Stealing The Heavens
chapter-538

Wu Qi sat cross-legged at the center of the foyer. He was surrounded by the members of the Luo Clan, old and young, regardless of their cultivation base. They were asking him about the questions they had encountered during cultivating. Wu Qi answered all the questions briskly, coupled with long and short examples. Usually, when he was explaining to one of the people, he would solve the doubts in the other people's mind at the same time.

Luo Le was a lucky man. One thousand and five hundred years ago, he was only an ordinary woodcutter in Mi Province. During one time when he was working in a forest, he accidentally found a cultivation scripture in a cave, the 'Heart Scripture of the Great River'. At that point in time, Mi Province had just been inaugurated, and the officials did not have a strong control over the people. Not knowing that it was forbidden by the Great Yu, Luo Le began to cultivate the scripture. And surprisingly, he was talented in cultivating the Dao, as he managed to break through the Nascent Soul realm, and eventually Nascent Divinity realm in just several hundred years, obtaining the body of a half-immortal who could live eternally.

However, as he did not have a strong foundation, so he could not fully understand all the profound secrets found in the scripture. As a result, after he stepped into the Nascent Divinity realm, the progress of his cultivation base slowed down. As of now, it had stopped progressing completely, no matter how hard he tried. The Heart Scripture of the Great River could allow a cultivator to cultivate to the realm of Heaven Immortal, but Luo Le knew that with his personal effort, he could never transcend his Heavenly Tribulation and become a Heaven Immortal.

But, then Wu Qi got here. He had shown them his fearful overall strength, his high-handed measures, and his willingness of making Luo Clan a part of his sect. Resolutely, Luo Le decided to join Wu Qi. It was said that wealth and honor came from danger, and the same applied to cultivating Immortality.

Three days ago, Luo Le had personally led Wu Qi to the Fu Clan. By the time they returned, none of the members of Fu Clan survived, and they even found a book, 'A Record of Qimen Dunjia'[1], which ended up as Luo Clan's collection of cultivation techniques. At the same time, Luo Clan had raided Fu Clan's thousands of years of saving, literally doubling their wealth overnight. After the raid, all the Gold Core members in Luo Clan, who did not own anything of value in the past, were given a full set of flying sword and magical treasures.

Wu Qi had awed these people with high-handed measures, and drawn them to him with kindness. In other words, he had given them a whack with a stick, then shoved a sweet date into their mouths. Yet, they could not refuse to swallow it. This was how he brought Luo Clan under control. Over the past three days, he did not give the people of Luo Clan any cultivation techniques, and only provided answers to the questions they had encountered in the path of cultivation. And, when he solved those questions, he had also dismissed the wariness that lingered in their minds.

He was answering Luo Le's questions now, explaining how one's soul could leave his body, how to use the natural energy to nourish one's soul, how to use the sunlight, rain, dew, wind, and thunder to temper one's soul, and how to use the soul to comprehend the Great Dao of the Heaven and Earth. Suddenly, everyone heard four piercing hisses coming from outside, long and forlorn like the whistling produced when a strong wind was sweeping across a vast plain.

An enormously powerful immortal pressure came together with the hisses, striking terror into the hearts of the people of Luo Clan and holding them in place. As the strongest man among them, the power of the immortal pressure affected Luo Le the most. His body was stiffened, cold sweat trickling down across his cheeks, and his eyes almost popped from his sockets.

Wu Qi flicked his sleeve and unleashed a gentle force, which transformed into thin sheets of clouds that blanketed the people of Luo Clan and blocked off the power of the immortal pressure. "Since you have arrived, come in now. The three days of the journey must have wearied you!" he cried out in a deep voice.

In the next moment, four figures emerged amidst a ball of faint light in the foyer. They were four old Daoists with the overall strength of Heaven Immortal. As they made their appearance, they cupped their fists and bowed to Wu Qi. "Greeting, Master!"

