Stealing The Heavens

As Wu Qi had expected, Green Emperor, White Emperor, and Black Emperor were focused on fleeing south, and did not even show the slightest intention to turn back and fight their pursuer. Emperor Haozun, on the other hand, was determined to hunt them down. The sword light of the Xuanyuan Sword almost completely engulfed the trio, striking them over and over again and making them shriek and roar.

Whenever the sword was swung, all the mountains and rivers within ten thousand miles burst with a strong light at the same time, and then shapes that looked exactly like them flashed across the blade’s surface, giving the attack a force of the mountains and rivers. The sword light would then light up the sky and rip the protective tricolored barrier surrounding the three emperors to pieces, striking them hard and leaving deep gashes across their bodies.

But, the three ancient emperors did not have fleshly bodies; they were the condensation of pure energy. So, whenever the sword sliced through their bodies, the wounds would heal immediately and rapidly while drawing natural energy from the surroundings. Nevertheless, as the sword was sharp and powerful, each strike always took away a wisp of their natal energy, causing their bodies to become blurrier and blurrier.

All the military towns along the way from Liangzhu to the south were surrounded with no-fly restrictive formations, which was a joke to the three emperors if they were still in their peak form. But, they were seriously wounded by Emperor Haozun and Great Yu’s courtiers now. With more than half of their natal energy essence exhausted and in such bad shapes, they were having a hard time dealing with these formations.

And so, the tricolored beam lowered abruptly whenever it flew past a town. Although it managed to struggle back up in the sky every time, Emperor Haozun would take the opportunity and hack the trio dozens of times. The Xuanyuan Sword was grinding away their energy, determinedly and wisp by wisp, making them shiver and feel ill. Yet, they could not shake off the pursuer.

When they finally sped out of You Xiong Plain, they almost fell to the ground over a large city. They flew past it at a height that was so low that they could almost touch the city wall. White Emperor, who was flying the lowest, had one of his legs kick on the wall and break a brick.

Green Emperor looked over his shoulder and snapped at Emperor Haozun, “Human Emperor, do you really want to kill us? Don’t you fear that the three great Gods Clans will fight Great Yu to the last breath?”

Emperor Haozun clenched his jaws and swung out his sword, vanishing half of Green Emperor’s foot with a strike. “What’s the difference?” he growled, “With so many enemies fixing their gazes at us, Great Yu is in a dire situation now. And yet, you three have taken this opportunity to add salt to the wound, challenging me in my face! Your action has already put us at war!”

Green Emperor howled in pain as half of his foot was destroyed. He opened his mouth and sucked in a breath, drawing a stream of natural energy over. In the blink of an eye, his missing foot had regrown, but it looked vague as if it was formed of white mist, no longer as solid as flesh. “You… you…Today, if today…”

With a blink of his body, Emperor Haozun appeared next to Green Emperor and punched him in the ribs with a fist shrouded in silver starlight. “Given your mighty status, you three should face your death and stop all the nonsense! Die like a man and stop chirping like some girls!”

The starlight burst and transformed into dozens of chains that slithered like venomous snakes into Green Emperor’s body, causing him to freeze in the air and nearly fall to the ground. He gave a furious roar and shook his body; a plume of green smoke gushed out of him, shattering the chains condensed from the starlight. After that, he abruptly shot forward and sped away, leaving the other two emperor flying tens of miles behind him.

Beaming with joy, Emperor Haozun burst into laughter and said, “Excellent! You now have to use your natal divine energy! How many years of cultivation base have you wasted? A period or an eon? Heh, I wonder how much natal divine energy you have to spend like this!”

The natal divine energy of a god was like the soul essence of an immortal. It was their most important energy, and using it was like an immortal burning his immortal soul. No gods would want to use it unless it was a critical juncture when their lives were at risk.

Not only did the plume of green smoke shot Green Emperor dozens of miles ahead and ditched his companions behind, but it also greatly restored his blurry and broken body. And now, he was focused on fleeing, paying no heed to the loud cursing of the two emperors behind.

“That old fool Green Emperor is getting desperate. What about you two?” Emperor Haozun followed closely next to White Emperor and Black Emperor, drawing one bizarre rune after another in the void. Flashing with starlight, the runes gave off a strange aura. The two ancient emperors roared at the same time as each had a bright light bursting out of his body, one white and one black. Then, they too shot forward abruptly, overtaking Green Emperor and ditching him dozens of miles behind them alone.

Wu Qi nearly burst out laughing at the sight of it. The situation was just like the joke he had heard, that when one bumps into a savage beast in the wild, one doesn’t have to run faster than the beast, but than one’s companions. At this critical juncture, the behavior of the three mighty emperors of the gods did not match their reputation at all.

He did not understand why they were not fighting Emperor Haozun together, now that they had begun to use their natal divine energy. Even if Emperor Haozun’s overall strength was still at the peak, and even though he was holding the Xuanyuan Sword, they could still defeat him and force him away if they were to fight him with all their might. And yet, they’d rather waste their precious natal divine energy running for their lives than fighting him. No wonder they were suffering now.

