Stealing The Heavens

Standing a hundred miles tall on two black flood dragons, the God’s skin was black as coals. The air rang with his cold snort as his massive palm came crashing down, targeted at everyone. The palm compressed the air as it made its descent into a thick layer of white astral wind. Amidst a deep whistle, everyone felt a difficulty in breathing as the air around them had turned solid like steel.

Yu Mu raised his head and gave the God a glance, then bellowed, “Which Great Emperor’s Ancient God are you? How dare you to intrude Great Yu’s territory?”

A sharp whistle echoed out as a plume of white smoke rose thousands of feet up from the top of Yu Mu’s head, with a ferocious ghost head seen hovering atop. It flicked open its eyes, fixing its gaze at the palm with a cold gleam flashing in them. The palm, which was falling rapidly like Mount Tai, suddenly slowed down, now approaching an inch at a time. The God gave a grunt with surprise whilst Yu Mu’s body trembled. The enormous pressure made his blood and energy surge violently, and his face flush purple-red.

The God gave no answer to Yu Mu’s question and just laughed viciously. With his laughter, the flood dragons beneath his feet uttered a cry in unison and the ground collapsed suddenly, caving into a bottomless sinkhole that was over ten thousand miles wide and swallowing dozens of cities in the area. Rich water vapor turned into plumes of black mist and sprayed out of the hole, forming into dark clouds that swirled around everyone and engulfing the heaven and earth in the blink of an eye.

The temperature in the surroundings plunged. The water vapor in the dark clouds gradually condensed into snowflakes, drifting down from the sky. Whenever these pale dark snowflakes touched someone’s skin, they immediately turned into wisps of white cold air and squeezed into the body, freezing the skin and the flesh. The soldiers Ji Ao had sent and the private soldiers of Yu clan all shivered due to the cold. Some with lesser cultivation bases shuddered, and were knocked unconscious by the extreme cold.

The sound of teeth chattering could be heard coming from everywhere. Soon, some of the unconscious soldiers were covered in a thin layer of ice, and their body temperatures dropped rapidly. Lifeforce was draining fast from them, and it seemed they were about to be killed by the coldness.

The soul of the Ying Dragon was wheeling around Yu You, Yu Miao, and their companions. Ying Dragon was the God of Water, so the water vapor and the cold ice in the surroundings did not affect them much. Meanwhile, Yu You’s gourd was constantly spewing out streams of high-temperature flame, driving off the wisps of biting cold air that occasionally slipped into their bodies. Looking up at the tall God, Yu You cried out, “Greetings, Your Reverence! My name is Yu You, and I have no grudges against you. Whether Your Reverence is seeking revenge or have other motives, will you let me take these juniors to leave first?”

Pushing down his palm one inch at a time, the God snorted coldly and said, “How do I know if you have no grudges against me? As it may, all of you here are to put down your guard and let me capture you, and I’ll give you a few more days to live. If anyone dares to fight back, don’t blame me for being cruel.”

A layer of water appeared to wrap around the palm that hung menacingly over everyone, and the force that came pressing down increased a few times abruptly. Yu Mu shuddered and the white smoke over his head was pushed back, and the ferocious ghost head looked listless now, the cold gleam radiating out of its eyes beginning to scatter. It seemed that he would soon run out of strength to keep the palm at bay.

It was then that the three Elders from the principal clan, whose overall strength was very close to the realm of Supreme Oracles, jumped into action. From their bodies bloomed black, white, and green lights, thrusting straight into the sky as three beams. The shadows of all sorts of Ghost Gods could be faintly seen swirling in these light beams. “Are Your Reverence impervious to reason?” they cried out in unison.

The God frowned. After thinking for a moment, he stopped pushing down his hand and said, “Reason? What is reason? Great Yu has imprisoned many divine beasts who serve my Master, and killed their children for no apparent reason. So, you tell me, why should I be reasonable to you?”

He snorted, then pushed his right hand down once again. Although Yu Mu and the three Elders had joined forces, they could hardly stop the palm from pressing down. The light beams creaked, and the four of them trembled with cold sweats trickling down their back in streams.

This God was not one of those newly born Gods whom Wu Qi had killed before, but an Ancient God who had survived since the ancient times. Those newborn Gods had not yet fully formed their bodies, let alone grasp the Laws of Heaven and Earth they were born with to form their golden bodies and master their true power.

The Gods nature gave birth to were nothing more than a wisp of energy essence at birth. They did not even have a fixed form, and they were so weak that they could be easily dispersed by a gust of astral wind. However, when they formed their bodies, they were able to walk around like a living person, and possessed the overall strength equivalent to that of a common cultivator, or even a Heaven Immortal. And once they formed their golden bodies, it proved that they had grasped the Laws of Heaven and Earth they were born with; by then, they would have the overall strength equivalent to a Gold Immortal.

When they had the overall strength of a Gold Immortal, they were basically at their limit. If they wished to improve their prowess, they would have to spend a long time to slowly study the Laws of Heaven and Earth they were born with, fully understand it, and derive stronger laws that they could use. For example, among the Gods who had inherited the Law of Fire, some might have only mastered an ordinary Law of Fire. However, those Gods with excellent aptitude and bloodline could easily master multiple Laws, including those innate flames such as the Divine Flame of Void and Divine Flame of Order.