They were Wei Nanzi, Huai Yunzi, Immortal Da Zhang, and Reverend Fei Feng, four Heaven Immortals whose overall strength ranged between Thirty-second Tier and Thirty-third Tier. They were the unlucky fellows from the mine in the Dark Abyss of the Northern Ocean who had their immortal souls controlled by Wu Qi, and were forced to become his loyal subordinates. Three days ago, when Wu Qi had decided to make Luo Clan the first nail he hammered on Pangu Continent, he had told one of his celestial fiend puppets to send four Heaven Immortals to Mi Province at the quickest speed possible.

A few months ago, when he was preparing to strike at Miao Ying Palace, Wu Qi had sent the fifteen thousand cultivators and Immortals in the mine away with a teleportation formation. Then, his celestial fiend puppets had shared these cultivators, making them their first batch of subordinates. Were it not for the fact that Wu Qi needed someone to protect the Luo Clan, the four Heaven Immortals should be running one of his bases in Zhong Province.

Wu Qi lifted his head to give the four Heaven Immortals a glance as he said, "You may rise."

Wei Nanzi and his company straightened their back and looked at Wu Qi with respect. "Master, what are your orders for us?" asked Reverend Fei Feng, the strongest among the four.

Wu Qi considered for a moment, then he nodded and said with a smile, "Zhong Province is a first-grade province, with a powerful overall strength. Though its population is plenty and the products are copious, confronting them with force will bring us more losses than gains. On top of that, it seems the Prefecture Overseer of Zhong Province is facing some troubles recently, and I can see a storm is coming. It makes Zhong Province not the best place to develop our power now."

He lightly patted the ground next to him and said, "This is Mi Province, an eighth-grade province where the population is lesser and yet to be controlled by any powerful organizations. From today onwards, you will be the Elders of the Luo Clan. You don't have to do anything but to obey Luo Le's order."

Wu Qi pointed at Luo Le and said, "He is Luo Le, the Clan Leader of Luo Clan. You will follow what he tells you."

Luo Le hastened to his feet, cupped his fist, and bowed to Wei Nanzi and the company. Although he did not have the courage to give orders to four Heaven Immortals, since it was what Wu Qi wanted, he had to do it.

Afterward, Wu Qi asked Luo Le for two emptied jade slips. He then copied the Song of Gale into one of the slips, which was only limited to the techniques up to the Heaven Immortal realm, as well as thirty-six formations maps which ranged from basic to advance. He gave Luo Le the jade slip and told him, "I want all the people of Luo Clan to practice this technique. It is a supreme cultivation technique, not something your Heart Scripture of the Great River could ever compare with. Also, give the thirty-six formation maps a good study."

Wu Qi shook his head and said with a sigh, "How can a cultivator clan that doesn't even have a defensive formation deployed at the entrance to its base expand? Should this spread, it will only bring shame to me! Make yourself useful by studying and understanding the formation maps, and give Luo Clan's members a formation disc each when they go out. It will at least make them safer!"

Luo Le flushed at Wu Qi's words. He accepted the jade slip reverently and sent his divine will into it, and what he read had stunned him. A look of wild joy emerged on his face as he sat down cross-legged without a word, and devoted all his attention to studying the cultivation technique found in the jade slip.

The Song of Gale was a supreme scripture which was given to Wu Qi by Reverend Gale, a cultivation technique pointing straight to the realm of Primordial Immortal. Even though Wu Qi had only given Luo Le the elementary techniques that would help him lay a solid foundation, they were thousands of time more profound than the Heart Scripture of the Great River. Every phrase, every word, was full of unfathomable mysteries, like the ringing of the morning bell and evening drum that set people thinking. Luo Le had only given the first few lines of the scriptures a brief read, and he immediately knew that the Luo Clan had struck a fortune, a massive fortune.

Wu Qi gave Luo Le a deep look. Then, he handed the other jade slip to Immortal Da Zhang, who was an expert in the Dao of Formations. "Inside of this are the details of the Nine Winding Cloud River Formation. Deploy it around Luo Clan so they are protected. Mm, I know you are an expert in the Dao of Formations, so you can add more formations on top of this. Also, when you are here, I want you to teach the people of Luo Clan the Dao of Formations."

Immortal Da Zhang answered respectfully as he accepted the jade slip.

