Stealing The Heavens

Greathorns’s voice was still the same as Wu Qi remembered, dry as if two clumps of sand were rubbing against each other, emotionless and toneless. The moment Wu Qi heard it, he felt very uncomfortable as if someone had just shoved a handful of sand into his throat.

“You can’t die!” That was his first sentence.

“Go back and teach your sons!” That was his second sentence.

“You can go now!” Finally, Greathorns sent the three emperors of the gods away with this simple sentence.

It was neat and clean, without any unnecessary words. Green Emperor, White Emperor, and Black Emperor were choked up by his words. They stared at him for a while, then Green Emperor smiled bitterly and said, “My lord, we thank you for saving our lives! But we’re badly wounded now, and if we leave now…”

Greathorns glared at Green Emperor with his stiff eyes and said dryly, “Take the medicine if you’re badly wounded. Don’t you know how to concoct immortal divine pills? Why aren’t you taking them?”

Green Emperor’s hands twitched as he heard Greathorns say so. Immortal divine pills were indeed the best life-saving medicines, for a person could recover completely by taking just one pill, no matter how serious the injury was. But, it was extremely difficult to concoct. It had taken him countless years to gather the raw ingredients for nine cauldrons of pills, two of which were destroyed during the making, eventually managing to produce only sixty-three pills. Over the years, some of the pills were given away by him to win the favor of others, some given to his important subordinates who had been accidentally injured, and some exchanged for precious treasures with others.

As a result, Green Emperor was now left with only a few immortal divine pills, and his heart was already bleeding when he and his companions were forced to take three of them. Now that they had arrived at a safe place where they could recover their injuries by taking a little time to absorb the natural energy, how could he afford to lose three more pills?

A deep cough came from above the tree. “Master, what His Majesty Green Emperor means is that they wish to use this place to heal their injuries, and they will leave when they get better,” said the lion man. “Well, as immortal divine pills are very precious, it’s better to not waste them for nothing.”

After a long pause, the stiff corners of Greathorns’s mouth twitched a little as he said dryly, “Well, heal yourself then!” When he finished, he closed his eyes and wrapped himself in a thick layer of lava, falling asleep comfortably in it while leaving the three emperors to one side.

With a wry smile on his face, the lion man shook his head and said, “My Master didn’t mean to snub you. He has always been like that. Please help yourself, Your Majesties, and you may leave once you get better.” He paused for a moment while thinking, and then went on, “We will be put into an unfavorable situation if Heaven manages to kill you. Our bottom line is that the three major god clans cannot become Heaven’s dependents. When you return to your clans, Your Majesties, please teach some of your princes a lesson.”

The three emperors exchanged a glance, then saluted the lion man together with cupped fists, thanking him for saving their lives. The lion-man had made it clear that they did not want to see the three major god clans be taken by Heaven, and because of that, he had chased away Wu Xian and rescued them. As to whether this ‘they’ was referring to just Greathorns and his disciple, or whether it included some other mighty figures, that was not something the three emperors dared to ask.

In addition to Empress Wa, who usually dwelt in her palace and paid no attention to the outside world, there were thirty-four strongest Dao Fusing experts in today’s Pangu World, including seven Buddhas, nine Daoists, and eighteen Saints. They represented the mightiest power in this world, and their will was almost equivalent to the will of the Heavenly Dao.

Greathorns, the Lord of Fire, was one of the eighteen Saints, a formidable figure born in chaos before the world was created. He had survived countless eons and finally stepped into the realm of Dao Fusing during a certain Apocalypse, which made him imperishable and go through the whole Apocalypse that had destroyed everything unhurt. In the presence of such a mighty figure, gods like the three emperors born after the world was created simply had no courage to utter a single unnecessary word, no matter how strange his manner was.

Because of their origin, Green Emperor, White Emperor, and Black Emperor could never fuse with the Dao. At most, they could have the divine power and divine abilities of Dao Fusing experts, but it was absolutely impossible for them to truly fuse with the Dao. In other words, they could never reach the realm of true immortality.

After bowing respectfully to Greathorns, the three emperors sat down cross-legged on the root of the huge red tree and quietly exercised their divine abilities as they began to absorb natural energy to restore their cultivation base. It was just that they were surrounded by an ocean of lava, and the fire-element energy had driven the energy of all the other elements away. So, they could only work with each other to convert the fire-element energy into the acquired energy they could use to heal themselves. The method worked, but it was very slow.

The lion-man glanced down at the three emperors. While shaking his head, he waved his sword at the void. Soon, the color of the root on which the trio was sitting slowly changed and the crimson flame disappeared. Meanwhile, the roots that no one knew how deep they went into Pangu Continent began to absorb wood, metal, and water-element energy from the depths, transporting them up to the surface and pouring them into the bodies of the three emperors. Green Emperor opened his eyes and nodded gratefully to the lion man, then closed them again, immersed in healing.

