Stealing The Heavens

Guigu’zi walked like a spirit to the heart of the alliance’s camp.

A small oval-shaped hill rose hundreds of feet here. Standing on top of it, Guigu’zi casually tossed hundreds of superior-grade immortal stones to the ground around him. Then, he breezily waved his finger, drawing out numerous ancient runes in the air which squeezed into the earth like some living things and quickly communicated with the energy veins of varying sizes. Before long, these veins began to wriggle and twist like blood vessels, interweaving into a huge, powerful no-fly restrictive formation that covered an area of over a thousand miles in circumference.

“It is only fair when everybody is fighting on the ground!” Guigu’zi smiled as a cloud emerged beneath his feet and brought him up into the sky. The formation was laid out by him, so those with weaker cultivation bases than his would not be able to fly. But, he was completely unaffected.

A big black bird flew over silently. On its back stretching nearly a thousand feet wide, Mo Di was seen sitting cross-legged with a small table in front of him, on top of which was a wine jar, two small wine vessels, and four plates of cold dishes. Guigu’zi drifted over and sat across him. The two old men drank the wine and ate the dishes happily, waiting for what was about to happen in the alliance’s camp down below.

A few concealed compartments attached to the bird’s belly opened, and about fifteen kilograms of drunken dragon powder concocted by Wu Qi sprinkled out of them. Unknowingly, the sentries stood guard on the watchtowers and archer-towers inhaled the powder and soon fell one after another, snoring loudly. The amount of powder was not enough to knock out all the allied forces, but it was sufficient to put the sentries to sleep.

With no sentries sounding the alarm, Great Wu’s army stealthily approached the alliance’s camp and halted when they were at the edge of the trenches. There, the fire-element cultivators strode out of the rank and produced the palm-sized red pinwheels Mo Di had forged for them. A harsh, shrill whistle rang out as the pinwheels began to spin rapidly and pour out plumes of fire at the enemy camp.

The fire was no ordinary fire found in the mortal world, but one that Mo Di had meticulously extracted from the earth’s core. It was piping hot and sticky like lava, and once it attached to a man’s body, it could never be removed until everything was burned to ashes. The plumes of flame, stretching hundreds of miles from north to south, kindled the tents in the encampment, and soon tens of thousands of tents were afire.

As soon as the fire-element cultivators moved, wood-element cultivators followed with great strides. They produced their little green gourds and chanted an incantation. With that, gusts of green wind immediately blew out of their magic weapons. Fanned by the wind, the fire burned more and more furiously. Plumes of sticky red flames roared thousands of feet into the sky, transforming into a great wall of flame and spreading quickly to the south.

What was more frightening was that countless green wooden stakes, each as thick as a bowl and over ten feet long, flew out of the gale. They gleamed with a faint light that looked like lightning, and were covered in raging flames as soon as they were licked by tongues of the sticky inferno. With deep, muffled whistles, the stakes pierced through the air and fell randomly across the camp. Although they looked like wood, these stakes were, in fact, the condensation of wood-element divine thunder. When they touched the ground, they exploded with a deafening boom, shattering everything within a hundred feet to pieces.

Whenever a stake exploded, there were hundreds of fireballs big and small that darted out in all directions, setting more tents and trees and grass on fire. For a moment, half of the alliance’s camp was ablaze; soldiers were running blindly and shrieking in horror, rushing for places with no fire.

Some Oracles bolted out of their tents, trying to leap into the air and fly into the sky. But, the enormous no-fly restrictive formation laid out by Guigu’zi prevented them from doing that. A strange force had blanketed the land a thousand miles around. Unless their cultivation bases were stronger than Guigu’zi’s, no one in this formation could fly.

While the Oracles were stunned, the gold-element cultivators strode out of the rank.

With shrill hisses, six thousand crescent daggers sped into the sky, and whenever they spun, they sent a wave of round energy blast to the ground. The faster they spun, the more energy blasts they unleashed. In just the blink of an eye, the sky was blotted with dazzling energy blasts. The Oracles, who were standing stupidly on the ground wondering why they could not fly, had only just looked up at the sound when the energy blasts were already in their faces.

Numerous soldiers of the allied forces were slain by the energy blasts like sharp blades cutting through weeds. As the attacks aimed only at their necks, countless heads were thrown high up into the air while jets of blood filled the darkness of the night. Each wave of attack took thousands of heads from their bodies, making them dance in the sky. It was a nightmarish scene enough to drive a man insane.

Roars and growls of fury rang through the fountains of blood. Hundreds of the alliance’s generals had finally gathered a large crowd of soldiers around them. Armored and armed, the soldiers formed a rank and prepared to launch a counterattack. Several Supreme Oracles with seven-story pagodas over them were reciting incantations and casting spells on the soldiers, protecting them from spiritual attacks. The spell was one of the few these Supreme Oracles from the outer heavenly realm had learned.

