Chapter 839

"Is it good?"

"Of course not!"

With a shout, over five hundred thousand Su Chao forbidden troops quickly formed a mighty formation, like the Nine Bends of the Yellow River.

Taking nine lord‑level King‑God commanders as the vanguard, within the great formation a swirl of light mist rose, and a ferocious, evil Xiangliu monster rose with a howl, its nine huge dragon‑like heads spewing lightning, flames, ice, and poisonous water as it charged at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie gave a long laugh, and invisible ripples spread outward from him; within tens of thousands of li around him time suddenly slowed.

Wu Tie walked within the transparent time ripples; his movements remained normal, while the several hundred thousand Su Chao forbidden troops before him suddenly moved sluggishly—the lower their cultivation, the slower they moved; the higher their cultivation, the slightly faster they remained.

Within the formation, the forbidden troops' mana circulation speed instantly lost balance, as if tens of thousands of fine gears in a precision instrument had shifted their rates, and the whole mechanism fell into chaos at once.

Tens of thousands of forbidden troops began to vomit blood in staggered order, one after another, slowly and gracefully, the blood spouting like red lotus flowers from their mouths in an extremely slow stream.

The formation shattered; Wu Tie drew his black sword and lightly swept it at the nine Xiangliu heads above him that were breaking apart.

A blade of extreme grimness and killing intent swept across the void; the nine huge Xiangliu heads fell with a 'gulu gulu' sound, and the nine forbidden‑troop commanders were sliced all over with over ten sword wounds, blood spraying as they collapsed face‑up, eyes rolled back, and fainted.

Wu Tie's Grand Dao Furnace sank slightly above his head, a sheet of fire spraying out; the armor, belts, various seals and tokens, protective talismans, spirit treasures and weapons hidden in their bodies, and even the rings on their fingers and bracelets on their wrists were all swallowed whole by the Grand Dao Furnace.

In the flashing light, the nearly hundred assorted treasures on the nine commanders were swept up by the furnace's flames, turning into clumps of primordial creative qi, which the Grand Dao Furnace gulped down without mercy, leaving nothing behind.

Including the silver ancient bell Feng Shang had previously used, which was also a astonishingly powerful antique treasure.

At this moment the ancient bell, its body flowing with starlight, had also been refined and swallowed by the Grand Dao Furnace, leaving not a trace, and the furnace's power surged even higher out of nowhere.

Wu Tie pointed, and the tens of thousands of Su Chao forbidden troops vomiting blood before him, aside from their standard close‑fitting undergarments, had all their heirloom treasures and issued military gear lift into the air and be swallowed clean by the Grand Dao Furnace.

These ordinary Su Chao forbidden troops' armor and weapons were treasures forged posthumously by the master smiths of Su Chao.

"Artificial creations!"

Faced with the Grand Dao Furnace's flames mixed with a spark of Su Chao fire origin, these artificial creations were instantly returned to their origin, reduced to the most primordial essence of creation in heaven and earth, and swallowed clean by the Grand Dao Furnace.

Then Wu Tie pointed, and the Grand Dao Furnace flew toward the Su Chao fleet behind him.

Warships a hundred zhang long were swallowed one by one by the Grand Dao Furnace, and three flagships a thousand zhang long were also gulped down clean amid the startled cries of Feng Shang's attending eunuchs and palace maids.

In the next instant, Feng Shang's retinue of attending eunuchs, palace maids, and guards were also stripped clean by the Grand Dao Furnace.

Aside from their close‑fitting undergarments, even the palace maids' hairpins, necklaces, jade bracelets, and even their high‑rank embroidered shoes were all swallowed by the Grand Dao Furnace.

"Heaven and earth are inhumane, treating all things as straw dogs"—this saying was manifested to the fullest in Wu Tie's Grand Dao Furnace.

All things return to the Dao; all things become fair.

You are a top‑tier innate ancient treasure, and I swallowed you in one gulp.

