Stealing The Heavens
chapter-75

The sharp pitch scream of a sword piercing into flesh entered everyone's ears and brought them a severe pain. The dark green glazed roof tiles were also shaken by such an intense scream, as a few hundred of them shattered instantly. On Wu Qi's raised left arm, two short swords of four inches length were seen deeply cut into his flesh and bone. They were struggling, yet failed to escape from being trapped by Wu Qi's body.

Although Wu Qi only possessed the cultivation of Meridian Cultivating tier, the Scroll of Stealing cultivated by him was simply too formidable. It allowed him to steal other people's blood and Qi essence to strengthen his own body, steal other people's cultivation to improve his own, and steal other people's soul fragments to make his own soul stronger. Everything was way too queer and beyond imagination. As a result, although his cultivation was still in the tier of Meridian Cultivation, his true overall strength could not be judged by this.

His body had been nourished by many people's blood and Qi essence, and it was many times stronger than that of those ordinary Meridian Cultivating tier warriors. The toughness of his muscle and bones could even be compared to warriors of Physical Strengthening tier. In addition to that, the density of his innate energy was also at par with those warriors of Energy Concentrating tier.

When a doughty body like this was combined with a powerful innate energy, with Wu Qi injecting all his innate water energy into his left arm, it instantly transformed as if it was made entirely from the hardest alloy. Although the flying swords of both Embryonic Breath tier cultivators were sharp, when they were clutched by Wu Qi's muscle and bone, they could only let out a constant whine and put out a desperate struggle. Yet, none of them could escape.

Two Embryonic Breath cultivators were staring blankly at their flying swords that cut into Wu Qi's arm, dumbfounded. It was true that their flying swords were not of high quality. Still, they were sharp weapons of the middle tier. Using it, they were able to cut through ordinary iron armor with ease. So, how was it possible that a human body could bind down these flying swords? This was something absolutely exaggerated. Could he be a Human Immortal who had formed his Gold Core?

Both cultivators exchanged a shocking glance. They exhaled a mouthful of innate energy at the same time, formed a sword controlling seal with their fingers and cried, "Come!"

Two flying sword trembled violently at the same time, letting out a sharp, high scream. Blood burst and shot out from the wound on Wu Qi's left arm where the flying swords had pierced through. Droplet by droplet, it spilled and fell onto the ground full of blood and flesh.

A ferocious smile emerged on Wu Qi's face. He sprung up and leaped towards the cultivators. His innate water energy started to spin at high-speed within the meridians in his left arm, producing a deep noise of water waves. Two invisible whirlpools formed on his left arm, and the heart of the whirlpools were the flying swords that were stuck in his arm. The massive force of suction tightly trapped both flying swords, No matter how hard they struggled, they just couldn't escape from Wu Qi's arm.

Not only that, as the saying went, constant dripping will wear a hole in the stone. Wu Qi's innate water energy was also constantly corroding the flying sword. Bit by bit it, it wiped away the spiritual seal left by both cultivators and their innate energy used to control the flying swords. As the strength of Wu Qi's soul was way stronger than these two Embryonic Breath cultivators, he could still make their control over the flying swords become jerky and uncomfortable even when facing both of them alone.

It was obvious that these two cultivators were orthodox cultivators. They had spent all their energy and efforts in training their innate energy and refining their flying swords, cultivating magic and art of talisman. For these kind of orthodox cultivators, their focus was only at cultivating. Although their foundation was stable and superb, they lacked the adaptability to changes.

Although the flying swords didn't yield them the desired result, these cultivators still kept exhaling mouthful of innate energy single-mindedly. They kept manipulating the flying swords, wanting to make them leave Wu Qi's body and using them to behead him. However, they had totally forgotten that the distance between them and Wu Qi was just a dozen of feet. Even for a peak Houtian realm warrior, it would only take one step to cross such a short distance.

Wearing a hideous smile on his face, Wu Qi drew out a huge amount of natural energy from the Innate Water Serpent pearl, instantly turning them into raging innate energy and dispersing into all his meridians. At the same time, he absorbed all the blood and Qi essence lingering around his body, which was from the few soldiers he killed just now. On his right palm and right knee, two explosive forces of Jade Breaking Hand formed silently.

