Chapter 125: Captured Alive
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
There wasn't any ripple of magic or energy that could be detected. Solely depending on the muscle strength of both his legs, Shi Tianmo leaped up into the sky like a flea that sprung up abruptly. An ordinary human could reach to the height of three feet with a leap. Warriors of the Houtian realm could reach thirty feet, and by riding on the wind, a Daoist of Xiantian realm could reach to the height of over one thousand feet. Yet, with pure muscle strength, Wu Qi could only hear a loud rumble that sounded like a thunderclap, as a black shadow flickered before his eyes. Then, he saw that Shi Tianmo had already reached to the height of over five miles.
In under one second, Shi Tianmo had jumped to the height of five miles. He then let out a loud and long cry, forcefully thrust his right arm forward and unleashed a white gas barrier that shot to a distance of nearly five miles. Relying on the counterforce of the gas barrier, his body turned into a black ray and shot into the distance. Every single movement of his only consumed strength from his muscle, and did not use up any of innate energy stored in his body.
Suddenly, six clumps of chilly breezes soared up into the sky. Before Shi Tianmo could reach to a distance of over one thousand feet, six grayish-white chilly breezes had tangled him up. Crying and howling of ghosts echoed out in the air, as the sky was now fully filled with greenish, ghostly flames the size of a human head, and Yin thunderbolts that kept streaking in all directions. Rapid thunderbolts kept streaking through the sky and into clouds, dispersing and tearing them into countless tiny fragments. Numerous passing clouds were pushed towards all directions, leaving behind long trails of cloud in the middle of the bright sky.
Shi Tianmo roared, punching out with his right arms and hitting toward those Ghost Immortals, forcing them back. As the time was near midday, the Sun was shining brightly on top of their head. Thus, the overall strength of these Ghost Immortals was greatly weakened. The joint force of six Ghost Immortals could barely equal the overall strength of two Ghost Immortals at their usual level. In addition to that, the muscle strength of Shi Tianmo was fierce and tough. Although it came from a secret evil technique, the strength had the characteristic of pure Yang element, just right to restrain these Ghost Immortals.
Although six Ghost Immortals had unleashed Yin thunderbolts that blotted out the sky to attack Shi Tianmo, they could barely tangle him, and could never withstand his attack face to face.
With every fist Shi Tianmo punched out, the chilly breeze would be ripped apart, and the thunderbolts would be shattered. Occasionally, when a punch landed on the body of a random Ghost Immortal, the Ghost Immortal with an incorporeal body would let out bizarre cries, transform into countless clumps of chilly breezes and flee a few thousand feet away. Then, they would form back their body again and unleash Yin thunderbolts before leaping right back into the battlefield. These Ghost Immortals had turned wrathful, as they did not conserve their source energy and kept unleashing wave after wave of dense thunderbolts, trapping Shi Tianmo and causing him to fail in escaping.
Although he had an extremely intrepid body, Shi Tianmo was not good in using magical techniques of Dao. Slowly, he was forced to descend from the sky. He did know some techniques of wind riding and lightened his weight, yet, as these were only petty tricks of Xiantian realm, they could never allow him to fly freely in the sky like these Ghost Immortals. While carrying his son in his arms, who was throwing out a mouthful of blood because of the great force of the attack, as he descended from the high altitude. Then, a couple dozens of thunderbolts suddenly exploded near his back, and the blast pushed him back into Shi Martial Club, forcefully throwing him back into the courtyard.
"Sealing the Source with Nine Yin, go!" Hovering in midair, six Ghost Immortals cried out with a strange voice. Then, from the top of their heads shot out nine grayish-white beams as thin as a spider silk, bringing together a chilly breeze and devilish air that blotted out the sky and completely surrounded the entire Shi Martial Club. Fifty-four white beams interweaved into a gigantic web while they kept extracting Yin energy from underground. Gradually, they formed a grayish-white dome that covered the whole Shi Martial Club.
Within the dome-shaped barrier, a couple dozen green runes, as large as tens of feet in both width and length, were blinking rapidly. A strange aura that made one feel cold all over the body and be stripped off all the strength was slowly rising from underground, penetrating into everyone's body through their feet. Except for the men brought by Wu Qi, all the instructors and apprentices of Shi Martial Club were having their body shivering and collapsed onto the ground. The hue of red on their face had faded away quickly and eventually made their complexion look pale as a dead man. No matter it was the ordinary apprentices or instructors of peak Houtian realm, or even the chief instructors of Xiantian realm, none of them within the barrier could be spared from the aura.
Shi Tianmo let out a furious howl. He hugged on Shi Wugou tightly, waved his arm and thrust out a powerful punch into midair.
