Under Wu Qi and Zhang Yi's great care, Reverend Li Yang and Fairy Xuan Die were living a life of leisure in the Six Rivers City.
Garnished with Wu Qi's submissive smile, platters of spirit fruits, meticulously prepared delicacies, and flagons of aromatic wines were served endlessly into the couple's chamber, and ended up in their stomachs. Although they were both Gold Immortals, they had the desire for good food as well. They had shown little resistance against the tasty foods and fragrant wines made of spirit fruits.
And what came with these fine wines and delicious foods were energy stones and immortal stones that were packed up like a small hill.
Hundreds of thousands of young adults from the Six Rivers City were being assembled and ordered to carry out a destructive mining operation in a few energy stone veins found around the city. They were assisted by Wu Qi, a peak stage Nascent Soul cultivator, Zhang Yi and Bai Qi, two Heaven Immortals, and nearly ten thousand strong soldiers who were practicing the cultivation technique of the human race. In just two short months, they managed to produce several hundreds of thousands of energy stones and immortal stones, which were all sent into the couple's chamber.
As the days passed, the smile on Fairy Xuan Die's face was getting gentler and prettier. Finally, when the winter was about to leave Pangu Continent and the spring was arriving, she summoned Wu Qi on one fine day, and commanded Zhang Yi and Bai Qi to assemble all the people of the Six Rivers City, making them wait for her order right inside the city.
The couple, who had been dwelling in their abode for months, had finally presented themselves before the people. They had put on brand-new, luxurious-looking clothes and robes, standing before the main door to the great hall in the City Lord Mansion while looking down at Wu Qi, Zhang Yi, and Bai Qi with a smile on their faces.
Clapping her hands, Fairy Xuan Die offered Wu Qi and his company a graceful bow. "Thank you for all the help, fellow Daoists," she said softly. "Otherwise, my husband and I would still be trapped here, not knowing when to escape from the calamity."
Reverend Li Yang put in kindly, "Looking back at a few months ago, we were truly in a bad shape. Me and fellow Daoist Xuan Die..."
The form of address had made Fairy Xuan Die give him a fierce glare. Hurriedly, Reverend Li Yang corrected himself, "My wife and I were in a bad shape. Enemies were pursuing us, and we had nowhere to turn. We dared not to enter any cities that we had come across, fearing that it might expose our tracks."
Fairy Xuan Die embraced his left arm tenderly and said, "The heaven is merciful and sent us Daoist Black Dragon. Initially, we thought of sending him here, to the Six Rivers City, so that he could gather information for us, to see that if we were wanted. If we were, we would have to flee for our lives. But fortunately, the city was already occupied by fellow Daoist Zhang Yi and Bai Qi!"
Wu Qi sighed faintly with his arms tucked under his sleeves and gave Zhang Yi a glance.
Zhang Yi took a step forward and said coolly, "Let me help you finish your words. After discovering that the Six Rivers City is occupied by us, the army of Great Qin, and has become the territory of Immortal cultivators, you have set your mind at rest and began to gather energy stones and immortal stones. Although, I believe the purpose of gathering them is not to heal your wounds, but a preparation for you to make an escape from Pangu Continent."
Fairy Xuan Die looked at Zhang Yi with surprise. She nodded repeatedly like a cute girl from next door and praised, "You are a clever man, fellow Daoist Zhang Yi. How did you manage to know that? Hehe, without a Grand Universal Teleportation Formation here, how did you know that we are able to escape from this place?"
Bai Qi snorted coldly and said in his hoarse voice, "Never underestimate us. Your little plot is nothing of a surprise to us. Although we don't know what kind of divine ability or mystic technique you have, what makes you think that you are the only one who knows the technique of traveling across space without a proper teleportation formation, but with only energy stones and immortal stones?"
Wu Qi's ears pricked up. 'Aye? There are actually such techniques? Isn't that more useful than any of the escape arts? And the people of Great Qin Dynasty actually know about that! Even the Scroll of Stealing doesn't mention anything about this kind of techniques... Could they be the techniques invented by the Immortal cultivators who came after the Senior who gave me the Scroll of Stealing?'
Fairy Xuan Die turned to look at Bai Qi with amazement as her smiling face turned cold. "You are aware of the 'Energy Traversing Space Grand Magic'? It looks like you do come from a strong background! If that is the case, you can't blame me for this! Initially, I did feel a little bit of guilt for killing you and using your blood essence to recover my energy. But now, I have no choice but to be merciless, as I can't let you expose my secret!"
Upon hearing her words, Wu Qi, Zhang Yi, and Bai Qi could not help but sneer. Even the dozens of captains who stood behind Bai Qi, and the dozens of officials behind Zhang Yi, were ginning coldly. They knew Fairy Xuan Die had long had the intention of killing them to keep the secret, and seizing their blood essence to recover her energy. What she had said was as if she was plugging her ears while stealing a bell, and trying to make her look pretty even when she was going to do something nasty. The words she spoke sounded hollow and false, and they just made Wu Qi and his company laugh.
The mocking laughter infuriated Fairy Xuan Die and turned her face deadly pale. She squinted at them and said softly, "Will you please not laugh at me? All of you are going to die, but death comes in two ways… a quick one or a painful one. Isn't it better to have a quick death?"
Wu Qi sighed faintly, shook his head, and said, "Seniors... no, my fellow Daoists who are in an adversity, do you think you still have the energy to kill us?"
