Stealing the Heavens

“Masters, you are really good people!”

Eighteen plump Buddhas with fair skin were thrown in a heap in a remote, barren valley some thirty provinces away from the underground cave Wu Qi had destroyed. They managed to squeeze out a smile, but their expression was worse than crying. Especially when Wu Qi praised them as ‘good people’, they almost burst into tears.

Wu Qi, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. He was honestly praising them.

He had merely threatened them with the Nirvana Flame, and the eighteen Buddhas had given him a clear account of all the planning drawn up by the Heaven and Buddhist League. It was a pity that they usually preferred to spend their time with women and pay less attention to Buddhist League’s plans, so there was really not much they could tell him.

Wu Qi was content, however, with the mere fact that they had provided information about more than a dozen other secret locations belonging to the Heaven and Buddhist League on Pangu Continent. In addition, they had also obediently handed over all their possessions, including all their cultivation techniques, their Buddhist Kingdoms, and savings. Everything they owned was taken away by Wu Qi.

If the Delightful Zen Technique was used in evil ways, it was a fiend technique that benefited oneself at the expense of others. But, if it were used in the right way, it was an amazing technique that benefited both sides. Wu Qi had 90,000 concubines now. He reckoned that if he used this technique to cultivate with them, it would greatly improve their cultivation base.

Ao Buzun was especially fond of it. He joyfully snatched the jade slip that recorded the technique and pulled Immortal Jadebone aside to practice it. Perhaps he did have the potential to become a Delightful Buddha. Given the characteristics of the cultivation technique he was currently practicing, it was not difficult for him to practice one more technique.

Each of the eighteen Buddhas had created eight hundred Buddhist Kingdoms, and each one of them was filled with countless women who adored them. These women were the cultivation vessels they had used in their long years of cultivation, and eventually became their devotees under the influence of their dharma. These Buddhas had been cultivating for hundreds of eons, and even if they changed their cultivation vessels once every year, the number of women they had accumulated in their kingdoms was still terrifying.

Wu Qi erased all the women’s memories and sent them into transmigration. They were just a bunch of wretched people, so he did not have the heart to sacrifice them to Lei Meng. After that, he devoured all the Buddhist Kingdoms. As a result, his interstitial world was greatly enlarged by the immense natural energy contained in them.

As for the Buddhas’ savings, they were a surprise to Wu Qi. They were even richer than Amitabha’s closest confidant, Buddha Futu. But, it was also understandable, for Buddha Futu had only recently cultivated his human form, but the eighteen captives had been Buddhas for many years.

These Buddhas held high positions and power in the Buddhist League; each of them controlled hundreds of thousands of outer heavenly realms, and had numerous disciples. Although outer heavenly realms had scarce natural energy and few resources, in order to win their favor, it was natural for their disciples to desperately search for various natural treasures and offer to them. However, as the Buddhas of the Delightful Zen Branch, they did not need any spirit medicines or energy stones in their cultivation. Their best aid was the cultivation vessels, so they consumed very little of these treasures.

They received treasures from their disciples from time to time, and yet they rarely consumed them. So, it was easy to imagine how many treasures they had accumulated. At least, the various resources Emperor Haozun had supplied to Dong Hai over the last few years, as well as the total resources Wu Qi had received from Great Yu, was less than ten percent of a Delightful Buddha’s personal wealth.

“You are really good people!” Squinting at the treasures piled up in his interstitial world, Wu Qi praised the Buddhas once more. With his ability today, all these spirit medicines, energy stones, immortal stones, precious minerals, and even innate objects represented innumerable powerful weapons and amazing spirit pills. It also meant that the number of soldiers Dong Hai could support could be multiplied by several times.

The eighteen Buddhas were scared out of their wits by Wu Qi’s strange tone. One of them, the fattest and the strongest Buddha, snapped, “Fellow Daoist, you have no old grudges with the Buddhist League. As long as you spare us today and let us go, we are willing to swear a solemn oath that we will never pursue what happened today!”

‘I’ve killed so many of your disciples, robbed you of your cultivation techniques, seized your Buddhist Kingdoms, and taken all your belongings. And yet, you will swear that you will never pursue what happened today?” Wu Qi shook his head and chuckled. “I’d better not let you go…”

The Buddhas turned pale with fear. They were about to say something when Wu Qi pointed a finger and sealed their mouths so firmly that they could not utter another word. Then, he whispered something into Princess Zhang Le’s ear. The princess smiled and gently twisted the soft flesh around his waist, calling a few names which included Ao Buzun, and flew southwest with them. According to these Buddhas’ confession, the three nearest Primordial Immortals of Heaven were cultivating in seclusion in that direction.

