Stealing The Heavens

The entire city of Liangzhu was tightly cupped under a black, translucent light barrier that was over ten thousand miles thick. With the city in the center, the multi-billion-mile-wide formation was fully activated. Streams of vast and bizarre force slithered back and forth in the void like countless invisible great serpents, locking down the entire You Xiong Plain.

Nearly a thousand Supreme Towers suspended in midair, wantonly emanating a terrible, choking pressure. On each of the towers sat cross-legged a skinny old man who looked like a skeleton. Their eyes flickered with ghostly flames, and their body exuded the strong aura of the Ghost God. They did not look like living beings at all. The First Grand Elder of the Secret Palace, Baihuang Mo, was standing atop a Supreme Tower in the middle with a small pot of stinking concoction in hands, gnashing his teeth and jumping up and down while cursing something or someone furiously.

On the sleeves of the old man seated on each of the Supreme Towers were embroidered at least three small black Supreme Towers. They were the strongest force of the Temple of Revered Elders under Great Yu’s Secret Palace, and also a group of dying men who did not have much life left.

In normal times, these revered elders took secret medicines and went into hibernation in a cold and shady cave specially opened up by the Secret Palace to survive. Unless there was a major crisis that could overturn Great Yu, they would not come out easily. Because with each deployment, their few remaining years were quickly consumed.

There was no doubt that this was a crisis serious enough to shake Great Yu’s very foundation. Nearly a thousand revered elders were deployed. It was almost ten percent of all the revered elders who had gone into hibernation. Together with the activation of Liangzhu’s strongest defensive formation, this force was more than enough to handle any changes.

Because of years of immersion in all sorts of weird magical research, the flesh and blood of these revered elders had become unlike that of a living person, and they were exuding a chilly aura due to long hibernation. However, also because of this, the divine sense that their souls unleashed had become fiery and anxious. Their divine sense constantly swept across the void hundreds of millions of miles around Liangzhu, stirring up scorching hot wind in the air while making the atmosphere in You Xiong Plain tenser.

Outside the city of Liangzhu, the hundreds of barracks where You Xiong Army was stationed were guarded from the sky by revered elders of the Secret Palace. All the soldiers and officers were ordered to put down their armors, weapons, and spirit talismans, and sat down naked in the camps. If anyone dared to defy the orders, he would be mercilessly killed. Some mutilated or festering corpses had already been hanging outside a number of camps, which belong to the rebels who thought they could get away by fighting back, but in the end were effortlessly killed by the revered elders.

Inside the city of Liangzhu, in Great Yu’s imperial palace, within the great hall that stood on the top of Mount Torch Dragon, Emperor Haozun sat gloomily on his high throne, his body surrounded by streaks of starlight. In the dense starlight there seemed to be countless huge stars colliding and rubbing against each other, making a deafening noise. The terrible pressure exuded from the emperor’s body enveloped the entire great hall. With one person’s strength, he suppressed the many senior ministers of the imperial court and representatives of powerful clans in Great Yu, a total of more than 300,000 people!

Led by the new First Palace Master of the Secret Palace, Gouchen Buying, hundreds of revered elders in black robes, their bodies surrounded in immense ghostly auras and their eyes flashing with a green gleam, hovered midair in the great hall, all looking down at these important figures who held high positions in Great Yu. Gouchen Buying was the First Palace Master of the Temple of Revered Elders, but now he had replaced Baihuang Zongying, the original First Palace Master of the Secret Palace and also the elder brother of Baihuang Zongling. Emperor Haozun had ordered Baihuang Zongying to be removed from his position with immediate effect, and currently he was locked in the Secret Palace’s divine dungeon with his cultivation base sealed, waiting to be interrogated.

