Stealing The Heavens
chapter-361

The miserable howl Wu Qi heard coming from the outside was let out by Zhao Kuo. He came out of the Heavenly Water Dark Palace hastily, standing near the edge of the huge green jade lotus leaf supporting the palace from below as he glanced out. He saw Zhao Kuo, Yan Qijun, and the rest of the people soaking in the vast lake of Heavenly Yin True Water. Their bodies were covered in white frost.

Yan Qijun and the others had long lost their consciousness from the intense coldness. Only Zhao Kuo alone still had some strength, and he was floating near the water surface, body shivering violently as he screamed, "Help! I'm going to die! Save my life!"

Zhao Kuo's screams sounded extremely tragic. Every scream he made was like a sounder of boars had their buttocks stabbed with a sharp blade at the same time. It was so loud that it rippled the surrounding water surface. In the meanwhile, after every scream, his body would tremble for a moment, then he would have to struggle through the trembling, spending some time to accumulate a little bit of strength, only to let out another tragic scream.

Wu Qi flew down and landed on a large lotus leaf floating right next to Zhao Kuo. Staring at Zhao Kuo, whose skin complexion was pale and body completely covered in white frost, eyes rolling upward because of the intense coldness, Wu Qi said, "You'll be fine. This Heavenly Yin True Water cannot kill you. As a matter of fact, its coldness will not kill anyone, whether it is an ordinary mortal or a Gold Immortal. It will just make you suffer greatly, and the suffering is same for an ordinary mortal or even Gold Immortal. No matter what, it will only bring great benefits to your fleshly body."

Shivering convulsively from head to toe, Zhao Kuo stared at Wu Qi. The intense coldness had nearly frozen his brain, preventing him from thinking properly. Therefore, he was merely acting based on his instinct. Opening his mouth widely, he gave another scream, "Help! Help! I'm going to die!"

Laughing wryly, Wu Qi pulled out a bundle of aerial roots from between the bulky stems of lotus plants, and picked all the fruits that were shaped like pomegranates hanging on their tips. The name of the fruit was 'Heavenly Yin Fruit', and they only grew in Heavenly Yin True Water. The fruit had only one effect: when a person was tempering his fleshly or immortal body with Heavenly Yin True Water, it could magnify the pain that one suffered on the body by a maximum of one hundred times, which would then improve the strengthening result by a maximum of one hundred times.

Wearing a cruel smile on his face, Wu Qi pried open Zhao Kuo's mouth, shoved a Heavenly Yin Fruit into it, and crushed the fruits with a tap of his finger. A sticky, pale-blue fruit juice flowed through Zhao Kuo's throat into his stomach. Before he could let out another tragic howl, he was knocked out by the pain brought to him from the immense coldness.

Not uttering a word, Wu Qi shoved a Heavenly Yin Fruit into the mouth of Yan Qijun and the rest of the company. With that, Xiong Wanling and the other few old demon kings were knocked out immediately, though they were showing signs of movement a moment ago. Then, Wu Qi pondered for a brief while, controlling the Spirit Breeding Ring to cast out a large sheet of white light, throwing ten thousand Long Bo people, Gold Horn, and Silver Horn into the pool of Heavenly Yin True Water.

"Long Yuan!" Wu Qi called upon the leader of these Long Bo people, "Exercise the cultivation technique inherited from your ancestor, absorb the water in this pool, and use it to temper your fleshly body. It will bring you great benefits. Before you do that, tell everyone to pick ten fruits and eat all of them."

Long Yuan answered in a low, muffled voice. He brought all the Long Bo people and plunged right into the bottom of the pool. They sat cross-legged and began to exercise their cultivation technique. Before they did that, every single one of them followed Wu Qi's order, picked ten Heavenly Yin Fruits, and ate them. Very soon, the bodies of these Long Bo people were covered in a thick layer of ice flakes, and eventually passed out because of the intense coldness. Nevertheless, as Long Bo people's fleshly body was overly strong, although they had lost their consciousness and even had their souls frozen, their enormous energies were still flowing quickly through their meridians.

Two great pythons, Gold Horn and Silver Horn, were thrown into the water as well. Laughing heartily, Silver Horn was swimming here and there crazily. As his natural body constitution was Yin elemental, although the Heavenly Yin True Water brought an unbearable pain to him, he could clearly sense it was giving his fleshly body a tremendous benefit. Therefore, he was swimming and slithering happily in the water. On the other hand, right after entering the pool, Gold Horn immediately turned into a long frozen snake, sinking deep into the bottom of the pool. Faintly, there was a red gleam bursting out from inside of his body, a sign that his innate ability was protecting him automatically.

