Stealing The Heavens

The incoming dragon boat had an ancient appearance, all green and looking as if it had been carved out of a single piece of wood that was a thousand feet long and a few hundred feet thick. It was in poor condition; dozens of holes were pierced across the beautifully carved hull; its figurehead, the head of a dragon, was half missing and the dragon tail on its stern was gone. The cabin built in the middle of the deck was roofless, exposing the table, hassocks, and many other objects inside; all of which were rotten due to age.

The man standing on the bow was nine feet tall. His crimson robe remained largely intact, except for a fine line on the chest. Apparently, some kind of attack had pierced the robe embroidered with dozens of flying ravens. As for his body and appearance, Wu Qi had only taken a glance at him and immediately turned away from looking at him again.

All that remained of the man was a purple-and-gold skeleton. A rich mixture of innate ghost energy and some unknown energy had covered his skeleton with a translucent, flesh-like substance, barely forming a vague facial feature. In his deep dark sockets were two balls of flickering pale-red light instead of eyes, which were filled with an air of tyranny and madness.

He was no longer a living man, but an ancient immortal who died in the Ghost Realm ages ago and became a ghost after being infected by the innate ghost energy. In fact, all thirteen Great Heavenly Ghost Kings shared the same origin as him. They were almighty experts who had fallen in the ancient time, and had transformed into ghosts after immersing in the innate ghost energy for eons. As for the four hundred Ghost Saints, most of them had the same origin, with only a small number being native heavenly ghosts.

Accompanied by the towering murderous aura, the dragon boat came to Wu Qi in just a flash, with the long serrated broadsword slashing down hot at his head.

Wu Qi gave a cold snort as he flicked his sleeve and dodged the slash like a slippery eel. Then, he reached out his right hand and performed a grabbing gesture, bringing the Jade Armor Dark Turtle flying ship back into his interstitial world with a beam of chaotic light that shot out of his palm. At the same time, a deafening boom rang out in his interstitial world, which put the unconscious Huang Liang and all the soldiers into a deep coma. But that was not all; he even cast a spell on each of them, making sure that none of them would wake up for one whole month.

When he was done, he gently waved a finger and put all the heavenly ghosts he had tamed into his interstitial world as well. Just like what he did to Huang Liang and others, all the heavenly ghosts were knocked unconscious before entering his interstitial world, and each received a spell.

As the sword missed him by inches, its sharp edges tore through the air and sent a biting cold breeze in all direction. Wu Qi was wearing an ordinary robe that shattered to pieces when the breeze swept past him, exposing his strong, wheat-colored young flesh.

The red glow in the ancient immortal’s eyes suddenly grew stronger. He opened his mouth with great difficulty and growled in a low voice, “Flesh…blood…EAT!”

The sword streaked across the air amidst a beam of cold light as the boat made a large circle around Wu Qi, slamming its prow right toward him. He snorted and performed a double-handed incantation gesture. With that, the innate ghost energy in the surroundings quickly rushed to him, condensing into a Yin thunder on his palm in just the blink of an eye. Facing the dragon boat, he released the Yin Thunder, which bolted through the void with a plume of dark smoke behind it.

A dull, heavy crunch echoed out as the dragon boat, apparently completely rotten, was crushed to pieces; while the ancient immortal, who clearly did not have the self-protection consciousness, was blown miles away by the explosion. The enormous force took the broadsword from his grip, and it spun for hundreds of miles before piercing into a lofty mountain as easily as cutting tofu with a sharp knife.

Wu Qi was taken aback. The sword was absurdly long and strangely shaped, like a twisted red centipede with serrated edges. Despite its ugly appearance, it was extremely sharp and did not emanate any energy wave. All that had told him that it was a rare treasure. Without hesitation, he started toward where the sword had landed. His body flickered, and in the next moment, he was standing right next to the mountain, smashing his fist hard into its waist.

The upper half of the mountain exploded into pieces with a thunderous rumble. Like a living thing, the sword was twisting and jerking amidst the rocks and boulders, about to fly away. Not saying a word, Wu Qi gave its hilt a punch and branded thirty-six restrictive runes on its body. The air rang with the clanging of metals as the sword ripped all the runes he had conjured in a haste to shreds with just a shake of its body. Then, a swift and fierce sword intent swept over, leaving a bloody cut on his palm, fine as a hair.

Blood was trickling down from the wound, but Wu Qi burst into laughter.

He had cultivated the True Body of Heaven and Earth Scripture, Dragon Transformation Script, and Dragon Kill; the three amazing techniques had strengthened his fleshly body to an unimaginable degree. Although his cultivation level was at the peak of fifth-tier Gold Immortal realm, the actual strength of his flesh was comparable to that of an ordinary second-tier Gold Immortal who specialized in body tempering. The fact that the sword was able to leave a cut on his flesh with no one controlling it proved that it was an extremely rare ancient treasure.

That was not out of his expectation, though. All the immortals who had fallen on this piece of land that eventually evolved into the Ghost Realm were famous figures in the ancient time. If they were not the almighty experts of that time, they could not have smashed Pangu Continent, causing an enormously vast piece of land to drift into the chaos, eventually fusing with innate ghost energy and evolving into the Ghost Realm.

