Chapter 173: Breaking the Formation
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
A strange gleam was glinting in Wu Qi's eyes. Under his focused vision, all the secrets about those peculiar bolts were completely unmasked.
The bolt itself was cast from the merging of two materials: the ice essence from the northernmost ice land, and the Nine Nether Black Iron found in the evilest and filthiest places in the earth's core. It had an extreme Yin and devilish energy, and a thread of sinister venom that could destroy a cultivator's corporeal body and soul. During the process of making the bolts, they were also fused with nineteen types of deadly poisons, each able to kill a Human Immortal of Gold Core realm in an instant. Thus, these bolts were one of the most vicious weapons under the heaven. On top of that, Xu Fu and his fellow practitioners had enhanced the bolts with a rune named 'Ferocious Soul Spell', which was a spell that borrowed the strength from foul souls of beasts to corrode and destroy the body of a cultivator. It was also a very powerful spell.
With a volley of bolts being shot out, apart from some demon beasts whose cultivation base was comparable to Earth Immortals, all the other demon beasts within the radius of one hundred miles in the flying path of the bolts were instantly killed. Demon beast blood sprayed and splashed everywhere like a heavy downpour. Except for a couple dozens of the strongest demon beasts who could still hover in the sky with a blank expression, all other demon beasts fell heavily into the lake, splashing up waves that nearly touched the sky.
The catfish-flood-dragon who was rushing up from behind in high spirits with the black pearl in her hand, was struck dumb upon seeing what happened. She stood on a cloud and stared blankly at the Great Qin practitioners and soldiers who had deployed into a formation. She felt a coldness hit her body, not daring to take a step further. With just one strike over ten thousand demon beasts were killed. How many demon beasts with adequate cultivation base did she control in this Lake of Four Waters? The formation in front of her gave her a very threatening feeling, and she felt that she could easily get killed by it.
She hesitated, then gave a loud cry before spinning and fleeing back to the lake amidst a strong demon wind. Those stronger demon beasts were no fools, as when they saw the most powerful overlord of the lake had fled, they quickly followed closely behind her. They fled for their lives in a strong demon wind while spitting smoke and cloud from their mouth.
A mocking, cold smile emerged on Ying Zheng's face. In a low voice, he shouted, "Well, now that you're here, don't try to run. Catfish-flood-dragon, you're mine, and nobody is going to save you."
Standing in the formation halfway up the mountain, Xu Fu gave Li Si a glance, then said in an indifferent voice, "Please strike now, Prime Minister."
Li Si nodded his head. He took out the strange scroll and writing brush of his, looking towards the direction where all the demon beasts were fleeing. Then, he lightly wrote a character of 'slash' on the scroll. After that, he gave a soft cry, "Dharma Words, Slash, slaughter the four directions!" He gently flicked the writing brush, as the word immediately flew out soundlessly, turned into a sheet of barely visible light and shot out at an incredible speed.
A burst of miserable cries rang out, as a few slowest demon beasts suddenly had their bodies ripped apart from the middle. Their internal organs and blood jumped and shot out, falling into the lake below. Meanwhile, the several dozens of demon beasts fleeing at the front were heard roaring and howling in pain, as countless wounds suddenly appeared on their skins, some even penetrating deep into their internal organs. Through the large wounds and holes on their bodies, one could even see their wiggling internal organs. Some of them were so badly injured that they could no longer control their clouds and fly in the sky, forced to plunge heavily into the lake.
Li Si gave a smile. Once again, he lightly wrote a character of 'turn' on the scroll, then called out with a snort, "Dharma Words, Turn, the shift of heavenly bodies!" Again, he flicked the writing brush, sending the character out, which immediately turned into a bright beam. It shot and hit the body of the fleeing catfish-flood-dragon. Suddenly, the surrounding natural energies rippled in a weird fashion, as the catfish-flood-dragon abruptly disappeared where she was and reappeared in a place several miles away behind Ying Zheng and his men. Enshrouded in a layer of dark clouds and clenching her jaws tightly, the catfish-flood-dragon was now flying straight towards Ying Zheng's direction.
Xu Fu smiled and said indifferently, "The great magic power of Prime Minister is indeed miraculous."
The catfish-flood-dragon was bowing her head while running for her life, but suddenly, she found that the landscape underneath her did not look as it was supposed to. A moment ago, underneath her was a vast lake, but it was now filled with peaks beyond peaks. She quickly raised her head and immediately saw Ying Zheng, whose upper body was naked and was staring at her with a smile. The catfish-flood-dragon was greatly frightened and gave a great cry, opened her mouth and unleashed several dozens of Water element thunderbolts, throwing them at Ying Zheng and Bai Qi in a messy manner. After that, she turned the cloud and flew into a diagonal direction.
