Stealing the Heavens

Yu Qingcheng had just dropped to his knees when he heard Ji Dai’s furious roar. He immediately sprung to his feet as if he had springs under his knees, and then stood trembling behind Ji Dai. “Ho-how…how can you do this, King of Dong Hai? Y-yo-you… you are absolutely lawless!” Ji Dai growled with a clenched jaw after glaring at the cowardly Yu Qingcheng.

Looking at Ji Dai, Wu Qi sighed and said, “Let me ask you something, King Qing Qiu. What do you think His Majesty will do to you if you force me to bring all of Dong Hai soldiers and people to either Heaven or Buddhist League with your plot to seize everything from me?”

Ji Dai and the people around him suddenly stiffened. The reasons for his pursuit of Wu Qi’s foundation were complicated, and they involved some of the affairs that were now happening in Liangzhu. In any case, as Wu Qi had said, if he was forced to bring all of Dong Hai soldiers and people to either Heaven or Buddhist League, Ji Dai, who had taken up the matter himself, would certainly be the one to bear the brunt of it, and it would cost him his life. Perhaps, not even his death would quell Emperor Haozun’s fury.

As for those who agreed with Ji Dai and came with him to Dong Hai, they would bring their families into trouble because of this. There was a good chance their families would be completely destroyed. Emperor Haozun’s temper was not good these days, so if they did force Dong Hai to defect, the consequences would be fatal.

While shivering, Ji Dai looked at Wu Qi as he gritted his teeth and said, “How can you be so shameless?”

Wu Qi crossed his leg and said lightly, “Is it not shameless for you to reap other’s fruits of labor?”

After staring at Wu Qi for a while, Ji Dai said reluctantly, “Since King of Dong Hai won’t do what he’s told, let’s go!”

The group turned and was about to leave the hall when Ao Buzun came forward and blocked their way. With his chest puffed and one arm around Jadebone’s waist, he stared at them with an evil smile on his face and said, “You think you can leave just like this? My Master said you must crawl out of here, so you must crawl! Now, kneel down, put your hands on the ground, and crawl away like a dog! Do it, or I’ll tear you all apart!”

Yuan Qing pulled out his staff and knocked it repeatedly on the ground, making dull thuds that shook the entire great hall. “Did you not hear what my Master said? Crawl out of here, or I’ll smash your manhoods with my staff!” he growled impatiently.

“Gentle, be gentle!” Catfish shook her head and shouted. “Don’t frighten them, or their meat will turn sour. It won’t taste good!”

Gold Horn, Silver Horn, Gold Feather, and Silver Feather reacted most directly. From the waist down, they still retained the figures of young men and women, but were transformed into thousand feet long, enormous dragon pythons from the waist above. The brothers’ nasty-looking, thick wings and the sisters’ thin, slender, beautiful wings spread out at the same time, nearly wrapping the entire hall.

A prehistoric, ferocious aura immediately filled the air. Ji Dai and Yu Qingcheng’s legs were shaking, and they almost burst out in tears under the menacing pressure. At that moment, the sound of footsteps was heard, and Huang Liang rushed into the great hall soon afterward with nearly a hundred murderous, gold-clad warriors. “My lord, who is seeking his death here in Dong Hai?” he bellowed, “If I don’t crush them all up today, I’ll hack my head off and let my lord kick it like a ball!”

The group of warriors was constantly emitting a mighty aura. Obviously, their cultivation base had reached the realm of Third Pangu Heaven. Wu Qi had been running the Dark Yin Celestial Tower at full speed for the past few months and trained more than a thousand soldiers with excellent aptitude in it, whom he had selected from countless soldiers of Dong Hai. By now, they had all achieved some success, and everyone had risen to the Second or Third Stars Realm of Third Pangu Heaven on an average. The warriors Huang Liang had brought with him were the best of them, who had cultivated to at least the Five Stars realm.

By now, Dong Hai had overwhelmed the Supreme Oracles and generals Ji Dai had brought with him in both numbers and strength. His face turned as white as snow as he shivered and turned to look at Wu Qi. “King of Dong Hai!”

Wu Qi waved lightly and said, “Crawl out of the city and leave with the lapdogs you brought here. Next time anyone tries to take advantage of Dong Hai, I’ll kill his whole clan.”

Then, he smiled at Yu Qingcheng and said, “Go back and tell the people behind your plot against Dong Hai: I, Wu Qi, am a loyal servant of Great Yu, a hardcore one. But, you better don’t plot against me…because if you do, I’ll immediately take all the soldiers and people of Dong Hai to join the Heaven. Aye, with my current strength and power, the six Great Celestial Emperors will have to at least give me a seat among them. Do you understand me?”

