Chapter 165: Field Headquarter
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
Not even one hundred feet into the ground, a tremendous force that made Wu Qi despair came right onto his head. Faced with such an incredible force, although he had a corporeal body many times stronger than an Earth Immortal of Nascent Soul realm, he could barely withstand it for a mere split second, and was about to be crushed into pieces by it. Cracking noises began coming out from all his bones, while blood kept oozing out from his seven apertures. The enormous force was like a great juicer, trying to squeeze everything out from his body.
If it were only the pressuring force coming from a small mountain, Wu Qi could have still endured it, as an Earth Immortal did possess the magical ability to carry a mountain and travel over a great ocean. However, not only did the mountain come with an extremely heavy weight, it also contained an incredibly strong magnetic force of Acquired Earth element. The magnetic force had attracted the soil from the surrounding one hundred miles radius and connected all the surrounding underground energy veins into one, merging everything into an unparalleled force that was crushing towards Wu Qi.
The Dharma Body of an Earth Immortal could easily withstand the weight of a great mountain. But when the force was coming from a piece of land that stretched nearly one hundred miles in radius, even a Heaven Immortal who had formed his Nascent Divinity would not dare let his head hit, not to mention an Earth Immortal. It was a force that weighed several million tons, and any ordinary Immortal would be crushed into powder by it.
Wu Qi sprayed out three mouthfuls of blood. Suddenly the silver lotus shot out from between his eyebrows, and as it was now subtly connected with Wu Qi's mind, it unleashed a large sheet of petal-shaped glow that enshrouded Wu Qi within, having him protected within the stamen. No matter how the great force was crushing and pressing ceaselessly from all directions, the silver lotus did not get affected by it. It was now following Wu Qi's thought, bringing his body and slowly descending deeper into the ground.
After absorbing the innate energies of five elements from Wu Qi's meridians, the once pure Gold element silver lotus had slowly possessed some aura of the innate five elements. As a result, it could now use the escape art of Earth and gradually descend deeper. They were completely surrounded by bright, earthy-yellow streams that kept wheeling and thrusting rapidly, just like several dozens of great rivers that kept impacting them in the most violent and brutal manner. The tremendous force of underground Earth element energies swept across an area of several hundred miles in diameter. If Wu Qi were still trapped amidst the soil, his corporeal body would have been crushed into the tiniest particles of soil.
It was unknown what grade were the scroll and the writing brush used by Li Si, and it was a mystery as to what mystic technique he used. Although it was just as simple as a character and an incantation, they nearly had Wu Qi killed on the spot.
Panting and spitting blood from his mouth, Wu Qi had his eyes staring straight while lying face up within the silver lotus's stamen. He was looking at the soil up above that kept rocking and rolling like a force twelve typhoon. Then, he cried out with the sternest voice, "Li Si, although there was no hatred between us in the past, you've tried to kill me with such a murderous method today. Now, only death can solve the grudge between us! So what if you are Li Si? So what if you are the Prime Minister of Great Qin Dynasty? So what if your cultivation base is stronger than mine? All those years in the past, didn’t you have all your three clans slaughtered by someone?"
A valiant aura suddenly surged up from the depth of his heart, and a desire to battle that belonged to Wu Wang shot right into his Spiritual Ocean. Wu Qi rose to his feet and stomped while roaring furiously, "Li Si, you've completely provoked me! Ha, haha! Now you just wait and see, I'll definitely put up a good show for you all!"
Breathing heavily, he sat back onto the silver lotus. At that moment, countless ruthless and vicious methods that he could use to take revenge leaped into his mind. Wu Qi could not help but feel admiration towards Le Xiaobai, whose soul was now merged with him. How could this guy come out with so many evil and ferocious strategies? Wu Qi would never want to admit that some of the tricks were coming out from his own mind, and was so sure that only someone as inglorious as Le Xiaobai could have come up with them!
Clenching his jaws tightly, Wu Qi quickly took out some healing pills and shoved them into his mouth, hastily doctoring his wounded body. Then, he took out twelve beginner-stage Gold Cores which he seized just now, and threw them all into his mouth. The qualities of these Gold Cores were not high, and they contained little Innate Nectar. After consuming and digesting them, they only made all ten False Cores of his turn slightly brighter. Nevertheless, the energies brought by them had made the Acquired energies of five elements in his primary meridians, which were cultivated using the Qi Circulating Technique of Five Elements, to become a few times denser than mercury.
