Princess Zhang Le, with her bloodline of Ancient God, could control various kinds of natural energies, and communicate with Ghost Gods and the spirit of mountains and water. She had also formed the golden body of the God of Scourge, which gave her mysterious powers. So, she was appointed as the Great Oracle of Dong Hai in charge of all the affairs of the Directorate of Celestials, and had the power to supervise over everything in the province.
When Wu Qi was away, she would be his representative, serving as the acting Prefecture Overseer.
Lu Chengfeng was appointed as the chief administrative officer in charge of all the administrative affairs in the province. Things he had to take care of included agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fishing, reproduction of the population, exploration and extraction of minerals, production of weapons, and many others. In short, he was in charge of everything that was essential for the province's day-to-day development.
Yan Bugui was appointed chief judge of the Punishment Court to oversee the penal and spy departments. These were the jobs he used to do, so he was able to handle them with ease. He was supposed to be serving directly under Yan Dan in An Le County, but Dong Hai Province was so understaffed that Lu Chengfeng had transferred him here. From then on, he broke away from Yan Dan's courtier rank and became Wu Qi's personal courtier.
Lord Xiansheng was appointed Military Minister. He would govern the various forces of the province, including naval, land, human, and demon; and was responsible for the recruitment and training of the armies. He had cultivated the dragon body, and he was well-educated and very skilled in the art of war. He was considered the best general under Wu Qi. No one else was more suitable for the position than him, and Wu Qi was not at ease with letting someone else take this position. He could not have that Ao Buzun commanding the army, could he? Who knew if that fellow was going to train him an army or some unbridled bandits?
Catfish was appointed as Left Military Minister and chief commander of the naval force, in charge of the army of aquatic demons. Wu Qi was actually reluctant to charge someone as unreliable as her with managing the naval force, but he had no other choice. There were not many dependable people under him, and she was considered one that he could trust because of their relationship. Again, if Ao Buzun had been a little more reliable, Wu Qi would not have let Catfish be in charge of the naval force.
Wu Qi only hoped that Catfish would not eat up all the soldiers in this army of aquatic demons before they could play their rightful roles. After all, she had a big appetite, and these aquatic demons were all delicious seafood for her.
Huang Liang was appointed the Right Military Minister and chief commander of the ground force. Wu Qi trusted Huang Liang more than Catfish. Although he was greedy, lustful, and afraid of death, he still had some courage in his blood. And most importantly, he was loyal to Wu Qi. He was not strong enough to charge at the front in a battle, which was a known fact. But as a veteran of Military Court, Huang Liang was perfectly capable of training the army.
Compared to Catfish, who had the habit of picking a few of her subordinates to eat from time to time, at least Huang Liang did not eat people.
Patriarch Jiang Yun and his two wives, the three old immortals Qing Xin, Qing Shen, and Qing Yi, Wu Qi's good brother Supremacy Three Flame, Lord Xiansheng's father Ao Guang, and two Elders representing the people of Long Bo and the clan of heavenly ghosts respectively, formed the Elder's Council of Dong Hai Immortal Alliance, whose function was to administrate all the native immortals in the province. Whether in the sea or in the river, in the mountains or in the caves, whether men, demons, ghosts, monsters, spirits, animals, plants, birds or beasts, all native cultivators in Dong Hai Province were placed under the control of this council.
The main component of Dong Hai Immortal Alliance was Wu Qi's Underhand Sect. After years of development, Underhand Sect now had 18,000 disciples, all of whom had excellent aptitude. Then there were the immortals from White Cloud Immortal Sect and Tranquil Vimalā Sect. They were small in number, perhaps in the hundreds. The rest were aquatic demons from the Dragon Palace of East Sea. Their cultivation bases were not strong, but they were great in number. As for the people of Long Bo and the heavenly ghosts Wu Qi had brought out of the Ghost Realm, he would not expose them until their population had grown to a certain level.
With the protection provided by Wu Qi and Dong Hai Province, this alliance should be the only immortal organization on Pangu Continent that could cultivate and develop peacefully. Compared to those immortals and itinerant cultivators of the other provinces, who were often hunted down and killed by Great Yu's armies, the cultivators of Dong Hai Immortal Alliance were undoubtedly far luckier.
These were the leaders Wu Qi had chosen to take care of everything. He just had to determine their functions and powers, and they would naturally work according to that. By doing so, he would be able to focus on creating better conditions and striving for more benefits for Dong Hai Province.
Afterward, he had a feast with all his friends and subordinates, before taking his leave to attend to other matters. He had clearly delegated power to everyone, so he did not want to bother himself with all these messy affairs.
As the ruler of Dong Hai Province, all Wu Qi had to do was to improve his cultivation base and elevate his power and position in Great Yu. When he had the cultivation base of a Primordial expert, when he had a place in Great Yu's court, Dong Hai Province would be too strong to defeat, and its size would grow bigger. It could be said that the future of Dong Hai lay with him alone. When he rose, Dong Hai rose together, and when he fell, Dong Hai would soon perish. This was known to everyone.
By taking advantage of this assignment, Wu Qi was able to get his friends and subordinates to meet and know each other formally, so that they could better cooperate in the future.
