Stealing The Heavens

This was indeed the core of an innate star. However, the fact that the Masters and Elders of Yan Tian Palace, including Yu Chen, had failed to activate the various Great Dao in it despite their vast experiences and abilities had spelled only one thing for Wu Qi—it was not an ordinary innate star core, but a ‘Kaleidoscopic Star Core’, which was ranked as one of the top 100 Primordial-grade treasures in the Records of All Rare Treasures found in the Scroll of Stealing.

Its name came from its all-inclusive nature.

Usually, the principles contained in an ordinary innate star core were of the same Great Dao. For example, an innate star that bred the Great Dao of Massacre and Wars was related to slaughter, bloodshed, violence, and flames of wars, and comprised of various principles such as severe injury, laceration, sacrifice, and blood. In fact, the present three most famous murderous stars of the Heaven, the Seven Killing, Vanquisher, and Greed, were bred within the same innate star in ancient times; hence, the star powers and principles they represented shared the same attribute.

Another example was that if the Great Dao bred in an innate star was related to destiny, then the acquired stars formed after it was shattered would represent the fortune in monetary matters, happiness, lifespan, offspring, and other similar fates. Of course, there was the Great Dao related to negative destiny as well, and the acquired stars formed from it would represent unlucky fates such as accident, illness, and loss of money.

The innate principles contained in most of the innate star cores were of the same Great Dao, and so were their star powers. However, due to the fact that some innate stars had devoured other innate stars in the Chaos, they contained more than one Great Dao. Because of that, these innate star cores embodied not a few or dozens of innate principles, but thousands or even tens of thousands.

It seemed terrifying for an innate star core to embody thousands or even tens of thousands of innate principles, but if truth be told, that was not a lot.

The truth was that it was normal for a Great Dao to have numerous principles. As an example, the Great Dao of Fire, which was part of the five elements, gave birth to the Flame in Stone, Flame in Wood, Flame in Water, Sky Flame, Solar Flame, and many others; even the three divine flames Wu Qi currently owned were a part of them. Just the Great Dao of Fire alone was divided into thousands of principles. Therefore, it was not surprising for an innate star core embodying more than one Great Dao to contain tens of thousands of principles.

Nevertheless, it was still amazing for an ordinary innate star core to contain a few or even dozens of Great Daos. If it were forcibly stimulated with some mystic arts which activated the principles, the owner of such a treasure could then comprehend the Great Dao it embodied and establish his or her own foundation of Great Dao.

But, a Kaleidoscopic Star Core usually embodied tens of thousands of Great Daos, if not more; and as their principles had tangled and fused with one another, the interior of the star core had already evolved into a small world. It would be not as easy to stimulate these principles with external forces. There was a mystic art in the Scroll of Stealing called ‘Star and Realm Exploring Hand Seal’, which could be used to handle a unique treasure of Primordial grade such as this Kaleidoscopic Star Core. However, the expertise of these Oracles in Yan Tian Palace was in the Dao of Formations, so they did not know any mystic arts like that.

It was possible that the Masters of other divisions of the Secret Palace knew similar mystic arts. But, the problem was that the divisions did not get along well with one another, and there were always minor conflicts amongst them. Therefore, it would be impossible for the Masters and Elders of Yan Tian Palace to seek help from those in other divisions.

As a result, this Kaleidoscopic Star Core, which embodied numerous Great Daos and had evolved a small world within itself, was passed down into Wu Qi’s hand. His heart began to race violently as soon as he took over the star core that weighed fifty million kilograms.

There was a detailed explanation in the Scroll of Stealing that taught him how to use this Kaleidoscopic Star Core. He could fuse it with his interstitial world, then stimulate all the Great Daos with the Star and Realm Exploring Hand Seal and evolve an ancient starry sky in his own interstitial world.

Even a Buddhist Kingdom in a palm could be breached with force due to the limitation of its power and the cultivation level of the Buddha who constructed it. But, if Wu Qi’s interstitial world could fully digest this Kaleidoscopic Star Core and evolve an ancient starry sky, he could then use the numerous principles that came with it to construct an Ancient Celestial Formation within, strengthening his interstitial world to a level that few in this world could breach with force.

And when the ancient starry sky was perfected, his interstitial world would possess the power of a realm, turning into a mighty and powerful weapon that he could use to either trap or kill his enemies.

With the Kaleidoscopic Star Core carefully cradled in his arms, Wu Qi bowed deeply to Yu Chen. Then, he opened his mouth and swallowed the star core that was as large as a human’s head. After cultivating the True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture to the level equivalent to Gold Immortal realm, some strange transformations had happened to his body. He now possessed some pretty incredible divine abilities, such as being able to open his mouth a thousand miles wide and swallowing a mountain in one mouthful.

Yu Chen was pleased with Wu Qi’s respectful manner. “When you are tired of being that Marquis of Dong Hai Province, just remember that the post of Model Oracle is always waiting for you here…” he said while patting Wu Qi’s shoulder. “Oh, when do you have some free time? I’ll bring you to see my youngest daughter. Although she is only one month old now, you can already tell that she will surely grow into a beauty!”

Wu Qi looked blankly at Yu Chen. ‘So, you haven’t given up on pushing your one-month-old daughter to me, have you?’

Just as Yu Chen was about to once again entice Wu Qi into Yan Tian Palace with his youngest daughter, his eyebrows suddenly pricked up. He halted, then performed a quick divination with his fingers and said with a cold grin, “Tan Lang, did you bring a black dragon with ancient bloodline and two dragon pythons to the Secret Palace?”

