Stealing the Heavens

Behind Great Wu’s camp was a huge lake stretching for hundreds of miles. In front of it, to the left and right were two hills that were hundreds of feet high and rolled tens of miles into the distant horizon, embracing the camp like two long arms. Between the hills was a valley that was about thirty miles wide. The rich natural energy and fertile land on Pangu Continent gave this valley a lush grassland. The waist-deep grass was swaying gently in the wind.

About a hundred miles across the valley was the great encampment of the allied forces led by the monarch of Zhong. The camps of the seven allied armies were neatly arranged: trenches, fences, watchtowers, arrow-towers, sharpened stakes, and traps were all laid out perfectly. At the moment, Oracles were surrounding the encampment with no-fly restrictive formations and various other formations, preventing Great Wu’s soldiers from sneaking into their base.

There were about two hundred Supreme Oracles in the seven kingdoms. Each with a seven-story pagoda hung above his head, they hovered proudly over the camp, looking out over at Great Wu’s camp. Some were pointing and laughing, as if they were calculating how short the time it would take for them to wipe out this army of 100,000 soldiers.

It must be an annihilation, and defeat was not an acceptable result. They had rallied an army of nearly 10 million soldiers to attack a small army of only 100,000 men. So if they only routed the enemy, where would the higher-ups of the allied forces put their faces? To fight against Great Wu, not only had the seven kingdoms dispatched all their active armies, but also rearmed the reserves and veterans who had already discharged. With so much manpower and resources expended, this must be a battle of annihilation…it could only be a battle of annihilation.

Wu Qi and his companions stood on one of the watchtowers, looking out over the allied camp in the distance.

Beside him were Guigu’zi and Mo Di, while Wu Tianming and Wu Dehou stood behind them, staring in amazement at the vast and boundless camp of the allied forces. After looking for a long time, Wu Tianming could not resist his curiosity and finally asked the question that had been troubling him for some time, “Master, how can a mere ultimatum induce seven kingdoms to join their forces and launch an attack against us?”

Wu Qi glared at him, too lazy to answer such an idiotic question. ‘Does he have to ask? Doesn’t he know Great Wu is the most powerful kingdom in this valley who has bragged about annexing the other seven kingdoms, and even provoked them with an ultimatum?’ It was like during the Warring States Period when the seven states were fighting against each other, but the other six states had joined forces several times to attack Qin State. When one was the strongest, the weak would surely join forces to beat him. ‘It is as simple as that. Why does this fella still have to ask?’

Wu Qi was too lazy to explain, and Mo Di, with his head tilted, was too lazy to speak either. Guigu’zi, on the other hand, was a man who liked to preach, teach, and answer questions. So, he began to analyze about the rivalry of kingdoms in this valley for Wu Tianming in detail, as well as the situation that was destined to be deadly. He explained how much pressure Great Wu’s strength had put on other kingdoms, and how it would arouse alert and fear in other kingdoms if Great Wu showed signs of annexing others.

Not only Wu Tianming, but even Wu Dehou and the other courtiers of Great Wu accompanying them listened attentively to Guigu’zi’s teachings. To them, some of his perspectives and insights were unheard of. And with him now explaining all the questions to them, they felt as if they had made great strides in the area of diplomatic relations.

The admiration of the emperor and his subjects for the three imperial advisors grew even deeper. Wu Qi had once boasted that Guigu’zi knew everything about politics and military affairs, and what they had witnessed and heard today proved that to be the truth. Wu Tianming could not help but feel lucky. He had just gone out for a walk because he was frustrated, and yet he was able to encounter and even pursuade three almighty experts to join Great Wu. This was a sign that Great Wu was about to rise to a greater height!

At the thought of the legend circulating among the kingdoms, he vaguely felt that perhaps he was the new emperor of the human race, the best candidate for the new Sacred Emperor of the human race. And when he thought of the bright prospect of becoming the Sacred Emperor, Wu Tianming felt a surge of heat.

At this moment, a dull clatter of hooves was heard. More than a dozen allied generals and thousands of calvary swarmed over from across the valley. Even from a great distance, a black-faced general with a spear snapped, “Is there any warrior in Great Wu who dares to fight me alone?”

Clearly, these men were sent by the allied forces to find out about their opponent’s overall strength. If there were not a single expert in Great Wu’s army who could defeat them, it was almost certain that they would soon be surrounded by the enemy, and the 100,000 soldiers would all be slain.

Wu Dehou arched his eyebrows and cried out excitedly, “I…”

Before the words could roll out of his lips, Wu Qi flicked his sleeve, sending out a gust of black wind which swept forth close to the ground. Amidst the howling of the wind, strength left the legs of those cavalry’s mounts; the riders shivered as the wind blew across them, and they felt their strength was leaking through their pores. A dull noise rang out as patches of turf went flying up into the air. Thousands of soldiers and their mounts fell to the ground, men and horses tangled and stacked on top of each other. The valley was thrown into chaos instantly.

The black-faced general had the worst luck. As strength left his limbs, his spear flew out of his grip and then spun twice in the air. Its sharp tip pointed right at his throat just as he fell forward, driving into the soft flesh with a wet sound. Just like that, a general of the Eight Stars Realm of the Second Pangu Heaven was dead.

