Chapter 401: The Beginning of the Match
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh
Upon entering Wu Qi's body, which had been tempered with the mystic techniques of Scroll of Stealing, the innate Yin energy immediately brought a tremendous transformation to him. Every cell in his body was cheering as they absorbed wisps of magical aura exuding from it. In just a blink of an eye, the fleshly body that was filled with bulky muscles and sharp edges after cultivating the Flood Dragon Transformation technique had become slimmer, and the lines of the muscles were smoothed out.
An endless stream of newly generated force which felt extremely soft and cold was circulating rapidly within his body. With just a slight twist, his body wiggled like water, and with a deep breath, it immediately turned as hard as steel, with chunks of muscles protruding from underneath his skin.
Energies were rushing crazily throughout his entire body. As innate Yin energy was covert by nature, Wu Qi's innate five elements energies began to shrink rapidly like clumps of dirt under a ten thousand pounds hydraulic press. In just the time of two to three breaths, the innate energies that filled every single meridian in his body were quickly compressed to one-tenth of their original volume. At the same time, the power contained in every single unit had increased by ten times. With that, the power of a casual flaming-thunder spell cast by Wu Qi could probably be comparable to those major spells cast by peak-stage Nascent Divinity cultivators, which would cost them a great deal of energy.
And because of its covert nature, Wu Qi's aura become barely discernible, so much so that he looked just like an ordinary man. According to the Scroll of Stealing, only after he obtained innate Yin energy could he cultivate the various escape arts in it to the mastery level.
Now, even without exercising mystic techniques to conceal his aura, if Wu Qi were to stand among a group of mortals, ordinary Immortals would take him as one of the mortals themselves.
Even as he sensed the magical transformation pleasingly, Wu Qi shook his head with both happiness and distress, as he sighed. His energy had abruptly reduced by ninety percent. With the speed of his ten Nascent Souls absorbing natural energies together, it would take him some time before the reduced energies could be fully replenished. Of course, this was still a good thing for him, and his meridians would be full of energies again with just a few days of hard work.
He gave the ancient restrictive formation a glance, which was emitting a bronze-colored gleam and blocking before him like an impenetrable iron wall. Although he was unwilling to leave it untouched, and he did find how it worked from the Scroll of Stealing, he just did not have the sufficient power to break it apart. Sighing and shaking his head, he quickly plunged back into the ground.
Nevertheless, as he was able to obtain the innate Yin energy, it worthed every single effort he had put out so far. Now, as long as he could find the innate Yang energy, he would be able to cultivate the Seven Foundation Elevating Technique. After that, he could break all ten Nascent Souls which had fused with his three spiritual and seven physical souls. Then, he could use both innate Yin and Yang energies as the furnace of Heaven and Earth and his body as the cauldron to forge his innate Nascent Divinity.
An innate Nascent Divinity fused with innate Yin and Yang forces, as well as the aura of five elements, was as powerful as an immortal soul. And, once he managed to forge it, Wu Qi would officially step onto a great path of cultivation, completely different from that found in the current world of Immortal cultivators. The end of the path pointed directly at the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. But, if he wished to reach that stage, it would solely depend on his luck.
With the innate Yin energy entering his body, the Hassock dwelling in his spiritual ocean let out an elated sigh and said, "Little guy, you sure have a very good fortune! Perhaps I should call you 'Master' in advance, eh? Well, as long as you have the overall strength of a Gold Immortal, I'll let you command me and never regret for the rest of my life!"
Carefully and stealthily, Hassock extracted a single wisp of innate Yin energy flowing in Wu Qi's body, then let out a happy whistle and fused the magical energy with his soul, before comfortably sinking back into a deep slumber within Wu Qi's spiritual ocean. For Wu Qi, losing a single wisp of innate Yin energy counted as nothing, as it had already fused with his Seven Yin Meridians, and was constantly absorbing the innate energy essence produced by his innate Nascent Souls, and transforming them into new innate Yin energies.
