Chapter 630: The Time Has Come
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_
As Wu Qi was about to reply to King Yang Qiu's recruitment, his heart suddenly jerked, and a flood of blood rushed up into his head, making him feel uneasy. Not daring to ignore this sudden omen, he gave his captive a fierce glare while glancing quickly over the gleaming, dark storage ring on his finger. But in the end, he could not muster the courage to seize it. Without hesitation, he spun and vanished into smoke, leaving no trace behind.
Startled, King Yang Qiu looked at the spot where he had disappeared and muttered, "I could have avoided all the humiliation if I knew I could scare you off with a mere recruitment..."
Then, he frowned, clenching his jaws as he grumbled, "That b*stard King Zhang Qiu actually has such a capable subordinate working for him? Good... I must find him and turn him into my subordinate! Damn it! How can you leave me here? What am I going to do now?"
Wu Qi's weapon that had entangled him in his spiritual ocean, Starshark, was gone with its master. But, the Immortal Detaining Needles that had imprisoned his body were still there. He could not muster any strength at all. His joints were dislocated, his meridians were broken, and all he could do was lie blankly in the dark cave while sighing.
After about a quarter of an hour, there were ghost wails and wolf howls suddenly coming from all around the place. Then, a fierce and almost tyrannical aura came whistling down from the sky, and there was a flash of a ferocious monster. It looked like a true dragon, but was a little shorter, and much stouter than the slender, graceful true dragon. King Yang Qiu was overjoyed: he knew the monster, who was Yu Gu's beast soul, the Yazi!
The 3,600 layers of restrictive barriers that Wu Qi had placed to trap both their aura and sound were ripped to pieces in just a flash. Colossal waves, more than a hundred miles in height, rose all around the area, sweeping across the sea and tearing dozens of nearby islands to pieces. As the wave took King Yang Qiu out of the cave, a gloomy, cold divine sense passed through his body. Then, a withered, thin, giant hand stretched out of the void, grabbed his body, and dragged him in.
Yu Gu had finally found out that King Yang Qiu was gone, and no one knew where he was. Shocked, he immediately used the most powerful force to search for him. Following the protective spells he left in King Yang Qiu's soul, he found the general position almost immediately. So, without hesitation, he traveled across billions of miles with his divine ability, destroyed all the islands and shallow seabed within a thousand miles with a palm strike, and eventually rescued the man.
Thousands of miles away, Wu Qi had transformed into an ancient Shen and breathed out a mass of Shen energy to cover up his whereabouts and aura. He sighed as he watched the Yazi plunge down from the sky. Supreme Oracles were indeed the ultimate deterrent of Great Yu Dynasty. Although separated by billions of miles, Yu Gu could still exert such amazing power. The ability of these almighty experts was truly astonishing.
What had caused Wu Qi's heart to jerk and his blood to rush in the cave was a presentiment that the ancient immortals often had. Although his energy level was still in the realm of Heaven Immortals, the cultivation techniques he practiced, be it the Scroll of Stealing, the Song of Gale, the Dark Yin Water Scripture, the Inferno Hell Fiend Scripture, or others, they were all superior techniques. So, the level of his cultivation base had, in fact, surpassed his energy level, breaking through the realm of Heaven Immortals.
Even if his cultivation base had only just stepped into the threshold of the Gold Immortals, when the crisis that threatened his very safety was about to come, he was warned by the miraculous presentiment.
Although King Yang Qiu's fleshly body was strong enough to compete with the most powerful Gold Immortal, because human warriors never cultivated their souls, he was unable to learn any divine ability used by the immortals. That was why Wu Qi was able to plot against and even capture him, and yet he did not feel anything wrong in advance.
Yu Gu would have sensed the abduction ahead of time. But, because his life was approaching an end, he did not want to waste any of his power where it was not necessary. So, he had always kept them within himself, and that made him no different from an average old man most of the time. Therefore, even though he was very strong, he could only protect himself and not take care of King Yang Qiu at the same time.
After figuring out the cause and effect, Wu Qi breathed a sigh as he felt his Dao Heart becoming rounder and brighter, and he seemed to know more about karma than before. Looking at the undulating waters ahead, he did not hesitate anymore and immediately transformed into a Gale, flying up into the sky and speeding away for Zhong Province.
'King Yang Qiu mistook me for King Zhang Qiu's man? This is a great misunderstanding!'
Wu Qi did not have a good or bad opinion of King Zhang Qiu. He was now hooking up with Lord Long Yang, and who knew if they had already developed some kind of relationship beyond ordinary friendship. In any case, since Lord Long Yang was Wu Qi's secret ally, that made King Zhang Qiu more or less involved with his interests.
