Chapter 300: A Serial Killer
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
Two Great Zhao's generals were standing right next to a spirit spring found somewhere in the immortal abode with immensely copious energy. They were each clad in a warrior outfit, with long fitted sleeve unique to Great Zhao, the design of which had given up the traditional loose robe and large sleeves. They looked experienced and capable, and were frowning while resting their eyes on a few pale-purple spirit plants in the spring water, which looked like some ordinary seaweeds.
After some time, one of the generals carefully bent his body forward. With his right palm wrapped in a layer of pale white glow, he performed a hand incantation, and was about to scoop up some of the spirit plants and give them a closer examination. Suddenly, the spring water wobbled and rippled, and a face could be clearly seen under the water. The face grinned broadly, and out of the general’s expectation, two arms stretched up from under the water and grabbed him by the neck. With a twist and a pull, he was dragged into the water with a splash.
*Crack!* The general's neck was twisted and broken by a strong force. Blood oozed out from his mouth, blending with the crystal clear water and turned it red.
The other general was stupefied. He roared with great wrath, and with his left hand grasping a bow, right hand pinching an arrow, he was ready to strike at the bizarre face under the water. But suddenly from the ground next to his feet, a clump of yellow mist came spraying out, followed by the stretching out of seven to eight arms, which grabbed onto his ankles and knees messily and pulled him down into the ground with full force. In just a twinkle, half of the general's body had sunk into the soil.
"Am I seeing things?!" The general struggled with a twist of his body, trying to shake away those arms grabbing at his legs. However, he was shocked by their toughness. They felt extremely sturdy, as if they were not made of mere flesh and blood. He struggled violently with all his forces, and then he heard a crack, as all the bones below his waist were pinched to pieces by these iron arms. The general wailed, but a sharp sword immediately pierced from the back of his head and came out from his forehead, turning him stiff and crumbling his Nascent Soul.
The surface of the spring water rippled. Slowly, Wu Qi's true form emerged from under it, as he picked a few fruits that grew on the spirit plants in the water.
Then, streams of yellow mist shot out from the surroundings, as eighteen celestial fiend puppets who looked exactly like Wu Qi sprung out from under the ground. Their eyes were flashing with pale red fiend flame, as they opened their mouths wide and took a deep breath in. Immediately, the Nascent Souls of two Great Zhao's generals crumbled and turned into countless tiny streams of energy, flowing through the air and plunging into these celestial fiend puppets' bodies. With that, the soul pearls inside them expanded slightly, and their speed of absorbing natural energy improved as well.
Wu Qi gladly looked at these celestial fiend puppets, and with a slight movement of his body, all of them transformed into half-transparent shadows and fused back with him. After being nourished by Wu Qi's innate earth element energy and cultivating the Celestial Fiend Battle the Heaven Script, the strength of these puppets was nearly double of Wu Qi himself. Furthermore, by relying on the magical effect of innate escape art, it was actually a very easy task to sneak attack and kill a few Great Zhao's generals of Nascent Soul realm.
He looted all the energy stones found on both generals, while not touching any of their spirit pills or talismans. Then, Wu Qi wrote down a row of big characters beside them using their blood, 'I, Lu Buwei, kill these men!'
For three days in a row, Wu Qi explored the Cang Ao Immortal Abode. While his main purpose was to plunder all rare and precious treasures he could find, when he met some of Great Zhao's generals and cultivators who were alone, he would ambush and kill them without the slightest hesitation. Although he only had the cultivation base of mid-stage Gold Core realm, his overall strength was comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator. On top of that, as he possessed a great array of strange and peculiar items under his sleeve, and was aided by the Spirit-Restricting Rope, none of Great Zhao's general and cultivator who he had his eyes on could escape.
The energy stones he robbed had piled up into a small hill, and his wealth had taken a huge leap in just three days.
Cang Ao Immortal Abode had a very strange restrictive mechanism. According to the pattern of Nine Halls, Eight Trigrams, Six Directions, and Four Quadrants, the entire immortal abode was divided into four layers from top to bottom, and a total of ninety-six regions across. Everyone who came here was randomly thrown into different regions by the restrictive mechanism.
