Stealing The Heavens

Inside the formation, more than a thousand mountains, each measuring hundreds of miles around, were slamming down toward Celestial Lord Greed in a row. Wu Qi had merged all the mountains and rivers within a hundred thousand miles with the formation, and he was attacking the enemy now with the mountains he conjured with the energy of the earth veins, which was incredibly powerful.

The Greed Star represented craftiness. Of the three murderous stars—Seven Killing, Vanquisher, and Greed—he was the most intelligent one, but also the weakest in terms of fighting strength. So, Wu Qi had chosen Celestial Lord Greed as the first breakthrough point. Plus, his injury was the worst, making him the easiest target.

Greed kept waving his strange-looking fan at the mountains that were pelting him, sending gusts of black wind that turned into countless wolves and shattered them. He coped easily with the first hundred mountains; as for the next hundred mountains, he still did not find it difficult. But, when the third wave of a hundred mountains came down with flames, ice, and chilly wind, his face turned a little unsightly.

The formation had cut off the star power, and there was nothing around him but the rich Pangu Sacred Energy. Not only could Greed not replenish himself with any energy, but his magic power was constantly dissolved by Pangu Sacred Energy as well. The bright silver-purple starlight shrouding him was fading, the great strength that could destroy everything was vanishing from him, and the mountains—which he had been able to shatter easily—were now rocking him.

The Celestial Lord freaked out. He kept chanting incantations and trying to draw the power of his natal star. Outside the formation, the Greed Star shone so brightly and swelled so huge that it was almost touching the surface of Pangu Continent. The vast sky was left with only one star, shining brilliantly while constantly pouring down a huge column of light toward the ground. However, as soon as the column of light approached the formation, it vanished without a trace. The Heaven Refining Cauldron had swallowed up all the power.

Heaven Refining Cauldron was a Supreme Artifact of Primal. Although it did not have any strong offensive or defensive means, it could refine everything in the world, including all the energy of innate and acquired nature. For it, this star power was a raw material that could be used for artifact refinement. Now, with the formation preventing Greed from controlling it, the cauldron could easily hide all of it inside its body.

As the star power was devoured by the Heaven Refining Cauldron, Greed’s situation became increasingly difficult. His cultivation base was just at the level of a Gold Immortal, and all his strength came from the infinite star power of the Greed Star. In the past, he had taken the path of pure brute force by relying on the star power, and there were few artifacts in the world that he could not smash, and no formation he could not break. But today, he had run into this freak called Wu Qi. In Wu Qi’s interstitial world were 108,000 Great Daos of Ancient Stars which came from the Kaleidoscopic Star Core, so he was naturally an expert at manipulating star power. Also, with the cauldron devouring the star power outside and the formation isolating the void, all this had kept Greed completely separated from his natal star.

The star power inside him was constantly draining, but he could not get anything to replenish it. After shattering more than 1,300 mountains, Greed finally showed a look of trepidation. As he frantically recited the incantation of controlling the power of his natal star, he began to flee aimlessly within the formation.

But, the formation was completely under Wu Qi’s control. The space and time inside could change with his mind. As a result, no matter how far Greed flew or teleported, he never got out of Wu Qi’s sight; he was always within a few hundred miles of Wu Qi.

At some point, Xiang Yu, hiding behind a mountain, suddenly leaped out. His Banner of Chiyou transformed into a boundless sea of blood and engulfed Greed, holding the Celestial Lord back for three seconds. In such a short time, Xiang Yu thrust his pike thousands of times. Seized from Huo Wu and renamed the ‘Blood Dragon Pike’ by Xiang Yu, the Primordial Artifact stabbed mercilessly at its target.

Greed cursed in a hoarse voice as he desperately waved his long, strange-looking feather fan, trying as hard as he could to ward off Xiang Yu’s attack. But, Xiang Yu’s strength was so great that whenever his pike stabbed the fan, Greed’s body trembled and the starlight shrouding him wavered and dimmed. When it came to the last thirteen attacks, Greed felt a numbness in his wrist and his feather fan was knocked off by the pike. Following that, Xiang Yu quickly stabbed him thirteen times in a row.

The Celestial Lord howled in pain as his body was pierced with thirteen large holes.

The last glimmer of star power inside him exploded, transforming him into a hundred-feet-long wolf with a pair of silver wings behind the back. With a shake of his body, he shattered the sea of blood that had held him and shot into the sky amidst a silver ray of light. Then, he opened his mouth and shot out a silver bolt of lightning toward one of the Kunwu Swords that had formed the formation, in the hope of opening a gap.

All he had to do was open a gap, and the endless star power would fuse with him, instantly returning him to his strongest state.

It was at this moment that four broken dragon bodies flashed past him, each with only one claw that tightly clasped a blurry halberd. A few streaks of purple light tore through the void, and in the next moment, a few ugly gashes were added to Greed’s body. He shrieked in pain as blood sprayed out of the wounds; his body, which was shooting upward, came to a sudden halt.

Lord Xiansheng revealed himself out of the void while panting. The attack had almost drained him of his last bit of energy. He had not fully recovered from the injury caused by the punch yet, and he had risked his life to give Greed a serious blow.

