Stealing The Heavens

Chapter 592: Two-pronged Approach

Translator: StackThatCoin Editor: Hitesh_

Under Huang Liang's panic-stricken gaze, wisps of dark smoke sprayed out of Wu Qi's orifices and squeezed into Manager Yue's orifices like some vipers. The covetous look on his greasy face was immediately replaced by the most courteous smile, and even though his neck was still in Wu Qi's hand, he cupped his fist and said, "Master!"

Huang Liang's mouth dropped open with a shriek nearly bursting out of his throat. But, Wu Qi quickly waved his hand and produced a gust of breeze to shove the shriek back down. With a faint smile, he gave Huang Liang a glance and said in a deep voice, "Take it easy! Even if you have not seen the Orifices Soul Locking Spell, you should have heard of it before!"

The Orifices Soul Locking Spell was a method commonly used by the Oracles to control cultivators with weaker cultivation base, a spell that turned the power of ghosts into poisonous smoke, made it enter the target's body through his orifices, and eventually controlled the target's mind and soul. It was a very vicious method. Every year, many lower-grade itinerant cultivators were controlled by the Oracles using this spell and sent into various itinerant cultivator powers, causing great losses to them.

Huang Liang did know what the Orifices Soul Locking Spell was, and he also knew that Wu Qi was cultivating both the body and magic. However, he never dreamed that Wu Qi could cast this spell as he looked more like a formidable warrior than anything else. 'How strong is he exactly? He can even cast such an advanced spell that's related to souls?'

Wu Qi paid no mind to Huang Liang. He dropped Manager Yue on the floor, gave the fat guy all the spirit herbs on the side table, then clapped his hands and said with a smile, "Alright! All is well today. You have bought many spirit herbs from me with some talismans and ecstasy that's worth one hundred mid-grade energy stones. Do you understand?"

Bowing and smiling obediently, Manager Yue said, "Understood! Perfectly understood!"

Satisfied with the response, Wu Qi gave the manager a light pat on the shoulder. "Three days later, with all the goods and valuables of Yao Yue Pavilion, go three hundred miles west of the market and wait for me there. Do you understand? Remember to hide your tracks and not get yourself killed!" he whispered.

Then, he took out a defensive bone talisman crafted by Yu Mu, pointed a finger at it, and shoved the palm-sized talisman into Manager Yue's forehead. "This thing can save your life, but don't act absurdly just because you are being protected by it!"

"Please rest assured, Master, I'll make no mistakes!"

Wu Qi smiled approvingly. From the shelves in the shop, he took a few bottles of potion with the labels such as 'Laughing Virgin' and 'Lustful Wife', as well as a few immortal talismans with decent power. After that, he patted the fat, smiling face of Manager Yue, gave Huang Liang a wink, and strode out of the shop.

When he walked out of the door, he roared with laughter. "Your Excellency Huang, this is really a good place! Hahaha, where's the Fragrance Pavilion that Manager Yue mentioned just now? We need to enjoy ourselves there! Tsk... How can we miss those female Nascent Divinity cultivators?"

Huang Liang's eyes shone with a pinkish gleam when he heard Wu Qi say that. Laughing obscenely, he said, "That's a wonderful suggestion, and it happens that I know that place very well! Hahaha… Let me tell you, the skin of those girls who have just begun cultivating is really tender and soft to touch, and they are prettier than common girls!"

The two of them put arms on each other's shoulder while heading towards the Fragrance Pavilion, attracting glances from cultivators along the way. Some of the managers familiar with Huang Liang were secretly sighing with mixed emotions, 'Manager Yue must have made a fortune again... How did the Great Yu Military Court produce someone as obscene and shameless as Huang Liang?'

As they entered the Fragrance Pavilion, Wu Qi's true-self had already left the market, quickly finding the flying ships hiding in the clouds and giving commands to the captains and Oracles. The man that accompanied Huang Liang was just one of his celestial fiend puppets.

He told them that he alone would follow the tracks of Reverend Yao Yue and other Immortals three days later as they went hunting the Green Dome Shark, then ordered them to take the opportunity to launch an assault on Mount Moon Gazing and capture Reverend Yao Yue's entire clan, as well as all the Immortals and Itinerant cultivators in the market! He also told them frankly that he was going to use these captives for blood sacrifices, and that he did not mind giving them a little bit of benefits.

The captains and Oracles were thrilled, all bowing and swearing that they would obey Wu Qi's commands.

Time flew by and three days passed in the blink of an eye. Early in the morning, when the sun had barely revealed half of its face from the horizon, Wu Qi saw more than thirty beams of light soaring up into the sky from Mount Moon Gazing and flying towards the ocean. He gestured at Huang Liang and the others, then quickly turned himself into a shadow and sped away, following the trace of those beams of light.

Six hours after the beams of light and Wu Qi had left, two flying ships began to wheel around Mount Moon Gazing. Accompanied by three to five Oracles, groups after groups of soldiers dropped off the ships, landed on the ground, and surrounded the mountain. Each group was led by two to three hundred-men Lieutenants who were capable of fighting against Heaven Immortals. It was an army strong enough to defeat all the itinerant cultivators on the mountain.

The soldiers were on a standby. According to Wu Qi's order, they would only launch the attack when they received his signal, which would mean that Reverend Yao Yue and his fellow Immortals were trapped in a fierce battle with the Green Dome Shark. The soldiers were ordered not to alert the enemy, as Reverend Yao Yue could come back at any time for the rescue. Only when those Immortals were unable to come back could they breach and defeat Mount Moon Gazing with one swift assault.

