Chapter 417: Arriving at Pangu Continent
Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_
The distance between Pangu Continent and outer heavenly realms was extremely far. It was an incredible distance that an ordinary Immortal could not imagine. Apart from a handful of heavenly realms that were blessed to be very close to Pangu Continent, if one wished to travel from some remote heavenly realms, one would have to spend a few years within the alternate dimension before arriving.
With ordinary teleportation formations, it just took seconds to travel between galaxies.
With major teleportation formations, it took merely fifteen minutes to travel between heavenly realms.
But, it would take years to travel from outer heavenly realms to Pangu Continent. On top of that, as Pangu Continent was constantly absorbing chaotic airflows to expand itself, all outer heavenly realms were being pushed further away from it. And because of that, perhaps the time it took to travel from a remote heavenly realm to Pangu Continent after several Aeons would increase to tens of years.
Wu Qi was traveling forward at high speed like a beam of light within a spatial tunnel. His hand was still clutching on Yu Hehuan's neck. When using a super long distance teleportation formation such as this, the traveler had to withstand a very heavy pressure from the space. Therefore, Wu Qi was forced to unleash earth element dragon scale shield, transforming it into a layer of yellowish energy barrier around him. Only then was he able to barely endure the tremendous pressure that came pressing against him from all directions.
On the way, he had already swallowed the three Absolute Yang Nether Fiend Gold ingots into his stomach. As he did that, the eighteen puppets immediately split them into equal portions, extracting the metal components to strengthen their bodies, and absorbing the fiend energy to cultivate the Celestial Fiend Battle the Heaven Script. It was unknown from where Yu Zong looted this rare material, as they contained a very powerful fiend energy. In just a few months' time, the celestial fiend puppets managed to push their cultivation of the Celestial Fiend Battle the Heaven Script straight up to the Heaven Immortal realm, bringing them an overall strength of Thirty-Sixth Tier Heaven Fiends.
In accordance with the Heavenly Dao, when these puppets formed their Heaven Fiend bodies, a heavenly tribulation would be sent down. However, as Wu Qi was currently in a spatial tunnel, the force of heavenly tribulation could not lock him down. Therefore, the thunder tribulation could not be sent over. Even so, he was greeted with numerous peculiar beings, such as fiends and Yin flames, who kept rushing towards him like flies smelling blood. That was because when a Heaven Fiend was born, the aura emanated from him was more than enough to drive all sorts of fiends crazy, luring them over to enjoy the grand feast.
Wu Qi was so happy that he roared with laughter and quickly unleashed the Divine Flame of Order. Whenever fiends attacked him, they would be immediately turned into nothingness by the flame, then transformed into a stream of endless soul essence that fused with Wu Qi's ten innate Nascent Souls, providing a nourishment to his divine will and making it even more compact. The process was similar to that of purifying a clump of mist into liquid form.
As for those energy attacks, such as Yin flames, he simply let the celestial fiend puppets devour them, serving as the catalysts for the absorption of various materials. Currently, they had only digested less than one percent of the various materials looted from Great Yan Dynasty's secret vault. With the help from these powerful Yin flames, the impurities contained in those materials were being quickly extracted and removed, leaving behind the purest components that fused with all the puppets, making them tougher and stronger.
At other times, Wu Qi would be too busy to help these puppets in refining the materials with his Prime Flame, and would only channel a stream of energy to them whenever he recalled it. The puppets had to depend on themselves to work hard in refining and absorbing what they needed. Now, with the help of the Yin flame tribulation which only appeared when a Fiend Immortal was transcending, the speed of refining and absorbing had increased by several dozens of time.
When ordinary Fiend cultivators stepped into the realm of Immortals, their fleshly bodies had to go through a very difficult trial - the Yin flame tribulation. If they failed, the only consequence was having their fleshly bodies turned into ashes, then entering transmigration and starting everything from scratch in their next life. But, for these celestial fiend puppets, the Yin flame could never cause even the slightest damage to their fleshly bodies, which were crafted with various rare materials and thoroughly tempered. At this point in time, the tribulation had become the greatest aid to improve Wu Qi's overall strength.
