Stealing The Heavens

East of Great Wu’s imperial palace, in the back garden of the newly built mansion for the imperial advisor, Wu Qi sat comfortably in a small pavilion made with strands of fragrant wisteria. A tiny three-legged toad incense burner was placed next to him with tendrils of purple incense smoke wafting out of its gaping mouth. A comely young eunuch waited respectfully beside him, holding his breath and daring not to show the slightest negligence.

The eunuch, as well as another group of young eunuchs, were all native people of Great Wu. They had been serving in the palace since young, and were loyal to the dynasty until Wu Qi taught them Lao Ai’s Great Sun Technique. Since then, he had become their god, the master whom they pledged their absolute loyalty to.

A moment ago, he had brought Wu Qi a jade slip which contained a simple article. At first glance, it was only an ordinary article about some beautiful scenery, but when Wu Qi decoded it with a formula he had invented based on what he had learned from some intelligence agency back on earth, he extracted a piece of simple information out of it.

The jade slip came from Dong Hai’s spies. Composed with a unique encoding style invented by Wu Qi, no one could obtain anything valuable from it even if they managed to intercept it. When immortals and buddhas were sending secret information, they only sealed the jade slips with countless restrictive spells to prevent unauthorized divine senses from penetrating them. But, with the encoding style invented by Wu Qi, Dong Hai never had to put any restrictive spells on the jade slips containing secret information, for no outsider could understand the true message in them.

A unique way of sending information and a group of loyal eunuchs allowed Wu Qi to maintain a close connection with Dong Hai even when he was in Great Wu, allowing him to learn everything that was happening in Great Yu.

The jade slip in his hand contained only a sentence: The Human Emperor has trapped the three emperors of the ancient gods and is trying to kill them with all the courtiers.

Wu Qi’s finger toyed with the jade slip as he narrowed his eyes and sunk in thoughts.

It was only fourteen hours ago that Green Emperor, White Emperor, and Black Emperor went to seek justice in Liangzhu, and were subsequently trapped and attacked by Emperor Haozun, who had not played by the rules. The news had passed from Liangzhu to Dong Hai, and then from Dong Hai to Great Wu through various channels. And yet, it only took fourteen hours for Wu Qi to receive it. It showed how incredibly efficient Dong Hai’s intelligence system was.

Wu Qi shuddered at the thought of what the three emperors of the ancient gods represented. They were the first-generation gods given birth by heaven and earth after Pangu created the world, and were honored as Ancestral Gods by the gods that came after them. Their overall strength was infinitely close to the realm of Dao Fusing; but because of their unique existences in pure energy form, which made their fleshly bodies their souls, they could not fuse with Heavenly Dao and truly step into the realm of Dao Fusing.

Gods were the spirits manifested by the Laws of Heavenly Dao. They were born directly from the Heavenly Dao, and if they wanted to pursue the realm of Dao Fusing, they would have to fuse themselves with Heavenly Dao once again. It was like a drop of water returning to the ocean; it would be instantly assimilated by the ocean.

As a result, the three emperors possessed an overall strength infinitely close to the realm of Dao Fusing, except its unique characteristic: imperishable unless the Heavenly Dao is destroyed. Theoretically, they could be slain. Emperor Haozun, on the other hand, had everything on his side: the right time, the right place, and the right people. The three were stupid enough to challenge him under his roof. Wu Qi had witnessed the true power of Liangzhu’s defensive formation, and he knew that unless they were real Dao Fusing experts, they were at risk of being killed.

Even without Torch Dragon as the cushion of the formation, its power was still enough to seriously injure these three hapless emperors.

Wu Qi’s mouth watered at the thought of the endless divine power of the three almighty experts who had existed since the world was created. He had no lack of the insights of Heavenly Dao now, as Lord Yuan Ling, his predecessor, had already achieved attainments that were infinitely close to the realm of Dao Fusing. What he lacked was magic power. If he could get something out of the trio, he was confident that he could elevate his magic power to the threshold of Dao Fusing, and at the same time, greatly strengthen his root and lay down a better foundation for him to break through the realm of Dao Fusing in the future.

After considering for a long time, he murmured to himself, “Let’s hope they don’t get killed…As long as they can flee out of the great hall… hehe…”

He counted on his fingers, then stood up hurriedly and told the eunuch, “Inform Senior Imperial Advisor and Second Imperial Advisor that I’ve got a sudden epiphany and I need to find a secret place to study the Heavenly Dao. Tell them that the trip may take a couple of days or a couple of months, so I will need them to look after the state affairs for me!”

The eunuch knelt respectfully as he bowed his head and said, “As you command, my lord.”

Wu Qi nodded as he crushed the jade slip, then took a step forward and shot up into the sky.

Once in the sky, he glanced down and saw Great Wu’s banners flying throughout the entire valley. Countless raw recruits were learning body-tempering techniques of the human race under the guidance of the generals, while some young men who had the aptitude to become oracles were learning the fundamental spells and incantation gestures. The vast valley was filled with an intense but orderly vibrancy as Great Wu was making preparations to step out of this valley and conquer the world.

