Book 1, Chapter 6 – The Villagers
This was a vast forest. Standing on top of the hill and looking around, surrounded by the darkness of the night, there was only an endless amount of gigantic trees. A few night birds were suddenly scared away by something unknown, the creatures hiding in the shadows of the dark forest let out some weird cries, causing the dark forest to become even more horrifying.
Rapid friction in the grass sounded out, an almost 5 meter long black tiger leapt out from the grass in panic.
Before the tiger could land its feet on the ground, the air in front of it suddenly became twisted. Wu Qi whose body was covered in burns and was covered in a thick layer of blood fell down heavily and smashed into the ground in front of the black tiger. The wild black tiger swung its palm, smashing towards Wu Qi’s head out of instinct. The huge tiger palm carried a fierce wind with it, and the force was certainly powerful enough shatter a huge rock.
A few loud shouts sounded out from behind some trees, 5-6 arrows penetrating through the air with a tearing sound approached its target with great speed.
The grass was shaking once again. Three animals that looked like deer’s, but had a single horn growing out from the middle of their heads were carrying three strong men wearing woven clothes, and they were approaching the black tiger with great speed.
The black tiger could hear the approaching arrows. Before it had the time to strike Wu Qi’s skull, it hurriedly twisted its waist, then its huge body hastily swayed to the side, the arrows were close, but they missed. A few bright stars which glowing in a bizarre amber was seen on the black tiger’s fur. The sharp arrow heads only brought a few strands of hair away from its body.
Before the scared black tiger could touch the ground once again, the three strong men controlled their mounts and rushed over to its back with great speed.
A thick pure steel pike with a diameter resembling a bowl was stabbed underneath the black tiger at the right timing. The man holding this steel pike took advantage of his speed and pushed the pike with all his strength. The black tiger which weighed at least one to two thousand kilos was pushed to the side slightly by the force.
After losing its balance in midair, the black tiger couldn’t remain balanced when it landed. It rolled uncontrollably upon landing.
Another two men shouted with high pitched cheers, they were howling rudely. They struck their blade and sword separately towards the black tiger’s neck. The black tiger who could only barely stand had no chance of evading these attacks. The blade and sword hit the left and right side of its neck. In this dark forest, two streams of blood shot up into the air.
The black tiger cried out in despair. It twisted its waist with all its strength, and then its gigantic tail swung out together with the fierce wind. The men who were carrying weapons simply didn’t have the time to evade it, the tail collided with their chests and sent them flying 7-8 meters away.
The sound of bones breaking was heard, the man who was hit spat out some blood while flying through the air. He fell down onto the ground and rolled a few times, he was unable to stand back up.
The man who just pushed the black tiger roared out in anger. He struck his steel pike like a deadly python and forcefully impaled it into the black tiger’s neck.
A few more arrows approached from behind and impaled the black tiger’s fat round butt. The arrow heads were fed with a strong anesthetic, so after suffering from a few serious wounds, the black tiger cramped up and crawled onto the ground, its body finally turned stiff.
Few of the men riding on those weird deer’s carried their strong bows in their hands and slowly walked out from the grass, everyone were happily cheering.
The man who was carrying the steel pike put down his weapon and jumped down from his mount. He pulled his companion who had been struck by the tiger’s tail and put him close to the tiger neck that was still bleeding. The wounded man hurriedly opened his mouth and swallowed the tiger’s blood. Not long after this, to one’s surprise, he could stand up and support his body on his own.
The men cheered again. Right at this moment, a man who carried a strong bow finally discovered Wu Qi who was laying naked on the ground.
A few men came closer to Wu Qi, then they wiped off the thick blood on Wu Qi’s chest and looked at the cracked skin on his chest. Nodding their heads and mumbling softly, they dragged Wu Qi to the side of the tiger. They opened his mouth and fed him with the tiger’s blood until his stomach became full.
After rudely throwing Wu Qi onto a mount like a worn-out sack, a few of the men chopped some tree branches in high spirit, then they made a stretcher and carried the huge tiger while singing an unknown tune. They ventured into the mountain forest happily.
Wu Qi woke up from his coma, he was now laying on a bed stinking of wild animals.
This was a wooden house about that was only a few meters wide. It was built from some wide tree trunks. The bark on the tree trunks were still there, and some of the tree trunks with a strong will to live had even grown some new leaves on it, but no one really cared.
Inside the house, next to a wooden table and a few round tree stumps that were being used as chairs, there was only a stone bed which Wu Qi was currently resting on. The stone bed was made from mountain rock and was covered in dozens of beast skins. The technology used to process these beast skins was not comparable to regular standards, therefore, these skins still carried the body odor of some beasts. Tiger, wild bear, leopard, all sorts of wild animals. There were even some animal skins that Wu Qi was unable to recognize.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, a powerful yet soft and tender energy appeared. Within the ‘Water Arteries’ of his ‘Seven Stealing Heaven Arteries’, which were located in in both his arms, the energy instantly circulated all over his body. He focused his mind and watched internally, Wu Qi could feel the thick and strong arteries in his body glowing in a watery blue amber.
'The Seven Foundation Establishments – Chapter Source of Water’, the way of circulating the internal energy in his body felt so ‘familiar’.
Tears dropped down from Wu Qi’s eyes, his body trembled violently, and he almost cried out loud.
In the Great Universal Dimension Portal’s transmitting process, Wu Wang and Le Xiaobai’s bodies had turned into ashes. Their souls were even disintegrated into tiny soul fragments. When the mysterious human figure was passing the ‘Scroll of Stealing’ to him, all these soul fragments had rushed into Wu Qi’s Divine Sense and merged with his soul.
