"It is a great misery to serve as someone else"s chess piece!" said Wu Qi coldly, as he stared at Yue Xu who came madly at him from the front, "In the future, I"ll never be a chess piece. Instead, I"ll devour those who play the chess game like they are a mere chess piece! As for you... those who chose you as a chess piece must have been blinded!"
He patted on the head of the cow beast, then stretched his left arm out.
*Clang!*
A flat black metal box, measuring one foot and three inches in length, suddenly popped out from the back of his arm, hovering about three inches above his skin. Then, he sent out a thread of divine will into an image of a black phoenix engraved on top of the black box. Abruptly, two thin bow limbs that looked like a pair of bird"s wing sprung out from the left and right of the box.
He then sent his energies into the box. In an instant, the bow limbs began to bend backward by themselves, and the bowstring was c.o.c.ked. In the next second, three crystal clear tw.a.n.ging noises rang out continuously, as three tiny, nine inches long bolts shot out from the black box. The bolts were not fletched, their heads shaped like a wolf"s fang. Inside of them were etched a set of thirty-six armor-piercing runes, while another set of thirty-six Strong Wind runes were found at their tails. The bolts pierced through the air with bright green tails over one hundred feet long, generating jarring, whistling sounds. In a blink of an eye, they traveled the distance of over one thousand feet and came before Yue Xu"s face.
Yue Xu, who was wielding his spear and charging madly forward, gave a shocked cry. His body halted in an instant, as he swung the golden spear out and hit precisely on the three incoming bolts.
*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!* Three loud rings of weapon clas.h.i.+ng rang out. The burly body of Yue Xu was pushed back by the tremendous force coming together with the tiny bolts, forcing him to take a dozen steps back. Flame burst out from underneath his feet, as if a small bomb exploded with each step he took, breaking up many large holes several feet wide on the hardened ground. To his shock, he found three tiny holes on his golden spear, and the densely carved runes on its body getting messily disrupted, which made the once glittering spear to dim down a lot.
"The Immortal Slaughtering Crossbow from Mo Sect!" Yue Xu held on his spear with trembling hands, staring furiously at Wu Qi, who was over one thousand feet away.
Looking at the flat metal box hovering over his arm, Wu Qi shook his head and said, "I don"t know what the name of this thing is. It was given to me by Chief General, Jing Ke. If you want to blame someone, blame it on Jing Ke! Oh right, this so-called Immortal Slaughtering Crossbow is personally crafted by old mister Mo Di. If you are killed by it, your people of Yue Clan should seek revenge from old mister Mo Di, and don"t ever come to me."
On the reviewing platform, Jing Ke was seen gulping down mouthfuls of wine continuously, while he kept laughing strangely in a low voice.
Meanwhile, Mo Di, who stood beside Yan Dan, was shaking his head. "What a cunning young lad. Although I am the one who personally crafted the Immortal Slaughtering Crossbow, it is he who used that to kill someone! If not because Jing Ke keeps bugging me, how would I make a lethal weapon like this?"
Three tiny bolts were knocked flying several hundred feet away by Yue Xu"s golden spear, falling on the ground outside the drill ground. Mo Di narrowed his eyes and gave those bolts a look, then suddenly sighed and said, "There is a blue hue on the arrowhead, a sign that they had been smeared with deadly poison. The blue hue was condensed, and contains a watery gleam… It should be the cobra venom. Let the Heaven be my witness, all weapons crafted by me, Mo Di, had never been smeared with poison."
Clasping both hands behind his back and looking down at the drill ground, Su Qin laughed. "Smearing poison on the bolts crafted personally by old mister Mo Di, I like this child!"
Mo Di"s lips twitched a little bit, then he shook his head, smiled and said, "He is a pretty good kid, but a little bit too ruthless. But… in these difficult times, those who are not ruthless will be unable to survive!"
While the men were chatting and joking among themselves, Yue Xu was letting out a furious roar on the drill ground. A flaming cloud emerged under his feet, as he rode it and shot into the sky. He waved his hands and throw out several water bucket-sized fireb.a.l.l.s down towards Wu Qi. Actually, the cultivation techniques practiced by Yue Clan were more suitable to be used on a battlefield, where they would have to fight a close-range battle with the enemies. They were more focused on tempering their bodies, strengthening the power of their energies, and did not learn too many magic spells. As a result, riding on a cloud and attacking the opponent with fireb.a.l.l.s were the only two magics which Yue Xu knew.
