Chapter 14 - Recruitment
When Wu Qi arrived at the other side of the bend in the road, he saw a group of men in black who had dispersed the guards who were supposed to be escorting the coaches. These men in black were now charging toward Lu Chengfeng.
The leader of these men in black was shouting loudly, ordering his men to chop off Lu Chengfeng’s left hand!
Wu Qi was standing ten feet away when he saw the leader of men swing his blade at Lu Chengfeng, Wu Qi took a deep breath and dashed forward. As he looked at Lu Chengfeng,he saw the coach that Lu Chengfeng was standing on. His vision paused and he stared at it for a moment.
Those six leading coaches can only be described as luxurious, but the floating coach that Lu Chengfeng on. Only those who were either extremely wealthy or young masters from influential families can have this kind of coach.
What did being a wealthy man or a young master from influential family mean to Wu Qi? It meant resources, power, and implied they had a lot of stuff that interested Wu Qi! He had inherited the Scroll of Stealing, there’s nothing that can interest him back in Meng village, but there must be something this wealthy young master had that would bring him benefits!
A bright light shined within Wu Qi’s eyes after he circulated some innate water Qi into them. He quickly glanced at the men in black.
The cultivation level of these men in black was quite good, however, Wu Qi didn’t think it was that big of a deal. The only one of note was the leader, whose cultivation was close to the peak of the Houtian Warrior grade, the rest of the men were just barely above average, being at par with the cultivation levels of Zhuang Hu’s barbarian hunters.
On the contrary, Lu Chengfeng, who was panicking when he saw the blade thrusting toward him, possessed 30% more qi than Wu Qi. There is even a fist-sized red glowing object hidden close to his chest, which Wu Qi sensed some danger from.
While laughing out loud, Wu Qi grabbed dozens of trimmed arrows in his hand and shouted, “How dare you rob travelers in broad daylight? Do you consider yourself above the law?” While shouting, Wu Qi had thrown out the trimmed arrows in his hand in the direction of these men in black.
Both of Lu Chengfeng’s hands were hiding in his sleeves and about to take out the Great White Golden Dagger formation. When he saw Wu Qi, he shouted, “Help, help! I am the eldest son from Lu family of Liyang, and am also the new General of Little Meng City! Save me and I’ll reward you handsomely!”
The trimmed arrows flew fast, forcing the men in black give up attacking Lu Chengfeng and defend themselves.
There were some good fighters among these men in black, and they were able to touch the arrows with their blade. However, these arrows carried a force that caused them to spin really fast. When the blades touched them the arrows would spin around the blade and fly past it.
Except for the leader of men in black, who managed to knock the arrow away, the arrows had hit all the men in black and came out from their back.
Wu Qi dropped his beast skin bag and, with lightning speed, struck out with both hands to attack the leader.
Wu Qi didn’t inject the innate water qi onto the arrow that flew toward the leader, because the leader himself cultivated with a water elemental skill. With the innate water qi in his eyes, Wu Qi saw a fist-sized white color qi orb residing in the leader’s dantian. He also saw a blue colored qi flowing through his veins.
Wu Qi used the ‘Hand of Web’ skill as he struck out towards the leader’s head. The cold qi contains within the innate water qi burst out from his palm at the same time. The cultivation level of the leader was close to Wu Qi’s, but when the cold qi covered him, he was instantly frozen and unable to move even the tiniest bit.
Wu Qi pressed one of his hands onto the leader’s dantian, then he placed another hand onto his ‘TanZhong’ acupuncture point. Using the’ Palm of Picking Stars’, he twisted his palm and initiated the force of absorption. The qi of the leader, which he had cultivated for nearly sixty years and was approaching the peak of the Houtian Warrior grade, started to flow aggressively out into Wu Qi’s palm.
In just a blink of an eye, all the qi in the leader had depleted, a fraction of his qi essence was absorbed by Wu Qi at the same time. Wu Qi retracted his hand and immediately struck the leader’s face, a gradual force burst out from it, damaging the leader’s brain. Blood exploded out from all seven apertures of the leader. He is a dead meat now.
Swiftly drawing a circle in front of himself, Wu Qi had searched through every single part of the leader’s body, and transferred over all the items he found into a little leather bag tied around his waist. Wu Qi was a disciple of the Darkhand Sect. He is also a cultivator who had inherited the Scroll of Stealing. There is no way that he would leave anything behind for others to benefit from.
For ordinary warriors, after they cultivated their internal qi for ten years, they would reach a level called the Ten-years Stage.
For those who possessed extraordinary talents, after cultivating their internal qi for sixty years, they would have reached the peak of the Houtian Warrior grade. With that, they can try to break through the “Governor and Conception” vessel, reaching the level of ‘Xiantian’.
Wu Qi had inherited Scroll of Stealing, and all the innate water qi in the Sect Elder Token had been absorbed into his body. However, most of the energy was used to protect his body in the Universal Portal of Great Dimensional Shifting, therefore, the innate water qi he had right now is only equal to a peak level Houtian Warrior.
After absorbed all the qi of the leader, which had cost the leader of men in black over fifty years of cultivation, Wu Qi immediately felt the increase of coldness in his arm. Within the Seven Stealing Heaven Arteries which located in his arms, the innate water qi had turned into a whirlpool. It kept absorbing water elemental qi from outside his body.
In a short moment, Wu Qi’s internal qi almost doubled.
When a peak Houtian Warrior had his qi doubled, and he was cultivating with any other method, he would have broken through to Xiantian stage. But the Scroll of Stealing is no ordinary skill. It can’t be compared with any ordinary skill. The suddenly increased qi followed the water qi vein and circulated the entire vein three times. half of the innate water qi was absorbed by it, making the water qi veins become even more resilient.
