Chapter 263: The Unintentional Hinder
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
While watching the battle off in the distance, the sudden appearance of Wu Qi had given Yan Dan and many of his ministers a fright. It was especially true when they saw his bizarre entrance. He was shooting straight towards Bai Qi like a cannonball, and behind him was a group of several tens of figures, seemingly chasing him and viciously thrusting their swords at him. Every now and then, a few of them would self-explode. The most shocking thing was that all of these self-exploded pursuers were Human Immortals with cultivation base of Gold Core realm!
"With the cultivation base of Gold Core, they... they actually self-exploded!" Yan Dan cried out shockingly, "Who is having such a great enmity and deep hostility with Wu Qi? Who in our Great Yan Dynasty bore such murderous hatred that made him willing to use the men of sacrifice with cultivation base of Gold Core realm to assassinate Wu Qi?"
All the ministers around Yan Dan looked at each other, but no one was talking. It was a fact that Wu Qi had offended many people in Great Yan Dynasty. However, among all the people he offended, no one would be so extravagant as to using the self-explosion of Human Immortals to kill or hurt him. Even Yue Yi, whose youngest son was killed by Wu Qi, would never send so many Gold Core cultivators and attempt to assassinate Wu Qi with the method of self-explosion.
After a brief moment of silence, Yan Dan, Mo Di, Xun Kuang, and all the civilian and military officials turned their glances over to Lu Buwei at the same time, who stood silently and motionlessly right behind Yan Dan. He looked like a spirit and did not even seem to be breathing. The wealthy-looking Lu Buwei gave everyone a cool smile, opened his eyes slightly and said, "Yes, I'm the one who did that. Does anyone of you have any complaints?"
There was a cold gleam that shone from Lu Buwei's eyes, and it made him look very threatening. Apart from a few people, most of Great Yan Dynasty's civilian and military officials could not refrain themselves from bowing their heads, daring not to have their eyes meet with Lu Buwei's glance. "It is because of a personal grudge that I want to kill Wu Qi, and not an official business." said Lu Buwei with a cold laugh while raising his head up proudly as he continued, "Can anyone tell me, which of the Great Yan Dynasty's national law prohibits any of the clans to raise their own assassins, using them to assassinate their own enemies?"
Yan Dan did not say anything. Indeed, Great Yan Dynasty did not have any national law that would restrict the usage of assassins. Regardless it was Jing Ke, Tian Guang, or even Qin Wuyang, all of them were once assassins. Thus, unknowingly and unconsciously influenced by them and their stories, the trend of raising own murderous devices - the men of sacrifice or assassins, was born in Great Yan Dynasty. When there was a conflict that broke out between two clans, using assassins to do the talking was usually the most direct and efficient method.
It was Lu Buwei who sent the assassins to kill Wu Qi. He had admitted that openly, and no one could pick any problem out from him. One might say that since Lu Buwei was the Left Prime Minister of Great Yan, he should not kill any Great Yan's ministers. However, if one still remembered, Wu Qi had killed his granddaughter. So, how was the score going to be settled between them?
It was a messy situation, thus, Yan Dan simply did not want to interfere, and acted like he knew nothing. Even Mo Di and Xun Kuang had nothing to say.
While letting out a long angry cry, Wu Qi shot through the sky and flew straight towards Bai Qi's back, who was in the middle of a violent battle with Fan Yuqi. The continuous explosion of tens of Human Immortals behind him had generated a very strong shockwave that pushed him, causing him to fly with an even greater speed. In a flash, Wu Qi had traveled through a distance of one hundred miles and approached less than one thousand feet from Bai Qi. Wu Qi sighed helplessly. Over his shoulder, he looked at the tens of vague figures that were chasing very closely behind, then waved his left hand and shot out several hundred dragon-scale-shaped golden beams, which combined and turned into a stream of white light and thrust straight towards Bai Qi's back.
Each of the golden beams was extremely sharp, and as they contained a tiny thread of innate earth element energy essence, they could absorb the earth element energies from the surroundings to replenish their own consumption. It also made each of them weigh over fifty thousand kilograms. The golden beams pierced through the air and generated loud noises which were very unpleasant to the ears, carrying an immense killing intent as they shot straight towards eighteen vital acupoints behind Bai Qi's back. Through the Mystic Eyes of Universe, Wu Qi knew that all these eighteen vital acupoints were the passages which Bai Qi used to absorb the killing aura that was found in the surrounding.
