm cultivator who has even grasped divine abilities……" The middle-aged man's eyes glittered as he looked at the Wu Jin and Wu Tie brothers.

"In this destitute, broken place, a half-step Sensing the Profound at nearly twenty…… at most a Chonglou Realm in his early forties? Hah, do you think I'm stupid?"

Around twenty-odd enemies murmured softly; the middle-aged man's words stirred their unease.

No matter how you look at it, the Wu family father and sons shouldn't appear in this rundown place.

The middle-aged man raised the snake staff; the thin, pointed tip of the long staff pierced Wu Jin's shoulder. With both hands he exerted force, Wu Jin groaned in pain, and was forcibly lifted up by the snake staff.

"But my family's fourth brother…… he knows nothing…… he understands nothing…… he cannot cultivate…… he poses no harm to you……"

Wu Jin grabbed the snake staff with both hands, forcing a difficult smile.

Blood and sweat all over his body streamed down his legs like a small stream.

Wu Tie sat slumped on the ground; the various-sized puddles around him had been dyed red by Wu Jin's blood. Hundreds of round, tentacled, delicate creatures emitting a white glow swallowed the blood, their white bodies likewise turned red.

"Brother……"

Wu Tie had no recourse.

He had no strength at all.

Before his eyes was nothing but blood; thick black mist roiled up from the blood.

Pallid faces—Wu Zhan's, Wu Yin's, Wu Tong's—countless swollen, deathly white faces rolled before Wu Tie's eyes.

From time to time, there were also the faces of bears and tigers, and certain pallid faces Wu Tie had seen before kept appearing before him.

Wu Tie cried out repeatedly for Wu Jin.

He knew Wu Jin was begging the enemies for his life.

He knew Wu Jin was giving up his desperate struggle for his life.

Fear, boundless fear, filled every pore of Wu Tie.

He wanted to try to feel angry……

Anger was like a tiny patch of luminous mushroom beneath the foot of a gray-rock lizard—just as it poked its head out, the lizard's heavy body crushed it to powder.

He couldn't be angry.

Without strength, he didn't even have the right to be angry.

Wu Tie's tears poured down like rain, his face twisted and spasmed just like Wu Jin's.

"Brother..." Wu Tie wailed loudly.

"Look, he's a softie." Wu Jin smiled at the middle-aged man, a difficult smile.

The black snake staff actually carried a strong poison; the snake staff pierced Wu Jin's shoulder, and the poison corroded his flesh, emitting a 'hissing' sound.

Black pus and blood kept spurting from the wound, and Wu Jin's smile grew ever more twisted and ugly.

"He's a softie…… a softie who only knows how to cry…… what can he do to you guys?"

Wu Jin desperately belittled Wu Tie.

"Brotherly love and respect—how I hate it." The middle-aged man suddenly grinned happily: "I hate seeing loving brothers the most. Why can't you kill each other?"

"I hate seeing loving blood brothers the most."

"Brothers and all that..."

The middle-aged man held the snake staff with one hand, drew a sharp short sword from his waist with the other, and slowly stabbed it toward Wu Jin's chest.

As he struck, the middle-aged man glanced at Wu Tie with a smile: "Kid... look, I'm going to kill your brother."

"Heh, does it hurt?"

"Are you sad?"

"Are you desperate?"

"Then let out a loud wail?"

"Cry?"

"Cry quickly?"

"Shout?"

"Shout quickly?"

"Call?"

"Call quickly?"

"Beg me?"

"Beg me quickly?"

The short sword gradually reached Wu Jin's chest, its tip pressing against the skin over his heart.

Wu Jin's fingers suddenly relaxed; he instinctively wanted to do something, when two heavily armored men, a bit sturdier than him, lunged forward and clamped his arms from left and right.

"Your brother wants to fight to the death... but I won't give him that chance."

The middle-aged man suddenly opened his mouth, laughing as he began to sing a children's song.

A song roughly telling of several brothers going to dig for food, suddenly gaining a bounty, and the brothers returning home laughing and laden with goods.

After just a few lines, the song ended quickly, and the middle-aged man smiled even more brightly: "Brotherly love and respect... how I hate it!"

Wu Tie's vision kept going dark; he struggled to prop himself up with both hands and fiercely kowtowed toward the middle-aged man.

"Spare my older brother..."

"Please... spare him..."

"Please..."

"Please..."

"Please..."

Wu Jin gasped heavily, blood continuously spurting from his mouth.

He turned his head with difficulty, using the corner of his eye to watch Wu Tie continually kowtowing on the ground behind him.

The hard rocky ground quickly split Wu Tie's forehead, and drops of blood kept falling.

"Good!" The middle-aged man nodded firmly, laughing: "In this world... I will completely spare your older brother... open your eyes and watch!"

He thrust hard with the short sword in his left hand.

Wu Tie happened to lift his head just then, seeing the short sword's tip pierce Wu Jin's chest, penetrating over an inch deep.

Wu Jin let out a loud roar, blood shooting from his eyes.

Wu Tie burst into tears, staggering to his feet with difficulty and reaching out with both hands to grab Wu Jin.

