Stealing The Heavens

High in the sky, Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di stood on a cloud, overlooking the earth. They had come here at once after receiving the news.

Right below them was the military town stationed by only a hundred men. Nearly a hundred thousand soldiers from Great Wu had surrounded the small fortress, and the first wave of a thousand soldiers was mounting a vigorous attack from the east.

The fortress had a distinctive style of Great Yu. Although it was small and manned by only a hundred soldiers, it was built into the side of a mountain. Its western side was a hilly outcrop of mountains, not suitable for the deployment of military formations; to its north and south were very steep slopes, and although enemies could deploy their armies there, it was a very stupid thing to attack upslope. So, no one would be foolish enough to attack from these two directions.

On its eastern side was a fan-shaped plain, with the narrowest part laying just right in front of the eastern wall, no more than two hundred feet wide, and the widest part about tens of miles, wide enough for tens of thousands of soldiers to march abreast. The strange terrain determined that even if the enemy sent tens of thousands of soldiers to attack the fortress from the east, when they came to the wall, they had only an area of about two hundred feet to attack.

Topographically, the fortress was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and its various defensive facilities were in good order and well arranged, without any fault.

Great Yu was traditional, conservative, stubborn, and rigid. But, it was because of this conservatism and tradition which were as stinky and hard as a stone in a latrine pit that there were absolutely no shoddy constructions in this dynasty. Although the fortress was small, it had all the defenses it should have, such as no-fly formations that could stop even Gold Immortals from flying and restrictive formations buried almost a hundred miles deep under the ground. These measures could greatly weaken the strength of the siege forces.

The 200-feet-high walls made the fortress look more like a tower, striking awe into the hearts of those who saw it for the first time. Constructed of huge rocks mortared with molten alloy, the walls measured about ten feet thick and were almost fifty feet thick at the feet. The surface of each rock was carved with complex restrictive runes, giving the walls a very strong defense.

Like other cities in Great Yu, this military town had connected with several underground energy veins. Through them, the seemingly vulnerable town linked with all the mountains and rivers within tens of thousands of miles, and summoned countless mountain spirits and river monsters to strengthen the town’s defense with their power. So, if anyone wished to capture this town, they must first destroy all the mountains and rivers, and kill all the mountain spirits and river monsters hiding in them.

All the defenses of this town were part of the defenses of a city some two thousand miles away, and the defenses of that city with a population of hundreds of thousands of people were a part of the defenses of another larger military town tens of thousands of miles away. Countless small defensive mechanisms formed a large defensive mechanism, and countless large defensive mechanisms were linked to the capital city of some province or county, forming the defenses of the entire province or county.

Everything was interconnected. All the military towns and cities in Great Yu were built with such rigidity, and all their facilities were built according to a uniform standard handed down from their ancestors. This military town was no different, and it stood there firmly like a nail hammered into the ground.

Guigu’zi explained to Wu Qi and Mo Di the various defenses of the military town in detail. Nothing could hide from his reverse analysis, not even those small formations hiding thousands of miles underground. The enormous nested defenses had no mystery in his eyes. Even though some of the formation diagrams were top secret in Great Yu’s Directorate of Celestials, he could still dissect them one by one, given his current cultivation base and attainment in the field of formations and divination.

“So, there’s a risk that Great Wu’s army will be routed if this little fortress fights back with all its might?” Mo Di asked while frowning.

Wu Qi nodded slowly and said, “As long as the general stationed here is not a fool, they do have a chance of defeating this army of tens of thousands by relying only on the defenses of this town and the powerful machines that have been distributed to them. Heh, weren’t the two Supreme Oracles killed as soon as they showed up?”

“It’s a good thing,” Guigu’zi said darkly. “The conservative forces in Great Wu are still against us. Let New Yu help us teach them a lesson. We’ll soon be able to claim all the loyalty of Great Wu.”

Wu Qi narrowed his eyes and smiled; he could not agree more. One such example was Wu Dehou. He was forced to hand over the regent’s power, and although he was now helping Wu Tianming on the conquest and seemed to be loyal, no one could know what was going on in his mind except himself, unless Wu Qi pulled his soul out and interrogated him.

And those fake Supreme Oracles, they did not have much ability, but their temper was worse than anyone else. Even though they knew that Wu Qi had killed eight Supreme Oracles of the same level of cultivation base as them with just one strike, they had the opinion that he had attacked them from behind and slain them with a sneaky strike. They were still proud and arrogant, pointing their fingers at everyone in the imperial court. As they had a lot of disciples, and a lot of aristocratic clans had chosen to submit to them, Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di had to make concessions in certain matters despite their high status in Great Wu.

After all, Wu Qi did not want to rule Great Wu by force. That was too high-profile. He wanted to influence the dynasty in ways that were reasonable and subtle. He wanted to influence, not control.

The best way was to use New Yu’s power to teach Great Wu’s conservatives a hard lesson and make them realize that they could achieve nothing without Wu Qi. It would be even better if the war could kill a few Supreme Oracles or Kings in the imperial council. Wu Qi would not grieve over the two dead Supreme Oracles, and would only applaud and cheer.