The Acquired energies that nearly took a corporeal shape rushed and flowed while gurgling through his meridians, as Wu Qi began driving the silver lotus and descended one hundred miles deeper, then flew diagonally up a hundred miles. When he reached a distance of over one hundred miles, under the protection of the silver lotus, he carefully squeezed out to the surface, randomly picked a dark and dense forest and plunged into it.
Once inside the dense forest, Wu Qi retracted the silver lotus into his Spiritual Ocean, wearing a gloomy expression as he stripped off all his clothes. Then, he pulled out a set of dark-green soft armor from the storage ring, usually clad by secret agents of Scouting Office while they were traveling out in the wilderness. Although the soft armor looked insignificant, it was actually a pretty decent quality magical item. On its surface were several dozen sets of concealment runes that were drawn by experts from the Heavenly Spirit Sect, which allowed the wearer to run without stirring up any wind, and did not produce any noise that could alert the enemies. It also came with a miraculous effect of refraining the wearer's aura and hiding the traces.
He put on the soft armor, and even covered his head under the soft-leathered hood that came together with the armor. Wu Qi tidied up himself thoroughly, putting all magical items which he could possibly use into his storage ring, including all the talismans which he had obtained from the five Gold Core Elders of Heavenly Spirit Sect. After he was done with all that, he carefully exercised the escape art of Wood and began rushing towards the place where he was assaulted moments ago.
Wu Qi's belly was filled with grievances. Although he was hunted by Gold Core Elders of Heavenly Spirit Sect, it was he who ruined their biggest source of income first. Thus, it was perfectly logical and reasonable for them to seek revenge on him. However, he was a complete stranger to Li Si, Bai Qitian, and even to Great Qin Dynasty. He never crossed paths with them, yet they bluntly assaulted him, using attacks that could kill him in an instant during their first meeting. This was something that Wu Qi could not accept.
He wanted to take reprisals against them. Not only that, he would make both Li Si and Bai Qitian suffer a heartbreaking pain, and never forget Wu Qi for the rest of their lives.
Clenching his teeth in bitter hatred, Wu Qi turned into a green mist that looked like a ghost, drifting fast through the countless trees and grasses. While rushing forward at a great speed, he kept pondering in his mind. If this place were not four hundred thousand miles deep into Meng Mountain, which made the army of Great Yan Dynasty impossible to be deployed, he would definitely inform Yan Dan, requesting him to send an army of few million soldiers and catch Li Si and his comrades in these vast mountains.
Presumably, if Yan Dan learned about this, he would be willing to pour every single soldier of his in order to slaughter that Li Si. In those years, one of them was the Crown Prince of the Yan Kingdom while the other one was the Prime Minister of the Qin Kingdom, and there were many resentments between the two of them.
But it was a pity that this place was four hundred thousand miles deep into the Meng Mountains! It was absolutely impossible to deploy a great army into such a remote place. All the demon beasts and the harsh natural barrier would be enough to devour an entire army.
Wu Qi kept rushing forward at top speed while having his mind filled with endless thoughts. Carefully putting up a high vigilance, he finally returned to where he was assaulted. Li Si and all his men were still at the place. Twenty bonfires were burning ragingly near them, as the dead bodies of twenty Gold Core captains were being burned by Bai Qitian. Li Si was standing right next to the bonfires, singing a mourning song using an ancient and bleak tune. His voice soared high up into the sky. It was extremely sharp, and made Wu Qi feel really awful upon hearing it.
With extreme caution, he lied stomach down amidst a thicket of a few tall trees, casting a cold glance over at Li Si and his men, waiting for their next move.
When the bodies of deceased captains finally turned into piles of ashes, Bai Qitian took out a few white ceramic jugs and had them placed inside. While picking up scorching hot bones and ashes with hands, he was airing his grievances at Li Si. "Prime Minister, why don't you strike earlier? Your delay in action had caused the loss of many lives of my subordinates. How am I supposed to answer to my father later?"
Wu Qi's heart sank. Judging from what Bai Qitian had just said, it was obvious that Bai Qi had come to this place as well.
Li Si narrowed his eyes, not saying a word, but kept looking at the darkening sky, as if his mind had wandered somewhere far away. He did not provide any explanations to Bai Qitian. In a great rage, Bai Qitian shouted a few times, but upon looking at how Li Si behaved, he had no choice but to shut his mouth. Obviously, he did not have the courage to truly fall out with Li Si, as no matter it was his experience or position, they were both far inferior compared to Li Si.
