Chapter 91: Ice Wind Dragon Twister

Shi Meng roared as he jumped over, snatching a heavy tower shield and holding it before him.

Bluish-white flames struck the tower shield, and the tower shield forged from hundred-times refined pure steel instantly turned red-hot all over.

The tower shield, two feet thick, about two meters high and one meter wide, shuddered violently; the flames spewed by the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant were not only extremely hot but also possessed tremendous impact force.

The surface of the tower shield began to melt rapidly, and under the flames' impact, large amounts of molten metal screamed outward in all directions, causing the Great Stone City soldiers near and far to shriek in agony.

Many soldiers nearby were splashed in the face by the molten metal, each scorched until their faces were pitted. Moreover, lizardmen archers clad in leather armor were sprayed with splashing molten metal, letting out strange cries as they jumped about wildly.

Shi Meng screamed shrilly, his hands gripping the tower shield's rear handles tightly; the metal-cast handles had also turned red-hot.

His palms felt like pig's hooves on an iron plate, continually emitting a sizzling sound.

Fortunately, he had activated his Giant Bloodline, making his body extraordinarily sturdy, and his hands were covered with a grayish-white layer resembling stone.

Even though the temperature was high enough to melt pure steel, it only caused Shi Meng's palms to split and bleed, without inflicting truly irreversible severe injury on him.

Wu Tie's inner heat surged; the vigorous energy released by the lava grass quickly transformed into specks of golden light that merged into his glabella. In a short time, the black mist before his eyes dissipated, and he regained a bit of his spirit.

Without pausing to further practice the Foundation Establishment method to restore his spiritual power, Wu Tie leapt up, seized the steel spear from the weapon rack behind him, and hurled it with all his might at that huge Flame-Devouring Gold Ant.

The steel spear let out a piercing whistle as it tore through the air, driving a strong light deep into the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's head.

The steel spear had barely touched the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's carapace when its tip turned red-hot; the spearhead softened at a visible speed, and with a muffled "pop," the entire spear exploded into a spray of liquid upon the ant's head.

"Damn it!" Wu Tie cursed.

"I can't hold out!" Shi Meng also bellowed; the tower shield in his hands was completely melted by a single gout of flame from the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant, a column of fire slammed into him, and Shi Meng shrieked as he was blown backward step by step.

One could see Shi Meng's upper-body skin rapidly discoloring, then breaking out in countless blisters.

The blisters burst, spraying large amounts of bodily fluid mixed with plasma; before the blood could even hit the ground, the bluish-white flames vaporized it. Large patches of Shi Meng's upper-body flesh turned pitch-black, directly vaporized by the terrifying heat.

"Open!" Shi Meng snarled, pointing at the city wall beneath the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's feet; the stone writhed and suddenly split open a deep fissure.

The massive Flame-Devouring Gold Ant plummeted into the deep chasm; Shi Meng clenched his teeth and slammed his hands together, hearing a thunderous rumble as the city wall slammed shut, crushing the ant tightly within the stone seam.

The Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's body was trapped by the wall, leaving only a bull-sized ferocious head exposed outside.

Wu Tie howled as he charged forward, his glabella aching intensely; his "Control Heaven and Earth" talent was still unusable. He rushed forward and wrapped both arms around the scorching head of the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant.

The skin on both hands burned fiercely, and the flesh below the elbows rapidly blackened and carbonized.

Intense pain struck, but Wu Tie was already accustomed to this burning agony.

Well, this level of pain was comparable to when he first absorbed two flood dragon horns in the secret realm of the Ancient Divine Weapons Camp; back then, his entire skeleton spewed high-temperature flames, roasting his flesh until it was nearly cooked through.

"Come on, die!" Wu Tie roared, gripping the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's head with both hands and twisting it hard.

With a "crack," the Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's head was wrenched off by Wu Tie's brute force; he gave a hard yank, and the ant's massive skull came straight off.

The white egg resting on his chest flashed with an eerie light; the massive, devastating Flame-Devouring Gold Ant's body instantly turned icy. All its essence, blood, life force, and even its soul were sucked away in an instant, and even its crimson carapace faded somewhat.

"Hahaha, well done, brother!" Shi Meng, ignoring the burns on his hands, slapped Wu Tie's shoulder hard and shouted loudly: "From today on, you are the Chiliarch of Great Stone City... Hey, think about it, our Shi family's big sisters are big-chested and big-hipped, best at bearing sons..."

