Chapter 156: Seeking the Land
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
The dazzling glow of the teleportation formation gradually faded away. The scene before Wu Qi and his company's eyes had changed, as they had arrived at another place.
They were surrounded by a ring of the same tall wall, and decorations similar to those found near the teleportation formation in the southwest of Ji City's Imperial Palace. However, the level of defense here was at least one hundred times weaker. Only a dozen Xiantian cultivators were seen patrolling about, a clear contrast to the several dozens of Human Immortals patrolling in the Imperial Palace.
Wu Qi and his companions walked out of the boundary of the teleportation formation. The formation flashed again, transporting the rest of the people over.
From in front came a parade of men and ladies, each clad in beautiful and luxurious outfits, wearing the same eagerly attentive expression. From afar, cries of 'Welcome to the Lu Kingdom, your honorable West Supervisor, the Duke of Yan Le!' and 'The whole nation of Lu Kingdom welcomes the arrival of Marquis of Tianyun!' were heard. Countless palace maids were kneeling in lines in the distance far away, bowing their heads and bidding their welcoming gesture towards the prestigious guests. Led by Tie Yuewu, a group of several dozen men and ladies were seen walking towards Wu Qi and the company. Their faces were beaming with high spirit.
"Chengfeng!" With her head held high, Tie Yuewu came towards Lu Chengfeng smilingly, who stood at the foremost of the parade.
With utmost respect, Lu Chengfeng bowed deeply towards Tie Yuewu and the few men standing beside her. "Chengfeng, your son, offers greetings to grandfather, all uncles, and mother."
Lu Wenruo, clad in a silk robe with his face looking weary and desperate, squeezed out from the crowd. Forcing a smile, he greeted Lu Chengfeng and said, "Chengfeng, despite all the bad things Lu Clan of Liyang had done to you, we have contributed a great effort in helping you inherit the title of Duke Yan Le. But, your mother simply sent me a letter to announce the divorce. This, this, don't you think this is too much?"
He was from Lu Clan of Liyang? Wu Qi threw a glance over at Lu Wenruo, crooked his finger and called Yan Bugui to him. "Drag this man out from here and give him a round of canning. Order the Scouting Office in the Lu Kingdom to conduct a thorough inquiry into the notorious records of Liyang Lu Clan, how they broke the laws and violated discipline. Find out how they bullied the innocent civilians, committed all sorts of crimes and became wealthy by robbing from the people."
Yan Bugui gave a mild cough and casually signaled his men with his eyes. Immediately, a group of Scouting Office secret agents stormed out like a pack of savage wolves, pulled and dragged the panic-stricken Lu Wenruo and all the people from Lu Clan out of the scene. Very soon, sounds of wooden sticks slamming on buttocks were heard coming from the outside, one followed immediately by another one, loud, clear, and pleasing to the ears. Wu Qi sneered, shook his head and said, "My young master's father is the previous Duke of Yan Le, Duke Buji. For no reason, this man is trying to pretend that he is my young master's father. How absurd, how reckless!"
Everyone at the scene accepted the point of view given out by Wu Qi, each nodding their head in agreement. Especially for an old man standing beside Tie Yuewu, who had a head of white hair and a tall, burly body, sending forth a fierce air. He was seen nodding his head in a friendly manner towards Wu Qi. He was Tie Kaishan, the Marquis of Yuanyang from the Lu Kingdom. He knew that many of Lu Chengfeng's decisions were actually coming from Wu Qi, including the idea of letting Tie Clan establish their own kingdom; that was too a plan drafted by Wu Qi. Because of that, he had a favorable impression towards Wu Qi.
Amidst the crowd, there stood a middle-aged man, clustered by many other men and ladies. His stature was rather thin, but he had a handsome face and looked like a distinguished and admirable scholar. He was clad in a black robe, holding a folding fan made of jade. After waiting for Lu Chengfeng to greet his mother and clan members, the middle-aged man hurriedly strode forward and bowed deeply towards Lu Chengfeng and Wu Qi. "Lu Wuyou offers greetings to the Duke of Yan Le, Duke Chengfeng, and the Marquis of Tianyun, Marquis Wu."
