Stealing The Heavens

The Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos was the natal immortal artifact of the North Celestial Emperor, one of the Heaven’s five Celestial Emperors. A unique treasure born in the Primal Chaos, it was capable of breaking through the void, pacifying natural elements such as earth, water, fire, wind, and weakening over ninety percent of offensive divine abilities including demonic magic and curses, while ordinary offensive magic of five elements had no effect on it.

Liu Bang had borrowed it from the North Celestial Emperor, and he could only use one-ten-thousandth of its power. But just with this tiny bit of power, he was able to keep the twelve Kunwu Swords at bay. One of the reasons was that Wu Qi was not personally controlling the sword formation, and the other was that the flag was just so powerful. Kunwu Swords, crafted by the Yellow Emperor, was after all, a man-made divine weapon, which made it inferior to a treasure that was born in the Primal Chaos.

Wearing his true features, Wu Qi appeared outside the flying ship, facing Liu Bang through the thick black clouds.

Liu Bang stared at him with gritted teeth. “Marquis of Dong Hai Province! You have messed up my game again!”

Wu Qi smiled and nodded. “Yes, me again. I’ll return to Liangzhu later and tell King Bai Shan that you have killed his son, Ji Tao!”

“That’s a brazen lie!” growled Liu Bang, with a finger pointing at Wu Qi. His body trembled with rage.

Wu Qi parted his lips to reveal two rows of teeth that shone brilliantly like crystal. “Look, I have teeth!” [1] ¹ Laughing hideously, he said, “But if King of Han falls into my hands, I guarantee you wouldn’t have a tooth left!”

Liu Bang gave a few angry grunts, but in the next moment he had calmed down. With eyes narrowed, he stroked his long beard and seemed to be considering something. Instead, it was Fan Kuai who stood behind him suddenly jumped forward, roaring as he threw his spear out toward Wu Qi’s chest.

Eighteen feet long, black as pitch, and forged of ninety-nine kinds of divine metals, the spear was clean and simple without any decoration. It weighed 18,000 kilograms, and once the thousands of restrictive runes embedded in it were activated, its weight would instantly increase by tens of thousands of times, or as much as hundreds of mountains. As he threw it out with all his force, Fan Kuai had activated all the restrictive runes. The spear pierced through the void shrouding in black energy twisting like flames, in which countless runes could be seen revolving slowly. Wu Qi, who was the target of the spear, felt a pressure suddenly pressed down on him. The gravity around him had increased by at least ten thousand times.

At this moment, Fan Kuai’s true cultivation level was exposed to Wu Qi. He was a pure body cultivator with only the immortal energy of a thirty-sixth tier Heaven Immortal, just enough for him to ride on a cloud and fly. But in his body there was a mighty physical strength, which was circulating restlessly like a great dragon, giving him an overall strength equivalent to that of a peak Gold Immortal. Every strike he made, a wave of the hand or a stomp of the foot, came with a force that was as lethal as a full-force attack a peak Gold Immortal unleashed with his natal Gold Immortal Artifact.

“Not bad!” Purple-and-golden dragon scales emerged to densely cover Wu Qi’s right palm, and with one swift move he caught the spear, gripping it as easily as if it was merely a blade of grass. Cultivating both body and magic, Wu Qi’s flesh had also broken into the Primordial realm. According to the difference in overall strength between a peak Gold Immortal and a ninth-tier Primordial Immortal, his physical strength was now ten thousand times that of Fan Kuai. On top of that, as every move he made was followed by the power of the Heavenly Dao, Fan Kuai’s attack was really child’s play for him.

He lightly wiped the spear with his palm and removed all the 3,600 restrictive runes embedded in it. Then, smiling, he nodded to Fan Kuai, who was struck dumb with astonishment, and said, “The spear is made of good materials, but the restrictive arrays in it rubbish. 3,600 restrictive runes? Why would you need so many? Aye, let me help you make a little modification to it!”

Even as he said that, a bright ray emerged on his fingertip. Casually, he sent a rune into the spear, which was recorded in the Book of Ancient God representing the meaning of ‘gravity essence’. About ten feet across and shaped like a hill, the rune emanated a boundless pressure as it slowly entered the spear, which then shrunk abruptly, from eighteen feet long to only nine feet. A dreadful gravity poured out of the spear had forcefully compressed its size by half.

It was clear that the impact of just one rune was much stronger than the 3,600 restrictive runes in the spear. Wu Qi hefted the spear with one hand, which was so much heavier now, then threw it over to Fan Kuai. As the spear flew lightly to the flying ship, Liu Bang, standing on the bow, raised an eyebrow and chanted a spell under his breath. At the spell, the dark cloud that was the Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos wrapped up the spear and slowly pulled it aboard.

Fan Kuai fixed his eyes on Wu Qi, clenched his jaw, and said, “One rune. So you think this one rune of yours is better than the 3,600 runes that Master Darkstar, the best immortal craftsman of the Heaven, had meticulously embedded in my spear?” He gave a cold snort, and grabbed the spear Wu Qi had modified.

The dark and hairy face of Fan Kuai suddenly turned pale white. No sooner had he grasped the spear than his right arm suddenly lengthened by more than a foot. In a series of rapid bone cracking sound, the flesh on his arm, from shoulder to wrist, was torn apart, and blood began to spray out from a dozen gashes of big and small. The severe pain made Fan Kuai shriek and let go of the spear, which fell heavily on the ship’s deck.

A strong green light burst out of the deck densely covered with defensive magic, then a nasty squeak rang out as the spear broke and shattered the light, layer by layer, crushed through the three-feet-thick deck, fell across the entire ship and came out of the ship’s bottom. It was then caught and trapped in the void by the dark cloud the Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos had sprayed out.