While Wu Qi and his companions were talking and laughing in low voices, the first wave of Great Wu’s soldiers had reached within a thousand feet of the wall.

On the wall, an Oracle raised his hands and whispered a spell. Suddenly the wall beneath him began to wriggle like a living creature, and soon, a lifelike ghost head appeared on its surface. The huge, ferocious-looking ghost opened its mouth and a cloud of black smoke poured out of it, enveloping the three thousand soldiers who were charging forward, and dragging them into the gaping hole. Cries of fear and agony rang ceaselessly from the dark smoke, and at the same time, sickening munching and gnawing noises echoed out from beneath the ground. In just the blink of an eye, the first wave of siege soldiers was wiped out, along with some ladders and other siege equipment.

The ghost head twisted restlessly, and faint roars and cries could be heard coming out of it. All of a sudden, a sword ripped open its mouth and popped out. A general with the cultivation base of the Three Stars Realm of Second Pangu Heaven, who had followed Wu Dehou here, struggled his upper body out of the mouth, then screamed miserably and was sucked back into the hole.

The sound of bones cracking filled the void. The ghost head was conjured with the power of spirits living in the mountains and rivers within tens of thousands of miles around the town. Every time it chewed, it was like the weight of all these mountains and rivers pressed on one’s body; and worst of all, the force was enhanced several times by the restrictive formation. So, even though the general had an amazing cultivation base, he could not withstand such an attack. After struggling for a moment, he was eaten whole by the ghost head.

Wu Dehou flew into a rage, raising his hand and waving it forward. With the gesture, several loyal generals who followed him rushed out of the ranks together while shouting loudly. More than ten thousand of the most elite soldiers under them began to line up and formed into a neat rectangular formation as they charged to the wall like a fierce black tide.

The few generals with the strongest cultivation base charged in front of the column. They held the evil-repelling talismans made by Great Wu’s Supreme Oracles and rushed forward courageously and fearlessly.

When they arrived within a thousand feet from the fortress, two Oracles on the wall waved their hands at the same time. A deep rumble echoed out from under the ground and the few generals at the forefront felt the earth move beneath their feet. Strength was leaving their legs as they saw a bright light flash in front of their eyes, and in the next instant, they were sent away by the town’s defensive formation to who knew where. When they opened their eyes, what appeared in front of them was a mighty city with the wall facing them stretching hundreds of miles long, the top of which was full of soldiers!

In the sky over the city hovered eighteen black Supreme Towers. Eighteen Supreme Oracles and the tens of thousands of soldiers of New Yu on top of the wall looked curiously to the few courageous and strong generals of Great Wu who were bold enough to lead the charge.

The fortresses constructed by Great Yu were all connected with the earth veins, and all the earth veins were interconnected in one way or another. Just like the Kuafu Steps Wu Qi had learned by himself, the defensive formations outside these fortresses could teleport a small group of enemies to a random destination through earth veins; for example, the capital city of New Yu, the city of You Xiong.

If Great Wu had genuine Oracles who mastered all kinds of magic and spells following their armies, they could help the soldiers defend against such bizarre defensive formations, and the few strongest generals who served Wu Dehou would not be teleported away so easily.

Too bad that the two strongest Supreme Oracles following Wu Dehou were killed because of their greed for the merits. Meanwhile, the other Oracles knew nothing about New Yu’s defenses, so how could they have the power to help Great Wu’s soldiers in attacking the enemies?

The generals leading the charge had mysteriously vanished in front of everyone. However, the elite soldiers behind them still rushed stupidly toward the fortress. The ghost head emerged on the wall once again, swallowing some five thousand soldiers in one gulp. Meanwhile, each of the two Oracles on top of the wall broke a bone staff made of human femurs at the same time, sending a bizarre spiritual shockwave into all directions. The few Oracles standing next to Wu Dehou were stunned as numerous soldiers of Great Wu turned stiff and collapsed to the ground, their souls washing out of their flesh and being dragged into transmigration.

Just like the other Oracles of the mortal kingdoms from outer heavenly realms, these poor Oracles of Great Wu had never systematically and comprehensively learned all the arts of curses and talismans they should know. They were at a loss in the face of the bizarre soul attacks of New Yu’s Oracles, and they had no idea what their opponents had done.

The basic protective spells they had cast on the soldiers could never defend against the spells cast by the two Oracles in the fortress with the help of some powerful magical artifacts.

Tens of thousands of Great Wu’s soldiers were killed in almost no time at all, and only Wu Dehou, who had a very strong cultivation base and had fused with a beast soul, as well as dozens of Oracles managed to survive. They stood there all alone, stiff and taring dully at the small military town. Their minds were blank, without any ideas of what to do next.

Seeing this, a faint smile emerged on Wu Qi’s face.

All of a sudden, a Supreme Tower ripped through the void and appeared over the military town.