Xuan Die giggled and twisted her slender waist as she turned to look at Wu Qi and said, "The energy to kill you? What makes you..."
All of a sudden, she sucked in a deep breath as her expression changed drastically. Because of the severe condition of her wounds, she had never exercised her immortal energy over the last few months, and as Reverend Li Yang had recovered some of his energy after harvesting the energies of several hundred girls, it was he who used the power to keep watch on the people around them. A moment ago when she was trying to exercise her immortal energy, she felt a stream of cold air rushing out of her abdomen, and spreading across all over her body in just a flash.
The dreadful cold air had frozen her body within a blink of an eye, shattering the last thread of immortal energy remaining in her. Even her immortal soul was on the verge of collapsing like the candlelight amidst a passing night breeze.
"What the hell is this?" Reverend Li Yang shrieked with fear, who looked no better than Fairy Xuan Die. His skin was covered in a layer of frost, and when he shrieked, ice flakes began forming all over his body. Wisps of cold air were spraying out from the top of his head, condensing into ice crystals that fell slowly down.
Together, Zhang Yi and Bai Qi pointed one finger at Wu Qi and said with a sly smile, "It is Wu Qi's work, and we have no idea how he did that."
Reverend Li Yang and Fairy Xuan Die turned to look at Wu Qi furiously. "Your name is not Daoist Black Dragon?"
Wu Qi rolled his eyes, grinning coldly as he snapped, "Have your father and mother not told you that you shouldn't believe words that come out of the mouth of a stranger who you met on the street? Why are you so naive? I have a black dragon, and I named myself Daoist Black Dragon, and you never doubted me? If I bring your father with me and name myself Daoist Father, does that mean you will address me as fellow Daoist Father?"
Reverend Li Yang and Fairy Xuan Die were so angry that their bodies were shivering. They stared at Wu Qi with great rage, their eyes going wide as if their eyeballs were about to pop out.
Wu Qi shook his head and said with a sigh, "Do you know how you fell into this state?"
Even as he said that, Wu Qi began to retreat. Zhang Yi and Bai Qi had followed suit with smiles all over their faces. Before long, they had retreated to a far distance, out of the Six Rivers City. The two hundred thousand people of Six Rivers City who waited outside had long begun the retreat. Led by the many soldiers, they went as far as they could with carts and coaches.
Standing atop a small hill about one hundred miles away from the city gate, Wu Qi exercised his Chaotic Divine Eyes and glanced towards Reverend Li Yang and Fairy Xuan Die. He laughed and said, "Have you not discovered that since the day I was personally put in charge of your daily meals, you have rarely consumed spirit fruits directly, and what we served you were mostly stews made of mixed spirit fruits?"
Fairy Xuan Die's voice was heard coming from across the distance, weak and faint, "Though they are stews and foods made of mixed spirit fruits, I am an expert in the Dao of Pills. I found no poison in them!"
Wu Qi said in a strange voice, "You are right. There is no poison in the stews and food. However, when today's food is mixed with those we served on the seventh day, a small amount of poison will be produced. When the second day's food is mixed with the ninth day's, they will produce a small amount of poison as well. Same goes for mixing the third day and the eighth day.
"Unless you can refine the medicinal strength found in the spirit fruits as quickly as possible, every time you consume them, they will accumulate in your body. Sooner and later, they will turn into a complex poison that clings to your life.
"But, you are severely wounded, and you have never entered a secluded cultivation to nurse your wounds. You never exercised your cultivation base to digest these stews and foods. As a result, all the delicious delicacies which you've consumed on a daily basis have turned into a deadly poison that will rot your entrails.
"In fact, it only took me twenty-four days to plant the 'Dark Yin Soul Captivation Poison' in your bodies. Do you find the name familiar?"
Wu Qi laughed triumphantly. He had made the Dark Yin Soul Captivation Poison based on the formula of Dark Yin Soul Captivation spell found in Lady Dark Gold Water's memory. He modified it with the Art of Poisonous Gu which he learned from Princess Zhang Le, and used the many spirit herbs of Yin element that grew in the cold weather around Six Rivers City as the ingredients. Then, he had managed to plant it into their bodies. How was he not going to feel happy after successfully bringing down two Gold Immortals with an ingenious plan?
Just like the Dark Yin Soul Captivation spell, the Dark Yin Soul Captivation poison was a wicked poison that could make all the Gold Immortals and Heaven Immortals tremble with fear just by hearing its name! As Fairy Xuan Die was once Lady Dark Gold Water's best friend, and Reverend Li Yang had been her companion in travel, how could they not know the name of this deadly poison? It was one of the two trump cards which made Dark Yin Soul Captivation a fearful name!
"Dark Yin Soul Captivation Poison!" After staring each other blankly for a while, the couple shrieked as if they had just seen things.
Fairy Xuan Die shouted angrily, "Are you from the Dark Yin True Water Palace? How did you manage to find us here? Ah, has Lady Divine Water finally struck? Is she the one who is scheming us from the back? But, nobody knows it was us who killed Lady Dark Gold Water!"
She was shouting and roaring hoarsely, and it seemed her mind was on the verge of collapsing.
Wu Qi shook his head and said coolly, "You can die now!"
He flipped his palm and produced the three Gold Immortal talismans which Reverend Li Yang had given him.