Stealing The Heavens

The energy essence of the Origin Tree of Fire poured endlessly into Wu Qi’s body, bringing with it countless fire seeds of common flames, true flames, heaven flames, divine flames, and desolate flames. He discarded the common flames with meager power by casually fusing them into the Primal Purple Energy, while carefully collecting those powerful divine flames and desolate flames, as well as those heaven flames with unique magical powers. He kept only a tiny wisp of each flame in the Heaven Refining Cauldron.

It had taken Lord Yuan Ling a very, very long time to collect various fire seeds, and three eons to fuse them into one, eventually producing himself a flame that was extremely powerful and omnipotent he called the Yuan Ling True Flame. But, it would not take Wu Qi so long to do that today, and all he needed was to collect enough fire seeds.

Each of the fire seeds he collected in his previous life had an enormous volume and could easily destroy a patch of void if not handled with care. So, it was an immensely arduous task to collect them, and it was incredibly tough to fuse them together.

But in this life, Wu Qi had inherited a heaven-defying cultivation technique—the Scroll of Stealing. All he needed was to fuse a tiny wisp of each fire seed together, and he would have himself the fire seed of Yuan Ling True Flame. After that, he could grow it by feeding it a large amount of Primal Purple Energy, and it would grow into the new Yuan Ling True Flame.

The difference in difficulty was like between kneading dozens of planets into one and mixing dozens of sand grains into a clump. On top of that, he now had the experiences of his previous life, which allowed him to control all fire seeds with ease. In term of efficiency alone, he was at least a thousand times better than his predecessor.

Most importantly, he did not have the Heaven Refining Cauldron when he was refining the Yuan Ling True Flame in his previous life.

The fire seeds, each as tiny as the tip of a needle, swayed and fluttered in the cauldron. They came in all colors and attributes; some cold, some hot, some lukewarm, and some both cold and hot upon touch. Of all the fire seeds in Origin Tree of Fire, Wu Qi had picked 36,000 heaven flames, 36,000 divine flames, and 36,000 desolate flames. A total of 108,000 powerful fire seeds were now gathered in the Heaven Refining Cauldron.

He carefully activated the Heaven Refining Grand Magic and, while continuing to absorb the divine tree’s energy essence, put most of his mind to work on the cauldron.

The eighteen Saints sat cross-legged in a circle. They had sworn an oath with their lives to form the Saint League so that they could fight against the Dao Patriarchs and Buddhist Patriarchs together. They had one extra expert, and several of them had cultivation bases stronger than their foes. However, just as they had mentioned earlier, they were in a state of disunity, given their carefree way of life. Compared to the Buddhist League and Dao League, who had founded their sects and recruited a lot of disciples a long time ago, the gap between them was huge.

Sitting next to the divine tree, they were discussing the advantages of their foes as well as the weakness of their newly founded league.

Not long after the world was created, the Buddhist Patriarchs and Dao Patriarchs founded their sects. Over the years, the two small groups struggled to survive in Pangu World, and had stood firm even after going through countless Apocalypses of Heaven and Earth. Meanwhile, all the other Chaos Fiend Gods had fallen and vanished from the history except Greathorns and his seventeen lucky friends.

With mutual support, the seventeen old daoists and old monks had survived to the present day.

Greathorns and his friends could clearly remember that in the first eighteen Apocalypses of Pangu World, there was only one Dao Patriarch and one Buddhist Patriarch who had fused with the Dao. However, despite what the others had gone through, be it fallen into transmigration, suppressed by foes, or met with some other calamities, the two had always saved them to the best of their abilities, and helped them back to the path of cultivation. As Apocalypses came and went, they had always supported each other, and thus formed a very deep bond and tacit understanding.

Instead of destroying the two small groups, the Apocalypses had hammered them into the realm of Dao Fusing, one after another. When the 360th Apocalypse befell Pangu World, which was also the most terrifying one, it had killed most of the disciples of the Buddhist League and Dao League and sent less than one percent of them into transmigration. But, it was that critical juncture when the rest of the Dao Patriarchs and Buddhist Patriarchs fused with the Dao, laying down the foundation of both leagues’ future prosperity.

It was still vivid in the eighteen Saints’ memories. When the last Dao Patriarch and the last Buddhist Patriarch were fusing with the Dao, the universe rang with the howls and roars of despair let out by Chaos Fiend Gods; the infinite lifespan of countless mighty beings came to an abrupt end on that very day. The world was occupied by the ill omens that foretold the fall of the Fiend Gods; gusts of foul winds were blowing and rains of blood were pouring everywhere. The skies were falling and the earth was opening up; the sun and the moon appeared at the same time in the sky that was red as blood.

But, Gridhrakuta Mountain and Outworld ¹ were still surrounded in auspicious clouds and colorful flowers while numerous disasters rushed toward the two Patriarchs who were sitting cross-legged on lotus thrones and fusing with the Dao. At that moment, the other Patriarchs had all been badly wounded to guard their brothers, suffering injuries that could not be healed in time even with their cultivation base of Dao Fusing experts.

When the Apocalypse was about to obliterate the monk and the daoist who were at their last step of fusing with the Dao, voices of chanting rose into the sky. The last group of disciples from both leagues, who were either Dao Reasoning or Dao Breaking experts, came standing before their Masters, their faces smiling, calm, and beaming with holiness. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Dao Reasoning disciples, dozens of Dao Breaking disciples, and even the apprentices who served them, self-detonated their divine souls.