The Gods who mastered the Laws of common flames could hurt mortals with a forest fire at best. But, those who had mastered the power of innate flames could pose a threat to even Primordial experts. And as they became more and more in control of their own laws, their overall strength would naturally grow stronger and stronger.

In addition to digging out the power from the Laws, the Gods were able to constantly expand their bodies to accommodate more divine energy, thus making them stronger and stronger. In the ancient times, the most powerful of the Gods who fell in battle with the human race could be tens of thousands of miles tall. The divine energy in them was almost endless, and even when they compressed their bodies, they would be hundreds of miles tall. Therefore, experienced men could tell the power they possessed from the size of the Gods at a glance.

The God here stood about a hundred miles tall. Judging by the layer of dark water rippling across his skin, and how the void around him was swaying, it was obvious that he had compressed his body with some kind of mystic art. In other words, his true form stood far taller than a hundred miles. A God with such a height could never be a newborn one, but a fearsome figure who had survived since the ancient times.

A God like this might be inferior to a Primordial expert in terms of divine ability, but he owned the power of the Laws that no Primordial expert could ever compete with. Immortals borrowed the power of the heaven and earth, but the Gods by themselves were part of the Laws of Heaven and Earth, the true forms conjured by the Laws of Heaven and Earth. The power they could control was not something that ordinary immortals could even imagine.

The immense pressure emanated from the palm made Yu Mu and the three Elders drip with perspiration. Wisps of black smoke mingled in the air, and the temperature continued to drop. Their sweat quickly turned into ice flakes, stacking up one layer upon another to form into ice cubes that wrapped them up. Meanwhile, snowflakes drifted endlessly down from the sky to land on them, turning into wisps of cold air that squeezed into their bodies, gradually freezing them from the inside.

Yu Mu began to intone a spell, trying to summon the Ghost God he worshiped to fight this Ancient God. The new foe had mentioned that Great Yu had imprisoned the divine beasts who served his Master and killed their children, and Yu Mu had heard of this tiding not long ago. He knew that it was Wu Qi’s deed.

But, Wu Qi was missing now, and the backer of those divine beasts had come to seek revenge. No matter why he had the courage to intrude Great Yu’s territory to find someone to vent his anger, this Ancient God had found the right place. Evidently, Princess Zhang Le was Wu Qi’s betrothed, and Yu Mu had a very good relationship with Wu Qi. There was no doubt that this Ancient God had found the right people.

The question was, how did this Ancient God know it was Wu Qi who had imprisoned those divine beasts, and how did he find Princess Zhang Le and Yu Mu’s whereabouts so precisely?

Yu Mu’s chanting turned into a deep rumble of thunder and spread out, but it was instantly frozen by the coldness and dissipated into the air. An evil and extremely cold energy had locked down the surroundings, stopping the power in his spell from penetrating the void. Since he could not summon his Ghost God, he naturally could not receive the power to fight against the foe.

A faint cry could be heard as the silver lotus flower floating atop the princess shot out numerous silver beams of light, which transformed into a flying sword and pierced through the air toward the Ancient God. Layers of water suddenly rippled out around him. The sword impaled the first layer, then the second, the third, and many more; its glow growing weaker with each layer it went through. At the end, when it was only about a dozen feet away from the Ancient God, it vanished completely, devoured by the rippling black water. Instead of hurting the target, the sword had brought more power to the layers of water.

The Ancient God gave a hideous laugh, then said in a deep voice, “I’ve completely sealed this place with the Black Water Fiend Formation. There is no way you can call for any help from within the formation, so you better stop fighting me now. Woman, I can’t believe you have awakened your bloodline of the Ancient God. You will come with me. The child you and I are going to have will certainly be a mighty God!”

Princess Zhang Le’s face flickered. The silver lotus flower was her strongest magical artifact, and yet it was incapable of defeating this Ancient God. The element of gold gave birth to water, so it was clear that her gold-element energy could pose no threat to this fearsome foe who was born with the Law of Water. All her attacks would only strengthen him.

The massive sinkhole had turned into a vast expanse of black water. Clouds of water vapor rose from the surface of the water and condensed into thousands of huge flags standing in the void. They fluttered slowly as countless extremely cold snowflakes drifted down from the sky, landing on everyone’s body.

The armors the few captains Ji Ao had sent to protect the princess crackled and cracked under the cold. While shivering, they collapsed to the ground, with their bodies soon covered under layers of ice. Princess Zhang Le arched a brow, sending out a vast sheet of five-color light to envelop these people. But, the snowflakes kept attacking the barrier, corroding it layer by layer and turning its glow fainter and fainter.

Then, she saw that Yu Mu and the Elders were panting heavily from the pressure that came crashing down at them. She had no other choice but to reach out a hand and cover them all under a sheet of five-color light. The Elders of Yu clan, their private army, and the soldiers Ji Ao sent here were all protected by her now, sparing them from the ill fate of being killed by the cold.

Although the Ancient God saw Princess Zhang Le protecting everyone with her divine ability, and he was now in Great Yu’s territory—a place where he should not have come—he did not seem to be in a panic. Slowly, he controlled the formation, sprinkling countless snowflakes to wrap everyone up. The land ten thousand miles around them was completely engulfed by a dense cloud of water vapor, making no one capable of seeing what was happening inside.

From time to time, he gave a low laugh, with a thick pride and expectation lacing his voice.