Stealing The Heavens

In the main hall of Great Wu’s imperial advisor mansion, dozens of strange-looking demon immortals shrouded in a strong demonic aura stood respectfully beneath the dais, led by the rabbit demon Wu Qi had taken years ago, Tu Xiaobai. At Wu Qi’s behest, she had traveled far from Dong Hai to Great Wu, and subdued countless mountain spirits and river demons along her way. These dozens of demon immortals were their leaders.

In addition to Tu Xiaobai, Wu Qi had also summoned his eighteen Blood-draining Celestial Fiends here.

In the short term, Great Wu would not be in conflicts with any major power like New Yu. Instead, it would only attack and conquer the mortal kingdoms from outer heavenly realms to the east and west. There would be a lot of small-scale battles and many casualties, so it was the best opportunity for his Blood-draining Celestial Fiends to improve their cultivation of Blood Sea Grand Magic with the blood essence of the dead soldiers. Wu Qi had also conjured a Dark Yin Celestial Tower and given it to these clones, so that they could use the energy in Great Wu’s earth veins to hasten time and produce a batch of formidable soldiers.

Tu Xiaobai used the identity of a demon immortal who had volunteered to submit to Great Wu. The spirits and demons she had subdued along her way were other pawns Wu Qi planted in Great Wu. The mission he gave her was not to get overly involved in Great Wu’s battles, but subdue all the spirits and demons in the land where Great Wu expanded into, especially those with the bloodlines of spirit beasts or even divine beasts. He told her to take great care of them, and she must cultivate their absolute loyalty toward Wu Qi. With the help of his Blood-draining Celestial Fiends, it was not a difficult task anyway.

With Guigu’zi and Mo Di overseeing Great Wu’s state affairs, Wu Qi had nothing to worry about. So, after settling everything, he returned to Dong Hai.

At the current level of his cultivation base, Wu Qi possessed an ability that could give him a sudden whim, and he could foretell whether the whim was a good or a bad one by counting his fingers. When Dong Hai’s spies brought to him the intelligence about Ling Dynasty and Zhang Tengyun, he instinctively felt a great threat. This was the reason why he had decided to return to Dong Hai, for he feared something might cause a problem to his stronghold.

When Wu Qi arrived in Dong Hai, Princess Zhang Le was assembling the main force of Dong Hai and the regiments of the six states, getting ready to launch a full assault against Ling Dynasty.

Over the East Sea, tens of thousands of flying ships big and small hovered in midair with countless soldiers standing orderly across the decks. Their blades and spears gleamed brilliantly, and their armors were polished to a high sheen. There were so many flags and banners that they seemed to block the sunlight like clouds. The deep, dull sound of drumbeats and sharp, loud calls of horns caused the sea to billow, and amidst the raging waves roamed countless water spirits and water demons led by the few dragon kings. Vast draconic aura was spreading across the boundless water body of the East Sea. The entire sea was controlled by the aura of the dragon, and towering waves could be raised at any time.

Dozens of the largest rivers in Great Yu’s eastern region were being filled by the water from the East Sea. Waves of seawater rushed straight into these rivers that were hundreds of miles wide at the narrowest part. The rivers stretched far and wide, and all reached into the heart of the far east land controlled by Ling Dynasty. With them, Dong Hai’s naval force could easily sail into the dynasty’s territory. If the few dragon kings were allowed to raise water at will, the people of Ling Dynasty would be devastated by a great flood.

Water spirits and water demons had amazing fertility. For example, a demon sunfish could lay billions of eggs at a time. After resting for so many years under Wu Qi’s protection and his encouragement, the total number of Dong Hai’s naval force could only be said to be terrifying: it was at least ten times the number of Dong Hai’s human soldiers. Even the few dragon kings could not figure out how many soldiers they had.

Monstrous killing intent soared through the clouds. Although it was daytime, there were dozens of stars flickering with a bizarre gleam high in the sky, staring down at the gathering army of Dong Hai like eyes.

A plume of black smoke rolled out of Dong Hai City, standing on which, Wu Qi came to the flagship of the naval force. The higher-ups, including Princess Zhang Le, hurried over to welcome him. They knew the Wu Qi in front of them was not the clones he used to trick others, but the real him.

While smiling, Wu Qi grabbed Princess Zhang Le’s hand, then suddenly looked up at the sky and said, “What are you looking at?”

His voice was not loud, but it turned into a deafening rumble near the natal stars of those Heaven’s Celestial Lords situated extremely high and far in space. Meanwhile, his eyes gleamed brightly as he exercised the Eye of the Thousand Ghosts. A powerful evil force transformed into an invisible blast wave and rushed into the sky.

The dozens of Celestial Lords who were exercising divine abilities with their natal star power to peep at Dong Hai army grunted at the same time. They were caught unprepared, and the deafening rumble shook their ears and made them feel a stabbing pain. Their eyes were stinging too, and tears, something that they had not seen in many years, rolled off their cheeks and fell to the ground. Before being strengthened by their natal star power, most of these Celestial Lords only possessed the cultivation base of ordinary Gold Immortals, and some were even Heaven Immortals. How could they resist Wu Qi’s deliberate attack?

Had it not been because he did not want to alarm Heaven at this moment and give them a reason to take revenge, he would have struck these Celestial Lords harder by deafening and blinding them completely.

