Chapter 169: A Robber
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
A moment before the Sword of Greedy Wolf took away Xu Fu's life, suddenly Wu Qi recalled the description concerning the practitioner in the Scroll of Stealing. He quickly retracted the sword as cold sweat broke out on his forehead because of fear. He carefully unfolded Xu Fu's shirt, and as he had expected, he saw several tens of thousands of bean-sized strange runes on Xu Fu's skin. Like some living beings, these runes twisted and roared aggressively. Upon looking at them, Wu Qi immediately felt an air of ruthlessness and ferociousness come caressing his face.
They were the curse of blood soul. The deeper a practitioner studied into the Dao of Primordial Talismans, the stronger the curse of blood soul on his body would become. Once the practitioner was killed by someone, the person who killed him would have to face the cruel revenge from the curse of blood soul. The curse was triggered with the price of burning the soul of the practitioner, and the power unleashed by it was equal to one hundred times of the full force strike unleashed by the practitioner himself.
As Xu Fu had formed his Nascent Soul, the full force strike unleashed by him was more than enough to turn Wu Qi's body and soul into nothingness.
Cold sweat rolled and flowed down from Wu Qi's skin. At the thought of the fact that he almost killed Xu Fu and nearly stepped on the trap of a frightening curse, Wu Qi felt his heart twitching violently and his legs struck by a weakness. The curse of blood soul was a mystical curse, as it would never mistake its target. Even if Wu Qi threw Xu Fu into a nest of poisonous bugs, having him devoured by millions of bugs, the curse would only target Wu Qi.
Looking at the curse runes as thick as huckleberries on Xu Fu's body, Wu Qi felt like he was a hungry wolf looking at a hedgehog. Although he had the intention of killing him, there was no way he could have done it. The Dao of Primordial Talismans was too bizarre and brutal; its abilities were unpredictable even by Gods and ghosts. Wu Qi did not have the courage to kill Xu Fu.
He became so exasperated that he kept glaring at Xu Fu's body for quite some time. A few times, Wu Qi clenched his jaws tightly and raised the sword high up, but in the end, he just could not gather enough courage to stab the sword into Xu Fu's heart. It was not worthwhile to risk his life for this. But at the same time, Wu Qi was not content with sparing Xu Fu's life just like this. Without even asking, in the future, Xu Fu would definitely be one of the formidable enemies that Great Yan Dynasty had to face, and that meant he would be Wu Qi's enemy as well. If Wu Qi could kill him now, the pressure which Great Yan Dynasty had to face in the future would be greatly lessened.
At last, he let out a soft sigh. Wu Qi put away the sword, and collected back the three half-burned incense sticks. He placed them in his palm and sprayed out a jet of flame that turned the remaining incense into a wisp of dense smoke. Wu Qi carefully shoved the clump of smoke into Xu Fu's mouth. With that, Xu Fu would have to remain in a coma for at least three months.
He pulled Xu Fu up, brought him and plunged into the ground.
Four hours later, Wu Qi brought Xu Fu and came to the river bottom of that great river he found earlier. Amidst the rocking and rolling waves, he swam westward, to a distance of over three thousand miles away. There, he found a large black rock in the river bottom, and underneath the rock was a nest built by a great demon carp. It was an underwater nest with a thirty feet wide entrance, but tens of miles of area inside. There was a front hall, a side hall, bedrooms and even backyards in the nest. Clearly, the demon carp had spent quite an effort in building its home.
However, although it was a demon carp which had nearly formed its Gold Core and possessed some intelligence, Wu Qi did not think much at all about it.
With a sword beam, he killed the demon carp and stored up its huge body as his food. After that, Wu Qi sealed up the cave entrance and deployed a few formations that could conceal any aura of his, then drained off all the water in the cave.
Wu Qi was not in the mood to tidy up the cave. He simply threw Xu Fu onto the ground, who was still in a coma, and sat right next to him. Without hesitation, he began with the cultivation of Mystic Eyes of Universe, following the steps in refining his eyes. One after another, strange hand incantation was formed by him, as a bizarre smoke was seen lingering in his eyes, twisting and turning rapidly. In the blink of an eye, a layer of peculiar gleam covered both his eyes. The color of the gleam was hard to tell, yet it sometimes looked like a seven-colored gleam.