Between each region was a very strong restrictive formation, which no ordinary cultivators could break apart easily. However, those cultivators at the same region could gather in a group and travel freely, which was why Zhao Ling could gather a group of Great Zhao's cultivators with him. Nevertheless, as most of the people were scattered in different regions, nobody from the six dynasties could assemble a really large group of people at one time.
Apparently, apart from Lu Buwei, who could travel freely between regions in the immortal abode with his divine ability of Great Portage of Five Ghosts, nobody could really assemble a large team.
Therefore, taking the rare opportunity, Wu Qi began to wantonly murder Great Zhao's generals and cultivators who were in a small group. As long as they came in groups of five or less, they would be attacked and killed by him. And every time he killed a group of them, he would leave the same words on the ground. Although it was an obvious framing, he still wanted to do it, as he wished to disgust Lu Buwei and let him know that there was always someone that he could never afford to offend.
Following the same method he treated Zhao Ling, he cut both generals into pieces and threw them messily on the ground. Then, he transformed into a stream of yellow mist and plunged back into the ground.
Wu Qi traveled for some distance under the ground following the restrictive formation in Cang Ao Immortal Abode, and very soon, he discovered another Great Zhao's general with his divine will, who was wearing the same warrior outfit with long fitted sleeves and a soft armor. The general was emanating an aura that vaguely blended with the surroundings, a sign that he had a cultivation base of early-stage Nascent Divinity realm. There was a misty fog lingering behind his back, amidst which, one could see the images of mountains and rough terrains, and many army camps. A murderous aura soared from the countless army camps, and the beating of drums could be faintly heard.
Wu Qi carefully poked his head out behind an artificial hill to the side of this general and gave him a look. According to the portraits Lu Chengfeng prepared for Wu Qi, this man was one of the core generals from Great Zhao, a general who was famous for talking about stratagems on paper - Zhao Kuo. Currently, he was carefully confronting a great golden python, who had a pair of horns on its head and two claws near its abdomen. Behind the great python was a flatland about several miles in circumference, fully grown with countless tiny, red grasses that measured roughly one foot tall, with numerous thumb-sized berries hanging on their tips.
Wu Qi knew these berries. They were one of the rare treasures found in nature, the 'Serpent Blood Berries', a poisonous berry that was the favorite of great snakes and pythons who had yet to transform into flood dragons. The berry could stimulate their bloodline, temper their fleshly bodies, and improved the probability for them to transform into flood dragons. Every one hundred years, the Serpent Blood Berry would reach their mature stage, and they would remain on the plant for another one hundred years before they fell down. The berries could stay ripe for one hundred years before they became rotten, and after that, the poisonous miasma produced by them would linger in the area for another hundred years before turning into ashes. Apart from those great snakes and pythons who had attained a certain level of cultivation base, any other creatures who consumed the berry and could not withstand the poisonous substance in the berries would have their bodies turn into a pile of bones.
In the grassland that covered an area of several miles in circumference, there laid several thousand huge skeletons of flood dragons, filling the land with many white bones and looking rather eerie. Countless Serpent Blood Berries were growing on top of these bones, looking extra vigorous and luxuriant. Each of the berry was grown to the size of a human head, emitting a gorgeous red light that looked very enchanting.
With a steel spear grabbed tightly in each hand, Zhao Kuo was seen staring straight at the great golden python. In a deep voice, he cried, "It happens that I'm lacking an excellent steed. If you surrender to me, I'll form an alliance of life and death with you and bring you out from this place. Do you not see the situation clearly with your intelligence? All your ancestors were killed by the immortal abode's restrictive spells when they found their hope in transforming into dragons. So what if you have cultivated for millions of years? You will still be killed by the restrictive spells!"
The great python was seen darting its long tongue in and out. Strangely, its tongue looked different than those ordinary snakes, as it did not split into a folk near the end, and looked round like a human tongue. The great python hissed and said, "Even if I am killed eventually, I'll still stay here to keep guard of my ancestors' remains. Gold Horn will not leave this place, never. You are a human cultivator, and my ancestors always told us that human cultivators are the must treacherous beings under the heaven! You can never be trusted!"
