Stealing the Heavens

Without alerting the group in the parlor who were discussing how to deal with the Buddhist League, Wu Qi and Qixia flew out of the Palace of Wanling hand in hand.

They changed into gorgeous robes that the people of Ling Dynasty liked the best and strolled leisurely along the main street that wound around the mountain. Soldiers with solemn faces could be seen patrolling around them, and every intersection between the important streets was stationed with heavily armored generals and soldiers. The officials and common people on the streets were all in a hurry, and some even looked terrified, no longer having the lofty and arrogant manner like before.

Along the way, Wu Qi and Qixia admired the city’s extravagant and elaborate buildings, and occasionally visited stores stocked with exotic objects from all over the world, buying things that looked exquisite and interesting but of little use. It was the first time Qixia had come to such a place and spent money on something, so she was especially excited. Almost every time she saw something queer or interesting, she bought them at high prices.

She told Wu Qi that whenever she saw something good in the past, she just killed the owner and took the thing. So, this was the first time she spent money on something, and she found it to be very fun. But, she went on to solemnly warn Wu Qi that such profligacy as buying things could be used only once in a while as a means to relax, and that if they wanted anything in the future, they had better just seize it without paying.

For Qixia, the weak should stand as easy prey to the strong, and all the good things in the world were meant to belong to powerful figures like them. Wu Qi was a little helpless with her opinion, but there was no way he could change her in a short time. It seemed that he could only slowly inculcate her normal way of thinking.

After strolling for four hours, Qixia began to grow impatient. The generals and soldiers she saw along the way all looked so delicious, but Wu Qi just would not let her eat them, because he knew that maybe a random Dao Patriarch was watching this place right now. He could cover up Qixia’s presence with his aura, but if she caused a commotion, it was likely that the Dao Patriarch would discover her at once. By then, both of them would be in big trouble.

Eventually, she started to complain about boredom and kept asking Wu Qi to take her back to the front lines of Dong Hai. If she were there, she could extract energy essence from the fallen soldiers to replenish her consumption. But by being here, she could only watch the soldiers of Ling Dynasty with drool dribbling down the side of her mouth.

Wu Qi only smiled mysteriously. He brought Qixia wandering around the city for a little longer, then suddenly took her by the hand and walked toward a large and extraordinarily luxurious mansion not far away. As they passed its front doors, he blew a breath at it. A gust of white cold air silently squeezed through the seam between the doors, instantly freezing the whole mansion and sealing everything—including the flowers, trees, houses and pagodas—in a layer of blue ice as thin as cicada’s wings.

A smile appeared on his face as he and Qixia disappeared from the street. When they reappeared, they were over a mountain range hundreds of thousands of miles away. There, Wu Qi gently waved his forefinger, conjuring a mass of cold air about the size of a fist in the void, before flying into the mountain and leaving a faint, misty chill along the way.

About ten minutes later, dozens of light beams quickly flew over from the city, chasing the faint chill Wu Qi had left behind into the mountains. This was a group of more than thirty Gold Immortals, led by Wu Qi’s old acquaintance, Reverend Li Yang.

Reverend Li Yang was talking to a few fellow daoists in the backyard of the mansion just now. Their topics included alchemy, sword techniques, mysteries of longevity, and the secrets of the universe that they had discovered. As they were all Gold Immortals, and their spirit, energy, and soul had become one, golden flowers flew out of their mouths and fell to the ground whenever they spoke, along with a vague immortal tune. The surroundings were filled with a faint mist of incense, and beautiful maidservants kept bringing them wine, tea, and various fruits.

When he spoke of his achievements, he showed his friends the ‘Green Mountain Sword Scripture’, which he had only recently invented. He threw a three feet long sword beam into the air dozens of feet high, divided it into wisps of sword energy, and used them to sketch out many mountains in the void. Then, he drew in the energy of earth veins around him to fill the mountains. With just the sword beam, he actually simulated the mighty pressure of countless mountains.

The dozens of Gold Immortals around him applauded at the same time, all praising his sword scripture to have reached a state of superb, and being one of the best among all Gold Immortals. Reverend Li Yang triumphantly put away his sword beam, and invited his friends to drink to their heart’s content and enjoy the lavish treatment Ling Dynasty had provided them.

Gradually, these Gold Immortals forgot themselves. Perhaps because of the alcohol or because everyone was in the same boat, Reverend Li Yang and his friends began to talk about the mysteries of the harmony between dragons and tigers ¹ , the union of Yin and Yang. And soon, some of them who practiced the technique of dual-cultivation pulled the maidservants waiting beside them into their arms, took off their clothes, and demonstrated their skills in front of everyone.