With his body fully wrapped in the Shen energy emanated from the Spirit Shen Pearl, Wu Qi transformed into a drifting cloud in the sky, following closely behind Reverend Yao Yue and the other Immortals. More than a month ago, when he was rescuing Princess Zhang Le, he had put the exact appearance of Reverend Yao Yue in his mind. Now, he had his eyes fixed on the target, paying no attention to the Immortals around him, whose cultivation bases were around thirtieth tier Heaven Immortal realm.

Reverend Yao Yue was followed by a total of thirty-six Heaven Immortals. Clearly, they were the helpers whom he had invited to capture the Green Dome Shark, and none of them was strong enough to defeat him.

Wu Qi thought that the arrangement was reasonable. The entire body of a Green Dome Shark was full of treasures, so if Reverend Yao Yue found someone who was as strong as himself, he would have to give away a bigger share of loots. However, when he found thirty-six people who were far weaker than him to help him trap the prey, he could easily send them away with just a little bit of compensation.

While pondering over what formation Reverend Yao Yue would use to capture the Green Dome Shark, Wu Qi kept following them behind from a close distance. The hunters pressed on for twelve hours, and when the moon was up in the sky, they arrived above a chain of islands that stretched for tens of thousands of miles.

At this time, the ocean was veiled by a layer of fog. Thousands of odd-shaped islands dotted the ocean, all glistening under the bright moonlight. Wu Qi glanced curiously at these islands, with the largest among them only measuring a few miles in circumference. They were formed from rocks, but after soaking in the essence of moon and stars for a long period of time, the rocks had turned bright and smooth like jade, and were a few times harder than steel. Nature had transformed them into an extremely rare form of rock.

As the moon rose and the stars blinked in the sky, the chain of islands gleamed faintly as if thousands of stars had fallen into the ocean. For the moment, the sky and the ocean were filled with drifting lights of blue and silver, and it made a magnificent scene when accompanied by the dark-purple ocean and pale-white fog. The whole place looked like a large-scale bonsai inlaid in a crystal.

Between the ocean and the sky, thirty-seven Heaven Immortals, including Reverend Yao Yue, hovered midair on clouds, all shrouded in bright lights and giving off an otherworldly air. Seeing them, Wu Qi could not help but praised inwardly, 'What a bunch of splendid-looking cannon fodder! Now, quickly help me capture that Green Dome Shark!'

Hiding far away in a cloud, Wu Qi saw that Reverend Yao Yue was giving orders to those Immortals. Before long, each of the thirty-six Heaven Immortals took out a black net and a black flag, then transformed into beams of light and hid in the small islands beneath. Judging by the locations they were hiding in, they matched the exact positions of the Thirty-six Celestial Dippers.

Reverend Yao Yue looked up at the moon, his hand stretching out as a cloud sprayed out of the palm, amidst which were hundreds of golden roasted cows that kept dripping with grease. Carefully, he fished out a bottle of red potion and smeared the liquid on those steaming cows.

A strange aroma spread far and wide, reaching Wu Qi along with the breeze. He gave it a sniff as Ao Buzun suddenly craned his head out and said, "What a wicked man! He is using the Drunken Dragon Incense! Mm, it's not very well concocted. I'll never fall for such a lousy potion!"

Wu Qi pushed his head back and whispered under his breath, "Focus your attention on digesting the Flaming Tiger's divine energy! You haven't completely digested him after so long, and yet you still have the face to show up? But, you are correct… This Drunken Dragon Incense seems to have been mixed with a few wrong ingredients. The quality is extremely poor... I'll concoct a better quality for you next time as a meal. What do you think?"

Ao Buzun's face turned pale and he quickly squeezed back into Wu Qi's robe.

Above the ocean, Reverend Yao Yue threw the hundreds of roasted cows with extra seasoning into the water. The strange aroma spread through the water and gradually penetrated into the depths of the ocean. About two hours later, a large sheet of silvery-blue starlight suddenly emerged from underneath the pitch-dark ocean.

A gigantic fish, shaped like a shark and about one thousand feet long, its skin covered with countless pointy needles and bumps, slowly surfaced amidst large splashes. The fish emitted a soft silvery-blue starlight, which made it look like an extra-large bulb.

It was the Green Dome Shark, an extremely rare ancient species.

According to the Scroll of Stealing, the Green Dome Shark would come to the surface every three hundred and sixty years to absorb the essence of stars and moon. After accumulating enough power, it would dive back to the depths of the ocean and enter a deep slumber, taking its time to digest the absorbed power.

During the three hundred and sixty years of deep sleep, if something caught its attention, the Green Dome Shark would wake up from the sleep to hunt. But, its overall strength would be at the weakest point at that time, because the blood would not be circulating smoothly in its body.

'It will be weaker than normal tonight,' thought Wu Qi as he lifted his head and looked at the sky. The natural Yin energy would be at its strongest level at midnight tonight. At that hour, the natural Yin energy would rise to the sky and dark clouds would veil the stars and moon, preventing the Green Dome Shark from harvesting the energy from the stars. Its overall strength would be further reduced.

Seeing that the shark had gradually surfaced, Wu Qi reached one hand into his chest and grabbed a turtle shell, using it to inform his men to get ready.

He and his men were ready to strike at both places at the same time.