Looking at the panic-stricken Buddhas, Wu Qi shook his head and said, “I’m the butcher’s knife and chopping board, and you are the fishes. It is a pity that the fruits of your many eons of hard work have to become my prize today. Look, we don’t have any grudge, we just have a difference of opinion, but it is very difficult for me to believe your oath. Also, it will be a waste to let go of so many good quality fleshly bodies…don’t you think so?”

He clapped his hands as he smiled cheerfully and bowed to them. “Thank you for your help!”

The Buddhas made a muffled sound and struggled violently, staring at Wu Qi in panic. They looked as pitiful and helpless as a girl who had bumped into a sex maniac in the middle of the night. He looked at them with a smile as a plume of purple smoke gushed from between his eyebrows, from which the Heaven Refining Cauldron came flying out slowly.

“Fiend Slaying Sword Formation, rise!” He laughed as thirty-six thousand blue Kunwu Swords shot out and quickly constructed into a formation, covering an area of about a hundred miles around. Then he opened his mouth, and a plume of mist billowed out of it, enveloping the valley and turning it invisible to the naked eyes. With the double barriers, no one could find anything out here, and the aura inside would not leak out.

The lid of the cauldron lifted open and a plume of purple smoke gushed out of it, pulling all the eighteen Buddhas over before the lid closed quickly.

Wu Qi rubbed his palms together and threw a lot of purple sparks toward the cauldron. A furious purple blaze instantly flared up in the cauldron, burning the Buddhas’ cassocks to ashes before they even had time to grunt. In the heat of the fire, their fair bodies rang like the roar of a bronze bell, and the noise was mixed with the faint sound of chanting and groans of young girls.

Having some idea about what Wu Qi wanted to do to them, the Buddhas closed their eyes at the same time and began to recite a scripture. Their lips moved restlessly as clouds of pink mist drifted out of their bodies, only to be burned off at the touch of the purple flame. As the pink mist burned, their fat bodies seemed to shrink and gradually shrivel up.

After being burned in the cauldron for seven days and seven nights, the Buddhas had become as thin as bamboo poles, and there was no more pink mist left in their bodies. Their skins were shining goldenly, making them look as if they had been forged of pure gold. A layer of clear Buddhist light surrounded them, helping them resist the purple flames. However, amidst the roaring of wind and fire in the cauldron, the thin layer of light was constantly shaking and swaying, as if it would break apart at any moment.

One of the Buddhas sighed softly and said in a low voice, “Senior Brothers, I’m afraid we can’t survive this calamity today. Let’s fight this evil being together! We can’t dishonor the Buddhist League!” Before his voice died away, the purple flame had burned through the Buddha’s light covering him and touched his body.

His body, which seemed to have been forged of pure gold, melted quickly and soon turned into a gleaming mass of liquid suspended in the cauldron. Thirteen pink relics the size of fists were floating in the liquid. Under the high combustion temperature, the pink aura in the relics rapidly dissipated, and before long, they had turned pure white.

At this moment, loud cries echoed out of the cauldron. The foreheads of the other seventeen Buddhas burst open, from which came flying out their natal relics. They were about to explode.

But, Wu Qi would never let them do that. Without hesitation, he performed an incantation gesture and pressed it on the cauldron, causing the purple flame in it to instantly condense into tens of thousands of tiny runes the size of green beans and attach to the relics, locking them in place and preventing them from exploding.

After that, he opened his mouth and spat a stream of natal energy into the cauldron, compressing the flame into a crystalline solid. The bodies and the relics of the eighteen Buddhas shone brilliantly at the same time as they were finally melted into a pool of liquid.

He produced the Dark Yin Celestial Tower and accelerated the time around him to the fastest. Then, he took 128 rare spirit herbs from the Buddhas’ savings and threw them into the cauldron, quickly refining them into clumps of liquid and fusing them to the pool of liquid melted from the Buddhas’ bodies.

After a whole month had passed in the outside world, a deafening thunderclap burst out of the cauldron. More than a hundred purple pills shot out of it, and were about to flee into distance.

Wu Qi reached out a hand and grabbed all the 108 pills.

He narrowed his eyes and laughed as he picked up a pill that was as big as a date and contained a powerful medicinal strength. He had come out with some new plans, and these pills were the keys.