Stealing The Heavens
chapter-463

The fuzzy shadow skeleton was a restrictive spell jointly unleashed by the several dozens of old Oracles behind him. It sent a ghost energy into his body, which came with a vast evil aura as it rushed straight towards his heart. It was so cold that Wu Qi felt a coldness washing over his entire body, nearly completely freezing him. When he almost could not withstand the attack of the ghost energy, his body turned stiff, and was about to plunge to the ground, a strange warm stream rose from all over his body, dispelling the ghost energy without any effort.

The warm stream felt very familiar to him. Suddenly, Wu Qi recalled the mysterious bookstore, and the old man who was obviously blinded, but still holding a book in hands and reading it as if he was enjoying it very much. It was the spirit tea given to him by the blind old man. After Wu Qi drank it, it had dispelled the aura of death which clogged up his body, and helped him to heal nearly ninety percent of his injury.

And, it had once again saved Wu Qi today. However, he could clearly feel that it was the last bit of power the spirit tea left in his body. After dispelling the ghost energy which nearly froze him, its medicinal strength had vanished completely.

"I won't be so lucky next time!" As he had escaped from the threat, Wu Qi began to draw a lesson from the latest bitter experience.

It was an undeserved calamity. Wu Qi felt that he had been very unlucky recently. Initially, he thought that taking a detour would help him avoid Feng Qingwu and her subordinates. But little did he expect that the Gale actually brought her to him, dragging him into a puddle of troubled water. Nevertheless, they had never brought him any real danger, and as the Gale's attack had nearly wiped them out, leaving Feng Qingwu as the last person standing, she could no longer pose any threat to him.

"Feng Jiupan! Hmph!" As he muttered the name, Wu Qi clenched his palms into tight fists, his heart filled with anger.

Although it was actually Feng Jiupan who had suffered a great loss as Wu Qi had killed all seventy-two Generals of Minor Allheaven, he still could not swallow the pent-up anger in his chest. 'So, he is the Prefecture Overseer of Pang Province, huh?' Clenching his jaws, Wu Qi had decided to seek revenge and ease the resentment of nearly getting himself killed by the young Prefecture Overseer.

'But, it requires the right timing!' Wu Qi pondered silently. Feng Jiupan's father was the Prefecture Overseer of Zhong Province, Feng Lingling, a high-ranking officer of the frontier for Great Yu Dynasty who held immense power in his hands. If Wu Qi were to take revenge, he would have to find the right opportunity and kill Feng Jiupan with one swift strike, not giving him any chances to counterattack. Otherwise, it might bring him a fatal calamity. But, he was wondering at the same time if he could also shift some blame over on Yu Miao when he was scheming against Feng Jiupan?

Yu Miao was the Left Minister of Zhong Province, and Wu Qi could still remember that palm strike which nearly ripped him to pieces.

He continued flying at high speed. The speed of blood escape art from the Scroll of Stealing was incredibly fast, and coupled with the blood escape art from the Inferno Hell Fiend Scripture, the speed was just awe-inspiring. With his current cultivation base, he could fly faster than a mid-grade Heaven Immortal who flew on an immortal item with all his power. But, too bad that this blood escape art was consuming a great amount of his blood essence. Therefore, after flying nonstop for twelve hours, when he was over hundreds of thousands of miles away from the battlefield, he suddenly coughed out a mouthful of blood that was transparent like a spring water, and slowly stopped flying.

Very quickly, he fished out a dozen of blood crystals and shoved them into his mouth, swallowing them as he performed a hand incantation gesture to absorb the blood and energy essence, replenishing the loss of his own blood and energy essence. He was fortunate to have brought many blood crystals refined from Heaven Immortals' blood essence. If it were any other ordinary person, it would take them ages to slowly recuperate after losing more than seventy percent of their blood essence.

The strong blood and energy essence gradually spread throughout his body. Drop after drop of fresh blood was produced in his marrows, and his strength was slowly recovering. He inhaled and exhaled deeply, breathing out air smeared with a strong blood color. He was standing in a small remote valley, and every cycle of his breathing would ripple the air one-mile around him, making them swirled into many small whirlwinds.