It was at this crucial moment that the gust of cold air, which Wu Qi had learned from the Dark Yin Water Scripture practiced by Lady Divine Water of Dark Yin True Water Palace, came blowing into the mansion quietly and sealed everything in ice. Reverend Li Yang and others were not harmed, but the Gold Immortals demonstrating their skills were not so lucky. As they were refining the energy of Yin and Yang in them, their whole bodies were emitting heat like ovens. So, when the chill came over, it was as if a burning red charcoal oven was suddenly doused with ice water, causing them to shudder and nearly having their Dao foundation disintegrated.

The air was immediately filled with shrill screams as the few Gold Immortals kept coughing up blood. Terrified, Reverend Li Yang and the other immortals quickly broke free of the ice, then hurriedly took out life-saving immortal pills and fed them to their unlucky friends. But, because they were suddenly attacked by Wu Qi’s cold air, each of them had suffered a great deal of damage to their vitality, resulting in a drop of more than three tiers in their cultivation base on average.

Everyone was furious, and Reverend Li Yang recognized the origin of the cold air. He immediately concluded that some Gold Immortal of the Dark Yin True Water Palace had come to avenge Lady Dark Gold Water. It made all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He hurried out with his friends, chasing the whiff of aura Wu Qi had purposely left behind.

As he was in desperation, Reverend Li Yang did not report this to Liu Bang, and he dared not to publicize it lest the whole world learned about what had happened. He knew that he was guilty in Lady Dark Gold Water’s case. If this scandal were to spread, Green City, which prided itself on being a respectable and righteous immortal clan, might kill him to defend its reputation. By then, even his identity of the patriarch’s first grandson would not save his life.

The exasperated Reverend Li Yang immediately urged his like-minded friends to hunt down the attacker, and asked them not to alert anyone else. He told them it was personal and promised to reward them handsomely if they could help him kill the person who had attacked them in the dark.

In his calculations, Dark Yin True Water Palace did not have the strength to pose a threat to him. Several of the friends around him were as strong as Lady Divine Water, so they had nothing to fear. Even if Lady Divine Water had invited friends with cultivation base as strong as her to help, they should be able to cope with it with the combined strength of his friends, or escape without harm if they were defeated.

Following the aura Wu Qi had left behind, Reverend Li Yang gritted his teeth and quickly chased into the mountains. After a short flight through a winding valley, the passage came to an abrupt end as it led to a cliff. Wu Qi was standing there, and Qixia was hugging him around the waist, cuddling in his arms like a kitten.

Reverend Li Yang was shocked, as this was beyond his expectations. Why didn’t he meet someone from Dark Yin True Water Palace, but a strange man and a girl so beautiful and seductive, with a hint of evil charm?

Somewhere beyond the sight of this group of Gold Immortals, countless Kunwu Swords flew silently up into the air, drawing in the energy of the earth veins in the surroundings and completely sealing off the nearby void. Meanwhile, the Heaven Refining Cauldron, which had shrunk to the size of a palm, hovered in the middle of the sword formation as the core. With the help of this Supreme Artifact of Primal, even the unique soul-investing artifact crafted by the seven Buddhist Patriarchs and the nine Dao Patriarchs could not break the formation and take the souls of Reverend Li Yang and the others.

Reverend Li Yang gave Wu Qi a cautious half-bow and then asked in a deep voice, “If I may ask fellow daoist, why did you lure us here?”

Wu Qi looked at him and asked indifferently, “Are you Li Yang from Green City?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Are you Liu Bang’s aide now?”

“Yes, I’m currently the King of Han’s military counselor!” Reverend Li Yang said proudly.

Wu Qi clapped his hands and smiled. “Then you can die now…Oh, do you remember Lady Dark Gold Water?”

Reverend Li Yang froze for a moment, then looked at Wu Qi in horror and cried out, “Who are you?”

Wu Qi was too lazy to talk nonsense with Reverend Li Yang. With a sway of his body, he suddenly transformed into Amitabha’s unique four-faced avatar of Buddha, then reached out one hand to grab Reverend Li Yang. A great invisible force pressed down on the poor guy and crushed his immortal body in the blink of an eye. His soul whined and flew up into the sky, but Wu Qi caught him and wiped out his mind by rubbing him between palms, left with nothing but a mass of pure energy essence.

The other Gold Immortals screamed in horror at the sight of Wu Qi’s ferocity and power. Without hesitation, they all fell to their knees and kowtowed to him, begging him to forgive them. After all, each of them had spent eons of hard practice before they had attained their current cultivation base, so they naturally cherished their lives.

Staring coldly at them, Wu Qi threw out a beam of Buddhist light, crushing their bodies and souls together. With a wave of his hand, dozens of pure energy masses flew into his palm, which he casually gave to Qixia. She took them with a big smile, then obediently came to Wu Qi’s side and put her hands around his arm.

Wu Qi retracted his avatar and deliberately left behind some clues, then put away the sword formation and left the place. When Liu Bang arrived at the scene a few hours later with a large crowd, all he could see was blood on the ground and a hint of Zen energy.