As Wu Qi did not stop flying further towards his destination, the celestial fiend puppets did not have the chance to transcend their Fiend Immortal Tribulation. And because of that, their aura was constantly emanating and attracting countless outer-realm fiends to come looking for food. But, no matter how hard these 'hunters' tried, they were all refined by the Divine Flame of Order, which was the bane of all fiends. Eventually, they just became the nourishment for Wu Qi, helping him increase the power of his divine will to an incredible level.
In the end, Wu Qi's innate Nascent Soul could no longer contain the skyrocketing power of divine will, so he just had the extra willpower stored in his spiritual ocean. But to his surprise, they actually formed into a golden mass of willpower, about the size of a thumb and looking crystal clear!
A mass of willpower like this had a unique name among Buddha cultivators - a relic!
Wu Qi did not know whether to cry or laugh when he saw the forming of the relic. Although Pilgrim Gu He kept preaching that there was a fate between him and Buddha, that was just a common saying among all Buddhist cultivators. However, when he looked at the relic, he felt a bitter taste in his mouth that he could hardly digest.
In the end, extracting willpower from fiends using the Divine Flame of Order had become almost like his instinct. So, Wu Qi simply pulled out both the Sword of Greedy Wolf and Xuanhao Sword, spraying out a stream of Prime Flame and melting the latter into a puddle of molten liquid. After that, he fished out a pile of rare materials given by Yu Zong from his storage bag, and reforged the Sword of Greedy Wolf with them.
Although the Xuanhao Sword was very handy, Wu Qi did not have a habit of using two swords at the same time. According to the Sword Dao which Nie Baihong taught him, when one cultivated the Dao of controlling flying swords to the most profound level, a myriad techniques could be broken with just one sword, and a myriad treasures could be seized with just one sword. So, why should he carry so many swords with him?
One sword was more than enough for him!
After blending the essence of Xuanhao Sword into Sword of Greedy Wolf, Wu Qi mixed the rest of the rare materials with it, which he had purified in advance. For this round of reforging, he had decided to remove the hilt, transforming the sword into a lethal weapon with sharp edges all around its body. And, when Sword of Greedy Wolf finally retook is corporeal shape, he drew a thread of powerful willpower from his relic and fused it into the sword.
A stream of Innate five elements energy entered the Sword of Greedy Wolf with the willpower, stimulating the sword and making it give birth to a powerful divine will. With its sentience finally materialized, the Sword of Greedy Wolf was now a real item spirit. As long as Wu Qi continued to refine it and allowed the item spirit to cultivate into a Spirit Immortal, he would have another Prime immortal item in his possession.
Then, he turned his attention to the earth element dragon scale shield. Among the rare materials he received from Yu Zong, many of them were good things that it could devour. Because of the contribution from those fiends, Wu Qi now had a very copious amount of willpower. Therefore, he did not mind losing some of it. So, just like what he did to Sword of Greedy Wolf, he expedited the birth of an item spirit within the shield.
In terms of cultivating speed, item spirits born in this way might be slower than the souls of divine beasts or immortal bird, who were obtained through capturing. But, they had a better sentience and were easier to control. Wu Qi had a feeling that their bloodlines were interconnected. This made them real Prime immortal items for him.
As the journey continued, Wu Qi worked very hard to reforge all the treasures he possessed, and he even refined all the treasures he robbed with mystic techniques. Taking the opportunity where an endless swarm of fiends kept coming to get themselves killed and contributed their willpower to him, Wu Qi refined all the treasures he had into spirit items. Finally, when he upgraded the gold coin which could pull other magical treasures to the ground into an upper-grade spirit item, the relic in his spiritual ocean disappeared.
"Aye! It seems like I don't have any fate with the Buddha!" Wu Qi sighed lightly as he noticed the disappearance of the relic.
