Flags fluttered wildly, and the air rang with the sounds of drums and bugles. With a big smile on his face, King Yang Qiu slowly floated down from the Supreme Tower toward the cloud platform, where his field headquarters was located. Tens of thousands of soldiers, their armors polished to a brilliant finish, held their heads up and stuck their chests out as they watched him slowly descend with feverish enthusiasm, cheering at the top of their lungs.
Wu Qi, too, was making his descent right next to King Yang Qiu. He narrowed his eyes and smiled, immersing himself in the enthusiasm and excitement of the soldiers down below. The news that King Yang Qiu had succeeded in killing the Sovereign and capturing his son, Li Qinghua, had spread throughout the army, and the result had been sent to Liangzhu via the fastest route. It was a great achievement, and as long as Liangzhu received the news, not only would King Yang Qiu be promoted, all the military officers under him would be handsomely rewarded as well.
It was certain that all of them would be promoted in office and became rich, and many of them would even be conferred noble ranks. Once they had the title of nobility, they were entitled to merge with beast souls. This could not only greatly enhance their overall strength, but also greatly prolong their lifespan, which benefited them the most.
Even Yu Gu, who seemed to be always in a gloomy mood, looked very different now. He, too, was smiling, and walked triumphantly through the crowd, showing off his sturdy and rejuvenated fleshly body. The vast amount of virtues had brought this old fellow straight back to his strongest thirties, and with the level of his cultivation, he could live for at least dozens of Periods more. The Heavenly Dao had recorded a heavy credit in his book, prolonging his lifespan for a significant length; that made this old fellow's heart almost burst with excitement.
Those Elders of the Yu Clan in Liangzhu were about the same age as Yu Gu, so they did not have many years to live. When they were all dead, Yu Gu would be the oldest Elder, whose status would be the highest and cultivation base the strongest. At that point in time, it was only a matter of words for him to foster his own lineal descendant as the head of the Yu Clan in Liangzhu. Not only that, as he would then be the ultimate spokesperson for the interest of the Yu Clan in Liangzhu, the candidates who would fill the high positions in the imperial court of Great Yu, which traditionally belong to the Yu Clan, would be selected by him!
It was worth all the efforts to kill a Primordial Immortal in return for such great benefits!
Yu Gu even felt his lower body begin to become hotter and swell with blood. His little brother, which had been lying dormant for tens of thousands of years, seemed to have sensed the arrival of spring. He narrowed his eyes and glanced at those young and beautiful girls from the clans of feathermen among the welcoming parade; wondering if he should pick the few prettiest girls, bring them to some remote tent, and carry out some activity that only the youngsters would do.
Amidst the laughter and cheers, Yu Qingcheng had the most unsightly expression. With a stern face, he wished he could hack Wu Qi to death with a sword right now.
'Why did this little punk get so many benefits? Why did he get so many virtues? Why not me? Of all the people here, I am the cleverest, the wisest, and the most farsighted man! I am the best of them all! Why didn't I get these benefits!'
Sure enough, Yu Qingcheng was smart, talented, educated and gifted; his knowledge was broad and profound, and he was well versed in both literature and military affairs; he was literally an all-around talent. However, his current level of cultivation was merely equivalent to that of a thirty-third-tier Heaven Immortal. Moreover, not only was he a nobody in the imperial court, but he was also just a military counselor for King Yang Qiu who was constantly treated with disdain...What made him deserve such injustice?
'I, Yu Qingcheng... am such an excellent talent. But, instead of putting me to good use, you relied heavily on this ignorant punk!' Yu Qingcheng thought in a frenzy of rage as he stared gloomily at King Yang Qiu while giving Wu Qi occasional glances with eyes that spat venom. He felt that his heart was bleeding. At the same time, he was cursing the Sovereign in his mind, 'As a mighty Primordial Immortal, why were you so easily killed? Why couldn't you just fight back with all your might? Why didn't you...kill this little punk before self-detonating your immortal soul?'