Wu Qi tilted his head up and gave the falling fireb.a.l.l.s a look, then sent out his divine will into them. The temperature inside the core of the fireb.a.l.l.s was about three thousand degree, a high temperature that could even melt down gold and iron. Once daoists and warriors below the realm of Gold Core were hit by these fireb.a.l.l.s, their bodies would instantly turn into ashes, and their souls would vanish into nothingness. Nevertheless, Wu Qi let out a mocking smile, casually raised his right hand and struck out several punches.
His fist broke through the air and generated tiny rings of shockwaves. All fireb.a.l.l.s that came towards him were instantly shattered by the powerful punches. Large sheet of scorching hot flame splashed into all directions, fell onto the surrounding ground and burned a large hole in it, turning a thin layer of hardened ground into bubbling, molten lava.
Then he raised his head and gave the terrified Yue Xu a look. A dark cloud suddenly emerged below Wu Qi"s feet, as he rode on the cloud and shot into the sky as well. The Acquired Pearls of Earth and Wood Element flew slowly for a few rounds around him, and were swallowed back into his stomach. While holding the unfitted white wax spear in his hand, Wu Qi gave Yue Xu a cold smile and said, "What other tricks do you have? Show them to me! Let"s see whether you will be the one who manages to avenge your b*stard son, or I will smash your head into pieces!"
Then, he threw his glance over at Lao Ai, Yan Xianchen, and a few other people, sighed lightly and said, "In the future, don"t keep causing troubles to me, as someone will die because of that!"
Both Lao Ai and Yan Xianchen had their face flickered, then they recalled what Wu Qi said previously. How did Wu Qi know the contents of their secret conversion in Yue Xu"s backyard? If Wu Qi did not expose the secret deal between Yue Xu and Yan Xianchen, his threat would just be a joke. But after Wu Qi exposed the secret deal before so many people, his threat had become rather powerful.
Yan Dan suddenly laughed, "This kid has made a fast progress. It looks like I have to seriously treat him as the Duke of Tianyun in the future, and can no longer take him as a fool from a remote village!" He sighed, then continued murmuring, "I wonder if he knows that I"ve used him to attract the attention from those people, which will eventually bring him so many troubles. If he knows all this, and I wish to make him pledge his service to me, treating him as the loyal minister of Great Yan, what should I do then?"
Mo Di and Su Qin turned looking at Yan Dan together, then uniformly said, "That"s easy, just marry Zhang Le to him."
Suddenly, Yan Dan"s expression turned really queer. He gazed at Mo Di and Su Qin helplessly, then gave them a wry smile and said, "I don"t have the final saying in this matter, and I can"t decide for them. Firstly, it has to depend on Zhang Le"s own will, and secondly, Qijun"s will is equally important." He shook his head, then murmured in a low voice, "I"ve chopped off the heads of seven Clan Leaders, while the Eight Governing Princes are each with their own axe to grind. At this point in time, I can"t force own Crown Prince to turn against me. If that happens, Great Yan Dynasty will really have to fall apart."
Three of them turned looking at Wu Qi and Yue Xu, who were now hovering midair above the drill ground, then sighed together lightly.
After a brief while, Su Qin said in a faint voice, "From the ages until in now, there isn"t a single Sovereign that can live forever. When the head of a state really attains immortality, no matter how filial and obedient his offsprings are, they would be forced to harbor different thoughts. This is a tough nut to crack, and even we cannot come out with good solutions. We never encountered a similar situation before, so what shall we do? We can"t just kill all the members of Imperial Clan, can we?"
"Bah!!" Upon hearing what Su Qin said, Yan Dan could not be bothered by the status of himself and Su Qin, and immediately spat disdainfully.
Mo Di laughed, then sighed and said, "We are fortunate that Ying Zheng is here, the Great Qin Dynasty is here! With this formidable foe looking fiercely at us, I suppose, the restless mind of the people in Great Yan Dynasty should quiet down. Then, the little kid Wu Qi will not have to be the unlucky fellow that serves as the scapegoat. By the way, although Yan Dan is the grand and magnificent head of the state, when he wishes to do a bit of clean-up in the Imperial Court, he still has to use Wu Qi as the bridge. This is pretty depressing."
Yan Dan"s expression turned grumpy immediately, as if his crotch was. .h.i.t by several hundreds of hammers at the same time.