You are ordinary spirit weapons and materials, and I swallowed you in one gulp.

The Dao is impartial, utterly unselective.

After being pinned to the ground and given a sound thrashing by the Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong brothers, Feng Shang finally came to, he roared furiously, unleashing the earth‑shaking Buddhist secret technique Lion's Roar, rings of red light and flame mingling with terrifying sound waves spreading rapidly outward.

The Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong brothers were shaken by the nearby Lion's Roar until blood poured from their seven apertures; especially the weakest Wu Tong had both eyeballs blasted straight out of their sockets.

Nüwa Mu's phoenix eyes on the city walls suddenly narrowed, elongating like a pair of sharp swords, her whole body exuding an extremely sharp and terrifying aura.

In front of Nüwa Mu, her own son was being bullied!

Seeing Wu Tie rely on his powerful innate spirit treasure to bully the Su Chao forbidden troops, Nüwa Mu felt utterly delighted and thoroughly pleased.

But the moment she saw her own son being bullied, Nüwa Mu instantly resembled a cat whose tail had been stepped on, every pore spewing forth tangible fire and killing intent.

Only one's own son may bully others; others' sons must not bully one's own.

Reason with a woman?

Hehe!

The five‑colored divine stone rose into the air, then suddenly plummeted, striking Feng Rong's head with a 'bang'.

This blow was extraordinarily heavy.

The five‑colored divine stone, according to legend, was a divine object used by the ancient Nüwa sovereign to mend the heavens in primordial times; later, the unused fragments were passed down generation after generation as offerings by the Nüwa clan.

Every Nüwa clan tribe that receives a title is granted such a small piece of five‑colored divine stone.

These small pieces of five‑colored divine stone are all cut from the stones used to mend the heavens, using the collective thought power of myriad peoples as the tool.

A chunk the size of a fist, heavy as a continent, moreover contains the merit of mending the heavens and the sustaining thought power of countless common folk.

Though not an innate spirit treasure, it is stronger in destructive power than ordinary innate spirit treasures, with more dreadful and bizarre side effects.

The so‑called 'pointed at by a thousand and die without illness'.

Those hated and resented by hundreds of millions of common folk will inexplicably suffer all manner of calamities.

This kind of divine object, the five‑colored divine stone bearing the thought power of myriad billions of common folk, when smashed onto one's head, aside from bodily harm… the more it strikes, the more it inflicts irreversible damage on a person's innate divine soul.

In other words, get hit by a five‑colored divine stone… you'll become stupid!

Hit enough times, even if your flesh is fine, you'll turn into an idiot!

Normally, no matriarch of the Nüwa clan would so recklessly use a five‑colored divine stone—an object of symbolic importance akin to the imperial jade seal—to attack an enemy!

But who made Nüwa Mu angry?

I've said it before—don't argue with a woman.

So Feng Shang only felt his brain jolt; just as he had leapt up ready to fight to the death with the Wu Jin brothers, he slammed his head hard onto the ground with a 'bang', feeling dazed and the world spinning, and he couldn't come to for a while.

Where am I?

What am I doing?

What happened?

Feng Shang felt groggy for a moment, desperately blinking his eyes, but everything before him spun and he could not gather his thoughts for a while.

In the military city, among the great Wei clans, the eldest masters of the Bian and Hua families, most skilled in medicine, waved their right hands, releasing rolling medicinal fragrance into the void; streams of vigorous life‑force spiritual energy surged like a tide and quickly entered Wu Tong's body.

Wu Tong himself is of the Wu clan bloodline, possessing the ability to be reborn from a drop of blood.

With the medical arts of the Bian and Hua elders' blessing, Wu Tong's exploded eyeballs regenerated instantly, and all his injuries healed in an instant.

