Chapter 7: Strange Realm

Before falling into the water, Wu Tie had already fainted.

Fear, shock, two consecutive jolts — his frail body could not withstand them.

A wave about a meter high rolled him into the water; the Chiyou's Tooth hanging on his chest continued to tremble urgently, emitting a buzzing sound.

The surrounding water surged violently, the rolling currents like giant serpents, and a few turns dragged Wu Tie down to the bottom.

Wu Tie instinctively inhaled a breath; before the water could flood his seven orifices, the dark water around him suddenly receded, revealing a narrow space just large enough to envelop him.

With a hissing sound, strands of air were forcibly drawn from the water and quickly filled the tiny space.

Wu Tie drew a breath, his body twitched violently, his eyeballs darted rapidly beneath his eyelids, he opened his mouth and uttered a few incoherent murmurs, and his hands flailed wildly.

The current dragged Wu Tie down toward the bottom.

Below this body of water, on the deep rock walls, hundreds of large and small water eyes were frantically spewing or swallowing currents. Countless streams collided violently here, creating the huge waves and whirlpools on the surface, and forming terrifying undercurrents below.

Enveloped by the tiny air pocket, Wu Tie tumbled wildly in the water.

He kept sinking, until a strongest undercurrent pushed his body toward a dark cavern over a hundred meters in diameter.

An invisible vortex spun rapidly at the cavern's mouth, devouring everything that passed. Wu Tie's body whirled several times, followed the current into the cavern, and vanished in an instant.

On the water's surface, a boulder several meters in diameter was thrown down.

A bald, muscular man clad in heavy armor, one foot tied to the boulder, relying on a hide air bladder for breath, dropped down from where Wu Tie had fallen into the water.

The boulder dragged the man's body down toward the bottom.

The man stared wide-eyed, straining to look around. Underwater there was no light at all; pitch-black darkness hid everything.

The man sank nearly three hundred meters; the immense water pressure left him breathless, undercurrents battered his body, and his face was distorted by the force.

Finally, overcome with fear, he cut the rope binding his foot, hauled hard on the long rope at his waist, and raced upward as fast as he could. The rapid descent and rapid ascent burst his lungs, and blood continually gushed from his mouth and nostrils.

A strange "crack-crack" sound came from the extreme depths below.

A huge black shadow surged forward, shattering countless undercurrents, and flashed through the turbulent water.

The man's body below the neck vanished; his head was thrust upward by the rush of water pulled by the shadow, shooting up seven or eight meters with a splash, then crashing heavily back onto the surface.

A vast expanse of blood stained the water red; a wave rolled over, and both the blood and the head disappeared.

A middle-aged man stood on the shore with a grim face, gritting his teeth as he watched where the man's head had surfaced.

After a moment, he turned his head and stared blankly at the spot where Wu Jin had disappeared.

A tall young woman walked up behind him and whispered a question.

The middle-aged man turned, his gaze sweeping over the woman's brow.

A faint white snake shadow about an inch long coiled at the woman's brow, rapidly dissipating; if not for the man's keen eyes, he might have missed it entirely.

"This is…" the middle-aged man suddenly rubbed his own brow; his fingertips brushed the skin, and he sensed a strange emanation from the skin there.

"Bloodline Vengeance…" the middle-aged man's face darkened to the extreme.

"Discard all baggage, flee this place at top speed!" the middle-aged man roared angrily: "Quick… remember, it's 'escape'!"

Blackness, blackness all around, endless blackness.

Wu Tie regained consciousness a few times, the turbulent water striking his body, he spun like a windmill in the water, and soon fainted again.

In the end, he didn't even know whether he was dead or alive.

The water scoured him, threading through hidden channels in the rock layers, passing through various underground bodies of water…

This is a marvelous subterranean wonderland.

In a circular basin nearly a thousand li in radius, strange vegetation of all kinds flourished, and countless bizarre creatures bred and multiplied within.

Around the basin lay a vast expanse of dark, gloomy sandy-stone wasteland, hiding who knows what.

On the stone dome dozens of li high, countless gems were densely inlaid; big and small, they constantly emitted bright light, illuminating this vast space quite well.

On one side of the basin, a terrifying fissure split the rock wall; tens of li of boiling lava surged out, rumbling with a dull roar as it slid into a bottomless abyss on the basin's flank.

