Stealing the Heavens

“Long live His Majesty the Emperor!” The army of 100,000 completely transformed soldiers lined up in phalanxes around Wu Tianming’s chariot, their deafening shouts shaking the entire capital city. Wu Dehou and his men fled the drill ground in both exasperation and panic. They had to find a way to cope with this sudden change. Otherwise, not only would he lose his power, status, and wealth, but even those close to him would be purged by Wu Tianming.

While trembling, the few officers who remained in the drill ground watched as Wu Tianming stood on his chariot, surrounded by the cheers of the army. Their attitude had become very respectful and submissive. The combined strength of the 100,000 soldiers transformed by Wu Qi’s astonishing divine power was about twice that of the current Great Wu’s army. The emperor now had the military force to change the regime, and he needed only the support of some civil subjects in the court to grasp the true power of an emperor.

The officers lowered their heads and asked Wu Tianming if he was going to inspect the military supplies Wu Dehou had prepared for the army.

With a look that was part triumphant and part excited, the emperor nodded and sat back down. Surrounded by three thousand strongest soldiers, the chariot rode toward the storehouses situated on the east side of the drill ground. Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di shared the ride with him. The rest of the soldiers remained standing, working hard at their cultivation base. The medicinal strength of the pills that Wu Qi had crushed just now had not completely dissipated, and the purple-golden energy was still lingering in the air. They could still improve their overall strength by absorbing this energy. It was a very rare opportunity, so they naturally had to take advantage of it.

To the east of the drill ground was a large block of brick and stone buildings that went tens of feet high. During normal days, these buildings were left vacant, and only when the army was about to be deployed did officials move military supplies from the armory to store here. At the moment, dozens of soldiers were stationed outside these storehouses. As soon as they saw the emperor’s chariot heading toward them, they knelt down and bowed their heads, extremely respectful and even with a little fear.

It was something Wu Tianming had never enjoyed. Although he had succeeded the throne for some days, no one had knelt down and bowed to him, not even the lowest-ranking soldiers in the imperial guard. His face was red with excitement when he finally received the courtesy of the soldiers, and his imperial dignity was being accumulated little by little through these minor things. He was gradually transforming into a real emperor, like a piece of raw jade with its outer layer of rock chiseled away.

The heavy iron doors of the storehouses slowly opened, revealing heaps of supplies inside. Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di rolled their eyes when they saw the things while Wu Tianming waved his fist at the sky and snapped, his face flushed with anger, “Old fool! I…I swear I will execute you and your entire family one day!”

The first storehouse did contain over 100,000 sets of armor and weapons, as well as numerous bolts and crossbows and other equipment. But, the armors were all tattered as if they had been gnawed by ants or mice, and some were even covered with holes the size of fists. The edges of knives, spears, swords, and halberds were stained with rust, and the handles of some weapons had even fallen off and could no longer be used. The crossbows remained largely intact, but the strings were all loosened or broken, making them completely useless. As for the bolts, they were obviously junk recovered from the battlefield; not only were the arrowheads blunted, but the fletching was mostly gone. It was certain that they would miss the target even if they were used to hunt rabbits.

There was a lot of reserve supplies in the other storehouses. Wu Dehou, as a thoughtful regent, was worried that the army would have a high consumption during the campaign, so he had prepared supplies enough for 300,000 soldiers. Those were heaps of iron ores enough to forge complete sets of armor and weapons for 300,000 soldiers!

Yes, iron ores! If they were all refined and forged into ordnance, they would indeed be enough to arm 300,000 soldiers. But now, they were stored here as iron ore, in the form of grayish-brown rocks.

In addition to these supplies, the storehouses were filled with miscellaneous odds and ends, such as soldiers’ uniforms and boots. ,But they all seemed to be taken off the bodies of the dead and were mixed with civilian clothes. There were even a few pink dresses placed in a prominent place. If the soldiers were to wear these things to the battlefield, they would have died from the enemy’s mockery before the fight even began.

The most important thing for an army, the provisions, were in plenty, and they were all cornbreads. Freshly steamed, they filled eight storehouses, enough to feed 100,000 soldiers for three months. When the doors of these storehouses were opened, the appetizing aroma of cornbread wafted out to greet the emperor.

It was unknown as to which cook had prepared them, but many whole corn kernels were visible in these cornbreads of varying sizes; not fresh kernels, but dried, old ones. Wu Qi suspected that if a man with a poor stomach ate a few pieces of this bread, he would excrete the kernels the next day, all still intact. They were simply impossible to be digested!

Wu Tianming’s eyes were green with rage. He smashed another pillar of the chariot with a punch, causing the roof to fall down on him, but he sent it flying with another punch. “Wu Dehou! You…you…you…Very well!” he growled.

Wu Qi shook his head disapprovingly. “There is no need to be angry, Your Majesty,” he said in a flat voice, “The clothes, boots, and provisions are easy to buy if Your Majesty is willing to spend money. I think Your Majesty will be able to get all the supplies for 100,000 soldiers in a month.”

Mo Di nodded and said, “As for armament…With so much iron ore here, I can prepare enough weapons for 100,000 soldiers in half a month.”

