Seven days later, Patriarch Muji and Arhat Wrath finally dragged their seriously injured bodies out of the lava pool.
The underground energy veins on Pangu Continent were exceptionally strong and stable. Although they were destroyed by Wu Qi, they quickly began to adjust and recover themselves. In just seven days, the huge sinkhole had slowly filled back up and almost leveled with the surrounding ground. Those underground energy veins had also returned to their original path, and the rushing and rocking lava had solidified and formed into new rock formations.
Patriarch Muji and Arhat Wrath, who did not have even a single drop of strength left in their bodies, and whose cultivation base had dropped to Nascent Soul realm, struggled their way back up to the surface. Both of them had the same expression that looked too deep for tears. The Melting Yin Water had corroded away all their skin and flesh, leaving them nothing but two emptied skeletons. Patriarch Muji's bones were pitch-black, while Arhat Wrath's bones were pure silver, decorated with a slight golden tinge.
"Yu Miao!" cried Patriarch Muji with a cold, sinister snort.
"Yu Miao!" Arhat Wrath roared furiously with his head thrown back.
Abruptly, a thunderbolt exploded behind Arhat Wrath's head. It pushed the now severely wounded monk forward, making him stagger a dozen steps in a sorry state and almost fall to the ground. Before he could find out what was going on, he was smitten again by several dozens of thunderbolts in a row. He howled furiously and frustratingly, yet he just did not have the strength to fight back.
Not only was he attacked by the thunderbolts, he was messily hacked and chopped by a dozen pinkish sword beams. Countless bright sparks darted out of his bones and flew all over the place, but the sword beams failed to leave even a single trace on the bones. Nevertheless, as the sword beams came with very strong forces, Arhat Wrath's skeleton was pushed left and right, swaying and wiggling violently. All of a sudden, he was thrown to the ground, rolling here and there from the attack of the sword beams. He could no longer stay standing amidst the violent attack.
The sudden attack startled Patriarch Muji as he hastily took a big step backward. He and Arhat Wrath were severely wounded. They did not have even a single drop of strength left in their bodies, and their skin and flesh were corroded away by the Melting Yin Water. They were at their weakest moment now. Even a Nascent Divinity cultivator could pose a threat to their lives, so how could Patriarch Muji not feel panicked and nervous?
The celestial fiend puppet who was disguised as Reverend San Le rushed towards the scene on a flying sword, together with Wu Qi, Lao Ai, and some other people. They shouted and yelled while unleashing thunderbolts and sword beams to give Arhat Wrath a round of messy beating. "Patriarch! Please lend us a helping hand here! We need to kill this bald donkey now!" roared Reverend San Le, "Seven days ago, it is I who found an opportunity and killed the Abbot of Golden Pavilion Temple!"
Noticing that it was Reverend San Le who came together with a few cultivators from Euphoria Heavenly Palace and members of Min clan, Patriarch Muji was seized with a wild joy instantly. "My filial grandsons, you've done beautifully! Now help me kill this bald donkey. I'll definitely reward all of you handsomely!" Patriarch Muji cried at the top of this voice.
Laughing wildly, Patriarch Muji spread his pitch-black skeleton and leaped towards Arhat Wrath. His fingertip impacted heavily at Arhat Wrath's skull, and the collision sent numerous bright sparks flying in all directions. "Arhat Wrath! Give me the willpower that you've accumulated over three hundred transmigrations!" Patriarch Muji snapped, "After obtaining your Buddhist energy essence, I'll be able to dismiss the evils and safely transcend my future Holy Evil Immortal Tribulation! Hehe… With the help of your Buddhist energy essence, my current condition will no longer be a serious issue! Now quickly give them to me!"
Arhat Wrath roared furiously with a hoarse voice. He struggled, trying to put up a counterattack. But Wu Qi and company had arrived, dragging him into another round of brutal and violent beating. At this point in time, his Buddhist power had completely depleted, and he did not even have the strength to control his Prime Buddhist treasures. Furthermore, his fleshly body was left with just a mere skeleton, so the Indestructible Golden Body of Buddhist that was famous for its incredible defensive strength was nothing but just an illusion. He had lost the last chance of saving his own life.
