Stealing The Heavens

Wu Qi stood rooted on the spot, struck dumb, allowing the spatial blades to violently cut and take away chunks of flesh from his body.

King Yang Qiu was transfixed as he stared blankly at the immortal soul fleeing up into the sky amidst a roiling purple mist. He could not believe that the grand and mighty Sovereign, the prominent minister in charge of half of the alchemical workshops in the Heaven, who was identified as Immortal Ding Jun, was actually such an easy target!

Yu Gu, too, was stunned by that. Even though the Sovereign was suffering a severe injury with both his immortal body and immortal soul seriously wounded, he still had a very strong and solid foundation. He was, after all, a mighty Primordial Immortal, and that made him not an easy target even when he was at his dying breath. To guard against the Sovereign’s desperate attempts, Yu Gu had brought all his treasures here, including a few powerful artifacts passed down from the ancestors of the Yu Clan in Liangzhu. He was prepared to battle it out with the Sovereign.

But unexpectedly, he was killed in such an easy way! His immortal body disintegrated, and he was now fleeing in the form of an immortal soul!

While the three of them were stiff with shock, Yu Qingcheng, standing off to the side, was the first to jump into action. With his finger pointing at the Sovereign’s immortal soul, he shouted, and a jade beam of light immediately shot out from the top of his head. It transformed into four giant hands clutching a huge net while flying toward the Sovereign’s soul.

In that instant, Yu Qingcheng’s mentality changed. Previously, he was determined to prevent Wu Qi from completing the mission of killing the Sovereign, so that Wu Qi could look like a fool and lose King Yang Qiu’s trust. In fact, he had already prepared a few tricks so that the Sovereign could escape, resulting in the failure of Wu Qi’s plan. But, the situation was different now.

The Sovereign’s immortal body was destroyed, with only his immortal soul was fleeing right now. In other words, the mission was half completed. It took numerous Aeons of meticulous tempering and cultivation to make the immortal body of a Primordial Immortal that strong. So, for many years to come, unless the Sovereign could find and possess the corpses of another Primordial Immortal, it was impossible for him to have a fleshly body again. The Law of Heaven and Earth contained in his immortal soul was overly powerful, and thus, no ordinary fleshly body, or even spirit artifact could house it.

The destruction of his immortal body also meant that the Sovereign had lost eighty percent of his cultivation base. Even though he still had his immortal soul, he could no longer stir up a huge storm. The only thing he could do now was quickly find a safe spirit cave with abundant natural energy, spend his days in secluded cultivation, and use the next numerous Aeons to re-cultivate an immortal body. However, after numerous Aeons, when he was lucky enough to cultivate another immortal body, everything would have changed, and he, the Sovereign of the Myriad Immortal Alliance, would no longer be relevant.

Since Wu Qi had already contributed to almost eighty percent of the credit, all the tricks Yu Qingcheng prepared in advance had become a mere joke. The credit was now firmly in Wu Qi’s hand. Under such circumstances, it was only natural for him to put up a good show. If he were able to capture the Sovereign’s immortal soul, that would surely give him the right to claim part of the credit.

The huge net emanated faint plumes of dark smoke and evil aura, while countless ghost heads could be seen wheeling restlessly in it. The ‘Nine Sons and Mother Yin Spirit Net’, it was called, was a divine ability Yu Qingcheng had created by merging an immortal spell and a divine ability of the Ghost League. It was a vicious divine ability especially good at restricting immortals’ souls and all existences in spiritual form. When caught by it, the strength of the immortal soul would immediately reduce by half.

Alone, Yu Qingcheng did not have the ability to craft such a powerful weapon. But, since he was also a lineal descendant from the Yu Clan in Liangzhu, he had many strong Elders in the clan backing him. As a matter of fact, it took nine Elders forty-nine years of hard work to craft this weapon for him, which made it a fearsome weapon that posed a great threat to even the Sovereign’s immortal soul.

