Stealing the Heavens

Not far behind Wu Qi, the 1000-feet-tall cauldron was sending plumes of flame into the sky like a volcano, sucking in iron ore and spitting out iron ingots tirelessly. A breeze swirled around him and stirred his blue robe. With his hands clasped behind his back, he looked at the anxious Wu Dehou, then shook his head lightly and said, “Life is all about trust!”

The regent’s face suddenly turned purplish black. He clenched his fists as he gritted his teeth and asked, “What do Senior Immortal mean by that?”

“Those who are not trustworthy will achieve nothing,” said Wu Qi. “When you make a bet, you must finish it. So, even if I may lose it all, I’ll still finish it. My lord, what you said just now really underestimated my integrity and that of my Senior Brothers!”

Guigu’zi, who was training the 30,000 cultivators, coughed violently when he heard the word ‘integrity’.

Staring at Wu Qi, Wu Dehou ground his teeth and asked, “Senior Immortal really don’t want to leave?”

Wu Qi took two steps forward and slowly put his face in front of Wu Dehou until their noses were almost touching each other. Staring into the regent’s eyes, he said, “What can you do if I don’t want to leave? Kill me? Do you have the strength? Or…” He paused and smiled scornfully, then went on, “do you have the guts?”

Wu Dehou was shaking with fury and felt hot blood boil in his chest. He wanted to scream, he wanted to roar…he wanted to draw his sword and stab Wu Qi in the chest now. But, he really had no guts to do so!

“Do you feel aggrieved? Humiliated? You are a man, but why are you as timid as a eunuch?” Wu Qi arched his eyebrows and sneered at the regent, who was shivering and sweating profusely. “Have you begun to be afraid after seeing what I’ve done these days? Are you scared? Are you afraid of death? Or afraid that all your glory, splendor, wealth, and rank will vanish? Afraid that your wife and children will be sold into slavery? Heh, how can a regent who bullies his nephew and takes over the court be such a coward?”

Wu Dehou stared at Wu Qi stiffly, his sweat turning from warm to cold.

Just as Wu Qi said, he was afraid, scared, and had even begun to despair. He was terrified by Wu Qi’s heaven-defying means, and some news he had heard from the palace frightened him to the extreme. In the past few days, these three ‘Senior Immortals’ had shown all kinds of means and divine power that he had never seen before. If truth be told, he found that even the immortals who taught magic and mystic arts to the founding emperor of Great Wu seemed less amazing than the three.

They were the real almighty experts who could determine the rise and fall of a dynasty.

Wu Dehou fell on his knees and touched Wu Qi’s boots with his proud forehead as he cried out in a husky voice, “I’m guilty, and I beg Senior Immortal’s pardon! From this day on, I will return all the power to His Majesty! All I ask is… is…”

Overlooking Wu Dehou from above, Wu Qi said faintly, “Since I’ve already taken an emperor as my disciple, I don’t mind taking a regent. You can kowtow now. From now on, be obedient and assist Tianming. He is still young, and Great Wu will need an experienced subject like you to assist him in governing the dynasty.”

Wu Dehou trembled. He looked up with a smile on his face and asked in a low voice, “Are Master Immortal forgiving me for my sins?”

Wu Qi snorted coldly and did not answer the question, and Wu Dehou quickly kowtowed dozens of time while calling ‘Master’. It was only after his forehead had punched a hole the size of a basin in the ground that Wu Qi kicked him to his feet and then whispered a few words to him. Wu Dehou nodded in agreement and left with all the generals.

A great change quickly took place in the Great Wu Dynasty.

Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di were conferred Imperial Advisors, and a group of adulatory courtiers had added a long string of titles for each of them. For example, Wu Qi’s title had 108 words, which included all kinds of mysterious terms such as ‘Visionary’, ‘Mighty’, ‘Revelation’, ‘Enigmatic’, ‘Omnipotent’, and ‘Preeminent’.

No one could read such a long title smoothly in one breath, so they were also referred to as the Seven Killing Imperial Advisor, the Greed Imperial Advisor, and the Vanquisher Imperial Advisor, or the Senior Imperial Advisor, Second Imperial Advisor, and Third Imperial Advisor, according to the seniority claimed by Wu Qi.

The three imperial advisors were vindicated, and the regent, Wu Dehou, obediently handed over eighty percent of his power and restored his original title, the King of Wu, doubling as the Chief Governor of Great Wu’s armed forces. Nominally, he was in charge of the deployment of the military forces, but it was only a title. The whole military power was in Wu Tianming’s hands now, and without his edict, Wu Dehou could mobilize no more than 100,000 soldiers.

The inner court had also undergone some changes. Wu Tianming’s birth mother was revered as the Empress Dowager alongside the present one.