The rune Wu Qi sent into the spear, which represented the gravity essence, had made it as heavy as hundreds of stars. It was true that with his physical strength of a peak Gold Immortal, Fan Kuai could easily change the positions of stars, but at the most he could do that to two or three stars at a time. Fortunately, he had acted quick enough, otherwise the weight of hundreds of stars would have ripped his entire arm off.

This was the gap between a Primordial Immortal and a Gold Immortal. Or rather, this was the difference between an expert of Dao Realm and an ant.

In the Age of Primal, only those who stepped into the Dao Realm had the power to control their own destiny. To them, any being below the Dao Realm could be ignored.

Liu Bang’s face fell, and so did his faithful companions. Suddenly, Zhang Liang produced a dazzling writing brush and quickly wrote 360 ‘thunder’ in the void. Shrouded in purple smoke, the characters twisted and wheeled restlessly as they merged as one, then transformed into a huge purple thunderbolt and shot toward Wu Qi at high speed.

But before the thunderbolt could explode to release its enormous power capable of charring the entire surface of a planet, Wu Qi had grabbed it and shoved it into his mouth. As he had just broken into a new realm, Wu Qi was still a little hungry, and the huge power of thunder contained in this thunderbolt was just nice to be a dessert.

Wu Qi never expected that Zhang Liang, who had always been discreet, had a cultivation base of a peak Gold Immortal as well. He reckoned that they must have carried with them some kind of strange immortal artifacts, so that he could not discern their true cultivation level. Of course, another reason was that the Sky Veiling Flag of Chaos had obscured his vision. Otherwise, with his present cultivation base, he could have easily made out the true overall strength of Liu Bang and the others.

Zhang Liang stared at Wu Qi for a long time, his face pale. In the end, he shook his head and said dejectedly, “You have become a Primordial expert. I am no match for you!”

Han Xin gave a cold snort. The three stars in his eyes burst with a dazzling light as he waved a hand and sent three blood-red energy beams toward Wu Qi. The menacing energy of the Greed Star, the Seven Killing Star, and the Vanquisher Star pierced whistling through the void, aiming at Wu Qi’s neck, chest, and lower abdomen. As the void around them had been completely locked down by Fiend Slaying Sword Formation, Han Xin could not harness the power of star from the outside world. Therefore, the three energy beams he sent out now were actually his natal star power, which he stored in his body and had merged with his own blood essence, and that made them extremely pure and powerful, at least dozens of times stronger than the attack he usually unleashed with external power.

And yet, Wu Qi opened his mouth and devoured them all the same.

After learning Myriad Harmonization Grand Magic, Wu Qi could devour anything in the world, and Han Xin’s attack, containing his own blood essence, made a tasty dish.

Like the others, Han Xin had a cultivation base of a peak Gold Immortal, so Wu Qi found no difficulty to digest the three blood-red energy beams. He gave a little burp, then smiled at Han Xin and said, “I remember I’ve fought you once, and I was not your match. As for this time… if you dare to walk out now, I’ll kill you. What do you think?”

Han Xin’s face flickered. He gave Liu Bang a look, clenched his jaw, and was about to rush out of the ship.

But Liu Bang caught him on the shoulder. “You are already a Primordial expert, and I think there’s no need for you to make things difficult for us, a group of mere weaklings,” said Liu Bang with a smile. “Well, just to let you know, my father is the Great South Celestial Emperor of the Heaven, who is also the Crimson Emperor of the Five Celestial Emperors. He is a peak second-tier Primordial Immortal, so… if you dare to hurt me… haha!”

Liu Bang narrowed his eyes and laughed, and he laughed so hard that his spittle was flying all over the place.

Wu Qi stared at him. After considering for a moment, he nodded and said, “I will not kill you!”

Holding up his thumb, Liu Bang said seriously, “That’s a wise decision. If you let us go today, I’ll surely repay your kindness in the future!”

“Though I’ll not kill you, I want you to turn in all your valuables,” said Wu Qi with a cold grin. “Don’t tell me that the son of the Crimson Emperor does not have any valuables, as I will never believe that. Well, each of you can keep one natal immortal artifact, after all, do others a favor in a current tangle is to make oneself a waiver of a future!”

Liu Bang burst out laughing. Nodding in approval, he said, “I couldn’t agree more! Worldly possessions are merely floating clouds, and no one should hold on to them tightly when one’s life is in danger!” While laughing, he took a brilliant golden storage ring fashioned in the likeness of a dragon off his finger and threw it to Wu Qi. Waving his hand generously, he said, “All my savings are in this ring, you can freely…”

But, before he could finish, he was stunned by Wu Qi’s action.

Wu Qi caught the ring, then pointed a finger at a jade string Liu Bang wore on his right wrist, on which hung thirteen tiny jade slips that looked like some protective talismans. Wordless, Liu Bang took the string of jade slips off with an expression as if he had just lost his father, then threw it to Wu Qi.

Inside each of these jade slips contained a small world, and the jade slips were the only doorways that led to them. All Liu Bang’s personal collections were stored in these worlds.

“Now give me all your valuables and don’t try to deceive me,” said Wu Qi as he stared at the others. “Yes, Xiao He is wise. Oh, it seems to me the pearl on your neck is also a magical storage treasure, isn’t it? Stop hiding it and give it to me! Ah, I like how quick Han Xin take off his valuables, you all should be like him… No, no! I don’t want your underpants! I’ll be too mean to take away your underpants!”

After much looting, Liu Bang and his companions stared grumpily at Wu Qi. “Can we leave now?!” asked Liu Bang angrily.

Wu Qi nodded with a smile. “You can leave after King of Han tell me the detail of your background!”

Liu Bang was somewhat startled.