Stealing the Heavens

After seeing Zhang Yi and Emperor Wugou talking intimately under the bodhi tree, Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang left Calmheart at once.

The idea that Great Yan would use the Jin Dynasty’s power against Great Yu did not work out, because Zhang Yi had already hooked up with Emperor Wugou. With Zhang Yi’s ruthlessness, it was highly possible that the Jin Dynasty would need to pay a heavy price to satisfy Great Qin’s appetite. Under such circumstances, Emperor Wugou would not work with Great Yan against Great Yu, unless he was out of his mind.

Naturally, the situation in the northern region of Great Yu had evolved into Great Yu sitting on the sidelines; Great Yan, Great Chu, and Great Wei jointly attacking the Jin Dynasty; while Great Qin, Great Qi, and Great Zhao were jointly attacking the Ling Dynasty. Great Yan, Great Chu, and Great Wei were backed by the Ling Dynasty, who provided them with weapons and supplies in an effort to weaken the Jin Dynasty. On the other hand, Great Qin, Great Qi, and Great Zhao had colluded with the Jin Dynasty to arm themselves with Emperor Wugou’s deep pockets and weaken the Ling Dynasty as much as possible.

Both the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty were counting their chickens. The situation now was as if they each had hired three states to fight against each other. Meanwhile, they had deployed their main forces in the southern region and swept across the land, one to the east and the other to the west, trying to capture as many mortal kingdoms and as fast as possible.

All the outer heavenly realms had returned to Pangu Continent, doubling the size of the already massive continent and doubling the rate at which it absorbed chaotic energy to expand. In the northern region, every single mortal kingdom was shared among the six states, so those in the southern region were the last chance for the Jin Dynasty and the Ling Dynasty to grab the population and that meager emperor aura.

Although the emperors from outer heavenly realms had been drained of their emperor aura by Wu Qi, years had passed and they had recovered some of it. That little bit of emperor aura was better than nothing for Zhang Tengyun and Emperor Wugou, so both dynasties rallied their armies and crazily attacked these mortal kingdoms. Because of Wu Qi, Heaven and Buddhist League were showing signs of ripping the civility; both sides suspected the other of pillaging the emperor aura from outer heavenly realms, never suspecting anyone else.

The current situation on Pangu Continent was like a hurricane, and Great Yu was in the eye of the storm. Everything was calm for Great Yu for the moment, but it would be caught up in it as well sooner or later. Meanwhile, battles were in full swing in the east, west, south, and north of Great Yu, and there were at least millions of casualties every day.

Time flew by, and about a year later, the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty had finally wiped out all the mortal kingdoms from outer heavenly realms in the southern region. However, when they were preparing to wage a full-scale war, their scouts discovered Great Wu’s presence at the same time.

By this time, Great Wu had also become a behemoth, occupying more than thirty percent of the southern region, with countless people and a huge military force. Although its soldiers were not as good as the elites of the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, they were horrified to find that the defenses of its cities were extremely brilliant, far more powerful than theirs. In addition, it was aided by countless mighty war machines. Though they were unwilling to admit it, Great Wu was standing in their way like an iron-shelled turtle.

What made the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty more distressed was that under Guigu’zi’s deliberate arrangement, the situation in the southern region had become extremely bizarre.

Great Wu had occupied nearly forty percent of the southern region. To the west, the Jin Dynasty occupied slightly more than twenty percent of the land; to the east, some twenty percent of the land was occupied by the Ling Dynasty; to the north, about ten percent of the southern region was controlled by Great Yu. The borders of the four powers were not far apart and formed a rectangle, inside of which was a vast grassland with a circumference of hundreds of thousands of miles—a perfect battlefield.

Coincidentally, each of the four powers had built a huge city on the edge of the grassland, on the back of which was countless strong defenses. Located in the north was the South City of Great Yu, the south was the Ironwall City of Great Wu, the west was the Vajra City of the Jin Dynasty, and the east was the Sky City of the Ling Dynasty. These four cities were all thousands of miles wide, stationed with countless soldiers and protected by innumerable defenses.

Their styles were also very different. South City was primitive and prehistoric—a huge, tall city built of boulders without any carving or decorations—making it look ordinary. Vajra City had the same style as Calmheart—full of water and temples, and nearly half of its soldiers being monks. Sky City was like Wanling, beautiful and luxurious; the city was crowded with towering palaces and pavilions inside, and over it floated many cloud platforms, on top of which loomed countless palaces.

And the most striking was Ironwall City. Designed by Guigu’zi and supervised by Mo Di, all the walls of the city were made of towering mountains. This alone showed how freakish the scale of the city was. Inside the thick mountain walls were traps, formations, and countless powerful war machines ready to launch a deadly attack against the enemy at any time.

Whether it was Great Yu, the Jin Dynasty, or the Ling Dynasty, they all had sent armies of thirty to fifty thousand men to make exploratory attacks on Ironwall City. But, before these men could see what the soldiers stationed on the walls looked like, the mountain wall facing them suddenly flipped open to reveal countless holes densely arranged like beehives. Then came pouring out countless arrows, riddling the soldiers like sieves. No one had been able to return to their cities.