He came in front of both cultivators with a leap like a fierce tiger. He pressed his palm onto the chest of the cultivator on the left and thrust his right knee forcefully onto the crotch of the other. The natural energy he drew from the Innate Water Serpent pearl, together with the blood and Qi essence he absorbed from the few soldiers, were equally split into two portions, bursting together into the body of two cultivators.

The body of these two cultivators suddenly expanded. After a cultivator stepped into the tier of Embryonic Breath, as all the spirit and energy were concealed within the body, his appearance had become rather aged, shriveled and ugly. But now, as Wu Qi forcefully injected the energy, blood and Qi essence into their body, the wizened skin of two cultivators suddenly became fair and glowing, swelling like a silkworm who had eaten a lot.

"NO!"

Two shrill cries rang through the scene. Countless finger-sized cracks started to appear on the skin of two Embryonic Breath cultivators. The force of Jade Breaking was exploding continuously inside of their body. The people standing both inside and outside of the hall could hear the muffled booms coming from within their body. One after another, streams of blood shot out from their seven apertures, and their aura was decaying at an incredible speed.

"DIE!" Glaring murderously, Wu Qi roared at both the men.

As he brought his hand and touched the storage bag, Wu Qi pulled out two venomous prickles he brought from Meng Mountains. Using them, he savagely stabbed into the temple of both cultivators. Then, he circulated another wave of enormous energy from the Innate Water Serpent pearl, pushing them into the brain of the cultivators through the prickles, crushing and shattering their spiritual domain. Under this tremendous impact of energy, their souls were also blown into countless tiny fragments.

A powerful suction force from the Hand of Web emerged on the venomous prickles. The two cultivators had spent more than a hundred years in cultivating laboriously, which eventually made them step into the Embryonic Breath tier of Xiantian realm. Their soul was strong and condensed like the coagulation of one hundred souls of ordinary humans. Such a massive soul was broken into tiny pieces and was drawn out by the secret skill of Scroll of Stealing, turning into pure energy of soul particles, gurgling down into Wu Qi's Spiritual Ocean.

The water within the thousand miles wide Spiritual Ocean of Wu Qi started to spin crazily. The absorbed soul particles were being repeatedly washed by the water, wiping off the traces of aura from two cultivators. The pure energy of soul then turned into rays of a rainbow, squeezing out from the surface of the ocean and transforming into a curtain of rainbow, hovering and lingering above the surface of Wu Qi's Spiritual Ocean.

At this moment in time, Wu Qi didn't have the ability to digest these two massive soul energies. He had no choice but to store them temporarily in his Spiritual Ocean, and only digest them slowly in the future. The soul was the most vital root of a cultivator. The stronger the soul became, the more powerful the divine sense of the cultivator would become. In addition to that, a stronger soul would ensure the cultivator not be easily assaulted by evil spirits during cultivation, and avoid any mistakes when unleashing a skill. As long as Wu Qi absorbed all the soul energies of these two cultivators, it would be so much easier for him to make the breakthrough to Gold Core realm in the future.

Although it took some time to describe, in reality, everything happened just within the time of two to three seconds.

Two Embryonic Breath tier cultivators were killed distressingly. A huge amount of dark and dirty blood burst out from their body, and in an instant, they shrunk into two black meat balls the size of a toddler. After that, the force of Jade Breaking exploded, blowing two dark meat balls into tiny pieces, and sending venomous blood and flesh flying in all directions. Once again, it frightened everyone in the hall and made them scurry around while dodging the flying objects.

Wu Qi let out a hideous laugh. He pulled off two flying swords of middle tier from his left arms and shoved them into his storage bag.

The innate water energy was flowing back and forth in his arm, providing constant nourishment to his wounds, making his blood vessels and nerves heal at an incredible rate. However, not only had the flying swords wounded Wu Qi's muscle and nerves, but they had also pierced through his bone and damaged the bone marrow. No doubt this was severe damage to Wu Qi's cultivation base.

