Stealing The Heavens

As soon as the sleeve was opened, it was as if the whole world had been covered. Several mysterious runes shaped by silver threads flashed at the cuff, each seemed to encompass the infinite mysteries of the universe, and a great suction came from inside of the sleeve that looked dark as a black hole. Kṣitigarbha’s body shook, and it looked like he was about to be sucked into it.

Wu Qi only used the power of a thirty-sixth-tier Heaven Immortal.

After inheriting the memories of his previous life, Wu Qi’s attainment had reached an incredible level. Even though he had not fully integrated everything from his previous incarnation, his attainment had broken through the realm of Primordial to a higher realm, the realm of Dao Breaking.

The difference in attainment could be likened to killing someone. A man with low attainment was like a child, who could not effectively kill an enemy even with a divine weapon, but a man with profound attainment was like a trained killer, who could murder the target quietly even with just a needle. At the moment, Kṣitigarbha was the child, and Wu Qi was the killer. Although Wu Qi only threw out his sleeve with the power of a thirty-sixth-tier Heaven Immortal, it was enough to drive Kṣitigarbha out of breath.

After throwing out his sleeve, Wu Qi said with a light tone, “It’s over. Now we have to send Yuji and the other two girls into transmigration.”

When Wu Qi’s voice was still in the air, a trace of gray light flashed across Kṣitigarbha’s face. All of a sudden, an unfathomable, obscure wave of power surged out of him, sending the sleeve flying backward and nearly covering Wu Qi’s face. The Bodhisattva put his palms together devotedly and cried out in a deep voice, “The Buddhism League is vast, the Sea of Dharma is boundless!”

As his loud shout echoed out, the sound of iron rings breaking could be heard coming from within him. Immediately after that, a vast, mighty power that shocked even Wu Qi and Ao Buzun began to pour endlessly out of him. As if the greatest river in the universe had burst its banks, as if the heaven had turned upside down, as if all the deities had gone mad and blown the Milky Way apart, causing the stars to plunge down toward the mortal world, the tremendous power materialized into a huge mountain and spread out in all directions, knocking Wu Qi, Ao Buzun, and Catfish, who had no time to react, far away.

Wu Qi bore the brunt of the power and flew back uncontrollably. The essence of this power was not something out of ordinary; it was nothing but the power of a peak-level Gold Immortal. Such a power could not do him any harm, but its amount was simply too great, so much so that it rolled him up like a torrent and pushed him backward. Trying to steady himself, Wu Qi performed eighteen incantation gestures in a row, but the gray power just kept pouring over, pushing him tens of thousands of miles away, spinning. He could not stop his body from retreating.

Ao Buzun let out a long roar. One of his whiskers darted out, rolled Catfish up, and then his colossal body was knocked flying away. His scales rattled as each began to move swiftly like oars; the razor-sharp scales shredded the torrent of power around him, allowing him to swim through the turbulence of raging power, though with great difficulty. The power poured out of Kṣitigarbha was just too great that, even though his scales could slice through it, he could not control his body well.

Kṣitigarbha put his palms together and began to chant the Buddha’s name in a low voice. His body had returned to its original form, a sixty-feet-tall avatar surrounded in a red lotus karmic fire. The glare of fire in his eyes shone directly on Wu Qi, causing Wu Qi severe pain throughout the body. A bright, clean Buddha’s fire scorched Wu Qi’s skin and burned deep into it. His muscles were fine, but wherever the fire passed, his skin quickly lost its vitality. Soon his skin became as haggard as ashes from the burning of firewood.

Buddha’s energy, so dense and compacted that it nearly took a physical form, swirled around Kṣitigarbha, materializing into forty-two layers of dharma wheels that spun nonstop. As they spun, they produced a deep noise sounded like thunderclaps and sent forth an enormous pressure into the surroundings, making it difficult for Wu Qi’s magic power to rotate smoothly.

Wu Qi looked at Kṣitigarbha in horror.

His overall strength was still at the peak of the Gold Immortal realm; his cultivation base was still that of a Bodhisattva; the essence of his energy was not elevated to the level of Dao Reasoning. If the energy essence of a Dao Reasoning expert was a diamond, the energy essence of a peak-level Gold Immortal was an ordinary lump of clay. When a soft, crisp lump of clay hit a diamond, the diamond, of course, could easily break it up to pieces.

But when the number of clays reached an insane level, it was extremely difficult for a small diamond to break through them.

The essence of Kṣitigarbha’s energy at the moment was still that of a Gold Immortal, but the amount of his energy was simply staggering. With his cultivation base of an eighth-tier Primordial expert, the total amount of Wu Qi’s energy was more than 100,000 times that of an ordinary peak-level Gold Immortal, but the total amount of Kṣitigarbha’s energy was millions of times more than his! Compared to Kṣitigarbha, Wu Qi’s energy at the moment was a stream, and the former’s energy was an ocean!

Overwhelming energy advantage!

“Freak!” cried Wu Qi and Ao Buzun in unison.

Kṣitigarbha smiled, and with easy grace he waved a hand, throwing a lotus flower condensed of red lotus karmic fire toward Wu Qi. “Freak? I’ve dwelt in the Nether World for countless eons. Due to the great vow I’ve sworn, I cannot become a Buddha, but I’ve been accumulating my energy here, and tempered it with the Six Paths of Reincarnation and the Yellow Spring. As a result, the amount of energy I have top among all the others in the Buddhism League! Otherwise, what makes you think that I can disobey Amitabha’s orders?”