Lu Chengfeng hastily took a step forward and helped Lu Wuyou up. Wearing a mild smile on his face, Lu Chengfeng said, "There is no need to be so courteous, monarch. Regarding the purpose of my visit, I suppose monarch must have come to a mutual agreement with my grandfather. This is the emissary of Li Shan Kingdom, Gao Sheng, the youngest brother of the monarch of Li Shan Kingdom. As now all three parties of us have met, we should take the opportunity and get things done as quickly as possible. We can't afford to leave any time for the Gao Ling Kingdom to react."
Lu Wuyou, Tie Kaishan, and Gao Sheng, all three men agreed to what he said. A gleam of excitement that could hardly be concealed was seen flashing in their eyes. In this land of the West, Gao Ling Kingdom was considered a great kingdom with powerful national strength, and it occupied a vast land. Once the three parties split it, each of them would receive numerous benefits. Something as good as this, they had to make it happen as soon as possible, using the shortest amount of time to dismember the entire Gao Ling Kingdom. A long delay might give rise to many hitches, and it would be rather troublesome if some external parties decided to intervene in their planning.
They did not even throw a welcoming feast like what they usually did. Under the lead of Lu Chengfeng, a meeting was held between the three parties, as they began with the deploying of their armies and initiated all kinds of strategies against the Gao Ling Kingdom. Before they came, Wu Qi had analyzed and explained all issues that Lu Chengfeng should take care in a comprehensive manner. Thus, Lu Chengfeng acted like a mighty general when giving out his orders. He now looked like a great general who plotted out brilliant strategies within a commanding tent, deciding the victory of a war a thousand miles away from the battlefield.
Wu Qi did not participate in the meeting where Lu Chengfeng could show his extraordinary talents, throwing out a performance which could add great merit to his political portfolio. Bringing Meng Xiaobai and all other men from Meng Village, together with a great amount of money, goods, materials, and military gears, while being protected by several thousand elite soldiers of Lu Kingdom, Wu Qi brought the long parade and began traveling towards Little Meng City. Lao Hei was following them as well. Because of the Spatial Breaching Spirit Gold, traveling between Ji City and Little Meng City would become rather convenient in the future. Lu Chengfeng had decided to construct a minor universal teleportation array in Little Meng City, and made Lao Hei as the acting mayor of Little Meng City.
Before Lu Chengfeng could find a suitable candidate to replace Lao Hei, Lao Hei would have to stay in Little Meng City for quite a period of time, helping Lu Chengfeng manage all the affairs related to Little Meng City, or even everything concerning the entire Three Mountains Province. According to the agreement signed between Lu Chengfeng, Tie Yuewu and Princess Ying Chuan, the entire Three Mountains Province would become a private property of Lu Chengfeng, and all the income and taxes collected would be kept in Lu Chengfeng's own private stash.
They pressed on the journey day and night. Half a month later, the parade finally arrived at Little Meng City.
The return of Meng Xiaobai and all the other men had brought up a storm in Meng Village, as all of them had their cultivation base, experience and even knowledge take a great leap. Meanwhile, the investment of a great amount of money, goods, materials, and military gears, had excited the elders in the villages, making them dance with joy. According to Wu Qi's planning, from a village with a weak defensive strength, Meng Village would be developed into a fortress with an incredible combative force.
Using Meng Fortress as the base in the future, there would be several dozen new villages established into the depth of Meng Mountains, and more armies would be deployed and stationed in this place. Wu Qi had taken Meng Mountains as his and Lu Chengfeng's own private property. No matter it was the energy stones, energy stone mines or even herbs, animal leathers, and all sorts of rare mountain treasures, they would turn into an endless stream of income, supplied to the cultivation of he himself and Lu Chengfeng.
In his planning, he would need a great deal of population, supporting the establishment and development of future Meng Fortress and numerous new villages. As Lu Chengfeng was plotting strategies to dismember the Gao Ling Kingdom, once the three parties devoured it, there would be a massive amount of civilians forced to migrate to Three Mountains Province, becoming the people of the Three Mountains Province. They would be relocated into Meng Fortress and those new villages, contributing to the future development of Meng Mountains.
Wu Qi was determined that he would bite a big chunk of fat meat from the beautiful and richly endowed Meng Mountains.