Provisions, fodder, and ordnance were being accumulated; officials were encouraging people to make more babies; all kinds of minerals were mined and refined into ingots and stored in the treasury; farmers were opening more fields to plant more crops. The people were all working hard.

After glancing at Great Wu with satisfaction, the dynasty that had laid down a basic foundation under his leadership, he transformed into a Gale with a body that stretched tens of feet long. He then gave a shrill cry and soared into the astral wind belt at a high altitude, flapping his wings and speeding in the direction of You Xiong Plain.

Wu Qi’s cultivation base was very different now than it was back then. It had skyrocketed now, and he could fly extremely fast. With only a flap of the wings, he instantly traveled millions of miles and arrived at the southern border of You Xiong Plain amidst a beam of blue light. There, he expanded his body to tens of thousands of feet long and wheeled gracefully in the sky over several military towns.

Unlike the transformation magic used by other immortals, Wu Qi was genetically transformed into a Gale. It was not just a change in appearance and aura; he was a real Gale now. No one could see through the transformation in any way, and magic artifacts such as the Demon-revealing Mirror were completely ineffective on him.

And so there he was, flying slowly in the sky for every eye to see. That was what Gales did: they liked to fly in circles in the astral wind, and only flew down to hunt when they were hungry. Otherwise, they could wheel in an area for hundreds of years. Gales lived a long time anyway, and they had plenty of time to waste.

A few weak divine senses came sweeping across him from the military towns down below, and over a dozen energy waves produced by spells scanned his body. After using various mystic arts to confirm that Wu Qi was a pure-blooded Gale, the Oracles in the towns simply ignored him. Gales were very powerful divine beasts, and they would usually not trouble Great Yu for no reason. Likewise, Great Yu would not provoke Gales for no reason either.

As he wheeled in the sky, Wu Qi looked over at You Xiong Plain with his Primal Dharma Eyes. He saw an inexhaustible natural energy surging violently beneath the surface while a great deal of it was constantly being channeled into Liangzhu’s defensive formation. The mountains and rivers within millions of miles around Liangzhu were all radiating a bright light; they had turned into parts of the formation and were providing You Xiong Palace with endless energy.

A large number of Supreme Towers and uncountable soldiers had formed into three formations as they hovered in the air to the east, north, and west of Liangzhu. Even Wu Qi was shocked by their towering murderous air. He estimated the power of these formations and was left astounded. Evidently, Emperor Haozun had poured in everything he could muster. If these formations were activated at all cost by sacrificing all the men in them and the mountains within millions of miles around, they were capable of killing any Dao Breaking expert.

With the three directions tightly sealed, the only way out of Liangzhu was through the south. They were forcing the three emperors to flee in that direction should they manage to escape You Xiong Palace. By leaving them with an escape route, they would not put out a desperate fight, and the losses would be lesser when chasing them.

Besides, their roots were not in the south. So, if they fled in that direction, their descendants would not be able to provide any timely help, which would create the best condition for Emperor Haozun to chase them down. As for whether the New Yu who had now settled in the southern region would aid them, it would have to depend on whether they had any secret relationships.

For ten days, Wu Qi was studying the trap Emperor Haozun had laid out. On the eleventh day, he suddenly heard a strange noise and then saw three beams of light shoot up into the sky from Liangzhu. The beams grouped in the air and wheeled hesitantly for a moment, before transforming into a beam of light tens of thousands of miles long and speeding toward the south. As Wu Qi had predicted, the three emperors did not choose to fight the formations in the other three directions but fled toward the seemingly defenseless south.

With his sharp eyes, he saw the faces of Green Emperor, White Emperor, and Black Emperor white as paper, and their figures blurred and indistinct. Clearly, they were seriously wounded. Emperor Haozun, on the other hand, was chasing after them with the Xuanyuan Sword in his hand, roaring at the top of his voice while throwing golden sword beams at the trio.

The distance between them could not have been greater than ten miles. Perhaps they saw the hope of escaping the danger, so the three emperors showed no intention of counterattacking, but just kept flying forward at top speed, allowing the sword beams to strike them and make their figures blurrier and blurrier.

Wu Qi nodded at the terrifying cultivation bases of the three emperors in approval. They were truly the ancient gods who had existed since the world was created, as even the incredibly powerful formation in You Xiong Palace had failed to trap and kill them. He wondered what method they had used to escape.

And when he saw only Emperor Haozun alone chasing them, he knew that even though Great Yu had seriously wounded the three ancient gods, it must have paid a dear price. He wondered how many experts Great Yu lost had in You Xiong Palace.

Even as he was estimating Great Yu’s loss, the tricolored beam of light zoomed beneath him with a jarring noise. He saw Green Emperor, whose face was pale and was coughing green smoke, look up at him and seem to be cursing ‘stupid bird’ or something similar.

Emperor Haozun came next, chasing very close after them. He looked unhurt and was crying out loudly. By the looks of it, he would not stop until the three emperors were slain.

Wu Qi slowly wheeled around, then his body blinked and transformed into a gust of wind, trailing after the four.