Stealing The Heavens

A gaunt, green-eyed old man who looked more like an ape than a human being squatted atop the spire of the Supreme Tower, squinting down at the corpses of Great Wu’s soldiers on the ground. “You’ve done well, boys! These fools are good-for-nothing! How dare they provoke us with their pitiful strength?” His voice was hoarse and grim, extremely unpleasant to the ear.

Wu Dehou’s stomach was in knots, and he had to squeeze his legs tightly together to prevent his pee from leaking out as he stared at the old man in horror. A feeling of despair and dread came from his instinct and almost knocked him out. It was an instinctive feeling of a lesser living being toward its superior predator. He knew from the first glance that the old man could easily kill him with one finger.

He never had such a feeling when facing Great Wu’s Supreme Oracles. Some said that those Supreme Oracles were as strong as the Supreme Oracles in Pangu Continent. But, when he saw a real Supreme Oracle with his own eyes, Wu Dehou knew immediately that that was nonsense.

He reckoned that even ten Supreme Oracles of Great Wu would not be able to defeat a real Supreme Oracle, and his instinct told him that if those Supreme Oracles from outer heavenly realms were to face this old man, they would certainly become a herd of lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

“Retreat! Retreat!” Wu Dehou shrieked hoarsely. The dreadful feeling in his heart forced him to give up his son who was tied to the flagpole, naked. He wheeled his wildebeest around, put his heels into it, and made it fly on a blue cloud for the rear. There was still an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in the rear, guarded by Mo Di, one of the imperial advisors. He suddenly missed that old man’s stern, never-smiling face so much, and he could scarcely wait to hide under his wings.

‘Perhaps… perhaps Imperial Advisor can defeat this fearsome old man?’

As he fled, Wu Dehou suddenly felt that some of his little thoughts were rather foolish and laughable, and he decided to extinguish all his wild ambition. He realized at this moment that only the three imperial advisors could truly lead Great Wu to its pinnacle, not him, not Wu Tianming, or anyone else in Great Wu.

“Heh, why are you fleeing when you already came so far?” The old man squatting atop the Supreme Tower lowered his head and cried out in a deep voice at the soldiers standing in awe in the town, “You’ve done well boys! The general in charge of this place will be promoted to a higher rank. An official letter will be sent here later, and this fortress will be expanded tenfold!”

Once he finished, the old man flicked his sleeve, throwing out a few human heads at the back of Wu Dehou, who was fleeing in panic. The heads were bloody, their eyes and mouths wide opened. Shockingly, they were the unlucky generals who had led the charge previously and were teleported to the city of You Xiong. Their unexpected appearance had alerted the emperor of New Yu, and he had sent Suiren Feng, the Supreme Oracle from Suiren Clan, to find out what was happening here.

The heads struck Wu Dehou as he was riding hard on his blue wildebeest, exploding into clouds of blood behind his back and attaching to him with wisps of flames which burned and made his skin crackle. He shrieked with pain, lying face down on the mount and trying his best to bear the burn. But soon, even his internal organs were twitching in pain while the bizarre flames burned the oils out of them. No longer able to withstand the excruciating pain, he rolled off the saddle and fell to the ground.

The Oracles following at his heels did now have the mind to save him. Instead, they rode on gusts of wind and fled for the camp in the rear. As the Supreme Tower sped silently through the void and approached Wu Dehou, Suiren Feng laughed evilly and said, “Interesting, interesting…How could they abandon their superior? In Great Yu…no, in New Yu, this is an offense that could get one’s whole clan executed!”

As he said that, Suiren Feng waved and conjured a huge flaming hand which reached out to grab Wu Dehou. At the same time, he casually looked into the distance. He could clearly see the camp of main force led by Mo Di some tens of miles away and a dense cloud of black smoke over it, the killing intent emanated by the army of hundreds of thousands while drilling. The shadow of a huge bear was faintly visible in the midst of the black cloud. It was the manifestation of the killing intent, the sign telling him that the army was an elite one.

While looking in surprise at the bear in the black cloud, Suiren Feng quickly sent his divine sense into the camp. It would be a significant impact for New Yu if this elite army possessed the overall strength equivalent to that of New Yu’s soldiers. But, what he found through his divine sense made him heave a sigh of relief. The killing intent and courage of those soldiers were indeed amazing, but their cultivation base was at least one to two tiers weaker than New Yu’s soldiers.

“A bunch of wild chicken and stray dogs!” Suiren Feng sneered. The huge hand had grabbed Wu Dehou, his skin and flesh crackling as the flames burned him while drops of translucent, glinting yellow oil slowly oozed out of him. The fire was called ‘Human Wither Flame’, a proud divine ability Suiren Feng used to torture people. It could extract all the oil and water out of the human body while keeping the subject alive, a very evil and savage technique.

Wu Dehou’s internal organs sizzled as if they were being cooked in hot oil. He opened his mouth and wanted to scream for help, but his voice vaporized into tendrils of white mists.

