Chapter Fifty-Six: The Rain Has Stopped

Everyone put forward their crucial viewpoints, turning the choice of the Third Settlement into a true brainstorming session. During this discussion, Luo Zu spoke little; most of the time, it was his companions in the tribe who were voicing their opinions.

This pleased Luo Zu greatly—it was exactly what he hoped to see. No member of the human race was a fool or a mediocrity; each had their own thoughts, their own insights into the world and life, as well as the wisdom accumulated over half a lifetime. Though Luo Zu now walked several steps ahead of them, and his thinking, shaped by a previous life, allowed him to transcend the present wilderness, in terms of intelligence the human race wanted for nothing.

This was truly the greatest gift left to humanity by Lady Nuwa; the innate divine powers awakened within them were only secondary.

Given time, Luo Zu believed that even without him, the human race could overcome hardship, survive, gather strength, and eventually become the protagonists of this jungle. He dared not say they would become the protagonists of the entire land, for some things—though he had read about them in tales of the wilderness—were not destined to happen as simply as that.

Perhaps the demon race would ultimately defeat the witch tribe. Or perhaps the witches, fighting the heavens and earth, would vanquish all demons, monsters, immortals, gods, and even the great Dao, thus becoming the true masters of the wild.

As the debate grew increasingly heated, sparks nearly flying, Luo Zu finally spoke to halt their quarrel.

“All right, Fire Boy, discussion is one thing, but why are you rolling up your sleeves?” Luo Zu rebuked.

Fire Boy grumbled but sat back in his place.

“Everyone, take your seats,” Luo Zu commanded, sweeping his gaze over the assembly.

One by one, the group resumed their positions.

The gathering had split into two factions: one, led by Fire Boy, advocated for the area with the salt springs, attracted by the salt pools and the fertile soil, ideal for cultivation; the other, headed by Ironhead, favored the valley rich in metallic elements, naturally drawn by the promise of metal ores.

As for the valley occupied by a giant beast, none favored it, nor did Luo Zu—it was included merely for the sake of comparison.

“Chief, if we take over the salt spring, we can continuously attract wild beasts to drink there and then capture them, selecting suitable species for domestication. Setting traps there would also aid our hunting parties,” Fire Boy, for once, spoke with unusual seriousness.

Ironhead, though simple and not eloquent, spoke in a booming voice that rolled like thunder: “Chief, I think we should—”

Boom!

Before Ironhead could finish, a thunderous sound erupted from afar.

Then the earth trembled and shook without pause. Everyone quickly abandoned the council cave.

They had dwelled in the wilderness long enough to surmise what such a commotion meant: it could only be another battle between immortals.

When immortals fought, mortals suffered. All rushed to escape calamity.

Now, the “Cave Dwellers” had mostly abandoned the caves, building brick houses outside. Indeed, these were true brick houses—Luo Zu would never allow his people to live in thatched huts. Drawing on advanced knowledge from a pocket realm, they built kilns to fire bricks, excavated land by the river, and, after several trials, finally produced the familiar red bricks that allowed construction to begin.

The houses were built against the mountains, with Luo Zu himself surveying the land and laying the most solid of foundations to guard against disaster. With his immense strength and magical abilities, he drove piles three hundred meters deep before he was satisfied.

Now, the earthquake would test the reliability of these brick houses.

Outside the cave, chaos reigned. The “Cave Dwellers” fled from their homes like startled birds and ran down the mountain.

This was a rule set long ago: in an emergency, flee downhill to open ground. This lesson had been learned from the last battle between the Four-Not-Like beast and Wu, when immortals clashed.

Do not run up the mountain—its size made it a likely target, or some immortal might move a mountain or fill a sea, and then how could the mountain protect them?

There were many other disasters to fear: heavenly fire, hail, floods, knives from the sky, venomous insects from the earth...

In short, disasters came in every form, and the methods of coping had been compiled into a manual.

Now, with the ground heaving, Luo Zu’s instructions were clear: run down the mountain, to open land.

Luo Zu and his companions hurried down. At this moment, even glancing at the sky was a courtesy to the battling immortals.

But now, there was no need to look up—Luo Zu could already sense the ferocity of the duel. The deep, dark night was suddenly ablaze with light, as if a small sun had been kindled in the heavens.

Light flooded the surroundings; Luo Zu’s eyes were nearly blinded. If he were to look up now, his mortal eyes might be ruined for good.

The light came swiftly and died just as fast. After Luo Zu had run about thirty meters, it vanished. Yet the shaking persisted—his legs trembled uncontrollably, and even when he was lifted off the ground, his whole body shook as if some monstrous force was extracting something vital from within him. What was it? Iron... everything of the metal element, even his own techniques of the metal path...

Luo Zu grew anxious. If the metal element within him was taken, his flesh would collapse and perish on the spot, and none of the “Cave Dwellers” present would escape.

Nor would any creature in this forest, for nearly all contained the metal element within.

Fortunately, the sensation passed like an illusion, but it left Luo Zu drained, unable to move, collapsing to the ground. His yang spirit hastily emerged from his body, first setting protective spells upon his flesh, then checking on the rest of the tribe.

As he had suspected, everyone had collapsed to the ground; a few still convulsed and foamed at the mouth. Luo Zu checked each one—finding no serious harm, he breathed a sigh of relief.

But then he witnessed a shocking sight.

Through the eyes of his yang spirit, he saw that Luoxiang and the entire mountain range glowed brilliantly. Most of the metal element in the earth had been drawn away, rising into the air as clusters of cloud, drifting in a single direction—drifting rapidly, though to Luo Zu’s spiritual sight, the newly gathered metal quickly replenished what had departed, making the movement seem slow.

But what was happening? Which immortal could, through their battle, command the metal essence of an entire land?

Boom!

Under his watch, the metal essence surged even faster, rushing past his “ears” toward the sky.

Luo Zu looked in that direction and saw two enormous, strange beings standing in midair.

One was a thousand yards tall, clad in dazzling plumage like a mountain fowl; the other was also a thousand yards high, shaped like a man but with three heads and six arms, a brilliant python winding around his waist.

They radiated the aura of deities.

“Hm? The rain has stopped?”