As he was walking along the passage leading to the storehouse, Wu Qi recalled the weird smile that Lu Buwei had shown him just now. He suddenly curved his lips into a smile.
'Lu Buwei had arrived Pangu Continent two years earlier than me? What mode of transportation had he used, that allowed him to travel here in such a short amount of time? And, what is he trying to accomplish in Miao Ying Palace? No matter what he is up to, I'll just ruin all his schemes. In the end, if there is no other alternative, I'll just have to kill him.'
However, at the thought of =killing Lu Buwei with his own hands, he felt that his heart was tangled with a complicated emotion. He was reluctant to do it. Lu Buwei, the Prime Minister of Great Qin, should he kill a great man like this? It was like taking away a color from a seven-colored painting. He was reluctant to kill him.
Miao Yue was leading the way in the front, twisting her slender waist as she walked. Her rounded buttock was swaying left and right before Wu Qi's eyes, and its muscles were trembling gently. The sight was like a deep well that sent forth a powerful attraction, luring any men's attention. Wu Qi had his eyes rested on her buttock for some while, before he suddenly asked with a laugh, "How many years has Senior Miao Yue been following Goddess? Even though I am considered one of Miao Ying Palace's disciples, I know nothing about its background."
Miao Yue could sense Wu Qi's glance was lingering on her back. All Immortal cultivators had very powerful senses, and while Wu Qi did not conceal the fact that he was enjoying the sight of her beautiful body, his scorching hot glances made her feel a warmth washing over her entire body. It was a pleasant feeling. She giggled, turning her head slightly around as she began to explain the situation of Miao Ying Palace while walking.
The Miao Ying Palace at the Dark Abyss of Northern Ocean was just a projection of the genuine Miao Ying Palace at the Nine Yin Heavenly Realm. It was a temporary dwelling palace which the Patriarch had created by projecting the genuine Miao Ying Palace here with her mighty divine abilities and power. The Patriarch was a Primordial Immortal, and as for the exact level of her overall strength, Miao Yue did not know.
Goddess Miao Xin was the Patriarch's favorite disciple. She alone was in charge of all the internal and external affairs of Miao Ying Palace, and even possessed the absolute power of granting life or death to all the disciples. Ten thousand years ago, when the Patriarch had decided to establish a temporary dwelling palace in the Dark Abyss so she could craft a supreme Primordial Immortal item, as her loyal disciple, Goddess Miao Xin had brought a large group of guards and maidservants here to serve her.
"I see!"
Wu Qi nodded as if he was suddenly enlightened. In full surprise, he lowered his voice and told Miao Yue, "Little did I expect that the Patriarch of Miao Ying Palace is a legendary figure. It is by sheer luck for me to be able to join Miao Ying Palace, Senior Miao Yue, please do take good care of me in the future."
Miao Yue chuckled as she continued walking for a short distance before pointing her finger at Wu Qi and saying, "Why do you need us to take care of you? You made an excellent speech just now. You've no idea how happy Goddess was when she heard that. You have a bright future, so why should you need us to take care of you?"
Wu Qi put up a shocked expression just at the right time as he asked hastily, "I do not understand, Senior?"
Miao Yue shook her head and said with a faint sigh, "Just to let you know, Goddess has painted that portrait with her own hand. You've made an excellent comment about it, and obviously, she is very pleased with that. Though she doesn't have a good appearance right now, she was once a peerless beauty."
'A peerless beauty?' Wu Qi narrowed his eyes.
Perhaps the secret had been hiding in her heart for too long, or perhaps Wu Qi did not look threatening to her, or maybe, as he had won Goddess Miao Xin's favor, Miao Yue thought it did not matter to tell him the secret. Therefore, after a brief moment of pondering, she told Wu Qi the following story.
Once upon a time, about several hundreds of thousands of years ago, Goddess Miao Xin was still an exceedingly beautiful lady.
