Chapter 70: Mutation

Ahead is the Nether Demon Mine.

A conical pit nearly a hundred li wide, its deepest point reaches nearly twenty li deep.

These are the Shi Family's mine slaves, generation after generation toiling in excavation, ultimately a miracle achieved solely through manual mining.

At the very least, to Wu Tie, this is a miracle.

Such a huge mine.

"How many good things has the Shi Family dug out from here?" Wu Tie gulped, finding it a bit difficult to swallow his saliva.

Thinking back to the scale of those few tunnels controlled by the Wu Family in the past, the Wu Family finally understood just what kind of existence the so-called Three Great Families of the Cangyan Realm truly were. The mine before them was merely one of the many large veins controlled by the Shi Family.

Wind howled all around, and gray mist floated in the air.

Within Wu Tie, the Vast Righteous Qi circulated on its own; within a ten-meter radius around his body, any gray mist that approached would instantly explode into powder and then spontaneously combust.

Ashen light smoke exuded a piercing chill, but under the roasting of dozens of large fireballs, the chill quickly vanished.

Standing at the edge of the mine, Wu Tie was alone, feeling utterly insignificant.

From deep within the mine came a strange sound.

Wu Tie found a spiral road leading deep into the mine, seven to eight meters wide, enough for two large carts to travel side by side; deep wheel ruts marked the road, and scattered ore stones littered the ground.

With a wave of his right hand, more than ten fireballs screamed forward, shooting deep into the pit.

The firelight extended downward, illuminating the deep pit.

Wu Tie saw, on a mine shaft hundreds of meters deep below, a humanoid figure slowly walking. The fireballs burned away the gray mist along the way, and those figures lifted their heads, letting out a weak, feeble roar at Wu Tie.

A 'kakaka' sound came, and several figures walked up the mine shaft. They passed through the gray mist, carrying a strong chill as they stepped closer to Wu Tie one step at a time.

"What kind of monster is this?" Wu Tie stared at those figures.

Judging by their build, they should be the mine's dwarf slaves, clothed in rags and small in stature.

However, stone dwarves have thin arms and legs, their frames very slender; whereas these figures were as sturdy and muscular as gray dwarves, their muscles bulging like rocks.

Even more strangely, a layer of black bone plates replaced their skin, covering them.

Their bodies were completely covered in half-inch-thick bone plates, only two eyeballs exposed. Their eyeballs were a uniform gray-white, pupils shrunk to pinprick size, with a faint greenish glow shimmering through.

"What the hell are you?" Wu Tie instinctively stepped back two paces.

He had never seen such a monster before, and he didn't have time to search the legacy data of Lao Tie for anything similar. Instinctively, he threw the animal-hide bundle to the ground, gripped his steel spear with both hands, and thrust forward fiercely.

With a 'ding' sound, the finely forged steel spear struck precisely at the monster's brow.

A bone plate on the monster's brow cracked, and the spear's tip even chipped a small piece. The bone plates on these monsters were as hard as forged steel.

Wu Tie couldn't help but mutter a complaint in his heart.

In the Shi Family's armory, there are naturally better weapons, even the Lu Family's finely forged Yuan Weapons—sharp, tough, and endowed with various strange abilities.

But those weapons require merit to exchange for.

In other words, Wu Tie, who had just been recruited as a First-Class Steward of the External Affairs Bureau, lacked the qualifications to exchange for those precious Yuan Weapons.

This fine steel spear was forged from repeatedly refined steel; its tip used a more precious alloy, and with the secret fire-dipping technique, the tip's strength and toughness were enhanced.

But ultimately, it was just ordinary goods.

The spear tip shattered, and with a 'ding' it fell to the ground; the monster struck by the spear staggered backward and tumbled.

The spear was useless, but Wu Tie's strength was not small.

After his bones mutated, his pure physical strength was at least a hundred thousand catties or so. Just now he used over ten thousand catties of force in that strike; the monster weighed only two or three hundred catties, and being pierced by Wu Tie's spear, it lost its footing and rolled down the shaft like a ball.

"Wrong, stone dwarves normally weigh no more than fifty catties. You guys, why are you so heavy?"

Wu Tie watched several low-growling monsters steadily approach; instead of thrusting quickly, he braced his spear against their chests, snapped his wrist, and lightly flung them away.

Several monsters howled as Wu Tie flung them up a hundred or so meters high, tracing an arc before they fell into the depths of the mine.

After a while, a heavy impact sound came from below, accompanied by continuous low growls.

Wu Tie's face looked rather remarkable.

