Stealing The Heavens

Time…

Holding his breath, Wu Qi walked cautiously amongst the Supreme Towers as he felt the passage of time which was moving a hundred, a thousand, and even ten thousand times faster than normal.

A mere gaze near a few of the Supreme Towers gave him a feeling that several Periods had passed within the space a few feet around them.

The time was moving so fast that it became an unbearable burden even for these Supreme Towers. They began to slowly disintegrate and crumble; materials that formed parts of their bodies turned into dust and accumulated on their surfaces.

This was the reason why the Supreme Towers here were so worn-out and filthy. The time around them was passing at an incredible speed. Just as Wu Qi was observing them, he heard a faint but crisp ‘pop’ and saw a tiny crack suddenly burst open in the foundation of a Supreme Tower. After that, the dust on this Supreme Tower became much thicker.

The two black-clothed old men looked at each other helplessly. This chamber was the inner treasury within the Directorate of Celestials’ treasury, where all the finest Supreme Towers had been stored since the ancient times. Only when a Supreme Oracle’s cultivation base had reached the level of Six Towers could he come here to choose a Supreme Tower with the ability to control the flow of time, except those who were here because of the Human Emperor’s decree, just like Wu Qi.

Of course, those lucky enough to have been rewarded by the Human Emperor—although such lucky fellows might not appear for tens of thousands of years—would never have entered this inner treasury without proper guidance from someone. It was impossible for any outsider to know the existence of this inner treasury, let alone break into it. But, not only had Yu Chen told Wu Qi about it, he even taught him how to get in.

Oracles in Great Yu had reached the limit of their research on how to use space. Often in a small palace they helped to build would be a thousands of miles wide vast space, and the interior of a Supreme Tower no higher than a mile might be thousands of miles wide, which was more than enough to accommodate a large army.

But, time was a more abstruse and difficult to control power than space.

All Supreme Towers had the ability to distort space. However, only those crafted of extremely precious materials, and refined using the true flames fueled by the blood essences of more than a hundred experts from Directorate of Celestials, could have the power to control the flow of time. The fact was that such Supreme Towers were rare.

The bottleneck was not manpower, for the Directorate of Celestials had more than enough experts to produce as many Supreme Towers as they liked. The biggest difficulty lay in the materials. Materials that could manipulate time and remain intact in the rapid passage of time were extremely rare. Such materials could only be found among the top-most grade, or better known as chaos-grade spirit items, which were all collected from the chaotic universe beyond the outer heavenly realms by teams of experts at the risk of their lives.

Generally, with enough efforts and luck, Great Yu was able to produce a Supreme Tower that could manipulate time approximately every ten Periods. Therefore, each one of these Supreme Towers was regarded as the cornerstone treasure of the state, and not easily accessible to anyone.

But, thanks to Emperor Haozun’s decree and Yu Chen’s private advice, Wu Qi was now able to pick one of them and take it away. It might sound crazy, but since Emperor Haozun said he could pick any Supreme Tower from the Directorate of Celestials as a reward, even if what he took away was one that could manipulate time, nobody could point a finger at him!

Wu Qi’s eyes glowed with excitement. A Supreme Tower that could manipulate time! How amazing!

Having such a treasure would certainly bring a lot of benefits to his cultivation. Moreover, Wu Qi could clearly feel that time was passing at an astonishing rate near the few top-grade Supreme Towers here; for every second passed by in the outside world, dozens of Period had passed by in their vicinity. If he planted a batch of top-grade herbs in a Supreme Tower like this and waited outside for a day…

No, he could not wait for a day, because it would be too long and the Supreme Tower would have been packed with demons transformed from spirit herbs that had grown for a very long time. All he had to do was to wait for a tenth of a second, and he would be able to harvest countless spirit herbs with powerful medicinal strength that had grown for tens of thousands of years!

Or, he could lock up a group of cultivators in the Supreme Tower whose souls he controlled. What would they become when they came out? If would be too embarrassing if they were just Heaven Immortals. Wu Qi believed he could easily produce Gold Immortals with such a method, or even Primordial Immortals! Of course, to control the passage of time would definitely require a vast amount of energy and resources, and most probably, it would also require him to have an advanced level of cultivation. But, as long as he had such a Supreme Tower, he would have infinite possibilities in his hands!

He nodded and smiled at the two old men, then said in a low voice, “Well, I’ve decided. The most worn-out one…I’ll take it with me!”

Before any of the old men could speak, Wu Qi pointed out his finger and shot out a stream of blood toward a Supreme Tower placed on the top of the stone shelf in the middle. Measuring about the size of a baby’s fist, it looked extremely worn-out, and the void around it had been churned like a bowl of boiling porridge by the rapid passage of time. When his blood essence was about a foot away from it, a huge amount of blood suddenly spurted out of all his pores: a horrible suction was frantically draining his blood.

“Damn it!” cursed Wu Qi as his eyes went wide. Did it really take so much blood essence to control a top-grade treasure?

He roared and exercised the Dragon Kill. As his body abruptly grew to a height of thirty feet, blood began to boil within him. Strong vitality was rushing in his meridians like a rapid surge; an immense amount of blood essence was being constantly produced in his bone marrow, and then being spurted out of his body in a flood of blood toward the Supreme Tower.