Shi Meng's palms gushed blood, staining Wu Tie's shoulder red.

He smirked and said, "Their offspring are as sturdy as calves."

Not far away, Tie Bashiba smashed a Flame-Devouring Gold Ant off the wall with an axe, ignoring the wounds torn by the ant's limbs on his body, he roared toward this side: "Impossible... I was born weighing eighty-eight catties... eighty-eight catties!"

Wu Tie's face twitched violently.

He glanced at Shi Meng's smiling face, then at Tie Bashiba's solemn shouting, and suddenly burst out laughing.

These damned bastards, I love them!

Hahaha, even facing these terrifying, damned Flame-Devouring Gold Ants, having these guys around is simply the best!

"Though we have no robes, we share the same hatred..."

Wu Tie's right White Tiger Arm Guard trembled slightly, and a fierce killing intent surged from the guard, spreading through his body like a cold spring.

An unfamiliar song, which Wu Tie swore he had never learned, and which neither Old Tie nor Grey Master had ever taught him, echoed in his mind.

The rhythm was simple, the lyrics also simple.

Yet an inexplicable killing intent lingered within it, making Wu Tie's body hair...

Oh, the body hair all over him had been scorched clean by the high heat radiating from that Flame-Devouring Gold Ant just moments ago; his head was bald, and now Wu Tie was completely naked, like a peeled egg.

His pores suddenly closed, and goosebumps erupted all over his body.

Then, within each dense goosebump, threads of what seemed like tangible Cold Qi sprayed out, and faint white lights flickered in the depths of Wu Tie's pupils.

Cold, merciless, like countless swords darting back and forth in piercing thrusts, it filled him with a grim battlefield killing intent.

"Having you all is truly great!" Wu Tie murmured to himself, and suddenly he fell into a strange state.

At this moment, he could perfectly control every function of his body.

The lava grass he had just swallowed was rapidly digesting; streams of grand, scorching energy passed through his body, continually transforming into pure spiritual power that flowed into the golden orb at his glabella.

The dim, nearly extinguished golden orb brightened rapidly.

However, the two blades of lava grass were obviously insufficient to restore the entire golden orb to its original state.

Wu Tie silently drew the specially made metal case from his waist pouch, took out the eight intact stalks of lava grass, shoved the one that was half-consumed entirely into his mouth, and swallowed it.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye.

Everything occurred so swiftly.

Shi Meng, who possessed extraordinary battle intuition and extreme sensitivity to combat, was startled by the terrifying killing intent emanating from Wu Tie's entire body, the kind only a veteran who had survived myriad calamities could have.

As Wu Tie's killing intent surged throughout his body, Shi Meng even thought that a slaughter-happy demon king had suddenly appeared beside him!

He abruptly turned his head and lowered his gaze toward Wu Tie.

Then he saw Wu Tie gulp down all that lava grass in one mouthful.

Shi Meng's face twisted into a knot; he lunged forward with his hand, trying to stop Wu Tie's reckless behavior.

"A mere Foundation Establishment trifling brat—consuming even a single whole stalk of lava grass would surely cause him to burst—but Wu Tie, he actually swallowed this much!"

"Damn it!" Shi Meng, unable to block in time, clapped his hands over his eyes and shrieked.

Wu Tie's whole body wracked with pain, and large amounts of plasma sprayed from his pores.

At that moment, it was as if a volcano erupted inside his body.

His bodily functions operated at the extreme, a vast mental power took control of his entire body, perfectly controlling every cell.

Each cell performed its duty; under the impetus of Wu Tie's powerful mental power, all his bodily tissues began operating at ten to a hundred times their normal efficiency.

Every cell, every nerve, every blood vessel, every muscle and bone, and even more……

Within the human body, there are some nerves, some muscles, some organs that cannot be controlled by subjective thought. For example, a normal person cannot control his own heartbeat with his will!

But at this moment, Wu Tie did it perfectly.

All bodily physiological functions were completely brought under the control of the vast mental power.

The medicinal power of the lava grass erupted; at that instant of eruption, Wu Tie's body suffered a violent impact, his body almost blown apart.

But afterward, as his mental power took control of his entire body, his bodily functions were strengthened ten- to a hundredfold, and in an instant all the medicinal power was perfectly absorbed, assimilated, and transformed by his body, turning in the snap of a finger into streams of pure golden trickles that rushed into his glabella.

Battle intuition increased a hundredfold.

Battle instinct increased a hundredfold.

