Stealing The Heavens
chapter-153

After using the silver lotus to block off the only exit of the mine, Wu Qi walked over slowly to Wei Xiaoxiao’s side.

The backslash of the fiend had brought her into a situation of hanging between life and death. She forced out a rather flattery smile and began crying out with a trembling, hoarse voice, "Save me! The fiend is hurting me! Use the dispelling magic to save me. I'll exchange my life with precious treasures! I will..."

Before Wei Xiaoxiao could finish her words, Wu Qi pointed at her throat using his finger and sealed off her dumb acupoint. After that, the innate energies of five elements began to invade her body like the Mount Tai falling onto her head, completely sealing off all her meridians and the flow of her energies. Under the disturbed, panic-stricken glance of Wei Xiaoxiao, Wu Qi removed all her clothes in one grab, revealing her fair body with an uneven skin, as countless shapes that looked like worms were creeping fast underneath them.

Throwing a disgusted look over at this frightening looking body of Wei Xiaoxiao, Wu Qi shook his head, speechless. A dangerous devil cultivating technique such as this was not something one should use easily. Once the fiend was out of control, the host would have to suffer from such a fearsome backslash, being struck with a painful torment. Was it really worth all the fuss? Why couldn't she just tend her cultivation in a well-grounded way?

After sighing with mixed emotions, starting from Wei Xiaoxiao's head, Wu Qi began to brush against her body with ten fingers emitting with dimmed five colored gleams, inch by inch. He was using a technique called the 'Nine-Heavens and Ten-Earths Spirit Searching and Secret Probing Hand Incantation', a technique that was at par with the Seal of Minor Universal Star Shifting. The latter technique allowed him to forcefully steal various spirit energies, spirit items, and all sorts of corporeal and incorporeal objects of precious value, the former claimed that it could find a kaleidoscopic world from within a mustard seed. It could extract water out from dried sands, and even make a flower bloom from a rock. It was a supreme technique that one could use in finding out all hidden precious treasures.

The finger incantations shifted and changed soundlessly. Tiny runes condensed from innate energies of five elements were jumping and dancing between his fingertips, soundless and stirless as they merged into Wei Xiaoxiao's body. Under the magical work of the Spirit Searching and Secret Probing Hand Incantation, a faint glow began to emit from her skin, muscles, and bones, and eventually, her body turned transparent. The meridians where her energies were flowing, the direction of her blood and qi circulation, everything was now exposed before Wu Qi's eyes. Even the contraction of her brain and its undulating movements were all clearly visible under the transparent skin of hers.

Under the powerful effect of the hand incantation, even the fluctuation of her mental activities could not be hidden from Wu Qi's scan.

Looking at her upper body which had now turned transparent, Wei Xiaoxiao was greatly terrified. Seized with panic, a soundless howl came from her throat. She struggled hard, but no matter how she tried, she just could not move even a tiny bit.

Not long after that, her entire body emitted a faint, greenish-blue glow, as she had now transformed into a figure that looked like water. Her meridians, blood vessels, viscera and all other important organs were now becoming half-transparent. Everything about her was exposed before Wu Qi's eyes. One could clearly see that a few of her meridians were tougher and wider than the rest, while a stream of dark-purple energy was flowing and circulating slowly in these meridians.

"So, this is the cultivation technique that you have been cultivating?" Wu Qi rested his eyes on Wei Xiaoxiao's face, who now had an expression like she had just seen a ghost. He shook his head slightly, smiled and said, "Excellent, I'll kindly accept it. Although it is a devil technique, it seems it does provide some wonderful effects. When I have some free time in the future, I'll give it a proper study."

He silently memorized the energies circulating path inside Wei Xiaoxiao's body, and with that, he had now learned the devil cultivation technique she was cultivating.

As a matter of fact, this was the most powerful yet helpless characteristic of the Scroll of Stealing. Regardless it was the Seven Foundation Establishment Technique, Seal of Minor Universal Star Shifting, or the Spirit Searching and Secret Probing Hand Incantation, all of them were mystic techniques with unparalleled power, and came with endless benefits. However, it did not contain any mystic technique that could allow the cultivator to fight face to face with the opponent.

Escape arts - checked; magical techniques of cracking all kinds of arrays and formations - checked; mystic techniques of breaking various defensive mechanisms - checked; all sorts of unimaginably queer, unorthodox techniques and skills, plenty of them. But, skills such as the Azure Water Sword and the Mountain Crumbling Technique from the Heaven Breaking Sword Sect, or some great magical powers that could unleash different types of thunderbolts, Scroll of Stealing did not contain many of them. Although there were one to two sword scripts in it, they were merely the records that served as a summary.