Because of Wu Qi’s weird quirks, the emperor’s two uncles from the mother side were promoted as the Left General and the Right General of Great Wu. He even used two Nine Rotations Pills to transform them and elevate their cultivation bases. They were only a pair of butchers who killed pigs and dogs a few days ago. But today, they had become the dynasty’s most important generals with the overall strength of Gold Immortals, and were put to the charge of the Imperial Guards and the City Guards. Encounters in one’s lifetime were always full of wonders, and the emperor’s uncles were stunned for days, unable to regain their senses.

Wu Qi’s arrangement was quite to Wu Tianming’s liking, for he felt safe with his uncle commanding the military forces in the capital city. After his birth mother was revered as the Empress Dowager and his uncles were promoted to generals, his mother’s clan immediately became one of the strongest aristocratic clan in Great Wu, which satisfied his vanity and drew him closer to Wu Qi.

In the past few days, Wu Tianming had also chosen his queen and his two consorts. All three women came from the best aristocratic clans of Great Wu. After the three marriages were arranged, he got more support in the court.

A month had passed since they helped Wu Tianming take control of Great Wu. The formation, which was charged by Guigu’zi, was beginning to take shape. 30,000 cultivators were very rigorous in their steps and movements when advancing and retreating, and the inter-promotion and inter-restriction between the five elements could always produce infinite magical phenomenons, giving the formation a mighty power to crumble the sky and shatter the earth. According to him, the formation was ready for use.

The armor, weapons, flying swords, and magic weapons forged by Mo Di were also distributed to all 100,000 soldiers. When the army, lined up in neat phalanxes, was inspected by Wu Tianming, their mighty bearing and monstrous killing intent made him grin from ear to ear and Wu Dehou suck in a cold breath.

Wu Dehou stole a glance at Wu Qi, his eyes full of fear. They had tested the quality of the armor and weapons worn by the soldiers. Even the best-quality Heaven Immortal Artifact forged by the blacksmith with the strongest cultivation base in Great Wu could not break the armor, and even the flaming meteors the few Supreme Oracles summoned from the sky could not blow them apart. This was an army that could not be destroyed!

He could not help but feel lucky. Fortunately, he was quick to realize the situation and surrender all the military and political power back to Wu Tianming. Otherwise, he would have to face such a freakish army. When he thought of all the terrible consequences, he rejoiced at his decision of submitting to Wu Qi.

The army of 100,000 soldiers had been well trained. At Wu Qi’s suggestion, Great Wu sent messengers to several other kingdoms in the valley, bringing with them the ultimatums.

The ultimatum was simple—Great Wu urged them to surrender immediately and unconditionally so that their monarchs could at least become marquises. If they did not agree, Great Wu would come to their territory with a mighty army and kill all their armies and people, leaving rivers of blood and mountains of corpses. All the sins would be counted on the monarchs.

At the end of the ultimatum, Wu Tianming solemnly told the monarchs that if they refused to surrender, they could join forces to attack Great Wu. No matter how many kingdoms had allied, Great Wu would fight them with the strength of one kingdom.

The messengers returned a day later with their noses and ears cut off. As expected, the monarchs who received the ultimatum were furious, and ordered the messengers’ noses and ears to be cut off as a warning. They did reply to the ultimatum, with almost identical words, ‘Since Great Wu is determined to be wiped out, we shall fulfill its wish. We will destroy you and carve up your land!’

On the third day after the ultimatum was sent, messengers from various kingdoms began to visit each other. Countless beams of light shuttled over the valley, and countless deals were made privately. Seven days later, all the neighboring kingdoms of Great Wu entered into a covenant, and their monarchs swore that all kingdoms would unite their forces in dealing with Great Wu’s provocation and destroy it first.

According to the information gathered by spies, all kingdoms would send their military forces to jointly attack Great Wu in half a month’s time. With a total force of nearly ten million, the commander-in-chief of the allied force was the monarch of Zhong, the strongest kingdom in the valley after Great Wu. After rallying at a certain place, the army would march through Zhong and head straight for Great Wu’s southern border.

As spies continued to bring back information, Wu Qi, Guigu’zi, and Mo Di left the capital city with the army of 100,000 trained soldiers for the southern border.

At Wu Qi’s command, the army deliberately beat drums and gongs after setting out, making all kind of noises along the way, like a peacock in heat flaunting its beautiful feathers. The spies from the coalition did not have to take any risk to find out all about this army.

When the monarchs heard that Great Wu had sent only an army of 100,000 men to fight them, everyone almost laughed their heads off, especially the monarch of Zhong. In an unhurried manner, the commander-in-chief of the allied forces ordered the army to slowly march for the northern border of his kingdom, making all kinds of noises and flaunting the army’s power along the way like Great Wu. This way, they managed to cross the border into Great Wu before Wu Qi’s army arrived.

At last, Wu Qi’s army met the allied forces in a hilly region with thousands of miles of lush vegetation.

It was a war of significant disparity, a battle of one to one hundred men. Interestingly, both sides thought that they were going to win.