As soon as the giant grayish net was unleashed, the sky turned dark. “Activate the formation and don’t let this wicked fellow’s soul escape!” Yu Qingcheng shouted at the top of his lungs. As the matters had reached this stage, all his schemes and intrigues against Wu Qi were rendered completely useless. To salvage the situation, the only thing he could do now was make use of the opportunity and grab himself a piece of the pie. Fearing that he would get nothing in the end if the Sovereign’s soul escaped, he was more proactive than anyone.

Measuring a thousand miles wide, the net came swooping down from the sky. It was emanating an immense evil aura and a foul smell, while unknown fluids with nasty odor constantly dripped off its threads. When coupled with the gusting chilly winds and the ghost heads that wheeled restlessly in and around it, the net appeared to be an incredibly vicious magical artifact. Upon seeing the net coming for him, the Sovereign’s immortal soul made a circle in mid-air before speeding away into another direction.

With a cold snort, Wu Qi shook his body and completely shattered the surrounding void, then turned into a dragon-shaped black beam of light and shooting up into the sky. “Now that you’re here, why are you in such a hurry to leave, Sovereign?” He cried out loudly. “Please stay down, because we still have a lot to grind out from your soul!”

He laughed strangely before clenching his teeth and saying, “As the person in charge of the alchemical workshops in the Heaven, you must at least give me all the pill formulae you have remembered!”

Both King Yang Qiu and Yu Gu’s eyes flashed with bright gleams, and they cried out at the same time, “The pill formulae from the Heaven!” Without the slightest hesitation, they turned into two dazzling beams of light and shot into the sky. As they were making the ascent, the beast soul of Pu Lao leaped out from the top of King Yang Qiu’s head and let out a furious roar. The void rippled, and in the next moment, exploded with a massive rumble. Countless spatial fragments flew and shot messily in all directions, forcing the Sovereign to struggle and wiggle among them for fear of being caught up in the disintegrating void.

Meanwhile, amidst Yu Gu’s long and loud cry, his Supreme Tower flew up into the sky. Simultaneously, countless runes at the bottom of the tower shone with a dazzling strong light, while countless streams of dark smoke slithered out like venomous snakes, blotting out the sky as they chased after the Sovereign’s immortal soul. For the moment, the sky was sealed off by the giant net, the void was shattered by Pu Lao’s roar, the surroundings were veiled by the dark smoke unleashed by Yu Gu, and Wu Qi was flying at top speed in mid-air not far behind him. There was no way out for the Sovereign.

With an angry roar, a plume of purple mist suddenly spewed out of the Sovereign’s hazy immortal soul, quickly transforming into a jade Ruyi scepter, tens of miles long and shrouded in a strong golden light, smashing toward the giant net that was coming down from above. The Ruyi scepter was conjured with the power of the Essence in the Sovereign’s immortal soul based on a pure Yang mystic art, which was one of the most profound divine abilities of the Immortal League. The temperature of the golden light shrouding it was tens of thousands of times higher than that on the sun, and as soon as it appeared, Wu Qi, King Yang Qiu, and Yu Gu hastily retreated.

Because the power of the Nine Sons and Mother Yin Spirit Net was way stronger than Yu Qingcheng’s current level of cultivation base, he could not control it at will, and therefore, could not retract it at this critical moment. When Wu Qi and the others had already backed off upon sensing the danger, the net was still falling straight down. As a result, it collided forcefully with the jade Ruyi scepter.

The air rang with miserable cries and shrieks as the jade Ruyi scepter dispersed into plumes of purple mist. Amidst Wu Qi’s gloating laughter, the giant net was burned with countless holes, then melted down into lumps of sticky fluids that fell to the ground. The magical artifact, which cost Yu Qingcheng almost all his belongings in the past, and was crafted by the mighty Elders of the Yu Clan in Liangzhu, was completely destroyed by the Sovereign’s desperate attack.

Yu Qingcheng’s body trembled violently, and blood kept spouting out of his mouth. Wu Qi’s laughter was pounding at his heart like countless hammers, which filled his heart with pain and anger, and he almost fainted because of that. He pointed a finger at Wu Qi, flustered and exasperated; he wished he could open his mouth and swallow Wu Qi in one mouthful.