There was a moment of dead silence in Great Wu’s camp, followed by a burst of laughter. Wu Qi lightly clapped his hands and said in a cold voice, “A bunch of wild chicken and stray dogs who can’t even stand a blow! They will be all dead tonight, and we don’t have to send anyone to answer their challenge!”

Before his voice had died away, another group of tens of thousands of cavalry rushed out of the allied camp, charging straight for Great Wu’s camp like a massive dark cloud.

With a cold snort, Wu Qi lightly waved a finger, chanted a few incantations in a low voice, and then blew a breath. A gust of wind rose from the ground, and amidst a rapid, harsh crackling noise, all the grass in the valley snapped near their roots. Thin as a sheet of paper, three feet long and as wide as a finger, blades of grass emitted a dazzling light as they soared into the air, made a circle, and then shot toward the group of cavalry with long tails of green light.

Shrieks of agony rang through the sky. Before the cavalry had time to react, the blades of grass—sharp as blades after being strengthened by Wu Qi’s magic power—had torn their armor; ripped through their muscles, bones, veins, and meridians; and chopped them to pieces.

Wu Qi had only used the magical power of an eighteenth-tier Heaven Immortal, but his attainment was too profound. He had controlled the little magic power with his attainment of a Dao Fusing expert, causing subtle changes in the structure of all the grass. The once fragile blades of grass had become a hundred times stronger than diamonds, and they were even sharper than ordinary Gold Immortal Artifacts.

The valley stretching for tens of miles was fully grown with grass. Now, they had all transformed into sharp blades and rained down like a fierce storm. As the strongest of these cavalrymen only had the cultivation base of Three Stars Realm of the First Pangu Heaven, there was no way they could withstand a brutal attack like this.

Warm blood soaked the valley. Wu Qi clapped his hand, and the blades of grass swirling in the air immediately shattered into powder and sprinkled on the bare ground. The earth rippled like water and swallowed all the blood and flesh. Amidst the low chanting of a spell, tiny sprouts of grass grew out all over the valley. Soon, the sprouts grew into waist-deep grassland, and the brutal massacre seemed to have never happened.

The first group of cavalry, who had fallen to the ground previously, staggered to their feet. After witnessing the brutal killing, all of them turned and began to rush back to their camp, terrified. Thousands of men ran blindly in panic. Their cultivation bases were decent, and they could run very fast. It would take them only the span of a few breaths to cover tens of miles and return to safety.

“Kill!” Wu Qi gently flicked a finger and said in a faint voice.

In front of the allied camp, countless sharp earth spikes as thick as a thumb suddenly shot out from under a patch of ground that was a few miles in circumference. The black spikes pierced deep into the bodies of these fleeing soldiers and riddled them with countless holes. Some even went into their heads, pierced and crushed their brains, wiping out their life force completely.

The group of Supreme Oracles hovering over the allied camp gaped in horror and sucked in a cold breath at the same time. Unconsciously, they drifted back thousands of feet. Wu Qi’s unpredictable spells had struck fear into their hearts. They were strategic forces trained by Heaven and Buddhist League for each kingdom, but they had received very limited teachings. Each one of them knew only a few common spells. They had never seen magic spells as inscrutable as Wu Qi’s.

The allied camp was completely silent. No one left the camp again to challenge Great Wu.

Thousands of nasty-looking dead bodies were thus hung on the earth spikes in front of the allied camp like thousands of tombstones, filling the air with an ominous aura.

No one came out to even collect the bodies. All the allied forces had been scared out of their wits. Until they came out with a plan to deal with the situation, they would never act rashly again.

Great Wu’s camp, on the other hand, was filled with cheers. Thousands of mounts whose riders were dead were pulled back and, at Wu Qi’s order, butchered. The cooks cut the fattest meat from them and made them into roast dishes and stew while countless jars of fine wine were served. The army drank and enjoyed themselves from dusk until the moon hung high up in the sky. The unrestrained drinking of wine caused more than half of the soldiers in the camp to fall to the ground, drunk.

The scouts hiding in the grass watching Great Wu’s camp in the distance breathed a sigh of relief. By the look of it, Great Wu would not launch another attack today.

The higher-ups of the allied forces breathed a sigh of relief as well when the finding was sent back to the camp.

In the middle of the night, a great deal of vapor silently emerged from the lake behind Great Wu’s camp, and soon, a dark cloud rose slowly into the sky and veiled the moon. At the same time, a faint chirping of insects echoed out from the grass. Upon hearing the sound, the allied scouts felt their eyelids become heavier and heavier. They struggled hard, but still fell into a deep slumber in the blink of an eye.

Great Wu’s army of 100,000 soldiers, armored and armed, fell in a crescent formation, with 30,000 cultivators in the front and 70,000 warriors in the back, and quietly marched toward the allied camp, led by Wu Dehou and many other generals.

Guigu’zi moved alone in the forefront of the army, stepping on the tips of the grasses and drifting forward along with the wind. Wherever he passed, all the restrictive formations laid by the allied Oracles quietly vanished into nothingness.