Chapter 215: Subdue the Eight Horses
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
With a casual pace, Wu Qi walked around the extraordinarily beautiful and sturdy Chariot of Eight Horses. He could not help himself but keep praising inwardly for its magnificent design. The eight heavenly horses looked as if they were alive, yet at the same time, they also looked like some spirit treasures, very mystical and unfathomable. On the other hand, the chariot itself was a very precious treasure. Just the defensive mechanisms that Wu Qi could see were extremely strong, and made him speechless upon looking.
On top of that, the energies of virtue that were lingering about them simply made Wu Qi's mouth watery. How he wished he could swallow this Chariot of Eight Horses immediately! If the vast and dense energy of virtue could be harvested and stored in his body, he would be able to obtain himself the holy body of virtue that only a Human Emperor could have. If that really happened, apart from a few mighty spells, no other spells could cause any harm to Wu Qi.
Unfortunately, although Scroll of Stealing claimed that there was nothing under the heaven that it could not steal, this energy of virtue was one thing that was not so easy to steal. In order to steal it and make it his own, Wu Qi would have to first steal a dynasty of a Human Emperor, becoming the emperor of that dynasty himself. It was a task of tremendous difficulty, and a very troublesome one as well. Currently, Wu Qi did not have the interest to do something so complicated.
"What a precious treasure… This is my precious treasure!" While he kept looking admiringly at the Chariot of Eight Horses, Wu Qi threw his head back and let out a wild laugh.
Compared to the Universal Water Spirits Divine Cauldron of Yu the Great, the Chariot of Eight Horses was a different type of item of virtue. The Cauldron of Yu The Great was a suppressive item, an item of virtue that was used to suppress all the aquatic clans under the heaven. Therefore, although both of them were treasures of the human emperor and were created out of great virtue, Yu the Great could control the cauldron, and so could Ying Zheng. Contrary to that, the Chariot of Eight Horses was a personal treasure, a private item that belonged solely to King of Mu, and it had nothing to do with the general trend of the world. As a result, although Ying Zheng could use the divine cauldron crafted by Yu the Great, he could do absolutely nothing to this Chariot of Eight Horses, which had been completely marked by the personal aura of King of Mu.
Ying Zheng would have to be willing to spend a hard effort, using his own energy of human emperor to forcibly expel the aura of King of Mu from the chariot. Without doing that, no matter it was Ying Zheng, Yan Dan, or any other emperor, none of them would have any way to control it. However, someone as ruthless and fearless as Ying Zheng would never waste so much of his energy on a treasure that merely served as a tool of escaping. Thus, this Chariot of Eight Horses was merely a useless tool for him.
"But as you are now in my hand, it will not be up to you to decide who can control you! Chariot, oh chariot, just forget about your old master and be my personal treasure! With you by my side, my chances of escaping from a calamity will become at least one hundred times greater!" Wu Qi could not help himself and kept praising it, "It is too bad that you're such an eye-catcher! I will never take you out unless it is at the critical moment of life and death."
He carefully took a step closer to the chariot. But suddenly, a large sheet of bright light surged out from it, preventing Wu Qi from getting closer. A vast, majestic aura of emperor caressed his face, as if there were millions upon millions of people roaring furiously right beside his ears, demanding him to kneel and bow before the chariot. Wu Qi quickly took a few steps back and shook his head, feeling dissatisfied. If it were the King of Mu himself standing right before him, Wu Qi would have kneeled and bowed at him, as that was a right thing to do. But how dare a lifeless item force him to kneel and bow to it?
Wu Qi sneered. From the center of his brows, a stream of rainbow-colored ray shot out. Amidst it, the Seven Holy Deities and Devils were seen flipping and looping out. The seven devils that were formed using Wu Qi's soul then jumped and danced on the ground for a while, before growing to the height of about one foot. Each of them was enshrouded in glows of different colors, while various waves of emotion were emanating from their bodies. If there were an ordinary cultivator here, he would have been infected by these emotions and had his mind brewing with many evil thoughts. It would eventually cause his seven emotions and six sensory pleasures to explode at the same time, generating a yin flame from the bottom of his feet and completely burning off his blood essence and bone marrow.