The energy that the divine tree ceaselessly drew from the depths of the earth gathered around the three emperors and soon turned the place into a blessed site with energy level many times richer than the spirit cave beneath You Xiong Plain. Their bodies devoured the energy in the surroundings like black holes as they refined and converted ten thousand parts of it into one part of divine power, and then converted a million parts of the divine power into a wisp of natal divine energy. As the process continued, their badly wounded bodies began to recover their vitality.

With Greathorns and the lion man by their side, the three emperors had no fear of being hurt by their enemy, so they shut off their five senses and six levels of consciousness as they focused all their attention on healing. Unaware of what was happening around them, they relied on instinct to absorb energy to heal. In this way, they could heal at least ten thousand times faster and recover completely in a few days at most.

As the spirits manifested by Heavenly Dao, the three emperors did have a unique ability to heal injuries.

Soon, however, their recovery began to slow down, and then the energy their bodies had absorbed, the divine power they had converted, and the natal divine energy they had compressed, began to disappear gradually.

A few moments ago, Wu Qi had sneaked under the three emperors. He, too, had shut off his five senses and six levels of consciousness, and then transformed himself into a thread of primal energy that was hardly discernible. He sent his thievery energy through the tree’s root into their bodies and began to carefully collect the divine power and natal divine energy they had just generated.

Vast streams of divine energy poured endlessly into him, accumulating in his body. While absorbing the divine power and divine energy the three emperors had worked so hard to refine, Wu Qi sneaked into the cores of their sleeping divine souls with the thievery energy and carefully copied the insights of the laws they were given by the Heavenly Dao at birth.

The first generation of gods born after the creation of this world had the most complete insights of the laws of Heavenly Dao they represented. The immortals of later ages, who practiced wood, water, or metal-element cultivation techniques, could never know more about the laws of these elements than the three emperors, even if they stepped into the realm of Dao Breaking.

In fact, there were Dao Breaking experts who came to them and paid a hefty price to ask questions, wanting to know from their mouths a word or two about the true secrets of Heavenly Dao. But now, Wu Qi got everything they knew without spending anything.

While slowly absorbing the vast laws of Heavenly Dao, he took the opportunity to steal the three emperors’ experience of countless years, their happiness and sadness, their grudges and loves, and even how many secret treasure vaults they had and concubines they secretly had outside of their marriages. All that top-secret information was stolen by him one by one.

It was not unreasonable that the white mouse who had passed on the Scroll of Stealing to Wu Qi was hunted down and killed by all the almighty experts in the universe. No one would want the most private things in their minds to be stolen at will. Only the inheritor of the Scroll of Stealing who had obtained the first thread of thievery energy in the universe could have such a freakish divine ability that everyone was so afraid of.

There was too much information in the cores of the emperors’ divine souls. Wu Qi roughly estimated that it would take him days to turn all their memories into his. So, he smiled satisfyingly and calmed down his mind. While digesting their memories and absorbing their divine power and divine energy, he carefully sent a wisp of thievery energy into the huge red divine tree, slowly extracting its natal energy essence.

The natal energy essence in the divine tree was so enormous that Wu Qi almost shed tears of excitement and surprise. And, because it had not yet given birth to its sentience, he could absorb its energy without fear of being discovered, as long as he controlled the rate of absorption so that its aura did not fluctuate too quickly.

With his magic power growing stronger, the Heaven Refining Grand Magic was activated quietly and began to refine all the energy essence, divine power, and divine energy he had absorbed into one.

Just as Wu Qi was happily stealing all the benefits he could, a thunderbolt, over 100 million miles in circumference, suddenly came whistling down from the void. Amidst the terrible rumble of the explosion, the 360,000 restrictive runes Greathorns had placed around the divine tree loosened and cracked with countless lines. The thunderous strike had nearly destroyed the restrictive formation Greathorns had laid down and woken him up from a deep sleep.

“Do you want to die?” Greathorns’s words were always straightforward. He stood up slowly, his eyes wide open, staring up at an old man garbed like a Daoist hovering in the sky.

The old Daoist, sitting cross-legged on a blue hassock with a plume of hazy purple smoke swirling about him, was squinting down with his long eyes. His three-feet-long silver eyebrows fluttered restlessly even though there was no breeze, drawing out some mysterious tracks in the void.

Fixing his eyes on the Lord of Fire, the old Daoist cried out in a deep voice, “Greathorns, why did your disciple sabotage Heaven’s plans?”

Greathorns’s eyes grew wider as he shouted, “What’s wrong with it? It’s none of your f*cking business!”

As if he knew that there was no way to make it clear to such an impudent person as Greathorns, the old man gritted his teeth and growled, “Give me Green Emperor, White Emperor, and Black Emperor! If you refuse, I’ll destroy your ‘Origin Tree of Fire’ today!”

“F*ck you!” Greathorns was always so direct. He leaped into the air as he pulled out a spear wrapped in purple flame from nowhere and stabbed the old Daoist in the stomach. His speed obviously exceeded the old man’s reaction, allowing the spear to thrust into his belly.

The Daoist grunted as he pulled out a golden ruyi scepter and smashed a large dent on Greathorns’s forehead.

Greathorns fell down to the ground while the old Daoist soared into the air. Both stared at each other in silence while panting.