Battle experience earned through countless life‑and‑death trials suddenly descended.

Wu Tie's cold, ruthless eyes swept over the entire battlefield; in his mind, countless knowledge imparted by Lao Tie churned.

His brainpower was rapidly being consumed as he frantically reviewed the knowledge Lao Tie had passed down; white wisps of steam continually rose from his bald head, his brain almost boiling.

"Flame‑Gold Ants, their bodies harbor high heat, they feed on metal…… Their outer carapace is almost entirely composed of metallic material."

"Low temperature…… is their natural enemy."

Wu Tie, within a thousandth of a second, deduced the greatest weakness of these Flame‑Gold Ants and obtained the best means to deal with them.

He raised his head to look at the arrow towers and watchtowers on the city wall.

A group of Stone City's Elemental Mages were exerting themselves to release gales to block the sea of fire outside the city, while a few scattered Elemental Mages strained to drop shards of ice, striving to lower the temperature on the city wall.

But these Elemental Mages…… are really weak.

"Really weak……"

The ice crystals that the three or five Elemental Mages struggled to lower merely flashed and vanished on the city wall; even the white ice shards could not land on the wall before being completely evaporated by the high heat emanating from the Flame‑Gold Ants.

As the number of Flame‑Gold Ants clinging to the city wall grew, even the mists condensed by these Elemental Mages were largely evaporated, making the ice crystals that could fall ever thinner.

Wu Tie muttered to himself, he extended his hand; an invisible force field flicked slightly, and a thumb‑sized azure ice crystal falling from the sky passed completely through the sea of fire created by the Flame‑Gold Ants, landing lightly in his palm.

The ice crystal was absorbed by Wu Tie's palm.

Just moments ago his hands were burned to a bloody mess, bones visible; with the infusion of immense lava grass power, Wu Tie's bodily functions increased a hundredfold, and his wounds began to heal rapidly.

His hands turned white as jade, faintly gleaming with a precious light.

Absolute battle instinct and battle awareness took control of his entire body; Wu Tie's golden light cluster at his glabella contracted and expanded violently, wave after wave of mental‑power frequency fluctuated rapidly, gradually his mental‑power frequency swiftly approached a specific frequency.

"The power of ice…… first, it is the power of water."

Wu Tie muttered lowly, a cluster of golden flame surged and burned at his glabella, wave after wave of strong impact radiated outward in all directions.

Even Shi Meng, who stood beside Wu Tie and was shouting his name in alarm, was swept up by this sudden powerful impact, doing a somersault and landing head‑first on the city wall in utter disgrace.

Before Shi Meng could get up, Wu Tie swung both hands forward.

Suddenly, above the urban area of Stone City, vast clouds and mist gathered; then came a rushing 'hualala' sound of water, countless fist‑sized sparkling water droplets, accompanied by a piercing whistling, tore through the air.

Each water droplet contained tremendous force; every fist‑sized droplet was comparable to a hundred‑jin boulder hurled by a catapult.

Countless water droplets swept across this side of the city wall; thousands of Flame‑Gold Ants that had charged onto the wall were knocked staggering back by the droplets, the droplets striking the hot carapace produced continual dull impacts, accompanied by the 'hiss' of high‑temperature steam evaporating water.

Wu Tie looked expressionlessly at the embarrassed Shi Meng climbing up, and said in a deep voice: "Lava grass, or any similar elemental herbs, the more the better."

Shi Meng stared blankly, then leapt down from the city wall and sprinted at full speed toward the storehouse in the center of Stone City.

In just a dozen breaths, Shi Meng returned carrying a large basket full of lava grass, and inside were also dozens of stalks obviously superior to lava grass—elemental herbs.

Wu Tie grabbed a large handful of lava grass and, expressionlessly, stuffed it into his mouth.

The clouds and mist grew denser; a torrential downpour howled in, and fist‑sized columns of water instantly drove all the Flame‑Gold Ants that had rushed onto the wall back off it.

"The utmost cold of water is ice."

Wu Tie's eyes turned completely pallid, a bleak white, devoid of any emotion or warmth, possessing only absolute rationality and cruelty.

He pointed his ten fingers forward, and his nails turned azure.

Heaven‑filling water droplets vanished instantly, accompanied by a piercing whine; dozens of ice storms rose from the ground, meter‑diameter tornadoes spewing freezing cold air, howling as they surged into the chaotic mass of Flame‑Gold Ants.