With a pleasantly cool sensation filling his body, Wu Qi resurfaced and quietly merged with the celestial fiend puppet. He nodded and smiled at Princess Zhang Le, pulled her over, and continued their intimate behavior. Either intentionally or unintentionally, several tens of divine wills came sweeping across their tent again, but were quickly withdrawn as if they were seeing things.
For the next three days, none of the Immortals had their divine will coming closer to Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le's tent.
The small fireball above their heads had come to the center of the sky, and everybody's shadows were right under their feet. The midday was here, and Immortal Chuan's loud shout was heard coming from the void, "I hereby announce that the match between Yuan Hua Sect and Huiling Sect starts now! The winner will solely occupy the planet of energy stones! You are prohibited from using talismans, thunder pellets, or any consumable items of immortal grade! That is the only limitation! The immortal sect with disciples surviving at the end of the match will be the winner!"
Daoist Xiao gave a long screech as he shot into the sky on a green sword beam. He stared into the direction where Huiling Sect's disciples had their camp set up and cried out in a stern voice, "Fellow Daoists from Huiling Sect, is there anyone of you dares to fight me?"
They were only several hundred of miles apart. Even if some of the cultivators might not be able to look beyond such distance, those peak-stage Nascent Soul cultivators could easily cover it with their divine wills. Therefore, right after Daoist Xiao shouted his challenge, several tens of divine wills had already come flying over to his direction.
Disciples from Yuan Hua Sect flew up into the sky one after another. Lu Yiyue, who had a head of gray hair but a youthful appearance, came hovering right next to Daoist Xiao. "I am Yiyue. Does any fellow Daoist wish to show me some guidance?" She thundered with a laugh.
The other eight peak-stage Nascent Divinity cultivators flew up and came to their side, hovering midair as they shouted together, "We are here waiting for the arrival of fellow Daoists!"
Before their voices could fade away, a loud crackling of flame was heard coming from off in a distance. A small hill that stood roughly one mile tall, measuring several miles in circumference, detached from the ground and flew up into the sky. Gusts of dark, wild wind swirled beneath it, while the small hill itself was burning ragingly. The high-temperature flame burned and turned the entire hill glowing red, making it look as if it would melt down completely at any time. Large fireballs kept falling off from the hill, as a strong gust of wind brought it flying straight towards Wu Qi and his fellow disciples' direction at top speed.
The small hill flew tens of miles up from the ground, taking a full time to finish a meal only to arrive above the soil fort constructed by Wu Qi and his fellow disciples. Suddenly, the strong, dark wind beneath it disappeared, causing it to fell down freely. Dazzling red glows towered into the sky from the hill. The ragingly burning flame radiated a deadly heat into the atmosphere, making Wu Qi and the rest of the people feel as if they were being trapped inside a burning furnace.
While Daoist Xiao and the others were about to launch their counterattacks, Lord Xiansheng cried out happily, "Fellow disciples, let me show you what I've got for them!"
With a wild laugh, he suddenly transformed back to his true form of a flood dragon. A black flood dragon with some golden scales scattered across his body soared high up into the sky. The over three thousand feet long body slithered straight up, and a claw was thrust, brutally smashing onto the small hill. An enormously powerful force burst out, shattering all of the magical power attached to the small hill, and even knocking it back for some distance as it plunged down towards the ground.
Not waiting for the small hill to touch down, Lord Xiansheng opened his big mouth and recited a few incantations. A tornado appeared from a lake right next to him and rolled up the burning small hill, bringing it towards Huiling Sect's camp. Its speed was a few times faster than the gusts of dark wind carrying the small hill just now. In just the time to finish a pot of tea, the small hill had arrived above Huiling Sect's camp. As it spun rapidly and produced a violent whistling, the small hill smashed straight down viciously.
