Chapter 723: 723
Wu Qi was surrounded by several old Oracles who held high positions in Yan Tian Palace, showering in their words that came lashing at him like a fierce storm . Among them were Yu Chen and Elder Gouchen, whose full name was Gouchen Mi .
A piece of dead wood would have turned into a lump of coal if it was buried underground for as long as these old men had lived . There they stood, trying their best to talk Wu Qi into giving up his status as Marquis of Dong Hai Province and join the Yan Tian Palace . They urged him to contribute his talent to the development of the Dao of Formations, and devote his youth and life to Yan Tian Palace . "It would be best if you can contribute both your efforts and your offspring," Gouchen Mi said . "If any of your future sons and grandsons prove to be as talented as you, they must join Yan Tian Palace as well . "
As he grimaced, Wu Qi endured the bombardment while sipping on a cup of watered tea .
He had come to a realization that these old men were very similar to those mad scientists on Earth . They were a different kind of people in Great Yu; men unfamiliar with the ways of life who had spent their entire lives immersed in the boundless knowledge that they were interested in . They lived on nothing else but their passions .
These old men dwelling in Yan Tian Palace were a group of simple people . They devoted their lives to the Dao of formation, and they burned their lives for it . Apart from the Dao of Formations, they did not know anything else .
Every newly discovered formation would make them thrill and cheer, and whenever they came upon a talented junior, they would try their best to recruit that person into Yan Tian Palace, just like what they were doing to Wu Qi right now . To them, a genius such as him who could solve three formations with just a few flicks of the finger should not waste his talents in just being the Marquis of Dong Hai Province . If he were willing to join them, they could immediately make him the 'Model Oracle' of Yan Tian Palace, a title that was more honorable than those Kings .
Gouchen Mi grabbed Wu Qi's arm and repeatedly told him what it meant to join the Yan Tian Palace . Meanwhile, his other arm was in Yu Chen's hand, who was describing how beautiful his wife was, the one he was ordered to marry by the Head of Yu Clan in Liangzhu, and how cute and pretty the daughter she had given birth to was . He promised that once Wu Qi joined Yan Tian Palace, he would immediately betroth that daughter to him . Although she was still at breast, all Wu Qi had to do was wait patiently for sixteen years, and he would have himself a beautiful wife . But, if he could not wait, eleven or twelve years would still serve just fine .
He then turned to the Elders around him and engaged them in a discussion about the likelihood of the children of Wu Qi and his daughter having an excellent talent in the Dao of Formations .
These Elders had a firm belief that just like the other talents, the talent in the Dao of Formations was inheritable through bloodlines . As the First Master of Yan Tian Palace, Yu Chen's talent needed no further clarification . And as a genius who could solve three formations easily, it proved that Wu Qi's bloodline was excellent as well . They believed that the union of both extraordinary bloodlines would surely produce offspring who were better than the parents, eventually bringing Yan Tian Palace better and fresher blood .
An old Oracle grinned, revealing his gums which were missing several teeth, and said, "It's the same as breeding those cattle . When the parents are excellent in quality, they will produce excellent cattle . I find Master Palace's idea brilliant!"
Wu Qi bit off a chunk of his cup . Had he not known that these old Oracles were purely one-track-minded academic lunatics, he really would have thought that they meant to satirize him . How could they talk like that? How could Yu Chen list his daughter as one of the benefits just so he could recruit Wu Qi into Yan Tian Palace? For heaven's sake, Yu Chen's daughter had only been born for about a month!
Clenching his jaws, Wu Qi firmly shook his head and refused these old Oracles . Had he agreed, he would have to abandon his friends, his base, and all his plans, and be trapped in this oppressive place to study formations for the rest of his life . That would not serve; he did not wish to become a lunatic one day, just like Yu Chen and Gouchen Mi .
After hours of refusing and rejecting, Wu Qi finally got himself out of the restless bombardment the group of maniacal old men had thrown at him .
Upon realizing that nothing could change Wu Qi's mind, Yu Chen and the others gave up completely . Gouchen Mi and the other Elders sighed helplessly, staring at him for a full quarter of an hour as if he had committed some crime, before returning to their apprentices and resuming their teachings .
For a moment, Yu Chen stared at Wu Qi with a strange, bitter look . Then he sighed, grabbed Wu Qi's teacup, and threw it on the floor as he said in a low voice, "Well, well . . . What a waste of talent! But, since you have chosen to be happy in your own degeneration, what else can I say? Come with me!"
With hands clasped behind his back and a gloomy face, Yu Chen brought Wu Qi across the square, past a thick rock wall, and over to a pitch-black great hall . It was entirely hewed out of a mountain, surrounded by an empty field blanketed by a faint layer of mist hovering a few inches from the ground . The foggy white mist made the great hall look especially mysterious .
As Wu Qi studied the great hall, he found that everything about it coincided perfectly with the Heavenly Secrets . Its dimensions, the lines on the walls, the height and diameter of the thirty-six pillars looming before its entrance, and the seemingly nature-derived stains on their surfaces, everything formed into a perfect unit . It was as if this great hall was a living being in a deep slumber, laying there quietly with a grave danger brooding underneath .
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