Many years later, Tie Ce would remember that day.
He thought it was just an ordinary mission for the Martial Cultivation Association, but he didn’t think it was a step into the Shura Purgatory.
The Association told him that several adventurers had died in an odd land in the northern New Continent.
Death was part of the adventure, but those who killed the adventurers strung their bodies up on lances to be blown in the sun for demonstration and ridicule.
The surviving adventurers fled back and asked the association to go and rescue their trapped companions and bring back the bodies of the three adventurers so that they could return to their homeland.
Salt City and Yao City conferred and decided on the rescue, leaving it to the Martial Cultivation Association to carry out.
Never before had there been such a ferocious and violent act of blatant evil, which was not only a contempt and desecration of human life, but also a frontal provocation to Yao City and Salt City.
The perpetrators were a rebel army equipped with armour and weapons, they were in full formation and large in number, and were likely to be up to no good.
This mission was to rescue the three trapped adventurers, try to bring back the other three corpses, and investigate the group’s purpose and lair in the meantime.
Tiese arrived at the tavern in the northern New World and met another person.
The other person wore a suit of armour with a linen robe draped over it. Tie Sai instantly recognised the ghost armour and exchanged information that the other party was indeed a ghost.
The ghost was called Medicine Put, she was a senior healer with the ability of [Healing]. This time she went over not only to bring back the corpse, she also wanted to awaken the three dead souls to lure them back to Salt City.
Through the Ghost Armour, Medicine Put issued a voice with a nuisance murmur, “What are you good at?”
Tie Sai said truthfully, “I’m good at sketching and drawing maps, and I don’t have much combat experience.”
“It’s fine, there’s me. Don’t look at me as a healer, but I actually fight with sandworms and man-eating crabs all the time, and when they get injured, I then heal them.”
Yakuto tapped his chest with his finger armour, making a clunking metallic clanging sound.
“Then, I’ll trouble you to put in more effort.”Tiese said.
Going out and relying on friends, it was always good to have someone to help out.
“There’s also a Martial Cultivator.”Medicine Put asked, “Do you know who it is?”
Tie Sai said he didn’t know either.
This mission was released in a hurry because the trapped person could be in danger at any moment and the body could be completely destroyed at any time. The Association had also immediately issued a direct mission to the martial practitioners who remained in Salt City and selected the three of them.
“It says to meet outside the tavern, why don’t we go out and take a look.”Tie Ce proposed.
The two walked out of the tavern.
With a glance, Pill Put noticed the Fighting Spade Armour at the doorway that was nibbling on potatoes and looked interested, “I didn’t think that there was actually someone here who could tame this guy.”
Tie Sai explained, “It’s not tamed, it’s a fellow traveller’s companion.”
“This is your mount? I can’t tell, you’re somewhat capable.”
Medicine Put stood in awe.
“It’s not a mount …… it’s a companion.”Tie Sai emphasised.
Many people viewed the Fighting Spade Armour as a high-level horse or a Transcendent Fighting Beast, which was incorrect, they were a kind of warrior that revered adventure.
This Fighting Shovel Armour originally followed the gourmet Nong Gluttony, and then Nong Gluttony went to Saniro to become a chef, so he entrusted the Fighting Shovel Armour to Iron Sei and him to continue their adventures.
Tiese suddenly noticed a man standing by the tavern.
The man was wrapped in an old cotton coat and wore a felt hat. He looked very old and was carrying a bulging bag, his right arm was wrapped tightly in dense bandages, seemingly injured.
Tetsusaigi’s eyesight was excellent, and with a thrill of excitement in his heart, he quickly walked over to him.
“Shiohisa-san.”
He tried to lower his voice, “I’m surprised to see you in the north, do you practice here?”
The old man gave him a smile, squeezing out the deep wrinkles on his face, “You have come here on a mission from the association, right?”
“Yes.”
Tiese froze, “Are you …… with us?”
Medicine Put also came over, she also hissed this time, “Great cultivator Salt Long! I …… I have always admired you.”
Saltjou said softly, “Come with me and talk as we walk.”
He led the way in front, making his way into the icy mountains.
“The Association has said very little to you about this mission, as many things need to be kept secret, and it can only be carried out by reliable and experienced martial cultivators.”
Salt Long exhaled white air from his mouth and spoke slowly, “We are indeed going to retrieve the three adventurers. Before we enter, I need you to paint your bodies blue, temporarily disguise yourselves as one of the Corrupted, and not regain your looks or reveal your identities without my permission.”
“Because, we are going to cross over into another world.”
Both Tetsusaiga and Yakutake stiffened their feet at that.
“That world, called [Uzi Kingdom], is a world where a divine war is breaking out.”
“Follow me, you’ll all know in the past.”
The old man went all the way over the mountains and crossed an ice field, and the front suddenly opened up into gravel-strewn hills. In front of them were endless mountains with very little vegetation, but there was only a line separating them from the silver-clad icy land behind them.
Three martial practitioners crossed the border on a mission.