The lava provided this basin with precious heat.

Whether the vegetation or the strange creatures, they relied entirely on the heat from this lava flood to gain sufficient vitality.

Directly opposite this lava flood across the basin, the rock wall likewise cracked open a tens-of-li-wide fissure, from which turbulent water gushed forth with a tremendous roar.

The waterfall scoured the basin, forming a great river within it.

Large and small tributaries branched from the main channel, flowing toward the basin's periphery, providing precious water to the life within.

Near the lava flood, a wide waterfall several li across plunged downward, fearlessly diving into the scorching lava in the abyss below.

The lava vaporized the waterfall; dense steam shot up several li high, spreading along the smooth dome in all directions. Thick mist and permeating moisture nourished the land and water here, causing the rock walls and stalactites to be lush with thick moss and vibrant vines.

Wu Tie spewed out from the river waterfall.

The Chiyou's Tooth hanging on his chest gradually ceased its trembling, as if exhausted.

The tiny airless space vanished; Wu Tie soaked in the water, carried by the gradually calming current to the shore.

A bleached skeleton of a dead gray-rock lizard leaned slantingly against the shore; Wu Tie's frail body was snagged on its jagged white bones and held fast.

Wu Tie lay deep in a faint; without external disturbance, he would likely remain unconscious until death.

All around was silent.

A black widow spider the size of a human head, lethally poisonous, crept slowly toward the riverbank.

On the creature's ugly black head, several lurid green eyes peered left and right.

The creature's fangs occasionally clicked together, faintly revealing sparks flashing on them; its sharp claws scraping the stones also produced a sharp screech.

It inched step by step toward Wu Tie.

It drew nearer, ever nearer.

Wu Tie bore wounds, from which a faint trickle of blood seeped out.

The creature smelled the sweet fragrance of the blood and surged forward at speed, rushing wildly at Wu Tie.

Ten meters, one meter, half a meter…

On a small hill about several kilometers from Wu Tie, overlooking this stretch of river, a moss‑covered clump of earth suddenly emitted a sharp, inaudible strange sound wave.

The poisonous creature's swollen abdomen burst open, and the eye‑like organs on its head exploded, spraying venom and pus blood seven or eight meters.

At the moment the poisonous creature was dying, it emitted a sharp 'squeak‑squeak' cry.

Wu Tie jolted awake, summoning strength from somewhere, he gritted his teeth and sprang to his feet, instinctively looking toward where the poisonous creature lay.

When Grey Master taught him, he had also passed on some rudimentary toxicology.

Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong, the three brothers, had also captured live poisonous spiders, and under Wu Zhan's direction they had given Wu Tie basic survival training.

These hateful poisonous creatures could appear anywhere in Shibao; everyone must stay alert and watch for any movement of them.

Having received the corresponding lesson, Wu Tie was startled awake by the black widow's cry.

His mind was empty.

Before him seemed countless black shadows swirling, large sheets of Blood Light rolling, and innumerable overlapping white faces drifting to and fro.

His body was stiff, icy, and devoid of any strength.

Life seemed to be rapidly withdrawing from this body.

Wu Tie even thought he had died; he opened his mouth wide, breathing with difficulty, yet could feel no breath.

The poisonous creature lay just beneath his feet, less than half a meter away; its head and swollen abdomen were shattered, but several thumb‑thick, chi‑long legs remained intact.

Wu Tie abruptly closed his mouth and swallowed a mouthful of saliva with difficulty.

His mind was completely blank; only the instinct for survival controlled his body.

He suddenly sat on the ground, this motion nearly exhausting his last shred of strength; he clumsily grabbed a spider leg, opened his mouth, bit into the white flesh outside the broken leg, and pulled hard.

He could not describe the taste, nor could he actually taste it.

One spider leg, two spider legs…

Not knowing how many legs he had eaten, Wu Tie felt a hint of warmth in his belly, then he abruptly collapsed onto the mossy riverbank and fell asleep.

After a short half‑quarter hour, a black mamba poisonous snake as thick as Wu Tie's arm and over two meters long slithered stealthily toward him.