Wu Qi was startled. “Yes, I did. Is there any trouble?” he asked in a deep voice.

Gritting his teeth, Yu Chen said, “No one dares trouble the Yan Tian Palace! Damn Wuchang Chi! Who gave the Thousand Spirit Palace the audacity to trouble us?” After saying that, he placed his palm on Wu Qi’s shoulder and waved his other hand. In the next moment, a Supreme Tower that was only about thirty feet tall emerged out of thin air, shot out a beam of black light, and pulled both of them over. The surrounding void crumbled with a boom, and as numerous runes and talismans flew out of it, it sped through the void and disappeared.

At the entrance to the Secret Palace, the dragon python sisters were shooting beams of silver and golden light, engaging in a fierce battle with the Oracles of Thousand Spirit Palace led by Wuchang Chi. The void was blotted with golden beams that could melt down any metal and silver beams that could freeze all things, which slammed and smashed into the surrounding cliff walls, causing them to crumble and collapse. Rocks miles across were falling down with deafening rumble, and together with the rain of boulders and pebbles, it looked as though the end of the world had finally arrived.

There was a black skeleton covered in blood hovering over Wuchang Chi. It looked like a human skeleton, but there were many sharp spikes poking out of all its joints, with a pair of long horns on top of its head. A great sheet of dark light emanating from this skeleton protected Wuchang Chi and his disciples and apprentices, who were intoning spells and performing hand incantation gestures while attacking the sisters with all kinds of bone talismans and bone arrows. However, as their fleshly bodies were tough and their scales were incredibly strong, these attacks left nothing but tiny cracks on their scales.

The Oracles guarding the entrance had long activated the defensive formation. Standing fast at their posts, they glanced unconcernedly at the battle between Wuchang Chi and the dragon python sisters. It was a custom amongst the Oracles of the Secret Palace that they should stand aloof from things of no personal interest. So, they did not care to know what had caused the conflict and eventually led to the fight. As long as no one was intruding the Secret Palace, they would be spared of any responsibility.

Wuchang Chi was in an unfavorable situation. The level of his cultivation was not high to begin with, and he had to protect his disciples and apprentices from the storm-like attacks. The reason he could become the First Master of Thousand Spirit Palace was his outstanding achievements in all kinds of bizarre researches and experiments, as well as his ability to cultivate some strange and eccentric creatures. As a matter of fact, his cultivation base was only average. Therefore, although he was able to gain control of Ao Buzun, he could not do the same to the dragon python sisters.

His body was shivering violently as the beams of golden and silver light came smashing at him like a hurricane. The black skeleton hovering above him was making loud banging noises; some of its bones were already melted down, and some were frozen within a thick layer of ice. It seemed that it would not take long before this bizarre magical artifact was completely destroyed by the sisters.

At that moment, the clamor of battle was cut through by a sudden howl as three Oracles bolted out of the Secret Palace. The same emblem as Wuchang Chi’s was embroidered on their chests, and their facial features resembled him too. Judging from that, they were none other than Wuchang Mei, Wuchang Wang, and Wuchang Liang, the Second, Third, and Fourth Master of Thousand Spirit Palace. Together with Wuchang Chi, these four brothers from Wuchang clan shared the same notorious reputation among all the divisions of the Secret Palace.

Unreasonable, willful, and unbridled to the maximum, these were the first impressions any outsider had of the four Wuchang brothers.

Upon seeing Wuchang Chi being quite defenseless against the enemy, and after looking at the dragon python sisters who hovered in mid-air and rained down a great shower of light, the three brothers burst into laughter in unison. With a slap on the back of their own heads, three black skeletons identical to Wuchang Chi’s rose into the sky. Accompanied by a burst of jarring ghost howl, four skeletons began to spin in the air, releasing thousands of ghostly figures who leaped toward the dragon python sisters and Ao Buzun.

What Wuchang Chi had with only one skeleton was a strong defense, but he could do more when his brothers were with him. As soon as the four black skeletons were put into action, the surrounding void was completely locked down by a formation, rendering the dragon python sisters motionless in place.

Laughing out loud, Wuchang Chi said, “Take them down! We’ve some good ingredients to use this time!”

His three brothers broke into wild laughter, then each bit the tips of their tongues and sprayed a mouthful of blood toward their own skeletons. In the blink of an eye, the four skeletons had grown and expanded to about a thousand feet tall, stretching their enormous claws down and grabbing toward the dragon python sisters, who could not move due to the complete lockdown of the surrounding void.

All of a sudden, an about thirty feet tall Supreme Tower ripped through the void and appeared next to the sisters. With a cold snort, Yu Chen threw out twelve lower-grade energy stones, then performed a double-handed incantation gesture and pointed at them. A formation of Twelve Earthly Branches instantly took its shape and crushed the formation that had locked down the surrounding void into pieces.

Wu Qi dashed out of the Supreme Tower, and without caring about the consequences, he leaped toward the four Wuchang brothers.

The air rang with the four brothers’ miserable wails and howls as fists rained down on them like a meteor shower. Each of them received at least dozens of punches from Wu Qi, and they were sent flying backward with more than half of their bones cracked and broken.

But, when they were only less than a hundred feet away, Wu Qi had already caught up with them, grabbing them by the necks and flinging them to the ground.

They lied on top of each other, and as soon as Wu Qi put one of his feet on the back of Wuchang Chi, who was on top of the other three, the brothers could no longer move.

With a cold snort, Wu Qi said ferociously, “Who hurt my buddies just now?”