Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le were standing shoulder to shoulder by the shore of the Great Eastern Ocean, eastward of Star picking City, gazing at the distance ocean veiled in a mist and rippling endlessly.
Princess Zhang Le had a clear look of sulkiness on her face, and she appeared to be in a trance. Wearing a sad face, she turned to look at Wu Qi, curled up her lips pitifully, and said, "Do I really have to stay on that White Cloud Planet? Zi Xuan has never met with that Bai Xia Immortal and Qing Wu Immortal. Why can't I just stay here and help you build the city? Why should I acknowledge them as my Master? Why should I go to that White Cloud Planet?"
Wu Qi took her face in his hands, sighed lightly, and said, "The trees may prefer calm, but the wind will not subside. When Zi Xuan is not by my side, only then I can focus to deal with those people." He looked deep into Princess Zhang Le's beautiful eyes, smiled, and said, "Zi Xuan, my sweetheart, you are the person I cherish the most. I can't let anyone hurt even a single strand of your hair. Be good and go to White Cloud Planet, focus on your cultivation. Once you make the breakthrough to Heaven Immortal realm, you'll be able to protect me!"
Princess Zhang Le pinched her fingers cheerlessly, bowing her head as she said, "Heaven Immortal realm? That's really tough!"
Wu Qi gently pinched her little nose, chuckled, and said, "It might be tough for someone else, but it is very easy for my Zi Xuan! Think about it, from early-stage to mid-stage of Gold Core realm, you've just spent a few months to completely stabilize your Gold Core and make it into a true core! Do you know how many hundred years it took for the other Gold Core cultivators to achieve this? And yet, it only took you a few months of time! So, I think it will take you at most one hundred years to become a Heaven Immortal."
Becoming a Heaven Immortal in just one hundred years? Clearly, Wu Qi was just bluffing.
Then, he gave Princess Zhang Le a tender kiss on the cheek, smiled, and said, "Zi Xuan is the cleverest person I've ever meet. How can a mere Heaven Immortal realm baffle you?"
Princess Zhang Le frowned and pondered for a brief moment. Finally, she nodded and said, "You're right. Becoming a Heaven Immortal in one hundred years? Zi Xuan will work hard on that!" All of a sudden, she grabbed Wu Qi's arm and gave it a hard bite.
The bite ripped through Wu Qi's skin and made his blood ooze out, leaving behind a deep bite mark on his arm. He gasped with extreme pain, yet his heart raced. According to the debauchee Le Xiaobai's understanding of women, a girl who liked to bite someone usually suffered from insecurities. Did the proud Princess Zhang Le always feel insecure?
Wu Qi's heart was touched. He gave Princess Zhang Le an affectionate hug, and pressed his forehead hard to hers.
Suddenly, a tiny slit opened up between his brows. Wrapped in blood, the silver lotus flower which shrunk to the size of a sesame seed shot out from the opening and into Princess Zhang Le's forehead. After that, Wu Qi sent out a single thread of Nascent Divinity to gently contact her soul, through which, he passed Princess Zhang Le the mystic technique of forcibly forming Nascent Divinity using thunder tribulation. Then, he drew nearly seventy percent of his innate energies from his ten innate Gold Cores and channeled them into Princess Zhang Le's body.
Princess Zhang Le's beautiful face suddenly shot with blood. An enormous amount of pure innate energies rushed crazily into her body, then fiercely slammed into her Gold Core that was glinting with a five-colored gleam. Like a foul ghost who had not eaten for tens of thousands of years and suddenly saw a bloody goat, her Gold Core began to impatiently and actively devour the innate energies of five elements that came delivering to its face. The five-colored divine ray behind her back blinked rapidly, and abruptly expanded to several acres wide. But, in just a brief moment, the divine ray began to shrink at an incredible rate, and gradually transformed into five extremely tiny wisps of rays, fusing into five long strands of hair, and hiding deep among all the other long hairs that could not be seen by anyone.
When seventy percent of Wu Qi's five elements innate energies, which were equal to the combined cultivation base of nearly one thousand Gold Core cultivators, rushed into Princess Zhang Le's Gold Core, they immediately stimulated a magical transformation to it. First, the energies pushed her cultivation base to peak-stage Gold Core realm. With that, as long as her enlightenment for the Heavenly Dao improved, she could use the mystic technique of forming a Nascent Soul to merge her soul with her Gold Core, and she would be able to break her Gold Core and give birth to her Nascent Soul.