Shi Tianmo had exerted all his ability in punching out his fist. The innate energy in his body burst out with a loud and jarring noise of whistling. Suddenly, a clump of dark green shadow shot out from his right fist, turning into a giant fist that stretched a couple dozen feet in diameter, thrusting towards the grayish-white barrier in the sky. A muffled boom rang out as the greenish fist collided violently into the barrier. Upon contact, the fist exploded, ripping a small hole of a few feet in diameter on the barrier.
Kicking both feet forcefully on the ground, Shi Tianmo was about to bring his son and make their escape through the small hole.
But at the same moment, Wu Qi finally made his move. He pointed his finger out, and with that came a howling of wolves. Then, seven dark wolf heads as large as a human head were unleashed, leaping fiercely towards Shi Tianmo with a shivering breeze. There were a total of forty-nine wolf heads on the Sword of Greedy Wolf, and it fitted perfectly with the number of Great Recursive, which was capable of endless magical effects. However, as Wu Qi dared not to expose his cultivation base of Gold Core realm, thus he was controlling the sword with merely the cultivation of Meridian Cultivating tier, and it could only allow the sword to unleash seven wolf heads, which was the most basic function of the sword.
Seven pitch-black wolf heads pierced through the air with nearly ten feet of dark tail behind them, aggressively bitting onto Shi Tianmo's body. When their jaws closed up forcefully, the teeth hit onto Shi Tianmo's skin and produced a large curtain of sparks, as the ringing of metal clashes came right out from the impact. Upon hearing the noise, Wu Qi could not help but feel a frost in his teeth. How tough was the body of this man that caused the wolf heads transformed from Sword of Greedy Wolf to produce such a loud noise?
Nevertheless, a corporeal body was, after all, a body made up from muscle, and the Sword of Greedy Wolf was, after all, a flying sword of lower tier magical treasure level. Savagely, seven wolf heads kept biting at Shi Tianmo's body, and those razor-sharp fangs eventually managed to pierce deeply into his skin together with dazzling sparks. With that, the Grand Array of Greedy Wolf Swallowing Moon and Soul could finally be activated. Tens of dark beams burst out from the mouth of these wolf heads, producing a jarring howl while squeezing into Shi Tianmo's body, and began crazily extracting and absorbing the enormous source energy contained in his blood and flesh.
Hissing noises could be heard without end. Even though Shi Tianmo had just risen to his feet after falling from the sky, he was immediately brought down back. Seven wolf heads were clinging tightly to his body. They acted like seven large holes on a pressurized bag, which caused the strength in Shi Tianmo's body to leak out rapidly. So how could he still have the strength to jump? Dark airflow kept bringing out stream after stream of dark green fluid from within his body. Joyful howls were heard being let out from all seven wolf heads as they greedily digested the dark green energy essence of blood and flesh, transforming it into the strength of the sword itself.
Shi Tianmo screamed aloud due to the extreme pain. Fiercely, he stomped his feet, unleashing a large layer of dark green flame from all over his body that pushed all seven wolf heads away. However, as these seven wolf heads were transformed from the Sword of Greedy Wolf, although they were pushed away by the flame, the razor-sharp fangs still dragged and pulled on his skin and ripped out a few large chunks of flesh. Then, a dark glow flickered and ground the flesh into meat paste, while the enormous source energy contained within was completely sucked out by the sword, turning them into ashes that fell off slowly to the ground.
Six greenish thunderbolts as large as water tank fell from above, hitting right on top of Shi Tianmo's head, who was screaming aloud.
The Yin thunderbolt refined by Ghost Immortals did not produce a loud boom when they exploded, and the blasting force of it wasn't too strong either. However, it was a sinister offensive trick that damaged specifically the Nascent Divinity, blood, and energy of a cultivator. When these thunderbolts hit right on Shi Tianmo's head, his body trembled instantly, and blood was seen shooting out from his seven apertures. Although he had an extremely strong innate energy, and his corporeal body was mighty, but due to the weirdness of the technique cultivated by him, the strength of his soul was barely comparable to a warrior of peak Houtian realm. As a result, when he was hit by the Yin thunderbolts unleashed with all the power of the Ghost Immortals, Shi Tianmo simply threw his head back and let out a miserable cry. Large amounts of green blood burst out from his apertures before he finally collapsed onto the ground, losing all the strength to stand up again.
A shrill cry came from Shi Wugou. He rose and leaped to his feet, pulled Shi Tianmo up and carried on his back. Clenching his jaw tightly, he chose a random direction and ran. He was trying in vain to find an escape route amidst the desperate situation, but unexpectedly heard a loud clinging noise. Not knowing from where, Princess Zhang Le had pulled out an iron stick, dashed behind him and gave him a heavy strike on the back of his head, causing Shi Wugou to roll his eyes and faint instantly.