Those who could keep their intelligence after countless eons, and reincarnated in ghost forms after soaking in the innate ghost energy, were the strongest of them all. So, how could their weapons be of inferior quality?

It was said that the stronger the ancient almighty experts who died in the Ghost Realm were, the later they would be reincarnated. For example, of the thirteen Great Heavenly Ghost Kings, the strongest few were the latest ones who reincarnated as ghosts from corpses. In other words, the ancient immortal in front of Wu Qi once had a cultivation base stronger than the thirteen Great Heavenly Ghost Kings, and his future prowess would definitely surpass all of them!

“Splendid! Are you here to deliver me treasures?” Wu Qi roared with laughter as all ten fingers of his vibrated at a high speed, unleashing 3,600 restrictive runes in just the blink of an eye. Then his Dark Yin Celestial Tower appeared over his head and disappeared in the next moment along with the broadsword. Using the celestial formation and the 3,600 restrictive runes, he had contained the sword within the tower; no matter how powerful it was, it could never demonstrate its mightiness under the suppression from the law of time.

He had decided that once he had some spare time, he would have it properly refined. Such a sharp sword was extremely rare. Since it could cut through Wu Qi’s flesh, that meant it could easily rip apart upper-grade Gold Immortal Artifacts. That was an incredible power!

Just as Wu Qi was grinning from ear to ear, he suddenly sensed a tremendous force coming at him from behind. To his surprise, the ancient immortal threw himself at him and hugged him from the back like a countryman in fighting, with his mouth wide opened and biting toward his back. Utterly shocked, Wu Qi hastily grabbed the immortal by the neck backhandedly, pulled the maniac off his back, and threw him to the ground.

He had used all his strength to do that. The physical strength he possessed now could easily shatter a planet, and it was even more powerful when enhanced with his magic power. So, the ancient immortal gave a grunt, his robe ripped to shreds as he was smashed into the ground like a meteorite. The massive impact caused the ground to shake violently, layers of stratums to twist and crumble, and all the mountains and hills within a thousand mile to collapse. Wu Qi’s counterattack was so powerful that it had severely damaged this entire area.

But, the immortal jumped to his feet as if nothing had happened, then growled as he spread his arms while running toward Wu Qi like a madman trying to hug him. The red glow in his eyes flickered, emanating complicated and messy spiritual waves that washed over Wu Qi.

Wu Qi carefully dodged the attacks, knocking the immortal down again and again. At the same time, he cautiously received the spiritual waves his opponent was emanating, and through them, he was able to learn about the background of the immortal.

This ancient immortal was reborn about three hundred years ago, but he had lost his wits. So after waking up, he acted purely on instinct like a real primitive heavenly ghost. Over the years, he had only roamed millions of miles across, hunting for prey that he was interested in.

He had little interest in heavenly ghosts and primitive heavenly ghosts, so he did not attack the natives of the Ghost Realm. What he liked most was the flesh and blood of living things. In those three hundred years, he had killed many immortals who came to Ghost Realm for some unknown reasons, and sucked all their blood essence. He was drifting in the river these days when he smelt the rich aroma of flesh and blood coming from Wu Qi, Huang Liang, and others, so he hurriedly rushed here to feast on his favorite food.

“You can smell us from hundreds of miles away? What kind of nose is this?!” He angrily grabbed the immortal’s head and punched it dozens of time with all his strength. Amidst the loud rumbling, the immortal’s translucent ‘flesh’ was smashed to a pulp, but his purple-and-gold skeleton was extremely tough. Although Wu Qi had been hitting it with all his might, he just could not leave even a tiny trace on it.

After all, he had been soaking in innate ghost energy for countless eons, which had made his skeleton as strong as the fleshly body of a Primordial Immortal. It was not something that today’s Wu Qi could have hurt. Fortunately, this fellow had yet to regain his wits, and was acting purely on his instinct. When he gradually recalled the divine abilities and magic he had mastered in those years through the marks they left on his body, and when he slowly learned how to absorb innate ghost energy to cultivate, Wu Qi would have to run with his tail between his legs when they met, and not wantonly beat him as he did today.

When he was running out of ways to deal with the immortal’s tough body, the frustrated Wu Qi unleashed a great plume of purple-and-green flame from his palms, using them to burn the fellow’s skeleton.

The Divine Flame of Order could destroy all evil things such as fiends, ghosts, and other pure spiritual beings, and it yielded Wu Qi an unexpected magical result this time. All of a sudden, the red glow in the ancient immortal’s eyes was gutted out by the divine flame, and he let out a shrill roar before falling headlong to the ground.

The ancient immortal, who had just awakened three hundred years ago, had his poor little thread of divine sense completely wiped out by Wu Qi using the Divine Flame of Order.

Wu Qi stared in horror at the purple-and-gold skeleton that sprawled motionlessly on the ground. A brief moment later, he burst into laughter as he grabbed the skeleton and left the place immediately.

The Ghost Realm was indeed a place where people could strike a fortune.