Chapter 4

The Wu family.

At the back wall of the stone castle, on the rock face, in a large cave, the rock python lay coiled lazily.

Four gray dwarves held scrub brushes and buckets, busily scrubbing the heavy gray scales of the rock python. Occasionally, the python would open its mouth and exhale a foul breath, its three-meter-long tongue moving weakly.

A fist-sized black metal projectile was suddenly thrown into the python’s mouth as it opened, penetrating deep into its body.

With a muffled explosion, the python’s body, as thick as a water tank, was severed into two pieces at the seven-inch mark.

Blood and flesh splattered everywhere, and the four gray dwarves were blasted away. Before they hit the ground, a cold light flashed through the air, slicing them in half at the waist.

Before they could even scream, the cold light flashed again, and their heads flew high into the air.

Several miles away from the stone castle, at the base of the rock face, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong stood beside the fields, frowning as they supervised the rock gnomes spreading diluted rock python feces on the roots of large, fat, grayish-white mushrooms.

The outer skin of these mushrooms was nearly translucent, and inside the skin were densely packed, thumb-sized seeds.

“I hate eating the ‘porridge’ made from earth mushrooms!” Wu Jin smacked his lips in disgust. “Especially when I think about how they are watered with Big Gray’s feces... Ugh...”

Wu Jin spat on the ground.

“I was thinking about the ‘rice’ that Father brought back when Taiping was half a year old... It was so fragrant!” Wu Yin also smacked his lips, speaking sincerely. “Even though I only tasted a mouthful!”

“It was fragrant, but our ‘Sunspot’ is too small. That kind of ‘rice’ can only grow with a ‘Sunspot’ at least a kilometer in diameter!” Wu Tong looked up at their stone castle’s ‘Sunspot,’ which was only thirty meters in diameter, and pouted. “That rice porridge was so fragrant... I only ate a mouthful...”

“Taiping was weak back then... He couldn’t eat much, even spitting out animal milk...” Wu Jin laughed. “We were all ‘adults’ then, so we couldn’t compete with Taiping for food!”

Gripping his fist, he swung it forcefully, his eyes gleaming as he muttered, “Father said that if we save enough good things, we can return to the main family to meet the elders... The ‘Sunspot’ in the main family is a full kilometer in diameter, and they grow ‘rice’...”

“Once Father takes us back to the main family for the ancestral worship, we will have the qualifications to trade for all kinds of good things from the main family!” Wu Jin grinned. “Then...”

The sound of the rock python’s body being severed by an explosion echoed through the rock face, quickly reaching them.

A sharp, tooth-like spear pierced the python’s head, pinning it to the ground. The python let out a long hiss, and the sharp scream followed the explosion.

“Big Gray!” Wu Tong leaped up, ready to run to the cave where the python was.

“Enemy attack!” Wu Yin grabbed Wu Tong’s belt, pulling him back several steps, almost making him fall.

Wu Jin had already drawn his long knife, letting out three sharp whistles.

In response, the rock gnomes in the fields dropped their tools and ran quickly to the small caves at the base of the rock face.

From the distant tunnels leading to the outside, urgent whistles echoed, responding to Wu Jin’s warning.

But those whistles suddenly stopped, and the area fell silent except for the rock gnomes fleeing to the safety caves. More unsettling was the complete silence from the Wu family’s stone castle.

“Who’s there? Come out!” Wu Jin raised his long knife and shouted towards the stone castle. “Are you the bastards from Black Wind Valley? You dare to provoke the Wu family?”

A pained cry came from the direction of the stone castle, and Master Hui was thrown out from the watchtower at the gate.

Just before Master Hui hit the ground, a rope tied around his waist tightened, and he let out a painful groan.

“Master!” This time, Wu Yin and Wu Tong both took a few steps forward.

A sharp whistling sound came, and a black shadow flew from the watchtower, landing heavily a few meters in front of the three brothers.

It was a black wooden staff, about two meters long, with a coiled black viper at the top.

Wu Jin roared and took a step forward, slashing his knife at the snake staff.

Suddenly, a large cloud of black gas spewed from the open mouth of the snake carved on the staff.

Master Hui lifted his head, eyes wide, and screamed, “Poison... Retreat! Find the old shaman!”

Wu Jin took a step back, and dark red, mist-like energy sprang from his and Wu Yin’s bodies. The black gas from the staff collided with their energy, producing a sharp hissing sound.

Wu Tong, standing next to Wu Yin, had his muscles rapidly twitching under his skin, but no similar energy emerged.

The black gas hit him, and with a hiss, it sprayed directly onto his face. It was as if he had been instantly corroded by concentrated acid; his skin and flesh bubbled and rotted, turning into a thick, pus-like substance that fell from his face.

The black gas also hit his eyes, and his eyeballs burst, spraying pus and blood.

Wu Jin and Wu Yin both cried out, “Old Three!” and raised their left hands, slapping their own faces hard.

The slaps were so heavy that their heads snapped back, and they both spat out large teeth, blood splattering all over them. They grabbed Wu Tong’s shoulders and ran towards the mine where Wu Zhan and Wu Tie were exploring.

The brothers ran extremely fast, covering more than a mile in just a few breaths.

A long whistle came from the side, and heavy footsteps, like galloping horses, approached, making their hearts race.

Several dozen heavily armored men, with a large black emblem on their left chest, holding long knives, suddenly emerged from a thin mist, charging at the three brothers like a pack of fierce beasts.

Their armor was extremely thick, with the thickest parts over an inch, showing how heavy it was.

Despite this, they ran as fast as the wind, twice as fast as the three brothers.

Upon closer inspection, a vortex of mist could be seen rapidly spinning under their feet, as if a wind was swirling beneath them.