Baihuang Mo, who led the many elders of the Secret Palace to keep a close watch at the surroundings out there, would have been locked in the divine dungeon as well. Fortunately, he was not in the direct line of descent of the head of Baihuang Clan, and with Gouchen Buying as his strong voucher, he was spared from the suffering. Even so, Baihuang Mo was closely watched by dozens of revered elders, which made him felt deeply humiliated and uneasy. That was why he was jumping up and down now, cursing at the top of his lungs at all the ancestors of Baihuang Zongying and Baihuang Zongling.

Wu Qi stood on the left side of Emperor Haozun with a pale look on his face. He was now Great Yu’s King of Dong Hai. Although the King of Dong Hai Province and the King of Dong Hai were only one word different, their power, status, and the size of their territory were far from the same. Among the four grades of Great Yu’s rank of King, the Shan, Shui, Zhou, Cheng (Mountain, Water, Province, City), King of Dong Hai was a title of the first tier in the second grade. All along, only the members of Great Yu’s imperial clan could be promoted to the grades of Mountain and Water.

With his background of a commoner, Wu Qi was conferred King of Dong Hai. It was equivalent to that his title had been directly promoted by more than ten grades. It was Emperor Haozun’s reward for his outstanding contribution. Had he not obtained such alarming information from King Bai Shan, Emperor Haozun would not have known what was going on, even after Great Yu had been overthrown by someone!

Of course, among it there was a great contribution of Princess Zhang Le, who was standing next to Wu Qi now. She had offered the technique of controlling Pangu Sacred Energy with the Primordial Dao of Divinity she had comprehended herself to Emperor Haozun. This had virtually increased Great Yu’s military force by at least tenfold, and the credit went to Wu Qi. The princess was only given a title of ‘Revered Elder of Great Yu’s Secret Palace’, while the actual benefits brought by the credit naturally all went to Wu Qi.

King Yang Shan and Ji Ao stood on the right side of Emperor Haozun. Both men looked deeply worried, but that could not conceal the flush on their faces. Naturally, they could not get such a huge promotion as Wu Qi, but they knew that after this great purge, their power and status in Great Yu’s imperial court would be significantly expanded.

Emperor Haozun sat on his throne, his face expressionless. For a full quarter of an hour he did not speak a word. The enormous natural energy under the surface of Liangzhu and the power of the star falling down from the sky all over You Xiong Plain had been drawn over by the gigantic formation, all injected into Emperor Haozun’s body. At this moment, his body and the natural energy in You Xiong Plain had connected as one. Through the mystic art of the imperial clan, his overall strength had broken into a realm that was beyond the imagination of all those present.

Only Wu Qi had a clear concept of this realm. Although Emperor Haozun’s actual realm was far inferior, relied on the endless natural energy in You Xiong Plain, he had used the mystic art to forcefully push himself into the realm of Dao Breaking, unlimitedly close the peak-level of Dao Breaking realm. This was the typical means of proving the Dao with unparalleled energy. At this moment, Emperor Haozun was the embodiment of all the natural energy in You Xiong Plain, which allowed him to unleash a mighty power enough to fight against the Heavenly Dao with every move.

It could be said that at this moment Emperor Haozun had become the embodiment of Pangu’s heart, and had possessed a bit of Pangu’s true power. This power was extremely difficult for the immortals and the buddhas of today to contend with, for even it was just a bit of Pangu’s true power, it was a mighty power that enough to open up a brand new world.

With such a power, Emperor Haozun was able to control everything in Great Yu. In the face of absolute power, all schemes and plots were nothing! Actually, the reason that Liangzhu’s ultimate defensive formation was activated and the revered elders were deployed to hold down the situation was not because Emperor Haozun lacked the overall strength to suppress those with ulterior motives, but that he feared those people would flee.

Now, the entire You Xiong Plain was completely locked down, and the super spirit cave beneath it had fused as one with Emperor Haozun. The emperor, with limitless power in hand, was now looking down at all the senior ministers of the imperial court and the heads of the powerful clans in the great hall. The fury and killing intent in his eyes were so vivid that even a rock could perceive them effortlessly.

A terrible pressure gradually solidified into a haze of crimson light and pressed down onto the crowd.

