In just one day, all the cultivators in An He City had become Reverend San Le's disciples. It also meant that they had become Wu Qi's disciples.
However, Wu Qi's death trap had killed all the cultivators with a slightly stronger cultivation base from the regions around An He City. As a result, among those who surrendered themselves under Reverend San Le, three of them were Nascent Soul cultivators, who were considered to be the elites; over fifty of them were Gold Core cultivators, who were considered to be promising talents, and about eight hundred of them were cultivators of Xiantian realm, who could barely fly on swords about one hundred feet from the ground for a distance of tens of miles. Well, they could still be considered as cultivators.
And, when he saw the rest of the cultivators, about several tens of thousands of them, Wu Qi could only stand in the courtyard within the City Lord Mansion, hands clasping behind back as he sighed helplessly into the sky. How could these cultivators of Houtian realm have the face to call themselves cultivators? After messing around for so many years on Pangu Continent, a land filled with an incredibly copious amount of natural energy, they had only attained a cultivation base of Houtian realm. How could they still have the faces to claim themselves to be cultivators?
When he used his divine will to once again scan these 'itinerant cultivators', most of who only had thirty to fifty years of cultivation base, Wu Qi nearly could not hold himself from killing them with a slap. What was the use of having a group of lackeys such as these? Even Lord Xiansheng's seafood underlings were stronger than them! At least, with his few great white sharks, if they were in the ocean, just one of them would be enough to kill a couple hundred of these 'itinerant cultivators'.
"And, you have the nerve to call yourself cultivators?" Wu Qi breathed out a long sigh and shook his head.
Nevertheless, these itinerant cultivators could still be put to a good use in some other places. At least, they could take care of An He City's cleanliness, maintaining the city's defense, clearing those clogged sewers and toilets. In any case, Wu Qi did not have the mood to cultivate them, so he simply made them form into an urban enforcement team and let them do their things.
In addition, the mines near An He City required people to mine, the herbs plantations needed people to take care of them, and many other industries required people to manage them. So, rather than hoping these people could contribute their combative strength to Wu Qi, it would be better to just let them take up these sundry duties.
Wu Qi had never been interested in these sundry duties, but he never dreamed that Lao Ai was actually an expert in management. Under Lao Ai's management, the group of several tens of thousands of itinerant cultivators were orderly assigned to different posts in An He City according to their expertise. In just a couple of days, the city was once again operating as usual. Special local products were transported into the city from all over the places, and then through the newly formed merchant who bore the brand of Euphoria Heavenly Palace, were quickly transported and sold to other places. A huge profit was soon in their hands.
It was Wu Qi's habit to let the others handle all the odd jobs. So, during these days, he simply dwelt in a seclusion and focused all his attention on healing himself. Nourished by the spirit tea which the blind old man gave him, over 90% of the aura of death in his body had been resolved. And through his own effort, in just one month of time, the rest of the aura of death had gone completely, and his injury was fully cured. On top of that, the aura of death transformed by his innate Nascent Souls had allowed Wu Qi to firmly step into the realm of Thirty-fifth Transformations for the True Dragon Transformation cultivation technique. The overall strength of his fleshly body had improved by a few times again.
Quietly, Wu Qi stood in the back garden within the City Lord Mansion. There was a pool of water in front of him. A few leaves and petals were floating in a circular motion above the surface of the clear water. On top of a petal, a fire ant was seen moving here and there in panic. However, despite which direction it chose, it would always meet with water with just a few steps. The ant kept moving in a circle on the petal, having no clue about how to escape.
Wu Qi was lost in thought as he kept staring at the fire ant. At last, a joyful smile emerged on his face.
To him, the ant was just like an Immortal cultivator, while the water around it was the vast, unfathomable Great Dao of the Heaven and Earth. A misstep would always bring death, and there seemed to be no end to the vast and boundless Great Dao of the Heaven and Earth. As he was standing on the land, staring at the pool of water only about several tens of feet in circumference, he could easily see the boundary of the pool. Yet, as the ant was inside the pool, how could it see things as Wu Qi did?