Where these monsters fell, the mine was at least three to five li deep; falling from that height, they still had the strength to howl?

The 'kakaka' sound kept coming, and more and more figures appeared on the mine shaft.

All of them were short-statured, likely mutants of dwarf mine workers. Their bodies were covered in thick black bone plates, they held crude mining tools, and they staggered slowly toward Wu Tie.

Ten, a hundred, a thousand……

Wu Tie then conjured another hundred or so large fireballs hovering above his head; relying on their intense light, he saw that on the spiral mine shaft at least ten thousand miners kept coming toward him in an endless stream.

He retracted the spear, felt the tip—the alloy-cast steel tip had already chipped away more than an inch.

Wu Tie shook his head, picked up the spear with one hand, tested its weight, then hurled it with all his strength.

Amidst a piercing whistling sound, the spear flashed and viciously pierced a monster's chest.

The monster's chest bone plates exploded, scattering countless fragments far away; the spear, still pressing against its body, recoiled backward, accompanied by a series of 'dong dong' and 'gulong' sounds, as this monster knocked dozens of companions behind it flying, rolling all the way down the shaft.

Wu Tie's eye corner twitched.

Just now he exerted his full strength, a hundred-thousand-catty force erupting and poured entirely into a single spear, yet it failed to pierce the first monster's body.

When the monster's bone plates shattered, Wu Tie clearly saw that its interior had undergone the same mutation.

His entire body had turned into a structure like those bone plates.

In other words, these monsters had almost become solid 'bone pillars'.

They were extraordinarily hard and heavy, with astonishing defense; even a spear bolstered by a hundred-thousand-catty force could not pierce their bodies.

Wu Tie could roughly understand why the Shi Family and Lu Family's exploration teams had suffered heavy casualties here before.

"Vajra Subdue Demons, Heaven and Earth Righteous Qi!"

Wu Tie watched the relentlessly approaching monsters, then fiercely unleashed a Vajra Subdue Demons Fist, simultaneously infusing it with a thread of Vast Righteous Qi.

Then a golden fist aura burst forth, screaming like a meteor striking a monster. A tremendous boom rang out—dozens of monsters were blasted to pieces, their fragments inexplicably igniting, and streams of gray-white smoke rose, accompanied by an intense chill.

A thunderous boom, dozens of monsters were blown to pieces, their bodies shattered; the fragments inexplicably burst into flames, and wisps of grayish-white smoke rose, accompanied by an intense chill.

Dozens of monster fragments burned, and the chill emanating from the fragments was astonishing.

Even with the heat from the hundreds of fireballs above Wu Tie's head, the surrounding temperature continued to drop in a straight line, and a thin layer of frost faintly appeared on the ground.

Wu Tie nodded happily.

The introduction to the Vajra Subdue Demon Fist said it had a remarkable effect in subduing demons.

And Magnanimous Righteous Qi is the ultimate expression of the "power of justice" between heaven and earth, a natural bane to all evil.

The two combined, and indeed they had a remarkable effect.

"I'm not even afraid of you. Even though there are more of them, I'll just run and fight." Wu Tie laughed, recalling the guerrilla essence taught by Lao Tie.

"Advance, I retreat!"

Wu Tie shouted loudly, he suddenly jumped up and leapt down into the shaft below.

An invisible force field enveloped his whole body, and he glided like a light bird; every time he fell over a hundred meters, he would push off the shaft and shoot forward again.

The shaft was packed with slaves on one side; they moved slowly, and aside from their hardened bodies, they posed no threat to Wu Tie.

To find the source of the mine's anomaly, one still had to go deep into the mine.

Wu Tie remembered the information gathered by Lao Bai; the anomaly of the Nether Demon Mine seemed related to some strange objects dug up by the slaves in the mine's depths. In other words, once those oddities were unearthed, the situation in the mine quickly spiraled out of control.

After dozens of successive rises and falls, Wu Tie landed on a shaft more than two hundred meters above the mine's floor.

Dozens of mutated slaves approached him; he waved his hands, and a fist aura howled forth, blasting those slaves to pieces.

At the bottom of the Nether Demon Mine was a small flat area three li long and a little over one li wide, with two rows of crude huts built on it, presumably for the slaves working at the mine's bottom to rest.

Near the huts, various tools were scattered haphazardly—countless baskets, hoes, and the like.

On one side of the mine, a newly dug cave several meters high was clearly visible on a rock face nearly a hundred meters tall.

Weak cold winds continually blew from within the cave, and near its mouth lay nearly a hundred blackened bodies askew. A cart for hauling ore was tilted outside the cave, and large chunks of gold ore were scattered all over the ground.