After that, her Gold Core began to exude a five-colored blinding ray, and the characteristic of her Gold Core was forcibly transformed into half-innate and half-acquired. From now on, the energies she formed through absorbing the five elements natural energies would carry the half-innate characteristics. As a result, be it the power or the profoundness of her divine abilities, they would be far greater than ordinary Gold Core cultivators.
Also, with the innate gold element silver lotus that Wu Qi fused into her forehead, Princess Zhang Le would be able to protect herself with such an incredible treasure. With the protection provided by Bai Xia and Qing Wu, the two Heaven Immortals, she would be able to stay extremely safe on White Cloud Planet.
Using his incredibly powerful and compacted Nascent Divinity force, Wu Qi also split the Divine Flame of Order into two parts and carefully used the innate five element energies in his spiritual ocean to trap them in midair. This item was too aggressive in its offensive strength, and thus, after losing the silver lotus flower to restrict it, Wu Qi had to think of a way to control and use it. But with the other half of it given to Princess Zhang Le, she would not have to worry about facing an energy deviation during her cultivation.
Then, he whispered into Princess Zhang Le's ear about the origin of the silver lotus flower. After that, Wu Qi embraced her affectionately, squeezing her little head with his arms as he said, "Under the heaven, only you and I know the origin of this treasure. DO NOT use it unless you're facing a life-threatening situation, as a precious treasure would always attract covetous eyes."
With all her efforts, Princess Zhang Le was absorbing and digesting the enormous energies that Wu Qi channeled into her body. After inheriting her mother's innate divine abilities, Princess Zhang Le too possessed the innate talent of using the acquired divine power of five elements, and thus it was not a strenuous process for to digest the energies given to her by Wu Qi. She nodded her head excitedly after hearing what Wu Qi told her, then stood on tiptoe and kissed Wu Qi's lips. Using her divine will, she passed all the mystic techniques she inherited from her bloodline to Wu Qi.
A great variety of strange and bizarre techniques kept rushing into Wu Qi's spiritual ocean. Some of them could be found in Scroll of Stealing, while some of them were unimaginably queer, such that even Scroll of Stealing did not mention them. Among them, some were poisonous Gu[1], sacrificial rituals, curses, techniques of Dharma words, and all sorts of mystic techniques completely different from those used by orthodox cultivators. There were also many mystic techniques related to mountain ghosts and Yin deities. The vastness of the knowledge struck Wu Qi with great surprise, and he nearly burst out into a loud laughter.
Rubbing Princess Zhang Le's little head with his hand, Wu Qi cried out in a deep voice, "Alright, it is time for you to set off. According to that old demon Long Yang, Lu Buwei's men will come to me and cause some trouble in a few days’ time. It is about time to teach them a good lesson. Now, go to White Cloud Planet and focus on your cultivation. Don't make me worry... my little lady!"
"My little lady...!" Princess Zhang Le lifted her head and gave Wu Qi a quick gaze. Then, she nodded her head, spun, and left with a cloud. A group of sixteen Nascent Soul Ghost Immortals rode away in gusts of chilly wind and followed closely behind her, bringing with them Bai Zhu'er, Bai Zu'er, and some serving ladies and guards.
On top of a mountain off in the distance, a few female cultivators clad in white clothes were waiting for Princess Zhang Le. They were the female disciples which Wu Qi requested Bai Xia and Qing Wu to send here after Duke of Long Yang left yesterday. They were led by a female cultivator with peak-stage Nascent Divinity cultivation base, and they would escort Princess Zhang Le to White Cloud Planet, to the Spirit Cloud Peak where Bai Xia and Qing Wu had their secluded cultivation.
What awaited Wu Qi next would be a lively event, as he was going to pay a visit at Cang Ao Immortal Abode, and Zhao Sheng's youngest son, Zhao Ling, was about to come and cause some troubles after being instigated by Lu Buwei!