The red lotus flower came smashing down toward Wu Qi. Although it was only as large as a fist, he felt he could not defend against it.

Wu Qi waved his left hand. The innate energy of five elements, gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, materialized into five sword beams and shot out of his five fingers, flying toward the flower. The fragile flower broke, but as it burst to pieces, a vast stream of red lotus karmic fire poured out of it. Wu Qi’s left hand trembled, and the impact dislocated his palm from his wrist. The endless stream of red flame rushed straight toward him, forcing him to flee to the top of Ao Buzun’s head with an escape art. He dared not to fight head-on against this fire that was more than enough to drown him.

Kṣitigarbha turned to look at Wu Qi and Ao Buzun. “You will stay here today,” he said with a flat tone. “The Buddhism League is vast and our divine power is boundless, and my power is beyond your imagination. I can’t believe both of you are the incarnations of Chaos Fiend Gods. Once I captured both of you, I’ll send you into the transmigration, squeeze all the wisdom of your previous lives out of your souls and make them as mine. When I am done, even if I can’t become a Buddha, I’ll still have the power of a Buddha.”

He let out a strange laugh, then cried out at the top of his lungs, “As long as I have the power of the Buddha, and with this vast energy that tops among all the others in the Buddhism League, who in the universe can defeat me?”

Wu Qi looked at Kṣitigarbha coldly. “You’re one bloody fool,” he said faintly. “Your energy is staggering, I grant you that, for even a Dao Breaking expert doesn’t have such an insane amount of energy. You really have not wasted your times in the Nether World. But, what good is it if you can’t use it at all?”

Kṣitigarbha laughed confidently. “Even Amitabha can’t do anything to me. What can you do?”

Wu Qi took a deep breath. For the first time, his chaotic energy rotated according to the cultivation technique of the Heaven Refining Grand Magic. Accompanied by a mysterious immortal tune, a plume of gray mist rushed out from the top of his head, and then a translucent, three-legged cauldron, wrapped in a faint spirit light, slowly rose from the top of his head.

“There is nothing in the universe that cannot be refined with the Heaven Refining Grand Magic!

“There is nothing in the universe that cannot be stolen with the Art of Stealing the Heaven!

“Steals and then refines, the combination of both is indeed amazing!”

A glimmer of light shone from Wu Qi’s eyes, which had turned into two deep, spinning dark clouds. Even then, his divine sense enveloped Kṣitigarbha, and suddenly he crooked a finger at Kṣitigarbha and snapped, “Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha! You are relying on your cultivation of the Buddha’s heart to control your magic power, aren’t you? Come to me now, Buddha’s heart!”

Kṣitigarbha uttered a sudden cry of misery as a ray of light flew out of his forehead and was swallowed by the cauldron. A plume of purple smoke rose from the cauldron, and an exotic aroma wafted out of it. Soon, a bell rang, and a white pearl, about the size of a fist and emitted a faint scent of ambergris, flew slowly out of the cauldron.

Wu Qi grabbed the pearl and threw it at Ao Buzun. With a wild laugh of both horror and joy, Ao Buzun swallowed it. He looked at Wu Qi flatteringly and cried out, “Master’s divine power is truly boundless. I can’t believe that even the Buddha’s heart of this bald donkey can be refined into a pill.” Suddenly he shrieked with horror, “Hell, how could such a thing as Buddha’s heart be extracted? How is it even possible? It is the source of divine power these bald donkeys of the Buddhism League have cultivated through countless reincarnations!”

Amid Ao Buzun’s shriek, Kṣitigarbha let out a scream of terror as well. He found that although he still remembered countless Buddhist classics, cultivation techniques and mystic arts, he suddenly forgot what was their true meaning!

It was like in the palace examination hall, a scholar suddenly forgot all the knowledge in front of the emperor; he still remembered those classical expressions, and he could still recite all the classics, but he forgot exactly what they meant, and all the knowledge that extended out of them.

The forty-two layers of dharma wheels around him collapsed with a boom. Although they were materialized by the energy he had painstakingly cultivated, he could no longer control them. The energy was right beside him, and he could sense its presence, but he had forgotten how to control it, and how to use it to unleash a terrible power comparable to that of a Buddha.

Wu Qi burst out laughing, and then he said, “Well, that’s a bonus for this trip!”

He pointed out a finger. The cauldron over him rumbled, and immediately the enormous energy around Kṣitigarbha turned into a great torrent and poured into it. Soon after, all of Kṣitigarbha’s energy was sucked clean by Wu Qi.

Kṣitigarbha stared blankly at Wu Qi. “Y-yo-you… you are a freak!” he snapped.

Wu Qi shrugged and smiled seriously at Kṣitigarbha. “You’re right. I also think I’m a freak now. The combination of Scroll of Stealing and Heaven Refining Grand Magic is just too… freakish! If I could have Scroll of Stealing in my previous life, how could I have fallen?”

When he had finished, he waved a sleeve and drawn Kṣitigarbha into it. After that, he pointed out a finger. The mountain range, stretching thousands of miles beside the Six Paths of Reincarnation, crumbled and collapsed instantly, and all the gardens and temples on the mountains were pulverized.

With a flick of his finger, Wu Qi ripped open Kṣitigarbha’s Buddhist Kingdom and took out the souls of the three girls.

Then, he opened his mouth and spat out Xiang Yu, who he had knocked out earlier.