But, a nightmare descended upon them. The earth-element cultivators in the Five Elements Immortal Execution Formation had rushed over, crying loudly along the way. With a swing of their yellow flags, the ground rumbled, and rich earth-element energy began to gather in the sky. Amidst the soldiers’ cries of despair, mountains that measured several miles high came plunging down from the sky, crushing all the soldiers with their sheer weight.

The soldiers who had formed a dense rank to launch a counterattack had become the best target, and every mountain that came crushing down took the lives of thousands. Deep rumbles rang continuously as one mountain after another crashed into the alliance’s camp, destroying numerous tents and killing countless soldiers.

Soldiers of the allied forces all ran south while crying and shrieking in panic. The higher-ups could no longer control them. In fact, even the monarchs and generals of some kingdoms had abandoned their armies and fled. It was unwise to fight against such a formidable enemy in the dark of the night, in the nightmarish night that none of them could escape with flying swords or clouds.

It was at this moment that the water-element cultivators swarmed out of a dense black fog like spirits. They tilted the little bowls in their hands, and torrents of black water immediately poured over from all directions and engulfed the camp. The freezing water washed across the soldiers’ bodies, taking away their energy and courage. To their further despair, the black water had a very strong penetration as it turned the ground into thick, sticky mud, and eventually into a glue-like swamp.

The fleeing soldiers discovered that their bodies were gradually sinking into the ground. First, it was their feet, then legs, then thighs, and then waists. Countless soldiers were trapped by the swamp; they screamed and shrieked in despair, begging their companions to pull them out of the nightmarish prison. But, their companions were also trapped, and everybody was struggling hard, which only made them sink deeper. Even those Oracles who should be able to fly were devoured by the swamp.

The alliance’s camp was thrown into complete chaos. The chain of command was destroyed and no one could control a single soldier. Even then, the Five Elements Immortal Execution Formation charged into the camp and began to slaughter the soldiers trapped in the swamp with flames, explosions, mountains, and energy blasts.

Battle cries that shook the heaven came from all directions as Great Wu’s warriors, divided into seventy teams, poured into the encampment. Like seventy steel blades capable of destroying anything, they struck a fatal blow to the allied forces.

Some generals and soldiers from the alliance tried to stop these warriors, but they soon realized how terrible and fearsome Great Wu’s soldiers were. Their armors were indestructible, and their weapons were capable of destroying anything. The armor and weapons used by the allied forces were easily torn apart like tofu in the face of their seemingly ordinary weapons, which then took away their lives as well.

Dark clouds covered the sky, stopping any light from sprinkling down.

There were only flames and lightning flashing in the vast camp. The 70,000 soldiers of Great Wu were working hard to harvest countless lives like evil spirits from hell. It was nothing but nearly ten million soldiers, and as long as each of the soldiers swung his knife about a hundred times, they would be able to kill all the enemies.

What was the big deal about swinging their knives a hundred times? With their cultivation bases skyrocketed now, these soldiers could swing their knives a hundred times in the blink of an eye!

The enemy could not hurt them, but they could freely kill the enemy. This was a one-sided war, a one-sided massacre.

The slaughter went on from night to dawn, from dawn to night, and then from night to dawn again.

In this camp of almost a thousand miles, Great Wu’s soldiers spent two days and two nights slaughtering. The enemies hiding in caves or hills were found and brutally killed, the entire camp was completely razed, and all the military supplies and money went to Great Wu as spoils of war.

Not a single enemy escaped, including the monarch of Zhong. The no-fly restrictive formation played a major role, and Wu Qi’s illusive formation outside the camp cut off all hope for the alliance’s soldiers fleeing for their lives.

When the bodies of the seven monarchs were brought in front of Wu Tianming, when the heads of thousands of generals were stacked up in heaps, when all the bodies of allied forces were burned to ashes, the perfectly intact soldiers of Great Wu raised their weapons at the same time and cried out continuously, “Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”

Wu Tianming’s face was flushed with excitement, and he lifted both hands and shouted at Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di hovering over the battlefield, “Long live the Masters! Long live the Imperial Advisors!”

Wu Dehou brought all of Great Wu’s generals and knelt respectfully before Wu Tianming. At this moment, he no longer had any other thoughts. The allied forces of the seven kingdoms were annihilated, and a bright future awaited Great Wu. After unifying the valley, Great Wu would be able to consolidate the forces of various kingdoms and walk out of here, launching an attack against the boundless Pangu Continent!

Perhaps, Wu Tianming was the legendary new emperor of the human race, the new Sacred Emperor!

Who knew? Maybe he really was!

Three days later, the imperial clans and courtiers of the seven kingdoms surrendered themselves after learning about the defeat of the allied forces, allowing Great Wu to take over all their territories and people without any trouble.

At the grand court meeting a month later, Wu Qi put forward a clear strategic goal.

“Step out of this valley and conquer Pangu Continent!”