Stealing The Heavens

Just as King Xin Shan had ordered the Flying Bear Army to attack while he was fleeing for the palace’s exit, the civil and military officials behind him struck. In Liangzhu, there were over three hundred thousand officials who could discuss state affairs in the court. Among them, about thirty thousand supported King Xin Shan. Now, with them striking out, the place was instantly thrown into confusion.

Most of the courtiers of Great Yu had been wounded when Torch Dragon was wreaking havoc, because of which, their reactions were much slower than normal. With King Xin Shan’s roar, his supporters immediately struck out at those around them. The glint and flash of cold steel filled the void as tens of thousands of civil officials took out countless talismans and threw them out in all directions. Flames and lighting turned into thick layers of clouds, almost completely obscuring the sky.

These men’s cultivation bases were not far apart; most of them were at the level of a Gold Immortal, save for King Yang Shan and those from the great clans. As they were caught unprepared, many were killed and thrown to the ground in the blink of an eye. The air rang with the grunts of pain and moans of dying men, with blood spilling and sprinkling everywhere.

The military officers behind King Xin Shan swung their swords and knives crazily like a pack of mad tigers. Their bodies were surrounded by a faint layer of golden light, which had boosted their strength by dozens of time. For a moment, they were on the upper hand. Blades slashed and hacked, sending heads flying up into the air; spears thrust and stabbed, poking holes in flesh and spilling blood everywhere. Some even took out small crossbows and fired at will, blotting the void with sharp bolts and throwing men to the ground like weeds.

The talismans in the hands of those civil officials were eccentric. Although they were the Directorate of Celestials’ bone talismans in essence, when they exploded, the power they unleashed was more like the large-area spells used by immortals and buddhas. The deafening sound of deep, muffled thunderclaps took the strength out of men while flames swept across the void like wildfire. Whenever a thunderclap rang out, hundreds of courtiers fell to the ground, howling and shrieking.

Caught unprepared by King Xin Shan’s supporters, Great Yu’s courtiers were thrown into confusion. Seizing the opportunity, King Xin Shan fled in panic, the torch in his hand and his supporters who had slain many following him close behind. Even in a hurry, they retreated in a strict formation, with men blocking the enemies to the left, right, and rear. Numerous talismans were thrown out, preventing King Yang Shan and the others from chasing after them.

King Xin Shan and his supporters were almost out of the palace, and a column of soldiers from Flying Bear Army was approaching the palace’s front gate menacingly. It would be impossible to stop him if they had joined together.

While fuming, King Yang Shan cried out, “What are you doing there? STOP THEM!” he was shouting at the hundreds of Supreme Oracles who had arrived in rescue when Torch Dragon was causing trouble. These Oracles had mastered the ice magic, and if they struck, they could easily stop King Xin Shan by blocking the exit with chunks of ice.

But, they were glancing at each other, and no one dared to move. When King Yang Shan shouted at them, they finally drove their Supreme Towers and slowly split into two distinct groups.

Powerful streams of divine sense rushed back and forth in the void; the hundreds of Supreme Oracles were locking and attacking each other with their divine senses. A violent spiritual storm soon rose, shaking the courtiers in the sky. The military officers dropped to the ground with blood oozing out of their seven orifices, while the civil officials cursed and put their arms around their heads, looking weak.

A burst of beast roars rang out incessantly. From the top of the heads of King Yang Shan and the other Kings of the council, as well as those high officials, came rushing out plumes of colorful smoke. With that, tens of thousands of formidable beast souls made their appearance. With their power, King Yang Shan and the others managed to maintain the clarity of their minds amidst the battle of the Supreme Oracles.

Wu Qi let out a long cry. A plume of dark smoke rose from the top of his head, and from inside came flying out the beast soul of Taotie. He stood next to Princess Zhang Le while swaying as he bellowed, “Listen to my command, the brave warriors of Dong Hai! Kill anyone who dares to attack our camps!”

Huang Liang and the other military officers of Dong Hai immediately sped away in the directions of the camps, which they had erected outside of the four city gates. But, when they were only less than a thousand feet away, a dozen Supreme Oracles near the palace’s exit waved their hands at the same time, throwing sheets of cold light down. The freezing air condensed into numerous layers of dark ice walls in the void—each less than an inch thick—and blocked the way.

While cursing at the Supreme Oracles’ mothers, Huang Liang lifted his knife and hacked it hard on the ice wall in front of him.

A strange sound rang out as the knife and the ice wall clashed and shattered together. Huang Liang shivered, with thin crusts of ice forming across his fingers. “Ouch! This is freezing! Damnit! Why are these old fools so strong?”

Princess Zhang Le whistled, and nine avatars of the Ancient Gods revealed themselves above her in a burst of five-colored divine ray, emanating divine auras that swept out in all directions. “Pay them no mind and carry on with your business!” the princess cried out. With a wave of her hand, she cast a sheet of light onto Huang Liang, Bai Qi, Lian Po, and the other military officers of Dong Hai, wrapping them in a faint layer of five-colored light. With that, the walls of ice blocking them vanished into water vapor instantly.

Huang Liang and his company roared, bolting for the camps outside of the city gates and leaving afterimages behind them.

Several Supreme Oracles grunted coldly as they steered their Supreme Towers toward Princess Zhang Le.