Wu Qi smiled, then clapped his hands and asked, "How far is the administrative center of Mi Province from here?"

It was Huai Yunzi who answered the question, "It is not too far from here. From there, it had taken us two days and twelve hours to arrive here, using teleportation technique all the way. It is situated approximately nine hundred million miles northwest."

Satisfied with the answer, Wu Qi nodded and said, "Excellent! Luo Hao, Luo Shui and your sisters, all four of you will be my guides. I remember you telling me that there is a Blackfish Immortal Market not far from here, a place visited by many heretical cultivators, and frequently having many good items to be found. I want you to bring me there. I don't have any handy treasures right now, and I feel pretty insecure!"

If an Immortal cultivator was not accompanied by a handy flying sword and some magical treasures, it was as if a man was running naked down the street. The feeling was hard to bear. As of now, Wu Qi only had the Dark Yin Hassock, who would not listen to his command. He had even devoured the Divine Flame of Order. He thought it was best to get himself some handy weapons as soon as possible. Otherwise, he might be able to fight against those lesser cultivators with bare hands, but he would surely suffer a great loss when fighting some Immortals whose overall strength was similar to his.

Luo Hao and the triplets were thrilled as they rose to their feet hastily and answered with a bow.

Wu Qi woke Luo Le with a strong slap on the shoulder and said smilingly, "I'll leave everything here to you. Take good care of the four Elders. Give them the best you can, foods, accommodations, and anything they want. Council amongst yourself for the things you wish to do next!"

Then, he turned to Luo Hao, flicked his sleeve, and said, "Lead the way to the Blackfish Immortal Market. Let's see if we can find something incredible there!"

Luo Hao answered excitedly as he asked his daughters to follow closely behind Wu Qi. Soon, five beams of light rose into the sky, speeding away towards the Blackfish Immortal Market.

On their way, the triplets were telling Wu Qi everything they knew about the Blackfish Immortal Market. Its owner was a Snakehead Demon with a cultivation base of mid-stage Nascent Divinity realm. Several tens of thousands of years ago, a nameless Immortal had enlightened him when he was still a mindless creature, granting him sense and intelligence. Eventually, he managed to cultivate himself into a demon. He was favored by luck, as he was able to avoid the suppression from the Great Oracle of the Mi Province's Directorate of Celestials, and still live freely today.

In the Blackfish Immortal Market, regardless of the value of the items, whenever a transaction was made, the seller would have to pay the Snakehead Demon a lower-grade energy stone as the tax. Even when the item's cost was less than one lower-grade energy stone, or tens of thousands of energy stones, he would only want one lower-grade energy stone from each successful transaction. Rumors had it that this Snakehead Demon was slow-witted by nature, and he was not good in numbers. So, in order to not make a fool of himself, he had set this strange rule. But, at the same time, it was because of the low tax that the Blackfish Immortal Market had attracted the most number of patrons in Mi Province.

The Blackfish Immortal Market was situated in a deep lake surrounded by lofty mountains, about several tens of thousands of miles from the dale where Luo Clan was staying. Although the triplets could not fly as fast as Wu Qi, it only took them a few hours to arrive above the lake that measured dozens of miles in circumference.

As he had been here before, Luo Hao unleashed a beam of light and shot it into a small island floating right in the center of the lake. In the blink of an eye, a plume of cloud rose from it, on top of which stood a few demons who had a fish head above their necks.

"Welcome to the Blackfish Immortal Market, fellow Daoists!" The demons greeted them with a warm smile.

All of a sudden, Ao Buzun gave a very loud sneeze, filling the void with a faint dragon might. The few fish demons uttered a heartrending cry as their bodies turned feeble and fell off the cloud.

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[1] Qimen Dunjia (simplified Chinese: 奇门遁甲; traditional Chinese: 奇門遁甲) is an ancient form of divination from China, which is still in use in China, Taiwan, Singapore and the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia. Qimen Dunjia may be applied to business, crime-solving, marriages, and matchmaking, medical divination, Feng Shui, military affairs, finding missing people, travel, personal fortune divination, etc. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qimen_Dunjia)