Wu Tong let out a mighty roar to the heavens, his body spewing terrible flames as it swiftly transformed from flesh and blood into steel‑reinforced bone, a metallic form; furthermore, a heavy yuan‑magnetic force bolstered his physique, making his body over a thousand times heavier.

With over a thousandfold weight, when throwing a punch, the fist's killing power is not merely a mere thousandfold.

Under the Wu family's secret combat technique, Wu Tong casually throws a punch, its power at least increasing ten thousandfold.

Wu Tong's punch slams into Feng Shang's back.

A dull thud sounded; Feng Shang's spine was extremely hard, Wu Tong's arm bone snapped into seven or eight pieces, while Feng Shang only suffered some bone cracks.

The Wu Tong brothers' potential is absolutely not inferior to Feng Shang's, but in terms of present combat power, Feng Shang, who received endless resources from the Blazing Dynasty since childhood, still holds an absolute advantage.

The ten-thousandfold strike; the force endured by both sides is completely equal.

Feng Shang only suffered bone cracks, while Wu Tong suffered a direct fracture.

Numu's face grew increasingly grim.

Inside the military city, 120,000 Wu tribe youths roared in unison; they also formed a battle array, then wave after wave of immense mana poured into the bodies of the three Wu brothers—Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong.

The strength of 120,000 plus three became one.

Wu Tong lifted his foot and fiercely stepped on Feng Shang's body.

This time, Wu Tong's leg bone and Feng Shang's leg bone broke simultaneously.

Merely, Wu Tong seemed not to feel pain, gritting his teeth as he continued to rain down a barrage of hammer blows on Feng Shang.

And Feng Shang had never endured such hardship.

He screamed in agony, lifting his head to shout at the Xiao Mian Fo in the air who was salvaging Lao Tie: "Buddha... save me!"

The Xiao Mian Fo suddenly lowered its head to look at the Wu Jin brothers.

Wu Tie pointed a finger, and the Grand Dao Smelter shot up into the sky, a vast expanse of firelight swirling around the 100,000 disciples of the Red Lotus Temple.

Fan Long, Fan Kun, and the other Red Lotus Temple disciples cried out in alarm, their faces turning grim.

They were just like the Blazing Dynasty's forbidden army, stripped naked from head to toe.

100,000 bare-chested, bald strong men hovered blankly in midair; some people's fingers kept twitching rapidly—they had been counting prayer beads and chanting sutras, but the bead strings suddenly vanished, and their bodies couldn't react in time.

"Good, good, the Buddha is merciful."

The Xiao Mian Fo stared blankly, then its smile grew ever more radiant.

He finally stopped sitting, stood up, and bowed with palms together to Wu Tie: "Your Majesty King Wu, warfare is perilous; as a monk who has left home, I cannot bear to see war's flames ravage the world and bring calamity upon it."

With a look of deep sympathy for heaven and pity for mankind, he raised his head to gaze at the sky, gently shook his head, and the Xiao Mian Fo softly said: "Your Majesty, this humble monk..."

Wu Tie waved his hand, calmly saying: "If you can't win, it's just \"good\" and \"compassionate\"... if you can win, it's subduing demons and eliminating evil."

Shaking his head, Wu Tie lightly sighed: "Enough, cut the nonsense, seal your power, obediently listen to my judgment... dare to move even a hint of ulterior motive, hehe."

Boom— a tremendous roar, the lotus flower in the Xiao Mian Fo's palm was shredded into countless fragments by myriad sharp spear-like lights; the lotus fragments turned into a vast shower of crimson light, scattering in all directions.

The Xiao Mian Fo's smile completely stiffened.

Lao Tie panted as he stood before the Xiao Mian Fo, holding a long spear; its sharp tip viciously pierced his round belly: "Don't move, you bald bastard—move, and it's two holes with one shot!"