For Immortal cultivators, during the realms of Nascent Soul, Nascent Divinity, and after becoming Immortals, whenever they made another progression and advanced to the next realm, so long as they could live through the Heavenly Tribulation, they could always carry out an adjustment to their own appearance and some other parts. And, after being tempered by a few Heavenly Tribulations, even a peerless ugly woman could transform herself to a lady with an extraordinary beauty, let alone, Goddess Miao Xin, who Wu Qi reckoned was at least an existence with an overall strength of Gold Immortal.
At that time, Goddess Miao Xin was indeed a peerless beauty. Regardless it was her talents or approaches, all of them were of the best among the rest. Or else, how could she become the Patriarch's favorite disciple?
But, even between Primordial Immortals, there were entanglements of gratitude or resentment, conflicts, and disputes. Patriarch Miao Ying had a sworn foe who she had acquired since she began to cultivate. That was a foe whom she met when she had just stepped into the path of cultivating immortality, and she had yet to even form her Gold Core. The pair of foes had fought against each other for nearly their entire life, and it continued restlessly even after both had become Primordial Immortals.
It was during a throwdown between them that Goddess Miao Xin became the victim.
Unlike the throwdown between ordinary Heaven Immortals, Primordial Immortals would not attack each other with flying swords or thunder flames, drenching themselves in sweats while cursing their opponents. Instead, it would be quiet and calm like the light drizzle of rain in the springtime, seeping into all areas unnoticeably. Their attacks came without any sign.
Goddess Miao Xin was hit by the 'Nasty Shape Spell" cast by Patriarch Miao Ying's sworn foe, a soundless, shapeless, and traceless spell. In just a few hundred years, from a clever and beautiful girl, she was transformed into an extremely ugly woman. And, not only was her appearance changed, her temperament had been affected as well. She was once a gifted talent, but now, her intelligence was even weaker than ordinary mortals, and she had become muddleheaded and careless in handling matters. Most of the time, she acted solely on her instinct, no longer weighing the situations before making any decisions.
The story brought cold sweats to Wu Qi's back. He was shocked by the unimaginably queer approaches used by Primordial Immortals, for they could actually transform a clever, beautiful girl into such an ugly, stupid woman! He reckoned that this Nasty Shape Spell must be at least one hundred times more wicked than the Dark Yin Soul Captivation which he had been bound with.
He rolled his eyes and asked quickly, "Why does Patriarch not find a way to save her?"
"That person has a cultivation base similar to Patriarch," Miao Yue said with a sigh, shaking her head, "…and the Nasty Shape Spell is a proprietary spell he invented after spending a great effort. It is true that Patriarch has a mighty power and incredible divine abilities, but even with that, she failed to find a solution to that spell."
"The Nasty Shape Spell is tightly integrated with Goddess. Any slight mistake made when trying to remove it would destroy Goddess's immortal body and soul together. The removing of such a wicked spell is not as easy as we have thought." She sighed.
Wu Qi rolled his eyes quickly. He assumed that the wicked spell had completely fused with Goddess Miao Xin, and all her cells had been invaded by it. Should they try to remove it by force with any divine ability or magical power, it could easily destroy them both. Under a situation like this, the only possible solution would be using some unique natural treasure to slowly strengthen Goddess Miao Xin's own innate Yin energy. Only then there was a chance to dissolve the wicked spell.
And what could be more effective than the Ling Yi True Water?
Thoughts were leaping and bouncing within his mind as Wu Qi could not help but smile.
Soon, they came to a huge door. Four Long Bo people clad in heavy armors stood steadily before the door, fixing their eyes straight on Wu Qi's face. Hastily, Miao Yue produced a medallion and waved it before their faces, as she said, "By the Goddess's order, I have brought the supervisor of the mine, Daoist Wu Wang, to pick up two defensive weapons in the storehouse. Now make haste and open the door. Do not delay our business!"
