Stealing The Heavens

It was the first time Wu Qi had ripped open the void and made contact with the Nether World, for even a Primordial expert would not intersect with this place for no reason at all. All his divine sense was devoted to the search of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, so for a moment he did not notice the golden palm popping out of the void.

When the souls of the three women were seized by the golden palm, Wu Qi’s divine sense hurriedly turned to it. However, as it happened so suddenly, while the palm seemed so familiar with the composition of space and energy in the Nether World, it went as fast as it had come. In just a flash, it had vanished in a golden light.

Xiang Yu was panicked, and with a furious roar he jumped into the gap that Wu Qi had ripped open. Wu Qi, too, flew into a rage. He snorted, grabbed Xiang Yu by the arm, and strode into the gap. As soon as they entered the Nether World, two bright light beams flashed behind them—Ao Buzun and Catfish, who were eating and drinking in An He City, had come after them.

The Nether World was a strange space created naturally by the Laws of the Heavenly Dao after the Great Saint Pangu created the world. In this space, there was no sky and earth, no top or bottom, no day or night to mark the passing of time. If anyone came in here, it was like being suspended in a sea of paste, and it would be extremely difficult to even move a step. In addition, there was a strange force in this foggy space filled with faint yellow light. As soon as Wu Qi and his companions entered, they felt a force was eroding their bodies and impinging their souls. It was cold and evil, and though invisible and undetectable, it filled every inch of space.

Without wasting time adjusting himself to the strange phenomena of this world, Wu Qi took Xiang Yu and chased after the golden palm in the direction where it had disappeared into.

Wu Qi flew all the way at full speed. There was no air and no natural energy familiar to cultivators here, and the void was filled with a cold, piercing, evil energy. Amid this deep, heavy aura of death there was a strong life force, but in that very same life force there was a hint of death as well. The energy was so dense that it condensed into a thick fog in the void. The yellowish fog obstructed the flight of Wu Qi and others, consuming more than a hundred times as much energy as on Pangu Continent, even though they were already flying in beams of light.

A faint, deep rumble of waves reached into their ears, and they could feel a great suction coming from several directions. Wu Qi looked into these directions and saw a deep yellow ocean in the distance. From time to time there were great waves rose across the boundless ocean, in which countless souls roared and screamed and struggled, but none could break free from the confinement of the viscous fluid.

In the depths of the ocean, some strange-looking creatures were spawning, and there were even adult strange creatures treading on waves with iron tridents in hands, occasionally picking up a few souls and stuffing them into their mouths. As they chewed, the souls let out wrenching howls. Although far apart, the terrible howls still reached the ears of Wu Qi and others, piercing them like awls.

So this was the legendary Yellow Spring, and those strange creatures were the indigenous creatures of the Nether World, the Yaksha of the Yellow Spring?

Legend had it that if one could dive into the Yellow Spring without dying, one could reach the Nether Blood Sea which was condensed of the most filthy energy in the universe by diving three hundred million miles straight down. Some also said that the Nether World was actually Pangu’s belly button, and the Blood Sea was condensed of a trace of innate filthy energy Pangu himself did not refine, combined with the thread of innate transmigration energy that gave birth to the Nether World.

After giving a deep look at the Yellow Spring, Wu Qi said to Xiang Yu as he sped forward, “I have a cultivation technique call the Blood Sea Grand Magic. If you cultivate it with your Chiyou Banner and Chiyou Fiend Technique, and with my guidance, it will give you a formidable cultivation base in the shortest possible time. Well, in just a year or two on Pangu Continent, I can make you a peak-level Gold Immortal. Are you interested?”

Xiang Yu’s answer was straightforward. “As long as you can save Yuji and send her safely into transmigration, I’ll do anything you ask me to do.”

“That’s a deal then. Whoever took their souls, I’ll kill them all!”

A ferocious light shot out of Xiang Yu’s eyes. Ao Buzun, who was listening to Wu Qi and Xiang Yu’s brief conversation, had roughly figured out what was going on. He could not help but sneer, “Oh, I thought what had happened! Who else can abduct souls in the Nether World but those bald ones? Even the Heaven is not in the mood to meddle in transmigration. Only those bald donkeys have the nerve to do so!”

Wu Qi snorted coldly, while Xiang Yu gnashed his teeth and said, “If anything happens to Yuji, I will KILL all the bald donkeys in the world!”

In the short time they had been talking, the light beam Wu Qi had turned into had come a long way. Along the way, hundreds of giant Yakshas riding on various strange, ferocious-looking beasts soared into the air, all trying to catch them for food. Unfortunately, these indigenous creatures of the Nether World had encountered a group of existences who were fiercer and higher up the food chain than them. Without sparing any of them, Catfish smashed these Yakshas to pieces with her huge hammer, then grabbed them and stuffed them into her mouth.

While munching on the unlucky Yakshas and beasts, she mumbled her assessment, “The texture is not bad, chewy. No smell of blood. Oh, their bodies are made of the aura of life and the aura of death, cool and refreshing. I reckon they are best serve as snacks during summer. Hey, how do I get in here?”

