Stealing The Heavens

Wu Qi was amused as he glanced at the black-clad daoist. ‘Aye, so she has decided to go all out, hasn’t she?’

The daoist herself was a peak-level Primordial expert, and she was now followed by thirty-six daoists and thirty-six monks, six of whom were Primordial Immortals and six were Buddhas. The six Primordial Immortals were ancient in appearance and the six Buddhas strange; when they glanced about, their eyes shone brilliantly, a sign that they were not ordinary figures.

On the overt side, Heaven and Buddhist League today had only about a thousand Primordial experts, and this black-clad daoist—who had reached the peak level of Primordial realm—was not among the known Primordial experts of Buddhist League. The twelve Primordial experts behind her were equally unknown in the past. Perhaps, even the two great powers did not know who they were.

Wu Qi nodded to himself. When he visited Greathorns the other day, the latter had told him many things, including the fact that how the Seven Buddhism Patriarchs and the nine Dao Patriarchs had saved their disciples. In each of the past Apocalypses, countless immortals and buddhas had died, but these Patriarchs had chosen some of the true elite among their disciples and protected them with mighty divine power, allowing them to pass safely through the calamities.

There might be only three to five disciples who survived each Apocalypse under their protection. But, with so many Apocalypses that happened in the past, they added up to a large number. These Primordial Immortals and Buddhas were the secret forces of Dao League and Buddhist League, just like the revered elders who hibernated in Great Yu’s Temple of Revered Elders. As for their exact number, it was an answer only the seven Buddhist Patriarchs and the nine Dao Patriarchs knew.

Wu Qi observed them closely. There was nothing special about the daoists, but the monks looked different. Their skin had a faint bronze tint, and when they occasionally grinned, he saw their teeth shining like translucent glass. It was obvious that they were practicing the most difficult and powerful cultivation technique of the ancient Buddhas.

The Buddhas of the present time cultivated either avatars, mind power, virtues, or divine abilities. But, ancient Buddhas cultivated their bodies, mind, and strength together, and used the cruelest means to temper all their body parts that could be tempered. Any ancient Buddha of successful practice was at least ten times stronger than a Buddha of today, even though their cultivation level was the same.

For example, it the current Lord Buddha, Amitabha were to fight with a Buddha who had reached the peak level of the Primordial realm through the practice of ancient Buddha’s cultivation technique, he was likely to be defeated in the blink of an eye. However, it was also because the power of this technique was so great that the practice of it was full of challenges and mental demons, and the slightest carelessness would usually cause death. Therefore, few of today’s buddhists practiced this technique, and almost all monks of the Buddhist League chose new techniques that were more convenient, faster, and safer.

The six monks who practiced ancient Buddha’s cultivation technique to the realm of Buddha were a very frightening force.

Narrowing his eyes, Wu Qi watched as the black-clad daoist led the group of monks and daoists slowly forward, circling the emperor’s coffin three times while muttering Rebirth In Pureland Mantra. Afterward, she led them out of the mourning hall and stopped at the door.

She gave Wu Qi a quick glance, then looked at the many honorable elders standing near the hall. “Have any of you mastered alchemy?” She asked suddenly. Her voice was hoarse and dry, so that no one could recognize that she was actually a woman.

Wu Qi looked at her stupidly with the expression ‘What is alchemy?’.

A few long-bearded, well-groomed, and well-mannered old daoists slowly walked forward, proudly cupping their fists as they bowed to her. They were elders from some of the most famous alchemy sects in outer heavenly realms. They could not tell the strength of the black-clad daoist and those behind her, nor who they were. But, in order to gain fame and advantage for their sects, they came forward immediately when she asked the question.

The black-clad daoist sneered. With a soft cry from her, a skinny monk with the cultivation base of a Buddha behind her waved his hand vigorously, causing a lotus-shaped shadow to rush out of his palm. In the blink of an eye, the few old daoists were sucked into the shadow and vanished without a trace. The rest of the honorable elders were startled, and they all stepped forward at the same time to argue with the black-clad daoist. But then, an extremely terrible magic wave spread out of her body and rendered them motionless.

“So, you are the experts in alchemy? Good, good, good!” After suppressing all the honorable elders with the pressure of a Primordial expert, she sneered, “It’s good that you are the experts in alchemy!”

And then it dawned on Wu Qi. Apparently, she already knew that she had been intoxicated by a very brilliant ecstasy into doing something so ridiculous as to suck the emperor dry, causing his death. But, for the fear of losing face, she did not tell any of New Yu’s Supreme Oracles about it. It looked like she was going to investigate the emperor’s assassination on her own. Wu Qi would not give her the chance, though.