Reading through all the extra memories and knowledge in his soul, blood suddenly started bleeding out from Wu Qi’s lip.
All of Wu Wang’s and Le Xiaobai’s experiences and knowledge had now merged with Wu Qi’s soul and become part of it.
He had obtained all of Wu Wang’s combat knowledge and combat willpower, as well as all his combat experience and all sorts of weird experiences. He had also obtained Le Xiaobai’s insane knowledge, as well as his shocking memories and amazing comprehension ability.
Scroll of Stealing, Scroll of Stealing, when someone has too much while we are insufficient, then we will take their excess and supply our own insufficiency! The first time he cultivated the Scroll of Stealing, the biggest benefit Wu Qi had gained was from his most respected teacher and his best friend! This was the same as Wu Qi swallowing Wu Wang’s and Le Xiaobai’s souls while they were still alive. How could he not be sad, how could he not be in pain?
[TL: Author writes Scroll of Stealing twice.]
Wu Wang’s left leg exploding, Wu Qi could now understand why it did.
Before he went undercover in the Underhand Sect, Wu Wang’s left leg had been implanted with a powerful metal hydrogen bomb. The bomb was connected to Wu Wang’s life, so when Wu Wang’s life ended, when his heart stopped beating, the bomb would explode.
Knowing that after entering the Great Universal Dimensional Portal there would be no way for the three of them to survive, Wu Wang committed suicide and caused the bomb in his left leg to explode. This resulted in a chain reaction with the Great Universal Dimensional Portal, which then created an explosion large enough to turn Miao Yuan and Shangguan Ye into ashes.
“Teacher, teacher!”
“And Le Xiaobai, how come you all just died like that?!”
Wu Qi curled up his body and suddenly started crying out loud. Blood and tears was splashing around, his body was trembling and cramping violently.
No matter how many things he had accomplished in the Underhand Sect, how many incidents he had experienced, he was still a teenager.
The teacher who gave him a new life was now dead. The best friend who was like his brother was dead as well. The young men from the Greedy Wolf Group whom he had spent so many years together with were all killed. He was trapped in the Great Universal Dimensional Portal and was sent to an unknown place. Wu Qi felt like a kite that had its line cut, it had lost all direction and just floating around. He had lost all target.
Just when Wu Qi was crying in pain, the house’s wooden door was kicked open by someone. A muscular man whose height was definitely greater than 2 meters came in. He placed a clay bowl as big as a washbasin onto the table ferociously. This ripped muscular man with black hair all over his face and chest roared fiercely, “Man, are you man or woman?! Cry for what?! What are you crying for?!”
The muscular man’s voice was awful and rough, and the words he used were rude as well. It carried a thick local accent.
Wu Qi by himself couldn’t understand what this muscular man was saying, but luckily he had merged with all the memories and experiences of Wu Wang and Le Xiaobai. Wu Wang had seen a lot, and he had almost traveled all over the world. As for Le Xiaobai, he was insanely intelligent, all the languages of the world, including the local dialects of those African tribes, he had almost learned them all.
Therefore, Wu Qi was able to understand what this muscular man was saying.
The muscular man’s accent resembled the local dialect of those from North East of Hebei, but it had more of a native slang. When Wu Wang was training in a remote village within some mountains, the old folks in that village spoke almost the same way as this man.
Wiping away the blood and tears on his eyes, Wu Qi stood up and bowed towards the man.
“Thank you for saving my life. What uncle said is right, men shouldn’t cry.”
After being shouted at by that man, Wu Qi suddenly realized; what is the point of crying, and is there a need to cry? If Miao Yuan and Shangguan Ye aren’t dead, then he can just cultivate with all his effort and find a way to return and get revenge. If they’re dead, then he will just destroy the Green Mountain Sect and avenge Wu Wang, Le Xiaobai and the Greedy Wolf Group.
The willpower that Wu Qi inherited from Wu Wang was now showing a huge effect. Wu Qi sopped his crying and immediately made up his mind.
The tender weakness in his body disappeared, and a killing intent silently replaced it.
The muscular man nodded his head in approval. He pointed towards the big clay bowl on the table and smiled, “This is my man! Hey, I prepared a bowl of tiger meat for you! Finish it fast and restore your energy. The meat of the Illuminate Tiger helps man regain his strength, helps woman stimulate milk production, this is the best!”
Then he stopped for a while, the muscular man suddenly rolled his eyes and pointed ferociously at Wu Qi and said, “What did you just call me? Uncle? Do I look that old? I’m only 14 this year, and you’re calling me uncle? You, do I look that old?”
Only 14?
Wu Qi looked at the almost two meter tall muscular man with the ripped body, he looked at the black hair on his face, and then he looked at rough body. Is this someone who is supposed to be a 14 year old teenager?
But, maybe, the calculation of age in here is different from what is he familiar with?
Organizing his thoughts, Wu Qi respectfully held his fist towards the muscular man and said, “It was Wu Qi being rude. Little brother, thank you again for saving me!”
The little brother whose face was filled with black hair started laughing out loud. He grabbed two woven clothes from his beast skin bag and gave them to Wu Qi. With a smile he said, “Little brother, I like how you call me that! Eat that meat fast, our elders have something to ask you!”
Shaking his head with a pleased expression, the man left Wu Qi. He twisted his butt and walked out from the wooden house.
Wu Qi stared blankly at that huge clay bowl on the table. It looked like there was at least 2,5kg of tiger meat in the bowl. He furrowed his brows slightly.
After breathing out a long sigh, he reluctantly ate a few chunks of the rough tiger meat and drank two mouthfuls of the soup to ease his thirst, then he walked out from the wooden house.
A village with a beautiful landscape presented itself in front of Wu Qi.