The poisonous snake approached Wu Tie cautiously, ten meters, five meters, half a meter…

The poisonous snake opened its mouth, and a tiny amount of deadly venom seeped from each of its four ferocious fangs.

The fangs closed in on Wu Tie, about to bite…

Several kilometers away, on the small hill, a clump of earth suddenly burst open with a fist‑sized chunk, which instantly vaporized.

A thread of red light flashed, and the poisonous snake's head vanished entirely.

The poisonous snake's body jerked violently.

The red light flashed again, cutting the poisonous snake into several dozen segments.

Each segment could only lie on the ground and writhe, no longer posing any threat to Wu Tie nor able to leap away from him.

The writhing snake segments bore no blood traces; their wounds were smooth, with no blood visible.

After an unknown length of time, Wu Tie awoke.

He opened his eyes, saw the plump snake segments beside him, instinctively grabbed a piece of snake meat, and bit down hard.

Half the snake was eaten clean, his vision darkened, and he fainted again.

From the snake segments bitten open by Wu Tie, snake blood flowed out.

In just a moment, several highly poisonous spiders, two or three poisonous snakes, and a gray rock lizard crawled over.

These creatures, easily capable of killing Wu Tie, collapsed for no reason and were slain for no reason.

Especially, the gray rock lizard's death released an aura that marked this riverbank as the domain of a terrifying predator.

For a long time thereafter, no insect or reptile approached Wu Tie.

Wu Tie revived and gnawed at the nearby food.

He fainted, continuing to doze.

After an unknown period of dozing, he awoke and ate again.

The water of this river stretch had just surged out of the underground conduit, bitterly cold, lowering the temperature near the riverbank far below that of elsewhere; consequently, aside from a few extremely ferocious aberrant species, no other insects or reptiles were active nearby.

Precisely because the air was chilly, the dead poisonous insects and gray rock lizards did not decay quickly.

After Wu Tie had gnawed off about half of the gray rock lizard's tail, he finally stood up.

After rinsing his body at the riverbank, Wu Tie looked around blankly.

Above, the familiar False Sun was absent; the glow of the night‑light gems was hardly inferior to it.

Behind him stretched a river tens of li wide, its flow gentle, with occasional faint ripples flashing swiftly beneath the surface.

Wu Tie had never seen such a sight, yet he instinctively felt uneasy.

He stepped back a few paces, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the river.

Turning around, Wu Tie gazed into the distance.

Everywhere grew strange‑looking vegetation.

Wu Tie had never seen such vegetation before.

Some resembled the earth rice mushrooms, white mushrooms, and big meat mushrooms familiar to Wu Tie, but were much larger.

Others stood two or three meters tall, with profuse branching, something Wu Tie had never encountered.

However, this odd branching vegetation was sparse, scattered here and there at random.

His body swayed; though he had gained a little strength, his mind remained empty. Wu Tie's bewildered gaze drifted toward the distance, and with a step he was about to wander off in any direction.

A blinding flash of light flickered in the distance.

Wu Tie saw that flash, he stared blankly, thinking of nothing, and began to walk heavily toward it.

The ground was wet and slick, covered in thick moss; Wu Tie would take two steps and fall, two steps and fall, and though the distance was only a few kilometers, it took him a long time to barely make it.

He was filthy all over, and the falls had left his arms and legs numb.

Shivering all over, Wu Tie looked at the small hill over a hundred meters high ahead, gritted his teeth, and climbed up along the hill.

Climbing, climbing, Wu Tie suddenly tripped over a small dirt mound, he fell headfirst to the ground, the small dirt mound shook, and a round object rolled out from it.

"Cough, you kicked my head, Grandfather!" Wu Tie lay on the ground panting, and an extremely stiff voice came from beside his ear.

"Cough, do you understand what Grandfather is saying?" The voice was right nearby, almost shouting right next to Wu Tie's ear: "You little brat, you've got some perseverance…… Originally, if you had given up halfway, I would have just left you alone."

"These past few days, for the sake of your little life, little brat, I have poured my heart and soul out, even more than caring for a real grandchild…… Of course, I have no real grandchild, but that doesn't matter…… You all are my grandchildren."

Wu Tie panted, with difficulty lifted his head, and glanced toward where the voice came from.

His body jerked suddenly, his vision went dark, and he fainted again.

This time, he fainted from fright.