Wu Qi would not have the mood to deal with Lu Buwei, an old and formidable demon, without sending Princess Zhang Le to a place with absolute safety. In his heart, Princess Zhang Le and Lu Chengfeng were different. Even if Lu Chengfeng was ambushed by someone, having one of his arms or legs chopped off, Wu Qi could still avenge him in a later time. But if Princess Zhang Le was maliciously and intentionally wounded by someone, what would be the use even if Wu Qi killed all the enemies in the end?
Therefore, Princess Zhang Le had to leave this place! Fortunately, as Princess Zhang Le was currently passionately in love with him, although she was reluctant to leave, she still obeyed his arrangement and left the planet. As long as Princess Zhang Le's safety was guaranteed, Wu Qi could go all out to do the work!
Laughing coldly, Wu Qi spun and beckoned to a far distance.
Lu Quyuan and Hai Yuntian, both looking very excited, quickly rushed over to him. Hai Yuntian had changed his original outfit of a green shirt to a long green robe, which made him look like a scholar. Wu Qi seized him up for a brief moment, nodded, and said, "From today onward, brother Quyuan will be the City Lord of Star picking City. You'll handle all the administrative tasks in the city for me. As for whether Star picking City grows into a nation by itself in the future, that'll solely depend on brother Quyuan's capability!"
Lu Quyuan hurriedly gave Wu Qi a deep bow, raising both hands high up in the air to express his gratitude, thanking Wu Qi for putting him in such an important position. A few days ago, Wu Qi had used a spirit medicine he obtained from White Cloud Immortal Sect and helped Lu Quyuan mend back the broken arm.
After settling Lu Quyuan, Wu Qi turned to look at Hai Yuntian and said, "Brother Yuntian, as we're considered old friends, I'll get straight to the point. You'll be solely in charge of the Star picking Pavilion in Star picking City. In the future, all the special products and precious treasures that come from Great Eastern Ocean will be solely sold and auctioned by you to all the merchants from various dynasties!"
With a cold laugh, Wu Qi said proudly, "From today onward, all the special products from Great Eastern Ocean will be monopolized by Star picking City and Purple Leaf City. If there is anyone who is not convinced, ask them to come and talk to the new dragon king in charge of several million miles wide ocean and land in this region, Lord Xiansheng, and Catfish Dragon King!"
Filled with great joy, Hai Yuntian expressed his gratitude for Wu Qi. With what Wu Qi just said, the Star picking Pavilion would run a monopoly business in the future. Could any other businesses under the heaven be more profitable than a monopoly business? Hai Yuntian, who had been working for several tens of years as the official purchaser in Ji City, was very impatient to show his capability!
After dismissing both men, it was considered that Wu Qi had fixed everything in Star picking City.
While he was laughing loudly, he saw a dark cloud rolling towards him from the horizon at an incredible speed. It was Lord Xiansheng, who came with a large group of underlings. Although he was still tens of miles away, Lord Xiansheng had broken out into a loud laughter impatiently, "My brother! I've lived up to my promise! For all the materials required to expand the internal space of your Spirit Breeding Ring, I've found a portion one hundred times more than you asked! Aye, actually, they are not considered some priceless spirit items. For example, the Spirit-Conserving Jades that you asked, they are used as the pavement in the few Old Dragon King's mansions!"
Wu Qi was rendered speechless. The reason that Spirit Breeding Ring could contain living beings was that it could freely absorb natural energies from the outside world, supplying to the living beings inside of the ring. The Spirit-Conserving Jades were one of the most important materials for Spirit Breeding Ring. Back in Great Yan Dynasty, a fist-sized Spirit-Conserving Jade would cost hundreds of thousands of energy stones, yet they were merely used as pavement in those Dragon King's mansions?
Wu Qi shook his head. He felt he should find some time and pay a visit at those Dragon Kings' mansions.
Seven days later, at the shore of Great Eastern Ocean, a white light swept across the land, amidst which, ten thousand tall and burly Long Bo people disappeared without a trace.
Stroking the Spirit Breeding Ring on his finger, which had its internal space expanded by more than one thousand times, Wu Qi threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh.
Under the heaven, who could carry an army of ten thousand people with him at all times?
‘Lu Buwei, Zhao Ling, or there maybe some other people out there… I, Wu Qi, am waiting for you!’