As the heavy door of the storehouse swung open slowly, a sheet of rainbow glow radiated from between the opening, and a vague ringing of weapons clashing could be heard. Following behind Miao Yue, Wu Qi entered the storehouse, raising his head and seeing several hundred immortal items of various sizes afloat in midair. Each of them was full of energy and spirituality. A three hundred and sixty feet long, golden immortal talisman stretched across the ceiling, emanating a vast stream of golden light to trap all the immortal items in midair.
Miao Yue smilingly pointed at those immortal items and said, "These are the immortal items Goddess has crafted over the last two years, using the various materials mined by those miners Supervisor Lu had captured. It was all thanks to his effort in managing the mine. Otherwise, we would have never thought of mining ores in this place."
'Lu Buwei must have won Goddess Miao Xin's favor with this contribution.'
Wu Qi nodded silently. There was no Gold Immortal item in the storehouse. Presumably, if Goddess Miao Xin were to craft one, it would take her more than two years to complete. But, she could craft ordinary immortal items easily, just like a Heaven Immortal crafting magical treasures for Gold Core or Nascent Soul cultivators. That was why there were several hundred immortal items here.
After pondering for a while and based on the status he had shown them, a Fiend cultivator who was practicing the Inferno Hell Fiend Scripture, he picked the 'Enchanting Skulls Flag', a set of immortal items comprised of forty-nine blood-red skulls, and a 'Myriad Spirit White Bone Armor', crafted with countless tiny pale bones, tendons, skins, and hairs. One was an offensive immortal item, and the other was a defensive immortal item, just nice for the current Wu Qi to use.
And, both immortal items were of excellent quality, at least eighteenth grade or above, possessing very impressive offensive and defensive strength.
All the immortal items were personally crafted by Goddess Miao Xin, and their item spirits were the souls of giant primeval beasts she extracted after killing them. Therefore, with the controlling incantation taught by Miao Yue, it did not take Wu Qi too much of effort to refine both immortal items.
He gave a covetous glance at all the over three hundred immortal items of various shapes and sizes in the storehouse, clicking his tongue as he left with Miao Yue.
'If there is a chance, I will never spare any one of the immortal items here!' But, too bad that the defensive formations deployed outside of the storehouse were similar to the rest in Miao Ying Palace, which Wu Qi could not fully understand without spending a long period of time. On top of that, they were all formations with great power. If he were to break them, it would be extremely difficult.
Miao Yue led the way back to the mine with Wu Qi. Perhaps seldom she could find someone who could have a chat with her, as she kept on talking and told Wu Qi many things related to Miao Ying Palace. That allowed Wu Qi to further understand the latent power of Miao Ying Palace. To his surprise, Patriarch Miao Ying actually had another identity. She was the commander of an immortal army of the Heaven! Her title in the Heaven was 'Nine Yin Celestial Lord', a position much higher than ordinary Immortal Monarchs who were in charge of a heavenly realm, and the Heavenly Lords who were in charge of over ten thousand heavenly realms, as well as many other immortal officials who served the Heaven! She was a Celestial Lord who was in charge of a celestial region!
As Miao Yue was explaining many things in Miao Ying Palace to Wu Qi in full complacency, they suddenly heard the beating of drums and the blare of trumpets came from every corner, then followed by the voice of Goddess Miao Xin, "A prestigious guest has paid us a visit. Everyone shall follow me to welcome him! Hahaha, King Zhang Qiu, you are here again!"
It happened that Wu Qi had just come to the main entrance of Miao Ying Palace with Miao Yue, and he saw a middle-aged man standing before the entrance with hands clasped behind his back. The man was clad in a black burlap long robe, and a tall cypress crown set upon his brows, Both his face and eyes were dull and lifeless, which made him look like a ten thousand years old vampire.
When Wu Qi's eyes met with the middle-aged man's, he felt a coldness wash over him as an aura of death came caressing his face, nearly turning his fleshly body to ashes.
The main entrance of Miao Ying Palace swung open, and from behind, Goddess Miao Xin walked out excitedly, bringing with her a large parade of apprentices, disciples, guards, and maidservants.