The great python, which called itself Gold Horn, opened its mouth and spat out a ball of red flame. He hissed and cried out fiercely, "Scram now, or face your death!"
Zhao Kuo grinned coldly, and began to spin both spears quickly, making them looked like two dark whirlwinds. With many invisible whirlwinds lingering around him, he cried in a deep voice, "If that is your decision, I'll beat you until you surrender! For you are destined to be my steed!"
With a swing of both spears, Zhao Kuo shot out two dark lightnings that thrust towards Gold Horn like two dark dragons. Refusing to admit being inferior, Gold Horn tilted its head high up and sprayed out two jets of red flame. Like two sword beams, they twisted and flew into the sky, then greeted Zhao Kuo's steel spears. Although the steel spears were lower-grade magical treasures, they were still made using metal essence. On the other hand, the flame sprayed out by Gold Horn came with an extremely high temperature, and contained deadly venom. As a result, the black steel spears slowly turned red from the intense burning of the flame.
This brought an unsightly expression to Zhao Kuo's face. He was a Nascent Divinity cultivator, and although the steel spears were not his best weapons, they were still lower-grade magical treasures. Yet, he was pushed into a tight corner by a demon python who had just formed its Nascent Soul? Evidently, Gold Horn's innate talent was overly powerful, to the extent that it was very difficult to be countered.
Right when Zhao Kuo was pondering about how to make Gold Horn surrender, another great python came darting out from the ground beside him suddenly, silver in color. This python had a similar size to Gold Horn, measuring about one hundred feet long. Upon its debut, the great silver python immediately opened its mouth and shot out two bright beams. Gold Horn pulled back its flame, and the bright beams from the silver python came right at the same time and smashed viciously on Zhao Kuo's steel spears. An extremely cold air burst out in an instant, and Zhao Kuo's steel spears, which had turned extremely hot because of the flame just now, cracked and broke into numerous pieces because of the extremely cold air, falling to the ground.
Zhao Kuo burst out into a loud laughter, clapping his hands as he said, "Found one and got another one for free! Excellent! Now, with two great pythons in hand, I can give one to Chief-Father!"
Although his steel spears were destroyed, Zhao Kuo did not seem to be moved. Clearly, they were just some random weapons he messily refined with a tiny bit of his own blood essence, and did not even left his Prime Nascent Divinity in them. After giving out some praising words for two the ferocious-looking pythons, Zhao Kuo touched his storage ring and pulled out a handful of silver metal balls, each glinting brilliantly. He casually threw them out, making some clouds rise from the ground immediately, amidst which came rushing out several tens of elite soldiers who stood thirty feet tall, hands grasping various weapons as they charged towards the two great pythons.
Zhao Kuo laughed and said, "This is my proudest divine ability, the Magical Pod Soldiers! With it, I can instantly summon even an army of millions upon millions of soldiers as I like! Surrender now, you wild beasts! Or else..."
Right when Zhao Kuo summoned the soldiers with his divine ability, Wu Qi had already plunged back into the ground. And when Zhao Kuo was laughing out loud with his head thrown back, Wu Qi had resurfaced behind his back. With a point of his finger, the Sword of Greedy Wolf transformed into a dark beam and thrust straight towards Zhao Kuo's a*shole. At the same time, Wu Qi waved his left hand and cast out the Spirit-Restricting Rope, turning it into a strong purple light that rolled up towards Zhao Kuo.
While laughing out loud complacently, Zhao Kuo suddenly felt there was a chilly breeze that came caressing from his back. It made his hair stand at their ends, as he cried out instantly, "Stop! I surrender!!"
The Spirit-Restricting Rope bounded Zhao Kuo in one swift move, completely sealing off all the activity of his energy, blood essence, and even his soul. Wu Qi halted Sword of Greedy Wolf, then slowly and leisurely walked before Zhao Kuo. He stretched his hand out and patted on Zhao Kuo's face.
"Zhao Kuo, the general who talks about stratagems on paper, should I kill you or not?"