Stealing The Heavens

After handing Yu Gu the formation diagram of the Myriad Poisons Formation and a few other spare diagrams of smaller formations, so he could deploy various formation bases in different places with the three thousand soldiers who had come with them, Wu Qi headed for a distant mountain range with four generals, whose cultivation bases had reached the Nine Stars Realm of the Second Pangu Heaven.

These four generals were King Yang Qiu’s faithful confidants, and their families had been the servants of King Yang Qiu’s line of imperial clan for generations. They were cousins to each other, and had been growing up together with King Yang Qiu. So, their relationship with King Yang Qiu was actually like that of brothers.

According to the unspoken rules of the imperial clan of Great Yu, after King Yang Qiu was conferred as a King, the names of the four were changed to take his title as their surname. They were Yangqiu Fengbo, Yangqiu Yushi, Yangqiu Leilong and Yanqiu Dianjiao[1]. These four names were the names of the deities; because they took the title of a king as their surname and the deities as their name, whenever they said their names, others in Great Yu would immediately know their identity and relation with King Yang Qiu.

Unlike King Yang Qiu’s cold, solemn character, the four cousins were like four active volcanoes. Whenever someone offended them, even by mistake, they would erupt and kill the offender. They were literally four savage beasts in human forms. They had no other responsibility except governing King Yang Qiu’s personal guards and taking care of his personal safety. In Wu Qi’s words, all their brain cells had been replaced by muscle fibers and hot blood.

With these four savage beasts in human skins, Wu Qi ran through the true primitive land, carefully searching for a relatively safe route between the mountains. From time to time, blinding lightning flashed across the sky above their heads, and there were violent storms spinning rapidly all around them. As this piece of land had only been born from chaos for three years or so, the natural rules here had not been firmly established. Therefore, it was fraught with all kinds of natural disasters, and even a careless mistake here often led to death.

They raced between the mountains and occasionally flew a short distance in the air. After more than six hours of traveling in this way, braving through dozens of suddenly erupting, terrible natural disasters; dodging the attack of a fierce hailstorm; avoiding a blizzard strong enough to freeze Gold Immortals to death; and narrowly escaping an eruption of an underground volcano, they finally reached the outer perimeter of the valley in the heart of the mountains.

In the sky above them, a dark cloud slowly rolled by, sprinkling hair-like raindrops that were half-frozen and glinting like crystals. The air rang with crisp clanging noises as they hit the ground, splashing up cold fog that quickly engulfed the surroundings. These raindrops were as powerful as the arrows released from the heavy crossbows specially made in Great Yu, and the coldness they brought with them was enough to freeze average Heaven Immortals to death.

Both the Human Emperor of Great Yu and the Great Celestial Emperor of the Heaven had issued decrees that no one was allowed to enter the lands that had just been born from chaos, unless he or she had the cultivation base equivalent to that of an upper-tier Gold Immortal, as well as a strong confidence in his or her own cultivation base and luck. Only after ten thousand years of cooling and solidification of these lands, and after all the natural rules had been completely established, would the less powerful be allowed to explore these places.

These lands were fraught with mortal dangers. However, whether it was from Great Yu or the Heaven, very powerful experts often visited such places, searching for innate spirit artifacts born out of chaos. If they were lucky enough, they could find rare spirit herbs or innate minerals, which would make them rich overnight. However, if they were out of luck, they might encounter mighty innate savage beasts who had just been born out of chaos and possessed all sorts of strange abilities, which often ended up in a messy situation.

There had been cases of Supreme Oracles from Great Yu falling in such damnable places, and Primordial Immortals from the Heaven having their immortal bodies destroyed here and forced to reincarnate, cultivating all over again. These lands were full of opportunities, but also full of dangers; some could get rich overnight here, while others might be forced to stay here forever, becoming the nutrients that nourished these new lands.

Had it not been because of the protection provided by Yangqiu Fengbo and the other three generals, Wu Qi would never have come here safely on his own unless he used an innate escape art. Among other things, the hailstones alone that smashed down like a heavy downpour would have crushed him into a meat paste if he braved through them with his fleshly body and nothing else.

While panting, he climbed up a mountain about a hundred miles high and saw a hundred miles wide valley laying in front of him.

The valley was shaped like a bowl, with a depth of about ten miles at its deepest point. The ground was flat and empty as if it were a mirror, except for a natural Yin and Yang Lair in the center. Like a Taiji Diagram, at the heart of the valley was a pool of cold water and a volcanic crater, which sat next to each other to form a circle. Cold air and heat wave were being constantly spewed out of them, mixing and fusing with each other in the sky before turning into countless snowflakes and falling back down.

To Wu Qi’s surprise, the mountains around the valley formed a natural defensive formation. Not only had it spared the valley from the dreadful natural disasters that raged across the land and prevented the chaotic natural energy that filled the atmosphere from affecting the water and fire eyes in the valley, it had also stopped the water and fire-elemental energies from leaking outside, channeling them into the sky. However, as the energies of water and fire were in a perfect balance, whenever they reached about a mile high into the sky, they would turn into snowflakes and water vapor, falling back into the valley.

“This is an amazing place! So, the two Dragon Pythons of Fire and Ice are hiding here?” Glancing at the landscape in the valley, Wu Qi could not help but marvel at the intelligence of the two dragon pythons mentioned in Liu Bang’s information. The natural fire and water lairs in the valley were extremely beneficial to dragon pythons, which made this hiding place a much better selection than where Gold Horn and Silver Horn were hiding in the past.