The tip of Li Si's writing brush moved again; the catfish-flood-dragon suddenly disappeared and reappeared again, still facing Ying Zheng and flying straight at him. No matter how she turned her direction, with just a single movement of Li Si's hand, she would immediately return to the same position, flying straight towards Ying Zheng.
With a grip of his palm Ying Zheng crushed all the Water element thunderbolts unleashed by the catfish-flood-dragon. He breathed out a long sigh and said, "Foul demon, why don't you just surrender before me? Let me seize your blood essence and soul, so that I can complete the first-stage cultivation of my Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic. Once I have ruled over the world, I'll then build a temple for you and let you enjoy the worshiping of my people. What do you think? I'll spare one single soul of yours and allow you to enter the reincarnation, and that is the greatest favor I can bestow. Or do you want me to destroy all your souls into nothingness, not leaving even the tiniest bit of chance for you to enter reincarnation?"
Burning with a frenzy of rage, the catfish-flood-dragon roared, "Temple? By that time, I've become a ghost in the underworld! What is the use of a temple then? All of you are rude people, how dare you to intrude this part of the mountain and wantonly slaughter my people? Do you know that I'm the subordinate of the Wanying Dragon King? Under the imperial order of Wanying Dragon King, I am guarding the Lake of Four Waters. I am the Mountain-Guarding General who protects the Eastern Gateway of Meng Mountains! If you kill me, Wanying Dragon King will never let you off!"
It would be best if she did not say that, because after hearing what she said, Ying Zheng's face suddenly turned very unsightly. He brought his hand to his chest, stroked a few times on the large wound which almost fully healed, but still looked particularly ugly. Then, he sneered and said, "Wanying Dragon King? It seems the demon dragon who injured me does call himself Wanying Dragon King. So… you are the subordinate of that demon dragon? Excellent. Excellent...!"
Then, Ying Zheng suddenly gave a stern cry, "Activate the formation, trap and kill it!"
Immediately Xu Fu let out a long and sonorous cry. His hands began moving at lightning speed, as stream after stream of bright lights was being unleashed from them. The group of several hundred practitioners beside him struck at the same time. They matched the runes unleashed by Xu Fu and kept casting all kinds of primordial runes. The runes cast out by Xu Fu was the trunk, while the runes cast by those practitioners were the branches and leaves. They wheeled around the trunk and turned into a large sheet of dim and hazy light. In a split second, they had completely covered the sky tens of miles wide, completely enveloping the catfish-flood-dragon and all her followers.
The brutal and merciless attack from Ying Zheng and his men had scared the soul out of those fleeing demon beasts. They simply ignored their superior and quickly plunged back into the Lake of Four Waters, heading straight to their own hideouts and daring not to come out again. The catfish-flood-dragon was now trapped in a tiny space in the sky, facing Ying Zheng and many thousands of formidable cultivators from Great Qin Dynasty alone.
Bai Qi took the lead and brought many soldiers to fly into the sky, surrounding the catfish-flood-dragon who was scared and did not know what to do next. They kept unleashing sword beam after sword beam, hitting and slamming into the catfish-flood-dragon. Bai Qi had exerted just enough strength when releasing his sword beams to not cause any harm to the catfish-flood-dragon, but always bring her a severe pain that would make her shake from head to toe. After several rounds of attacks, the catfish-flood-dragon's energy was almost depleted, and the dark water vapor enshrouding her body was getting paler.
She could no longer endure the pain. A shrill cry spewed out from her mouth, then she shot straight up and slammed into the light barrier that was entirely made from primordial runes. The collision generated a loud bang, then dozens of green thunderbolts emerged out of nowhere, smiting her body and making the water vapor disperse into all directions. Blood sprayed out crazily from all seven apertures of her, while her body was charred like a little fried fish in a cooking pan. She retracted in the sorriest state. Could the defensive mechanism formed by the joined hand of Xu Fu and his fellow practitioners be that easy to break through?
Suddenly, Li Si cast out a tiny character of 'mountain'. Just like what happened to Wu Qi that day, a small mountain plunged whistling down from above, crashing right onto the catfish-flood-dragon's head. She gave a horrifying cry, as the little mountain hit her and knocked her down from the sky, forcing her to kneel one leg on the ground while stretching both hands upward, trying to stop the mountain from pushing down further. She raised her head up and rested her eyes on Li Si and his men. There was a fierce and savage look in her eyes.