In that instant, rains of blood poured down onto both Gridhrakuta Mountain and Outworld, and amidst their disciples’ blood and flesh, the last Dao Patriarch and Buddhist Patriarch stepped over the threshold into the realm of Dao Fusing.

The eighteen Saints, who were equally struggling in the Apocalypse, witnessed the seventeen Dao Patriarchs and Buddhis Patriarchs drop to their knees in the blood rain with their own eyes, bowing to their lost disciples. They cried and shed bitter tears, kowtowing reverently over and over again to the fallen disciples until the Apocalypse ended.

Yao Ling’s casual account of the day made all eighteen Saints shut their mouths at the same time.

The newly formed Saint League was no more different from a heap of loose sand. On the other hand, the Buddhist League and Dao League had been tempered into a fearsome, extremely stable organization by the countless Apocalypses. Over the years, Greathorns and his friends had always been easily overpowered by them because they were united as one.

The suffocating silence went on for seven days and seven nights until Wu Divinity broke it. “We have to come out with ways to sabotage their plan of taking over Pangu Continent, or we will have nowhere to go,” he said in a deep voice. “We don’t want to retreat to the Chaotic World, do we?”

Lord Wuling toyed with his black seal and said darkly, “According to the information my disciple has obtained, Heaven is getting ready to invest new Celestial Lords and Buddhist League is getting ready to raise new Buddhas of Transmigration. If they succeed, we will be at a completely disadvantageous position.”

The 108,000 fire seeds in the Heaven Refining Cauldron had silently fused into a fist-sized fireball that looked as gentle and smooth as a pearl, and wonderful changes were taking place within. Wu Qi immersed ninety percent of his mind in it and watched the outside world with the rest.

According to the information Lord Wuling’s disciple had obtained, Heaven was getting ready to invest new Celestial Lords.

There were 84,000 Celestial Lords in Heaven today, whose natal stars were formed as the result of the fusion between the natural energy of Pangu World and the laws of Heavenly Dao contained in the hundreds of ancient stars broken by Pangu when he created the world.

But, in addition to these 84,000 ancient stars, there were actually another 12,575 ancient stars dragged into Pangu World when it was created. Over the years, under the pretext of not affecting the starry sky of Pangu Continent and with great efforts, the nine Dao Patriarchs had broken 6,000 star cores of these ancient stars and released 996,000 laws of Heavenly Dao from them.

With the outer heavenly realms returning to Pangu Continent now, the enormous amount of natural energy they had accumulated over the years was left at their original positions and used to give birth to new planets. Each one of these newborn planets was fused with one law of Heavenly Dao. It would not take long for Heaven to have 996,000 stars to invest in new Celestial Lords.

If Heaven’s plan succeeded, it would have 1,080,000 Celestial Lords who would have inherited the power of ancient stars, and no one would be able to shake their control over Pangu World.

Meanwhile, in the Buddhist League, the seven Buddhism Patriarchs had secretly raised 108 proud disciples over the years. Some said they were the buddhas who had fallen during the past Apocalypses, and their foundation and perception were many times stronger than the present Lord Buddha, Amitabha. These 108 buddhas would be conferred as Buddhas of Transmigration and stationed in the Six Paths of Reincarnation in the Nether World, controlling the laws of transmigration with the great power of formation.

If both plans succeeded, Heaven would have control over the surface and Buddhist League the Nether World, and the whole Pangu World would fall into their hands. The formation consisting of 1,080,000 stars and the Six Paths of Reincarnation could almost mimic half of the Heavenly Dao’s power in Pangu World. Although it was still not enough to obliterate Dao Fusing experts such as Greathorns, Buddhist League and Dao League could use it to suppress the eighteen Saints, force them to struggle forever in transmigration, and deprive their chances of getting back the mighty divine power they possessed now.

Once again, the eighteen Saints fell into silence.

Wu Qi was terrified by the news. Heaven was going to invest 996,000 Celestial Lords? Buddhist League was about to gain complete control over the Six Paths of Reincarnation?

‘What kind of joke is this?’ No doubt the eighteen Saints would face a tragic fate if the Buddhist League and Dao League were in control of the mighty power of heaven and earth, but Wu Qi saw himself in their place. He reckoned that when he fused with the Dao in the near future, the seven buddhas and the nine daoists would certainly come to him, rip him apart, throw his imperishable soul into transmigration, and make him struggle in the mortal world for eternity.

‘I must ruin their plan…I must not let them succeed!’

As if driven by his sudden rush of fear, the fireball in Heaven Refining Cauldron compressed abruptly, and just like that, 108,000 fire seeds fused into one perfectly.

By relying on the infinite fire-elemental energy of the divine tree, Wu Qi quietly reproduced the Yuan Ling True Flame. Moreover, it was more powerful and more magical than the one he had in his previous life.

He almost screamed with joy.

Just then, Greathorns glared impatiently at the three emperors.

“How come these three idiots haven’t healed yet? What do they think this place is, huh?”

Wu Qi’s heart skipped a beat. Carefully, he retracted his aura and his divine power, then cautiously drifted away along a stream of lava. In the blink of an eye, he had gone far, far away.