Stealing The Heavens

Although all of his internal organs were crushed, he did not feel much pain.

When Wu Qi was smashed into the ice, his internal organs had dissolved into a vast and pure stream of chaotic energy that circulated inside him. At the same time, he had activated the bloodline of ‘Ancient Black Water True Ape’, causing his body to quickly transform into an ape. His internal organs, flesh and bones, and even blood vessels and meridians were rapidly changing; all the structures of his body were converted into chaotic energy, which then condensed into structures that were completely different from that of a human.

The art of transforming into divine beasts he learned from the Seven Foundation Elevating Technique had propelled Wu Qi’s ability to endure any injuries to an abnormal degree. As long as he still had chaotic energy in him, and as long as he could still exercise the art, all his injuries would disappear after the transformation was completed.

The crumbling icebergs had flooded his body, which had abruptly grown to hundreds of feet tall. The sea water that rose into the sky came splashing down on him, who was an enormous and muscular ape now, sending over a vast energy. Like the legendary Water God Gonggong, the Ancient Black Water True Ape was a divine beast born out of the first thread of innate True Water energy, with the ability to control all the water energy in the world. It was a fearsome divine beast who was said to not be defeated as long as there was water nearby.

And here, in the Arctic Pole of the Earth, beneath the thick ice was endless sea water.

As the vast stream of energy poured into his body, under his thick black hair which stretched for tens of feet long, his muscles began to swell and twitch violently. Through the thick ice and seawater, he fixed his bloodshot eyes on the fat and smiling Buddha Futu as a ferocious smile emerged on his face.

A sneak attack? How could a Buddha go so low as to attack someone from the back?

Wu Qi would not have much to complain if the Buddha could kill him with a sneak attack. However, not only the attack the Buddha struck out with no regard for his own honor had failed to achieve that, but it had only reduced a little bit of Wu Qi’s chaotic energy. It was such a shame for someone as mighty and formidable as a Buddha. Besides, Wu Qi was now rapidly converting the water energies that were rushing endlessly into his body. With the Black Water True Ape’s ability to control the water energy, they were pouring into him at a speed that was a thousand times greater than if he were to absorb them himself. So, he had long recovered the chaotic energy he had lost.

‘The Seven Foundation Elevating Technique is truly amazing!’ Wu Qi laughed silently.

Hovering in the sky over Wu Qi, Buddha Futu pretentiously placed his palms together before his chest and chanted a Buddha epithet. “For the benevolence of the Buddha! Vile creature, you have committed a sin of killing three of my Arhats that is punishable only by death. You have also killed the seeds of Green City, and that is a sin which even death cannot atone. Well, well, I’ll now release you from the purgatory by completely wiping out your soul, so that you don’t have to suffer in this mortal world anymore!”

He reached out his right hand, and a white lotus flower gracefully bloomed in his palm. Then, a tiny, 33-storied golden pagoda slowly emerged from the center of the flower. As soon as it was caressed by a gust of wind, the pagoda abruptly grew thousands of feet tall, emanating a dazzling golden light. Countless likenesses of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats, and Vajras were carved across its surface; and within it, a pure, enormous power of Buddhism tumbled violently, producing a deep rumble that sounded like a tidal wave.

This was Buddha Futu’s true form—a pagoda the Lord Buddha Amitabha found in the chaos, who had been accompanying him when the latter was still an Arhat. He saw the latter rise to a Bodhisattva, and then a Buddha; helped him through countless adversities and tribulations; and witnessed him became the Lord Buddha, the supreme leader of all the Buddhists in the universe.

For its great contribution of always protecting him in all the tribulations in the past, when Amitabha became the Lord Buddha, he had used his blood essence to transform the pagoda into human form and cultivated him into a Buddha. Then, he gave him the charge of the mortal worlds, the foundation of the Buddhist League. Buddha Futu had been accompanying Amitabha for countless eons and was his absolute confidant, so he was the perfect person to guard the mortal worlds.

Because his true form was a pagoda, the ways he handled matters were no different from demons, and not as particular as other Buddhas. Whatever he did, he only went after the end result, and that was why he had sneak-attacked Wu Qi.

As soon as the pagoda made its appearance, a terrible Buddhist energy transformed into a golden torrent and weighed down at Wu Qi. A happy smile emerged on Buddha Futu’s face. To him, anyone who dared to violate the Buddhist League’s interests was an evildoer or vile spawn, and there was no need for such beings to exist. He thought that the best solution was to kill them. Therefore, although the other Buddhas often used mighty divine abilities to subdue some demons as the Guardians of the Buddhist League, Buddha Futu had never had any demon serving under him.

Even as the Buddhist energy poured whistling down on him, Wu Qi roared with laughter while his enormous body tore through the ice and leaped into the air, with streams of water energy swirling about him like black dragons. Now a Black Water True Ape standing over ten thousand feet tall, he threw his head back and let out a furious roar. Immediately, countless bodies of water across the earth rumbled to echo the roar whilst sending an immense amount of water energies through the void toward him in great, long streams that were shaped like dragons.

With each of his hands holding a whip of water energy that was a hundred feet thick and over a hundred miles long, Wu Qi turned to smile grimly at Buddha Futu, who was visibly dumbfounded, and lashed out toward the golden torrent coming down hot at him. A loud boom rang out as the pure innate water energy held the Buddhist energy in midair; no matter how hard Buddha Futu exercised his divine ability and mystic art to rip through the black water with the golden torrent, he just could not advance further. Water was soft by nature, and as there was an endless supply of water in this place, Wu Qi was not afraid of fighting a long battle of attrition with him.