Ying Zheng smiled. He looked at the catfish-flood-dragon, who was now trapped by Li Si's Dharma Words, then said in an indifferent voice, "Foul demon, do you want to surrender yourself now? I'll give you one last chance: have your true spirit leave your body and enter the reincarnation, and just leave behind your body and your soul. If you try to do something again, I'll definitely destroy your true spirit and annihilate your only chance for reincarnation!"
The catfish-flood-dragon turned her wrist, intending to attack the enemy by throwing out the black pearl. But then, she ran her eyes on her surroundings, looking at the malicious face of Bai Qi, Bai Qitian, and all the other captains. Her blood ran cold, and she lost the last bit of courage to throw out her last weapon. She gnashed her teeth and stared at Ying Zheng for a while, then gave a shrill cry and said, "His Majesty Wanying Dragon King will definitely avenge me. All of you will die in these great mountains! You've slaughtered over ten thousand members of the aquatic clan in the Lake of Four Waters, and you are now the enemy of hundreds of millions of aquatic clans in Longyuan River! All of you will die in this mountain forest!"
"Hundreds of millions of aquatic clans?" A killing intent flashed upon Ying Zheng's face. He said in a deep voice, "Once I make the breakthrough in my cultivation, I'll deploy millions upon millions of Huben Army and wipe out all the aquatic demons in Longyuan River. I'll leave no survivor, not even a fish or a prawn!"
He gave a cold laugh, then continued saying proudly, "As for that Wanying Dragon King, he will be the first dragon soul for the second-stage cultivation of my Nine Dragons Cauldron Grand Magic. That will be his destiny!"
He strode forward and came one thousand feet before catfish-flood-dragon, formed an incantation with both hands and was about to grab her.
The catfish-flood-dragon's pupils contacted, holding the black pearl in her right palm, getting ready to throw it at Ying Zheng.
Right at this very moment, Wu Qi came stealthily three feet below the catfish-flood-dragon. From such close distance, he carefully transmitted his voice over to catfish-flood-dragon, making sure Ying Zheng or no other men could hear his voice. "Big catfish, listen to me carefully. If you can give me that pearl held in your hand along with all your treasures, I'll save you from this calamity." He whispered.
The catfish-flood-dragon narrowed her eyes, then nodded her head heavily. She was pretty clever, as she did not say anything. However, as the pressure coming from the little mountain was getting heavier, her body was now trembling ceaselessly, and she was holding her breath so that she could keep pushing the mountain up. Thus, she did not have the strength to say anything.
"Swear it with your prime soul, that you will give me all your treasures, and you will take no action against me. After all, what I am doing now is fishing in troubled waters. I'll save you only if you make the vow." Wu Qi smiled. Fishing in troubled waters was also one of the methods used by a grand thief. As long as it was used at the perfect moment, he would be able to make someone hand over their precious treasures willingly.
The catfish-flood-dragon took a deep breath, exerting her last bit of strength and roared out, "I swear with my prime soul to all the devils throughout the universe, that who can save me from this calamity, I'll give him all my treasures. Also, I'll never take any action against him afterward, and treat him as the most respectable guest of mine!"
Ying Zheng's face suddenly fell as he heard the catfish-flood-dragon make the vow. "Who is here? Who dares ruin my plan?" cried Ying Zheng sternly.
It was at this moment Wu Qi sprung up from underground with a wild laugh. Although he was surrounded by numerous Earth Immortals of Nascent Soul realm and Human Immortals of Gold Core realm, he showed no sign of fear. From his storage ring, he pulled out over six thousand talismans drawn by Gold Core sect elders of Heavenly Spirit Sect, then sprinkled them in all directions. He also took out the five huge talisman treasures, exhaled five breaths of innate energies onto them and tossed them into the enemies.
Wu Qi did not want to form a talisman formation inside his own Gold Core, as that would make him unable to use all kinds of flying swords and magical treasures. Although these five talisman treasures did possess some incredible power, but for Wu Qi, they were just five useless objects. Therefore, he did not feel pity and simply tossed them out, triggering the last and the most powerful offensive ability of them - self-explosion!
In a blink of an eye, over six thousand talismans exploded, the strength of which equaled six Human Immortals launching their full force attacks together within a space of one mile. On the other side, the self-explosion of five talisman treasures was comparable to the desperate strikes unleashed by five cultivators who had attained the mastery in their Gold Core cultivation. Such attack instantly absorbed all the natural energies from the surrounding area of one hundred miles. All the runes formations deployed by Xu Fu and the Dharma Words of Li Si were shattered instantly after losing the support from the natural energies.
Wu Qi gave a wild laugh, grabbed the catfish-flood-dragon and transformed into a yellow beam, plunging back into the ground.