It was an intense and fierce battle between Fan Yuqi and Bai Qi. Relying on his faster speed, Bai Qi kept attacking Fan Yuqi while flying in a circle, breaking his armor and leaving behind several hundred cuts and wounds on his body. Fan Yuqi was bathed in blood. However, as he was cultivating the Earthly Indestructible Body, although he was slower in speed, the defensive strength of his fleshly body was very strong and solid. As a result, no matter how Bai Qi exerted his strength, hacking and chopping at Fan Yuqi's body, he could only hurt Fan Yuqi, but not kill him. Although Fan Yuqi externally seemed to be in a very bad shape, he did not suffer any wounds that could really get him killed.
With each hand holding a tiger-headed short crescent halberd and a bright yellow light bursting from his body, Fan Yuqi had his face twisted and locked Bai Qi in close combat. Bai Qi's speed was roughly fifty percent faster than Fan Yuqi, yet his strength was many times weaker. Furthermore, Bai Qi did not have a fleshly body as strong as Fan Yuqi. Therefore, he fought in guerrilla style, daring not to fight head-to-head with Fan Yuqi.
All of a sudden, Bai Qi noticed there was a ball of very sharp air shooting at him from behind. What made him even shocked was that these sharp streams were aiming right at the passages on his back which he used to absorb the murderous energies in the surrounding with his cultivation technique of 'White-Tiger Slaughtering Script'. If these vital acupoints were attacked, Bai Qi's combative strength would be greatly affected. Driven by the instinct of his body, Bai Qi swung his sword backward and thrust it out immediately.
A series of several hundred clanging sounds echoed out, as the several hundred dragon-scale-shaped golden beams hit right onto Bai Qi's sword and created many white ripples in the air. Bai Qi's arm was violently shaken, as each of these golden beams came with a weight of several tens of thousands of kilograms, and that too at an incredible speed. After withstanding several hundred impacts of such magnitude, Bai Qi could no longer hold his sword tight. A white beam shot out from his hand, as his sword was knocked flying away into a far distance.
Supposedly, Bai Qi would not be so lousy. However, as he had forcibly used the Bugle of Dragon Ying not long ago, that had caused a great damage to his cultivation base. Although he did consume some spirit pills and medicines to heal himself and his cultivation base, as only a few months had passed since that incident, his cultivation base was still pretty far from stepping back into the peak-stage of Nascent Soul realm, and his strength was greatly reduced. On top of that, the Earth Element Dragon Scales Shield was an innate magical item. It contained a very powerful strength, and as Bai Qi was focusing seventy percent of his attention on Fan Yuqi, he was caught unprepared and had his sword knocked flying away by Wu Qi.
When the sword was knocked away from his grip, Bai Qi, the man who had gone through numerous battles of life and death, was struck with a great shock. "How dare you!! How is this even possible??!" cried Bai Qi.
He appeared to be in a trance, but Fan Yuqi was not. Upon noticing that Bai Qi had his body turned stiff after being struck by Wu Qi's surprise attack, Fan Yuqi snorted coldly, as a stream of yellow energy that reached several miles up into the sky came shooting out from the top of his head, while a loud noise that sounded like the steam whistle of a large ship rang out and filled the air. Then, he thrust both short halberds forward and hit viciously on Bai Qi's body. One pierced through his left rib cage, while the other smashed forcefully onto his right shoulder, nearly crushing half of his body to shreds.
The murderous energies produced by Bai Qi's White-Tiger Slaughtering Script were almost identical to Xiang Yu. However, in terms of the strength and recovery ability of the fleshly body, he was still far inferior from Xiang Yu's celestial fiend body. On top of that, as Fan Yuqi was a man with an incredibly strong strength, and the two tiger-headed short crescent halberds were weapons of magical treasure tier, all of this allowed Fan Yuqi to deal a serious injury to Bai Qi.
It was at this point in time that Wu Qi arrived, using the arm shield strapped to his left arm as he smashed forcefully into Bai Qi's chest. The Earth Element Dragon Scales Shield was crafted out of the innate earth element energy essence, and just the clump of energy essence alone already weighed over one million kilograms. Although it felt very light and almost weightless for Wu Qi after it was refined and crafted into a magical treasure, for everybody else, this arm shield carried an actual weight of a lofty mountain.
Together with the incredible speed that Wu Qi came shooting at him, the strike of the arm shield turned the weight of over one million kilograms into a dreadful impacting force and smashed right into Bai Qi's body. It crashed and shattered Bai Qi's chest armor, as a jet of blood shot out from his mouth while he was knocked tumbling several tens of miles away. Then, he smashed and inserted into the cliff wall of a lofty mountain.