Wu Qi sat in a lotus position right in front of the chariot, resting his eyes on it. Using both his hands, he began performing incantation gestures, moving the seven holy deities and devils closer to the chariot in a twisting motion. As the seven of them had just been nourished by fifty percent of the soul energy from innate earth element energy essence, their bodies were now as dense as a corporeal body. The intense pressure emanating from the chariot could do nothing to them, while the bright glow rushing out from it could only cause some ripples on the surface of their bodies.
All of a sudden, a bright gleam flashed through the bodies of seven devils, as they quickly merged together into one, having the exact look as Wu Qi and standing seven feet tall. Yet, the expression on its face was shifting rapidly, and the facial muscles were wriggling and twitching endlessly. Evil laughter was being spewed out from this humanoid figure, while it raised both hands slowly up and began performing incantation gestures, matching perfectly with what Wu Qi was doing. Gradually, large rings of bizarre halo emerged about it.
Again and again, seven sets of incantation gestures that were related to seven holy deities and devils were being performed. Half of the blood essence in Wu Qi's body was being injected into the humanoid from afar. Slowly but surely, its body became firmer and bulkier, as things like blood and flesh began to grow out.
The vast and endless aura of human emperor kept spreading out from the chariot, and was absorbed into the humanoid together with Wu Qi's blood essence and aura. The bizarre devil that was formed from the merging of seven holy deities and devils now served as a large mixer. It slowly blended Wu Qi's blood essence and aura together with the aura of the human emperor from King of Mu, then slowly ground them into the tiniest energy particles while performing a very queer transformation on them.
Just like water and cement, when they were mixed together, they could be turned into concrete. In this case, Wu Qi's blood essence and aura were like the water, while the aura of the human emperor from the chariot was the cement. Under the miraculous catalyzing effect caused by the humanoid, both of them quickly fused into one. Then gradually, Wu Qi's aura could be sensed coming out from the chariot, while there was a vast and mighty aura that began emanating from Wu Qi's body.
Carefully, Wu Qi controlled the tiny Nascent Divinity of his, which had formed not long ago using the force of thunder tribulation. He brought it out from his body, and through the magical connection he had with the humanoid, he fused them together. Inside the empty body of the humanoid, the Nascent Divinity was soaking in the vast and endless aura of King of Mu, slowly absorbing the golden rays that came out from the chariot, and transforming its appearance at the same time.
Then, countless images began to emerge before Wu Qi's eyes; he saw the real King of Mu!
He saw how the Chariot of Eight Horses was made; he saw eight saddles being mounted on the eight heavenly horses. He saw King of Mu bring an endless army to roam across the land, conquering every state he visited, from east to west, from south to north. Wherever he ventured, over tens of thousands of states bowed their heads before him. As the territory of Great Zhou became larger and larger, the aura of virtue on King of Mu's body became stronger and stronger. Meanwhile, the divinity in his body had also been activated during the process, and as time went by, it became greater and greater.
In the end, King of Mu had become a deity among the mortals, and like the legendary Human Emperor Xuan Yuan[1], he rode a dragon and transcended during broad daylight. However, the Chariot of Eight Horses, the divine item that accompanied him in conquering the world, was left behind in the mortal realm, having its ownership pass from one person to another.
But, like all the other divine items, the chariot had its own will. It only recognized the formidable King of Mu as its only master. Those new masters of it could never control the chariot and the eight horses. Meanwhile, the Chariot of Eight Horses never paid any attention to who its new master was, as it had always cherished the memories of its original master, missing its old master dearly. As a result, it did not know who the new masters were and what they looked like, as it never paid any attention to them, and never had any memories of them.
While it kept absorbing the aura of the chariot, the Nascent Divinity sent out by Wu Qi slowly changed its look. It was now taking the look of King of Mu, according to the memories of the chariot. It was clad in a golden outfit embroidered with nine dragons, holding a longsword in its hand and sitting mightily on the chariot. Its body was emanating a vast flame, while leading a mighty army in conquering the land.
Wu Qi then threw away all the thoughts he had in his mind, and just kept recalling the image of King of Mu he saw in the memories of the chariot. He kept absorbing the aura that emanated from the chariot, and fused it into his own body, blending it with his own blood essence and aura. He was in a state of self-hypnosis, telling himself that he was the King of Mu, the master of the Chariot of Eight Horses. He kept repeating this to himself, and gradually, his soul ripple began to match closer to the soul ripple he learned from the memories. Eventually, he managed to adjust his soul ripple to exactly the same as King of Mu.