After handing over the important task of building Meng Fortress to Lao Hei, the modest and experienced man, and all the elders of Meng Village, Wu Qi went ahead and ventured into Meng Mountains alone. He had rejected anyone who wanted to follow him, and told them that he was going to seek the opportunity of breaking through in Meng Mountains, as he had found a slight chance of forming his Gold Core. Thus, under his persistence, Wu Qi finally broke loose from everybody and ventured deep into Meng Mountains alone.
From a small passage located on one side of Meng Village, he walked tens of miles into the mountain, then came to a place where no more proper roads could be found. Before him was a virgin forest, full of lofty trees with their crowns touching the clouds. Numerous peculiar and queer wild beasts were roaming about, and a strong, savage air was caressing his face. Standing on the crown of a huge and tall tree that stood nearly one thousand feet tall, Wu Qi peered into the distance, and saw a long stretch of rolling mountain ridges hiding approximately one thousand miles away from where he was, deep into the forest. He circulated his innate energies into both eyes, then threw a glance over in the same direction. With that, he saw some faint clouds were gathering above the ridges; it should be the strange sign caused by the leaking of energies from an underground energy vein.
Taking a deep breath, inhaling the air filled with a pungent scent of the forest and a strange, fishy smell of dirt, Wu Qi exercised a movement technique and began sprinting towards the mountain range.
A hiding Immortal Cave was not enough as per his thoughts. In order to have a true safety, he would have to at least own ten or more caves within a radius of one hundred thousand miles inside of Meng Mountains. Regardless of whether he would use all of these caves in the future, the more retreating routes he prepared now, the better for him and the people around him.
The mountain breeze caressed his face from the front. Wu Qi did not ride his flying sword, but just exercised a movement technique and lightly drifted through the air. At all times, ten False Cores of his were swallowing and spitting innate energies of five elements. His body was enshrouded in a five-colored glow, while he ran like a galloping horse towards the mountain range located in the far distance.
There wasn't any strong demon beast in this part of the forest, but was occupied by some fierce beasts and birds with larger and stronger bodies. Nevertheless, it would be fortunate if these wild beasts did not come provoking him. As for those who launched an attack at Wu Qi, the Sword of Greedy Wolf would immediately transform into a large curtain of water wave and surge forward. It ground these wild beasts into powder while all of their blood essence was absorbed by it, using it to nourish the sword and slowly improve its quality.
After running crazily for over four hours, Wu Qi arrived at the foot of the mountain range.
It was a small mountain range that occupied a land with several hundred miles circumference, owning nearly one thousand mountains of either big or small size. A strange gleam was seen flashing in Wu Qi's eyes, with which, he now commanded the whole view to the trend of the underground energy vein lying beneath the mountain range. He nodded his head satisfyingly, then ran straight towards a valley located at the center of the mountain range.
The valley stretched nearly one hundred miles long, seven to eight miles from edge to edge. Lakes and rivers were flowing through the valley, with patches of forests and grass fields, and a stretch of undulating hills. Right under this valley were three energy nodes formed by the largest energy vein in this mountain range. One of them was located underneath the lake, the second one under the hill, while the last one just happened to poke through the ground, falling into a sunken cliff.
Both the lake and the hill were out of his consideration. Wu Qi came straight to the cliff wall that stood over two thousand feet tall, fully covered with ancient pine trees and wisterias. The rock wall took a hue of grayish-green, and as it was constantly nourished by the underground energy vein, the surface of the rock wall looked smooth like jade stone, emitting a brilliant glow under the reflection of the sunlight. At the root of the cliff wall was a dense pine forest. Numerous herbs which had been growing for ages could be found under the pine trees. Wu Qi also found two groups of monkeys living in this forest, one with golden hair, while the other with silver hair.
When Wu Qi arrived, the two groups of monkeys were confronting each other, fighting for a ten thousand years old Ginseng plant which had born fruits.
While laughing out loud, he descended from the sky, uprooted the Ginseng plant and shoved it into his storage ring.
Throwing a glance over at the two monkeys, who had their mouths and eyes gone side, Wu Qi cried out in a fierce voice, "Scram! This land is now my territory! You bunch of monkeys!"
The loud cry of Wu Qi had scared the monkeys and made them flee in an instant. Tilting his head up pleasedly and looking at the cliff, Wu Qi nodded his head in satisfaction.
This was a good place to construct his very first Immortal Cave.