As Wu Qi's blood essence was about to return to its peak level, and he was going to stop exercising the cultivation technique and calm the rocking blood and energy down, he heard a call of Buddha coming from behind his back. All of a sudden, a thunder like Lion Roar echoed out as a staff forged with pure gold, as thick as a bowl, came smashing straight onto Wu Qi's back.

Wu Qi's body trembled as a few defensive spirit items being nourished in his body stirred, rushing out of him amidst bright lights of various colors to protect him. These spirit items were given to him by Patriarch Yuan Hua and a few other Seniors when he left Green Cliff Planet. Each one of them was of the finest quality.

But obviously, the approaching staff was a Buddhist treasure with a power comparable to an immortal item. As the few spirit items rushed out amidst bright lights and protected Wu Qi, a yellow airflow suddenly sprayed out from the staff, transforming into a huge dragon head as it roared and slammed into them. The bright lights emitted by the few spirit items dimmed instantly, and they each gave a miserable cry while the staff broke through their blockade and smashed brutally onto Wu Qi's back.

As the earth element dragon scale shield was attacked by fifty-nine Generals of Minor Allheaven not long ago, its energy was greatly depleted, and its item spirit had gone into a coma. However, when the staff was less than half-inch away from Wu Qi's back, it suddenly sensed the wild fluctuation of Wu Qi's mind. It gave a dragon cry, unleashing a column of earthy yellow mist to protect Wu Qi.

The earthy yellow mist tangled the staff, slowing down its momentum and warding off sixty percent of its power. But, the remaining forty percent of the force still slammed onto Wu Qi's back, sinking his back three inches deep. Wu Qi felt a warmth rush up to his throat, and the attack nearly forced his heart out of his chest. He opened his mouth to spray out a mouthful of blood, and was knocked flying forward for several hundred feet like a kite.

He spun in a sorry state midair, twisting his body and managing to stop from rushing forward continually. Then, he staggered a few steps back and starred at the man who had just sneak attacked him from behind. It was a monk who stood thirteen feet tall. He had a burly stature and looked as if forged out of steel. There was a strange brass hue on his skin, which vaguely emitted the gloss of a metal.

Behind the monk's head hovered a ring of Buddhist light, about three feet in diameter, and there was a jade-white crescent mark in the area between his brows. He had a dignified appearance, and was portraying the manner of a lion and tiger when he moved. His upper body was naked, a python skin wrapping around his waist and covering his lower body. Everything about him spelled an eminent monk who could subdue dragons and tigers, a great monk who killed and arsoned.

Seeing that Wu Qi had spun to face him, the monk thrust the end of the staff to the ground with his left hand, raised his right hand before his chest, and offered Wu Qi a greeting, "For the benevolence of the Buddha! Sādhu! Sādhu! Your bones are hard, fellow Daoist. It looks like I'll have more work to do as I've failed to kill you with one staff strike!"

Wu Qi gnashed his teeth and did not answer. Instead, he reached out one hand to touch the part where the staff hit. A few backbones were shifted from their original positions, pressing against his nerves and making him feel numb. Clenching his jaws, he pinched the few backbones with his fingers and returned them to their original positions with a loud crack. He took a deep breath, commanding the innate wood energy full of endless vitality to quickly flow around the wounded part. The injury was healed in no time, and the pain was gone.

Even as he did that, he stared at the monk and bellowed, "Monk, there is no ill feeling between us. Why are you attacking me from behind?"

The monk smiled and called the Buddha's name, then said with a deep voice, "I am Arhat Bao Xin. Do you find the name familiar? I am the eldest guarding disciple of the Three Lotus Thrones Six arms Evil Subduing Great Bodhisattva, who is the disciple of the Great Solar Wheel Glorious Buddha. Fellow Daoist, you've bullied my Junior Brother, and that's why I am here to settle the score with you!"

Off in a distance, a dozen auspicious clouds rose from a valley, carrying the angry-looking Arhat Bao Sheng, as well as sixteen monks who had similar burly statures as they flew over quickly. Across the distance, Arhat Bao Sheng roared at the top of his voice, "You nasty Daoist! You've caused me great harm! I've missed the goat flesh to just get the smell of the goat! To repay your great kindness, I'm going to chop you into million pieces today!"