A profound hatred rushed straight into his head, causing a blood-red vein to appear on Yu Qingcheng's forehead, which twisted violently like a venomous snake.
Bringing with him the glory of killing the Sovereign, King Yang Qiu returned to his field headquarter. After a grand feast of celebration, the entire cloud platform rose into the sky and began flying toward the formation laid out by the Lord Wandering Immortal, along with the army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
The air rang with the beating of drums and gongs, and the ground shook due to the immense killing intent. On the ground, the army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers was marching forward at a high speed, their footsteps sounding like deafening thunderclaps. Midair, a swarm of feathermen was flying forward in a neat formation, their dark wings spread out to blot the entire sky. High up in the sky, led by a Jade Armor Dark Turtle flying ship, hundreds of flying ships were speeding toward their destination like a huge dark cloud. This time, King Yang Qiu had sent out all his troops unreservedly, including even the six troops he had hidden in the mountains thousands of miles away.
Just now at the feast of celebration, Wu Qi told King Yang Qiu that driven by the Virtues of the Heavenly Dao, his understanding of the Dao of Formation had reached a point of great sophistication, and he could now effortlessly crack the formation laid out by Lord Wandering Immortal! King Yang Qiu was pleasantly surprised when he heard that, and he immediately called in all his troops, preparing to annihilate Lord Wandering Immortal and the other immortals of the Myriad Immortal Alliance!
Wu Qi was not telling a lie. The Virtues of the Heavenly Dao were an incredibly amazing power. After absorbing an enormous amount of the virtues, his divine soul had transformed into an innate divine soul of virtue, which immediately skyrocketed his ability to understand the Heavenly Dao. It was like the most basic abacus had been upgraded to a mainframe computer. In just an hour, he managed to completely understand all the profound mysteries relating to the Dao of Formation recorded in the Scroll of Stealing. On top of that, he even derived numerous secrets out of what he understood.
The formation, which initially he found tricky to crack, appeared to be full of weakness when he looked at it again now. With his present level of cultivation sitting firmly in the realm of fifth-tier Gold Immortal, he could effortlessly destroy the formation. But, what good would it do for him to just destroy it? He was not trying to destroy it, but to seize it!
He wanted to seize the whole formation for himself. Without taking into account the other things, just the tens of thousands of immortal artifacts forged after the weapons used by the various Celestial Lords were already an astronomical fortune. If he were able to obtain them, he could refine them all over again. Afterward, he would be able to lay out a brand-new Celestial Formation with the profound knowledge of the Dao of Formation he understood, the power of which could instantly wipe out any existences below the realm of Primordial Immortals.
Standing at the front of the cloud platform with King Yang Qiu and looking out into the valley where bright pillars of starlight towered into the sky, Wu Qi could not help but burst into laughter. When they were about a hundred miles from the formation, he took a deep breath, and the Nine Nether Ghost Flame began to spew out from all over him as his body grew thirty feet tall abruptly, with dark dragon scales covering his skin once again.
Coiling atop Wu Qi's shoulder, the two dragon pythons warily lifted their heads and gave the menacing military officers around a quick glance, then hastily shrunk their bodies to the size of earthworms and slithered into Wu Qi's ears, hiding in it like Ao Buzun. As Ao Buzun was hiding in Wu Qi's left ear, they hid in his right ear.
No one had any objection to Wu Qi taking the two dragon pythons. The warriors of Great Yu were known to keep some strange savage beasts, birds, or even poisonous insects. Sure enough, the two dragon pythons were rare species, but there were other people keeping similar ancient species as well. In fact, a few members of the imperial clan whom King Yang Qiu knew personally were keeping Nine-headed Serpents. Therefore, what Wu Qi did was not something that would attract a lot of attention.
After exercising the Dragon Kill and transforming himself into the form of a dragonman, Wu Qi raised both hands over his shoulders and shot out plumes of dark smoke from his fingertips. Amidst a deafening rumble and boom, hundreds of mountains, each over a hundred miles high, flew up into the sky. Their roots broke off the ground while countless boulders shattered and rolled off their surfaces, sending dust and sand high up into the air. Meanwhile, gusts of strong wind began to blow across the land, causing many soldiers to lose their footing and nearly get swept up into the sky.