Beneath the Xiao Mian Fo, the old turtle Lao Wugui suddenly burst into hysterical laughter: "Hahaha, hahaha, you bald bastard, you too have your day? Your Majesty King Wu, Your Majesty King Wu... this old turtle willingly surrenders, willingly surrenders! This old turtle wishes to bring the countless descendants of the sea clan and surrender!"

Lao Wugui swayed its long neck, lifted its head, and arrogantly crawled out from beneath the Xiao Mian Fo's mat.

Upon his body flashed blinding Buddhist light; strands of light condensed into hard shackles that tightly bound Lao Wugui.

A surge of astonishing demonic aura burst from the old turtle's body; the Buddhist light shackles were blown apart by the deep blue demonic aura, cold light flickered on the old turtle, and soon an old man with thievish brows and mousey eyes, his neck more than twice normal length and his limbs much shorter than ordinary people's, wearing a fur blue robe, stood before everyone.

「I, Gui Wu Di, have seen the Martial King, I have seen all you heroes… oh, I have seen this lady! 」 Behind him he carried a huge turtle shell, Gui Wu Di bowed deeply with a beaming smile toward Wu Tie and his party.

Feng Shang strained to lift his head, gave Gui Wu Di a fierce glare, and muttered, 'Back then, you really should have been boiled in a soup pot.'

After an hour, via the teleportation array, Wu Tie and the others returned to Shenwu City.

In the council hall, Wu Tie sat beside the great throne; behind him, behind the thick iron-colored curtains, Wa Mu, curious and looking around, took a seat on a throne thirty percent larger than Wu Tie's.

All the civil and military officials of Wuguo gathered here, each with eyes gleaming, listening to Feng Shang recount the situation of the Blaze Dynasty.

The Blaze Dynasty's territory, civilization, economy, products, military strength, and countless novel facts made Huang Lang, Li Xuan'gui, and Yuan Qilin listen with relish.

Li Guang, Xiang Feiyu, Xiang Feixie, and other commanders from noble families flushed red in the face, staring intently at Feng Shang.

This feeling was like a big slab of pork belly set before a pack of starving wolves—they could hardly wait to pounce and feast.

「So, Feng Rong's succession is irregular.' Wu Tie hammered the armrest of the throne: 'According to the customs of the Blaze Dynasty, when the God-Emperor abdicates, the grand ceremony preparations take twelve years, yet your father clearly did not follow the normal procedure and abdicated abruptly.'

「There's a conspiracy here.' Feng Shang, beaten to the point of broken bones and torn tendons, his face bruised and swollen, sat on the ground gasping for breath.

In this state, all the elixirs on his body were swallowed whole by the Grand Dao Crucible, and Wu Tie didn't give him a single healing pill; Feng Shang's condition is terrible now, his whole body aches.

Faced with relentless questioning from Wuguo's civil and military officials, Feng Shang barely managed to muster his spirit, answering their questions one after another.

「If—I mean, if Wuguo were willing to send troops to help Your Majesty, King Yin, regain the throne…' Wu Tie looked at Feng Shang with a bright smile: 'How many benefits would King Yin be willing to give Wuguo?'

Shaking his head, without waiting for Feng Shang to speak, Wu Tie already laughed: 'Just take the Blaze Dynasty's current treasury, the private vaults of the top three hundred noble clans, plus your future thousand years of tax revenue from the Blaze Dynasty, and the territories of three hundred prefectures as payment—that would be enough.'

Wu Tie waved his hand and said calmly: 'That's settled. Wuguo prepares to invade the Blaze Dynasty… Second Prince, if you agree, that's great; if you don't, I'll kill you and go find your brothers and sisters to cooperate with, which seems even better.'

Wu Jin let out a clang and hurled a great axe down before Feng Shang.

Feng Shang stared blankly, then broke into a smile almost identical to that of the Laughing Buddha: 'Of course, agreed, agreed…… Your Majesty, I will fully cooperate.'

In his eyes, a flash of vengeful fire passed; Feng Shang now hated Feng Rong and those behind him to the bone.