What the Scroll of Stealing taught were 'fantastic techniques of stealing'. After inheriting it, how many benefits could Wu Qi obtain, and how many things could he steal, it all depended on his own efforts. At least for now, he had learned the Sword Technique of Five Elements from Heaven Breaking Sword Sect, and also the devil cultivation technique from Wei Xiaoxiao. As long as he could keep cultivating persistently, he would be able to obtain more mystic techniques.

After he memorized the energy circulation path of Wei Xiaoxiao, Wu Qi casually exerted a few streams of his innate energies and circulated them, following the few meridians he learned. Immediately, the Seven Holy Deities and Devils residing in his Spiritual Ocean gave out a joyful laugh while sending out a thread of aura from the Lust Realm, following the few streams of innate energies and began flowing through those few meridians. A faint evil aura began to vaguely emanate from Wu Qi's body. Once again, Wei Xiaoxiao's eyes went wide like she had seen a ghost.

Only the direct descendants of Wei Merchant could obtain the inheritance of 'Minor Samsara of Five Ghosts'. When the secret technique was cultivated to the mastery stage, one could learn the technique of Great Portage of Five Ghosts, which was used by Lu Buwei currently, allowing the person to break away space and possess the powerful abilities of an Undead Heaven Ghost. Since she was young, Wei Xiaoxiao had been cultivating the technique, and she knew how tough it was for someone to begin cultivating this mystic technique. However, with just a slight concentration of his thought, Wu Qi was able to form a tiny thread of aura which was unique to those who cultivated it. It had astounded her.

Nevertheless, Wu Qi was too lazy to explain all sort of fantastic approaches he learned from Scroll of Stealing to Wei Xiaoxiao. A five colored gleam was shimmering in his eyes. He discovered a green shadow pumping rapidly on top of Wei Xiaoxiao's heart, as it kept transforming into the appearance of a green ghost head and biting on her heart meridians. It was the true form of the dark skeleton which Wei Xiaoxiao had summoned previously. As its corporeal form was destroyed by Wu Qi, thus suffering a severe injury, and the talisman which repressed it had also been destroyed, the true form of the fiend immediately revolted in Wei Xiaoxiao's body. It started swallowing the energies in her heart meridians and extracting her blood essence.

He snorted coldly and formed a few finger incantations casually, which transformed into a white hand that penetrated into Wei Xiaoxiao's body, grabbed and pulled the green fiend out from her body. The fist-sized fiend had no corporeal shape, but was occasionally transforming into a green ghost head, roaring and baring its teeth. Wu Qi sneered and unleashed a stream of Divine Flame of Order, completely crushing the devil thought hiding inside the fiend. The body of this fiend was entirely formed using the purest devil energies from the realm of the devil. Wu Qi opened his mouth and swallowed this clump of devil energies. The Seven Holy Deities and Devils in his Spiritual Ocean immediately swarmed in while letting out cheers joyfully, and devoured all the energies in one go.

Within the time of a few breaths, all Seven Holy Deities and Devils had formed a corporeal body within Wu Qi's spiritual ocean. Each of them had the face identical to Wu Qi, but wearing a different expression: greediness, ferocity, rage, anger, all kinds of ill and evil thoughts. They were now sitting with their legs folded right in the center of Wu Qi's spiritual ocean. Underneath them were the five innate energies which had taken shape: the water wave, the gold mountain, the forest, the flaming ocean, and the desert.

The trembling body of Wei Xiaoxiao suddenly calmed down, while the twisting and creeping shapes of worms underneath her skin were completely gone. She took a deep breath, putting up a flattering smile, and looked towards Wu Qi. She was about to say something, but Wu Qi did not pay any attention to her and kept using the Spirit Searching and Secret Probing Hand Incantation to survey her body.

Wei Xiaoxiao had proven herself to be the chief person-in-charge for Wei Merchant in Great Yan Dynasty, and the lineage granddaughter of Lu Buwei, the arch-careerist of the generation. The good stuff she possessed had left Wu Qi speechless. There was a Fire elemental Acquired Pearl in her spiritual ocean. The bowl-sized pearl was emanating raging heat waves. The temperature was so high that it could simply melt any metal, and clearly it was a powerful treasure. Nevertheless, it was a treasure which Lu Buwei supposedly gave her to repress her divine soul and evil thought, and Wei Xiaoxiao herself currently did not have the ability to control it.