Then, Wu Qi waved his other hand, and the second black dragon that was a hundred miles long lashed out along with a deafening sound of waves, whistling through the air and striking Buddha Futu in the chest. A loud rumble could be heard as the kasaya Buddha Futu was wearing emanated seven layers of bright light and had him protected within, causing an immense amount of water to explode right before touching his chest. Although the force of the explosion did knock him hundreds of miles away, he did not suffer any injury.

As Amitabha’s most trusted confidant, the kasaya Buddha Futu was wearing had an extraordinary background. It was jointly crafted by the experts of the Dao League and Buddhist League, using the threads extracted from the clouds and various innate energies by countless fairies serving in the Heaven, after Amitabha personally requested the help from the present Great Celestial Emperor of the Heaven. Although it looked ordinary, its surface was inlaid with 49,000 pearls that came with all kinds of magical effects, and it had various powerful defensive mechanisms internally. As long as he donned the kasaya, Buddha Futu could retreat without being hurt from a siege of ten opponents whose cultivation base was equivalent to his.

Wu Qi gave a strange laugh and threw himself after Buddha Futu, who had been smashed into the distance. The water vapor over the ocean was rich, and as the Black Water True Ape was a kind of divine beast born with the ability to control the water, Wu Qi’s movements were so quick that no one could see how he moved. In just a flash, he was already behind Buddha Futu, thrusting his huge fist down with all of his might.

Every cultivator under the heaven knew that dragons’ fleshly body was strong, but there were actually plenty of other divine beasts in this world whose physical strength was greater than dragons’, including the Black Water True Ape. An adult True Ape could easily suppress a true dragon who had a stronger cultivation base in physical strength. To them, using the divine ability to change the positions of stars was as natural as eating food and breathing.

The air rang with a deafening rumble as Wu Qi struck his fist down, sending Buddha Futu flying forward. Then, his body flickered, and in the next instant, he was in front of the monk, sending the poor fellow flying backward with another punch. He did that over and over again, striking several thousand punches in a row and causing a bright light to explode out of the monk’s kasaya while forcibly smashing and destroying a few layers of the protective light and keeping Buddha Futu within a boundary of about a mile.

Wu Qi’s movements were frighteningly fast. No matter which direction was Buddha Futu being smashed into, he would rush over to the other side and punch the poor follow back. The heavy punches had thrown the Buddha into a panic. He growled furiously and tried to perform hand incantation gestures or murmur some spells to counterattack, but all his magic was distracted by Wu Qi’s punches.

Buddha Futu had a special and high status in the Buddhist League. Since he was transformed into human form by Amitabha, he had never experienced such a ferocious battle. As he was overseeing the mortal worlds most of the time, although he did have experience of subduing demons and getting rid of fiends, all he did was bully some little demons and fiends who were weaker than Heaven Immortals with his cultivation base of a Buddha. In terms of combat experience, he was a blank sheet of paper. Therefore, he was so overwhelmed by Wu Qi’s attacks that he even forgot how to fight back.

He even forgot that his true form was a pagoda. If he remembered this and summoned it over, Wu Qi would not be able to get close to him, given the pagoda’s incredible defense.

Just like that, the poor Buddha Futu was beaten for a quarter of an hour by Wu Qi until he was so dizzy that he even forgot where he was now. Luckily, the kasaya he was wearing had an amazing defense, so even though Wu Qi had given him over a hundred thousand punches, none of the punches had touched his skin or flesh.

Just as Buddha Futu hesitated whether he should ask his Master, Amitabha, for help, Wu Qi opened his mouth and spat out the Natural Phenomena Medallion. A gust of wild wind mixed with countless heavenly thunder and earthly fire rushed out of the jade medallion and dragged Buddha Futu over in just a flash.

Terrible booms echoed out incessantly. The Natural Phenomena Medallion was a mighty magical artifact crafted by the ancient Sacred Emperor, Zhuanxu himself; he had created the wind, fire, thunder, and everything else in it using the purest thread of innate essence he had harvested. As a result, as soon as Buddha Futu was struck by the wind, the heavenly thunder, and the earthly fire, six out of the seven layers of light on his kasaya shattered immediately.

Not allowing Buddha Futu to react, a plume of dark smoke rushed out of the top of Wu Qi’s head, amidst which, the Dark Yin Celestial Tower whistled and drew over a vast amount of starlight from the sky. Abruptly, the speed of time around Buddha Futu slowed down by a hundred times. His body stiffened and could not move whilst the Blood Centipede Sword was coming at his waist amidst a sharp beam of blood-red light.

A crisp crackle rang out as the last layer of light on his kasaya crumbled into shreds. The Blood Centipede Sword cut into his flesh, slicing him in two at the waist. As the air rang with his miserable howl, Buddha Futu’s upper body transformed into a beam of golden light and rushed into the pagoda, his true form. At the same time, Wu Qi threw his head back and roared, then opened his mouth and wolfed down the large pool of golden liquid that was the Buddha’s lower body.

The golden pagoda plunged into the void and disappeared without a trace. Taking the opportunity, Wu Qi hastily stepped into the teleportation formation beneath the Arctic Pole.

The formation flashed with a blinding light, and in just the blink of an eye, Wu Qi had vanished from Earth.