Stealing The Heavens

Wu Qi had no time to pay any mind to Ao Buzun’s grumble.

The boundless virtue was entering his body. With the enormous power of faith provided by the billions of devout believers, who at the same time were helping him to study the Heavenly Dao like billions of external processors, the virtue was being rapidly converted inside of his body. Both his flesh and divine soul were burning and transmuting in the golden energy, their strength soaring toward a realm that was unfathomable by others.

In a flash, the time around Wu Qi had passed for a thousand years. His Chaotic Divine Eyes was shedding a vast light over the void. There was no longer any physical object in his sight; the stars, the fleshly body, even Kunwu Swords, everything had become lines of energy waves, pulsing either quickly or slowly.

Energy, that was what this world was all about. Pangu Continent was the physical condensation of energy, and so were the Thirty-three Heavens, the Nine Heavens, the Ghost Realm, the Fiend Realm, the Demon Realm, and all the other smaller worlds and realms. Even the boundless Primal Chaos that gave birth to everything was like that.

And the laws of how the energy could be used constituted the so-called the Laws of Heavenly Dao in this world.

If the Heavenly Dao was a great tree with deep roots and luxuriant leaves, then the Heaven Immortals were mortals under it. By the strength of the great tree they withstood the rain and the sun, and if they were hungry they could pick a few fruits from the tree. This was how Heaven Immortals used the power of the Heavenly Dao. In the jungle of Heavenly Dao, Heaven Immortals were a group of primitive people who were still in the foraging state, and they could only passively use the power of the Heavenly Dao.

As for Gold Immortals, their knowledge to use this great tree reached a deeper level. They could cut down the branches of the tree to make sticks or bows, and left the shelter of the tree to hunt wild animals. Of course, they might be eaten by wild animals, or they might be able to hunt down wild animals and brought themselves delicious roast meats. And meats could give them stronger bodies, help them to better develop their intellects, thus possessing stronger overall strength.

They could even drill wood to make fire by friction, triggering new energy patterns from the wood. In other words, they had a certain degree of creativity in the Heavenly Dao.

But for Primordial Immortals, at their realm, they did more than simply making sticks and bows. They were able to cut down the great tree and turn the woods into tall, magnificent palaces at will. From then on, they did not need to shelter from the rain and sun under the tree, for their palaces could provide them with better enjoyment.

They used tree trunks to channel water to their homes from afar, so they could have fresh water to quench their thirst while sitting at the comfort of their residences. They made wheels out of trees, and from then on they had carts, which they could use to carry heavy things with weight far beyond the limits of their power around.

They even shred trees to make snow-white paper, on which they could pain freely, either to record down their thoughts of the Heavenly Dao or to draw fascinating paintings. They had evolved from purely using the power to creating the art, and as art would not be obliterated, from then on they would never perish, and no ordinary calamity could pose them threats anymore.

Had it not been for the great wars that destroyed their homes and burned their books and paintings, these Primordial Immortals would have lived in their well-fortified homes without having to worry about food and clothing, spending their days in leisure.

In the twinkling of an eye, Wu Qi had thoroughly understood what the Heavenly Dao was, and what the Heaven Immortals, the Gold Immortals, and the Primordial Immortals were! As the golden energy kept on pouring into him, his soul had easily crossed the threshold of the Primordial. He now had all the knowledge of how to use the Heavenly Dao, and he had fully understood all its mysteries.

The problem was, he did not have sufficient energy to do all this.

For a newborn child, even if he knew how to make paper and how to build a palace, and even if he knew how to cut down a tree trunk so that it can rot and then grow all kinds of mushrooms and fungi to feed his stomach, he would not have the strength to do it.

It was true that Wu Qi’s magic power was soaring, but it was still far from enough to make him a ninth-tier Primordial Immortal. The magic power of a peak Gold Immortal was enough to let him change the positions of the stars easily or kick planets around like balls. But, for a weakest ninth-tier Primordial Immortal, ignoring the quality of his magic power, just the quantity of it was 100,000 times that of a peak Gold Immortal!

No more, no less, exactly 100,000 times! This was the greatest challenge for a peak Gold Immortal to step into the realm of Primordial. Without a huge amount of energy stones and immortals stones to replenish energy, without a large number of immortal pills to provide magic power, without the energy veins of tens of thousands of galaxies for him to absorb natural energy, even if a peak Gold Immortal’s cultivation level had broken through the realm of Primordial, he could never truly have the overall strength of a Primordial Immortal.

Wu Qi was now in space with all his energy stones exhausted, and there were no good energy veins in the mortal worlds for him to absorb energy. So, even though his divine soul had crossed the threshold, he had to wait for his magic power to finish the transformation, before he could truly become a Primordial expert.

If it were someone else, whether a Gold Immortal, a Bodhisattva, or a human expert like Ji Tao, who specialized in only one cultivation technique, the enormous amount of power of faith that Wu Qi had received would be enough to push him over the threshold of Primordial. But not Wu Qi, for he was cultivating both fleshly body and magic, which made his consumption of energy twice that of the others. Also, his magic power was chaotic energy, which, in term of quality, was many times superior to the magic power in the body of a ninth-tier Primordial expert.

Therefore, if he wanted to let both his fleshly body and magic power break through the Primordial realm smoothly, he needed more than one hundred times as much energy as an average peak Gold Immortal!