On top of that, he was trapped by Patriarch Muji, whose cultivation base was no weaker than him. As a result, Arhat Wrath could barely last fifteen minutes before Patriarch Muji crushed his skull with a finger strike, pulling out his fist-sized relic that shone with a silver gleam, which he had cultivated over three hundred transmigrations.
Wu Qi cast a thunderbolt and smote the relic, eliminating the last thread of Arhat Wrath's soul. Patriarch Muji opened his mouth and inhaled greedily, as the relic instantly transformed into a stream of light flying into his body, covering his bones with a thick layer of silver gleam.
The energy essence of a Buddhist cultivator could bring tremendous benefits to an Evil cultivator. It could save an Evil cultivator at least several hundred years of laborious cultivation by devouring just an eminent Buddhist monk. Now, by devouring Arhat Wrath's relic, Patriarch Muji had basically doubled his cultivation base. As long as he exercised his evil technique to slowly refine and digest the enormous energy essence contained in the relic, perhaps he could even improve his cultivation base by a few more tiers.
In addition to that, the Buddhist energy essence was well-known for its wonderful effect of dismissing evils. In the future, when Patriarch Muji was cultivating, the mental evils that troubled all Evil Immortals could no longer hinder his progress. With that, he could focus all his attention on improving his realm and cultivation base. It was a known fact that evil cultivation techniques were the quickest cultivation techniques, and as long as an Evil Immortal was not disturbed by any mental evils, no Immortals could improve their cultivation base faster than them.
After devouring all of Arhat Wrath's cultivation base, who was at the same Twenty-fourth Heaven Immortal realm as him, Patriarch Muji had a very high chance of transcending his Holy Evil Immortal Tribulation and becoming a Gold Immortal in the future.
As greedy as he was, Patriarch Muji even crushed Arhat Wrath's skeleton to powder and absorbed all of it. The fleshly body of a Buddhist cultivator was a Dharma Body which had gone through hundreds and thousands of times of tempering, and contained an enormous amount of energy essence as well. The Buddhist energy essence found in Arhat Wrath's skeleton was almost equal to twenty percent of his relic. It was an incredible amount.
As the Buddhist energy essence had an abundant life force, and Patriarch Muji's evil cultivation technique was extremely magical, after devouring Arhat Wrath's relic and skeleton, in just the time to finish a pot of tea, Patriarch Muji's bones were covered with a thin layer of flesh. The newly generated, crimson muscles wiggled without skin, looking rather bloodcurdling.
Swinging his arms complacently, Patriarch Muji stared at Reverend San Le, smiled hideously, and said, "You are... mm, you are from Euphoria Heavenly Palace. What's your name?"
The celestial fiend puppet dropped to his knees and answered respectfully, "My name is Reverend San Le, the current City Lord of An He City." Even as he said that, the puppet began to weep and said, "Patriarch, please back me up! The Palace Master has died a horrible death, and all the Elders are murdered as well. Euphoria Heavenly Palace's foundation is completely wiped out by the enemy. I am nothing but a loner now, and I will definitely be bullied by others in the future!"
Patriarch Muji slammed his own chest and said, "Worry not. From now on, you will be the Master of Euphoria Heavenly Palace, and also my adopted-son. Mm, go now and take over all the Euphoria Heavenly Palace's properties. I give you the ultimate authority on everything in the Palace. Arhat Wrath is dead, so the regions around An He City will be your territory. Expand and grow with all your capability. You have all my support. Kill anyone who dares to disobey you!"
Patriarch Muji's confidence level had skyrocketed after devouring Arhat Wrath's relic. He extended his arm and performed a grabbing gesture towards the ground, pulling the storage ring left behind by Arhat Wrath into his grip. After a brief moment of pondering, he nodded and said, "The lineage of Golden Pavilion Temple has been completely eliminated. Hehe, bring someone with you and give Golden Pavilion Temple a good loot. You can keep everything you find there."