If any other cultivator had his bone marrow damaged, he would have to consume all kind of magical pills and medicines, and it would take at least a few months of meticulous healing and resting. Only then would one able to fully recover. But for Wu Qi, although the injury was serious, he just had to steal the blood and Qi essence from a few men, using them to replenish his loss. Within three to five days, his wound would be almost fully recovered.

As there was still some leftover blood and Qi essence which he absorbed just now in his body, Wu Qi quickly circulated it to the wound on his left arm without hesitation. The boiling hot energy rushed into the wound on his bone, wave after wave, and at the speed which Wu Qi could vividly sense, his bone and marrow started to heal and regenerate.

Initially, Yan Heluo thought the two personal guards of his could kill Wu Qi with ease. When he saw two sword beams streak through the air, his face was immediately filled with a pleased, cold smile, and was standing back up from the floor. However, before he could stand firmly, Wu Qi had used the most aggressive, savage method of hurting himself and killed both the Embryonic Breath cultivators, the strongest personal guards he had.

Yan Heluo was about to let out a pleased laugh into the air, but his body suddenly shivered. The laugh choked in his throat and became a weird sound, like the sound of a hen when it had just laid some eggs. He trembled, looking at Wu Qi blankly. He couldn't figure out why this man, who appeared only to have the cultivation of Meridian Cultivation, could kill the two strongest personal guards of his.

"You, you... somebody!" Yan Heluo pointed his fingers at Wu Qi, but in the end, he could only let out a shrill, long cry.

The armored soldiers outside of the hall had long rushed into the meeting hall. But because of the explosion of the two cultivators, dark venomous blood and flesh were flying all over the place. Thus, they were forced to disperse in avoiding these deadly projectiles. Upon hearing Yan Heluo's desperate call, they quickly drew out their longsword, charging toward Wu Qi like a fierce tidal wave.

*Clang* A sword pierced through the air. A soft-sword struck trembling over like a poisonous snake, coiling three rounds around Yan Heluo's neck. The quality of the soft-sword was excellent, a sharp weapon meticulously crafted by an expert craftsman. The razor sharp edge of the blade was pushed tightly against Yan's neck. The coldness of the metal nearly froze his body, and made his high, jarring voice come to a sudden stop.

Lu Chengfeng gripped firmly on the hilt, his fingers not seeming to move. He brought himself to the back of Yan Heluo, and shouted with a cruel, merciless voice, "Prince Ci, not only Wu Qi is my chief hanger-on, but he is also my brother of life and death. I'm sorry, if you want to kill him, I'll have to kill you first!"

Yan Heluo screamed like he had just seen a ghost. "Duke Yan Le, are you crazy? Do you know what is the consequence of killing me?"

Lu Chengfeng responded with a ferocious manner, "So what if I really killed you? At the worst, I'll exile myself and wander freely all over the world. So long I still have my brothers, my friends, I can always build a new foundation anywhere I want! You came to my place and extorted my iron mountains and smelting plants… this is no different than bullying me in my own house. And not only that, you also want to kill my brother of life and death, my chief hanger-on. Since you're not giving me any face, so what if I really kill you?"

While holding the sword with his right hand, Lu Chengfeng brought his left palm and gently patted Yan Heluo's face. All this while, Lu Chengfeng had behaved gentle and refined, and always portrayed an air of a noble son. Yet right at this very moment, he looked like a wild wolf who was being pushed into a desperate situation, and was sending forth a murderous air exactly like Wu Qi.

"Yan Heluo, can you tell me, is your neck made from blood and flesh? Can my soft-sword chop off your big, beautiful head?"

Wu Qi spat out a mouthful of blood, let out a strange laugh and gave Lu Chengfeng a thumbs up. "Hehe, you're forcing me to not ditch you away for the rest of my life! Hehe, hehe, you're indeed my good brother!"

No armored soldier who barged into the hall dared to move. Laughing frantically, Wu Qi came in front of Yan Heluo, waved his hand and gave the man a powerful slap on the face. The slap pushed Yan Heluo's head aside, making his neck move and press against the edge of the sword. A large piece of his greasy skin was cut off, and blood immediately rushed out from the wound.

Together, Yan Heluo and Yan Bugui cried out loudly, "Stop! We can settle this through discussion!"