Stealing The Heavens

Zhendong, the easternmost city in Dong Hai, the current headquarters of Dong Hai army…

A row of wooden platforms about half the height of a man was placed in the spacious council hall, on which were laid dozens of burly men who only wore trousers. They all had strange injuries; blood and pus were dripping all over the floor, and the stench was so bad that it stung the eyes of the people in the hall.

Princess Zhang Le was standing next to a soldier who had been stung by Daoist Bees’s hornets, along with several young women in Oracle black robes. The man was barely conscious, and he had a high fever. His body was so hot that if an egg was put on his skin, it would be fully cooked in just seconds. He was densely covered with fist-sized boils, where blood and pus kept dripping out.

She put a silver needle into the soldier’s body and turned it gently. When she pulled it out, it was covered with a faint black-and-gray haze. Her face darkened after she brought the needle close to her nose and sniffed it carefully.

In addition to formidable living beings like those Chaos Fiend Gods, the Chaotic World had also given birth to various weaker but bizarre creatures. The ‘rotting-energy hornets’ were one of them. In the Chaotic World, these hornets born with the cultivation base of Heaven Immortals were the weakest existences. With only the cultivation base of Gold Immortals after reaching their adulthood, they were often the prey of other strong creatures.

But to the people of Pangu Continent, rotting-energy hornets were terrifying creatures.

Daoist Bees’s hornets had a very complicated and powerful venom. Princess Zhang Le guessed that they were bred by him with a queen bee of rotting-energy hornets and some venomous insects in Pangu World. Also, she smelled thirty-six different poisonous plants from the silver needle. Mixing these things together to feed the hornets would make their venom more vicious and difficult to get rid of.

No wonder instead of healing them, the soldiers’ wounds festered when the Oracles used the antidote on them. The substance did expel some of the toxicity in the mixed venom, to be sure, but it also blended with others and mutated into a new venom that was even stronger, causing the wounds to fester.

Because rotting-energy hornets came from the Chaotic World, their venom was mixed with a hint of chaotic energy, so the detoxing spells of the Directorate of Celestials were powerless against it. As a result, Ying Ziying’s army of 300,000 soldiers had suffered a great defeat, with over 200,000 of them severely wounded.

Princess Zhang Le had poured over the Scripture of Alchemy Wu Qi had composed in his previous life. After pondering for a brief moment, she whispered numerous names of herbs. The female Oracles next to her quickly wrote down the herbs and the methods of concocting them, so they could prepare the concoction to heal the soldiers later.

Looking at the emperors and courtiers of the six states in the hall, Princess Zhang Le shook her head and said, “Whether the antidote will work remains to be seen. We have to temporarily halt the attack. Order everyone to hold fast to the fortresses, cities, and all the important passes. We can’t let Ling Dynasty take advantage of us at this moment.”

Ying Ziying’s army, routed by Daoist Bees, was not the only one who had suffered defeat. Dozens of other armies had also encountered itinerant immortals who called themselves idlers. By relying on various bizarre venomous things, mystic arts, or strange magical artifacts, these immortals had routed forty-seven armies, killed nearly thirty thousand soldiers, and severely wounded eighty percent of the soldiers.

Of the dozens of soldiers laid in the great hall, only one was wounded by Daoist Bees, and the rest were the work of other itinerant immortals. Some of them were festering, some had their souls injured, some blinded, and some were stiff as zombies. The Oracles of Dong Hai were helpless in treating these strange and bizarre injuries, so they had sent the soldiers here to let Princess Zhang Le find cures for them.

Fortunately, Princess Zhang Le had poured over Wu Qi’s Scripture of Alchemy, and Wu Qi had taught her many tricks of his predecessor, Lord Yuan Ling. Otherwise, she would have been equally helpless. Many of the soldiers’ injuries were related to some venomous things in the Chaotic World, and some were actually vicious curses passed down by Chaos Fiend Gods. If she had only known the Primordial Dao of Divinity she had inherited, she would never have ways to deal with these unimaginably queer mystic arts of Chaos Fiend Gods.

For example, a soldier laid twitching on the wooden platform, whose skin was cracked like cowhide and muscles blackened like necrotic flesh, was cursed with the ‘zombie spell’ invented by ‘Lord Zombie’, a Chaos Fiend God who had fallen countless of years ago. It was a brutal spell that could turn a man into a bloodthirsty zombie, who could fly in the sky and move in the earth and kill at will.

Even Great Yu’s Directorate of Celestials did not have any record of this zombie spell. But, Princess Zhang Le knew that although the spell was brutal, it could be easily dispelled by three leaves of common rue plants drawn with evil-expelling runes. It sounded simple, but this easy treatment was found at the cost of countless lives in ancient times.

Princess Zhang Le examined the soldiers one after another and came out with specific treatments for each. The few female Oracles quickly put the treatments she provided in jade slips, and then handed them to the generals waiting off to the side. In the process of her diagnosis, news came that wounded soldiers had begun to die in large numbers, and soldiers cursed with zombie spells had shed their skins and turned into zombies covered in black hair, causing trouble all over the place.