'I should just let them fight each other!' Wu Qi thought as he began to ponder over how he could get more benefits out of the increasingly chaotic situation.
Wu Qi remained in Dong Hai County for the next six months, using the excuse of recovering from the injuries caused by Madman Xue. During this time, he either traveled around with Princess Zhang Le, had dual-cultivation with her, trained the soldiers himself, cultivated in the spirit cave where the natural energies gathered, or helped You Jin mine energy stones and immortal stones. All in all, he was busy and happy. Although it was laborious, all of this had also brought him very fruitful results.
First of all, the level of his energy was further advanced, making him one step closer to the peak of Heaven Immortal realm, and the power of his various divine abilities had also increased by a great deal.
Second, the entire Luo Clan had been moved to An Yi County and integrated into the Underhand Sect. With the blessed land, Mount Picking Star, as their base; the support of the underground immortal energy vein; as well as the unlimited energy stones, immortal stones and spirit herbs supplied by Wu Qi, all the members of the Luo Clan and the demons whom Wu Qi had subdued were advancing at a tremendous pace, each much stronger than before.
Now, both An Le County and An Yi County were ruled by Wu Qi. All the officials in both counties were either replaced by his celestial fiend puppets, taken over by him with violence and money, or killed by 'Myriad Immortal Alliance' and replaced by the elites of Scouting Office commanded by Su Qin. The Underhand Sect was secretly growing in Mount Picking Star, and who would know there were so many cultivators hiding in the mountain if they did not go out to cause trouble?
Under Wu Qi's cover, the armies had never been near An Yi County. While the rest of the world was drenched in blood because of the war, An Yi County and An Le County remained quiet and peaceful, becoming a rare paradise in these chaotic times.
Hai Province's army had secretly expanded to 50,000 men. Using a variety of ways, Wu Qi and Su Qin had taken control of the soldiers and turned them into the most loyal fighters. Meanwhile, taking advantage of Great Yu's campaign against the Myriad Immortal Alliance, many of Wu Qi's puppets had disguised as merchants, visiting various places and purchasing large quantities of captured immortals and itinerant cultivators. He was preparing to have a large-scale blood sacrifice in the future to improve the overall strength of the 50,000 soldiers.
In the past six months, nearly a thousand provinces had turned into war zones.
The saying that 'when immortals fight, the mortals suffer' was well proven on Pangu Continent. With just one random attack, the human military officers and the immortals of the alliance could destroy everything within tens of thousands of miles. Although they had yet to possess the mighty power of the ancient almighty experts, and neither had they been able to inflict permanent damage on the continent, their attacks were strong enough to kill countless mortals.
Furthermore, in the alliance were countless immortals of the Fiend League, Evil League, Ghost League, and Demon League who were all extremely cruel and ferocious. Taking the opportunity that the flames of war were raging across the land, they wildly massacred mortals and collected an astronomical number of souls to craft all sorts of evil magical items. For a moment, these provinces, as the main battlefields, were filled with miserable scenes that could not be described in words. So much for the so-called hell…
The climax of the war came when three thousand Fiend immortals, taking the opportunity that the army was not attacking them, joined hands and killed all the people in one of the seventh grade provinces. They extracted the souls and blood essence of hundreds of millions of people to craft a very powerful Fiend treasure, the 'Mirror of the Eye', and used it to inflict heavy casualties on Bo Yunting's army!
This made the Human Emperor fly into a rage. Imperial edicts were sent to all major provinces, and the whole world moved into action. All the provinces had assembled their soldiers, and the many Kings and nobles stationed in various places also prepared their private armies. Before long, a comprehensive attack was unleashed against all the itinerant cultivators on Pangu Continent. Whether these cultivators were the allies of the alliance or not, they were slaughtered wherever the armies went.
The Great Celestial Emperor of the Heaven had long issued a decree that nobody from the Heaven should interfere in the war on Pangu Continent.
The cultivators of Buddhist League, on the other hand, were taking advantage of the war to drum up believers. Great Yu paid no heed to these seemingly harmless cultivators, but butchered those unlucky fellows from the Dao League.
For a moment, Pangu Continent was in a complete mess, and everyone felt precarious. As more and more itinerant cultivators were killed, the alliance, which was almost as desperate as a cornered dog, made a big move. A few Elders of the Divine Hall summoned tens of thousands of giant meteors from outer space to attack Pangu Continent, causing consternation among Great Yu's officials, but also increasing the animosity between them.
In Dong Hai City, when Wu Qi quietly listened to all the information the Scouting Office had sent back, he burst out laughing.
"The time has come! My father-in-law and his comrades can finally come to Pangu Continent!"
Such a chaotic situation was a great opportunity for the elite heroes of the Warring States Period to bring their talents into full play!