When Wu Qi jumped to his feet, Han Xin, who was sitting off to the side drinking on his own, suddenly pointed a finger at him and shouted, "How impudent! Sit down!"
Wu Qi just gave him a glare over the shoulder and paid him no heed. Enraged, Han Xin threw away his wine vessel as his body suddenly burst into a black fog which then split into dozens of shadows and darted away in all directions to lock down the void around them. Even as that was happening, another Han Xin was striking down at Wu Qi from above with a powerful punch. Surprisingly, Han Xin was also a body cultivator! As soon as his fist punched out, the space around Wu Qi shattered into pieces, which turned into countless triangular spatial fragments with sharp edges and began to cut his body.
Laughing bitterly, a large cloud of dark fog sprayed out of Wu Qi's body. He had no intention to counter Han Xin with pure force; instead, a green phosphate flame suddenly spurted out of his hands, and with the flick of his fingers, it transformed into seven green runes, each as large as a fist. Accompanied by a deep incantation, the seven runes coalesced into an arrowhead, one-foot long and as thick as a thumb, and then shot towards Han Xin's fist with a jarring, piercing noise.
A strong light flashed across the tent as Wu Qi grunted and stepped back a dozen paces. The punch had almost knocked him out of the tent. His armor and robe were ripped and cut to shreds, and his skin was covered with gashes that looked like toddler's mouths, many of which went deep to his bones that had become pale purple in color by now. Blood kept gushing from these wounds and soon accumulated into a small puddle beneath his feet.
There were seventeen fist-prints on Wu Qi's chest and abdomen, each about two inches deep. Although Han Xin had only punched once, in that instant, he had used his fist-intent 1 [1] to wound seventeen vital spots on Wu Qi's chest and abdomen. On top of that, a stream of cold, biting, and highly corrosive immortal energy was rushing through Wu Qi's body, wildly destroying everything inside.
With a cold grin, Wu Qi locked his hands into an odd incantation gesture, the Seal of Imperishable Heaven and Earth, an incomparably complex seal found in the very last page in the Foundation Chapter of the True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture. As the seal took shape, dense purple mist came pouring over from all directions and rushed into his body with a dull rumbling. The countless wounds on his body began to heal rapidly, and the seventeen fist-prints on his chest and abdomen recovered quickly. At the same time, the sound of bones grinding against each other rang out of his chest—the bones broken by Han Xin were returning to their original position and mending.
After spitting out a mouthful of blood, Wu Qi suddenly burst into a long laugh.
Han Xin was rooted to the spot with an unsightly expression. He had just attacked with his right fist, and by this time, it had swollen into a sarcoma the size of a human head. Countless smaller sarcomas and blood vesicles were constantly popping out of the huge sarcoma, each in the form of a face; some were even grinding teeth and letting out sharp, unpleasant ghost howls. To make matters worse, these smaller sarcomas and vesicles were spreading up his arm to his body, and in just the blink of an eye, these ugly things had reached his elbow.
Amidst the cracking and popping noise, these sarcomas and blood vesicles rotted and burst, spraying and splattering dark red pus on the ground. With each additional sarcoma or vesicle bursting, Han Xin's face paled a little more, and by the time they reached his elbow, his face was as pale as a ghost.
In fact, these sarcomas and vesicles were produced by devouring Han Xin's flesh and energy essence; therefore, his vitality was reduced every time one of them burst. Although they had grown only on his skin, these dirty things had soon spread to his bones. His thoroughly tempered, harder-than-diamond bones were hissing from the corrosion, and it seemed he would soon be unable to withstand the malignant attack.
A blood-red gleam flashed through Han Xin's eyes. He performed a hand incantation gesture with his left hand and pointed it toward his right arm, shooting out a beam of blood red light. Immediately, a jet of foul, pungent, dark red blood gushed from his right fist and sprinkled down to the ground, corroding the marble-paved floor into a pit about ten feet in diameter. With that, he no longer had fresh sarcomas and blood vesicles growing on his right arm. But, he was already pockmarked below the shoulders, the entire arm full of thumb-sized holes that were constantly emitting faint black smoke.
"Cultivating both body and magic? It's rare on Pangu Continent!" Han Xin stared at Wu Qi dispassionately and nodded slowly.
"It's a Nine Rotten Arrow!" said Wu Qi, smiling, "I just learned it, and you are the first to try it!"
"Very well!" Han Xin squinted at Wu Qi and looked up and down for a long time, as if he wanted to remember the appearance of every hair Wu Qi had. At last, he said coldly, "If we meet in the battlefield in the future, I'll cut off your head to make ornaments!"
Wu Qi pretended he was sizing up Han Xin, and then he said sharply, "There's nothing on you that I like, so I'm only going to kill you and not collect anything from your body!" Even as he said that, he was laughing in his heart and thought, 'You want to meet me on the battlefield? How could I do what you want? Just you wait... I'll soon bring your old rivals to you and see if you will be as arrogant as now when you meet them!'
Han Xin did not say another word. He nodded to Bo Yunting, then went straight back to his seat. Taking the wine jar, he poured himself a vessel of wine, completely ignoring the people around him. He acted as if the person who had just yelled and taken the initiative to attack Wu Qi was not him at all. Bo Yunting's face turned very unsightly. In front of him, the commander-in-chief, not only had Han Xin yelled, but also attacked his subordinate!