The dust that covered the ancient Supreme Tower was slowly being absorbed into the tower while cracks and holes were gradually repaired. Before long, a strange gleam of light could be seen flashing on the spire, and the distorted void near the tower gradually returned to normal. As Wu Qi’s blood essence continued to pour into the tower, a faint glow of blood appeared on its surface, while a layer of twisted runes extended densely from the base to the top.

At that moment, one of the old men cried out in alarm, “Beware, Marquis of Dong Hai Province! A top-grade Supreme Tower like this requires a lot of blood essence, and no one else can cope with it except Supreme Oracles!”

The faces of both the old men were twisted with fear. They were well-informed, so they knew that Wu Qi, who had been rewarded by Emperor Haozun, was King Yue Feng’s confidant, and that King Yue Feng was the son of King Yang Shan, who had great power in the imperial court. Although the two of them were heads of the Directorate of Celestials’ treasury, if anything happened to Wu Qi here, Ji Ao would just have to complain to King Yang Shan, and they would surely face serious consequences while their families would definitely be affected as well.

They never dreamed that Wu Qi would spray his blood without asking them how to take ownership of these top-grade Supreme Towers.

Terrified and pale, they rushed to Wu Qi’s side, scrambling to fish the ‘Poisonous Dragon Blood Pill’ out of their sleeves, a spirit medicine that could replenish one’s blood essence and stimulate the production of blood essence in a short period of time without harming the root of a person. But before they could put the pill into his mouth, they heard him let out a deafening dragon roar as the loud splashing noise sounded like tidal waves echoed out of his body. The next moment, Wu Qi’s body suddenly grew tens of feet taller.

A mighty aura transformed into a pillar of Nine Nether Ghost Flame and burst out of Wu Qi’s body, towering a thousand feet into the sky. It startled the two old men, causing them to turn on their tails and flee. In the next moment, a column of blood that was as thick as a water bucket jetted out of Wu Qi’s mouth, splashing the surface of the Supreme Tower which had begun to spin rapidly.

“Oh heaven! How does this guy cultivate? How can his vitality be more powerful than those mighty figures?” The two old men had been in charge of the treasury for many years, and they had seen countless mighty Supreme Oracles who came here to pick their Supreme Towers. But, of all the people they had met, few were stronger than Wu Qi in terms of vitality!

What they did not know was that the Scroll of Stealing Wu Qi was cultivating was best at seizing other’s excess and supplying to his own deficiency. Since he began to cultivate it, he had devoured immeasurable amount of blood essence and energy, and all of them had made his foundation incomparably strong and solid. Therefore, the blood essence he was losing right now was nothing to him. Apart from taking a little time to convert his energy essence into blood with his internal organs before spitting them out, he did not lose anything at all.

Blood-colored runes gradually filled the entire surface of the Supreme Tower as Wu Qi began to sense that a spiritual connection was being established between him and the tower. He took a deep breath and sprayed out another mouthful of blood essence onto its surface, then produced his Dark Yin Celestial Tower and smashed it toward the Supreme Tower.

Wu Qi had crafted the Dark Yin Celestial Tower with his own life, and even gave it a sentience by fusing it with the soul of the Great Ocean Splitting Beast. Although it was far less powerful than this Supreme Tower, it had a sentience that was far more advanced.

A dazzling silver beam of light rose into the sky. Under Wu Qi’s control, the two towers merged like two masses of liquid, and countless runes within them quickly disintegrated and merged with one another. When the magic of time within the Supreme Tower surrounded the 360 Star Pearls, the flow of time around them instantly increased by a hundredfold!

A hundredfold was the highest speed that Wu Qi’s current level of cultivation could sustain.

In Wu Qi’s mind, he heard the joyful message sent over to him by Hassock: this time magic had brought great benefits to the entire tower!

As lights and shadows flashed and swayed in the air, a shower of starlight poured down from the sky and was quickly absorbed by the freshly re-crafted tower. 360 Star Pearls absorbed the essence of the stars at a speed a hundred times faster than usual, converting them into an immense amount of star power and storing them within their bodies. At the same time, a huge amount of extremely pure essence of stars was fusing into Wu Qi’s body in the form of glowing specks. They gradually refined his body, making his flesh and divine soul stronger and tougher.

This was one of the many benefits that were brought to him by increasing the flow of time by a hundredfold!

Wu Qi happily waved his hand and called back the tower. After spitting another mouthful of blood essence on its surface, he shrunk back to his normal body size, cupping his fist as he said to the two old men while smiling, “Thanks for your help, Seniors! If you believe me, just send your sons and grandsons to me, and I’ll take good care of them!”

The reason why these two old men were currying favor with him was that they wanted him to take care of their sons and grandsons when he had the chance. Since this was what they wanted, he did not mind fulfilling their wish. The fact that they were able to become the heads of the treasury of Directorate of Celestials proved that they were deeply connected here. So, by taking care of their sons and grandsons, Wu Qi could also widen his connections.

The two old men stared at Wu Qi in horror. Just as they were about to speak, a sudden rush of footsteps came in from outside.

“Quick, quick! What the hell is going on? How did the starlight break through the treasury’s defenses and shine in?”

“Cordon off the area! Don’t let any suspicious people out!”

Wu Qi was startled, and in the next moment, a large group of black-robed Oracles from the Directorate of Celestials barged into the inner treasury.