At last, Yan Dan sighed sulkily and said, "In the past, I thought only by having more offspring can we keep a foothold in this harsh world. Little did I know then that with so many offspring, I have to face all sorts of troubles, clan affairs, state affairs, and the affairs of this world. They are making me weary! Sigh, but luckily, that Ying Zheng is here, and I can"t wait to thank him for that! When after I kill him one day, I"ll definitely give him an elaborate funeral!"
The ringing of weapons clas.h.i.+ng kept coming from the sky. Using the lightweight and wobbly white-wax spear Wu Qi was busy fighting with Yue Xu, who had his armor broken and body bathed in blood. The golden spear and the wooden spear kept clas.h.i.+ng with each other, yet it was always the golden spear that was being knocked back by the wooden spear.
Wu Qi had injected a tremendous amount of energies into his spear, bringing together wave after wave of strong wind and kept smas.h.i.+ng over at Yue Xu. His strength was stronger than Yue Xu, and his reflexes were faster. As a result, by the time Yue Xu thrust out a single spear strike, Wu Qi would have already thrust out eighteen times. Each of his attacks was aimed right at Yue Xu"s vital spot, throwing the confused and disoriented Yue Xu into an even messier situation. Yue Xu could only swing his golden spear pa.s.sively and aimlessly, trying his best to block off Wu Qi"s attack.
*Clang! *Clang!* Another two loud clashes echoed out, as the golden spear was once again slapped away by Wu Qi. In the next moment, Wu Qi"s spearhead thrust straight through Yue Xu"s abdomen, creating two small b.l.o.o.d.y holes on the left and right of his stomach.
Jing Ke, Gao Jianli and many other men had already stood up, watching excitedly how Wu Qi dominated the battlefield. On the contrary, those members of influential who placed their bet on Yue Xu were sitting motionlessly on their seats, their faces grieved as if they had just lost their parents. It was especially true for Qin Wuyang, as he clenched both fists tightly and looked like a raging flame of anger was about to burst out from between his fingers. He stared at Yue Xu furiously and cursed under his breath, "Rubbis.h.!.+"
Suddenly, a huge black iron wheel came flying out from behind Wu Qi"s back. A loud clanging noise rang out, as the iron wheel of eight feet and one inch diameter spread opened, turning into several thousand thin, palm-sized iron wheels that flew in all directions. There were sharp teeth attached at the edge of the rapid spinning iron wheels, that generated fearsome whistling noise as they pierced through the air and enveloped Yue Xu"s body completely.
Blood and flesh splashed and shot everywhere. Yue Xu sprung out from the middle of countless spinning iron wheels while howling and shrieking tragically. At least 15 to 20 kg of his muscles were ripped apart by the iron wheels, exposing pale white bones in many parts of his body. If not for the six palm-sized, round, golden s.h.i.+elds shooting out from his body to spread and form into a layer of gold energy barrier that protected his body, Yue Xu would have long been torn into pieces by countless of flying wheels.
"The Thousand Blades Wheel from Mo Sect!" Yue Xu cried out madly, and angrily turned back to look at Mo Di, who stood right next to Yan Dan.
Mo Di narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Jing Ke is the in-name disciple of mine, and Yue Yi... he is not!" murmured Mo Di under his breath.
The severely wounded Yue Xu roared out in a near-insane manner, "Wu Qi, how dare you hurt me? Face your death!"
With a flip of his right palm, a seal made using white gold, lively carved into the shape of a white tiger and enshrouded in a dense layer of Gold Element energies, was pulled out by Yue Xu. He opened his mouth and coughed out a mouthful of blood onto it, about to activate the seal. But suddenly, two pearls were shot out from Wu Qi"s mouth.
Within a very short distance, the full force strike of Acquired Pearls of Earth and Wood Element instantly smashed and shattered the six golden s.h.i.+elds, turning Yue Xu into nothingness.
Wu Qi stretched his hand forward and grabbed the white-tiger seal, then shook his head. Inwardly, he was thinking how he had to put up such a show to kill Yue Xu. It seemed to him that acting was a very tough thing to do. There were simply too many experts in this drill ground. If not for the fear that someone might have an inkling of his true overall strength, he would have long killed Yue Xu with one single strike.
He slowly descended and landed on the ground, then turned his head to look at Jing Ke, who was standing on the east platform. "Chief General, since you have won so many things, can Wu Qi have a part of your spoils?"
Jing Ke suddenly burst into a loud laughter.