A fierce man was feared by even gods and ghosts. After Wu Qi showed off his mighty power, the bright gleam of the stars in the sky immediately faded, leaving behind only the sun that seemed to shine even brighter and hotter. In fact, the Sun Celestial Lord was also one of Heaven’s subjects. He could unabashedly peep at anything he wanted from the sky, and one could not accuse him of harboring some ill intent, because bringing light to everything was his job after all.

Wu Qi shot a cold look at the sun, which seemed to double in size, and snorted.

Ao Buzun walked out from the crowd, then threw his head back and roared. The countless water demons in the East Sea echoed him, filling the air with cheers. As their voices grew louder and louder, waves rose into the sky and exploded into spray and mist that enveloped the void. Before long, the vast East Sea and the land of tens of thousands of provinces in the eastern region were completely blanketed by a thick layer of water cloud.

Wu Qi twitched his mouth sulkily. Heaven had an overwhelming advantage with the 84,000 Celestial Lords they controlled. It was not a good feeling to have so many Celestial Lords watching him march his army across Pangu Continent.

Fortunately, Heaven did not dare to intervene directly in the affairs on Pangu Continent. Otherwise, it would be too difficult for him to do anything. However, such a situation might not last for too long. Once Heaven really invested new Celestial Lords, it could also invest those common deities such as the deities of mountains, rivers, earth, and others. These lesser deities were commonly found in the mortal worlds, and it could do the exact same thing on Pangu Continent.

Once every mountain, river, city, and every piece of land was watched over by one or more deities conferred by Heaven, nothing the people on Pangu Continent did would be able to hide from them. That would be the time the whole Pangu Continent fell into Heaven’s hand.

With his mind troubled by these thoughts, Wu Qi held Princess Zhang Le’s hand and stood at the prow of the flagship, surrounded by all the courtiers of Dong Hai, as the tens of thousands of flying ships flew toward the east. In the East Sea, the countless naval forces led by Lord Xiansheng rode along on the waves, sending sprays up that thickened the mists in the sky.

Slowly, the great army of Dong Hai spread out in a line on both wings. Wu Qi’s flagship took the lead and the rest of the ships flanked it to form a shape that looked like a great bird. Wherever the fleet past, the cries of ‘Conquer the Dynasty of Ling! Bring down the fatuous emperor!’ shook the sky. All the garrisons in the cities and fortress along their way came out to greet them, lining up in midair and echoing to the battle cries.

Just as the army was approaching the eastern border, two objects that looked like wheels wrapped in two blue whirlwinds about a mile in circumference shot whistling over, striking the two serpent-shaped flying ships that flanked Wu Qi’s flagship. Numerous runes emerged across the ships’ decks as all the defenses were activated at once. But, the whirlwinds were extremely powerful; the wheels crushed into the ships’ prows, destroyed everything inside like a hot knife cutting through butter, and came out of the rear.

Thousands of soldiers in the ships were seriously wounded. Oracles hurriedly chanted spells and conjured gusts of wind to bring all the soldiers to other nearby ships. Meanwhile, dozens of Oracles raised their hands and chanted the spells Princess Zhang Le had taught them, drawing plumes of Pangu Sacred Energy over and pouring them into the injured soldiers’ bodies. In the blink of an eye, their broken bones and gashes were completely healed.

This was the advantage of human soldiers when they were fighting on Pangu Continent. Unless beheaded, no injuries could cause them real harm.

Wu Qi paid no mind to the soldiers who were healing themselves, but focused all his attention on Lord Boyang, who rode a black qilin and was looking over from ahead with a weird smile on his face. Holding a sword breaker in each hand, the crown prince greeted Wu Qi with a nod, then lifted his weapons and smashed his own head to pulp.

It startled Wu Qi and Princess Zhang Le. Amidst the shocked cries of Dong Hai courtiers, Lord Boyang plunged to the ground like a sack of cotton.

The black qilin looked at Wu Qi and others in feign horror and hissed, “How dare you! How could you kill Heaven’s Crown Prince! Y-yo-you… you… Heaven will make you pay for this!”

When he had finished, the qilin threw his head back and breathed a stream of crimson flame, which kindled him immediately and burned him to ashes in the blink of an eye while his wisp of true soul drifted away. Just like what had happened to Lord Bowang’s soul, Wu Qi could not capture where the qilin’s true soul had gone.

“Damnit, they are framing us!” Even Qu Ping, the best-tempered of the six emperors, could not help swearing, and almost dismantled the flagship with a stamp. Exasperated, he waved his hands continuously and drew numerous streaks of gray light in the air. Then, Lord Boyang’s body flew up and fell into his arms.

Qu Ping put a finger into Lord Boyang’s chest and narrowed his eyes, looking as if he was trying to find out something. After some time, he nodded and said, “This is strange…His soul seems to have moved out, and then an external divine sense was injected into the body. But, the foreign thing cannot even be considered as a soul…At most, it is only a violent divine sense. What happened to him?”

No one answered his question, and it did not require an answer either.

All eyes and ears were veiled and blocked by the clouds and mists in the sky the army of Dong Hai had produced. With Lord Boyang dying right in front of the army, Heaven now had the reason to intervene.