Without thinking twice, Wu Qi taught Catfish through voice transmission the method to enter the Nether World. Little did he know that his unintentional act would cause the nightmare of the Yakshas in the Nether World for a long time to come. Sometime in the future, whenever it was summer on Pangu Continent, Catfish would tear open the void and come here to catch a large number of Yakshas for summer snacks. It was not until a certain occasion in the future when Wu Qi spoke up that she stopped the horrific killing.

The light beam pierced through the void and sped forward. A thread of Wu Qi’s divine sense had locked the golden palm that was flying in front of them. Neither time nor space in the Nether World could be compared with the world like Pangu Continent, where all the Laws of Nature were very clear. This world was simply a colossal clump of paste, with the concept of time and space vague and confusing. In any case, after Wu Qi’s heart beat 677 times since the moment he entered here, the void cleared up and they had come to the enemy’s territory.

In front of them was a vast expanse of yellow spring. The water surged and tossed restlessly, rolling up huge waves thousands of miles high on the surface of the ocean. Between the stormy waves, a huge light wheel, 360 million miles in diameter, was looming in the water. It was divided into six equal parts and was spinning slowly, producing a deafening rumble.

The surface of the light wheel was carved with the patterns of heaven, earth, human, ghosts, flowers, birds, insects, fish, and other creatures. Its color was a mixture of black and white, and it was emitting a spirit light of black and white, which forced the surrounding yellow spring to tumble and form numerous whirlpools. Those huge, stunning waves were actually generated by the impact of the black-and-white spirit light, and whenever they smashed heavily back on the surface of the yellow spring, they broke and sent out a tremendous force that shook the surrounding void.

Countless souls soaked in the yellow spring, crying miserably as they rolled toward the great light wheel. Meanwhile, there were numerous beams of black-and-white spirit light shot out from the wheel, each of which went for one soul. Drawn by these light beams, the souls plunged into the six parts of the light wheel and vanished in the whirling light.

This was the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the venue where the souls of all the living things in the world the Great Saint Pangu had created entered their transmigration. Witnessed by Wu Qi and others, trillions of souls were sucked into different paths in the space of a breath, while countless others roared furiously and being swept over by the current from all directions, and then drawn into the great light wheel.

But what was shocking was that, next to this enormous wheel of light, at a distance of about a million miles, there were several huge mountain ranges that stretched for tens of millions of miles rose from the yellow spring, and no matter how hard they were hit by the yellow spring, they remained still.

On the top of hundreds of the tallest mountains in those mountain ranges, there were Buddhist gardens shrouded in the light of the Buddha, which made up of numerous lotus pools and bodhi forests. Buddhist temples were scattered across these gardens, from where the chanting of scriptures rose high into the sky.

800 Bodhisattvas, dressed in kasayas as clean as the purest spring, sat cross-legged on white lotus platforms suspended in midair. Their bodies emitted a bright light that illuminated the void, and whenever the light passed, the yellow spring became as clear as a mountain stream, while the ferocious Yakshas all obediently put down their weapons and knelt down on the surface of the water to worship them.

Under these 800 Bodhisattvas, there were 108,000 Arhats. They hovered aloft in midair on lotus flowers, chanting scriptures in unison as their spittles transformed into lotus flowers. Whenever there was a soul in the yellow spring cried out the name of the Buddha, a lotus flower would fall gently and touch the soul’s forehead.

With just one touch, the light of Buddha would emerge from the soul. If the light was weak, the soul would be escorted into the Six Paths of Reincarnation by three to five lotus flowers and be reincarnated in some kind and wealthy family; if the light was strong, an Arhat would come down and pull the soul out of the yellow spring, cleanse the soul with the power of the Buddha, and send the soul into one of the Buddhist temples on the mountains.

There were also a rare few souls whose whole bodies, when touched by the lotus flowers, shone with boundless light that sometimes not weaker than that of those Arhats. Whenever such a soul was found, a Bodhisattva would come down from the sky, reach out both hands and draw the soul out of the yellow spring. Then, a lotus flower would gradually bloom in the palm of that Bodhisattva, inside of which was the holy realm of Buddhists. Usually, these souls would happily step into the Buddhist Kingdoms and become immortal Buddhist monks who enjoy eternal happiness.

The golden palm that Wu Qi and his companions had been chasing suddenly transformed into a thirteen-foot-tall Arhat. He flew respectfully to a thirty-six-foot-tall Bodhisattva and handed over to him the souls of the three women, who emitted strong golden light and a strong aura of the Buddha.

Wu Qi slapped himself on the forehead in anger. He realized that he was too careless. It was a known fact to all the immortals in the universe that the Buddhism League could partly control the Six Paths of Reincarnation. How could he have neglected this? He had strengthened the souls of the three women to an incredible degree, and even cleansed them with the divine power of the Buddhism League. By doing so, it was no different than forcing these almighty experts in the Nether World to abduct them!

Flustered and exasperated, he roared at the top of his lungs, “Release those three girls, you bald donkeys!”

Wu Qi used all his strength to utter this roar, and immediately it shook the surrounding yellow spring, raising huge waves tens of thousands of miles high.

High on the mountains, 800 Bodhisattvas and 108,000 Arhats turned to look this way at the same time.