The souls of both warriors and Oracles of the human race were no different from ordinary human beings. At most, the souls of the Oracles who specialized in magic were dozens of time stronger than that of ordinary people, but that was the limit. In the face of Emperor Haozun’s spiritual pressure that was almost at the peak-level of Dao Breaking realm, those ministers with no ulterior motives could still keep their composure, but those who were guilty of what they did were sweating profusely, and some even rolled their eyes, nearly fainted on the spot.

But sadly, under such terrible pressure, they could not pass out even if they wanted to. Their souls were like little bugs in amber, immobilized by the overwhelming pressure, and even their right to pass out had been completely deprived.

At last someone could not bear the terrible pressure. A patriarch from the collateral branch of the ancient Suiren Clan let out a low growl, his muscles bulging as he suddenly leaped toward Emperor Haozun, bellowing at the top of his voice, “I just don’t want to die… Why do we have to go through birth, senility, illness and death when we have so much power and influence? Why can’t we enjoy this forever?!”

Emperor Haozun had only snapped his fingers, and the old man with a head of gray hair immediately froze in the air. Although the old man was the patriarch of a clan, his cultivation base was only at the level of a mid-stage Sun Oracle. He simply had no strength to resist the combined power of Emperor Haozun and You Xiong Plain.

With a faint smile, Emperor Haozun casually waved his hand, and the old man was sent flying backward out of the hall, coughing up blood all the way. “Execute the whole clan of Suiren Gong, the collateral branch of Suiren Clan,” said the emperor in a flat tone. “The punishment extends to all the relatives by marriage of this clan. Reward half of all the clan’s wealth to King Yang Shan, and the other half to King of Dong Hai!”

Gouchen Buying answered with a half-bow. He waved a hand, and immediately two revered elders rushed out of the great hall with a group of fierce private guards from King Yang Shan’s household.

Emperor Haozun could not help but sigh as he watched the scene. He could not mobilize You Xiong Army until all the rebels had been identified. Therefore, he had to rely on the private guards of a loyal King to carry out all the tasks for him. It was such an embarrassing moment for him, the grand and mighty Human Emperor!

But bitterness aside, Emperor Haozun felt lucky at the same time. Heaven knew how far things would have developed into, if Wu Qi had not kept bugging at King Bai Shan, causing the latter to launch a desperate assault and eventually led to the exposure. At the thought that something had gone wrong with You Xiong Army, the most important armed force around him, Emperor Haozun could not help but feel his flesh crept. And when he thought of the fact that even Baihuang Clan, the most influential clan of Great Yu, could no longer be trusted, he felt that he had narrowly escaped death.

At the thought of the horrible outcome he had avoided, Emperor Haozun turned around and slapped Wu Qi on the shoulder, and said, “Great Yu is so lucky to have such a loyal subject as you, King of Dong Hai!”

Wu Qi offered a half-bow to express his humbleness, while Emperor Haozun, in a fit of hysteria, jumped up and pointed at all the ministers in the hall, shouting, “Are you not ashamed to have done such a thing, for all your generations have been the senior ministers of the human race, who enjoyed the offerings of countless people of Great Yu?!”

A vast pressure swept through the great hall like a hurricane. Tens of thousands of Great Yu’s senior ministers fell to their knees at the same time, and some even had blood sprayed out of their seven orifices and their viscera seriously wounded as the pressure came striking at them. All those who knelt down were people with ulterior motives in their hearts. In the face of the spiritual pressure that was almost at the peak-level of Dao Breaking realm, they could not keep their secrets.

Of all the civil and military officials in the imperial court, one and a half out of ten were traitors!

This meant that fifteen percent of the powerful clans in Great Yu were traitors!

Emperor Haozun’s face turned ashen, much worse than when he heard Wu Qi’s shout the moment he went to the rescue just now.

The faces of the other subjects, who did not harbor ulterior motives and could still stand on their feet, had fallen as well.