"In other words, we are also ants in this vast world!"
Raising his head, Wu Qi stared at the passing cloud in the sky, and suddenly sunk into a deep thought. He was wondering, could the vast Heavenly Dao be just a small pool of water in some existences' eyes? And, those Immortal cultivators such as Wu Qi, were they actually the ants on the petals, fighting and struggling for their survival?
As he was absorbed in a deep thought and pondering over the mysterious questions, the door to the garden was suddenly pushed open by someone. The old man who Wu Qi met a few days ago in the pill shop, whose name was You Jin, came running into the courtyard with a face full of panic. "Senior! Something bad has happened! The two... someone has killed the two Grandmasters!"
Wu Qi's heart twitched. As he had all his divine will focused on the fire ant, the abrupt change in mood had vaporized the poor little ant into nothingness. Wu Qi spun, his face darkened as he cried out, "Do not panic! Tell me what happened exactly!"
You Jin came before Wu Qi with trembling steps and stammered, "I... I was ordered today to bring the two Grandmasters, Hidden Heart and Guarding Heart, to Green Pill Sect's base and harvest some herbs. But... but someone intruded the place suddenly, saying that they wanted to claim Green Pill Sect's base as their own and create a cave abode. I tried to persuade both Grandmasters to not fight with them, and when they were hesitating, they were killed with a sword strike!"
All of a sudden, wind stopped blowing in the back garden, and the trees stopped swaying. Everything in the back garden was completely frozen. A strange hissing noise echoed out as tiny sword energies shot out from Wu Qi's body. Before long, apart from You Jin, all the flowers, grasses, trees, pavilions, and buildings in the back garden turned into a fine powder at the same time. A suffocating pressure stiffened You Jin's body, making him stand still before Wu Qi and dare not to move even a little. He had a sudden feeling that with just one glance from Wu Qi, he could be turned into a puff of smoke.
"Is this Green Pill Sect your original sect?" Wu Qi turned to give You Jin a look.
You Jin kept nodding his head and answered, "Yes, it is where I came from. But, now..."
Wu Qi patted his shoulder, then chuckled and said, "Now you and I are both a part of Euphoria Heavenly Palace. I am grateful for what Hidden Heart and Guarding Heart have done for me. Although they did not really save my life, but I am still in their debt."
Grabbing You Jin with one hand, Wu Qi transformed into a beam of dark light and soared high up into the sky. Then, guided by You Jin, he quickly flew towards a lofty mountain about ten thousand miles westward. The mountain was where the base of You Jin's previous sect, the Green Pill Sect, was located. Green Pill Sect was fairly well-known in the regions around An He City for their techniques in pill concoction. They planted their own spirit herbs, using those to concoct spirit pills to sell in the city. It was how they established a small base in An He City.
But then, all the Elders of Green Pill Sect were completely wiped out, and the remaining few disciples, including You Jin, had also joined Euphoria Heavenly Palace. Naturally, the Greenwood Mountain, where they built their base, had become Euphoria Heavenly Palace's territory. However, as Wu Qi did not have additional manpower who he could send to station there, it had become an unoccupied mountain.
Merely one hundred miles into flying, Wu Qi was caught up by twelve dark beams from behind. They were his celestial fiend puppets, whose faces were filled with a murderous look as they issued deep, muffled roars and flew alongside Wu Qi. Right at this very moment, Wu Qi's heart was filled with an immense killing intent, and his mood had influenced all the puppets. As they were approaching the Greenwood Mountain, the murderous aura emanating from the puppets were getting stronger and stronger. Gradually, the murderous aura transformed into a large column of dark smoke and shrouded around these celestial fiend puppets.
Wu Qi halted midair suddenly. Not far in front of him was the entrance to Greenwood Mountain. There were two green cliff walls towered into the sky, between which stood an archway with three large characters carved on top of it: 'Green Pill Sect'. Wu Qi saw two wooden pillars were being erected before the archway, and the bloody, naked corpses of Hidden Heart and Guarding Heart were hung on the wooden pillars.