The Ling Dynasty had even sent a Supreme Oracle to test the strength of Ironwall City’s defenses. But, when he was still three hundred miles from the city, he could no longer sense any natural energy, and then plunged headfirst to the ground. After standing up awkwardly, he turned and fled without saying a word, and ran for dozens of miles with his legs before escaping from the no-fly restriction of the city. Only then did he fly back to Sky City.

In the face of such freakish defenses, all three powers gave up the idea of attacking Great Wu, reluctantly admitting that it was strong enough to meddle in the muddy waters of the southern region.

Great Wu’s defenses were too heavy to break, like a spiny iron-shelled turtle, and Great Yu was too strong for the Jin Dynasty and the Ling Dynasty to strike at now. Thus, while the six states were fighting the two dynasties in the northern region, the elites of both dynasties fought head-on in the battlefield Guigu’zi had chosen for them.

One day, the Ling Dynasty attacked Vajra City, and a few generals of the Jin Dynasty took a couple hundred soldiers to Sky City the next day and challenged a duel. Then, a few scouts of the Ling Dynasty were killed the following day, hung upside down on flagpoles in front of Sky City. A few soldiers of the Jin Dynasty suddenly went missing days later, and by the time they reappeared, they had been transformed into Yakshas and joined the fight against Vajra City.

Great Yu’s soldiers in South City did nothing; they lacked the wits to play any tricks. But, Great Wu’s soldiers in Ironwall City were different. Under Guigu’zi’s teaching, they were more cunning than anyone else. For example, they had sneaked out of the city one day, killed several soldiers of the Ling Dynasty, and thrown their heads under the wall of Sky City. The next day, they stealthily killed some military officers of the Jin Dynasty, dismembered them, and threw them at the gates of Vajra City.

Great Wu had resorted to all sorts of instigating tactics in the dark, causing the Jin Dynasty and the Ling Dynasty to fight fiercely against each other like two mad lions.

While sowing discord in the dark between the Jin Dynasty and the Ling Dynasty, who had already ripped apart all civility with each other, Great Wu secretly sent envoys to Sky City and Vajra City, asking them for various benefits in exchange for the opportunity to make a pact.

Every time the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty fought a battle in the southern region, Great Wu’s terms went up once; every time a hundred thousand or more soldiers were killed on both sides, the price of these terms rose again. Under Guigu’zi’s arrangement, Great Wu assumed an attitude of ‘I’m ready to sell myself, the highest bidder gets me’, and from time to time mobilized a million troops to parade outside Ironwall City, flaunting its might.

Occasionally, Great Wu also sent thirty to fifty giant metal puppets to fight each other outside the city. The sight of these monsters grabbing hills and throwing them as weapons had left a deep impression on the soldiers and officers of Great Yu, the Ling Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty.

If only one of these giant metal puppets were deployed with the army, it could cause a devastating blow on an enemy army of one million men, not to mention dozens of them. Moreover, even Gold Immortals could hardly destroy these puppets inscribed with countless advanced protective spells in a short time, let alone Heaven Immortals. Only Primordial experts could strike an effective blow on them.

But, Primordial experts could not take part in the battles of ground armies, for their random attacks would wipe out thousands of cities in an instant. It would do no good to anyone if this region was turned into a scorched land.

Even as the Ling Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty were feverishly fighting each other in the southern region, a piece of news that shocked everyone spread across Pangu Continent—the thirteen Great Heavenly Ghost Kings and the eight hundred Ghost Saints of the Ninth-Nether Ghost Realm had left their world and joined Buddhist League along with countless heavenly ghosts.

Soon afterward, a legion of innumerable heavenly ghosts had arrived in the southern region and reinforced Vajra City, which had lost many of its soldiers, becoming the main force of the Jin Dynasty’s attack on Sky City.

These heavenly ghosts were ferocious by nature, and they fought fiercely in battle. On top of that, they were extremely fertile, and even their newborn juveniles could join the battlefield as main offensive forces. Their arrival had instantly dealt a heavy blow to Sky City.

But soon afterward, the nine Great Fiend Emperors and the seventy-two Fiend Kings of the Fiend Realm, the seven Great Demon Emperors and the one hundred and eight Demon Saints of the Demon Realm, as well as the eighteen Spirit Kings and three thousand and six hundred Demon Generals of the Spirits Realm, all announced their joining of Heaven at the same time. After that, they sent almost all of their armies to reinforce Sky City.

The Jin Dynasty immediately lost out in a big way. Faced with a siege by three legions of the Fiend Realm, the Demon Realm, and the Spirit Realm, the legion of the Ghost Realm, which was clearly several times weaker, was no match for them. Vajra City was nearly breached by the enemy several times in a day.

The envoy of Great Wu immediately visited Calmheart and again offered the Jin Dynasty a pricey alliance.