Inside the hall, Ji Fa waited until the black-clad daoist and her followers had left to begin conducting the funeral. With all the imperial clan members and courtiers of New Yu, he knelt before the coffin and cried bitterly at the top of his lungs. At the same time, several gray-haired old courtiers stood by the coffin, each holding a yellow scroll as they read the emperor’s ‘feats’ aloud in a trembling voice. The hall was filled with cries and wails as the filial sons and grandsons made every effort to show their yearning for the deceased.

The black-clad daoist was glancing back and forth across the faces of the silent honorable elders when she suddenly caught sight of a strange smile on Wu Qi’s face. “Why are you smiling, Lord Teeth?!” she demanded coldly.

While giggling, Wu Qi suddenly flew into the sky. A sheet of white flame spewed silently from the palm of his hand and instantly enveloped the entire palace. With the heat that could burn off everything and the dreadful aura that could destroy everything, Yuan Ling True Flames tumbled and spread across the ground; the mourning hall, which bore the brunt, was immediately reduced to ashes.

Without giving the black-clad daoist, the Primordial Immortals, and the Buddhas any chance to respond, the flames incinerated more than ten thousand members of New Yu’s imperial clan and tens of thousands of important courtiers in the hall. Tens of thousands of souls soared into the sky, and the strange force came pouring over once again to escort the souls into the void. But, the surrounding void was already burned into nothingness, and the vast Yuan Ling True Flame had condensed into numerous restrictive runes, completely sealing this part of the world.

In that trillionth of a second, the souls were engulfed by flames instead of being taken away, turning into wisps of smoke and dissipating. Then, Wu Qi’s body trembled as all his bones cracked at the same time. After the force, which came from far away to suck away the souls, lost its targets, it immediately struck Wu Qi and nearly shattered his incredibly strong flesh.

Vaguely, Wu Qi seemed to hear several angry shouts.

He smiled; at last he understood the source of this force.

With an unknown Supreme Artifact of Primal as the base, the nine Dao Patriarchs had forged a strange artifact similar to the List of Deities ¹ . Fueled by their magic power, the artifact could immediately sense the soul of anyone who died on Pangu Continent. Through its active identification, the souls of common people would be allowed to enter transmigration, while special souls would be sucked by it and properly stored, waiting to be invested as deities in the future.

But, artifacts were, after all, artifacts, and they always had weaknesses that could be exploited. By sealing off the void with all his magic power, Wu Qi had succeeded in delaying its power for a brief moment. Although the time was short, it was enough for Yuan Ling True Flame to incinerate the flesh and souls of the members of the imperial clan and courtiers.

With a strange laugh, Wu Qi twisted his body into a thread of chaotic energy and disappeared.

Nine terrible divine senses blasted down from the void, but they lost all trace of Wu Qi’s existence. Not willing to give up, they circled the capital hundreds of times, then spread out further. In just the blink of an eye, they had searched the entire Pangu Continent. However, Wu Qi’s escape art was extremely amazing. With his current cultivation base, although it was impossible for him to fight head-on with Dao Fusing experts, he could easily hide from them by just concealing his aura.

While he was hiding, his clone in the capital of Dong Hai gave off a faint aura. The nine divine senses swept past him without paying much attention.

Hiding in the void, Wu Qi flew slowly toward Dong Hai with a smirk on his face. He wondered how the nine old daoists would vent their anger after suffering such a heavy loss this time. Right under their noses, he had killed their tens of thousands of important chess pieces at once, almost completely wiping out the entire upper echelon of New Yu. ‘Let’s see how you are going to play this game next.’

What pleased him the most was that he had found a way to deal with the strange force. After this attempt, he had absolute confidence that he could kill anyone he wanted in both flesh and soul, although it was a great risk. Perhaps, when he did that once again, he would be immediately hunted down by the nine old daoists. He would never clash with that strange artifact again, unless he was forced to.

While coughing up small mouthfuls of blood, Wu Qi absorbed Pangu Sacred Energy and natural energy to slowly heal his injuries.

Although he was delighted to have just killed the higher echelons of New Yu, he was shocked by the backlash of the artifact, which contained a wisp of essence power that belonged to the nine Dao Patriarchs and the seven Buddhist Patriarchs. His body was almost disintegrated by the force. If it were not for the fact that his flesh was absurdly tough, and that he had exercised a mystic art in time to bounce off ninety percent of the backlash, he would have ended up very miserably today.

As he was healing himself and flying toward Dong Hai, a great roar shook the entire Pangu Continent.

It was Greathorns’s roar. “Bullsh*t! Why would I kill a few insignificant mortals? If I did it, I’d be your grandson. But if I didn’t do it, you’d be my grandsons! Do you dare to bet with me?”

Wu Qi burst into laughter. ‘They are so nervous that they went to bother Greathorns and the others?

‘Well, you’ve got the wrong guy!’

Humming a little tune, Wu Qi returned to the capital of Dong Hai and sat quietly in the underground spirit cave. There, he immersed all his mind in the boundless void in his body, looking at a twitching and struggling dragon-shaped emperor aura.