A spear smashed down straight from the sky. While roaring, Ao Buzun raised his Soul-splitting Spear high and smote the huge wolf right in the head. Greed trembled, and his immortal soul was struck by a great force, flickering like an oil lamp in a storm. The attack had nearly wiped out his soul.

Fortunately, all Celestial Lords’ souls were protected by a powerful spell. Although Greed’s immortal soul was nearly shattered by the attack, he survived under the protection of the spell. Nevertheless, as his soul had been seriously shaken, he was now as dumb as an idiot. He lay on the ground while moaning and groaning, but could not move at all. After turning back to his human form, his eyes rolled backward, and then he fainted.

Yuan Qing appeared next to Greed with a sneer, then raised his staff high and rained down blows on the Celestial Lord, shattering all his joints. While he was at it, he struck the man’s lower body with a seemingly unintentional blow, crushing everything below the pelvis. “How dare you break my staff!” he said while gritting his teeth as he gave the poor fella a few kicks in the head. “Since you have broken my iron staff, I’ll break your mean stick!”

Wu Qi rolled his eyes and pretended to not hear Yuan Qing’s words. The little demon ape who was once simple and honest was gone. This was what happened to those who had been influenced by Ao Buzun for too long. Wu Qi was not surprised at all.

Princess Zhang Le, on the other hand, gave Yuan Qing a glare and scared him into hiding behind Wu Qi with the staff in his arms. She then looked coldly at Greed—who had been severely battered—and took out nineteen long, black needles with bloody tips, inserting them into his body.

These needles were not inserted into the acupuncture points or blood vessels, but into what were known in the records of the Secret Palace as the ‘Energy Essence Chakras’. When a person’s nineteen chakras were controlled by the needles—in other words, when the sources of his energy essence were controlled—no matter how powerful he was, he would literally be crippled.

Gold Horn and Silver Horn flew over with Gold Feather and Silver Feather, asking bluntly, “Can we eat now?”

Wu Qi shook his head. “There are two more,” he sneered while pointing at the two twinkling stars in the distance. “We need to capture them first.” With a frown, he kicked Greed and said, “His cultivation base is nothing more than a third-tier Gold Immortal. I don’t think he makes a good meal for you!”

Silver Horn stared at Wu Qi with wide eyes as he curled his upper lip and said proudly, “We do not just eat to fill our stomachs now, we eat to taste. Well, he is a Celestial Lord from the Heaven after all, and that’s enough for us to eat him. As for whether he is too thin and tasteless, that’s secondary!”

Wu Qi looked at Princess Zhang Le blankly and wondered what kind of demons he had raised. Who taught them that? Eat to taste?

A bright gleam flashed through his eyes, and in the blink of an eye, some changes occurred to the formation. Wu Qi gestured everyone to move together. With the formidable power of the formation, they were able to capture Seven Killing and Vanquisher. And just like what they did to Greed, Yuan Qing crushed and shattered their joints and lower bodies, and the princess imprisoned them with the same means.

Although all three Celestial Lords had lost the support of their natal stars, they still had a strong star power left in them. It took Wu Qi and his companions two days and two nights to capture them all with the help of the formation. If it were not for the Heaven Refining Cauldron, a Supreme Artifact of Primal that could devour star power, it would not have been possible for him to completely cut off the star power with the formation alone, and he would not have trapped them so easily.

Wu Qi called back his Kunwu Swords and dismissed the formation. He was about to regroup the army and return to Dong Hai when he heard a dragon roar coming from the sky, followed by a familiar voice, “King Dong Hai, please stay! I’ve come to visit you!”

At the sound of Liu Bang’s voice, Xiang Yu immediately blended into the army without raising his head or making a noise. As there were millions of soldiers in the army, and Liu Bang, being a careful man, had all his attention focused on Wu Qi, he did not notice his archenemy being right in the army ahead of him.

Surrounded by more than ten thousand heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals, and flanked by two Celestial Lords in luxurious garbs, Liu Bang smiled, cupped his fist at Wu Qi and said, “King Dong Hai, I’ve good news for you!”

Wu Qi did not respond while Ao Buzun said briskly, as if he had practiced a thousand times, “What’s the good news? Are you going to marry me all your daughters and granddaughters?”

Liu Bang’s face froze. Pretending like he did not hear Ao Buzun, he smiled dryly and said to Wu Qi, “The Great Celestial Emperor asked me to bring his decree to you. The conflict between the three Celestial Lords and you was just a misunderstanding. As long as you give them back to us, Heaven will never harass Dong Hai.” He paused and pondered for a moment, then went on, “As for what happened to the Crown Prince, let’s forget about it! What do you think?”

Wu Qi glanced in amazement at the three unconscious Celestial Lords who were tightly bound like rice dumplings. He pretended to be considering for a long time before nodding and saying, “Great Celestial Emperor is suing for peace? Heaven is suing for peace? With what? If it is nothing but empty talk, I will not agree! These three fellas killed millions of my men. Do you have any idea what amount of pension I need to pay their families?”

Liu Bang’s face twisted on hearing that. Why did he find it a little unconscionable?