He was too impatient to return to his own Evil Palace and have today's harvest digested. So, after a round of hasty exhortation, Patriarch Muji left in a hot haste. Nevertheless, before he left, he gave Reverend San Le a medallion with countless naked evils carved on its surface, mentioning that if anyone dared to stir up trouble in An He City, Reverend San Le could use the medallion to summon Patriarch Muji.
A dark cloud wrapped Patriarch Muji, then abruptly transformed into a beam of dark light and shot away. His evil laughter that sounded extremely happy lingered in the air. Although he did not obtain the energy essence left behind by the Ganoderma Immortal, but being able to devour Arhat Wrath had worthed all his efforts to come here.
Seeing that Patriarch Muji had left, Lao Ai tilted his head and cursed under his breath, "What an old fool, he actually took that bald donkey's storage ring!"
Wu Qi took a deep breath, nodded with an angry look on his face, and said, "This is the greed that an orthodox Evil Immortal should have! Tsk, if not for the fact that we are not familiar with the place and in an urgent need of having someone backing us temporarily, I do wish to kill him just now! Tsk, although Arhat Wrath's relic is useless for me right now, it was very useful for you!"
Wu Qi took the medallion from Reverend San Le, waving his hand as he said, "Nevertheless, now we can occupy An He City with a peace of mind. En..." Wu Qi turned to look at Lao Ai and asked curiously, "Don't you think there is something you need to do?"
Lao Ai was even curious as he looked back to Wu Qi and asked, "Do what?"
Wu Qi pointed at the sky and said, "Although your cultivation base has reached the realm, where is your thunder tribulation? When are you going to transcend it if not now?"
Glancing around, Wu Qi realized that apart from Madman Xue, they were surrounded by the members of Min clan who were actually his celestial fiend puppets. He reached out the area between his brows with one hand and pulled out eight glinting immortal items, giving them to Lao Ai and Madman Xue. "Here are eight immortal items for you. Now, quickly transcend your thunder tribulation and bring us another expert of Heaven Immortal realm. Then, we will have enough power to control An He City!"
Looking at the eight immortal items which Wu Qi handed to them, Lao Ai and Madman Xue's eyes turned green instantly. The pair scrambled their arms forward and snatched all the immortal items with one quick move. Lao Ai gladly looked at the set immortal items in his hand: an immortal outfit, an immortal sword, an immortal shield, and a handkerchief that could be used to capture opponents in a large area. He nodded with a bright smile, "If you can always be so generous in the future, so what if I just work for you?"
Wu Qi did not answer him. 'It is best if you, Lao Ai, know how to be grateful. Those ordinary Immortals don't even have a few immortal items in their hands, and I've been very nice to you by giving you eight of them.' Were there any peak-stage Nascent Soul cultivator under the heaven who could give someone else a few immortal items as a gift? Only Wu Qi could do that!
With the help of these immortal items, the process of Lao Ai transcending his thunder tribulation was a boring one. There was nothing worth mentioning.
When the company finally returned to An He City, Reverend San Le immediately ordered his own clan members to place a table, a chair, and a tall flagpole before the City Lord Mansion. On top of the flagpole fluttered a long flag with a row of large characters written on it, 'Euphoria Heavenly Palace is recruiting all the heroes under the heaven!'
Two huge notices were pasted on the walls to the left and right of City Lord Mansion's entrance, on top of which were listed down the conditions and benefits of recruitment:
'Human Immortals of Gold Core realm- monthly salary of ten lower-grade energy stones, a fixed amount of spirit pills and spirit talismans.
Earth Immortal of Nascent Soul realm- monthly salary of one hundred lower-grade energy stones, a fixed amount of spirit pills, spirit talismans, gold, and silver.
Half-Immortal of Nascent Divinity realm- monthly salary of one hundred mid-grade energy stones, a fixed amount of spirit pills, spirit talismans, gold, silver, fine wines, delicious delicacies, luxurious mansion, and beautiful spouses.
Heaven Immortals... mm, Euphoria Heavenly Palace is just a small power. We are not recruiting Heaven Immortals at the moment.'
A dead silence reigned An He City when the notice was put up.