Wu Qi turned his head and peered over his shoulder. He saw that all the secret agents of Scouting Office and Palace Guards had spun and faced the other direction, as no one dared to witness how the most prestigious princess of Great Yan Dynasty took advantage of Shi Wugou's unawareness and struck a heavy blow at him. Only Bai Zhu'er and Bai Zu'er were applauding and cheering naively and foolishly, "It is a great strike, Princess! Hehe, although this Shi Wugou is a strong man, Princess has defeated him with just one single hit!"
Princess Zhang Le tilted her little chin upward, feeling proud of herself and was about to brag, then suddenly she noticed the strange expression on Wu Qi and other men's face. Quickly, she tossed the iron stick in her hand far away and put up a gentle and lovely look as if she was a 'lotus flower'. Then, she carefully walked to the back of Wu Qi, wearing a shy smile on her face, bowed her head and stood still.
A miserable cry was heard coming from a far distance. An unlucky apprentice of Shi Martial Club was hit right on his head by the iron stick tossed out by Princess Zhang Le. Blood oozed and flowed all over his face, and most of his teeth were broken off. It was unknown whether because of the fear or the pain, this apprentice actually burst into loud sobs. The expression on Princess Zhang Le's face changed slightly. She got exasperated as she three her glance over at that apprentice and stomped her feet forcefully, shattering all the floor tiles in the radius of few feet around her.
Wu Qi coughed briefly and paid no attention to the petty behavior of Princess Zhang Le. He took over the identity token passed to him by the Ghost Immortal and gave it a careful examination. The color of the token was dark green, the favorite color for the nobles of Great Yan Dynasty. There were patterns of passing clouds engraved on top of it, and underneath the passing clouds was an ocean. Between the cloud and the ocean were a few swallows spreading their wings and flying. A few calligraphies were found at the back of the token, which were embossed with gold: Yan Buji, the Duke of Yan Le.
"Look at this, everybody. This is the evidence of a crime that is beyond a shadow of a doubt. This Shi Tianmo is connected to the death of previous Duke of Yan Le, Yan Buji! Somebody, break the shoulder blade of Shi Tianmo, have all thirty-six Extraordinary Acupoints in his body pierced, and keep him in captivity. Destroy the cultivation base of all the instructors and apprentices in Shi Martial Club and escort them to the jail of West Wind Guard!"
All five fractions of Scouting Office had their own jail in Ji City. Among them, the scale of the Central Wind Guard's jail was the largest and with the strictest security. But, how could Wu Qi throw this group of criminals into Qin Qingshui's territory? He was sure that as long as this group of men was sent to the Central Wind Guard's jail, in less than three days, they would either be killed to prevent the leaking of information, or all the credit for solving the case would go to Qin Qingshui. So, why should Wu Qi provide such a great favor to his enemy?
Currently, the only faction of Scouting Office who Lu Chengfeng and Wu Qi could depend on in Ji City would be the West Wind Guard, which was under the command of Yan Jiuhui.
A large group of secret agents from West Wind Guard had heard the news and arrived at the scene. They skilfully destroyed the cultivation base of all instructors and apprentices of Shi Martial Club, then using custom-made cow tendon strings, they tied these people up and threw them into prisoner wagons that had also arrived at the scene. When the number of prisoners reached one thousand, they would send the batch to the jail of West Wind Guard.
Ordering the Ghost Immortal who breached the secret chamber and found the identity token to lead the way, Wu Qi brought all his company rushing towards the same secret chamber.
During the journey, Wu Qi told Princess Zhang Le and all the members of the company with a serious manner, "Listen carefully, everyone. What happened today is because I've taken a fancy at the property of Shi Martial Club, borrowing Princess Zhang Le's power to try and seize the ownership of this venue so that I can open my own martial club in Ji City. Then by accident, we discovered that Shi Tianmo was related to the death of Yan Buji. This is the cause and effect of today's incident. You must remember this well."
Princess Zhang Le stared at Wu Qi, her face looked puzzled, as she had no idea for what purpose Wu Qi took the matter so seriously, and even wanted everyone to tally their statements.
However, she did not probe to the bottom of it, and instead, put on her impressive and dignified manner of a Princess and fiercely threatened everybody in the company. She even swore in front of everyone that if anyone refused to do as Wu Qi said and dared to utter nonsense to anyone, she would make sure that all the members of that men's nine generation ancestors would feel regret for being born into this world.
With Princess Zhang Le's tyrannical statement, Wu Qi just wished they could at least hide this news from Lao Ai and Yan Xianchen for some time.
But it was hard to say, as that peerless man of evil, Lao Ai, had been operating for so many years in Ji City. Who knew if he would discover something behind today's incident?
While sinking in a deep ponder, they arrived at Shi Tianmo's secret chamber.