Suddenly, the Chariot of Eight Horses cheered happily, unleashing an immense auspicious glow that blanketed Wu Qi. For the chariot and the eight horses, their old master had returned, the King of Mu had returned. Excitedly and happily they disabled all the restrictive spells on them and opened up the passage that connected straight into its core, welcoming the return of their master. Then, Wu Qi was carried up by a mysterious force, and was placed safely into the Chariot of Eight Horses.
Soundlessly, Wu Qi's Nascent Divinity fused itself into the core of the restrictive spells. After that, the silver lotus suddenly rushed out from within the Nascent Divinity, sending out a flame from the divine flame of order and wiping out the will of the chariot in an instant. Next, Wu Qi split out a tiny bit of his Nascent Divinity and imprinted it into the core. Finally, he had gained the total control over this Chariot of Eight Horses.
With that being done, the seven holy deities and devils abruptly split up and squeezed back into Wu Qi's body with the glow around them becoming greatly dimmed.
At the same time, Wu Qi retracted his Nascent Divinity. Suddenly his body burst out with a great deal of sweat, as nearly all his energies were depleted in the process.
The mystic technique in Scroll of Stealing had let him successfully subdue the Chariot of Eight Horses, but it also consumed too much of his energy. Although he seemed to still be able to sit steadily on the chariot, it was all because of the miraculous abilities of the chariot itself, as it could absorb the surrounding natural energies and bring nourishment to his body.
He breathed out a long sigh, then patted on the chariot and gave out a faint cry.
With the cry, the Chariot of Eight Horses expanded immediately. The eight heavenly horses became larger, with their length stretched about eighteen feet long. Although they still looked like horses, there was a look of divine dragons in them. The chariot itself had also expanded, becoming several hundred feet in circumference, and transformed into a clump of golden cloud with its original form disappeared.
With a thought of his mind, the Chariot of Eight Horses transformed into a stream of light and shot out from his secret cave. The several dozens of layers of defensive mechanisms he spent a great effort in constructing did not even have the time to play their role, as the chariot brought him through them without being stopped. It did not destroy these defensive mechanisms during the process, as if they were nothing.
Gasping with astonishment Wu Qi quickly stopped the chariot. He turned his head and looked over his shoulder. To his shock, the mountain that he had the secret cave built in was already at a distance of one hundred thousand miles away.
With just a thought, he had traveled through one hundred thousand miles of distance, and the speed was even comparable to a Nascent Divinity cultivator traveling with a teleportation spell. Yet, Wu Qi did not even exert all his power in controlling the chariot, as he currently did not have the sufficient overall strength to make it travel at full speed. He just injected a tiny bit of his energy, and the chariot had already traveled with a frightening speed that nearly scared him to death.
"If I inject all my energy into it, I should be able to travel over one million miles in a blink of an eye. With that speed, even an expert of Nascent Soul realm would fail in catching up with me even if he uses a teleportation spell!" After calculating the godly speed that the chariot could achieve, Wu Qi suddenly let out a very complacent laugh.
He laughed for nearly fifteen minutes, then only put away the Chariot of Eight Horses. The huge chariot transformed into a thread of auspicious glow and fused into his right arm, forming a patch of golden light the size of a toddler's palm. Amidst the golden light were eight heavenly horses sticking out their chests and tilting their heads up, as if they were neighing into the sky. As Wu Qi exercised his will, this patch of auspicious glow could hide at any time.
Once again, he threw his head back and gave out three wild laughs. After that, Wu Qi took a moment to calculate how many days had passed, then he quickly traveled back to his secret cave and made his return to Ji City using the teleportation formation.
It was time to help Lu Chengfeng forms his Gold Core.
[1] Xuan Yuan - He was the Yellow Emperor, also known as the Yellow Thearch, the Yellow God or the Yellow Lord, or simply by his Chinese name Huangdi. He is a deity in Chinese religion, one of the legendary Chinese sovereigns and culture heroes included among the mytho-historical Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors and cosmological Five Forms of the Highest Deity(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Emperor)