The Mystic Eyes of Universe was an ancient divine technique. It was said that once it was mastered, one would be able to cast his vision into every single world in all Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. Wherever such divine eyes looked into, they could see through every single illusion and formation, and would never be puzzled by any soul-enchanting techniques. Nevertheless, it required a huge consumption to cultivate this Mystic Eyes of Universe, as it needed all sorts of Acquired Spirit Treasures, and energy essence from Innate Spirit Essence be added to the eyes. Every time when one Spirit Essence was fused with the eyes, an extra power would be added to them. There was no limit to the growth of its power.
Currently, while digesting the spirit energies extracted from Xu Fu's eyes, Wu Qi had also fused his Innate energies of five elements into both eyes. With that, he had given his eyes the ability to launch attacks of Innate five elements. On top of that, he also extracted a threat of energy from the bodies of Seven Holy Deities and Devils, which contained the aura of greed, affection, infatuation, anger, and all sorts of negative energies, and fused it into his eyes. Now, he could attack one's mind with just his eyes.
In the future, when he had cultivated his eyes to a very powerful state, he could also fuse the Divine Flame of Order into them as well. If he really did that, his eyes could then shoot out Divine Flame of Order to attack the enemies.
Six hours later, the spirit energies extracted from Xu Fu's eyes had been completely digested. Now, Wu Qi's eyes became bright and shining. The white of his eyes looked like the purest silver while the black of his eyes looked like the darkest black crystal; the contrast was extremely vivid. There was also a razor-sharp aura emanating from them, making it difficult for anyone to stare right into his eyes.
The strength of the Drunken Dragon Incense could not make Xu Fu sleep for a very long period of time. The time was limited, so Wu Qi did not want to waste any bit of it. He opened up Xu Fu's eyes again, absorbed another thread of spirit energy out from them and fused it into his own eyes. But this time, Wu Qi's eyes were completely different than before. They were now able to hold ten times more of the spirit energies. After that, he spent another four hours to fully digest this thread of spirit energy.
Half a month later, the once dazzling eyes of Xu Fu had turned dim and dull. His Dharma Eyes had been destroyed by Wu Qi, and the laborious cultivation of many years were all gone now. Contrary to that, Wu Qi's eyes were shining with a miraculous gleam. Layers upon layers of clouds were seen shifting and moving within them. They looked very profound and deep.
At any rate, the Mystic Eyes of Universe was many times more miraculous and magical than the Dharma Eyes of Yin and Yang cultivated by Xu Fu. Now, with just one glance of his eyes, Wu Qi could have his vision penetrate the surface of the water, and have a clear look at the sky several hundred miles above the ground. If he ran the mystic light shot out from his eyes onto the ground, all the sand and soil thirty thousand feet below the ground would turn as transparent as water. No bugs or strange beasts living underground could hide their traces before Wu Qi's eyes.
There was something even more magical. Now, wherever his eyes looked at, all the energies contained in any objects would be illuminated in his line of sight. According to the characteristic and the grade of the energy, they would glitter with different level of brightness and colors. His eyes had almost turned into the best instrument for evaluation. He could find out the true strength of any ordinary treasures given birth by nature with just one look.
Wu Qi threw his head back and gave three loud laughs into the sky, expressing the utmost pleasure surging in his mind. After that, he took out the 'Script of Ancient Law.
The word 'Ancient' represented primordial and antiquity; the word 'Law' represented the divine order of the heaven and earth. The Script of Ancient Law was a book that recorded the studies of the nature done by ancient practitioners, their understanding towards the heaven and earth, and the natural principles and orders they derived from studying the universe. From the most elementary knowledge of five elements to the most profound principle of life and death, the Dao of Yin and Yang, they were all explained in detail.
Wu Qi gave the book a rough read through. The Dao of Primordial Talismans recorded in the book could allow an ordinary mortal to cultivate up to the realm of Heaven Immortal. After that Wu Qi found only blank pages. However, using the Dao of Primordial Talismans in Heaven Immortal realm as the foundation, Wu Qi could then continue studying and cultivating the Book of Ancient God found in Scroll of Stealing. After all, that was a primordial book that could let him cultivate further than the realm of Heaven Immortal, and eventually pointed directly to the source of the universe.
The Book of Ancient God was a true mystic cultivation book of Mystic Treasure grade, while the Script of Ancient Law was the key that led to such a precious treasure. One by one, Wu Qi compared all sorts of runes and mystic techniques between the Book of Ancient God and the Script of Ancient Law. Once again, he could not refrain himself and broke into a loud laughter.
