Stealing The Heavens
chapter-252

"AFTER HIM! KILL HIM! Qingshui, kill him! You must kill him!" Holding on his shoulder where the arm was missing, Qin Nihu kept yelling and howling in a shrill voice, "He is the deputy chief supervisor of West Field Headquarter. If we let him flees back to Meng Fortress, all of us will be punished by the military law, condemned to a life-long exile! We must kill him! He is already seriously wounded, and his energy is depleted. You have to kill him no matter what!"

After letting out a few furious roars at Qin Qingshui, who was running up wildly from behind, Qin Nihu roared hoarsely again, "Sinecures, come quickly and save me! SAVE ME! My arm... put it back on my shoulder, PUT IT BACK!!! Ai... save their lives too. Wake them up!"

Two Earth Immortals of Nascent Soul realm coughed out a mouthful of blood at the same time, as they were wounded by the explosive talismans. They ran hurriedly towards Qin Nihu with staggering steps, found his broken arm and put it back on his shoulder. However, Wu Qi's sword beam was a brutal attack, as not only had it chopped off Qin Nihu arm, it also corroded and devoured part of the flesh and blood near the wound. Thus, when the two Earth Immortals found Qin Nihu's arm, it had already turned shriveled like a stick of dried wood.

Without some rare and precious medicinal pills, even after Qin Nihu had this arm connected back to his shoulder, he would not be able to use it like before, and would become a great obstacle for his future cultivation. Looking at the horrible shape of his arm, Qin Nihu simply threw his head back, howling and cursing with great rage. But, as he was seriously wounded, his energy was running a little bit low, causing his angry curses to sound just a tiny bit louder than a cat.

Apart from Qin Nihu, who had his arm chopped off, there were also twelve Human Immortals thrown to the ground with serious injuries. The power unleashed by Wu Qi's explosive talismans was comparable to a full force strike unleashed by a mid-stage Earth Immortal. Although the two Nascent Soul cultivators had absorbed over seventy percent of the power, the remaining thirty percent of the power still broke and tore these Human Immortals’ bodies. A few of them were on the verge of dying. Struggling and staggering, the two Earth Immortals ran to them and busied themselves in curing these poor Human Immortals by shoving many medicinal pills into their mouths. They were afraid that if any of them died, Qin Nihu could not answer when they returned to Meng Fortress.

"Wu Qi, oh Wu Qi, I'm going to kill you, and tear you to shreds!!!" Bringing with him a large group of beast warriors, Qin Qingshui ran past Qin Nihu like a pack of mad buffaloes. While running and chasing at top speed, Qin Qingshui roared, "Please rest assure, Patriarch! What awaits Wu Qi today is an inevitable death! I'm gonna hack him to death!!"

A loud sound of snake hissing towered into the sky, as the soul of Dark Nether Python behind Qin Qingshui's back flew out while wagging three of its large snakeheads. A gust of chilly wind suddenly coiled up from around him, and the aura emanated from his body abruptly took a leap to peak-stage of Gold Core realm. The soul of Dark Nether Python nearly materialized into a physical shape, while it kept spraying venomous mist and chilly wind, pursuing quickly behind Wu Qi.

Ying Zheng rose to his feet from the dragon throne impatiently. He looked at Qin Qingshui in the light screen and praised, "Not bad! This is a cultivation technique of mutualism between beast warriors and beasts souls. We the Great Qin do have a similar technique. But, as he is able to cultivate his beast soul to Gold Core realm, obviously, Qin Wuyang had been putting in a lot of effort in this Qin Qingshui. A beast soul is not that easy to raise!"

Three snakeheads were swinging and swaying back and forth behind Qin Qingshui's back, while he continued pursuing quickly behind Wu Qi, together with the group of several dozens of beast warriors from Scouting Office.

Relying on the medicinal pills, Wu Qi managed to gather some energies and flee for about two miles, and finally resurfaced behind a small hill. There was a cut on his chest from which blood kept spraying out, while a massive amount of fresh blood was gurgling out from his waist at the same time. Vaguely, there was something that looked like the small intestine protruding out from the wound. Right after he made it back to the surface, he could hear that Qin Qingshui's angry snaps had already approached from a distance of less than one thousand feet.