The emperor’s eyes lit up as he looked at Wu Qi and asked, “Master, do we really need a month to prepare?”

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty!” Guigu’zi said lightly, “You just need to get all the clothes and provisions for the army. Why should it take three months to conquer this valley? A few days are enough. In the first month, I will train the soldiers and teach them the ‘Five Elements Immortal Execution Formation’. Once they are proficient at it, this valley will be Great Wu’s territory.”

Wu Tianming believed them unconditionally. Without hesitation, he rose and took his leave, returning to the palace under the protection of seventy-two old eunuchs and three thousand carefully chosen guards, where he began to make arrangements for the army’s clothes and provisions. Although the military and political powers were in Wu Dehou’s hands, and the Empress Dowager was in control of the inner court, the emperor still had some money he had saved when he was a prince.

Now, for the sake of the bet, he took out his personal saving and went everywhere to buy clothes and provisions for the soldiers. Meanwhile, some courtiers had heard about what happened at the south drill ground from various sources. Because of that, dozens of officials—both high and low-ranking—had secretly submitted to the emperor in just a few days. With the help of these people, the preparation of the supplies became very smooth.

Half a month later, some of the high ministers secretly came to him and swore their allegiance. Without realizing it, Wu Tianming had gained support from half of the civil officials in the court. However, as all the military officials were resolute to follow Wu Dehou, he gained nothing from the army. In any case, with the seventy-two old eunuchs protecting him, and an army of 100,000 soldiers, the emperor did not attach much importance to these military officials, and had even made the decision to purge them after he won the bet.

A large bronze cauldron wrapped in red flame was placed in the south drill ground. Countless iron ore pieces were constantly being poured into it and then flying out after a few moments, all turning into shining iron ingots. The cauldron was forged by Wu Qi using his Heaven Refining Cauldron. With its near Primordial Artifact quality, it was a little overqualified for such a task.

In the process of refinement, Wu Qi added some other materials such as the energy essences of five elements to the iron ore. So, although these ingots seemed ordinary, they had, in fact, transformed into rare and precious materials qualified to be used in the forging of Gold Immortal Artifacts.

As he had done in the great hall before, Mo Di had a column of flame shooting up from his palm. Pieces of iron ingots flew into the flame and then came out from the other side in the form of weapons and armor. All the finished products seemed ordinary and unremarkable, but their quality was absolutely amazing.

Each one of the 70,000 warriors who practiced the cultivation techniques of the human race was given a set of heavy armor, a two-handed saber, a longbow, and thirty arrows. This gave them the ability to inflict great damage to the enemy, both from long-range and in close combat. With the quality of the armaments used by the other kingdoms in this valley, their weapons were absolutely incapable of breaking the armor of these 70,000 soldiers, and their armor could never resist a single blow from the sabers of these 70,000 soldiers. In the face of this ferocious army, soldiers from other kingdoms were about to face a massacre.

Each of the 30,000 cultivators received a standard flying sword. The swords were divided into five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, each with 6,000 swords.

According to the elements of the flying swords given to them, the cultivators were divided into five groups. In addition, they also received a specially made magical weapon each.

Every cultivator with a metal-element flying sword got a three-feet-long dagger, which when released turned into thousands of bright rays to kill the enemy.

Every cultivator with a wood-element flying sword got a green gourd, which when had its stopper pulled spewed out gusts of wild wind and bolts of thunder to engulf and smite the enemy.

Every cultivator with an earth-element flying sword got a yellow flag, which when waved threw out countless hills at the enemy.

Every cultivator with a water-element flying sword got a small black bowl, which when tilted poured out a great black torrent to drown the enemy.

Every cultivator with a fire-element flying sword got a red pinwheel, which when spun blotted the sky with a red flame.

While Wu Tianming was busy purchasing clothes and provisions, Guigu’zi ordered the 30,000 cultivators, who had been divided into five groups, to practice a formation in the south drill ground. Everyone was strictly required to move in their own direction and coordinate with each other while advancing and retreating, and no one was allowed to take a wrong step. Although they had not yet activated their magic weapons, they had been able to draw the energy of five elements when they moved, filling the sky over the drill ground with beautiful five-colored light.

This was the Five Elements Immortal Execution Formation Guigu’zi had mentioned earlier. It was an ordinary formation, according to him, but if used properly, could easily turn a Gold Immortal into a puddle of blood and gore. In this valley, a formation such as this was a killing device that no one could resist.

In the midst of all the hustle and calculation, a month passed quickly.

One day, Wu Dehou came to the drill ground again with a large group of generals. As soon as he strode through the gate, he cried out, “Senior Immortals, if you have no intention of contributing to Great Wu, you’d better leave as soon as possible. One month has passed, and yet you have not taken any action. Do you know how much military supplies and expenses have you wasted? Are you just playing a joke with us, with Great Wu?”

When he saw Wu Qi, the regent made a very ‘generous’ offer: if Wu Qi and his companions admitted they had lost the bet and left Great Wu immediately, he would be kind enough to not take away all their treasures and spirit pills. He just wanted them never to come back.

He could even open Great Wu’s treasury and let them take whatever they liked from it.

Wu Dehou just wanted Wu Qi and his companions to leave.