Wu Qi scolded in a loud voice, asking Silver Horn to go take care of his elder brother. Likewise, he asked them to eat a few Heavenly Yin Fruits as well. As a result, Gold Horn gave a tragic howl because of the severe pain, struggling for a brief moment before he lost his consciousness. Then, Silver Horn swallowed a few fruits deprecatingly, and was knocked out briskly.

Heavenly Yin True Water was a miraculous treasure that treated all existences alike. Be it an ordinary mortal or a mighty Gold Immortal, everyone would be knocked out by the severe pain from the intense coldness. When the pain was magnified by one hundred times, even a Primordial Immortal would lose his consciousness because of the pain, let alone Wu Qi's companions.

Looking at all those pitiful people who lost their consciousness because of the extreme coldness, Wu Qi roared with laughter.

Heavenly Yin True Water was a very rare treasure in this world. It had a nature of extreme coldness, and was exceptionally condensed. It had a unique effect like the tempering process of a blacksmith, able to remove the impurities contained in a fleshly or immortal body, improving the strength of that body. A fleshly body tempered with Heavenly Yin True Water was at least three times stronger than the cultivator of the same realm, and naturally, the energy that the body could hold was several times greater than before.

If one could remain conscious, exercising his cultivation technique while using the Heavenly Yin True Water to temper his entire body in a very detailed manner, he could improve the strength of his fleshly body by a maximum of one hundred times. This was an extremely frightening result. Basically, it meant the cultivator would be invincible among the cultivators of the same realm, giving him the possibility to challenge someone above his realm.

It was all because of the huge vase placed on top of Heavenly Water Dark Palace's roof that there was so much of Heavenly Yin True Water outside the palace. That vase was also a rare treasure. Throughout all these years, it had been slowly absorbing water element energy in the atmosphere, transforming them into Heavenly Yin True Water, and eventually filled such a large lake underground.

Raising his head and giving the huge vase a glance, Wu Qi ate ten Heavenly Yin Fruits in one swallow, together with a total of thirty blood crystals refined using a Heaven Immortal's fleshly body. After that, he began to exercise Dragon Transformation Script without hesitation, plunged right into Heavenly Yin True Water, and dove deep into the bottom of the pool. A puff of dark smoke burst out from beside him, transforming into a ferocious-looking flood dragon. It threw its head back and let out a loud, long roar, as all the extremely cold Heavenly Yin True Water in the surrounding rushed into Wu Qi's body immediately, like birds returning to the woods.

Rapid cracking noises echoed out as countless cracks filled Wu Qi's skin, making the largest piece of his skin not bigger than a sesame seed. Streaks of black blood rushed out of his body while diffusing a pungent stench, and were quickly cleansed by the rolling and rocking Heavenly Yin True Water. A vast amount of sticky and cold True Water scrambled into Wu Qi's body, filling every single cell of his, while soaking his entire fleshly body in the True Water that came with an endless coldness.

Wu Qi gave a painful howl and nearly lost his consciousness just like Zhao Kuo and the others. However, the blood crystals of Heaven Immortal he swallowed exploded in his body like bombs, bursting out with a seemingly endless hot airflow that quickly flowed through his entire body. An eye-catching golden light shone from his body. Even as the blinding light flickered, all of his skin vanished suddenly, exposing his bloody muscles. Then, the golden light gathered near the surface of his body and helped quickly regrow his skin.

Amidst the cracking noises, an arrogant, unyielding, scorching hot aura produced by the Dragon Transformation Script flowed through Wu Qi's bones and tendons, blood vessels, muscles, and all his internal organs. With that, his body suddenly grew taller by one foot, and bright gleams shaped like dragon scales vaguely shone from underneath his skin. In the meanwhile, Heavenly Yin True Water kept being injected into his body. Dark and stinking blood kept spraying out from his body, while an ancient aura that felt like coming from a giant beast of the times of great antiquity ceaselessly spread out from his body.

The strength of his fleshly body improved at an incredible rate, while his meridians and acupoints became several tens of times wider and deeper. Formerly, all his meridians were fully filled with energies, but now, they looked like a small stream that was flowing through a great, dried-up river, so little and insignificant. Wu Qi opened his mouth and gulped down another thirty-six blood crystals of a Heaven Immortal. A far more massive hot stream quickly flowed through his entire body. Ten innate Gold Cores swallowed these energy essences at their top speed, transforming them into vast innate energies that circulated across his body.