After Bai Qitian was done collecting and tidying up everything, only then Li Si recovered from his seemingly absent-minded state. With an indifferent voice, he said, "Let's return to the camp. I wondered how many energy stones have the others collected during the past few days. If the quantity is not sufficient, we'll have to spend some more time in this place."
Gazing at the small mountain not far away that sank several hundred feet deep into the ground, Li Si then continued saying with full confidence, "Although you've lost some of your subordinates, I was able to kill that little guy on the spot. He is a lucky little guy who possessed a nearly indestructible body. The credit of having him killed is comparable to killing an Earth Immortal. Although you've lost twenty Gold Core subordinates, you've done nothing wrong but instead claimed yourself some merits. Don't be over calculative on such small matter."
Bai Qitian gave Li Si a cold gaze, sneered and said, "It is Prime Minister who personally killed that little guy, I dare not claim the credit as mine. My boys, let's withdraw now and return to the camp. Send out scouts along the way. If they come across any barbarian villages, we'll go collect some energy stones from them!"
Having both eyes hiding behind a pair of pale-green crystal glasses, Wu Qi nodded his head silently. Bai Qitian and his men were collecting energy stones? Good, it was a very good news indeed.
Gradually, the army of Great Qin began leaving the place. Bringing together tens of scholars, Li Si walked at the rearmost of the parade. With both hands hiding under the sleeves, he gave the small mountain a look, at last, nodded and said, "He should be dead now. How could a young lad like that withstand a strike of Dharma Word from me? Hehe, disperse!" He waved his sleeves, turning the small mountain into countless Earth element energies that dispersed into all directions. Only then did the magnetic force gathered by the small mountain slowly fade away. A deep, muffled rumble that sounded like thunderclap was heard coming from the underground, while the surrounding trees and grasses were shaking and swaying violently.
The soldiers of Great Qin army were flying westward on the wing-shaped magical item, while Li Si and other men were flying amidst the wind in the center of the parade. Wu Qi was following them closely behind using his escape art. Along the way, he saw several hundred barbarian villages which had been completely annihilated. Some villages were still on fire; it was obvious that they had been robbed and slaughtered by the army of Great Qin not long ago.
When he passed a lofty mountain, Wu Qi ran his eyes around while standing on top of its peak. Exercising his Spirit Eyes, he was able to have his vision reach several thousand miles away. He saw fires darting and leaping out from many places. Clearly, the army of Qin Dynasty was slaughtering those barbarians everywhere. To his southwest, as the fire from a village that was set ablaze by Qin army kindled the forest, a stretch of forest several hundred miles in circumference was caught in a raging flame. No one was trying to put out the forest fire. Dust and smoke enveloped the forest and the skies, and a desolated and destructive air was lingering in the atmosphere.
"Qin army, Qin army!" Wu Qi felt a heaviness in his heart for the barbarians in this area that were struck by a bloody disaster. Their ancestors were able to escape from the war-blade of Great Yan Dynasty, but today, they all fell under the butcher's blade wielded by the hand of Qin army. All in all, they were always out of luck.
Wu Qi followed closely and stealthily behind Li Si and his men, and continued flying westward for over five thousand miles. Finally, they came to a vast open field, several hundred miles in circumference and completely surrounded by lofty mountains. At the center of the open field was a flat grassland, fully packed with countless neatly erected tents. Countless soldiers clad in dark-green armors were seen riding on wing-shaped magical items, flying from all directions and gathering towards the vast open field.
Wu Qi roughly calculated, that there were approximately thirty thousand tents erected in this place. And judging from the size of the tent, each of them could be occupied by at least ten soldiers. Thus, there were several hundred thousand of Qin soldiers here.
Right in the center of this clusters of tents was a wooden city entirely built with large wooden logs. A few palaces that looked rather simple but did portray a mighty air were seen erected right in the heart of the wooden city. On the roof of a palace located in the center stood a two hundred feet tall flagpole loftily. On top of the flagpole, a great 'Dark Dragon' flag several dozens feet in circumference was waving aggressively in the strong wind.
This place was a field headquarter for Qin army. Wu Qi was shocked, and by just a rough and hurried scan, he detected several hundred threads of formidable aura hiding in it. Every aura gave him a feeling exactly like the one he sensed from Yan Dan.