Wu Qi turned his head and opened his mouth suddenly. The Acquired Spirit Pearls of Earth and Wood Element transformed into two balls of bright light, one yellow and one green, shot out from his mouth whistling and smashed aggressively towards Qin Qingshui. The Acquired Spirit Pearls had a very powerful force, but as Wu Qi's energy was running critically low, the speed they flew through the air was very slow. With just a lurch, Qin Qingshui was able to dodge the Spirit Earth Pearl, which was the heaviest among two. But the Spirit Wood Pearl hit him, and exploded with a large ball of green thunderbolts that smote the Nether Python behind Qin Qingshui, causing it to throw its heads back and letting out furious hiss into the sky while spraying and shooting venomous mist.

The Nether Python opened its big eyes, then from three large mouths of it came shooting out three jets of pitch-black air. Two of them hit and knocked the Spirit Pearls of Earth and Wood far away, while the last one pierced through the air and hit right onto Wu Qi's back, piercing into his body. As the Nether Python was a very venomous creature, Wu Qi's skin immediately turned dark, and the blood oozing out from his wounds had also turned pale dark.

His movement slowed down as he lost the strength to run again. Three beast warriors gave a loud, long cry. A clump of red mist was hovering behind their back as they turned into three raging fireballs and dashed towards Wu Qi, wielding their broadswords and slashing toward Wus Qi's neck, waist, and knees.

Wu Qi sprung to the air and flipped his body, managing to dodge the attacks from three beast warriors. At the same time, the Sword of Greedy Wolf shot out with an ear-splitting noise of whistling, slicing straight through the waists of three beast warriors and cutting them into half. Blood sprayed and splashed as the furious cries of three beasts warriors could be heard. All of a sudden, their dantians bloated up. Then, three loud booms echoed out as their upper bodies exploded in an instant. The self-explosion of three peak-stage Xiantian beast warriors at such a close distance had blown Wu Qi several hundred feet away.

Seeing what happened, Ying Zheng laughed even more happily. While he kept watching Wu Qi fighting a bloody battle through the light screen, a large sheet of dark cloud emerged under his feet.

Qin Qingshui issued a weird laugh and said, "Wu Qi, if not for you peeping on that pretty girl taking a bath, how would you be wounded by my assassin? Hehe, so that girl is the beloved consort of Xiang Yu, huh? And you were having sex with such a beautiful girl? What a good fortune you have!"

While Wu Qi was tumbling midair, Qin Qingshui sprinted up while bearing a towering jealousy, and gave a heavy kick to his face. *CRACK!!* The powerful force tore Wu Qi's facial muscles, sending a large amount of blood flying in all directions. Wu Qi let out a painful howl and gave Qin Qingshui a look filled with hatred. With great struggle, he performed an incantation gesture, transforming the Spirit Pearl of Earth Element into a clump of yellow mist that wrapped around him and plunged back into the ground again.

But this time, right after Wu Qi plunged into the ground, Qin Qingshui immediately threw his head back and let out a long hiss that sounded like a giant python. Then suddenly, a dense layer of dark-green poisonous gas shrouded his fists, and there were tiny electric arcs vaguely darting and blinking around them. In the next moment, two balls of Yin thunder that contained deadly poison left his fists and smashed viciously into the ground. A loud thunderclap rang out, and the ground about a mile in circumference exploded. The explosion lifted up a layer of dirt and rocks, nearly one thousand feet thick, sending them into the sky. Dirt, sand, rocks fell down like a heavy downpour. Wu Qi's body shot up from the large hole, bursting with blood and motionless as if he had passed out, and was thrown several thousand feet away.

"Wu Qi, Duke of Tianyun, it is your destiny to be killed by me!" cried Qin Qingshui while his eyes shone with a bright gleam. Abruptly, the soul of Nether Python behind his back expanded to about one thousand feet tall. It opened its large mouth, darted forward and swallowed Wu Qi into its stomach. Then its body wiggled and swayed, and suddenly, a massive amount of black saliva dripped from its lips, dropping and fusing into Qin Qingshui's body.

With that, the aura emanating from Qin Qingshui's body suddenly exploded. He threw his head back and gave out a sharp cry. A tiny slit suddenly opened up in the region between his brows, from which shot out a three inches tall tiny human figure, with the appearance identical to Qin Qingshui. The tiny figure flew up into the sky and landed on the middle head of the Nether Python. Then, its feet melted into black smoke, merging with the soul of Nether Python.

The smile on Ying Zheng's face grew brighter, "Oh? That little thief who stole my spirit item was killed? Hehe, his soul beast has devoured the little thief, and he is able to form his second true form. This Qin Qingshui does have a good fortune, as any beast warrior can rarely break through the bottleneck of Gold Core realm and attained the cultivation base of Nascent Soul realm. This Wu Qi must have carried some other spirit items with him, or else, it was impossible that he could provide such an enormous energy for Qin Qingshui to make the breakthrough!"