While quietly exercising the Seven Foundation Establishment Technique to improve the grade of his Gold Cores, Wu Qi was replenishing the energies in his body and improving the strength of his fleshly body. He split his mind into different parts and carried out different tasks at the same time, which resulted in the steady increase of his overall strength.

Apart from the Nascent Soul formed after practicing White Cloud Immortal Sect's mystic technique, another new Gold Core was gradually forming in Wu Qi's dantian. It had a grayish-white color, and was emitting a threatening coldness. Using the mystic technique he learned from the Scroll of Stealing, Wu Qi once again formed a 'False Core', a False Core that focused on cultivating the technique of Dark Yin Water Scripture.

Theoretically, as long as Wu Qi's Nascent Divinity was strong enough, using the mystic technique in the Scroll of Stealing, he could practice countless cultivation techniques without any limitation. Dark Yin Water Scripture was a supreme cultivation technique that when cultivated to its highest level, could produce an Innate Ice Flame. There was no way the White Cloud Immortal Sect's Energy Unity Script could ever compare with it in terms of the magical result. So, Wu Qi would naturally never let this miraculous technique slip through his fingers.

As he had inherited all Lady Dark Gold Water's experiences and memories, Wu Qi broke through the realms like splitting bamboos. In just less than twenty-four hours, supported by the enormous amount of energies from Heaven Immortal's blood crystals, the grayish-white Gold Core in Wu Qi's dantian broke apart abruptly. A Nascent Soul wrapped in a gust of intensely cold air sprung out from the broken Gold Core, its eyes expressionless. Wu Qi's Nascent Soul moved as he split out a thread of it into this Fake Nascent Soul. A vast amount of energy kept being channeled into the Fake Nascent Soul, pushing it to the peak-stage of Nascent Soul realm in just a twinkle.

In the meanwhile, driven by the powerful and vast Heaven Immortal's energy essences, all ten innate Gold Cores in Wu Qi's Seven Stealing Heaven Meridians shone with an eye-catching golden gleam at the same time. He had finally cultivated the Seven Foundation Establishment Technique to the bottleneck of the Gold Core realm, pushing all ten Gold Cores to their peak-stage.

Right when Wu Qi decided to take this opportunity to complete the current phase of Seven Foundation Establishment Technique's cultivation, pushing his cultivation base to a higher realm, he was shocked to find out that the cold energy that surrounded his body could no longer be sensed, and he could not absorb another drop of Heavenly Yin True Water into his body.

While wondering, he stopped exercising the cultivation technique and opened his eyes. What he saw was the once nearly one thousand miles in circumference pool of Heavenly Yin True Water was completely gone, while all the Heavenly Yin Fruits became withered and were lying lifelessly on the ground. Ten thousand Long Bo people, each standing several thousand feet tall, were standing at where they were foolishly as they stared at Wu Qi - the Heavenly Yin True Water was completely depleted by these giants.

Wu Qi's face turned stiff. However, when his divine will swept across these Long Bo people's bodies, his facial muscles relaxed immediately. Although all the Heavenly Yin True Water accumulated for so many years was completely depleted, but on an average, these Long Bo people's fleshly bodies had been strengthened by fifteen times. How could Wu Qi still feel discontented?

Shaking his head, Wu Qi threw a part of the Heaven Immortal blood crystals over to Long Yuan, asking him to split among his people. After that, he withdrew all of them back into the Spirit Breeding Ring.

At the same moment, as all the Heavenly Yin True Water was depleted, Zhao Kuo and the rest of the people had woken up as well. Upon opening his eyes, Zhao Kuo immediately threw his head back and gave vent to a torrent of curses.

While he was cursing to his heart's content, everyone felt they could hardly stand straight, as the entire Xue Yuan Planet began to shake violently.

A calm, unhurried voice resounded through the entire heaven and earth, echoing within Wu Qi and his companions' ears.

"I'm Mo Di. I hope seniors can make way for us. We come with no bad intentions."

"I'm Xun Kuang. I hope seniors can make an exception for us. The purpose of us visiting Xue Yuan Planet is to find our disciples."

All of a sudden, a deafening thunderclap rang out, so loud that it shook the entire Xue Yuan Planet.