Although the Black Dead Sea was a forbidden zone to the Floating Snow House and was indeed extremely dangerous, there were only few spiritual beasts at the Exquisite Mysterious Boundary.
Of course, it did not mean there were none. I the boundless water zone below one thousand metres, there was rumor of sleeping spiritual beast at the Supreme Dao stage.
For the zones of water beneath one thousand metres, no human martial artists possessed the ability to enter. The one thousand metre water zone was the limit of the Black Dead Sea.
Even the powerful Lord Mu Rong Qian, despite his diving abilities, could not bear the water pressure at one thousand metres below. That much pressure was like that of bearing a mountain, even Lord Mu Rong who is at the peak of the Common Mysterious stage is incapable of bearing it. Other clan"s people, who possessed even weaker strength, had no chance.
Currently, Qin Wushuang was in between six to eight hundred metres. This was also the location of the other four.
The Black Dead Sea encapsulated more than ten thousand miles of water. As far as finding another person, although it was not as dire as trying to find a needle in the ocean, it still posed a great difficulty.
The situation under the water was especially complicated and revealed to be completely different than the way of life on ground.
Qin Wushuang initiated the Observant Jade Finger Plate and slowly adjusted it. Suddenly, Qin Wushuang sensed a surge of spiritual detection becoming active on the jade plate. More alarmingly, it was swimming in his direction!
This spiritual surge, Qin Wushuang had recognized it belonged to that Wu Dingyuan of the Hundred Swords Sect. Qin Wushuang looked at the other three waves of spiritual perception, but they did not appear to be encircling him.
In this case, it must be a coincidental approach. Of course, Qin Wushuang did not dare to let down his guard. Instead, he thought over some possible courses of action and came to the conclusion to first make sure it was Wu Dingyuan by himself.
After a moment of thinking, Qin Wushuang thought of a bold idea. He took out the sealed scroll and summoned the Moon Palace Jade Hare.
"Master, are we to produce puppets again?" Moon Palace Jade Hare laughed mischievously with a somewhat devious expression.
Qin Wushuang said, "Jade Hare, is there a way to manipulate an enemy with the venomous poison without going into battle?"
"There are many ways." When Moon Palace Jade Hare talked about using poison, he was clear and logical. "For example, we can control a group of water spiritual beasts and infect their teeth with the venomous poison. As long as they bite the other person even once, they would have to obey us."
"Additionally, we could use a sneaky arrow attack, enchantment, spells, any form of these methods would work."
Hearing this sparked some ideas for Qin Wushuang. He started to search for a favorable terrain and waited for Wu Dingyuan to catch the bait.
…
Meanwhile, Wu Dingyuan was searching carefully. In fact, he had already made offensive references to all of Qin Wushuang"s ancestors.
After half a month of searching, he could not find even the slightest clue. This made Wu Dingyuan feel incredibly depressed. He even felt that his family should not have agreed to this collaboration with the Sound of Thunder Sect and the Heavenly Punis.h.i.+ng Villa. Dealing with Qin Wushuang was truly an arduous and unrewarding undertaking.
The exhausting work of this wasted half of a month had proved this fact.
Suddenly, Wu Dingyuan stopped his footsteps and applied his spiritual perception fully to the area before him. In the water area in front of him, a gigantic sh.e.l.l around a lump of aquatic gra.s.s had opened itself slightly. Surrounding that sh.e.l.l was a layer of holy radiance which made Wu Dingyuan rise up with spirit.
"It is said how a sh.e.l.l can produce beautiful pearls. In such deep water, the pearl of the Black Water should surely not be inferior to other pearls. I should go take a look."
Although he had made this decision, Wu Dingyuan did not dare to let down his guard in the slightest. He knew that since he was left without a clue of Qin Wushuang"s whereabouts, it would be uncertain to know who was the hunter and who was the prey.
Moving with extreme caution, Wu Dingyuan stopped right behind the gigantic sh.e.l.l and started to observe. The sh.e.l.l was the size of a few people. If it were to open itself completely, it would have enough s.p.a.ce to fit four to five sleeping people.
Now, the sh.e.l.l was closing itself halfway. From inside the sh.e.l.l, dazzling light could be seen shooting out.
Inwardly, Wu Dingyuan thought, "If this sh.e.l.l were to produce a pearl, it must be of superior quality. If I do not take it, heaven and earth might bestow me with disaster."
Wu Dingyuan easily scooped out a sealed spiritual beast talisman. He rolled it directly and summoned a small spiritual beast whose body had appeared to be blue and had the size of a skylark. It shot forward towards the direction of the sh.e.l.l. The speed of this tiny spiritual beast was extremely fast. Like a shooting arrow, it arrived before the sh.e.l.l.
Wu Dingyuan communicated with this spiritual beast and controlled it from a far distance. After the spiritual beast observed, for a moment, the sh.e.l.l and checked the surroundings around the sh.e.l.l, it said to Wu Dingyuan, "Master, there are no mechanisms around this sh.e.l.l, please don"t worry and come over."
Now, Wu Dingyuan felt rea.s.sured and quickly scuttled before the sh.e.l.l. He looked inside and saw that the pearl inside the sh.e.l.l was the size of a fist. Now, it was lying inside the sh.e.l.l and emitting glistening rays of lights.
Inwardly, Wu Dingyuan was astonished. "This pearl is truly strange! How could an ordinary pearl have such size?" Suddenly, Wu Dingyuan remembered a pleasant name, "Could it be the egg of the Phantom Dragon? Ha ha, since when did I ever have such good luck?"