A loud cracking noise rang out; it was the sound that came from the explosion of Bai Qi's body armor. Countless scars and cuts were ripped open on his skin as blood oozed and sprayed out from these openings. Bai Qi was severely wounded by the joint attack of Wu Qi and Fan Yuqi, and he looked in a really terrible shape right now. But, he was seen taking a deep breath, and with that, all the murderous aura that was emanated by the countless soldiers on the battleground immediately gathered and turned into a rolling and rocking airwave, which took the shape of a white tiger, and rushed into his mouth. In the next moment, all the wounds on his skin began to quickly heal up. The broken bones and huge holes on his body had also patched up, and were completely healed in a very short amount of time.
Right after his chest restored back to its original position, Bai Qi immediately cried out at the top of his voice, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty the Empress! Wake up! The situation is perilous, please wake up now!!!"
Bai Qi threw his head back and kept roaring wildly. White mist burst out from around him and towered into the sky like a reversed waterfall, while his voice sounded loud like the cries of a dragon as it shook the clouds in the sky. As his long cry echoed out in the place, all the bloody killing aura that lingered in the battlefield, which was left behind by countless Qin soldiers after they were killed by the machines made by Mo Sect, quickly gathered and transformed into a fierce tiger, its body covered in patches of blood. It issued a long roar, while shooting straight towards the hot springs pool where Ying Zheng and Yuyao were currently being trapped by the enchanting formation.
Like a sharp blade, the fierce tiger ripped a large hole on the wisps of pinkish and white mists that were tangling and hovering in the air.
Sitting in the chariot and seeming to be pondering about something, Yuyao's body suddenly trembled, then abruptly rose to her feet. She looked around with great shock, then suddenly tightened her grip on the jade flute. With that, a large sheet of bright light immediately emitted from the long phoenix feathers and scattered some of the enchanting pinkish scents that was hovering around her. She calmed herself and looked down, then saw Ying Zheng was surrounded by a group of beautiful girls, many of whom had their white fox tails stretched out from their back. They were using the soft tails to wrap around Ying Zheng. It made him look like lying inside of a big white cocoon.
Struck by great terror, Yuyao cried out furiously, "Demoness!! How dare you!!"
With a wave of the jade flute, a clear and melodious sound rang out. Immediately, a pale yellow formation map emerged on top of Yuyao, from which, a large sheet of mighty and powerful yellow flame thrust out and poured towards all the fox ladies around Ying Zheng.
Quicker than words could tell, the last group of men of sacrifice, about a dozen of them, had once again self-exploded together behind Wu Qi, causing him to let out a painful shriek and be once again thrown forward by the force of the explosion. The speed this time was even greater than before. While yelling and howling furiously, and having his body fully wrapped by a layer of yellow energy barrier transformed from the earth element energy, Wu Qi was thrown right into the enchanting formation and smashed right onto Yuyao. Caught unprepared, Yuyao was knocked tumbling tens of miles away.
Unlike Yuji, Yuyao did not have a strong fleshly body, as she was more skillful in the art of scheming and strategy. When she was knocked by Wu Qi, who came with the force like a small mountain, she immediately coughed out a mouthful of blood, and more than half of her bones were broken.
"B*stard!!" Cursed Yuyao angrily, as she waved the jade flute and unleashed a layer of green light that smashed viciously onto Wu Qi.
Wu Qi was powerless when facing Yuyao's attack. As a result, he was hit by the flute and flew away like a yellow ball. The tremendous force shook Wu Qi and made him tremble from head to toe, nearly coughing out a mouthful of blood.
Yuyao cursed again, and was about to aim the yellow light shot out from the formation map above her toward Ying Zheng. All of a sudden, a coiling-dragon crescent blade poked out from midair from behind her, then thrust straight towards Yuyao's slender neck.
"Sister, it is Ying Zheng's destiny to be killed in this place today. Why don't you just give up now?" Yue Tan chuckled while thrusting her blade down in the most ruthless manner.
Yuji, who had changed into a long bright red dress, suddenly emerged right next to Yuyao like a ball of flaming spirit. Her two little fists pierced through the air while produced jarring wind breaking noise, smashing straight towards Yuyao's ribcage.
Left with no choice, Yuyao made the yellow light shot out from the formation map wrap around her, transforming into various weapons such as blades, spears, swords, halberds, and countless armored soldiers, blocking off all the attacks that came from Yue Tan and Yuji. A few loud booms echoed out as Yuyao was forced to take a few steps back by the attack. The two ladies did not stop there, and continued unleashing attacks that poured at Yuyao like a violent rainstorm.
As the battle between three ladies broke out, Wu Qi turned around and looked at them, then gave a deep look at Yuji, who appeared as if nothing had happened. After that, he quickly transformed into a stream of yellow mist and plunged right into the ground.
But this time, Wu Qi did not run away. Instead, he was hiding under the ground, paying close attention to the battle between three ladies.