……
It had been a month since they came to the Wu Ji Kingdom, and Tie Sai’s interest in everything here had gone from initial excitement, to surprise and admiration, to regret, and now to sympathy and anger.
This was originally an independent kingdom, and the people of the kingdom lived a simple and peaceful life, but now it was completely broken by the foreign fearless empire, and was subjected to mass invasion and killing, facing the threat of extinction at any time.
The Uzis do not speak, their eyes are usually gold or silver, and because of their special flesh and blood they coat their bodies in black ooze to avoid touching water, upon which they burn and explode.
They look strange and can’t talk, but they are not stupid. The Uzis make ground boats and carve all sorts of small figures, palaces, horses and trees out of stone; they are natural sculptors and stonemasons.
Some Uzis would leave something in the black clay on their bodies that represented their name, such as a palm print, a branch, or various stone carvings, and that was their name.
One Uzi had several pine cones embedded in his body, and Tiese called him Ugo. Ugo gave Tie Sai a stone carving of Tie Sai’s face, and even every hair was carved clearly, a craftsmanship that must have been worth its weight in gold in Yancheng.
In return, Tie Sai painted a portrait of him.
Ugo was very happy, he pointed to the paper, and even compared and gestured, and waved his arms, and picked up the shield and spear left by the imperial soldiers on the ground and waved.
Tiese read it.
He drew a picture of the battlefield for Ugo. The drawing showed Ugo waving his spear and launching a counter-attack with the other Uzis, who were hunting down the Imperial army.
Ugo liked it so much that he took the painting everywhere and showed it to people.
He plucked out his gold left eye and gave it to Tiese as a thank you.
Tiese didn’t take it.
He only felt sad.
As a painter, he had never been as heavy as he was now.
One day, the Dauntless Empire seemed to have suddenly lost patience and began to frantically storm the defences. The giant crossbows on the backs of the sand lizards fired a single column of crossbow bolts, and the defences erupted in chaos and explosions.
The Imperial Legion launched round after round of bombardment and arrows, and the spearmen and shieldmen at the forefront kept pushing forward, entering into a white-knuckle battle with the Uzi warriors.
Tiese saw with his own eyes two Uzi men, their bodies pierced and burning, desperately charging out of the line at the last moment to run at the enemy, trying to explode among them. But in a few moments he was shot down and blown to pieces by Imperial projectiles and fire-bearing bows and arrows.
With each kill of an Uzi, Imperial soldiers swarmed over the body, pocketing the fragments, which were valuable trophies to them.
After that day, Tiese never saw Ugo again.
Tiesse drew painting after painting, recording everything he saw: the brave and timid Uzis, the soldiers’ mad rush and laughter at the corpses, the running self-blow-ups, the fawning surrenders, and the more silent warriors who stood at the line without taking a step back.
These were all images he had never seen before.
In the world under the shelter of Yao God, there hadn’t been such a tragic situation.
Tiese had thought that life and death battles with transcendent beings were the most brutal tests, that being poor was the unfortunate prelude to life, and that not being able to seek was the most regrettable outcome for everyone.
Now he realised that these were nothing at all.
True cruelty has no lower limit, and even anger becomes meaningless, only making people feel Avray powerless and small.
Tie Sai began to draw desperately without stopping for a moment, he wanted to record all the most real scenes here, to tell his Yao compatriots what had happened here, to use paper and pen to remember those tall arches of the ground that kept collapsing, to leave behind the one and one Wuzhi people who had died and were dying …….
He fell into a state of forgetfulness.
Sheets of paper joined together, and paintings seemed to possess life.
The dead Uzi warriors rose from the paper, smiles on their stiff, dark faces, and the warriors waved at him before running off to battle without a second thought.
Tesse’s hand holding the charcoal pencil wore blood, and that blood blended into the drawing.
In a daze, he saw Ugo.
Ugo spoke for the first time and said to him happily, “My friend, we are victorious, our kingdom has won this great war of defence! Please paint us another picture.”
Tiese smiled and said, “Yes, yes, great, I’ll paint it.
……
When he woke up again, Tie Sai only felt as if he had lost his soul.
Physician Medicine Put said with a nuisance murmur, “You almost lost your life. Can you paint people to death even if you paint? Luckily I brought a lot of herbs to pick you up.”
Next to him, Old Salt Jiu looked at Tie Sai with an admiring expression, “He has broken through and comprehended his own abilities here. Those paintings are marvellous masterpieces.”
“Did these paintings have a name?”
Tiese was silent for a moment, “They are called Dawn of the Kingdom.”
He hoped that the darkness would eventually dissipate.
“What a great name.”
Saltjou said with a serious look on his face, “The gods have sent down an oracle, the Blood Knight Lord is preparing the Corruptor Legion, the real counterattack will begin soon, and the war will soon be over. Our mission has also been officially allowed to be carried out.”
“Gentlemen, let’s go together to save our compatriots.”
Tiese nodded his head vigorously.