He grabbed a wine vessel, preparing to throw it over Han Xin's head and teaching him a lesson himself. But just then, he saw Wu Qi striding to the middle of the tent with a cold grin, then offering him a salute with a cupped fist. Only then did his clenched fist slowly relax. He put down the vessel with five deep fingerprints and asked, "What do you want to say, Tan Lang?"
As he asked, Bo Yunting gave the pit in the ground a glance. Amongst the secret curse spells practiced by the human race, the Nine Rotten Arrow was a very vicious spell that could only be mastered by the gifted Oracles. Wu Qi's cultivation of the True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture had reached the Nine Stars Realm of the First Pangu Heaven, and in just over a year's time, he had mastered the Nine Rotten Arrow. It showed that he was truly cultivating both the body and magic at the same time, and he was very talented at the art of curse spells!
'He's a rare talent!' Bo Yunting thought of soliciting Wu Qi, but it was clear that he was working for Yu Clan in Zhong Province now. If he really wanted to recruit Wu Qi, he would have to get through quite a number of challenges. But, he was not in a hurry. As Bo Zhongfu's third son, there were few things in Zhong Province that could be hidden from him, including the conflict between Wu Qi and Yu Miao!
With that old fool Yu Miao causing trouble, Bo Yunting felt that Wu Qi was very likely to become one of his top military officers!
"Speak up boldly," said Bo Yunting with an approving nod and a warm smile. "No matter what you say, if anyone dares to touch you, he will not be able to leave this tent today!" His face showed a ferocious killing intent, and the other military officers in the tent straightened their backs as well, all staring fiercely at Liu Bang and his companions.
Liu Bang was taken aback, and he shouted hastily, "Third Young Master, this is a misunderstanding, totally a misunderstanding!"
Bo Yunting pointed a finger at Liu Bang and snapped, "Shut up!"
Pulling a long face, Liu Bang closed his mouth in a sad way, then leaned his back against Fan Kuai's lap and squinted at Wu Qi with a shadow of a smile on his face.
Wu Qi gave Liu Bang a glance, then began to explain the causes and consequences of Hai Province's annihilation of Mount Moon Gazing, including how Reverend Yao Yue had coerced the officials of Hai Province, how he had killed some of them, and even murdered Hai Province's former Military Minister. It took him a full quarter of an hour to explain why it was perfectly reasonable, and in accordance with Great Yu's laws, for Hai Province to wipe out Mount Moon Gazing with an army.
In the end, Wu Qi fired directly at Liu Bang, accusing him of producing evidence that was completely fabricated by Myriad Immortal Alliance which should not be used as evidence at all. He also said that Liu Bang, as the Celestial Ambassador, was totally unfair and simply defending those daring Immortals from the alliance.
"What the Celestial Ambassador said is utter bullsh*t!" Wu Qi shouted loudly, "If we really retreat because of this fabricated evidence… first, we will let His Majesty down, and second, how can we ever justify the sacrifice of hundreds of millions of innocent civilians in Hai Province?"
'Sacrifice of hundreds of millions of innocent civilians in Hai Province!' Hearing this, Bo Yunting almost coughed the wine out of his mouth.
Liu Bang sprung to his feet and shouted furiously, "Bullsh*t! You are talking the greatest nonsense! How many people are there in Hai Province? Damn it, how dare you to talk nonsense in front of me? The whole of Ningbo City adds up to only about a million people, so where did you find hundreds of millions of civilians?"
Liu Bang was a little miffed; he did not expect that Wu Qi was better at talking nonsense than even himself. The seriousness between killing millions of people and hundreds of millions of people was incomparable. With some under-the-table deals, things could be easily gotten over with if only millions of people were killed. But, when it involved hundreds of millions of innocent civilians, things would not end that easily!
With a scornful smile, Wu Qi gave a sidelong glance at Liu Bang. "Since the Celestial Ambassador came to Pangu Continent more than a year ago, you have been busy building palace and searching for concubines," said Wu Qi sarcastically. "How can you be so familiar with our civil affairs? How do you know how many civilians are there in Hai Province?"
Liu Bang froze for a moment, blinked his eyes, then waved his hands and shouted, "Even if Hai Province has really lost hundreds of millions of civilians, how can the lives of these civilians be compared to those of the Immortals? You have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Immortals and itinerant cultivators in Zhong Province. Don't you think it's time to stop? An Immortal is worth at least a million common people. Is it not enough that you have slain so many Immortals?"
He pulled a golden scroll out of his sleeve and placed it heavily in front of Bo Yunting, then said with a flattering smile, "Why don't you sign this truce, and then both of us will withdraw our men? What's the point of fighting against each other? Well, I can give you one hundred beautiful girls, and they will all be virgins! Also, uncountable gold and silver, immortal stones and energy stones! Let the war cease… What do you think?"
Bo Yunting stared at Liu Bang's flattering smile as he slowly pressed one of his hands on the golden scroll.
A loud boom rang out as the golden scroll suddenly exploded into pieces. "How could you utter something so ridiculous? A total of 987,654,321 people had died in Ningbo City! Come here again to mediate after I've killed an equal number of Immortals!"
Liu Bang stared blankly at Bo Yunting for a moment, then a cold grin suddenly crept over his face as he pointed a finger at the latter and shouted, "Well, you do have guts, boy!"
Flicking his sleeve, Liu Bang spun and went off in a huff; Fan Kuai and the others immediately followed up.
Wu Qi frowned. Was Liu Bang really here to mediate the war? Why was it more like acting?
Similar to the sword intent, an intangible force (intention) that comes together with the fist, capable of causing damage without physically touching the target.