As the golden energy kept on falling down like rain, Wu Qi’s divine soul expanded rapidly. He had come into contact with the true essence of heaven and earth, but his flesh and magic power could not keep up with the realm his divine soul had entered. At the moment he was like a naturally disabled baby whose head was stuffed with a thousand Einstein’s brains; although he had superior wisdom, he had no corresponding power. The feeling of emptiness and helplessness actually made him extremely hungry.

Energy, energy, energy, he needed lots and lots of energy! Saliva dribbled out uncontrollably from the corners of his mouth. Perhaps he was the first immortal who drooled when breaking through the Primordial realm. His eyes were green with hunger and he was trembling all over, and when his greedy eyes swept over the bodies of Ao Buzun and the dragon pythons, they all fled back in fear, with the delusion that he would eat them alive.

The falling of golden energy lasted two hours. When it finally ended, Wu Qi’s divine soul radiated a strong gold-and-purple light that shone for thousands of miles, and his cultivation level remained firmly in the realm of Primordial. But his magic power was only slowly increasing. The power of faith provided by the billions of devout believers would be enough for any average immortal to become a Primordial Immortal, but it would not be enough for him. He needed dozens of times more energy!

Trembling violently, he gritted his teeth and looked toward the eye of formation that was shaking rapidly in the middle of Fiend Slaying Sword Formation. There were eight Primordial experts, including Buddha Futu. With the pagoda protecting him, Wu Qi could not do anything to Buddha Futu, but if he could devour all the energy of the other seven Primordial experts, that would be enough to give him the magic power to smoothly become a Primordial expert.

He roared like a savage beast, but just as he was about to kill them with the formation, his divine soul suddenly trembled and his soul essence froze. Everything turned dark before his eyes, and in the next instant, he found himself in his spiritual ocean.

A faint shadow was sitting cross-legged in the boundless purple-and-gold aura. At the sight of Wu Qi, the shadow sighed faintly and said, “To be honest, your aptitudes aren’t very good, and you don’t play your cards well. It has taken you so many years to enter the realm of Dao Reasoning, don’t you think you are humiliating the legacy of Scroll of Stealing?”

Wu Qi recognized the shadow. Years ago, when he was being sent to Myriad Immortals Planet, it was this shadow who had given him the legacy of Scroll of Stealing, allowing him to have the opportunity to cultivate the Dao. As he did not understand what the ‘Dao Reasoning’ realm the shadow mentioned, he just dropped to his knee and bowed respectfully. “Teacher!”

The shadow sighed and shook his head. “Slow. Too slow. How could you take so many years to step into the Dao Reasoning realm, after I’ve given you the Scroll of Stealing, the supreme cultivation technique that caused me to be hunted by those old fogies? Your aptitudes are really terrible.”

He paused for a long moment, counting with his fingers, then went on, “After understanding the essence of the Scroll of Stealing, it only took me seven years to set foot in the realm of Dao Reasoning, and then sixty-two years to enter the realm of Dao Breaking. Three hundred and sixty years later, when I was about to step into the realm of Dao Fusing, all the shameless old fogies of the Dao Realm at that time joined hands to hunt and kill me. I was on the run for three periods, before they managed to kill me in both body and soul!”

He reached his leg and kicked Wu Qi. “Calculate yourself, how long did it take you to step into the realm of Dao Reasoning? Stupid. I’ve never seen someone so stupid!”

Wu Qi did not feel the kick, for the shadow was only an incorporeal form. Staring at the shadow, he asked with a wry smile, “If I may ask, Teacher, I thought you have long perished in both soul and flesh?”

The shadow nodded slowly. “This is the last bit of energy I have left. If you can’t step into the realm of Dao Reasoning in sixty years, I’ll abandon you, so that you can never get the true legacy of the Scroll of Stealing. I would rather have Scroll of Stealing gone forever than let a fool tarnish my former reputation.”

Wu Qi’s heart gave a jerk. He understood roughly what the shadow said. If he spent sixty years and still failed to step into the Primordial realm, then the last bit of energy the shadow left behind would vanish, and the so-called true legacy of the Scroll of Stealing would not pass to him. At the same time, beads of cold sweat broke out of his back. ‘Spent sixty years to become a Primordial expert is consider too slow? How about all those Primordial experts in the universe, who had spent eons of painstaking effort to become who they are now?’

It was true that with the mortal worlds, Primordial experts could be quickly produced. But how many were so lucky? And before they could accept such benefits, they needed to have the cultivation base of a peak Gold Immortal, which would also take eons to achieve!

It took the shadow only seven years to become a Primordial expert, and then he had stepped into the Dao Breaking realm, and almost crossing into the realm of Dao Fusing. Wu Qi’s head was reeling, and he knew he had heard something incredible.

After giving Wu Qi a round of scolding, the shadow sighed and said, “Let’s don’t waste time anymore. I have to pass you the last essence of the Scroll of Stealing, as the time for me to leave has come. Alas, those shameless old fogies! You must avenge me if you ever set foot in the realm of Dao Fusing!”

He placed a hand on the top of Wu Qi’s head. A clear wisp of spirit will without any impurities was slowly absorbed and digested by Wu Qi’s divine soul.