Stealing The Heavens

Emperor Haozun froze. He had been living in this great hall for nearly three eons, ever since he succeeded to the throne and was told by the Grand Oracle that he would die at the hands of his own sons. He basically never left this place, spending his day and night here.

The hall was the heart of Liangzhu’s entire defense system and the control center of the vast spirit cave beneath You Xiong Plain. As long as he sat in here, relying on the mystic art of the human race, he could borrow the infinite energy of You Xiong Plain and the power of all his forefathers the massive formation had accumulated to elevate his attainment and magic power to the peak realm of Dao Breaking.

But just now, when he used the mystic art to activate the formation, it did not respond. Not only that, the power of the stars and the underground energy, which had been constantly pouring down from the ceiling like a great waterfall, was vanishing rapidly as well, turning into a stream of pale, thin light with only a diameter that was about the fist of a man.

Soon after, even this stream of light was gone, and darkness fell across the great hall. A few candles placed in the corners tried their best to lit up the vast hall with their faint, flickering light, but the men were still shrouded in darkness, obscured and swaying like spirits. Only the Buddha was emanating a faint bronze gleam, and that made him the strongest light source, outshone the candlelight.

The emperor’s face turned pale green in the bronze gleam, making him looked as ghastly as a real ghost.

The oppressive silence was finally broken by Emperor Haozun’s voice. “What have you done?”

King Xin Shan chuckled. “Why do you utter such things, Father?” he said in a low voice. “Please destroy all your vital meridians and your True Body of Pangu, Father, before we do something that cannot be undone, out of our fear of your formidable overall strength.”

King Li Shan took a slow step forward. His avatar reflected a faint green-and-golden light in the bronze gleam, cold as ice. The air hung heavy with an aura of death. “Please discard your cultivation base, Father,” he said, “We promise we will take good care of you afterward, providing you everything that you are enjoying now.”

Emperor Haozun gave a cold snort. Suddenly his figure flickered, and in the next instant, he was in front of King Li Shan, with his fist thrusting out.

A faint smile spread across the Buddha’s face as he swung the staff he was holding, almost as tall as him, to block against the emperor’s punch. The force enough to shatter a star that came with the punch was instantly absorbed by the strange-looking staff, and Emperor Haozun felt as if he had just punched into a sack of cotton.

The emperor staggered three steps forward, pushed by his own momentum. The Buddha seized the opportunity and immediately gave him eighteen blows in a row. Bright sparks flew off Emperor Haozun’s skin and deafening rumbles echoed across the great hall. The attacks were unleashed with a mystic art of the Buddhism League, each came with the force of an elephant, and each subsequent strike was ten times stronger than the previous one. When it came to the last strike, the force was simply awe-inspiring.

A crisp clang rang out suddenly as the staff broke into three pieces. The skinny Buddha gave a muffled grunt with purple-and-golden blood running down between his thumb and his forefinger. Emperor Haozun cried out in pain as well; his clothes were ripped and several small protective jade ornaments hanging down from his waist were shattered. A few streaks of blood could be clearly seen spreading across his back, each as wide as a palm and sunk at least an inch deep into his skin, and the flesh beneath them had all turned into pulps.

His body blurred into a gust of wind, and he was about to flee into the back of the hall when both his sons were in front of him. A giant net, woven of some unknown purple fibers and decorated with numerous relics and pearls, came swooping down at him. Emperor Haozun screamed as his body was forcefully pulled out of the wind. Luckily, he reacted quick enough, taking a few steps to the side as soon as the net touched him, and that had saved him from the embarrassing situation of being caught in the net.

“Wicked sons!” Emperor Haozun trembled with rage. He knew both King Xin Shan and King Li Shan were not the incarnations of some Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, because if they were, they would have been discovered and executed during the previous purge. They had used a mystic art of the Buddhism League to forcibly fuse themselves and the avatars of some fallen Buddhas together, and that had given them nearly seventy percent overall strength of a Buddha.

Obviously, the Buddhas, whose avatars both Kings had fused with, had formidable cultivation bases when they were still alive. Although they had only obtained seventy percent of it, the auras they emanated were not weaker than Emperor Haozun, who had stepped into the peak Ninth Star Realm of the Third Pangu Heaven.

As the power came easy to them, they had not yet been able to fully control it. But even so, such power was more than enough for them to keep their lives when facing Emperor Haozun. On top of that, with the help of those strange artifacts of the Buddhism League, they could even pose a serious threat to their Father.

Just as Emperor Haozun was cursing his sons, the Buddha approached him silently. With both hands locked into a seal that shaped like fire and shrouded in a bronze flame, he pressed it hard on the emperor’s back. Emperor Haozun cried out in pain as the flame branded a deep-green, reversed swastika on his skin.