A total of three hundred and sixty mountains were pulled up into the sky by Wu Qi using a mystic art of the Directorate of Celestials. Upon looking at Wu Qi making a show of strength, Yu Gu, standing next to him, nodded repeatedly and praised, "It's amazing to see what one can achieve by cultivating both magic and fleshly body. Tan Lang, your cultivation of this Mountain Shifting Magic has certainly reached the mastery level. How amazing!"
Wu Qi burst into laughter and said, "You flatter me, Old Mister Yu!"
After saying that, he clasped his hands, and one mountain after another began to fly toward him. Then, a stream of pitch black Nine Nether Ghost Flame poured out of his palms. Amidst a sizzling sound, they all shrunk rapidly in size. Before long, these mountains were compressed to tiny hills that measured only three feet in height. However, although they were smaller now, their weight remained the same. As their density increased exponentially, their toughness was comparable to the core of a star in the outer heavenly realms which was constantly being refined by the natural forces.
Scooping up the heaps of tiny hills that were stacked on top of each other, Wu Qi leaped into the sky and casually tossed them into the valley ahead.
The air rang with loud thuds as Wu Qi threw these mountains into the formation Lord Wandering Immortal had laid out, using them to cut off the three hundred and sixty most important energy veins. Immediately, a deafening rumble rang through the entire formation. Countless beams of starlight shot into the sky, and one mountain after another within the formation crumbled to dust. Immortals stationed on these mountains howled and shrieked miserably as their bodies were ripped apart by the power of the stars that had gone into a rampage.
As Wu Qi's understanding of the profound knowledge relating to the Dao of Formation recorded in the Scroll of Stealing had reached a point of great sophistication, it really did not require him too much of an effort to crack this formation. By just cutting off the energy veins in it, the entire formation began to fall apart. Then, the army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers quickly flanked the valley from left and right, preventing anyone from escaping.
After that, a dark cloud soared into the sky and hovered above the valley, on top of which Li Qinghua could be seen strapped to a stone post and tightly bound in black metal chains like a rice dumpling. He was wailing and begging at the top of his lungs with dozens of tall and sturdy executioners standing guard around him.
Together with many of his confidants, King Yang Qiu smugly flew up the sky and hovered above the valley, which was previously impregnable. As a proud smile spread across his face, he glanced at those panic-stricken immortals and cried out, "Lord Wandering Immortal, we've killed your Sovereign and captured his son, Li Qinghua. Put down your weapons and surrender now!"
Amidst Li Qinghua's hoarse screams, the group of Gold Immortals from the alliance, including Lord Wandering Immortal, heaved a long sigh before committing suicide in front of everyone. Without even putting up resistance, they disintegrated their immortal bodies and dissolved their immortal souls.
From the pond in the center of the valley, Wu Qi fished out three hundred and sixty Star Pearls that had been perfectly refined. As he was King Yang Qiu's current favorite confidant, no one would compete with him for these treasures. Each of these Star Pearls was a supreme-grade Gold Immortal Artifact personally crafted by the Sovereign using materials that weighed hundreds of millions of kilograms, which could unleash an incredible power when used together. But, they were all Wu Qi's loot now.
Over the next year, accompanied by Wu Qi and the others, King Yang Qiu escorted Li Qinghua to every part of Great Yu.
Wherever they went, when the news of the Sovereign's death was learned by those immortals of the alliance, they would immediately commit suicide, and nobody dared to resist the mighty army of Great Yu. In just a year, the Myriad Immortal Alliance, who had once turned the entire Great Yu upside down, was completely wiped out!
The imperial court of Great Yu was shaken, and King Yang Qiu's name quickly spread everywhere.
Meanwhile, 'Tan Lang', the small County Governor of Dong Hai County as well as the Military Minister of Hai Province, began to attract attention from the important ministers of Great Yu.