Even more amazing to Wu Qi was the fact that because of the two natural lairs, the valley was warm as spring and full of natural energy. In this primitive land with no grass growing for tens of billions of miles, the valley was actually rich in water, grass, and natural resources. The two eyes were surrounded by a patch of green grass, about three feet tall and as thin as hairs. Although there was no wind in the valley, the grasses were swaying gently like charming girls dancing in the wind.

Among the fine grass were dense shrubs. They all looked alike: a trunk with nine branches, with a fruit the size of a fist present on each branch. The shrubs near the water eye were all turquoise-green, and their fruits were deep purple-blue; the shrubs near the fire eye were all red, their fruits red as magma. Through their thin peels, one could see the red liquid that was tumbling in them.

“The Great Yin and Yang Dragon Saliva Fruits!” Hiding in Wu Qi’s ear, Ao Buzun sighed faintly and said, “These two fellows are really, really lucky. The plants are also natural spirit plants which can bring great benefits to all flood dragons and dragon pythons. A ripe fruit from the plant can provide one with the power that takes ten thousand years to cultivate! No wonder they chose to hide here!”

A ripe fruit could provide one with the power that took ten thousand years to cultivate? Wu Qi glanced the valley with his divine sense. There were all together one hundred and eight dragon saliva plants here, which meant fifty-four pairs of them. If all the fruits were ripe, wouldn’t it be enough to provide the two dragon pythons hiding here the power that took others thirty Periods to cultivate?

Thirty Periods? Wu Qi could not help but sigh. The luck of the two fellows was really enviable!

Then, Wu Qi discovered something that surprised him even further. The positions of these fruit trees actually formed a natural formation of Nine Palaces nested with Twelve Earthly Branches. In it, water and fire-elemental energies were entangled with one another like dragon pythons. Through them, the eyes of fire and water seemed to be in sight for a while, but in the next moment, they seemed to be very far away. Shockingly, it was a natural killing formation that fused the power of spatial restriction and ice and fire-elemental energy into one!

With the natural formation to protect them, the eyes of water and fire to help elevate their cultivation bases, and the natural spirit plants to help increase their power, these two dragon pythons were indeed very lucky!

This piece of newly born land was extremely vast, but the valley covered only about a hundred miles. Wu Qi wondered how the alliance managed to find these two dragon pythons here. Was it the Sovereign’s luck or the beginning of his misfortune?

With a cold grin on his face, Wu Qi reflected what Liu Bang had told King Yang Qiu about the two dragon pythons—extremely ferocious. Half of the dozen immortals who found them were devoured on the spot, while the rest were killed later in the chase. Only a Gold Immortal narrowly escaped with a trace of his soul. After returning to the alliance’s headquarters and reporting the existence of the two dragon pythons, he died.

This happened seven days ago.

Currently, the Sovereign was recuperating with the help of several Elders of the Divine Hall, and he needed three more months before he could come out of seclusion. As many immortals of the alliance had been killed or captured, and the rest were being pinned down in different places by Great Yu’s armies, the alliance was unable to send mighty immortals to capture the dragon pythons. As a result, the Sovereign had no other choice but to bring his personal guards here. And, this was the best time to kill him!

In Liu Bang’s intelligence, the Sovereign had used his authority to remove 360,000 supreme-grade Gold Immortal pills from the Heaven’s alchemy vault in an effort to save his life and stabilize his conditions. Then, with the help of several Elders of the Divine Hall, he used these pills to set up a formation, using the pills’ medicinal power to forcibly stabilize his immortal body and immortal soul. Such an enormous amount of resources ensured that his conditions would not worsen as long as he did not attack with all his might.

360,000 supreme-grade Gold Immortal pills! Wu Qi was utterly shocked when he heard the figure. The Sovereign deserved to be the big shot in charge of fifty percent of the alchemical workshops in the Heaven. His level of abusing power for personal gain was just too amazing! Those were all Gold Immortal pills, not the average Heaven Immortal pills!

Just as he was immersing in his amazement, a cold stream of water suddenly spurted out of the water eye, from which, a silver dragon python flew out slowly with a body glittering and translucent like crystals. Almost at the same time, a blazing pillar of fire shot out of the fire eye, and a golden dragon python, also nearly transparent, flew out of it.

The two dragon pythons chased and played in the air for a while, before wiggling their bodies and turning into two comely little girls, landing on the grass. They laughed and chased on the grass, occasionally punching and kicking each other, producing loud noises that sounded like thunderclaps.

“Eh, two female dragon pythons?” Wu Qi’s eyes rolled quickly.

With a solemn expression, he turned to the four generals and said, “You see, what lovely little girls they are! How can we let those immortals take them and concoct them into medicine? After we kill the Sovereign, I’ll ask His Excellency to let me adopt them. What do you think of the idea?”

Yanqiu Dianjiao clicked his tongue as he darted a look at the two little girls, then shook his head and said, “They look skinny!”

Yangqiu Leilong nodded in agreement and said, “They don’t have much meat!”

Shaking his head, Yangqiu Yushi said, “That means they don’t taste good!”

Yangqiu Fengbo gave Wu Qi a pat on the shoulder and said generously, “These two little girls are yours, Tan Lang! They don’t taste good, which means they are useless to us. We don’t need them!”

Wu Qi felt cold sweat was trickling down his back. Hastily, he thanked the four fellows whose brains had clearly been replaced by muscles.