The sword technique of Heaven Breaking Sword Sect was the magic used by cultivators to control flying sword and magical treasures, using them to fight against each other. On the other hand, the Script of Ancient Law and Book of Ancient God were both miraculous techniques that allowed one to settle down and get on with one's pursuit, allowing him to have a thorough understanding of nature's mystery. If a cultivator wanted to achieve a great accomplishment, both magic and miraculous techniques were equally important; not a single one could be omitted.
The miraculous technique was completely different from cultivation techniques used by ordinary cultivators. Ordinary cultivators harvested the natural energies, using them to temper their corporeal bodies and bones. They accumulated energies and formed their Gold Core and Nascent Soul. On the other side, the practitioners who studied the Dao of Primordial Talismans did not emphasize on their corporeal body. What they focused on was the understanding towards the profound mystery of nature, strengthening the source of their soul, their Nascent Divinity, and their divine sense, so that they could use their powerful force of soul to communicate with the heaven and earth. That was the reason why they could use one single talisman to crumble the mountain and drain off the ocean, and even shift an entire planet to another location.
In other words, cultivators cultivated their energies, while practitioners cultivated their divinity. Both groups focused on a different aspect in their cultivation, and both had their own advantages and weaknesses. Now, as Wu Qi had begun to cultivate both his energy and divinity, even he himself could not come out with an exact estimation on how many advantages he would gain eventually.
In any case, Wu Qi had begun with the cultivation of the Script of Ancient Law, and began studying all kinds of talismans and mystic techniques found in it. The monster level intelligence he got after fusing with Le Xiaobai's soul particles had provided a great help in the process, as those runes that required many years of study by ordinary practitioners only took him roughly half an hour, and he was able to understand and remember them completely.
Meanwhile, during the process of studying the Dao of Primordial Talismans, the toughest part was that one needed to gather a very powerful force of soul. The more powerful his soul became, the faster he would understand the profound knowledge, and the greater the offensive strength unleashed by the talismans would be as well.
It was impossible to have a powerful soul without going through a very long period of time. However, right beside Wu Qi lied a great human-shaped tonic - Xu Fu. Using the silver lotus as the medium and the Divine Flame of Order as the tool, Wu Qi forcibly split up Xu Fu's soul and refined his source of soul into the most basic soul particles, fusing into Wu Qi's own soul. With that, the cultivation of his soul skyrocketed, and within just a few days, it had become ten times stronger than before.
Poor Xu Fu, he was suffering from the pain of having his soul refined by the Divine Flame of Order and have his soul cut by the silver lotus, for days and nights. The severe pain made him struggle and twitch like a fish that just came out from water, even though he was still in a coma. His body sprung and jumped, kept hitting the ground and made flapping noises.
One month later, seventy percent of Xu Fu's soul power was absorbed by Wu Qi. He had become weak like a lamp running out of its oil. If Wu Qi kept on refining his soul, it was highly possible that Xu Fu's soul would become completely disintegrated, and the curse of blood soul would be immediately triggered, striking a deadly blow on Wu Qi straightaway. Eventually, Wu Qi had no choice but to spare Xu Fu from the suffering.
Wu Qi rested his eyes on Xu Fu, who now had his entire body turned withered and shrunk, then shoved a few life-saving spirit pills into his mouth. After that, taking the opportunity that it was dark out there, he stealthily brought Xu Fu back to the field headquarter of Qin army.
After he sent Xu Fu back into his own bedroom, Wu Qi sneaked out from the campsite without alerting anybody. Suddenly, he gave a very loud roar into the sky, "The Prime Minister of Great Qin, Li Si, send my regards to your mother!"
Then, using his right hand, he pointed and waved in the air, throwing out a rune that twisted like the shape of a lightning bolt, landing forcefully right above the great campsite of Qin army.
Suddenly, several thousands of tiny lightning arcs poured and shot down from the dark sky, as countless lightning bolts streaked through the sky above the entire campsite. The sudden change instantly caused a messy situation in the camp. From the wooden city, eight flood dragons and one serpent thrust out and soared high up into the sky, while the loud cry of Ying Zheng crumbled more than half the mountains in the surrounding. "What an audacious rascal! How dare you provoke and insult us, the Great Qin Dynasty?!"
But Wu Qi had long run several hundred miles away. He was now standing on the peak of a lofty mountain, peering into the crumbling mountains around the Great Qin's army camp. He suddenly gave a loud, long and sonorous cry, which sounded like the roaring of thunder, and echoed to a distance of several hundred miles away. "Li Si, I'll never stop fighting you, until either of us die!"