Before his words could fade away, he saw Qin Qingshui's body shiver through the light screen. The three-headed giant python above his head opened its mouths, then suddenly two more heads grew out from its neck. All five heads of the giant python spread out slowly, while there were five Acquired Spirit Pearls that vaguely shone with a dazzling gleam inside each mouth, emanating a massive amount of acquired energies of five elements.

All the ministers around Ying Zheng gasped together. Indignantly, Bai Qi snapped, "No wonder this little fellow is such a tough nut to crack, for he had gathered Acquired Spirit Pearls of Five Elements! What a pity, as they are now owned by Qin Qingshui! Damn it, damn it! Even I don't own an incredible treasure similar to the Acquired Spirit Pearls of Five Elements!"

Looking at the ever-changing expressions of the ministers and generals around him, Ying Zheng suddenly threw his head back and let out a loud laughter, "Listen to my orders - send scouts of Yulin Army to investigate along the way Wu Qi and his friends were running. Find out if there is really someone taking a bath in the mountains. Zhang Yi, bring some men with you and capture that little fellow! If my memory serves me well, that little fellow also owns a clump of innate earth element energy essence. After you have it, bring it with you day and night, as it can increase the power of your acquired magnetic force by another level!"

Zhang Yi was overwhelmed with joy. Hastily, he bowed and answered, then smiled and said, "I'll definitely bring Your Majesty's spirit item back, please rest assured!"

On the light screen, Qin Qingshui was seen taking out a black ring from the mouth of his beast soul, fashioned like a coiling dragon, and was fiddling it in his hand. When Ying Zheng saw the Black Dragon Spirit Ring, his face immediately turned extremely unsightly. Zhang Yi snorted coldly, stepped onto a cloud, and brought a group of several dozens of cultivators quickly rushing towards Qin Qingshui's direction.

Meanwhile, Ying Zheng cupped his fist and turned smiling at Yuyao as he said, "Yuyao, please lend me a helping hand. We are going to capture that Yuji..."

Yuyao shook her head, sneered and said, "Your Majesty, your true motive is not to capture Yuji alive, but to get your hand on that Li Yueyan, right? Since Yuji is there, most probably Li Yueyan is with her. Nevertheless, it is a good thing, for us the that three sisters can gather once again!" She laughed coldly and glared fiercely at Ying Zheng. After that, Yuyao gave out direct orders to Bai Qi, Wang Jian, and few other generals of Great Qin, and dispatched a large troop of elite soldiers, escorting Ying Zheng's chariot as it flew into the sky on a cloud.

Amidst the mountain forests under the cloudy sky, the scouts from both Qin army and Yan army were still hunting and killing each other. But all of a sudden, large groups of Qin practitioners and cultivators from various sects rushed out like a tidal wave, slaughtering all the Yan army's scouts within a blink of an eye.

Wherever Ying Zheng's chariot passed, the scouts of Yan army, who were tangling with Qin army's scouts in the mountain forests, were completely wiped out.

Fifteen minutes later, Ying Zheng at the area which Wu Qi had chosen in the previous days.

A troop of several thousand Great Chu's soldiers was stationed in a small valley ten miles away, sitting motionlessly on the ground with legs crossed.

Amidst the stretch of seventeen hot spring pools that looked like a string of pearls, Yuji, Li Yueyan, and several dozen cute and pretty serving ladies were seen soaking in the hot water, lazily and leisurely. Parted by a rock wall about ten feet tall, a large tent was erected on the small grassland right beside the lake using luxurious black silk. Chi Bin and Lu Mei were sitting under the tent, together with several dozen serving ladies, each having a tall crown on their heads and clad in a black robe. They were sipping tea while admiring the beautiful scenery around them.

Vaguely, there were several hundred shadows of mountain ghosts and stray deities moving about right next to the tent.

Sitting in the chariot, Ying Zheng narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance at the tent. "Are those two girls the Imperial Consorts of Great Chu, who we saw when the mighty army of Xiang Clan was annihilated?"

Yuyao sighed lightly, shook her head and said, "Indeed, now you've gained some extra benefits! Back in those years, you had gathered all the concubines from six states in Xian Yang. Don't tell me you are going to do the same thing again today?"

Ying Zheng burst into laughter, stretched his arm and wrapped around Yuyao's waist.