Suiren Feng shivered in excitement. Clenching his teeth, he kept on torturing Wu Dehou, slowly extracting the oil and water in the poor fellow’s body, one drop at a time. He had one prey now, and there was an army of hundreds of thousands in the distance waiting for him. Although His Majesty has sent me here to find out what is happening, he wouldn’t mind if I took the opportunity and wiped out an entire army, would he?’

He was thrilled at the thought of a spectacular lake filled with human oil extracted from hundreds of thousands of men. With so much human oil, the mystic art he was cultivating, which was extremely evil and strictly forbidden by Great Yu’s Directorate of Celestials, should be able to move up one level, and perhaps he could even improve his cultivation base by a tier.

Just as he was laughing excitedly, a furious roar came through the void, “You will be punished for abandoning your superior during war!”

The three imperial advisors of Great Wu—Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di—descended from the sky. A white sword beam about several miles long shot out of Wu Qi’s hand, pierced through the void, and slew the dozens of Oracles who had abandoned Wu Dehou and were fleeing for the rear. “Serves them right, these damnable things… Help me, my lords! I’m willing to become your disciple and give up all my wild ambition!” cried Wu Dehou hoarsely, who had been severely burned by the flames.

‘So, this guy does have some wild ambition, huh?’ thought Wu Qi as he arched an eyebrow. ‘Well, since you are so fat, it won’t hurt if some of your oil is extracted. I’ll save you later…Take this as the price you have to pay for your little ambition!’ After giving Wu Dehou a quick glance, he cupped his fist at Suiren Feng and said arrogantly, “Fellow Daoist, please set Great Wu’s imperial uncle free now!”

Suiren Feng snorted coldly and did not even bother himself to look at them. In his opinion, three peak-level Gold Immortals did not deserve his attention at all. However, there was no harm in being cautious either, so he activated the defenses of his Supreme Tower. A beam of strong black light shot out of the huge tower and enveloped him. With that, no sudden attack from these three lesser cultivators could hurt him, or so he thought.

Unlike Great Wu’s fake Supreme Oracles who always looked at others with their nostrils, any Oracle of Great Yu would properly protect himself before engaging in a battle. They would never give any chance to the enemy.

Wu Dehou screamed once again, “Help me, my lords! I’m willing to be your disciple and listen to your teaching day and night!”

Even though he was an old man, Wu Dehou burst into tears. The shadow of death hung ominously over his heart, and the immense fear had crushed him completely. All he wanted now was to live, and nothing else. What was honor and dignity worth when one was about to die?

Wu Qi smiled. He finally had a chance to see for himself what a Supreme Oracle of Great Yu was capable of.

Since Suiren Feng did not take them seriously, Wu Qi did not bother himself to talk to him. Realizing that Wu Dehou could not last for too long, he gave a long cry. With the voice, the sword he carried on his back soared into the sky, transformed into three sword beams that looked like white dragons, and slashed down at the Supreme Oracle.

At the same time, Guigu’zi began to cast a spell, murmuring an incantation and swinging his mahogany sword. His voice gradually swept out into the surrounding mountains and rivers like the buzzing sound made by countless locusts. Suddenly, a muffled noise was heard, and then fingers of earthy yellow smoke crept out of the mountains near and far. They all converged into huge plumes of yellow smoke, over a dozen of them, and rushed toward Suiren Feng.

Meanwhile, Mo Di simply flicked his sleeve. In the blink of an eye, a giant metal puppet, about a thousand feet tall and glinting brilliantly, emerged next to him, throwing its huge fist at Suiren Feng’s Supreme Tower.

Suiren Feng laughed. While shaking his head, he said, “Do you think you can defeat me with these petty crafts and techniques…”

His words came to an abrupt halt.

Wu Qi’s sword beams ripped apart his protective black light, grazed past his cheek, and cut off one of his ears. A pale green liquid slowly oozed out of the wound.

Before he could react, twelve huge spirit talismans of Six Ding and Six Jia Guigu’zi had conjured with the energy of earth veins fell lightly onto the Supreme Tower. A loud rumble rang out and the layer of protective light shrouding the tower wobbled violently. Suiren Feng felt that he could no longer control the tower.

He let out a scream of horror. Unmistakably, the power Wu Qi and his companions used was that of Gold Immortals, but their attacks were so brilliant that they struck at almost every flaw in his defense. So, with only the magic power of Gold Immortals, they were able to break apart his Primordial-grade defense.

Before he could figure out how they managed to accomplish such a feat, Mo Di’s metal puppet had struck his Supreme Tower with a punch.

A loud clanging noise filled every ear as the tower was knocked flying away. Hovering alone in the air, Suiren Feng gaped at the three men who had come to him.

Wu Qi clutched his shriveled neck with one hand and put the sword on his throat with another hand.

“Now, we can talk!”

His actions when he said that made him look rather like a hooligan collecting protection money on the street than a respectful immortal.

Suiren Feng’s eyes gleamed with menace. He was about to teach Wu Qi a hard lesson when a sharp pain in his groin made him forget every spell he knew.

With a knee strike to his groin, Wu Qi had turned Suiren Feng into an obedient captive.