When he had finished, he struck Ji Dai in the face with another slap, sending the man flying and tumbling with a bloody cheek. “I don’t care who you are…King or Supreme Oracle, crawl out of the city now. Otherwise…”

Catfish’s head had transformed into a huge dragon’s head. She stuck out her tongue and gave Ji Dai’s face a lick, then shook her head and said, “Oh, this guy’s meat has turned sour with fear. Can we break his legs and keep him in the pens for a few days before we eat him?”

Ji Dai shot a venomous glance at Wu Qi, then lay on the ground while trembling, and began crawling slowly toward the front door. Seeing that even Ji Dai could endure the insult, Yu Qingcheng immediately fell on his stomach and followed him to the door.

However, the eight Supreme Oracles and the eight Third Pangu Heaven generals who followed Ji Dai here stood still. “We’d rather die than suffer such an insult! King of Dong Hai, we’ll fight you to the death!” They shouted in unison.

As they shouted, the men were about to throw themselves at Wu Qi when he stopped them with a gentle wave of his hand. “Aye, I’m not an unreasonable man. Since you don’t want to crawl out of Dong Hai, you can walk away from here. But, both King Qing Qiu and Yu Qingcheng must crawl!”

He gave a strange laugh and said casually, “Now that they have gone down like dogs, let them work hard to be dogs!”

Wu Qi’s words dazzled the oracles and generals. They looked at the two men crawling on the ground, and there was a trace of disdain and shame in their eyes. The people of Great Yu, especially the aristocrats, had never done such a disgraceful thing. They had their heads held high even when facing death. No one had ever been more disgraced than these two guys.

Ji Dai and Yu Qingcheng turned purple with rage and vomited blood on the spot. But, Wu Qi forbade them from standing up while the group of ferocious monsters, including Ao Buzun, watched over them, forcing them to crawl out of the main entrance of the mansion, and then crawl hundreds of miles out of the city.

The oracles and generals felt humiliated to the extreme. Without saying a word, they flew up into the sky and left, never bothering to look at Ji Dai and Yu Qingcheng, and even ignoring the 300,000 elite soldiers who had come with them. As soon as these men left, Ji Dai no longer had his strongest force, and the strongest members of his army were only a hundred or so commanders whose cultivation base was at the peak of the Nine Stars Realm of the Second Pangu Heaven.

Under the watchful eyes of Ao Buzun and others, Ji Dai and Yu Qingcheng crawled into the encampment amidst the strange stares of 300,000 soldiers. Countless soldiers standing on the walls of Dong Hai City cheered, all laughing at the two cowards who had crawled for hundreds of miles. The morale of the army that Ji Dai had brought with him was gone, and every soldier was depressed.

Soon afterward, three hundred flying ships took off as Ji Dai headed west with his army in disarray.

Standing atop the west gate, Wu Qi watched the flying ships dwindle into the distance, his right hand lightly patting at the battlements.

“Who on earth came up with this silly idea of seizing my foundation?” Wu Qi glanced back at Su Qin, who was standing behind him. “What do you think is the reason behind this, old mister?”

Su Qin stroked his long bead and said faintly, “Since the ancient times, it has been a great taboo for the lord to be weak and his subject to be strong. Besides, you are an outsider to Great Yu. Even the members of their imperial clan and nobles can betray them, not to mention you, a common man from the wilderness.”

After pondering for a brief moment, he smiled and said, “And, I’m afraid that Emperor Haozun…Why don’t you send someone to Liangzhu to find out?”

Wu Qi frowned and said in a low voice, “If we send someone now, I’m afraid we’ll send the sheep to the tiger. I must go there myself.”

Looking at the flying ships that were heading off into the distance, he said, “But, I’m going to teach these people a lesson. I want those coveting Dong Hai from Liangzhu to know that there are things they can’t do, and if they do, someone will have to die!”

He lightly patted Gold Horn on the head and said, “I’ve been running around recently and haven’t had time to take care of you guys. You must be very hungry, right?”

Gold Horn’s eyes flashed bright green as he pointed toward the three hundred flying ships and asked, “Yes, we are starving! Can we eat them all?”

Wu Qi clapped his hands and smiled. He thought for a while, then gave out the order, “How many flags, armors, and ordnance seized from Ling Dynasty are there in our warehouse? Pick a group of elite soldiers, disguise them as Ling Dynasty’s soldiers, and order them to follow me to entertain King Qing Qiu! Also, send a message to the Underhand Sect and order them to select a group of elite disciples to follow me as well!”

He gave those ships another look and said leisurely, “We just need to leave a few people so they can report back to Liangzhu. That Yu Qingcheng can be spared…As for the others…”

Inside Ji Dai’s flagship, he was frantically smashing everything in the main hall, hysterically cursing Wu Qi and all the people and things associated with him, swearing he would one day kill Wu Qi and capture Princess Zhang Le and Qixia, so he could torture them in bed. Standing in a corner of the hall, Yu Qingcheng clenched his hands and was also cursing Wu Qi in a low voice.

Suddenly, both of them shuddered at the same time as a chill rose from the soles of their feet to the top of their heads.