After counting the time with his fingers, Wu Qi organized the odds and ends he had, then placed all the things found in the storage bag into Black Dragon Spirit Ring. After that, he clutched his hand on Yu Hehuan's neck, who was now in a coma. Although Yu Hehuan had a cultivation base about the same level as an early-stage Nascent Divinity cultivator, he still could not abstain from food. Over the last three years, if Wu Qi did not feed him with the Fasting Pills and water, Yu Hehuan would have long died.
"You will die, but not now!"
Wu Qi slapped Yu Hehuan's face and woke him from the coma. As he only took Fasting Pills and water over the last three years, he was all skin and bones by now, and his eyes were lifeless. Wu Qi stared at him coldly and grinned, "You will die. Because, I'll not allow you to kill my friends and loved ones. They are the one who killed your brothers!"
"Why don't you kill me now?" asked Yu Hehuan dazedly.
Wu Qi shook his head and said with a smile, "If I kill you now, those people will find out that you are dead once I walk out of the teleportation formation, and that will make them attack me instantly. So, by allowing you to live a little bit longer, I can at least buy myself some time to react to them, don't you think so?"
Yu Hehuan's eyes shone with a bright gleam as he said in a low voice, "You can't escape, there is no way you can escape. The power of the human race on Pangu Continent is beyond your imagination! There is no way you can escape!"
With one clean move, Wu Qi broke Yu Hehuan's right arm. "Enough for your nonsense! Now, I'll ask questions, and you'll answer them!"
Yu Hehuan clenched his jaws tightly and said, "Since you are going to kill me, why should I answer your questions?"
Ginning coldly, Wu Qi punched Yu Hehuan's face which had fully recovered, turning it into a mess again. "If you answer my questions now, I'll kill you once we leave the teleportation formation," said Wu Qi coldly. "You will still have a chance to live. If you don't answer me, I'll kill you now! Now, try guessing if I have the courage to kill you now or not?"
Wu Qi patted Yu Hehuan's face smilingly and said mockingly, "Could a man who peed in his pants have the courage to face his death? Answer my questions and you might be able to stay alive! Perhaps, those people who your father arranged on Pangu Continent could save you from my hands?"
Yu Hehuan's face flickered as he stared at Wu Qi and snapped, "You nasty Daoist, do not insult me! What do you want to know?"
So, Wu Qi began to question Yu Hehuan, repeating his questions over and over again for a whole seven days and seven nights.
When he finally squeezed out the little information which Yu Hehuan knew, Wu Qi suddenly felt his body lightened, and a dazzling light was flashing before his eyes. In the next moment, he was standing inside a teleportation formation. There were numerous teleportation formations around him, all of which kept flashing and blinking with a bright light. Off in the distance were mountain ridges towering into the clouds. A refreshing and chilly breeze came caressing his face, bringing with it the scent of myriad flowers that sent a sweetness straight into his mind. The sky was tall and clear, with white clouds passing swiftly. Huge birds were seen wheeling high up in the sky. The temperature, the humidity, everything felt extremely comfortable.
At that very moment, Wu Qi had a false impression that as if he had returned to his mother's womb. This was the place where the human race should live. Every single condition here aroused his cells, making them cheer joyfully. An unprecedented vitality and life force were rushing into his body through the bottom of his feet. He was overwhelmed by an emotion like the one experienced by a traveler who just returned to his homeland. His bloodline began to boil, and he seemed to hear a bleak, ancient roar that came from the primordial era.
Tears burst out of his eyes. Like some of the other cultivators who walked out of the teleportation formations, Wu Qi began to weep.
Wave after wave of passionate, powerful forces came from the ground beneath everyone's feet. Like the kiss from a mother, it comforted the mind of all these cultivators, including Wu Qi.
This was Pangu Continent, the origin of the human race!
Even as Wu Qi was weeping, on top of a small hill not far away, a few men clad in gray burlap clothes and having dull faces suddenly had their glances focused on him. A killing intent kindled in their eyes and made the hair behind Wu Qi's neck stand on their rends.
Without hesitation, he turned back and peered into the direction. They were already here!