Using the Seal of Minor Universal Star Shifting, he extracted the pearl from Wei Xiaoxiao's body, wiped out a thread of divine sense in it and gave it a rough tempering. Then, he simply swallowed it into his mouth. Silently, he circulated the Qi Circulating Technique of Five Elements, using the innate energies to enveloped the pearl and slowly pushing it to his dantian. With that being done, he immediately felt a hot flow surge up and begin flowing quickly through his meridians, while the Qi Circulating Technique of Five Elements had begun to actively circulate.

Wu Qi was struck with wild joy. Now, with this pearl serving as the cover, no one would doubt him when he improved the cultivation of Qi Circulating Technique of Five Elements to the peak stage of Xiantian realm in a very short period of time. It was a spirit pearl condensed from Acquired energies. Although unlike Innate Spirit Objects which could alter one's body constitution, it came with the effect of increasing the speed of cultivation.

Together with the few Gold Cores he obtained today, if he could ask Princess Zhang Le to help keep guard them while he had a secluded cultivation as a cover, the fact that he taken a leap into Gold Core realm within a very short amount of time would be reasonable. It was nothing but relying on external resources to form his Gold Core, and he did not possess a stable foundation. But, did Wu Qi really cared about these comments?

Besides from this Acquired Pearl of Fire element, there were also two flying swords of lower magical treasure grade, and a gold coin of grade magical treasure lower. The gold coin could be unleashed to seize someone else's flying sword and magical treasures by force, a very unique and rare feature. In addition to that, he also found a gold ingot of lower magical treasure grade. It could be thrown out to smash someone, as it weighed approximately 50,000 kilograms. If any ordinary Human Immortal were hit by it, all his bones would be broken.

Apart from these precious defensive treasures, the most important thing was hiding within Wei Xiaoxiao's dantian. It was a small wooden figure, the size of a human fist, and entangled with a thread of her innate blood essence. The wooden figure did not have a face, but was carved into a rough shape of a human. It was enveloped in countless profound and mystic runes. It could be vaguely seen swallowing and spitting out her blood essence and energies, maintaining a mystical state of resonance and symbiosis with Wei Xiaoxiao.

Wu Qi could also sense that there was some kind of a peculiar connection between Wei Xiaoxiao's soul and this wooden figure. Subtly, the aura of this wooden figure had suppressed Wei Xiaoxiao's soul ripples. Wu Qi took a deep breath and carefully used the Seal of Minor Universal Star Shifting to cut off the connection of blood essence and soul between it and Wei Xiaoxiao. Then, he took it out from her body. After that, without the slightest hesitation, he forced out a few drops of his own blood essence and dropped them onto the wooden figure. Immediately, the wooden figure transformed into a green shadow and merged into Wu Qi's body, going straight into his dantian and staying in there.

Wu Qi instantly felt that there was an extra thick layer of barrier between himself and the surrounding world. This layer of barrier did not isolate him from absorbing the natural energies, but he had a feeling as if he was now clad inside a thick protective barrier. No matter it was his corporeal body or his soul, both had obtained an extra layer of protection.

"Soul Replacement Puppet!" Wu Qi looked at Wei Xiaoxiao, who now wore a despairing expression, shook his head, sighed and said, "What an extravagant Wei Merchant, what an extravagant Old Mister Lu, Lu Buwei. Although you've wasted a Soul Replacement Puppet, yet he still gave you another one!"

Upon hearing the name of 'Lu Buwei', Wei Xiaoxiao's body immediately trembled. She was so frightened that her face had turned dark-purple. Struck with despair, she stared at Wu Qi while her body kept shivering uncontrollably.

Wu Qi twitched his lips, then told Wei Xiaoxiao in a rather helpless manner, "That's right, you're the lineage granddaughter of Lu Buwei, aren't you? He is a great old man. As for you, nothing on you tells me that you're his granddaughter!"

He pondered for a brief moment, smiled and said, "Thank you for bringing me all these treasures. As a token of appreciation, I'll spare a thread of your soul, so you can still reincarnate!"

A crystal clear cry rang out, as Sword of Greedy Wolf flew by, cutting through Wei Xiaoxiao's neck and sending her head flying away.

Wu Qi conveniently pulled off the storage ring from Wei Xiaoxiao's finger, then slowly rose to his feet.