Wu Qi gave Arhat Bao Sheng a gaze from the corner of his eyes, then turned to Arhat Bao Xin and said with a smile, "How did you find me? Have you been following me all this while? But it is not possible, for I am a man with high vigilance, and I'd surely notice you if you have had been following me!"

Arhat Bao Sheng had rushed over on a cloud. He raised a Vajra Evil Subduing Sword menacingly and slashed it down towards Wu Qi.

Wu Qi did not even look at Arhat Bao Sheng, just staring at Arhat Bao Xin with a big smile on his face.

Arhat Bao Xin made a deep coughing sound, and Arhat Bao Sheng immediately halted his move. Although the edge of the sword was just three feet away from Wu Qi's head, he still retracted it obediently, then put his palms together and bowed to Arhat Bao Xin, backing away on a cloud.

Together with the other sixteen burly monks, Arhat Bao Xin and Arhat Bao Sheng stood in a circle about one thousand feet around Wu Qi, trapping him within. Vaguely, the aura of eighteen monks fused into one, forming an impenetrable barrier to prevent Wu Qi from escaping.

Seeing that Wu Qi was trapped by the Vajra Heaven Dragon Evil Subduing Ring, a mystic technique taught by his Master, Arhat Bao Xin smiled reservedly and pulled out a Bodhi leaf as large as a fan from the python skin wrapped around his waist. The Bodhi leaf was carved out from a translucent green jade, shrouded in a ring of golden Buddhist light, and was sending forth a strange fragrance that could calm one's mind.

"This is a Bodhi Zen Leaf, crafted by my Master using his Heaven Heart divine ability. If there is a need for communication, I just have to write with my own blood essence on its surface, and it will show on the other Bodhi Zen Leaf held in my Master's hand. Likewise, anything my Master wrote on his Bodhi Zen Leaf can immediately be read on mine. "Arhat Bao Xin said complacently, "My Master is the Three Lotus Thrones Six arms Evil Subduing Great Bodhisattva, an expert in subduing demons and evils. He can see anything he wishes to throughout the entire universe with just a glance of his Infinite Buddha Eyes."

Wu Qi nodded and said, "Now I understand. So, that Bodhisattva has discovered my trace?"

Arhat Bao Xin answered with a nod, "We've been waiting for you here for fourteen hours."

Wu Qi gasped. Fourteen hours ago, he was still fighting those Generals of Minor Allheaven, and even he himself did not know where he would be fleeing to. However, that Bodhisattva had already predicted that he would be here.

He smiled bitterly. He knew it was because that Bodhisattva had a way stronger cultivation base and magical power than him, thus was able to find his traces from amongst the boundless heavenly secrets and predict a small part of his future. Unless Wu Qi could form the Innate Chaotic Dharma Body mentioned in the Scroll of Stealing, completely depriving his aura from the heavenly secrets, all those almighty experts could easily and clearly grasp all his actions!

All he needed was the innate Yang energy! He just needed one thread of innate Yang energy!

He took a deep breath, cupped his fist, and bowed to Arhat Bao Xin, "What do you want from me, monk?"

Arhat Bao Xin gave a deep laugh, then nodded and said, "There is a fate between fellow Daoist and Buddha, I am here to invite you to be the disciple of my Master!"

Wu Qi was taken aback. Why was he having a fate with the Buddha again?

But, Arhat Bao Sheng had put it more succinctly as he cried out with a stern voice, "Save your breath! Hand over all the treasures you've looted from Qing Xu Immortal Pass, then join us and be a hard laborer who does all the menial jobs. Obey that and we will spare you, or death will be just a wishful dream for you!"

Wu Qi flew into a great rage and roared, "Just tell me that you are robbing me! And, I have no fate with your Buddha!"

He gave a furious roar, opened his mouth, and shot out the Sword of Greedy Wolf, turning it into a dark beam and thrusting towards Arhat Bao Sheng.