While howling, Wu Qi produced 108 Kunwu Swords, which rolled up the rich natural energy in the surroundings and activated Liangzhu’s defensive formation. The patterns of formation gradually lit up across the ground in the city, and an immense amount of energy was poured into the swords. Wu Qi trembled, feeling as if all the energy in the entire You Xiong Plain was gathering in him, and he was too weak to control it.

The past Human Emperors were able to control this formation because they used the formation in the great hall to share the backlash. And there was also Torch Dragon, who was imprisoned right beneath the great hall. His colossal, formidable fleshly body had become the cushion, absorbing the pressure. Therefore, the Human Emperors could effortlessly control the formation with only the overall strength of a Dao Reasoning expert.

But, Torch Dragon was gone now. Even with his overall strength of a Dao Breaking expert, Wu Qi felt that his body was about to be ripped apart by the monstrous energy. If it had not been for the extraordinary toughness of his flesh after being tempered by the Heaven Refining Grand Magic, he would have been blown to bits now.

With a wry smile, Wu Qi pointed at the formation and snapped, “King Xin Shan, order your men back to their barracks now! And I want you, as well as your supporters who have betrayed Great Yu, to surrender immediately! Or else…Damnit, or else I’ll kill every single one of you!”

As he said that, his body grew to a hundred thousand feet tall, with blue veins bulging and twisting like dragons beneath the skin all over him. Streams of energy constantly poured through the Kunwu Swords into his body; by relying on the power of the formation, his overall strength soared, and he had soon reached the peak-level of Dao Breaking realm, similar to Emperor Haozun back then.

When one stepped into the peak-level of Dao Breaking realm, one had the power to break almost all the chains of the Heavenly Dao’s laws. Wu Qi’s eyes gleamed with purple fire; he felt he had returned to the prime of his previous life, as if he now had the power to destroy everything in front of him. He glared at the Supreme Oracles who had stopped Huang Liang and others, and cried out in a flat voice, “DIE!”

The Oracles’ bodies exploded instantly, their bones and flesh disintegrating and their souls vanishing. After that, Wu Qi pointed out a finger, bringing their Supreme Towers down to the ground. Princess Zhang Le sent out a beam of five-colored divine ray and took them all away.

King Yang Shan shouted, “King Dong Hai, slay all the traitors! Kill every single one of them save for their masterminds—King Xin Shan and King Li Shan!”

“Understood!” Wu Qi answered in a deep voice.

At his thought, numerous huge, silvery-purple stars emerged in the sky, spinning violently and spitting out countless fist-sized, silver rocks with sharp edges. Plunging straight down toward the earth like shooting stars, each of the rocks smashed accurately onto the head of a general or soldier from the Flying Bear Army.

The rocks were extremely heavy and sharp. Even though the generals and soldiers all had profound cultivation bases and strong fleshly bodies, they were instantly killed once they were struck.

Wu Qi was surrounded by a thick, heavy energy vortex, and his massive body made him look like a Fiend God. His long hair fluttered wildly in the wind, his eyes gleaming; his whole body and divine soul had fused into one with the formation in Liangzhu. He had never felt so good before. In the area covered by the formation, he could control almost everything except the Secret Palace, which was protected by countless restrictive spells.

“King Xin Shan, stop now or die!”

While no one was watching at him, Wu Qi stealthily sneaked the boundless energy the formation had gathered into the Heaven Refining Cauldron between his eyebrows.

The cauldron was an extraordinary artifact in the Chaotic World. Although it had no offensive or defensive power, it could create amazing things. Besides, it was much stronger than the current Wu Qi, because it gave no response no matter how much energy was poured into it. Wu Qi took the opportunity to steal more energy, for he needed its aid in the cultivation of the Heaven Refining Grand Magic.

King Xin Shan, drenched in sweat, turned and pointed at Wu Qi. He was too weak to even curse at this point.

Even Emperor Haozun dared not let all the energy in the formation pour into his body, and he could only control the entire formation after the backlash was cushioned by Torch Dragon and the smaller formation in the great hall. But Wu Qi was controlling the ultimate killing formation alone. Was he a freak?

Anyone who controlled the formation could have the overall strength of a peak-level Dao Breaking expert. In today’s Great Yu, no one could resist the man who controlled it. Staring at Wu Qi in despair, King Xin Shan suddenly roared, “Damn you, Buddha Sole! Are you not done yet? You…you…It’s been so many days! DAMN YOU!”

His curse was still reverberating in the air when a hoarse, low, evil voice came from a distance.

“I am, Buddha! Oh, Buddha has mercy! Well, I did not expect that after killing Emperor Haozun and destroying the You Xiong Palace, there is still someone who can bear the backlash of the formation with his fleshly body.”

The voice paused for a brief moment, then went on slowly, “Listen carefully, the Kings of Great Yu’s imperial council…I’ve controlled the Temple of Truth in the Secret Palace. The life and death of your revered elders are hanging on my thoughts. Why don’t we talk it over? Hehe!”

As Buddha Sole laughed evilly, King Yang Shan and the others looked in the direction of the Secret Palace, their faces ashen. Meanwhile, King Xin Shan raised his hands and cheered loudly while his followers roared with excitement.

Only those subjects who were genuinely loyal to Great Yu shuddered and uttered a howl of despair.