The wind from the tornado made the flame burn even more ragingly. More than half of the small hill had melted. A few Nascent Soul disciples from Huiling Sect sprung up into the sky, getting ready to push the small hill back like what Lord Xiansheng had just done. Lord Xiansheng glared at them, then unleashed an invisible, vast force that traveled through the void and exploded the small hill, turning it into several hundred large lava balls that fell down to the ground.
Loud booms could be heard endlessly. Huiling Sect's camp had turned into an ocean of fire, with several miles tall flaming pillars shooting up everywhere. The slacking behavior when constructing their defensive barriers had made the disciples of Huiling Sect suffer now, as nearly half of the formations were destroyed by Lord Xiansheng's single attack.
Seven early-stage Nascent Soul disciples from Huiling Sect were blown away by the explosion. Their defensive magical treasures were shattered to pieces, and their bodies were covered with blood.
All of a sudden, a huge catfish mouth plunged down from the sky, as Catfish-flood-dragon transformed into an over three thousand feet long catfish, opening her mouth and swallowing all seven Nascent Soul cultivators. After that, she opened her mouth again, spraying out a stream of dark water that pushed tens of Nascent Soul cultivators far away, causing their defensive energy barriers to sway and wobble with a series of loud booms.
Wu Qi kept shaking his head as he watched them fight. Patriarch Yuan Hua feared that his own disciples might suffer losses. Thus, he gave everyone who participated in the match a weapon of mid-grade spirit item level, and a defensive outfit of lower-grade spirit item level. As a result, all Yuan Hua Sect's disciples had two spirit items with them, which had improved their offensive and defensive strength by at least a few times. On the other side, those disciples of Huiling Sect were using shabby and broken lower or mid-grade magical treasures, most of which were poorly crafted. And unexpectedly, they were thrown into an utter confusion just with a round of messy attacks from Lord Xiansheng and Catfish-flood-dragon!
While he was shaking his head and sighing, those Nascent Divinity cultivators from Huiling Sect finally attacked. Ten bright beams of light were unleashed, shooting straight towards Lord Xiansheng and Catfish-flood-dragon. Judging from the brightness and the faintly discernible spirit pressure exuding from them, they were apparently ten spirit items. Wu Qi nodded as it finally made some sense now. He knew that Huiling Sect was not that poor. Perhaps, it was because Reverend Huilin was a stingy man?
High up above the sky, Reverend Huilin's face turned very ugly. He was indeed very stingy, as he only gave the ten Nascent Soul disciples a decent quality spirit item each, and did not provide anything to those Nascent Soul disciples. In his opinion, the victory would be decided by the ten Nascent Divinity disciples, while the Nascent Soul disciples were just cannon fodder that was used to delay the opponents. So, why should he give them spirit items of decent quality?
As those Nascent Divinity cultivators from Huiling Sect launched their attack, Lord Xiansheng and Catfish-flood-dragon let out a dragon cry together and quickly retreated on black clouds. Lord Xiansheng opened his mouth, spraying out several tens of layers of water shields that blocked all the attacks before them. As for Catfish-flood-dragon, she kept spraying out dark water waves that came with a biting coldness, smashing them onto the bright beams transformed from those spirit items.
In just a few blinks, both of them were forced to flee back to the camp. Daoist Xiao and Lu Yiyue quickly came to their rescue with the other eight peak-stage Nascent Divinity cultivators, while the rest of Yuan Hua Sect's cultivators formed into formations and greeted upon their opponents.
With a soaring spirit, Wu Qi gave a long screech as he thrust forward while holding Princess Zhang Le's hand.
The Spirit Breeding Ring flickered with a bright gleam. In the next moment, Gold Horn and Silver Horn rushed out while letting out loud hiss that shook the sky.
Two bright beams of white and red shot whistling out as they tangled and chased each other rapidly. A tragic howl rang out as the bright beams pierced through the body of a Nascent Divinity cultivator from Huiling Sect.
All Immortals hovering in the sky were taken aback, and Reverend Huilin screamed, "Cheating! That little fellow is cheating!"