Upon seeing those gold ores, Wu Tie's eyes lit up involuntarily.

This was truly an unprecedented rich vein; the ore was uniformly yellowish, its cross-section glittering with blinding light, its gold content estimated at seventy to eighty percent, and after slight refining it could become freely circulating gold ingots.

Among those gold ores, a pile of deep blue crystals stood out.

Those deep blue crystals were crystal clear, with some rock skin and shell clinging to their surfaces; even from a distance, Wu Tie could feel the chilling aura they emitted.

This should be Deep Blue Crystal Ore; a single piece could be exchanged for a hundred times its volume in gold.

That small pile of crystals could probably fill two baskets… how much good stuff could that be exchanged for?

A low growl came from the cave mouth; among the darkened figures lying there, a twelve-meter-tall giant slowly sat up. His eyes glowed, two points of greenish light the size of soybeans flickering in his sockets, and he slowly rose to his feet, staring fixedly at Wu Tie.

In the next instant, with a tremendous roar, this stone giant turned monster actually left an afterimage, and in the air it tore open layer after layer of qi explosions, howling as it charged at Wu Tie.

The distance between Wu Tie and him was only two or three li; in a single breath he closed in on Wu Tie, kicked apart the air, and unleashed three layered qi explosions in a kick aimed at Wu Tie.

As the mutated giant rose to its feet, Wu Tie already felt wary.

When it left an afterimage, shattered qi explosions, and came howling, Wu Tie had already reacted, dodging at full speed to the side.

Absolutely do not compare strength with the giant clan.

This was Lao Tie's stern warning to Wu Tie.

No matter how powerful your cultivation technique, never try to match strength with a giant unless you can obtain a divine ability like the Great Strength God Magic in the Chonglou Realm; otherwise, never attempt to contend with a giant in strength.

This is a natural gap between species, like a snail never being able to match a swallow's speed; some differences cannot be made up.

Moreover, this is a giant after mutation.

Wu Tie stared fixedly at the giant lunging at him; he dodged just in time, and the giant's huge foot nearly grazed his body as it kicked past. The mutated giant's body slammed violently past him and crashed hard into the pit wall behind him.

With a tremendous boom, the mutated giant's body struck the pit wall, blasting out a deep crater several meters deep and tens of meters wide.

Wu Tie hovered in midair, looking at the mutated giant with a hint of shock.

Those mutated dwarf slaves moved so slowly—how could this guy's speed become so terrifying?

Giants have never been known for agility; what they're famous for is their terrifying strength and sturdy bodies!

With a "howl," the mutated giant, its whole body covered in thick black bone plates, pulled itself from the pit wall, turned around, and emerald-green flames blazed in its eyes like two green fireballs.

He reached both hands into the air.

Gray mist from all around condensed onto his palm, and in the snap of a finger a gray-mist wolf-tooth club formed, which the mutated giant grasped in its hand.

With a "heh" strange cry, the giant swung its huge wolf-tooth club; with several "booms" it shattered the air, raising a sky‑white shockwave that crashed down upon Wu Tie from head to toe.

Wu Tie's face twitched repeatedly; he swayed left and right like a willow in the wind, desperately dodging left and right amidst the sky‑filled qi explosions.

The qi explosions made his ears ring with pain; blast after blast hammered his body, shaking his flesh violently, his skin unable to bear the load tore open, and large amounts of blood sprayed out as a mist.

Terrifying, terrifying, truly terrifying.

Wu Tie stared fixedly at the mutated giant before him, daring not to relax in the slightest.

If he were to smash me with that club, I would surely be blown to pieces, right?

Hmm, perhaps the bones wouldn't shatter, but the outcome would certainly be no better.

While desperately dodging the mutated giant's wild assault, a sharp wolf howl suddenly came from the direction of the cave behind.

Wu Tie felt a sudden chill run through his heart.

It's over; just now he saw that among the hundreds of figures lying outside the cave, besides a few giants there were also many ox‑clan and wolf‑clan warriors.

It goes without saying that these warriors were likely elite troops assembled by the Shi and Lu families to investigate the mine's anomaly.

If they were to mutate……

His heart pounding violently, Wu Tie heard the rapidly approaching wolf howl behind him; he sprang up, an invisible force field wrapping around him, and he surged upward several hundred meters on a gust of wind.

With a few "swishes," several fist‑sized stones scraped past his body at high speed.

The extremely fast stones grazed his body, tearing open several wounds down to the bone.