"He's going to die!" The middle-aged man laughed, his gaze falling on Wu Tie's chest, where the roughly foot-long 'Chiyou's Tooth' swayed back and forth.

"A strange treasure." The middle-aged man laughed.

A thin white snake-like shadow suddenly emerged from the center of Wu Jin's brow, crossing his forehead and wriggling gently like a living creature.

A mass of white light enveloped Wu Jin's body, then a loud bang erupted as a powerful shockwave burst from within him.

With a wailing 'oooh', a qi explosion swept outward.

Wu Tie's vision went black; his slight frame was caught by the blast, tumbling backward as it flew.

The middle-aged man cried out in shock and anger.

His left-hand short sword was violently rebounded by the immense force, shooting free from Wu Jin's chest. In midair the sword turned red-hot, as if forged in a furnace—its edge glowing, melting, and before it could hit the ground it became droplets of molten iron falling from the sky.

The snake staff that had pierced Wu Jin's shoulder snapped, spewing a large spray of black toxic blood from the wound; half of the staff shot out from his shoulder like an arrow and slammed into the middle-aged man's right chest.

The broken half of the snake staff pierced the middle-aged man's right chest; he coughed up mouthfuls of blood, his body fluttering like a leaf in the wind as he was flung uncontrollably backward.

Around twenty-odd enemies nearby were all blown away by the blast, each shouting and cursing as they were hurled over a hundred meters, falling in a sorry heap and then rolling uncontrollably on the ground, unable to steady themselves for a long time.

Worst of all were the two sturdy men gripping Wu Jin's arms; their four thick limbs were blasted to shreds, leaving only half-bones dangling from their shoulders.

The two sturdy men's bodies also flew high into the air.

Being closest to Wu Jin, they took the full front of the blast on their faces and chests; their armor shattered, shards of iron driven deep into their flesh, tearing their meat apart as their bodies were riddled like sieves.

Wu Jin suddenly turned his head and let out a startled cry.

Then his body turned into a white light, a white light shaped like a long snake, which flashed and vanished without a trace.

The white light faded, and the huge cavern was filled with the roaring of water waves.

Waves surged one after another, and the whirlpools emitted a dull, resonant sound.

Wu Tie was small, so the impact on him was slight; he shakily got to his feet and stared at the spot where Wu Jin had vanished.

"Brother..."

Tears streamed down like rain; Wu Tie had no idea what had happened, thinking Wu Jin, like Wu Zhan, had been blown apart into nothing.

"Brother!" Wu Tie screamed at the top of his lungs, wailing loudly.

"Damn... damn it!" The middle-aged man trembled as he climbed to his feet, with difficulty pulling out the half of a serpent staff that had pierced his right chest; blood gushed from the wound like a spring, and he spat blood in large mouthfuls.

While spitting blood, he frantically smeared ointment on the wound; the middle-aged man's eyes bloodshot, he stared at Wu Tie hundreds of meters away.

"Kill this brat, take the strange object, and hurry away."

The middle-aged man screamed hoarsely, nearly hysterical.

"This damned poor place is actually... bloodline protection..."

"The bloodline protection that only the true heir of the clan possesses!"

"Is it from the paternal clan or the maternal clan?"

"It's from the paternal clan; anyway, we've already forged a deadly feud..."

"It's from the maternal clan... we've... provoked an enemy we shouldn't have..."

A bald, fierce woman nearly two meters tall, built like a bear with bulging muscles all over, wielded a large axe and staggered toward Wu Tie.

Just now everyone had been blown apart; the fierce woman was three or four hundred meters away from Wu Tie.

Staggering, the fierce woman rushed up to Wu Tie, roaring as she swung her great axe, delivering a vicious chop at him.

Wu Tie let out a terrified roar; not knowing where the strength came from, he leapt backward violently, but he didn't realize that just moments ago the qi explosion had launched him into the air, leaving only a short seven or eight meters between him and the boiling water behind.

However, Wu Tie's body was too weak.

He strained to leap backward, but only managed to jump a little over a meter back.

The "Chiyou's Tooth" hanging from his chest swung up; the foot-long "Chiyou's Tooth" swayed and blocked in front of Wu Tie.

The fierce woman let out a loud, strange laugh and brought her great axe down hard.

She had intended to split Wu Tie's skull with one axe blow, but Wu Tie leapt up, and the steel great axe happened to strike the "Chiyou's Tooth".

With a hum, the "Chiyou's Tooth" vibrated violently, and Wu Tie felt his whole body go numb.

The steel great axe, about half Wu Tie's body size, shattered.

Countless iron fragments flew back.

The fierce woman's hands went light, her body lunged forward, and she stared in shock as countless iron fragments whistled toward her.

Countless iron fragments smashed the fierce woman's face and chest to a pulp; she involuntarily wailed, covering her ruined eyes with her hands as she rolled and twitched on the ground.

Wu Tie's frail body was shaken by the axe's tremendous force, arcing in a parabola, he was blown several dozen meters and plunged headfirst into the churning water filled with countless whirlpools.

The middle-aged man suddenly threw down the ointment in his hand and let out a hoarse, exhausted shout.