The Sovereign’s immortal soul swayed a little, and then slowly flew up toward the sky. Laughing strangely, Wu Qi appeared next to the Sovereign with merely a flick of his body, reaching out one hand and grabbing toward the immortal soul. However, the Sovereign’s immortal soul was enveloped in a layer of pale green flame that was extremely high in temperature. As soon as Wu Qi’s palm, although densely covered with thick dragon scales, touched him, the glaze-liked flame immediately burned the scales, the skin, and the flesh into ashes, turning the hand into a mere bone.

But at the same time, Wu Qi had forcibly injected a ‘Celestial Soul Locking Seal’ into the Sovereign’s immortal soul. It was a vicious mystic art found in the Scroll of Stealing designed specially to search through one’s soul. Then, he reached out his palm, which was left with only five purple colored finger bones after being burned by the raging flame, clutched at the Sovereign’s extremely weakened immortal soul. He then began to forcibly extract all the memories relating to pill concoction and fire control. Immediately, vast information poured into Wu Qi’s spiritual ocean.

Taking the opportunity, Wu Qi circulated his chaotic energy and stole a wisp of the glaze-liked, pale green flame enveloping the Sovereign’s immortal soul. When he had it, he quickly turned it into a fire seed and made it hover next to the fire seeds of the Divine Flame of Order and the Divine Flame of Void in his spiritual ocean. The flame was actually the ‘Divine Flame of Great Tranquility’, which could only be found above the ninth heaven, and was the strongest evil-subduing flame used by the Dao League. In addition, incredible magical results could be obtained when it was used to concoct pills and craft artifacts.

In the past, Wu Qi could only use the Divine Flame of Order to craft artifacts. Now that he had the Divine Flame of Great Tranquility, the magical artifact he could produce with the same material and technique would certainly be a few times stronger than the one crafted with just the Divine Flame of Order. After all, the strength of the Divine Flame of Order was in dealing with all sorts of fiends, evils, and demons, while the Divine Flame of Great Tranquility was the kind of fire used exclusively to craft artifacts and pills.

After quickly merging all the Sovereign’s memories relating to pill concoction into his soul, Wu Qi jammed his hand into the immortal soul again, pulling out the cultivation technique the Sovereign was practicing, the ‘Innate Pure Yang Universal Scripture’.

Finally, after fusing the cultivation technique, which came with tens of millions of words, into his soul, Wu Qi opened his mouth and coughed out a mouthful of blood as he staggered backward. He pointed a finger at the Sovereign and growled, “You vile Daoist, what kind of evil flame are you using? You’ve destroyed one of my palms!”

Pretending he was fuming with rage, Wu Qi let out a long howl, opened his mouth, and shot out a red stream of flame that came with a unique foul smell of the dragons, pouring it brutally onto the Sovereign’s immortal soul. The flame was a mystic art found in the Dragon Kill, called the ‘True Dragon Soul Refining Crimson Flame.’ Created by fusing the innate core flame of the dragon clan and the essence of the Directorate of Celestials’ soul-refining ghost flame, it was a very powerful flame that possessed an extremely lethality toward the souls of the immortals.

The Sovereign’s immortal soul, which was on the verge of complete disintegration, laughed ruefully as Wu Qi’s flame reduced its size by at least forty percent in just the blink of an eye.

Just as Yu Gu and King Yang Qiu were closing in with the intention of capturing the Sovereign’s immortal soul so that they could interrogate him later, the Sovereign heaved a long sigh. All of a sudden, a raging purple flame came spewing out of his immortal soul. Screaming in terror, Yu Gu swiftly grabbed King Yang Qiu and Wu Qi, then spun and fled into a random direction at top speed. “Run for your life! Why would a grand and mighty Primordial Immortal self-detonate his immortal soul? This doesn’t make sense, doesn’t make sense at all!”

Yu Gu’s Supreme Tower flew up into the air, rolled up all of King Yang Qiu’s subordinates in the Myriad Poisons Formation, before crushing into the void and speeding away.

Without any sound, the Sovereign’s immortal soul disintegrated. A blinding purple light swept through tens of billions of miles, turning everything in its path into nothingness.

Immortal Ding Jun, a prominent minister from the Heaven, the Sovereign of the Myriad Immortal Alliance, had fallen!