‘Tsk, so this is the true color of the ancient gods!’ Wu Qi sneered in his mind. He flew at high speed in the sky and transformed into a gust of wind with his aura concealed as he followed closely next to the three emperors. Chuckling under his breath, he said, “Natal divine energy…Well, you better cough up more blood! I’ll see where you three can flee to!”

Emperor Haozun approached Green Emperor almost leisurely and thrust the sword into the ancient emperor’s back. “Green Emperor, I thought you said you wanted Great Yu to give you an answer?” he snapped, “This is Great Yu’s answer! It is clear that you have colluded with Heaven to scheme against Great Yu! What answer do you want from us? What kind of answer do you want from us? Is this answer fuc*king enough?”

Emperor Haozun, who was usually dignified and gracious, greeted Green Emperor’s families and relatives with foul words, stabbing the sword into his body again and again. The ancient emperor wailed in pain and his face was filled with fear. He was terrified of Emperor Haozun, who swore like a madman.

No one with their status and level would utter profanity like Emperor Haozun. He thought Emperor Haozun must have become insane, completely mad. Otherwise, how would he have let loose so many foul words, given his status of the Human Emperor?

With a roar, Green Emperor suddenly swung out a green wooden staff, clashing it hard with the Xuanyuan Sword. The staff was glowing with a green light and had a texture that looked like jade, clearly a rare and precious artifact. But, it was now covered in cracks of all sizes. When they collided, the staff gave a miserable wail and a crack widened, almost splitting it to two.

‘A treasure!’ Wu Qi’s eyes lit up. ‘It must be Green Emperor’s natal divine artifact, which was born together with him when the world was created!’ Green Emperor was born with the wood-element energy in the east, and so the wooden staff contained the purest and extremely powerful wood-element life force. If Wu Qi could devour and absorb it with the Heaven Refining Grand Magic and Scroll of Stealing, he could almost certainly refine himself an indestructible body.

It was a pity that this spirit artifact was in such a bad shape now. Apparently, the three emperors had paid a severe price when they fled You Xiong Palace. Wu Qi reckoned that they must have used the strongest power of their natal divine artifacts to break apart the defensive formation in Liangzhu.

After striking with the wooden staff, Green Emperor coughed out a few mouthfuls of green fluid, overtaking White Emperor and Black Emperor as the green smoke around him flickered. Emperor Haozun was thrown dozens of miles back by the staff, but then he made an arc in the sky and flew next to White Emperor and Black Emperor in the blink of an eye. He lifted his sword and swung it down once again. “Oh you three old fools, you better don’t scatter! If you run together, you will still have the opportunity to catch your breath. But if you scatter, one of you might die first. Heh, you better don’t scatter!”

White Emperor and Black Emperor roared while the white and black smoke around them flickered rapidly as they overtook Green Emperor like two bolts of lightning.

As if they were heeding Emperor Haozun’s advise, the three ancient emperors eventually fled in a group and none suggested to split. They knew they might have a chance of escaping death if they were in a group. But if they split, one of them would certainly fall into Emperor Haozun’s hands. They took their lives too seriously to gamble on who would be the unlucky loser.

Emperor Haozun caught up with Green Emperor and hacked him in the shoulder. “It’s a pity that you detonated your natal divine artifacts to escape from You Xiong Palace, causing the Xuanyuan Sword to take a heavy blow,” he said coolly. “If not so, I would have slain you by now.”

Green Emperor shrieked as his arm was chopped off by the sword. He shook his head and roared in fury, then transformed into a clump of green smoke and shot forward, ditching White Emperor and Black Emperor behind in the blink of an eye.

Just then, dozens of huge flags suddenly unfolded atop a cloud ahead of them, each with two striking characters—New Yu—while 360 Supreme Towers lined into an extremely bizarre, twisting rune in the void. Just as the three fleeing emperors were crying out in joy and surprise, gusts of chilly wind and plumes of black smoke suddenly burst out of the Supreme Towers, condensing into a massive ghost head and shooting toward them.

With a miserable howl, three emperors were knocked flying hundreds of miles backward and slammed into Emperor Haozun’s sword, causing them to be hacked several times each once again.

Black Emperor cried out in a shrill voice, “Emperor of New Yu, have you forgotten our covenant?”

Emperor Haozun flew into a rage when he heard that. “Damnit! I knew you had colluded with one another!” he bellowed.

Garbed like an emperor, King Xin Shan appeared on top of a Supreme Tower with a smile on his face. He cupped his fist and said apologetically, “This path is closed, my lords, so you have to flee in another direction. I wish you a smooth escape!”

Glaring at King Xin Shan, Emperor Haozun gritted his teeth as he snorted coldly and said, “Unfilial son!”

King Xin Shan squinted at Emperor Haozun, then bowed and said indifferently, “Father, Great Yu is doomed to fall…You don’t have to struggle!”

Green Emperor, Black Emperor, and White Emperor scolded King Xin Shan for betraying them, and then sped into the sky together, fleeing toward the outer heavenly realms.

After glancing at King Xin Shan, Emperor Haozun followed the three emperors without saying a word.