Wu Yin cursed, “Such a thin mist... How could they hide in it?”

Wu Jin roared and swung his long knife backward. The knife turned into a black light, whistling as it stabbed towards a man who had suddenly appeared behind him.

The man growled and gripped a ram’s horn war hammer, swinging it down with force.

Wu Jin’s fingers suddenly spread and then clenched into a fist. The black light’s speed doubled, and the war hammer barely grazed it. The black light struck the man’s chest, producing a dull thud.

Sparks flew, and a foot-long crack appeared in the man’s thick armor, slicing a large piece of flesh from his chest, and blood gushed out.

The black light spun back, and the man cried out in pain, retreating. “This little brat... He’s already half a step away from ‘Sensing the Mystic’!”

Wu Jin grabbed the returning long knife and stared at the man’s armor. “Such thick skin... This armor is good!”

Behind the dozen men, the thin mist flickered and disappeared, revealing dozens of bloodied figures. They varied in height and build, some in heavy armor, others in tight leather, all exuding a fierce and deadly aura.

As Wu Jin roared, a woman with a bald head, her face covered in scars, and wearing a half-armor with tight black leggings, laughed and lunged forward, throwing a foot-long snake-tooth dagger that glinted with a dark blue light.

Wu Jin had just retrieved his knife, and Wu Yin’s knife was flying backward.

The black light sliced through the air, colliding with the almost transparent snake-tooth dagger.

A sharp “ding” sounded, and the thin dagger flew up over ten meters, while Wu Yin’s knife fell to the ground.

“This kid is only at the ‘Foundation Building’ stage of ‘Gangyuan Infusion’! Ha, weak!” The bald woman laughed, pointing at the sky. The dagger, now a fine blue light, suddenly changed direction and aimed at the three brothers.

The brothers had already reached the mine entrance, and a few gray dwarves guarding the entrance had just heard the commotion and rushed out.

Wu Yin grabbed two gray dwarves and threw them into the air.

The dark blue light sliced through the two dwarves, splitting their bodies before they even realized what was happening.

Amidst the screams, the snake-tooth dagger was momentarily delayed, allowing the three brothers to escape into the mine.

“Enemies... Prepare to fight! Fight to the death!” Wu Jin roared in the mine.

Unlike when he had warned the rock gnomes to flee, he now issued a death order upon realizing the enemy’s strength.

The gray dwarves and rock gnomes in the mine were momentarily stunned, but then over a thousand of them let out shrill screams and rushed out of the mine entrances like a flood.

As the three brothers ran past, a few gray dwarves supervising the work threw several iron balls the size of eggs.

These were mountain-breaking explosives, powerful enough to shatter large rocks into pieces.

“Shield!” A man over two meters tall, fully armored and carrying a large, heavy shield on his back, stepped forward.

The heavy shield was planted firmly on the ground.

Light patterns on the shield’s surface flickered, and a yellow light wave spread out, forming a protective wall around the dozens of people behind him.

The mountain-breaking explosives detonated simultaneously.

With a deafening boom, the yellow light wave on the shield’s surface twisted violently and shattered.

The man holding the shield grunted, his body shaking, but he managed to stabilize himself.

“Kill!” A gentle voice called from outside the mine.

Several dozen men and women, wearing light armor and carrying heavy crossbows, drew their weapons. With a sharp whistling sound, steel bolts, trailing thin black smoke, rained into the mine like a black storm.

The bolts, with their incredible penetrating power, pierced through the bodies of the gray dwarves and rock gnomes.

The gray dwarves, about 1.2 meters tall, and the rock gnomes, less than a meter tall, were not strong. Their bodies were only covered in rough linen, and the bolts, enhanced by some mysterious force, easily penetrated their bodies.

The gray dwarves and rock gnomes were so densely packed that a single bolt could pierce through a dozen bodies.

With a sharp whistling sound, the bolts, after traveling several hundred steps, spun in the air and returned to their crossbows, neatly sliding back into the quivers.

In an instant, over a thousand gray dwarves and rock gnomes were reduced to a few hundred.

Blood flowed on the ground, and the remaining dwarves and gnomes, terrified by the slaughter, dropped their weapons and tools and fled into the surrounding mines.

The men and women laughed and chatted excitedly, chasing after the fleeing dwarves and gnomes, and cut them down with their swords and knives.

The gentle voice echoed from the mine, “Gray dwarves... Rock gnomes... They don’t fetch a good price!”

Wu Tie stared in shock at the vast expanse of water before him.

With his knowledge, he couldn’t accurately estimate the size of the water body.

But he could tell that it was extremely large, large enough to fit three or four... no, thirty or forty Wu Valleys.

Such a vast amount of water!

Waves surged, and countless whirlpools formed.

Water, in this world of rock layers, was the true source of life!

Previously, the Wu family’s stone castle could only obtain water from a few meager sources, and the daily water needs of the nearly two thousand people were barely met.

Lack of water meant they couldn’t cultivate more fields or raise more powerful gray rock lizards and venomous hunting spiders!

But the water before him, this boiling water!

Wu Tie remembered what Master Hui had said: these active waters must have a source, they were not stagnant!

This meant that there was even more water here than he could see!

“So much water!” Wu Tie smiled.

He thought of the small, timid rock gnomes.

With so much water, they could grow more white mushrooms, right?

Those poor little dwarves, they could finally eat their fill, right?

Wu Tie pouted, thinking, “I won’t have to secretly share my food with those hungry little dwarves anymore!”

The sound of hurried footsteps approached, and the three brothers, Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong, ran in.

“Father! Enemies!” Wu Jin shouted.

A heavy axe swung from behind, and Wu Jin, Wu Yin, and Wu Tong were all struck, flying into the air, blood gushing from their wounds.