The Seven Stealing Heaven Arteries, residing within Wu Qi’s arms, are the foundation of the magical power and skill from Scroll of Stealing. Therefore, when he was in the foundation stage, his priority was to strengthen the Seven Stealing Heaven Arteries. Now that the water qi vein had been strengthened, the limit of the qi it can store and the speed of qi circulating had doubled. Wu Qi felt a comfortable, cool sensation throughout his entire body.
It all happened in a very short time, Wu Qi breathed in comfortably, palmed his fist, and bowed to Lu Chengfeng, saying, “Greeting, young master. I am Wu Qi.”
With a curious look in his eyes, Lu Chengfeng evaluated Wu Qi, then he glanced at those men in black, who had been killed by Wu Qi. He hurriedly jumped off the coach, and tightly grabbed onto Wu Qi’s hand.
“There’s no need for such politeness. Wu Qi, if not for your help, I would be a dead man right now!”
Lu Chengfeng kicked on the leader’s corpse and threw a look of hatred at the scattered bodies. He shouted, “Xiaohei! Go and get those useless fools who leave their master behind and flee and bring them back here!”
The dark skinned coachman answered with a deep voice. With an alerted look in his eyes he gazed at Wu Qi, then he stood up slowly, took out a tiny bone whistle and blew into it.
The high pitched sound of whistle reached far. After a little bit of time, the cavalrymen started returning. After nearly fifteen minutes, only twenty over cavalrymen ran back with a long face, standing in front of Lu Chengfeng while having their body trembling.
Lu Chengfeng refused to look at these ‘guards’. he just showed his dissatisfaction by coughing a few times and sneering.
While holding Wu Qi’s hand, Lu Chengfeng expressed his gratitude repeatedly, but, his hand kept holding on Wu Qi, never showing a sign of letting go.
Wu Qi stared at Lu Chengfeng embarrassedly, he thought, maybe this is the way Lu Chengfeng expressed his gratitude and friendliness but having his hand held by a man intimately, no matter Wu Qi, Wu Wang, or Le Xiao Bai, who had their souls merged with Wu Qi, none of them liked this experience. Back on Earth, it was very easy to create a misunderstanding if two men held each other's hands for a long time.
However, when Wu Qi gazed at the floating coach behind Lu Chengfeng, he forced himself to gave up the idea of slapping Lu Chengfeng and robbing him of all his belongings. Wu Qi thought to himself, he had just come to this world, he had to maintain a low profile, at least, before he understands the background of Lu Chengfeng, he can’t just take away all his belongings.
Letting out a hoarse laughter, Wu Qi chats reluctantly with Lu Chengfeng.
Zhang Hu had arrived with his barbarian hunters and villagers from Meng village, while Wu Qi was talking with Lu Chengfeng hypocritically, he and his barbarian hunters were tidying the corpses of men in black. They placed fifty corpses in a line, all the belongs including their bows and blades were gathered aside.
Wu Qi was dragged by Lu Chengfeng to the front of these corpses.
Except for the corpse of the leader of men in black, the rest of the bodies shrunk into a small meatball, a thick, black blood stain covering them, and their faces were barely recognizable.
Lu Chengfeng pulled off the mask on the face of the leader, when he saw his face, a weird expression appeared on Lu Chengfeng’s face. Both dark-skinned men, Xiaohei and Laohei, saw the face of the leader too, and they too had strange expressions on their faces, Xiaohei even spit on the corpse to express his anger.
With a sneered, Lu Chengfeng grabbed a blade and chopped continuously on the face of that leader, making it into a mashed and no one would able to recognize him anymore.
Breathed out a sigh of relief, Lu Chengfeng threw the blade aside, again grabbed on Wu Qi’s hand, staring in Wu Qi’s eyes with a serious expression.
“Wu Qi, we’ve really hit it off. Can I ask you something?”
Wu Qi glimpsed at Zhang Wu, who was playing with a bow afar. Without raising his head, Zhang Hu shook his head continuously.
Wu Qi understood what Zhang Hu was trying to tell him, Lu Chengfeng is the young master from some wealthy and influential family, and he was ambushed on his journey. This simply meant a pool of deep water. Zhang Hu understood how bad the consequences would be if Wu Qi got his feet wet in this matter, that’s why he suggested that Wu Qi not involve himself any further.
However, how would Zhang Hu ever understand what’s in Wu Qi’s mind?
Holding on to Lu Chengfeng’s hand, Wu Wi asked with an indifferent tone, “Please enlighten me, young master.”
Lu Chengfeng breathed out a long sigh, he glanced at the trembling guards beside, with a sneered, he said, “The purpose of Chengfeng for the trip is to attend my job, however, I was escorted with a bunch of useless fools. I felt really insecure by having my safety taken care of by them. Wu Qi is a mighty warrior, you have killed all the enemies by yourself. Therefore I, Chengfeng, wish to recruit you, Wu Qi, as my servant.”
Lu Chengfeng let go of Wu Qi’s hand and bowed deeply, in a sincere manner, and said, “With utmost sincerity, I hope warrior Wu Qi can agree to my request.”
“Hmm, to become your servant...”
Wu Qi placed his fingers on his chin.
Wu Qi remained silent briefly, then with a smile, he said, “I agree to become your servant. My teacher once told me, it is actually a good career to become a servant for a wealthy family!”
Zhuang Hu who stood aside shook his head, gently stamped his feet.
Lu Chengfeng was overwhelmed by great joy, then, he grabbed on Wu Qi’s hand again.
“Obtaining support from warrior Wu Qi is like a good rain after a long drought!”
Wu Qi let out a loud fit of laughter and shook Lu Chengfeng’s hand repeatedly.