Using human blood, a row of large characters were written on the left side cliff wall- 'Restricted Area. Intruders will be killed!'
Wu Qi landed on the ground with You Jin and slowly walked towards Hidden Heart. He raised the old monk's bowed head and gave it a glance. There was a large hole in the area between the brows. Obviously, he either had his relic taken by someone, destroyed by someone, or the relic had escaped by itself. Whatever was the truth, what was left there was only a corpse. It needed no second look at Guarding Heart, as even Hidden Heart, who had become an Arhat himself, was in such a dreadful condition. So, how good of a condition could the little monk be in?
"Sir, are you being robbed or sexually harassed? Why aren't you wearing anything? This is really strange. Why would someone want to sexually harass a man?"
The little monk's both naive and crafty voice suddenly echoed out beside Wu Qi's ears. Not long before this, this little monk had bumped into the severely wounded Wu Qi, and was kind enough to bring him back to the Temple of Hidden Heart. They were a pair of Master and disciple with a kind and affectionate nature. They were a pair of good people.
"Whoever killed you, I, Wu Qi, will definitely make them pay a hundred times for the price!" Even as he said that, Wu Qi pressed his palm against Hidden Heart's corpse. A wisp of purple mixed with green flame darted out and burned the corpse into a puff of smoke. After that, he did the same to Guarding Heart's corpse.
Some ticking noises were heard. A total of 108 'Fleshly Body Relics', each the size of a pearl, fell to the ground from Hidden Heart's body. Guarding Heart did have those too, but there was only twelve of them, and the size was just like a small bean.
Wu Qi picked up all the relics while smiling. Then, with a point of his finger he cast out a sheet of light, using it to merge all the relics together and turning them into eighteen silvery-white pearls the size of an egg yolk. Finally, he pulled out a string and threaded them into a bracelet, wearing them on his wrist.
"Good stuff! En, it can calm my mind and suppress heart-fire! Nice!" While fiddling with the bracelet, Wu Qi roared with laughter.
Even as his laughter echoed out, Wu Qi suddenly glared ahead. A mighty sword energy shot out from the top of his head and soared nearly ten thousand feet into the sky, transforming into a gigantic red sword as it slashed down forcefully. "The people inside, come out and face your death! I am here to annihilate your sect!" He cried out sternly and loudly.
It was the fire element sword from the Five Elements Sword Technique which Wu Qi learned from Heaven Breaking Sword Sect. Shrouded in a raging flame that blotted the sky, the gigantic red sword smashed whistling down. A loud boom rang out, and the flame leaped one hundred thousand feet up into the sky. Both cliff walls were crushed to shreds with just one single strike. Streams of flame shot in all directions and blanketed all the nearby forests.
"How dare you!" A light shout was heard coming from within Greenwood Mountain. A sheet of green light swept across the scene and wiped out all of the flames in an instant.
A middle-age Daoist clad in a white Daoist robe, his appearance Immortal and handsome, walked out slowly with a calm and stable pace.
With his head tilted up arrogantly, the middle-aged Daoist snapped coldly, "You're playing with fire! I am Yun Zang from Green City, and I've received an order to establish an outpost here. Since you have the guts to stir up trouble here, you might as well just stay here and don't leave anymore!"
After saying that, Daoist Yun waved his hand. Immediately, the scene around Wu Qi changed, and he found that he had been dragged into an illusion.
Wu Qi paid no heed to where he was right now. Instead, he glared his eyes and shouted fiercely, "Green City?"
Daoist Yun Zang answered proudly, "Indeed! The Green City from Xuan Yang!"
After pausing for a brief moment, he cried out fanatically, "My Master is Reverend Li Yang, and he is the grandson of Green City's current Ancestral Master!"
Green City! Green City from Xuan Yang!
Reverend Li Yang! Reverend Li Yang from Green City!