At first, Wu Qi was worried that Huang Liang might have some strange ideas when he saw so many immortals and cultivators. If that were the case, he would be forced to get rid of him. But, he did not expect that Huang Liang was a fellow who did not have the opinion that was common among the people of Great Yu, that mankind and immortals were two completely entities. After Lord Xiansheng promised to find him a few beautiful clam sprites as concubines, he immediately became one with the crowd, dancing with joy.
He was an out of ordinary scumbag with no moral bottom line. Wu Qi gave Huang Liang a precise definition. After ordering Yan Bugui to send someone to keep an eye on everything in the province, Wu Qi took Zhang Le's hand and strode out into the backyard.
In the backyard, eighteen scarlet shadows were standing quietly in a line waiting for him, with the smell of blood towering from their bodies into the sky.
They were his celestial fiend puppets. Before being smashed into the void by Liu Bang with that flag, Wu Qi had sent the puppets he brought with him back to Dong Hai to deliver Zhang Le a message. Knowing that he was missing, the princess was so furious that she immediately summoned all the puppets back, then sacrificed a large number of immortals and cultivators to refine them into Blood-draining Celestial Fiends with the vicious fiend technique recorded in the Blood Sea Grand Magic.
It was the ultimate divine ability recorded in the Blood Sea Grand Magic. A Blood-draining Celestial Fiend could not be killed or destroyed. Even when its body was burned to ashes, as long as there was still a tiny part of the body, and as long as it was supplied with sufficient blood essence, it could always form a new body. Blood Sea Grand Magic might not be the top and strongest cultivation technique of the Fiend League, but it was second to none in its quirkiness and ability to keep one alive.
Ignoring the noises drifting over from the front yard, Wu Qi fixed his eyes at the eighteen Blood-draining Celestial Fiends with delight while quickly sending his divine sense into their bodies. Originally, these puppets were crafted of metal, and before this, they were able to increase the strength of their bodies by devouring all sorts of precious metals while improving their cultivation bases by practicing the Celestial Fiend Battle the Heaven Script at the same time.
However, after being refined into Blood-draining Celestial Fiends by Zhang Le, their bodies had become something between corporeal and incorporeal, which could be changed freely at any time. They were filled with blood, and pure blood essence had fused perfectly with their metal forms, sending them into a strange state that was between dead and alive.
Although the original celestial fiend puppets were useful, they were dead things after all, with no autonomy in them. But now, they were virtually alive. As long as Wu Qi split a small part of his divine soul into them, they were able to cultivate by themselves like living beings, and act and respond just like him.
These celestial fiends fed on blood essence to improve their cultivation bases. So, by giving them enough blood essence, they could quickly ascend to the level equivalent or even greater than Wu Qi. And, as long as a thread of their souls remained, Wu Qi would not die completely, even if his body and divine soul were both destroyed. He could still rely on this thread of soul to form a new divine soul and a fleshly body, and subsequently rise from the dead.
He gave Zhang Le a smile. The princess took the hint and sealed off the surrounding void with her five-colored divine rays.
Wu Qi took a deep breath, and the chaotic energy in his body began to quickly convert into fiend energy. Then he gave a snort and a beam of blood-red light shot out from the top of his head, towering into the sky. In the midst of it emerged eighteen empty blood lotus thrones. Howling joyfully, the eighteen celestial fiends rushed into the light and sat down on the lotus thrones. In the next moment, Wu Qi's blood essence began to be rapidly sucked away by them, and a part of his divine soul essence was separated and injected into their bodies.
With a cry, Wu Qi slit his left wrist. Drops of blood flew out of the wound to form into a ghostly rune in the air. Then, a muffled crackle echoed out as a rift cracked open in the void. He had used a mystic art to draw the filthy blood from the boundless sea of blood under the Yellow Springs.
A vast stream of blood flew out of the rift and was swallowed by the celestial fiends. The blood-red light emitted from Wu Qi's body was getting brighter, and the chilly wind and evil aura gusting out of his body were getting stronger. Blood Sea Grand Magic was a supreme cultivation technique of the Fiend League, and it could be cultivated at a very fast speed. By cultivating it, Wu Qi's cultivation base would surely experience a boost.
If other people cultivated Blood Sea Grand Magic, they might be contaminated by it and become ruthless and bloodthirsty. But, Wu Qi was not worried, because he had just recently acquired Lord Buddha's cultivation technique, the Great Light Indestructible Amitabha Treasure Scripture. With its help, he was able to cultivate the Blood Sea Grand Magic while also cultivating the various divine lights and Buddhist light of the Buddhist League, and could even draw blood essence from the sea of blood to refine his own natal relics.
Throughout the universe, apart from those who cultivated the Scroll of Stealing, who could cultivate so many top-grade and absolutely opposing cultivation techniques at the same time like Wu Qi?
Eighteen Blood-draining Celestial Fiends danced and sang on the blood lotus thrones, letting out shrill whistles from time to time.
Suddenly a strange howl rang out, and at the same time the celestial fiends were set ablaze with flames red as blood. Wu Qi's divine soul had been injected into them, triggering their natal true flames. From this moment on, he was truly fused as one with these celestial fiends, and gained himself the true body of fiend that could not be completely destroyed.