It would be impossible if he were to say he was not swayed by seeing such a pearl. His first thought was to take it as his own.
Even if it were only a piece of a pearl, surely it was not an ordinary object. Appearing to have the white and silver color of a precious gem, it lay there still and quiet. As soon as he extended his hands, he could grab it.
However, Wu Dingyuan was still not in a rush to extend his hand. In the end, he had not dispelled all of his apprehensions. Suddenly the blue spiritual beast alerted him, "Master, it seems someone is approaching this water area."
Almost at the same time, Yan Zhuiyang called out with his spiritual perception and asked, "Junior Brother Dingyuan, do you have any new discoveries? Any signs?"
Wu Dingyuan worked hard to calm down after feeling such a burst of adrenaline. After seeing such big pearl, surely it was a treasure possessing all the essence of the heaven and earth. Naturally, he did not wish to share it with others. Immediately, he responded, "Brother Zhuiyang, for now there is no news on my end."
After this encounter, Wu Dingyuan stopped being hesitant and extended his hand to take the pearl from the sh.e.l.l. He put it on his palm and fondled it with admiration.
After the pearl was taken from the sh.e.l.l it did not make any movements, still opening and closing itself as normal.
Wu Dingyuan put away the pearl, stopped lingering, and began to walk away. He did not want others to know that he had picked up a treasure at this place.
"Brother Dingyuan, you are in such a rush, but where are you going?" Before Wu Dingyuan had taken a few steps, suddenly, a wave of melodious sound emerged next to his ear. The sound appeared to be some kind of ringing. However, when Wu Dingyuan heard this sound he was shocked. This sound clearly belonged to Qin Wushuang, whom they had been searching for for quite some time. In fact, was he close to this water area?
Just as Wu Dingyuan intended to send a response through his spiritual perception, his mind was suddenly muddled as his entire consciousness became utterly chaotic. It seemed as though a powerful force had wrapped around his spiritual perception.
"Qin Wushuang… this…" Wu Dingyuan"s mind had become chaotic and he instantly lost his consciousness. When he regained consciousness, Qin Wushuang was standing next to him.
With an empty mind, Wu Dingyuan called out with a somewhat imbecile expression, "Master!"
The so-called pearl Wu Dingyuan found was a piece of processed crystal stone that Qin Wushuang planted in the sh.e.l.l. He had embedded it with powerful spiritual Qi to make it emit glistening rays of light full of energy. At the scene of his trap, only the sh.e.l.l had been real. Qin Wushuang had used the sh.e.l.l and pearl to lure Wu Dingyuan"s greedy mind and successfully sent the venomous poison into his Dantian.
The divine venomous poison was no ordinary object. Once it invades the body, one cannot escape its poison unless they are able to acquire an antidote. How could Wu Dingyuan be capable of resisting it? Naturally, as Qin Wushuang and the Moon Palace Jade Hare followed the set pattern, he had become their first sacrificial victim.
It was not because Qin Wushuang was not willing to kill Wu Dingyuan. He had his own intentions of keeping him alive and turning him into a puppet.
A dead person could not be as useful as a living being, especially one in which he could control their spiritual perception.
Qin Wushuang had initiated this action for he could use Wu Dingyuan as bait to lure the other three warriors. Then, he could capture them with one plan!
If he had killed Wu Dingyuan, regardless of Qin Wushuang"s powerful strength, it was impossible for him to control his communication jade plate. This plate was a unique object that belonged to each person. Regardless of your defying methods, it would be impossible for you to imitate the exact same spiritual perception of the enemy when they were using it.
Theoretically, it would not work. In the end, no matter how much you imitated their spiritual perception, there would be flaws. Qin Wushuang wanted the flawless effect.
Controlling them like puppets would be the most appropriate option. Besides having their freedom and consciousness controlled, everything else would remain unchanged to the puppet. Therefore, he would not arouse any suspicion when he used his own communication jade plate to contact friends.
As long as he used Wu Dingyuan well, it was entirely possible for him to attract them over and take out each one of them.
Qin Wushuang knew that Wu Dingyuan and Hu Qiulan would have been fine, but certainly Yan Zhuiyang and Lei Jiao possessed Supreme Dao weapons.
If they had Supreme Dao weapons, fighting the enemies with power alone would not be a smart choice. It was because he would most likely fall into a situation where they would gang up on him and beat him.
The Graceful Spiritual Bow only specializes in long-distance attacks. With close-quarter combat, if two parties all possessed a Supreme Dao weapon, it would be a nightmare for Qin Wushuang.
Therefore, in this battle he could only rely on his wits and not force. Fortunately, Qin Wushuang possessed substantial trump cards. With his innumerable succession of tactics, it would be entirely possible to strike down each of his enemies.
At least Wu Dingyuan had already fallen into his trap and was easily manipulated by him. A good start is a sign of success. Although Qin Wushuang knew that this method could not be used continuously, with Wu Dingyuan as a living puppet, everything would be much easier.
"Wu Dingyuan, hurry and send your spiritual perception to Hu Qiulan. Say that you saw my tracks at the water area three hundred miles to the west side. Ask him to come quickly."
Qin Wushuang decided to first control these two burdens, Wu Dingyuan and Hu Qiulan. In this case, it would be easier for him to deal with one of the remaining two. As long as he could kill one of those two, the remaining one would not be far from death!
Qin Wushuang was afraid of the consequence if they joined hands. If he could strike them one after the other, this Black Dead Sea would be the graveyard for these four b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!