The symbol emitted a dark light, and Emperor Haozun felt as if a large hole was split open on his back, from where his spirit, energy, and soul were pouring out. He wheeled in rage, pointed a finger at the retreating Buddha, and snapped, “This is an evil Buddha’s seal! Are you the disciple from the evil Buddha’s branch expelled by the Buddhism League?”

Even as his finger pointed out, ten fine plumes of dark smoke shot out of his fingertips, inside of each there was a tiny mass of dark light spinning quickly like a star. The plumes’ speed was incredibly fast, and they made a loud noise as if a real star was piercing through the air, sending a suffocation astral wind across the great hall.

The Buddha chuckled. “I’m Buddha Sole, the founding Patriarch of the evil Buddha’s branch, not the disciple.”

Buddha Sole was retreating quickly, and there was a dark-green, almost bronze lotus flower emerged beneath his feet whenever he took a step backward. As soon as the flowers appeared, they grew and expanded rapidly to tens of feet in width, causing the void to tremble. When Emperor Haozun’s plumes of black smoke touched the flowers, they slowed to a snail’s pace.

“He truly is the evil Buddha, for his attainment in the art of distorting the void has reached an expert level,” murmured Emperor Haozun under his breath.

He sighed. Suddenly a slit cracked open on his forehead and quickly turned into a Third Eye gleaming with purple light. Accompanied by a sonorous sword cry, an ancient golden sword flew out of it. It was a magnificent sword; on one side of the blade was carved with the sun, the moon, and stars, and on the other side some mountains and trees; on one side of its hilt was carved with the arts of farming and animal husbandry, while the other side the strategies of unifying the world. As soon as it appeared, an intimating aura of emperor filled the great hall and all the flowers were shattered.

Buddha Sole screamed as a streak of blood cut into his skin from his forehead straight down to his crotch. Blood sprayed out of it, and in just a flash, the blood poured out of him was about the same as all the blood of tens of adult men combined.

King Xin Shan and King Li Shan, who had just pulled out two small staffs from under their sleeves and were about to throw them at Emperor Haozun’s back, fell to their knees instantly. They were overwhelmed by the immense aura of emperor emanated from the sword, and strength went out of their legs. “Xuanyuan Sword!” cried King Xin Shan.

With the sword in his hand, Emperor Haozun said coldly, “Yes, Xuanyuan Sword! If you want to kill me, it is not enough to just destroy the defensive formation in Liangzhu!”

Both Kings exchanged a look in panic, while Buddha Sole, who was severely injured by the terrible sword intent, let out a furious howl and then snapped, “What are you waiting for?!”

Emperor Haozun was taken aback. Without hesitation, he wheeled and thrust out the sword, but suddenly darkness fell across the great all, and it was pitch-black in the next instant.

A sound of flesh being pierced and ripped rang out, followed by the emperor’s miserable cry, and then it all ended with the noise of someone fell tumbling to the ground.

The light in the hall gradually returned, and the power of the star and the underground energy began to pour down like a waterfall onto the huge throne once again. However, the throne was empty now, as the emperor who was always sitting on it was now laying sprawl on the ground. There was a large hole in his chest; all his internal organs were crushed to pulps, and his body was turning hard as life left him.

A ten-foot-tall old man with a white beard stood expressionlessly next to Emperor Haozun’s body. The Xuanyuan Sword was in his grip, and he was gently flicking at the hilt with his finger. “Buddha Sole, tell them not to forget the things they have promised me,” the old man said faintly. “I want to be the first Buddha King Torch Dragon who sits as equals at the same table with Lord Buddha, one of the only two Masters of the Buddhism League!”

Buddha Sole gave the old man a dreadful look and then rested his eyes on the sword. “Rest assured, Senior Torch Dragon, we from the Buddhism League always honor our words. We will never forget what we have promised you,” he said in a low voice.

He paused for a moment, glancing greedily at the sword, and then went on, “As for this sword…”

The old man was none other than the incarnation of Torch Dragon, whose body had turned into the huge mountain beneath this great hall. He ran his fingers gently across the sword and said with a faint smile, “The Sacred Emperor has authorized me to take control of this word in the time of emergency. Now that the Human Emperor is dead, it’s only natural that the sword belongs to me. In the future, when I become Buddha King Torch Dragon, it will be the artifact that helps guard my destiny. Do you have a problem?”

Buddha Sole was silent for a moment. Touching the three-inch-deep sword mark that ran across his body, he smiled and said, “No, I don’t have any problem with that.”

He took a deep breath, gave the sword one last look, and then said in a deep voice, “Please make haste, Your Highnesses. Where is the imperial edict we’ve prepared in advance? We need to stamp it with the imperial seals as soon as possible.”

In a flurry, King Xin Shan pulled out an imperial edict from under his sleeve, then he went to Emperor Haozun’s body and found three seals of varying sizes. After that, he stamped each of them on the edict.

A row of words could be faintly read on the imperial edict:

“… hence, in keeping with the will of heaven and the will of the people, I hereby pass the throne to Ji Kui, King Yang Shan!”