The atmosphere in the council hall was depressing. All the higher-ups of Dong Hai were frowning, contemplating for solutions.

Now that the so-called idlers had joined Ling Dynasty, it meant that there would be more and more itinerant immortals proficient in all sorts of strange and odd tricks participating in the war. Although Dong Hai had a lot of generals and soldiers, because of the agreement between the two sides, that those with the cultivation base above the realm of Primordial could not intervene, the ordinary generals and soldiers would certainly suffer from these itinerant immortals.

Daoist Bees was one such example. In terms of cultivation base, he was so weak that Ying Ziying could riddle him with just a thrust of his pike. However, by relying on the hornets he had bred with energy-rotting hornets and other poisonous things, he was able to rout an army of hundreds of thousands of soldiers led by Ying Ziying, causing serious casualties.

The same was true of the other forty-seven defeated armies. The cultivation base of the itinerant immortals they had encountered was far inferior to the commanding generals. If they fought with their actual cultivation base, the generals of Dong Hai could easily kill them. But, by relying on strange venomous things, queer spells, and bizarre magical artifacts, they managed to rout forty-seven armies of Dong Hai.

The reserves of Dong Hai army were still too weak, lacking those who were skilled in all kinds of strange arts. Heaven, on the other hand, had been building up their forces in outer heavenly realms for years, planting who knew how many itinerant immortals well versed in all kinds of bizarre mystic arts all over the universe through the Dao League. They could easily mobilize as many itinerant immortals as they needed to join Ling Dynasty in their personal capacity.

Silence reigned in the great hall. Suddenly, a cloud of black smoke gushed out of the ground and Wu Qi stepped out of it while frowning.

Seeing that Wu Qi was here in his true self, Princess Zhang Le hurried up and whispered to him a few words about the situation. The higher-ups of Dong Hai greeted him, all frowning and unable to figure out a solution.

Wu Qi, with his arm around Princess Zhang Le, was also wondering how the battle would go on. After Daoist Bees’s incident, he suddenly realized that Dong Hai’s reserves were still too weak. They would be at a disadvantage if Dong Hai were left to take a beating against Ling Dynasty’s various dirty tricks.

‘I have to figure out a way to turn the tide…Maybe I should also go to outer heavenly realms and recruit some itinerant immortals? But, I’m not the Shen Gongbao ¹ in the Investiture of the Gods, the freak who can make people die for him by just asking them to stay!’

Just as he was pondering, a soldier ran into the hall and shouted, “My lords, a cultivator who called himself Daoist Bees is challenging us to battle with three thousand soldiers at the East Gate!” Wu Qi was so angry that he laughed. How dare a little Gold Immortal came to their doors and challenge them to battle? He snorted coldly and gave the higher-ups of Dong Hai a glance, and then they all went to the East Gate Tower, looking down at Daoist Bees who was challenging them to battle.

The daoist was still clad in the same outfit, and behind him stood a row of three thousand soldiers. With the iron gourd in his hands, he looked proudly at the gates and shouted, “I’m Daoist Bees from Mount Guyin! Which of the fellow daoists from Dong Hai dare to fight me?” Shaking his legs complacently, he laughed and said, “Seniors of Primordial realm better stay out of this. According to the agreement between Ling Dynasty and Dong Hai, you can only be onlookers!”

Catfish smacked her lips as drool dribbled down the side of her mouth. She sulkily turned her head and forced herself not to look at Daoist Bees, for fear that she could not help swallowing him and breaking the agreement between Dong Hai and Ling Dynasty.

Wu Qi’s face was very unsightly with the fact that someone had blocked the city gates and was challenging to battle. Suddenly, one of the generals next to Huang Liang shouted as he leaped up into the air and brought his sword down toward Daoist Bees. The general had the cultivation base of the Third Stars Realm of Second Pangu Heaven. In terms of strength, he could absolutely suppress Daoist Bees.

But, as soon as the general leaped up, a shadow flashed across the void. He shrieked and covered his mouth with both hands, then spun and ran. However, he had only taken a few steps when he collapsed to the ground. Wu Qi saw what had happened. A hornet had flown into the general’s mouth and stung his tongue. As the tongue was near the brain, the toxic had spread very quickly.

“Curse him to death!” Wu Qi snorted coldly.

Several Oracles of Dong Hai stepped forward. Staring at Daoist Bees, they chanted a few incantations and then pointed their bone staffs at him together.

A ghostly screech rang out and a bright white light shaped like lotus flowers suddenly emerged around Daoist Bees, vanishing the curses in the blink of an eye. Laughing triumphantly, he pointed at the top of the wall and said, “What do you evil people know? I have carried with me a blessing talisman given by His Majesty, which will protect me against all evil spells and curses. How are you going to hurt me with your cultivation base of Gold Immortals?”

Before his voice had died away, a dozen armies of Ling Dynasty swarmed over from all directions. Each army had only three to five thousand soldiers, and was led by a daoist in strange outfits. Shouting and yelling, they quickly approached the city.

“Do any of you on the walls dare to fight me?”

Voices challenging to battle filled the void as the dozens of itinerant immortals who had joined Ling Dynasty blocked the city gates.